SESSION 2 First Civilizations until Roman Invasion

SPANISH CIVILIZATION AND

CULTURE

CEA BARCELONA GLOBAL CAMPUS

SPRING 2007 PROGRAMME

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

OUTLINE OF THE SESSION

4) The Diversity in Spain

6) First Civilizations

8) First Invasions

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage
• The diversity in Spain

-Definitions of Spain by British observers:

Richard Ford: “A bunch of local unities tied by
a sand rope”

Gerald Brenan (“The Spanish Labyrinth”): “set

of little hostile or independent republics, linked
by a scarcely cohesive federation. At some
points of history, those little centers have felt
contaminated by a feeling or a common idea
and have performed together; but, when such
spirit declined, they divided and they came
back to their separate existence.” 3
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

1)Topographic diversity

2) Climatic diversity

3) Economic, political and cultural diversity

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
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How geography shaped regional diversity in Spain:

-The fertile soils of Levante and Guadalquivir Valley 

magnet to incoming waves of settlers (e.g. Roman
cities…)

-Narrow crossing between Southern Spain and North Africa

 contact among those regions

-Mountain chains around Meseta  obstacle for

communication between the more prosperous periphery
and the peoples of the interior

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

-This “geographical handicap” (Sanchez-Albornoz)

has encouraged the development of regionalist
and separatist movements; a sense of being
‘different’

-Ortega y Gasset (“Invertebrate Spain”): Spain is

“not so much a nation as a series of watertight
compartments”

-For many historians, Spanish history is to be

understood above all in terms of a permanent
struggle between centre and periphery.
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► This diversity has created constant problems in the
history of Spain.

► Spanish have spent the last several centuries

fighting both with and against each other

► Omnipresent localism? Brennan also said that for

the Spaniards their loyalty comes first to its little
fatherland: town or village. This is known as the
patria chica

► This will be emphasized throughout out during the

course… 8
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

Spain, between Europe and Africa

4. Some have said - ‘Africa begins at the

Pyrenees’. Why is that the case?

2. Why Spain belongs to Europe?

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

2) First Civilizations

-The origin of the name ‘Spain’:

Spain itself takes its name from the Latin Hispania.
The word is probably Phoenician in origin, derived
from shepham probably meaning 'coast or island
of rabbits'. The rabbit, at the time, was endemic
and virtually restricted to the Peninsula. The oldest
existing fossil of a rabbit is a specimen from 2.5
million years ago found in Granada. In fact, the
rabbit did not really expand from Iberia until the
Phoenicians, began to export it around the
Mediterranean
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Earliest Human Movements to
Spain

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage
The origins of the population of the Iberian peninsula are not
clear, but here’s what we know:

-First clue: ATAPUERCA settlements -about 800.000 BC.

The hominids who lived at Atapuerca 800,000 years ago

were part of the first wave of early humans to penetrate the
rugged terrain and harsh climates of western Europe during
the Ice Age. Known as “homo antecessor”: hunter-
gatherers (and cannibalism)

Beginning around 200,000 years ago, Europe was occupied

by the species known as Homo neanderthalensis: the
Neanderthals. This distinctive species was a close relative
—and possibly a descendant—of the hominids from Sima de
los Huesos in Atapuerca.

The Neanderthals were quite successful, inhabiting Europe

for more than 150,000 years—longer than our own species
has existed. Around 40,000 years ago, however, a new
species arrived in Europe: Homo sapiens. 13
The Cave Paintings of Altamira
15,000 BCE

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
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-Around 5,000 BC, the ‘Neolithic Revolution’.

-The first sedentary communities in Spain:

Catalonia, the Levante and Andalusia.

Megalithic Construction: evidence of increasingly

advanced societies

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage
-Who was living in Spain from 2,500 BC
onwards? Different people in
different areas

Many different peoples:

5) Vascons
6) Los Millares
7) Tartessos
8) Many others…
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 Euskadi / Pais Vasco /
The Basque Country
Jai Alai / Pelota / Merry Festival

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage
New Wave of Migrations to Iberia

2. Celts
-in the WEST of the Peninsula
-they left important evidences like Castros (round
fortifications).
http://www.pbase.com/jlfernan/castro_san_ciprian_de_las
-influence in the culture and mythology of peninsular
northeast.

3. Iberos
-in the EAST of the Peninsula.
-evidences: Dama de Elche y de Baza funerary statues.
http://www.ffil.uam.es/catalogo/madrid/bendala.htm

http://www.dearqueologia.com/dama_baza.htm

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The Iberian territory

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Where am I?

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The Galician Coast

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 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman
Heritage

3) First Invasions

What later would become Spain was invaded different

times:

6. Greeks
7. Phoenicians
8. Carthaginians
9. Romans

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Conquering Empires

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Empuries – 6 Century BC
th

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Hispania – Roman rule of Iberia
▪ Hispania
Citerior
▪ Hispania
Ulterior
197 BC

▪ Baetica
(Cordoba)
▪
Tarraconensi
s
(Tarragona)
▪ Lusitania
(Merida)
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 Contributions of Rome to
Hispania
► Completely integrated part of the Roman Empire
(although constantly warred with native groups)
► Language
► Law
► Religion
► Art
► Public Engineering
► Education
But Romanization was slow, and unsteady, mainly due to
isolation caused by geography. Some commented it had
a ‘superficial veneer’.

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 In about 15 BCE the Romans founded Barcelona, named
Barcino. Although the capital of this area in the Empire was
Tarragona (Roman Tarraco), Barcelona did not have a harbor.
Like most Roman new towns, it was laid out in a grid and
fortified. Some of the original Roman walls are in Barcelona's
Old Town (the Barri Gótic); here they are incorporated into the
walls of the Cathedral.

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Roman bridge in Cordoba

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Segovia’s Roman Aqueduct

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Alcántara Bridge – near
Cáceres

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