Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo | University of the Basque Country, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (original) (raw)

Books by Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo

The book can be download here: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274911, 2023

Arqueología de las sociedades locales en la Alta Edad Media: San Julián de Aistra y las residenci... more Arqueología de las sociedades locales en la Alta Edad Media: San Julián de Aistra y las residencias de las élites rurales presents the main results obtained in the archaeological project of San Julián de Aistra (Zalduondo-Araia, Álava) carried out between 2006 and 2020 by University College London and the University of the Basque Country. The remains of a hermitage dedicated to Santa Julián and Santa Basilisa, built in the 10th century and renovated in the Romanesque period and in the 18th century, are preserved in the deserted village of Aistra, which is documented since the 11th century. Excavation has shown that the site was occupied in prehistoric, Roman and medieval times. While prehistoric and Roman materials have been recovered in secondary contexts, four medieval phases of a domestic, productive, and funerary nature have been defined. One of the most important results of the project has been the discovery of residential spaces of elites who exercised territorial dominion throughout the Early Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the place was depopulated and, since then, the Aistra area has been managed and disputed by the nearby villages of Zalduondo and Araia, which created a community aimed at jointly managing the resources and spaces of Aistra. This community, active between the 14th and 20th centuries, broke up from the 19th century onwards, when individual management of resources became accentuated, and the commons were divided up.

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free download https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274379, 2023

This volume aims to offer the reader a series of keys to understand why Agrarian Archaeology has ... more This volume aims to offer the reader a series of keys to understand why Agrarian Archaeology has become one of the most dynamic, experimental, and innovative sectors of the discipline in southern Europe, providing an overview of the driving theories, methodologies and the main topics that have been addressed to date. In this way, the text is presented as an introduction for students, a critical reading guide for other scholars, and an informative instrument aimed at a wide audience, taking into account that most of the results of Agrarian Archaeology have a place mainly in highly specialized journals and venues, which are not always easily accessible. For this reason, the volume presents the works, tools, and conceptual frameworks that have been developed by some of the main research groups active in the South of Western Europe to study rural societies throughout history, considering the materiality of agricultural activities

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Free download https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274355, 2023

This volume is devoted to the archaeological study of the societies and agrarian landscapes of No... more This volume is devoted to the archaeological study of the societies and agrarian landscapes of Northwestern Iberia in terms of loguée durée. The book brings together, for the first time, the results of some of the main projects carried out in recent decades from off-site records providing a fresh perspective for the understanding of historical landscapes. The papers evaluate the ‘manure hypothesis’ and other variables that have influenced the formation of pottery carpets in several territories of the Ebro and Douro basins. The interpretation of this record is done through critical integration with other historical, ethnographic and archaeological evidence. In thematic terms, the processes of early medieval colonization, the transformation of rural societies between the Roman and medieval periods, the agency of subaltern groups, the transformations of agrarian practices from a social perspective, and the morphology of agrarian landscapes from prehistory to contemporary age are analysed. In addition, off-site records singularities in non-Mediterranean spaces are considered. In summary, this volume introduces new topics, concepts and case studies useful for developing a multiproxy agrarian archaeology.

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Se trata de un volumen colectivo al que participa una decena de autores que abordan la historia d... more Se trata de un volumen colectivo al que participa una decena de autores que abordan la historia de Valdegobía desde una perspectiva diacrónica y contextualizando las dinámicas locales en un cuadro amplio. Los trabajos prestan una particular atención al registro material, aunque también hay estudios realizados a partir de las fuentes escritas. Los capítulos tratan la Prehistoria, la Historia Antigua y el período medieval, y van precedidos de una introducción sobre la geología del valle.

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The goal of this book is to discuss the theoretical challenges posed by the study of social and p... more The goal of this book is to discuss the theoretical challenges posed by the study of social and political inequality of local societies in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages. Traditional approaches have defined rural communities as passive bodies, poor and unstable in the framework of a self-sufficient economy. In the last few decades the crisis on social approaches both in medieval history and archaeology have missed the opportunity to re-evaluate the role of peasantry and other subaltern groups, even if new written ad material evidences have eroded the traditional assumptions. Conversely, scholars focused on elites and aristocracies have promoted very powerful agendas and projects.
As a consequence of the 2007-2008 recession, Social Sciences have begun to be interested in social and economic inequality, opening new avenues for a reassessment of social history. The Early Medieval period has been identified by different scholars as a key term for the analysis of political complexity and social inequality in a long-term perspective.
The study of local societies has become one of the most fruitful arenas to innovate medieval archaeology and history, using approaches related to the microhistory. This book, dedicated to Chris Wickham, is formed by fourteen papers centred on the study, from both written and material records, of early medieval local communities, which tend to propose a complex framework of social inequality in the local scale.

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Arqueología de la Edad Moderna en el País Vasco y su entorno, 2020

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Documentos de Arqueología Medieval 13, 2019

Este volumen recoge los resultados de la intervención arqueológica realizada entre los años 2005-... more Este volumen recoge los resultados de la intervención arqueológica realizada entre los años 2005-2009 en el despoblado medieval situado en la colina alavesa de Zornostil o los altos de Zornostegui, identificable con el poblado medieval de Zornoztegi. Con anterioridad se habían realizado durante los años 2001-2003 una serie de prospecciones intensivas en la Llanada Oriental de Álava en las que se pudo comprobar las grandes dificultades que suponía identificar y delimitar los yacimientos altomedievales y los numerosos despoblados existentes en esta zona. Por este motivo se decidió realizar una excavación intensiva en un despoblado con el fin de reconocer la naturaleza de los depósitos arqueológicos de estos yacimientos y desarrollar nuevos protocolos de intervención. Aunque Zornoztegi está documentado desde el siglo XI y en la Baja Edad Media varios textos lo recuerdan como despoblado, la excavación de una extensión de más de 4.000 m2 ha permitido reconocer una articulada secuencia ocupacional que arranca en el Calcolítico y, tras un largo hiato, se extiende desde el período romano hasta el siglo XV. De esta forma ha sido posible estudiar el proceso de formación y transformación, en términos de larga duración, de una comunidad campesina medieval. El grupo de investigación multidisciplinar que se ha gestado en torno a este proyecto ha estudiado de forma sistémica los registros bioarqueológicos y geoarqueológicos de este yacimiento y ha analizado procesos históricos como la transformación de los paisajes tardorromanos, la formación de las aldeas medievales, la implantación de las parroquias o los procesos de avecinamiento urbano que tuvieron lugar como consecuencia de la creación de las villas de formación real en el territorio alavés. En definitiva, Zornoztegi es una ventana abierta para comprender el campesinado alavés en términos diacrónicos, dando voz a los olvidados de la historia.

