Writing, colonization, and Latinization in the Iberian peninsula

This chapter offers a comprehensive summary of the impact of the Roman conquest and subsequent colonization on the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian peninsula and their epigraphy. After analysing the evolution of the earliest Roman inscriptions from Hispania and the strategies adopted by local elites to integrate within the new order, this study reflects the twofold effect of Roman epigraphic culture on the Palaeohispanic tradition: the adoption and new forms of use of Roman epigraphic supports by local peoples, directly linked to an increase in writing on non-perishable supports, and the spread of the Latin language and alphabet in indigenous texts, which was merely the written manifestation of a far-reaching linguistic process, materialized in multiple epigraphic phenomena reflecting a multilingual society. This phase of contacts was followed by another that clearly illustrated the disappearance of Palaeohispanic languages and scripts at varying rates, depending on the intensity of the Roman presence in each region.