Análisis del poblamiento rural de época romana en la comarca del Campo de Cartagenasiglos II a.C. - VII d.C

Abstract

The spatial framework chosen was the Campo de Cartagena region, a geographical area that presents a wide variety of environmental and natural resources, ideal for analysing the landscape created by the Roman social system in a territory previously significantly marked by humans. Within it, mountainous areas converge with areas with livestock, forestry and mining activities, a wide coastal plain with soils with high agrological potential, and a heterogeneous coast with good fishing resources. Our study focuses on the analysis of an extensive and heterogeneous set of archaeological information, which we intend to use to make an initial approach to the historical evolution of the territory between the second century BC and seventh century AD. In each of the periods, an attempt is made to define the different types of settlements, their hierarchy, and the population model of the time. Simultaneously, the indivisibility between the vrbs and its ager has been kept in mind, whereby the city projects its legal and socio-economic characteristics onto the dependent territory, while the conditioning factors of the physical environment and its natural resources can act as a stimulus or limitation for urban development. Another of the proposed objectives was to demonstrate the relationship between the settlement and the existence of land registries. Therefore, an initial approach was made to study ancient traces of land division, fossilised in the current landscape, considering the existence of two plots (I and II). With regards to methodological aspects, the region was divided into homogeneous environmental units, with a total of six units being defined according to the characteristics of the physical environment and its potential natural resources. Given the high number of documented sites in the area being studied, intensive prospecting was carried out in a total of 41 sites located in the region’s southern sector, while for the remainder data included in the Regional Archaeological Map, specific publications and reports, as well as analysis of previous operations, isolated findings, or donations of materials from known sources were all used. In parallel, a register for archaeological sites was put together, in which data relating to the location, physical characteristics of the area and its immediate surroundings were recorded in order to be able to contextualise the site in its spatial framework and in the territory’s productive structure. Other sections refer to its delimitation and extension, including planimetric and photographic material. All the sites have been georeferenced in a UTM projection, on a digital cartography prepared by the National Geographic Institute. With regards to the materials analysed, special emphasis was placed on the preparation of an exhaustive inventory, in order to be able to determine the phases of occupation, breaks in occupation and abandonments. The analysis of this geographic unit has allowed us to begin to define a whole series of occupation models for the territory, which take place over a wide time frame. During the second century and the first half of the first century BC, mining activity became the main attraction for the settlement, generating significant dynamism in economic activity. In the second half of the century, the colonial promotion of the city took place, with a whole series of small enclaves appearing on the coastal plain, possibly colonial farms, linked to the traces of a plot of land (Plot I) the limits and orientation of which are determined by the Via Augusta areas closest to the city. Subsequently, the superposition of a new plot with a different orientation (Plot II), related to the high-imperial settlement was verified. From the late first century and during the second century, we can see the gradual implementation of a more specialised exploitation model in the territory, structured around villae, which would coexist with other smaller settlements, the origin of which would be in the late-republican farms. Between the end of the second century and the beginning of the third, we witnessed a profound destructuring of this model, which manifested itself through the abandonment of a considerable part of the urban nucleus, projecting itself towards the most immediate territory, with the abandonment or transformation of the rural settlements. Consequently, a period marked by a significant difficulty in defining the urban and territorial structure began, which only saw a reversal, with surprising slowness and modesty, from the fourth century on. The important changes that take place in the urban fabric of Carthago Spartaria during the fifth century also mark the appearance of a new occupation model within the territory, in which the manifestations directly related to residential settlements linked to the elites that held power are absent, which would presumably be concentrated in an urban nucleus, which must have housed a considerable part of the territory's population.