Humans have been present in Catalan lands ever since the Lower Palaeolithic period, the most remote era in prehistory. The oldest remains of homo erectus, some 450,000 years old, have been found in Tautavel (Roussillon).

The spread of arable agriculture and husbandry, beginning in the Neolithic period in the last millennia before Christ, changed the shape of the land and led to the emergence of new cultures. The influx of eastern, Greek and Phoenician societies, starting in the 7th century BC, led into the development of Iberian culture, one of the most important civilisations of the western Mediterranean.

A long period of links with the Roman Empire began in 218 BC when the Roman army landed at Empúries. It was at this time that many of the basic features of our culture took shape – our language, law and religion. At the end of the 5th century, the defeat of the Western Roman Empire gave way to the Visigothic Kingdom, with its capital in Toledo.