Over the course of more than a century, the different archaeological interventions that have been developed intermittently in the current city of Cartagena (Spain), as well as some urban archaeology projects, have confirmed the presence of numerous Punic, Byzantine, Islamic and, of course, Roman domestic remains. This communication, however, has as its main objective the study and analysis of those dwellings belonging to the Late Republican and High Imperial period of the city. Within the Late Republican period, we can see that the first homes that marked the city at the beginning of the 2nd century BC present characteristics and a construction technique that make them “heirs” of the previous Punic houses. However, also belonging to this period, it has been possible to document some small houses whose characteristics and material culture make us link them with the first Italics who occupied the city. All these homes will eventually be replaced by the classic atrium houses widely documented in the city since the end of the 2nd century BC. Equally notable is the rapid adaptation to Italic styles and models by the city's inhabitants, surely due to its early inclusion within the orbit of Rome with the consequent arrival of Italic settlers.

Since the Augustan period, we have witnessed the emergence of a new type of housing that reflects the years of splendour that the city was experiencing at this time because of obtaining the legal status of a colony. The houses built in this period not only show a greater surface area and planimetric complexity, but also present more complex and elaborate ornamental and decorative repertoires. Likewise, they have large peristyles, which would become a predominant element of the houses to the detriment of the atrium that, step by step, would end up disappearing and losing its predominant function as a centralizing and distributing space. However, it continued to be a present element during this period. A large part of these new peristyle homes was documented in new neighbourhoods whose construction razed the old Republican atrium houses. Throughout this intervention I will also present examples of domestic units belonging to the 3rd century AD, which were the product of the occupation and reuse of a public building, being a dynamic present during this period in other Hispano-Roman cities. In summary, through this communication I intend to show the main particularities and characteristics of the Roman house in the city of Carthago Nova, showing its diachronic evolution since the first decades of the 2nd century BC until the last years of the High Imperial period.