Résumé
The conjunction of remote sensing and GIS techniques offers an unmatched choice when it comes to analyzing ancient landscapes from an archaeological perspective. Many studies have successfully employed such techniques (Palet
et al. in press, Nuninger and Ostir 2005, Pizziolo and Sarti 2005, etc.). This case study presents evidence drawn from an ongoing project aiming at analysing the hinterland of La Carència Iberian oppidum following a long-term and microregional approach. La Carència project focuses its interest in the genesis and evolution of this Ibero-Roman city of outstanding political importance and its immediate territory. The Iberian (Iron Age) to Roman transition is of special interest, given the thorough transformation it supposed to Iberian cultural practices. The combination of surveying, archaeomorphological analysis, old
aerial stereophotographic pairs analysis, satellite imagery analysis, GIS-based topographical analyses, and the study of written evidence has allowed the inferring of theories on how the landscape was transited, conceived, and exploited along time. The study of human-induced landscape change in Roman times presents a special interest. The results provided by these techniques suggested that damp areas were drained with the purpose of creating new spaces to inhabit and exploit during Roman times. The Roman presence also involved changes in site distribution patterns of the area which deprived the Iberian oppidum of its previous visual control over its territory. These changes would be also reflected in the way in which people moved through the landscape Data drawn from this case study will aim at showing how a sensitive combination of remote sensing and GIS can offer insights on to the long term shaping of landscapes and the role that humans played on it.