Carpetania during Late Iron Age. Socio-spatial analysis of the Tagus-Jarama-Tajuña watershed

Abstract

This paper presents a new approximation to the middle Tagus valley during the Second Iron Age through the case study ot the Tagus-Jarama-Tajuña watershed. At this point, the Greco-Roman sources referred the existence of a homogeneous and singular ethnicity in this area: the Carpetanii. By Geographical Information Technologies —particularly mobility and visibility analysis—, and previous works about this territory it is possible to deep in the knowledge about this populations, their identity, and their organisation. All the technics used show the existence of small and autonomous communities interconnected between them. Furthermore, it is possible to establish the existence of a plurality of ethnic identities, and the importance of the environment ―especially the main rivers― as organizer of the territory and possible generator of identity. Finally, we propose the possible correspondence with the Peer Polity Interaction Model published by Colin Renfrew in 1986.