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Vislumbrando la Tardoantigüedad: Una mirada desde la Arqueología, 2018

EN: The original idea for the realization of this book was the incorporation into the regional sp... more EN: The original idea for the realization of this book was the incorporation into the regional sphere of some frameworks and debates that are being carried out at the moment in the field of national and international archaeological research about Late Antiquity.
This was intended on the one hand to put on the table some aspects that helped develop the understanding that we have of the local-regional archaeological record, of La Rioja in this case, but also peninsular by another, to the limited extent of our possibilities and records. A two-way discussion (not monologue), which we wanted to be fruitful for researchers and, at the same time, make it accessible to the general public.
This was done by through an divulgative congress and that now materializes in a book with the contributions of scientific articles that, in a way of chapters, articulate and structure in a choral way a multivariable approach to the Late Antiquity with the heterogeneity of formations, thematic and spatial areas presented by the very different authors who have written it.
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ES: La idea originaria para la realización de este libro fue la incorporación a la esfera regional de algunos marcos de trabajo y debates que se están realizando en estos momentos en el campo de la investigación arqueológica nacional e internacional acerca de la Tardoantigüedad.
Con ello se pretendía por un lado poner sobre la mesa ciertos aspectos que ayudasen a desarrollar la comprensión que tenemos del registro arqueológico local-regional, riojano en este caso, pero también peninsular por otro, en la medida limitada de nuestras posibilidades y registros. Un debate bidireccional (no monólogo), que queríamos que fuera fructífero para los investigadores y, al mismo tiempo, hacerlo accesible al público en general.
Esto se hizo por medio de un congreso divulgativo y que ahora se materializa en la elaboración de un libro con las aportaciones de artículos científicos que, a modo de capítulos, articulan y estructuran de forma coral un acercamiento multivariable a la Tardoantigüedad con la heterogeneidad de formaciones, ámbitos temáticos y espaciales que presentan los muy diferentes autores que lo han escrito.

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Publish with us! The series 'Documentos de Arqueología Medieval' edited by the University of the ... more Publish with us! The series 'Documentos de Arqueología Medieval' edited by the University of the Basque Country have been recently awared with the Academic Publishing Quality hallamark by the Spanish Goverment.
We are looking for excelent proposal to be edited in the series. Monographs, doctoral studies, proceedigns, as well as case studies are wellcomed. All the proposal should be revised by the Editorial Board and external referees.
All the information about the process can be found here: http://www.ehu.eus/es/web/argitalpen-zerbitzua/documentos-de-arqueologia-medieval

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Il volume costituisce l’edizione degli Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi L’archeologia de... more Il volume costituisce l’edizione degli Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi L’archeologia della produzione a Roma (secoli V-XV), svoltosi dal 27 al 29 marzo 2014 a Palazzo Massimo alle Terme e all’École française de Rome, che ha fissato l’attenzione, per la prima volta in modo esaustivo e sistematico, sull’Urbe come centro di una ricca rete produttiva entro l’ampia diacronia dai secoli finali della Tarda Antichità a tutto il Medioevo.
Nelle giornate di studio sono confluiti gli esiti di una ricerca condotta per alcuni anni da un gruppo di giovani archeologi delle Università di Roma Tor Vergata, di Roma Tre e del Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia cristiana, coordinati da Alessandra Molinari, Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani e Lucrezia Spera, ricerca rivolta alla raccolta complessiva dei markers di produzione emersi dalle indagini archeologiche negli spazi intra muros e nell’area suburbana entro i limiti del quarto-quinto miglio; le schede analitiche dei contesti e degli indicatori compongono una Banca Dati, resa fruibile nella versione del CD-Rom allegato e correlata ad un GIS, ma sono anche alla base di alcuni studi che propongono quadri di insieme storico-interpretativi elaborati su base temporale progressiva.

I contributi sono raggruppati in tre prevalenti ambiti di approfondimento, non prescindendo, come base di partenza, dalle sintesi sugli assetti produttivi di Roma antica: I) Le evidenze di attività produttive dai grandi cantieri di scavo degli anni recenti (Crypta Balbi, Fori imperiali, Athaeneum e complessi sulla via Flaminia nell’area di piazza Venezia – scavi metro C, Basilica hilariana del Celio, villa dei Quintili); II) Relazioni riepilogative sugli specifici settori della produzione (produzione monetaria, vetraria, tessile, metallurgica e orafa, edilizia e dei cantieri di pittori, musivari e marmorarii, epigrafica, anche con l’apporto dell’archeolozoologia e dell’antropologia fisica); III) Quadri di insieme regionali e sub-regionali della penisola italiana (Italia settentrionale, centrale e meridionale) e europei (Francia, Inghilterra, Svizzera, Spagna), utili per riflessioni comparative, sia nelle restituzioni degli apparati economici e sociali, sia per valutazioni di ordine metodologico.

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This book presents an overview of the results of the research project DESPAMED funded by the Span... more This book presents an overview of the results of the research project DESPAMED funded by the Spanish Minister of Economy and Competitiveness. The aim of the book is to discuss the theoretical challenges posed by the study of social inequality and social complexity in early medieval peasant communities in North-western Iberia. Traditional approaches have defined these communities as poor, simple and even nomadic, in the framework of a self-sufficient economy that prioritised animal husbandry over agriculture. This picture has radically changed over the last couple of decades as a result of important research on the archaeology of peasantry and the critical analysis of ninthand tenth-century documentary evidence that show the complexity of these rural societies. These new records are discussed in the light of a new research agenda centred on the analysis of the emergence of villages, the formation of local elites, the creation of socio-political networks and the role of identities in the legitimation of local inequalities. The nine chapters of this book explore the potential and the limits of the archaeological record to tackle social inequality in rural communities. Those considerations have a wider theoretical and methodological potential and are applicable to other regions and chronologies. The different chapters explore local societies through different methodologies and approaches such as food, settlement patterns, social exclusion, consumption patterns and social practices.

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In southern Europe, human osteoarchaeological analyses and medieval funerary archaeology seem to ... more In southern Europe, human osteoarchaeological analyses and medieval funerary archaeology seem to be disconnected. Human osteoarchaeology works without historical context and research agendas and funerary archaeology works without taking into account human remains. The two main aims of this vol- ume are, on the one hand, to explore the reasons of this disconnection and to build bridges that would allow creating platforms for integral and pluridisciplinar analysis of the funerary phenomenon in the north-western Iberian Peninsula. On the other hand, it is intended in this work to analyse, from a critical perspective, the inequalities and complexity of medieval societies in the north-western Iberian Peninsula through archaeological evidence, particularly through human osteoarchaeological remains.
The works that have been included in this work review critically the main demographic and pa- laeopathological studies carried out in some regions, showing the results of the human osteoarchaeological analyses from the perspective of social history. Although the majority if these works deal with the north-west- ern Iberian Peninsula, two papers that deal with other regions of Iberia have been included, for comparative purposes. Moreover, some monographic studies about particular sites are included, which allows going into more detailed analysis of these specific cases. The sixteen chapters of this volume include a number of meth- odological, conceptual and operational suggestions, which allow opening a debate about the future of human osteoarchaeology in relation to the historical analysis of the funerary phenomenon in the Middle Ages.

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In this paper the relationship between craft activities and social complexity in medieval local s... more In this paper the relationship between craft activities and social complexity in medieval local societies is analysed, taking into account the archaeological record of northern Iberia. Although in the last twenty years archaeological research of medieval sites has seen a great development, craft evidence is not overly consistent. However, the study of available records suggests a research agenda for the future.
In this work a general overview of craft archaeological evidence will be discussed. Then, ironwork in the Basque Country in the Early and High Middle Ages will be analysed in order to understand at a local level social articulation of craft activities. In this territory native iron ore is very common, especially in the north area, thus local scale ironwork is documented from Roman times till late medieval ages. Through this case study it is possible to analyse the articulation of non-agrarian productive activity in complex non-centralized social structures. Ironwork production system, distribution patterns and consumption context are analysed, stressing the role of local communities and lordship agency.

