Carlos Cáceres-Puerto

Thesis title: A provincial capital in its territorial context: reassessing the environs and funerary evidence of Augusta Emerita (1st century BC - 3rd century AD)

Biography

Background

I studied my BA in History at the University of Salamanca, in Spain, where I became interested with the modules focused on Archaeology and Ancient History. During the 2013-2014 academic year, I was granted an ERASMUS Scholarship at the University of Exeter, where I combined Ancient History and Archaeology modules. I graduated in 2014, with a final year dissertation about the History of the Armenian Genocide.

I have always been interested in the relation between heritage, history and archaeology. I was able to combine them during my Master’s degree.  During 2014-2015 I studied a MA in Assessment and Management of Cultural Heritage, at the University of Salamanca. 

I started my doctoral dissertation in October 2015. My PhD Thesis focuses on Colonia Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain) and its development as provincial capital. I analyse the environs of the colony, the communication network, the symbology in coinage, the Classical references, and the funerary contexts, to achieve a better understanding of the foundation of the colony, the connectivity with its environs, and other areas of the Empire, and the urbanism of the Lusitanian capital. I was awarded my PhD in February 2023.

Since 2012 I have participated in several fieldworks in Spain, Georgia, Italy and the UK. 

In October 2022 I started working as a geophysics technician in Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida-CSIC.

Qualifications

BA in History. Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) 2010 - 2014.

MA in Assessment and Management of Cultural Heritage. Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) 2014 - 2015.

PhD in Archaeology. University of Edinburgh 2015 - 2023.

Undergraduate teaching

Tutor, Archaeology 1A. 2017-2018.

Tutor, Roman World 1A: The Rise of Rome. 2017-2018.

Research summary

Roman urbanism - Late Iron Age-Roman transition - Iron Age - Identity - Funerary archaeology - Territory - Lusitania - Augusta Emerita - Geophysics.

Organiser

University of Edinburgh Archaeology Seminar Series Co-convenor, September 2017 - June 2018.

Roman Archaeology Conference/Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2018 Member of the TRAC Local Organising Committee. University of Edinburgh, 12th 14th April 2018.

Participant

XVIII International Congress of Classical Archaeology Mérida (Spain), 13th - 17th May 2013.

The Prehistoric Society Europa Conference 2016 "Dynamics of Art, Design, and Vision in Iron Age Europe" University of Edinburgh, 3rd - 4th June 2016.

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2017 University of Durham, 28th - 31st March 2017.

Workshop "New approaches to late prehistoric and Roman iberia" University of Edinburgh, 21st November 2017.

Roman Archaeology Conference/Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2018 University of Edinburgh, 12th - 14th April 2018.

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2019 University of Kent, 11th - 14th April 2019.

Rzym a Półwysep Iberyjski/Rome and Iberia University of Lodz, 25th - 26th April, 2019.

XVIII Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores de Historia Antigua Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 8th - 10th May, 2019. 

Mundo funerario emeritense. Monumentalización y Áreas Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida (Spain), 30th - 31st October 2019. 

Rome and Iberia III. Diversity of Relations from Antiquity to Modernity University of Lodz (Poland), 22nd - 23rd April 2021.

Othering and the Other. Performing Identity in the Roman Empire University of Évora (Portugal), 5th - 16th July 2021.

Into the Empire. New Approaches to the Late Iron Age to Early Roman Transition University of Edinburgh, 12th April 2022

Archaeology Institute of America-Society for Classical Studies (AIA-SCS) New Orleans (USA), 5th - 8th January 2023.

 

Papers delivered

“From Iron Age oppidum to Roman Town: New Research at Sasamón (Burgos)”. 

Workshop "New approaches to late prehistoric and Roman iberia". University of Edinburgh, 21st November 2017.

 

“Colonia Augusta Emerita. Romanization of an empty space?”.

Edinburgh University Archaeology Society’s Seminar Series. Final Lecture. University of Edinburgh, 27th March 2018.

 

"Urbanizing the landscape. Territorium Emeritensis in perspective".

Rzym a Półwysep Iberyjski/Rome and Iberia. University of Lodz, 25th -26th April 2019.

 

"Becoming Roman. Funerary evidence and material culture as a means of acculturation in Colonia Augusta Emerita".

Archaeology Virtual Seminar Series. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh. 11th March, 2021.

 

"Grave Goods from Early Roman Imperial Contexts: acculturation and patterns of occupation in Colonia Augusta Emerita".

Rome and Iberia III. Diversity of Relations from Antiquity to Modernity. University of Lodz, 22nd-23rd April 2021.

 

“Romanitas from scratch. Material culture as a means of acculturation in Colonia Augusta Emerita”.

Othering and the Other. Performing Identity in the Roman Empire. University of Évora (Portugal), 5th - 16th July 2021.

 

“A Provincial Capital in its Foundational Context. Colonia Augusta Emerita”.

Into the Empire. New Approaches to the Late Iron Age to Early Roman Transition. University of Edinburgh, 12th April 2022.

 

Session Organiser

 

"Temporally Recontextualizing Iron Age Agency and Roman Influence in the Western Provinces".

Archaeology Institute of America-Society for Classical Studies (AIA-SCS). New Orleans (USA), 5th - 8th January 2023.

 

Posters.

 

"Urbanizing the landscape. Territorium Emeritensis in perspective".

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2019. University of Kent, 11th - 14th April 2019.

 

"Urbanizando el paisaje. El Territorium Emeritensis en perspectiva."

XVIII Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores de Historia Antigua. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 8th - 10th May, 2019. 

Cáceres-Puerto, C. (2019) „Urbanising the Countryside: «Territorium Emeritensis» in Perspective”, Collectanea Philologica, 0(22), s. 135-151. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-0319.22.08

Cáceres-Puerto, C. (2020) Review of "Arquitectura rural romana: graneros y almacenes en el Occidente del Imperio", by J. Salido Domínguez. AHR-35. Directrice de l’Ecole Française de Rome, 284 p., ISBN: 978-2-35518-067-5. http://histara.sorbonne.fr/cr.php?cr=3204

Cáceres-Puerto, C. and García Sánchez, J., (2020) “El uso funerario en Augusta Emerita, siglos I a.C.-III d.C. Una propuesta de empleo de modelos probabilísticos y su repercusión espacial”, ANAS 31-32, 53-67. Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida. 

Cáceres-Puerto, C., (In Press), “There’s No Place Like Home. Mobility, Adaptation, and Mutability in Funerary Contexts by Foreign Populations in Colonia Augusta Emerita (1st Century BC – 3rd Century AD)”, in Conejo Delgado, N. (Ed.), I valore dei gesti e dei oggetti: monete e altri elementi in contesti funerari. All´Insegna dek Giglio, Firenze. 

 

 

 

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