Pablo Paniego Díaz

2026-2027

Tomás y Valiente

MIAS-UAM

TERRA-SW: Territorial Evolution: Resistance, Resilience and Adaptation in Southwest Iberia during Protohistory

Pablo Paniego Díaz holds a PhD in Ancient World Studies from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2021). He carried out his postdoctoral research at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), and Universität Freiburg, in association with the project

The TERRA-SW project investigates the social, territorial, and technological transformations that took place in the inland areas of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, within a context shaped by the arrival of populations, objects, ideas, and technologies from the Mediterranean. In contrast to traditional interpretations that have regarded local communities as passive recipients of external influences, the project positions them as active agents capable of adapting to, resisting, or incorporating such influences.

The research is therefore structured around a central question: how did local populations respond to encounters with colonising groups, and what strategies did they develop in the face of new influences? To address this question, the project will examine whether preferential routes of interaction existed, whether the adoption of innovations was homogeneous or selective, and whether these processes generated dynamics of resistance, resilience, or adaptation. To this end, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), palaeolandscape analysis, archaeometric studies, and settlement pattern analysis will be combined in order to reconstruct the social responses developed by Protohistoric communities in the context of colonial interaction processes.

2026 - Asmus, B., Araque Gonzalez, R., Mataloto, R., Gener-Moret, M., Paniego Díaz, P. & Baptista, P. “Negotiating between iron and bronze traditions: The impact of a tool - The chisel from Rocha do Vigio”, Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 41: 1615–1629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2026.01.091 

2026 - Paniego Díaz, P., Boneta Jiménez, I., Ruano Posada, L., Montesinos Garvi, L., & Donate Carretero, I. “Morir en el Zújar: Las necrópolis de la Edad del Hierro de La Tabla de las Cañas (Capilla, Badajoz)” Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 52(1): 161-193. https://doi.org/10.15366/cupauam2026.52.1.005 

2025 - Araque Gonzalez, R., Polo, M. E., Paniego Díaz, P., Asmus, B., Baptista, P., Mataloto, R., Rammelkammer, V., Richter, A. y Ferreiro Mählmann, R. “Traceological analyses of tool marks on western Iberian stelae and their replications: Stones and steel at the end of the Bronze Age”, Journal of Archaeological Science, 181: 106340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106340 

2025 - Paniego Díaz, P. “New Perspectives on the Spatial Distribution and Typologies of Western Iberian Stelae”. In Araque Gonzalez, R., Celestino Pérez, S. & Vilaça, R. (ed.) The Iberian Stelae of the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age: iconography, technology and the transfer of knowledge between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. CSIC, Madrid: 33-48.

2025 - Paniego Díaz, P., Pérez Aguilar, L. G. & Piñero Fernández, M. “La estela de Villafranca de los Barros y su contexto en la arqueología de Tierra de Barros”, Ophiussa 9: 33-56. https://doi.org/10.51679/ophiussa.2025.200 

2023 - Araque Gonzalez, R., Asmus, B., Baptista, P., Mataloto, R., Paniego Díaz, P., Rammelkammer, V., Richter, A., Vintrici, G. y Ferreiro Mählmann, R. “Stone-working and the earliest steel in Iberia: Scientific analyses and experimental replications of final bronze age stelae and tools”, Journal of Archaeological Science, 152: 105742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105742

2022 - Paniego Díaz, P. “¿Quién es quién? Celtas, lusitanos, conios y otros pueblos del Suroeste durante la Edad del Hierro”, Latomus, 81(3): 599-626. https://doi.org/10.2143/LAT.81.3.3291218