Jaime Alvar Ezquerra (born April 20, 1955) is a Spanish historian, author and professor at theCharles III University of Madrid, specializing in ancient history.[1]
He was born inGranada, studied Geography and History at theComplutense University of Madrid, and later continued his studies at theUniversity of Cologne (1980-1981). He taught at the Complutense University between 1977 and 1996, the year in which he became professor inHuelva. He was a visiting professor at theUniversity 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 ofTor Vergata (Rome, Italy),Franche-Comté (France) andPotsdam (Germany). He is the older brother ofAlfredo Alvar Ezquerra of theSpanish National Research Council and the younger brother ofCarlos Alvar Ezquerra,Romanic philologist. Their father wasManuel Alvar Ezquerra, prominent Spanish philologist.
His career has focused on the early history of theIberian Peninsula Greek and Phoenician colonization in the Mediterranean andTartessic worlds. He is a recognized authority onReligion in ancient Rome, especially theromanization of oriental godsMithra,Isis,Serapis,Cybele andAttis, 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.
Alvar participated as advisor on the Prehistory and Early History section in the History of Spain series (Prehistoria e Historia Antigua en la serie Historia de España) produced and broadcast by Spanish TV (Televisión Española) between 2004 and 2005. He participated on the book based on the script of this series as well. He has directed several projects for the publisher Editorial Espasa including dictionaries ofSpanish history and is editor ofBetween Phoenicians and Visigoths, The Ancient history of The Iberian Peninsula (Entre fenicios y visigodos).
