Jaime Alvar Ezquerra

He was born in Granada, studied Geography and History at the Complutense University of Madrid, and later continued his studies at the University of Cologne (1980-1981). He taught at the Complutense University between 1977 and 1996, the year in which he became professor in Huelva. He was a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge in 1999-2000. He has been a professor at the Charles III University of Madrid since 2000. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy), Franche-Comté (France) and Potsdam (Germany). He is the older brother of Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra of the Spanish National Research Council and the younger brother of Carlos Alvar Ezquerra, Romanic philologist. Their father was Manuel Alvar Ezquerra, prominent Spanish philologist.

Areas of research

His career has focused on the early history of the Iberian Peninsula Greek and Phoenician colonization in the Mediterranean and Tartessic worlds. He is a recognized authority on Religion in ancient Rome, especially the romanization of oriental gods Mithra, Isis, Serapis, Cybele and Attis, as well as the processes of religious transformation of the indigenous peninsular world in contact with other Mediterranean peoples. He is currently working on the analysis of the construction of history and director of The Julio Caro Baroja Institute of Historiography of the Charles III University of Madrid.