ROMAN EPIGRAPHY AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS: A VIEW FROM NORTHWESTERN IBERIA (FIRST–SECOND CENTURIES CE)

This paper presents a study of epigraphy as a cultural practice in a case study focused on the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. The main goal is to identify the emergence of divergent dynamics in the adoption and dissemination of epigraphy as a practice, establishing a relationship between the epigraph and its social and territorial context. Therefore, we propose an analysis focused on the study of anthroponymy and theonymy, aiming to find out what practices were carried out, in what environments, and what was the origin of those who practiced them. This information on names and gods will be used to discover the origin of dedicators and divinities, and then related to different attributes, introducing a geospatial and statistical study of the epigraphic record. Accordingly, different trends to approach epigraphic records will be explored, the final step contrasting differences between rural and urban environments and whether that reflects in cultural expressions.