Archaeological and Historical Studies

Archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula examines the material remains left by the diverse societies that inhabited modern-day Spain and Portugal from the Iron Age through the Roman period, drawing on evidence ranging from settlement layouts and coinage to religious sanctuaries and burial practices. The region is distinctive for the density of cultural encounters it records — Phoenician traders establishing coastal colonies, Celtic-speaking communities in the interior, and eventually Roman administrative power reshaping local identities in ways that were rarely simple or uniform. Researchers working with inscriptions, ceramics, and coin hoards are still piecing together how indigenous peoples selectively adopted, resisted, or transformed outside influences rather than being passively overwritten by them. Central open questions include how far "Romanization" is even a useful analytical concept, and what the spread of particular religious iconographies can tell us about the actual beliefs and social networks of communities that left no written literature of their own.

Works

292,715

Total citations

244,196

Keywords

Iberian PeninsulaarchaeologyIron AgeRomanizationCeltic culturePhoenician influence