“Marvelous Mainz!” - September 1, 2013

Photographs by Ruth Barrett

Wildflower blooming at the Forum in the Sant Martí district
Wildflower blooming at the Forum in the Sant Martí district
The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear; the coastal plain near the city conserves remains from the late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods, later, in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the area was settled by the Laietani, a Thracian-Ιberian people, at Barkeno on the Táber hill (in the present-day Ciutat Vella, or "Old City") and at Laie (or Laiesken), believed to have been located on Montjuïc – both settlements struck coinage which survives to this day – it is usually accepted that the origin of the name "Barcelona" is the Iberian Barkeno