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The period compressed between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of the High Midd... more The period compressed between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of the High Middle Age Kingdoms is characterized by the regionalization of pottery production and the emergence of new distribution and consumption patterns. These processes are the result of the transformation of political structures (emergence of the Barbarian Kingdoms, the prominence of local authorities, convergence and fragmentation political phenomena), social changes (scale change of social systems, new aggregation and social exclusion mechanisms), and economic patterns (crisis of long-distance trade, shrinking markets, changing the nature of economic relations) all around Europe.
In this book, these processes are analysed in North-western Iberia in the light of regional or subregional pottery case studies. This area has not had a starring role in the recent synthesis and studies made recently in South of Europe. However, new regional and local studies and doctoral thesis allow reformulating the analysis of production structure, exchange systems and consumption pattern in this area in the Early Medieval Ages. Even thought the picture is very heterogeneous and sometimes partial, the papers included in this book contribute to the study of socioeconomic trends in Early Medieval Europe from the analysis of the pottery record.

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This volume brings together the papers read at two conferences held at Leon and Vitoria-Gasteiz i... more This volume brings together the papers read at two conferences held at Leon and Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2013 devoted to the study of identities, and specifically the ethnic identities in Hispania between the 6th and the 8th centuries. The first meeting was focus on the critical study of documentary and numismatic evidence in order to propose new approaches to the study of identities in the barbarian Hispanic kingdoms. In the second conference a general overview of recent funerary archaeological excavations has been made.
The main argument put forward in this volume is that the study of ethnic identity in Iberian funerary archaeological record has been based on a normative approach of archaeological evidence reliant on a very old-fashioned historiography. Considering the deep renovation of Iberian and European historical production of the last decades related with the study of ethnic identities in the post roman period, in this volume new perspectives for social and political analysis of ethnicity are propose from written and material records.

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This volume is the result of the collaboration between two of the leading archaeological companie... more This volume is the result of the collaboration between two of the leading archaeological companies operating in the centre of the Iberia (Strato and Area) and the University of the Basque Country. The work has three main objectives:
1. Eleven rescue archaeological projects conducted between 1996 and 2009 in Madrid and Castilla y León are presented. These reports have not already been published, and illustrated some of the best cases of villages and farms from the Visigothic period excavated in central Iberia.
2. A second aim is to conduct a comparative analysis of these peasant archaeological records, including internal spatial structure of these deposits, domestic architecture, burial practices and archaeobiological records, in order to characterize the early medieval peasant societies of these peninsular areas.
3. The third aim is to analyze the social meaning and the historical implications of these new archaeological evidences in the light of other available archaeological and historical data to study how the central Iberia territory has been articulated between V and IX centuries.
The book is divided into three main parts. The first section presents the results of eleven archaeological preventive interventions conducted in the provinces of Madrid, Segovia, Leon and Valladolid. In order to systematize and facilitate exposure and comparison between these deposits, the archaeological data are presented in a standard form that has been designed for the occasion. Secondly, it includes other chapters devoted to an analytical study of two of the main themes and characteristics of these deposits (architecture and funerary archaeology) comparing various information provided by the different settlements. Finally, it presents an interpreting essay of the early medieval villages and farms in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula within the context of the archaeology of the Visigothic period societies. It has also been included an initial chapter that tries to explain the context in which these interventions have been conducted and the nature of the archaeological record.

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La arqueología está sometida, desde hace varios decenios, a profundas tensiones académicas, profe... more La arqueología está sometida, desde hace varios decenios, a profundas tensiones académicas, profesionales, éticas y políticas, resultado de la crisis o el colapso de una determinada forma de concebir esta disciplina. Y aunque en la opinión pública sigue siendo evocadora y atractiva la idea de una arqueología que descubre tesoros o «los orígenes» de un pueblo o una ciudad, y el mito del improbable héroe-explorador sigue resultando atractivo, pocas disciplinas han luchado y luchan de forma tan intensa por dotarse de una identidad propia como la arqueología. Reinventada en los últimos años como ciencia del patrimonio, la arqueología es hoy una profesión; una forma de gestionar, crear y promover identidades a través del patrimonio; un instrumento para crear productos consumibles en el marco del denominado turismo cultural.
Este completo libro, elaborado por un equipo multidisciplinar de especialistas, propone una reflexión coral sobre las contradiciones y las tensiones a las que está sometida la práctica de una disciplina que aspira a construir nuevas aproximaciones al pasado desde el registro material, modelando la memoria en el presente.

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In archaeological studies of hierarchies and inequalities in pre-industrial societies, the analys... more In archaeological studies of hierarchies and inequalities in pre-industrial societies, the analysis of the agricultural production cycle is of considerable significance, owing to its structural importance in quantitative and qualitative terms. Nevertheless, unlike other productive processes which generate remains and significant evidence, the study of the material remains of agricultural activity poses numerous problems for an archaeology which has developed out of an antiquarian tradition which has leaned more towards the study of monuments and living spaces, rather than an analysis of places of work. Despite this, there are some processes in the agricultural production cycle which, due to their characteristics, are more legible in material terms, and around which intense social action is organized. Specifically, the processes of processing and transforming cereals into flour, and the study of storage systems, constitute two of the processes which can be better detected and analysed in archaeological terms.
This volume studies systems of management and storage of agricultural yields and production in the period between the end of the Roman era and the full medieval period (V-X centuries) on a European scale, using comparative analyses. Although the accent is on archaeological documentation, the volume also includes other contributions based on textual documentation and ethnoarchaeology.
The works collected in this volume allow an understanding of the complexity of social a relation which were established around processes of managing harvests, short-term and long-term storage, systems of deriving income and, in general, forms of agricultural archaeology in early medieval societies.

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This volume has come to being as a result of the Research Project (HUM2009-07079) “La formación d... more This volume has come to being as a result of the Research Project (HUM2009-07079) “La formación del paisaje medieval en el Norte Peninsular” (The formation of the Medieval landscape in the Northern Iberian Peninsula), funded by the Minstry of Science and Innovation, and whose main aim is to analyse the main Early Medieval castles of the north-west quarter of the Iberian Peninsula, based on the most recent archaeological and historical researches. In this volume there are three main objectives:
1. To make the results of several archaeological excavations carried out in Early Medieval castles of the north-western quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula public. These had been studied as part of programme of preventive and research projects carried out during the last years on various fortified sites, but which had only been partially published.
2. To propose some territorial syntheses of the current research projects for each of the areas of the region under study.
3. Lastly, to analyse the fortification process in the Middle Ages, based on primary documentation.
The resulting conclusions are multiple, because behind labels such as castles, hilltop settlements and fortifications researchers are grouping together material and functional realities of diverse nature: From the big castles, located in the interior of the Peninsula and the edges of the meseta formed after the collapse of the Roman state, which serve as new axes for the local powers up to the numerous small fortified enclosures of the Cantabric range that emerge later in the period, together with towers and other hilltop settlements resulting of the incastellamento. And even if we find ourselves in the early stages of the study of these sites, the papers collected in this volume propose new topics and problems that may help us in future studies.

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The book can be download here: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274911, 2023

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free download https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274379, 2023

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Free download https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803274355, 2023

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Arqueología de la Edad Moderna en el País Vasco y su entorno, 2020

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Documentos de Arqueología Medieval 13, 2019

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Vislumbrando la Tardoantigüedad: Una mirada desde la Arqueología, 2018

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Arqueología de las sociedades locales en la Alta Edad Media. San Julián de Aistra y las residencias de las élites rurales, 2023

El propósito de este capítulo es el de presentar, en modo detallado, la descripción de la secuenc... more El propósito de este capítulo es el de presentar, en modo detallado, la descripción de la secuencia estratigráfica que ha sido identificada en las excavaciones realizadas en las excavaciones del altozano de San Julián de Aistra. En la exposición se explican los procesos seguidos para construir esta secuencia ocupacional y establecer las cronologías relativas y absolutas, prestando una atención particular a los procesos de formación de la estratigrafía arqueológica. En el capítulo 9 se incluye una lista detallada de los períodos, los grupos de actividad, las actividades y las unidades estratigráficas.

