Abstract:

This paper presents the results of the application of certain statistical methods and GIS functions on the known data of the ager Tarraconensis settlement, located in the territory of the Tarraco colony. The study focuses on a chronological period covering the Iberian period to the 3rd century AD. The methods used have allowed us to model and explain the structure and dynamics of the settlement. We also provide new data and ideas about the arrival of fi rst italic settlers, how they are distributed throught the territory and what the legal status of the city of Tarraco may have been at the end of the 2th century BC. Additionally, we present explanatory models of the periods of stability in the countryside during the julio-claudian and fl avian dynasties. Finally, we analyze and explain data that shows how this stability was broken in the 2th century AD, reversing the articulation of the settlement in the territory in the 3rd century AD.