The large gold deposits in northwest Spain as well as a permanent military presence were instrumental to the development of Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and Legio VII Gemina (León) into flourishing cities in an otherwise bleak landscape. The various Latin inscriptions found there testify to the importance of the two cities in Roman times.
Together with Spanish colleagues, in particular the Centro CIL II at the University of Alcalá de Henares, the DAI’s Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy has examined the epigraphic evidence on the Iberian Peninsula and has contributed to the new edition of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, which is supported by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Currently the focus is on the northwest of the peninsula, the Conventus Asturum. From the autopsy of the inscriptions on site to the Latinized lemma in the printed CIL volume, the road is often rocky, in the truest sense of the word.
A Roman gold vault: Las Médulas in the province of León, Spain (Photo: I. Mossong, AEK München) 
The bibliographic catalog at the Centro CIL II in Alcalá de Henares (Photo: I. Mossong, AEK München) 
Not a reverent prayer, but applied epigraphy: autopsy of the inscriptions in the cloister of the cathedral of León, Spain (Photo: J. M. Abascal, Alicante)