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Open Archaeology 2024; 10: 20240005, 2024

In this study, it is argued that a microhistorical perspective applied to historical archaeologie... more In this study, it is argued that a microhistorical perspective applied to historical archaeologies provides intelligibility to certain mechanisms of exercise of power and forms of resistance in the local sphere. Adopting a microhistorical approach, two primary mechanisms of social order consensus creation and contestation are explored through the creation and negotiation of symbolic capital. Micropolitics are understood as a set of poorly formalised but meaningful practices that define, model, and negotiate forms of social domination by integrating different communicative languages. Infrapolitics shape the forms of resistance and agency of subaltern groups and, by definition, are not easy to track and identify. Through the study of small empirical illustrations from the medieval period in the Basque Country, the aim is to argue that there is a correlation between the intensity and complexity of the political practices that develop in local societies and the forms of contestation of rights and cohesion mechanisms. To carry out this analysis, material, textual, mnemonic, and oral records are used.

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Rivista Tema, 2024

The archaeological approach to the study of elevations is applied here to 20th-century architectu... more The archaeological approach to the study of elevations is applied here to 20th-century architecture. In particular, post-World War II façades are examined through several case studies. This research uses the method of the archaeology of architecture: the meticulous attention to materi- als, workmanship, and technological devices, the examination of the so- cio-economic context, and the analysis of the motivations behind specific choices. These elements contribute to discovering the history of an arte- fact in a given period of time as completely as possible. The archaeology of architecture has been widely experimented on historical buildings since the 1970s; very rare has been the application to the study of contemporary buildings. The authors, on the basis of the research already started in 2018, at this stage of the study seek to further develop the topic under inves- tigation, also with comparisons on a broader national and international scale. The architectural surfaces of the second half of the 20th century are analyzed here by studying individual components on the façades: the colour and texture of the plaster, any tile, wood, or stone coverings, or the exposed concrete work. The final aim is to develop an overall method of investigation that considers the specificity of the period examined and the possible adaptation of analysis tools that can help in the archaeological study of these contemporary architectures.

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Pittaluga, Daniela, Quiros Castillo, Juan Antonio, 2024, Surfaces of 20th-century façades: Reflections on their archaeological awareness, Tema (Technologies, Engineering, Materials, Architecture) 10.1, 112-125

Tema (Technologies, Engineering, Materials, Architecture) , 2024

The archaeological approach to the study of elevations is applied here to 20th-century architectu... more The archaeological approach to the study of elevations is applied here to 20th-century architecture. In particular, post-World War II façades are examined through several case studies. This research uses the method of the archaeology of architecture: the meticulous attention to materials, workmanship, and technological devices, the examination of the socioeconomic context, and the analysis of the motivations behind specific choices. These elements contribute to discovering the history of an artefact in a given period of time as completely as possible. The archaeology of architecture has been widely experimented on historical buildings since the 1970s; very rare has been the application to the study of contemporary buildings. The authors, on the basis of the research already started in 2018, at this stage of the study seek to further develop the topic under investigation, also with comparisons on a broader national and international scale. The architectural surfaces of the second half of the 20th century are analyzed here by studying individual components on the façades: the colour and texture of the plaster, any tile, wood, or stone coverings, or the exposed concrete work. The final aim is to develop an overall method of investigation that considers the specificity of the period examined and the possible adaptation of analysis tools that can help in the archaeological study of these contemporary architectures.

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During the last 15 years a deep renovaion on the study of medieval landscapes has taken place in ... more During the last 15 years a deep renovaion on the study of medieval landscapes has taken place in the north of the Iberian Peninsula as a consequence of the boost of prevenive archaeology, the execuion of large projects and the development of integrated geo- and bioarchaeological researches. In this context it has been possible to build up a holisic approach to the archaeological study of landscapes which has meant the overcoming of the tradiional limits of individual sites incorporaing the analysis of the producive spaces and the systemic relaions between diferent kinds of available records. The aim of this communicaion is to briely present the theoreical and conceptual bases the GIPYPAC has been working on in diferent areas of the north-western Iberian Peninsula, integraing both applied research on prevenive context and invesigaions focused on the transversal analysis of palaeoenvironmental records. For doing so, two case studies from Madrid and Basque Country will be analysed and ...

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Antiquity 2023 Vol. 97 (395): 1279–1295, 2023

Why, how and when villages emerged across medieval Europe are enduring questions for archaeologis... more Why, how and when villages emerged across medieval Europe are enduring questions for archaeologists and historians because of the wider social and economic transformations implied-and because many of these settlements persist to the present day. Most archaeological investigations have focused on the nucleated centres of these communities; here, instead, the authors examine the role of agroscapes. Focusing on an agricultural area near the village of Tobillas, changes in soil chemistry are used to document the creation and maintenance of common fields attesting to collective agrarian practice pre-dating the foundation of the medieval village. Reversing the accepted narrative, the authors argue it was these pre-existing agrarian communities who coalesced to constitute villages such as Tobillas.

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ACTUALIDAD DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN ARQUEOLÓGICA EN ESPAÑA IV (2021-2022) CONFERENCIAS IMPARTIDAS EN EL MUSEO ARQUEOLÓGICO NACIONAL, 2022

The aim of this paper is to introduce the Pancorbo archaeological project, con- sidering the theo... more The aim of this paper is to introduce the Pancorbo archaeological project, con- sidering the theoretical framework and the preliminary results. Pancorbo is a medieval town attested from the 9th century as a castle. In the High Medieval Ages a political community grew up around the castle, a market and several centres based on churches. The fuero gave by Alfonso VII in 1147 sanctioned the new status that the town, acquiring the morphology of a Small Town. In the 13th century, the place was closed with a walled enclosure, although the entire population of Pancorbo was not concentrated inside it.
This work deals with two study themes: the emergence of the urban center by introducing the perspective of Small Towns understood as a distributed form of territorial articulation, and the articulation of religious-based identities, contrasting the Hebrew and Christian communities

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Studia Historica. Historia Medieval, 2020

Índice del número 38:2 Index of the volumen 38:2.

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Studia Historica, Historia Medieval 38.2, 117-152, 2020

This paper aims to analyse local early medieval societies in north-western Iberia through local ... more This paper aims to analyse local early medieval societies in north-western Iberia through local proprietorial churches. The existence of private churches active at local scales is well known from the written sources and material evidence. Usually these buildings have been studied and viewed through the prism of the emergence of village leaders and local elites projecting their positions to the wider world by means of participation in client networks with regional territorial powers. This article attempts to explore local societies as arenas of confrontation and negotiation with the wider world through the creation of a politics of belonging, differentiation and exclusion, articulated through local churches. Two regions of the northwest are compared: one characterised by close proximity to the monarchy (Asturias) and the other by its distance from the principal focus of power between the 8th and 10th centuries (Basque Country). The local churches are studied from three perspectives: their technologies of construction, the relationship between the churches and other elements constituting the social landscape, and the construction of identities and local societies over the longer-term.

