The Vaccean urbanism

Abstract

During the Second Iron Age, the occupation of space in the Duero central basin was characterized by large, well-planned settlements, distant from each other and with hardly any dependent small villages. It is suggested that this model was started throughout the 4th century B.C. by the stimulated and directed concentration of the villages of the Soto de Medinilla culture, as the result of an increase in production, perhaps due to the widespread use of the iron ploughshare. This allowed for the self-sufficiency of the urban concentrations, using the fertile plains and farmlands which were occupied selectively. This indicates a low density settlement model which did not exhaust the carrying capacity of the territory. The paper analyzes the settlement evolution, which would remain stable until the wars of Sertorius and Pompey at the end of the first quarter of the 1st century B.C., when half of the towns disappeared. Those that survived formed the basis of the urban framework of the Roman period.