From the ninth century BCE the long coasts and fertile valleys of Iberia were tapped by Phoenician and Greek merchants and settlers coming from the eastern Mediterranean. An extended international network was created, which attracted the participation of Etruscans, Sardinians, Cypriots, and others. The interrogation of how these diverse groups first knitted an interconnected space is key to understanding the later Mediterranean of Classical and Roman periods in its cultural depth. Indeed, Iberia is a perfect laboratory for the study of the making of new economic, cultural, and environmental horizons before the Mediterranean was politically connected under Rome. In 2003 Michael Dietler and Carolina López-Ruiz organized a conference on this very topic at UChicago, which resulted in the volume Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Greek, Phoenician, and Indigenous Relations (2009). Following two decades of intensive research, some of the same and additional experts will meet in Chicago and be part of a new curated volume. Shifting the focus from colonial dynamics to the negotiation and construction of identities and territories, as well as new understanding of past environmental challenges, this project is designed to bring novel data and perspectives to an international audience.