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Historia Agraria, 82 ■ Diciembre 2020 ■ pp. 209-243, 2020

The aim of this paper is to analyse early medieval economic trends and social change in the Basqu... more The aim of this paper is to analyse early medieval economic trends and social change in the Basque Country, using a bottom-up approach that includes mul-tiproxy archaeological evidence. Though comparisons will be made with other Northern Iberian areas, the study focuses on the 3,000 km 2 Basque province of Álava, where research has been intense in the last decade. The work primarily relies on records of settlement patterns, paleoenvironmental evidence, field systems, livestock management, food patterns and crop production. Diachronic study of farming and livestock practices show patterns of socio-political interaction between local communities and elite agency in the Early Medieval Age. The main topics analysed are the emergence of local communities , the nucleation process, the use of common resources, the agency of village leaders and the formation of lordships.

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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports Volume 33, October 2020, 102442

In the last few years, large-scale archaeological projects carried out at medieval sites in the B... more In the last few years, large-scale archaeological projects carried out at medieval sites in the Basque Country have obtained a significant collection of archaeobotanical assemblages, creating the opportunity to address, from a fresh perspective, a social history of agriculture in the region. This paper presents the study of the village of Zornoztegi (occupied from the Chalcolithic to the Late Medieval Ages, ca. 2500 BCE-1350 CE) and the estate centre of Aistra (settled during the Early Medieval period, 500–1000 CE), both of them located in the Province of Alava, 5 km apart. The comparison between the two sites, characterized by different food consumption patterns, architectures, everyday assemblages and social structure, sheds light upon food and productive practices, the socio-political structure of early medieval rural sites and the sources of social power in non-Carolingian areas. This paper also discusses site formation processes and their impact on the interpretation of the sites, crop productions and consumption patterns in the context of northern Iberia, and some remarks regarding agriculture production.

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Quaternary International 399, 2016

This paper examines the zooarchaeological evidence from six Basque towns (Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz... more This paper examines the zooarchaeological evidence from six Basque towns (Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, SalvatierraeAgurain, Balmaseda, Orduña and Durango), and compares it with historical written sources. The key aims are a better understanding of urban diet, the provisioning of meat to towns, and the relationship between town and country, in the 12the18th centuries. Taxonomic frequencies, kill-off patterns, butchery practices and biometrical data are examined in a diachronic perspective. The results reveal that, although there are some signs of economic specialization, patterns of urban consumption remained fairly stable. It is suggested that the strict taxation and legislation for meat supply and the ownership of livestock by urban elites meant that urban demand for meat was too tightly regulated to bring about substantial changes in the mechanisms of livestock breeding and supply. The economic system appears to have mainly been geared towards the socioeconomic needs of the countryside , despite the central role of some of the Basque towns in international trade.

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Arqueología de la Edad Moderna en el País Vasco y su entorno, 2020

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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2013

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Radiocarbon, 2013

The archaeological site of Zaballa is a Medieval rural site located in the province of álava (Bas... more The archaeological site of Zaballa is a Medieval rural site located in the province of álava (Basque Country, northern Iberia). The site has been excavated during a rescue archaeology project, over an area of about 4.5 ha, where human occupation has been documented ranging from the 6th to 15th century. The archaeological operations have shown the transformation of the village, in diachronic terms, by unearthing the structure of production areas (agricultural lands, storage areas, and craft activities), the shape of domestic spaces, and the Saint Tirso monastery, with its adjacent cemetery. Much of the evidence and features related to a peasant community are small and disturbed by recent agricultural activities, and are therefore difficult to be interpreted in social terms. Studying dietary patterns has helped to fill this gap by providing a protein-rich diet of the elitist population and by highlighting the existence of hierarchies separating the inhabitants of Zaballa. In this paper, we discuss the reconstruction of the chronological sequence of the site inhabitation, with a multidisciplinary approach. The archaeological evidences and the critical use of radiocarbon dating have been integrated with stable isotope analysis on human remains found in the cemetery of the church of San Tirso, resulting in a first attempt to find evidence of the social structure of the rural community of Zaballa.

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EAA Conference, Belfast 30.8 - 3.9.2023 , 2023

This session aims to discuss new perspectives on the abandonment of rural settlements and small t... more This session aims to discuss new perspectives on the abandonment of rural settlements and small towns in medieval Europe, which draw on theoretical frameworks concerning the Anthropocene, resilience, connectivity, mobility, social complexity, multiscale analysis, comparisons, human ecology, ecosystems, environmental changes, and landscapes.
In large parts of Europe, the very beginnings of medieval archaeology are associated with the investigation of deserted villages. These sites were considered ‘field laboratories’ for studying domestic social life, as well as the impact of the late medieval crisis. In the last decades, however, this issue has been overlooked in the wake of the expansion of other topics addressed by postclassical archaeologies. The phenomenon of settlement abandonment has thus remained under theorised, with frequent cataclysmic hypotheses and deterministic interpretations being advanced. Most of the existing conclusions do not reflect recent reassessments of rural communities, which increasingly emphasise their active and strategic role.
Finally, a vast number of deserted sites have been discovered due to the boom in development-led archaeology. In parallel, methodological advances, new procedures, and a wide range of geoarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and remote sensing data, have opened up new avenues for studying topics such as village origins, social dominance, and environmental and landscape change. Nevertheless, the abandonment processes have not returned to being the major area of study.
The ultimate goal of the session is to produce a collective book that brings together innovative and rigorous papers which revisit the question of settlement desertion in medieval Europe. For this reason, we do not request case studies, surveys, or descriptive reports. Instead, we expect holistic, multi-scale, and interdisciplinary approaches with cutting-edge contextual or scientific analyses, which should reveal the driving forces behind abandonment, shed light on the interrelationships between various agents and systems, and thus enhance our understanding of medieval landscape dynamics.

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The aim of this session is to explore how social archaeology can tackle some major societal topic... more The aim of this session is to explore how social archaeology can tackle some major societal topics and changes in postclassical times in the light of the microhistory experience. Developed, through different trajectories, by Italian social historians (Ginzburg, Levi, Grendi, Moreno, Poni, etc.), the Annales French School (Le Roy Laduire), and other scholars (Davies, West, etc), this approach has been able to balance the tension between very detailed analysis and the discussion of relevant scientific issues (state formation, social identities, territorialities, social memories, landscape and agrarian system transformation, relational agencies, social mobility, etc.) considering a long-term and a multiscale approach.
Not only is it a metodological question about representativeness, but also a
theoretical and conceptual one. This "historical microanalysis" isgrounded on
the context of practices, social relationships, and the cultural production of
evidence and material culture. As a result, new avenues to explore the deep
meanings of places and temporalities have been opened. Besides this, an
explicit microhistorical approach empowers archaeology to overcome the
classic contraposition between top-down and bottom-up perspectives,
évènementiel and longue durée processes, and textual and material sources
There is an interest in papers centered on topics such as social inequality,
local societies, collective action, ownerships and commons, possession and
jurisdiction, social mobility, environmental resources management and
environmental issues, subaltern studies, and other social issues. Although the interest is placed in long-term approaches, a microhistorical approach is very
useful for the analysis of postclassical societies (5th-21st centuries). The final aim is to promote a discussion about the potentiality of historical
micro-history within the archaeological research opening new posibilities
for dialogues between different disciplines: archaeology, history, social
anthropology, geography, historical ecology, and landscape studies

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The conference Archaeology of Peasantry will be held the Faculty of Arts of the University of the... more The conference Archaeology of Peasantry will be held the Faculty of Arts of the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the framework of the Research Project ‘Peasantry Agency and Sociopolitical Complexity in North-western Iberia in Medieval Ages’ funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
The main aim of the workshop is to analyze the peasantry as a historical subject from a wide variety of thematic, disciplinary and chronological perspectives, in its social, economic and political dimensions.
Although during the 70s and 80s the peasantry had a central role in the social history of preindustrial societies of the Iberian Peninsula, in recent decades, this role has been progressively diluted. On the other hand, paradoxically, the emergence of an archaeology of the peasantry in Spain has emerged as the social history of the peasantry has declined.

