Quick Links

Summer 2014

2014 History and Classical Studies Field Trip: Spain
26 May-9 June 2014
HIST 413
(3 credits)
Contact john [dot] serrati [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Prof. John Serrati)
Along with modern Spain’s famous culture, art, and food, the country holds some of the most unique finds from classical antiquity.  The Iberian peninsula actually features more Carthaginian sites than the Punic homeland in Tunisia, and has more Roman Republican sites than Italy itself.  Spain was of immense importance to both the Carthaginian and Roman Empires.  Before the land was fully Romanised, the Iberians themselves developed an advanced civilisation which embraced Greek culture and featured a writing system as well as rudimentary cities.  Thus for the student of ancient history and archaeology, Spain holds a wealth of finds and sites.  At certain places like El Molón and Olèrdola, one can even observe vastly divergent time periods in the architecture itself, with ancient Iberian, Carthaginian, Roman, Visigothic, Islamic, and medieval Christian structures standing side-by-side.  From the shrine of the bulls (an ancient Iberian sacred site found underneath a Visigothic chapel) at Guisando to the siege lines of Scipio Aemilianus at Numantia, the archaeology of Spain forms an integral building block in the understanding of the geopolitical world in the western Mediterranean during antiquity.