Late Punic or Early Roman? A 2nd Century BC Deposit from Gadir/Gades (Cadiz Bay, Spain)

Abstract

Through the study of an unpublished context of the Torre Alta kiln site (San Fernando, Cadiz, Spain), this contribution explores the transformations of the Punic communities of the Strait of Gibraltar region during the earlier stages of the Roman Republic rule. It can be presumed that some Punic communities, such as our case study (Gadir-Gades), seem not to have been wiped out during the conflict and were soon politically and economically integrated into the Roman sphere. Nonetheless, the economic and cultural consequences and traces of this transition into the Roman world are still poorly archaeologically defined. It was a period of cultural and economic mixture particularly difficult to analyze from an archaeological perspective. Thus, on the basis of material culture studies, the work reflects on how should we name and read the items with Punic form but that were produced during the Roman period. Also, the paper focus on the analysis of this transition phase identified as Late Punic, paying attention to both the epistemological conditions of such a study and how this political situation could had an impact on material culture.