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Since the beginnings of agriculture, societies based on their relation to the land have expanded ... more Since the beginnings of agriculture, societies based on their relation to the land have expanded and created a wide range of responses to the specific historical, geographical and cultural contexts. The aggressive expansion of modernity has led these societies towards a process of change that may result in their disappearance. Since the 1990s different social and political entities have increasingly sought to understand the effects that this process will have upon peasant societies worldwide. Although archaeology has functioned as a major tool for understanding (and colonizing) peasant societies, it has paid little attention to them as active agents in the transformation of social and political landscapes. On the contrary, they are commonly seen as passive subjects in a top-down perspective determined by the agency of the dominant classes or ecological phenomena. However, archaeology may function as an adequate framework to point out not only the inner dynamics of peasant societies, but also their capacity to actively interrelate with the landscape. How peasant societies materially express their agency? How does equality or inequality affect their social dynamics? How they interrelate with other social groups? This session will reflect on the possibilities and limits of an archaeology of peasant agency in the long duration, trying to connect case studies through time and space. This session welcomes papers dealing with: Critical theoretical approaches to peasant societies and agency; Social inequality within peasant societies and their relation with different social groups.

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223 capable of englobing the entire operational chain; that is, from the reduction of the mineral... more 223 capable of englobing the entire operational chain; that is, from the reduction of the mineral up to the final forging of the ferramenta (iron). The second period, which runs from 950 to 1400 A.C., presents considerable differences between the sites. Thus, while some basically maintain the pattern of spatial and production organisation of the first phase, others develop rapidly towards fully urban forms. These transformations would bring with them a significant change in the iron production strategy, leaving behind the reduction activities and only maintaining the forging activities. Moreover, the archaeobotanical and metallographic studies undertaken have enabled archaeologists to identify the type of iron mineral used, the different models of exploiting woodland, diverse technological changes in production (obtaining iron or steel according to needs) and other aspects relating to the operation of slag-tapping furnaces and forges. TH1-32 Abstract 02 The Iron and the Smartphone: 'expensive' technologies at the verge of the millennium

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Defining the occupation sequence of medieval rural farming sites is complicated, since they featu... more Defining the occupation sequence of medieval rural farming sites is complicated, since they feature low density of stratigraphic relationships and few finds and because of the intensive agricultural activities developed there during the last few decades. This paper presents the chronological characterization of the medieval village of Zornoztegi, located in the Basque Country, in the province of Álava. At this site, dwellings extend over an area of approximately 2 hectares and consist mainly of negative structures excavated in the bedrock. Radiocarbon dating measurements carried out on 32 samples, together with other information obtained from stratigraphic relationships, changes in the settlement organization and the study of material culture; allowed structuring and characterizing the occupation sequence of Zornoztegi. Furthermore, through Bayesian statistics, it was possible to reduce the range of the calibrated dating and to refine the chronology of the sequence.

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The aim of this paper is to discuss key aspects of domestic economies in the early Middle Ages, t... more The aim of this paper is to discuss key aspects of domestic economies in the early Middle Ages, taking into account a particular case study: the present-day territory of the Basque Country. This region is considered one of the simplest and least hierarchical in Southern Europe and thus provides a unique opportunity to explore the complexity of domestic economies and their social implications from a fresh perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the notion of local societies considered both as a scale of social analysis and the ‘small worlds’ around which micro politics and significant links between the different households are woven. From a theoretical point of view, it is intended to contrast practices based on the political and moral economies that define the forms of equilibrium and transformation of both households and local societies. From this perspective, the connectivity, redistribution, accumulation and consumption patterns of domestic economies will be considered, as well as the social practices that derived from them between the 8th and the 10th centuries. To do this, bioarchaeological evidence, domestic records and material culture will be taken into consideration. In this way, it is intended to reveal patterns of rationality in the domestic economies of local societies, questioning both the ‘primitive opulent’ and the primitivist models that accentuate the poverty and simplicity of early medieval local societies. It is argued that domestic economies changed substantially over time, challenging the static and traditional nature of medieval rural societies.

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Conclusiones y reflexiones generales del encuentro celebrado en Vitoria-Gasteiz sobre el estado e... more Conclusiones y reflexiones generales del encuentro celebrado en Vitoria-Gasteiz sobre el estado en la Alta Edad Media

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J. A. Quirós Castillo, Valdegovía en el inicio de su historia, pp. 153-180, 2020

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Sauro GELICHI, Lauro OLMO-ENCISO (eds.), Mediterranean landscapes in Post Antiquity. New frontiers and new perspectives. Oxford: Archaeopress archaeology, pp. 129-144, 2019

During the last 15 years, an in-depth renovation of the study of medieval landscapes has taken pl... more During the last 15 years, an in-depth renovation of the study of medieval landscapes has taken place in the northwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula as a consequence of the boost in preventive archaeology, of the execution of large projects and of the development of integrated geo- and bio-archaeological researches. In this context it has been possible to develop a holistic and systemic approach to landscapes that has led to the overcoming of the traditional limitations of individual sites and the incorporation of the analyses of the productive spaces and the systemic relations between the different kinds of available records. The aim of this paper is to briefly present the theoretical and conceptual bases the Heritage and Cultural Landscapes Research Group (University of the Basque Country) has been working on in different areas of this part of the Iberian Peninsula.
Emphasis will be specifically put on peasantry as a key agent in the modelling of historical landscapes.

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G. Ruiz Zapatero, 2018, El Poder del Pasado 150 AÑOS DE ARQUEOLOGÍA EN ESPAÑA, Madrid, NAM, pp. 112-114, 2018

