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Colonia Augusta Emerita was a Roman colony located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in modern-day Mérida (Spain). It was founded in 25 BC by the veterans of Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina. This foundation followed the Augustan policy of establishing settlements in the Iberian Peninsula after the conclusion of the Cantabrian Wars, as it occurred in other areas of nearby Portugal and in northeast Iberia. Augusta Emerita was subsequently designated the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania, one of the three provinces into which Augustus divided Hispania. My thesis project has re-evaluated several major aspects of the colonial process, focusing on the centuriation in the rural peripheral areas of Emerita and the burial evidence. This process was favoured by various factors, including the substantial communication network that developed around the Augustan colony, the dimensions of the allotments, and the early establishment of farmsteads controlling the Lusitanian hinterland. I have also assessed the urbanism of the colony in Early Imperial contexts through the study and quantitative analysis of funerary contexts from suburban areas of Emerita between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. Moreover, I evaluated the connectivity between the colony and rural settlements within its sphere of influence, as well as the relationships between the provincial capital and other parts of Hispania and the Mediterranean area, by analysing various typologies of grave goods. The study of multiple types of evidence allows for the evaluation of the territorial context of Augusta Emerita, considering its peripheral areas of the mid Guadiana Valley. The data suggests a greater connectivity than previously thought between various areas of the Mediterranean in the early phases of the colonial process. In addition, the chronological study of the grave good contexts points to a possible variation of the pomerium between the foundation of the colony in ca. 25 BC and the beginning of the 3rd century AD. The study of the rural areas surrounding Emerita confirms the results obtained in the suburban areas, thus proving early use of the land for craft activities with a later stage of abandonment prior to their use as funerary spaces by the beginning of the 3rd century AD. |
