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The origins of the neolithic in southeastern Spain are considered from the standpoint of the location of certain sites with respect to naturalistic rock paintings, and of the succession observed from aceramic to ceramic stratigraphical layers at sites which show a continuity of lithic tool-kits as between the various stages. The functional significance of such sites is interpreted in terms of a large mammal-depenent stage of the earliest pottery-using inhabitants of the region before 5,000 B.C. It is proposed that agriculture developed relatively later in the southeastern ceramic neolithic. Factors concerning erosion and the availability of agricultural land are discussed. Within the neolithic the diversity of lithio forms and of ceramic types is considered. It is proposed that metallurgy occurred as early as 4,000 B.C. and that from then onwards the prehistory of the south-east diverges markedly from that of France or Italy, looking for inspiration to Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. Investigations into the ceramic constituents of pottery from various neolithic and early and middle copper age sites are discussed in terms of their functional rôles. It is proposed that geographical patterning may owe more to availability of resources and varying needs than to major cultural 'boundaries' . There are no very different changes in the spode of ceramic manufacture from the early to the middle copper age, by contrast with the marked difference of copper age from iron age wares. It is proposed that the 'Argaric' phenomenon developed indigenously the early copper age of the region, physical anthropological data, whilst also showing some degree of geographical patterning within the south-east, nevertheless do not readily lead to an interpretation of markedly different origins for different population groups, and a simpler hypothecs is proposed which explains the bizarre tendencies sometimes observed in montane settlements north of the Vinalopó in terms of genetic drift away from more normal physical characteristics displayed by the copper age proto-urban inhabitants of the townships of northern Algeria, and southern Murcia who were perhaps more mobile.

This thesis examines the development of identities within Iberia during the Roman conquest of the peninsula through the lens of cultural hybridism, urbanism and economic changes. The aim is to explore how local Iberian communities evolved culturally through centuries of pre-Roman contact, and how these interactions fuelled later adaptations to Roman rule. Iberian communities, within this context, did not simply ‘become Roman’ but many acculturation theories have struggled to create alternatives to the ‘Romanization’ model successfully. While ‘Romanization’ is clearly problematic, this thesis will challenge and adapt several acculturation models to explore the visibility of cultural hybridity within ‘Roman’ and Iberian communities, and alternatively suggest the emergence of a pan-Mediterranean cultural background. These theories will then be applied in four case studies of prominent cities in southern Iberia: Italica (Santiponce), Hispalis (Sevilla), Corduba (Cordoba), and Augusta Emerita (Merida). In each of these case studies the thesis will address aspects of acculturation seen in the urban and economic evidence at those sites. The conclusion of this thesis will indicate that, while further study should be conducted, a more flexible approach to cultural identity should be considered in light of the evidence presented in the case of the evidence seen in these four towns.

The written was the world of early medieval Iberia. Literacy was limited, but textuality was extensive, in the authority conferred on text and the arrangements made to use it. Roman inheritance is manifest, in documentary and legal culture, engendering literate expectations which define the period; continuity across conquest by Visigoths and Arabs, and the weakness of states in the north of the Peninsula, must lay to rest the traditional coupling of literacy with politics which underlies the paradigm of the Middle Ages. Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, as estates expanded to surmount locality and enter communities which had made do with memory, engagement with documentation was incentivized for the laity. Organization to do so followed, at one remove: the person of the scribe, who wrote the charter and recorded all those involved in and present at it, before recycling the text back into the community by public reading. The scribe mediated the text, and as his occupation consolidated he became more fully a literate interpreter. The charter, once created, had an active afterlife of dynamic circulation, enabled by multiple and accessible archives, particularly in the hands of the clergy. Written evidence was the surest defence in case of dispute; charters were self-promoting in their mutual citation as well as practical efficacy. But they also diffused legal knowledge: as each rhetorical, pragmatic, silent, and legislative reference to written law was read aloud by the scribe, how to capitalize on its provisions became better known, so kings and counts seized the potential. For the clergy, the Bible, canon law, and monastic rules were the texts which bestowed identity, but as they interacted with the laity, they set the charter in the history of salvation, and modelled textuality to society, as their monasteries became the microcosms of its written framework.

This thesis investigates Iberian communities in central Hispania Citerior during the Roman Republic. I demonstrate the usefulness of an actor-network approach for understanding a topic characterised by scarce archaeological datasets. This approach is not intended to create a new narrative for Roman Provincial Studies but instead allows us to ask new questions: what was at stake for these communities? What was of interest to the Iberians? How did things happen? Iberians lived primarily in small, often fortified settlements in elevated locations, although some larger settlements are known and during the Republic many sites were abandoned for new locations on flatter ground. I find that throughout the period settlements were often clustered, creating communities distributed in small groups of sites. These Iberian groups grew versatile staple crops in a variety of locations but may have tailored additional crops to regional environmental conditions. I consider the potential for collaboration in the autumn ploughing and conclude that any such collaboration must have relied on dense and wide relationships given changing patterns of variability in rainfall. I show differences within coin circulation that suggest Iberian coins were part of distinct sets of relationships. I also test the ability of carts to pass over various long-distances routes and find that some coins were bound up in the same assemblages as cart transport. The thesis positions the interface between all these different assemblages as crucial to further work on these communities.

Despite the recent interest in late antique archaeology and the increasing number of publications on the transformations of towns (both in Spain and in the Roman world as a whole), the concern shown towards aqueducts has been almost non-existent. Some studies have focused on exceptional local examples, such as Rome or Constantinople, but there have been neither general nor regional syntheses of the chronology of the abandonment of aqueducts on a broad regional scale. This thesis consequently fills this gap in our knowledge by offering an all-encompassing study and compilation of the available material and written evidence for aqueducts in Spain in Late Antiquity, it looks at aqueducts in the late Roman period, and how they evolve through the Visigothic and the Umayyad centuries. For this purpose, each aqueduct in the Iberian Peninsula is assessed according to the available information and studied in its wider urban context. By the end of the thesis it is possible to put forward some clear results on the degree of continuity of aqueducts in Spain. The information is used to analyse how the presence or absence of aqueducts affected the development of urban settlement and housing patterns away from a traditional Roman context. Aqueducts had not been at first an essential part of urban life, yet by Late Antiquity they had become so intimately related to it that the end of aqueduct supply modified urban landscapes. Finally, I present various scenarios to explain why aqueducts ceased to function and how the various elite groups of the period (urban aristocrats, the Church, the Visigothic monarchy and the Umayyads) tried to take over the control of the aqueducts, as they were not only extremely useful functional monuments, but also reminders and legitimising links to the Roman past.