L a UNESCO ha declarado en Espa-ña unos 40 Bienes Culturales como Patrimonio de la Humani-dad, y ... more L a UNESCO ha declarado en Espa-ña unos 40 Bienes Culturales como Patrimonio de la Humani-dad, y casi la mitad de ellos son de cro-nología medieval incluyendo cascos históricos, monumentos altomedieva-les, bajomedievales e islámicos. Se po-dría esperar, por lo tanto, que la arqueo-logía medieval fuese una de las disciplinas arqueológicas más sólidas en la Universidad Española y que tuvie-se un protagonismo científico e intelec-tual destacado. Pero esto no es así. Y en buena medida esta anomalía se puede explicar a partir del análisis del proceso de construcción institucional de la ar-queología en España, y de la arqueolo-gía medieval en particular. Y aunque en los últimos años han prosperado las re-flexiones historiográficas en torno a la arqueología medieval en España (Qui-rós Castillo 2009, Salvatierra 2013, Vi-dal 2016), y a la de al-Andalus en particular (Díaz-Andreu 2002, Cressier, Moret 2007, Carvajal 2014, Valdés 2014, García Porras 2014, Salvatierra 2015), aún está pendiente por realizar un estu-dio crítico de conjunto sobre los éxitos y los fracasos de esta disciplina en el con-texto político, social y académico hispa-no de los últimos 150 años. Al igual que otras disciplinas ar-queológicas, las raíces de la arqueología medieval europea se hunden en el si-glo XIX en el contexto de la elaboración de relatos y narraciones que sanciona-ron el pasado de los estados-nación (Díaz Andreu 2016), así como en el de-sarrollo de estudios eruditos y de carác-ter coleccionista vinculados a la crea-ción de los museos y la actividad de las instituciones que permitieron la profe-sionalización de la arqueología a finales de siglo (Díaz-Andreu, Mora, Cortade-lla 2009). Con anterioridad ya se habían realizado estudios de carácter anticua-rista por parte de los « pioneros de la arqueología » que los especialistas han definido en términos precientificos. Pero en rigor, solo la arqueología clásica reconoce de forma explícita sus antece-dentes en el período ilustrado, período en el que la nueva dinastía Borbón bus-có su legitimación mediante la exalta-ción de la herencia grecorromana (Mora 1998). Un análisis de la recurrencia del término « arqueología medieval » en la colección de Google Books entre 1880 y 2008 muestra un gráfico intermitente con varios montes desde finales del si-glo XIX, aunque solamente desde los años ochenta del siglo pasado se produce un verdadero repunte. Y es que, a diferencia de lo que ocurrirá con la con-solidación de las arqueologías prehistó-ricas y clásicas, no hay una continuidad entre varias pulsiones y procesos que han dado lugar a la formación de la ar-queología medieval [ fig. 1 ]. En toda Europa, el « mito de las na-ciones » como ha sido denominado por P. Geary, se ha construido a partir de de-terminadas lecturas del pasado medieval , y en particular del periodo altome-dieval que sucede a la unidad del Imperio Romano (Geary 2002). De he-cho, las distintas formas en que se han imaginado y legitimado las nacionalida-des y las ideologías dominantes consti-tuyen una de las principales claves de lectura (aunque no la única) para en-tender lo que ha sido, y en cierto modo sigue siendo, la arqueología medieval en España. En un reciente trabajo Vi-cente Salvatierra ha caracterizado la primera eclosión de la arqueología medieval entre finales del siglo XIX y las pri-meras dos décadas del XX como un pro-ceso frustrado (Salvatierra Cuenca 2013). Y en buena medida creo que esta discontinuidad se debe atribuir a la es-casa relevancia que tuvo la representa-ción del « origen medieval », y en particular el pasado islámico, en la legitimación de los nacionalismos espa-ñoles. Es además interesante subrayar que también en Italia el inicio de la ar-queología medieval sufrió un brusco colapso hacia finales del siglo XIX debi-do a que la Alta Edad Media tampoco fue relevante en el proceso de configu-ración identitaria de la Italia unida más orientada hacia su pasado imperial ro-mano (La Rocca 1993). Donde quizás se hace más eviden-te estas contradicciones en nuestro país es en el inicio de la arqueología islámica. Desde la segunda mitad del siglo XIX se confrontan en tenso equilibrio dos ten-dencias de signo opuesto : por un lado, el anticuarismo que hizo posible el descu-brimiento de Madinat al-Zahra y los tra-bajos en Medina Elvira, así como el estu-dio de monumentos, inscripciones, monedas, etc. (Salvatierra Cuenca 2013, 2015). Por otro lado, desde un punto de visto más político, el pasado islámico ha sido considerado ajeno al pasado del na-cionalismo hispano, lo que determinó que fuese percibido como algo intruso al pasado nacional (Diaz Andreu 2002). Y a pesar de que fue precisamente la ar-queología islámica la primera que se ins-titucionalizó en España mediante la creación de una cátedra de Arqueología Arábiga (1913-1934) en la Universidad de Madrid, también fue la que más tiempo tardó en volver al mapa universitario. De hecho esta cátedra, creada expresamen-te para Manuel Gómez-Moreno hijo (Val-dés Fernández 2014), desapareció con él. Y mientras que en el primer tercio del siglo XX las arqueologías prehistóricas y clásicas se consolidaban, la arqueología islámica se volatilizaba, quedando prin-cipalmente en manos de arquitectos (Gutiérrez Lloret 1997).

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J. A. Quirós Castillo dir., La materialidad de la Historia. La arqueología en los inicios del siglo XXI, Akal, Madrid, pp. 9-34, 2013

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In this paper are analysed early medieval rural societies in north-western Iberia in the light of... more In this paper are analysed early medieval rural societies in north-western Iberia in the light of domestic archaeological records. The archaeological projects carried out in the last two decades have discovered new kind of evidence, questioning precedent primitivism interpretations. However, the absence of monumental features and social display practices in domestic spaces difficult the social analysis of these records. The DESPAMED project (Social Inequality in the Landscapes of Northern Iberia) carried out between 2013-3016 have defi- ned some “archaeological signatures” of social complexity at the local scale.
The Aistra and Zornoztegi settlements are compared in this paper in order to make some general consideration about social inequality and social complexity in rural contexts.

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Documentos de Arqueologia Medieval 6, 2013

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This introduction provides an overview of the two main topics analysed in this book in the framew... more This introduction provides an overview of the two main topics analysed in this book in the framework of medieval peasant studies: social inequality and social complexity in peasant communities. The chapter is divided into three sections. Firstly, Iberian case studies are presented, followed by an explanation of the concepts and terminology used throughout the book. Secondly, the single chapters that follow are contextualised from the perspective of settlement patterns, food, craft production systems and social practices. Finally, some generalisations are made in order to connect single case studies with general trends.

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Advances in Early Medieval Archaeology in the past decades have been enormous and it is now capab... more Advances in Early Medieval Archaeology in the past decades have been enormous and it is now capable of constructing complex historic frameworks to explain the important processes that happened after the dismantling of the Roman Empire. However, scholars have paid little attention to social inequality as one of the main causes that explain those changes between the 4th and the 8th centuries. In this paper, and in coherence with the rest of the book, settlement patterns and social organization of sites will be analysed in order to understand social inequality in post-imperial times. For such a purpose, a space in the central part of the Duero Valley, in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, will be used as a case study to explore the possibilities and difficulties of analysing social inequality through settlement patterns. Previously, some theoretical and methodological remarks will be made on the concepts of “inequality” and the historiography of settlement pattern analysis in the Iberian Peninsula within a wider theoretical frame.

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Documentos de Arqueología Medieval 6, 2013

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The site of Torrentejo (derived from the term torrente, stream) is located in the riverside of th... more The site of Torrentejo (derived from the term torrente, stream) is located in the riverside of the Ebro river, in the southeastern part of the current province of Álava. Excavations at the site (2014-2017) have unearthed not only an impressive long duration rural settlement with a significant medieval phase related to powerful regional elites, but also a relevant ceramic assemblage from the Modern Era (17-18th c.) whose study reveals important information about processes of production, distribution and consumption in a well-connected rural area, whilst visibilizing the complex urban-rural connections of the moment.

