Metalla et Territoria in the Beturia Céltica between the 2nd century BC. and the Late Antiquity

Abstract

The archaeological documentation that we currently know shows that from the end of the 3rd century BC, the Celtic oppida located to the N of Sierra Morena, were gradually integrated into the political and economic structures implanted by Rome after the expulsion of the Carthaginians from the Iberian in 206 BC. As of the year 27 BC, the territory was included in the Provincia Ulterior Baetica, and a massive exploitation of the mining and agricultural resources of the area began, which transformed the territory and helped to the incipient monumentalization of the different Roman municipalities, as can be seen in the preserved monumental sculpture or in the construction of show buildings. In the 3rd century AD the economic decline of the Roman nuclei began, although in the 5th and 6th century AD we are witnessing a significant economic upturn, which was reflected in the construction of new city walls and a landscape where basilicas and religious buildings play an important role in the structuring of the territory.