The walls of Altamira, an extensive cave in Spain, are decorated with paintings and engraved images of horses, deer and above all bison

The cemetery at Los Millares in Spain contains more than 100 beehive tombs

Mycenaean merchants trade as far west as Spain and have links with neolithic societies far away in the interior of Europe

The Celts, moving west from central Europe, settle in France and northern Spain

Spain, with its mines of gold, silver and copper, is a hotly disputed region between Carthage and Rome

Hamilcar Barca dies fighting in Spain, after establishing a strong Carthaginian presence in the peninusula

A treaty defines the Ebro river as the Spanish boundary between Carthage and Rome

Hannibal succeeds to the command of the Carthaginian forces in Spain, on the death of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal

Carthaginian Spain is handed over to Rome to become two new provinces, at the end of the Second Punic War

Caesar sets off to take up a post as governor of southern Spain, where a series of profitable raids improve his finances

Julius Caesar moves fast to drive Pompey's supporters from Italy and to crush forces loyal to him in Spain

Julius Caesar goes to Africa to confront the remainder of Pompey's forces, and defeats them at Thapsus – but two of Pompey's sons escape to Spain

In the final act of his long struggle with supporters of Pompey, Julius Caesar defeats their last survivors at Munda in Spain

A rebellion in Spain prompts such chaos that Rome has four emperors within a year, after the suicide of Nero in 68

A bridge is built over the river Tagus at Alcántara and stands today as a fine example of Roman technology

The Vandals cross the Rhine into Gaul and move into Spain, from which the Visigoths soon push them on into Africa

Most of Spain is by now in the hands of the Visigoths, though for a while the Byzantines win back territories in the south

Muslim Arabs cross from north Africa into Spain and drive the Visigoths from Toledo

Retreating from the Arab onslaught, the Visigoths establish a kingdom of last resort in the extreme north of Spain, in Asturias

Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba

An attack on Charlemagne's army, traditionally at the pass of Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, is later the basis for the Chanson de Roland

The Jews prosper in the Muslim and Carolingian empires, forming strong communities in Spain and in Germany

The discovery of the supposed remains of the apostle St James makes Santiago de Compostela a new centre of European pilgrimage

Leon forms a loose alliance with its southern neighbour, Castile, to become the most powerful unit in northern Spain

The first illustrated manual of surgery is written by Abul Kasim, an Arab physician in Cordoba