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Introduction to the session held at the EAA meeting Barcelona 2018

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Zornoztegi is a rural settlement located in the Álava plateau (Basque Country, Spain), and it was... more Zornoztegi is a rural settlement located in the Álava plateau (Basque Country, Spain), and it was occupied between the Bronze Age and the Late Middle Ages. During a recent archaeological project, a small farm consisting of two dwellings dated to the 4th-5th centuries was found. The archaeological evidence suggests that this site was probably a small rural settlement dependent on a higher rural centre, perhaps a Roman villa.
In this paper, the results of the analysis of the animal remains recovered in this chronological phase are shown. The faunal assemblage consists of 4691 fragments, and is therefore one of the biggest analysed samples dated to the 4th-5th centuries in the Basque Country. The taxonomic composition, the kill-off patterns, the butchery patterns and the body part frequencies constitute good evidence for understanding the peasant economy during the Late Roman times. Finally, the faunal evidence will be discussed together with other types of archaeological record for analysing peasant activity in Late Roman Álava.

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In this paper, a particular type of unusual archaeological deposits found at some high medieval (... more In this paper, a particular type of unusual archaeological deposits found at some high medieval (12th-13th centuries AD) sites located in the Basque Country (northern Iberia) is examined. These structured deposits consist of inverted pottery vessels containing the remains of a chicken, placed in pits created on purpose for keeping them, and are generally found in archaeological contexts related to the foundation or construction of public buildings, including churches and city walls. The implications of the occurrence of extra-“official” rituals in Christian contexts are discussed suggesting that medieval religion was hybrid and dynamic, even after the Gregorian Reform (11th century AD). The co-existence of normative consecration forms made by ecclesiastical authorities (remembered through commemoration inscriptions or texts), and by ritual deposits associated to foundation practices, is analysed in this paper from a contextual and significant perspective. We suggest that the occurrence of such public ritual practices in the Basque Country during the High Middle Ages might be related to the formation and negotiation of new social and political communities.

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Medieval villages have played a major role in the constitution of both social identities in exist... more Medieval villages have played a major role in the constitution of both social identities in existing villages in northern Iberia and academic research of the period. As in many other parts of Europe, current villages in this region have a medieval origin as a consequence of the fundamental breakdown this period meant to the social landscapes. Events like the dismantling of the Roman Empire, the Islamic invasion or the conformation of medieval kingdoms shaped and determined the constitution of these villages in a long term history. However, most part of these accounts have been made from a biased documentary perspective in which regional or local narratives were not critically confronted. Since the last decade, archaeology is playing an increasing role to tackle the issue of the origins of medieval villages in northern Iberia. In this paper, we will present preliminary results of an ongoing research project whose main aim is to interpret from a social and dialectical standpoint the configuration of medieval landscapes in a specific region of northern Iberia called 'Rioja Alavesa'. Long term excavations both in an existing village, Labastida, and in a deserted village, Torrentejo, were approached from a social landscape archaeology which integrated isolated archaeological elements into a holistic paradigm including not only the domestic or funerary spaces but also the agricultural spaces through the study of terraces. The long term approach of this project enables us both to understand the implication of past societies in landscape construction and to understand the social complexity of medieval local communities, highlighting its great potential for other case studies throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

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During the last 15 years a deep renovation on the study of medieval landscapes has taken place in... more During the last 15 years a deep renovation on the study of medieval landscapes has taken place in the north of the Iberian Peninsula as a consequence of the boost of preventive archaeology, the execution of large projects and the development of integrated geo- and bioarchaeological researches. In this context it has been possible to build up a holistic approach to landscapes that has meant the overcoming of the traditional limits of individual sites and the incorporation of the analysis of the productive spaces and the systemic relations between different kinds of available records.

The aim of this communication is to briefly present the theoretical and conceptual bases the GIPYPAC has been working on in different areas of the north-western Iberian Peninsula, integrating both applied research on preventive contexts and investigations focused on the transversal analysis of palaeoenvironmental records. For doing so, two case studies from Madrid and Basque Country will be analysed and a synthetic comparative discussion between these two examples will be done, assessing the implications in historical and heritage terms. Emphasis will be specifically put on peasantry as a key agent in the modelling of historical landscapes.

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by Edith Peytremann, Claudia Theune, Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo, Mark Gardiner, Tibor Ákos Rácz, John Hines, Miklós Takács, Ingvild Øye, Paolo de Vingo, Heiko Steuer, Rainer Schreg, and Terence Barry

As President of the RURALIA assossiation I like to present the Program, Abstract Book and Excursi... more As President of the RURALIA assossiation I like to present the Program, Abstract Book and Excursion Guide. For further information and the published conference papers see: ruralia.cz

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Documento divulgativo en el que se presenta el proyecto arqueológico de Pancorbo

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These are the texts of the Exhibition held in Labastida (Álava, Spain) during May and June 2015 e... more These are the texts of the Exhibition held in Labastida (Álava, Spain) during May and June 2015 entitled "Archaeology and Cultural Landscape of Labastida".

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published in Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe. Integrating Archaeological and H... more published in Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe. Integrating Archaeological and Historical Approaches, J.C. Sánchez and M.G. Shapland (eds.), Turnhout 2015, pp. 35-68.

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Paper presented to the MERC forum: Medieval Europe 25 years bridging Europe’s Medieval Archaeolog... more Paper presented to the MERC forum: Medieval Europe 25 years bridging Europe’s Medieval Archaeologies, Maastricht 1st September 2017, EAA 2017

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This project aims to situate the present-day rural communities of Southern Europe as inheritors o... more This project aims to situate the present-day rural communities of Southern Europe as inheritors of a centuries-long experience of collective organization that persists through ongoing cooperation / conflict with external actors of all kinds. Understanding those dynamics is indispensable for a sensible handling of the present situation, in which European Union and national policies face the major challenge of legislating on rural areas that have slid into progressive deterioration.

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Le (tardive) développement de l'archéologie préventive en Espagne pendant les derniers 25 ans ont... more Le (tardive) développement de l'archéologie préventive en Espagne pendant les derniers 25 ans ont rendu possible l'excavation en grandes extensions de dizaines de contextes rurales tout au long du centre et du nord-est péninsulaire. Ces excavations ont proportionné une significative quantité des données sur les sociétés paysannes du Haut Moyen Âge et de leur culture matérielle. Néanmoins, il a été récemment quand toute cette "littérature grise" a été progressivement analysé, en permettant de approfondir ces sociétés. Une des domaines le plus bénéficiés par ce processus est l'analyse de l'architecture et des unités domestiques. Cependant, les analyses de ce registre ont été aussi très inégales. Bien que les structures domestiques en matériaux périssables aient reçu une attention remarquable, il n'en est pas le même pour les structures en surface à base de pierre. Ces structures constituent les bâtiments centrales des unités domestiques en contextes paysannes du Haut Moyen Âge, alors que leurs typologies, formes constructives et développement régionaux n'ont pas été analysés minutieusement. En cette communication on présentera une analyse typologique et régionaux de l'évidence disponible. Après, les données seront interprétés en relation avec le développement historique et archéologique des sociétés ruraux du Haut Moyen Âge.

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Paesaggi, comunità, villaggi medievali. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studio. Bologna 14-16 gennaio 2010, a cura di P. Galetti, Spoleto 2012, pp. 257-279

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Biens publics, biens du roi. Les bases économiques des pouvoirs royaux dans le Haut Moyen Âge, F. Bougard e V. Loré, Turnhout, 2019, pp. 385-409.

Lo studio delle basi economiche del potere dei regni e dei comitati della Spagna cristiana non ha... more Lo studio delle basi economiche del potere dei regni e dei comitati della Spagna cristiana non ha destato, nella storiografia spagnola, dibattiti simili a quelli osservabili in altre zone dell’Europa occidentale. La fragmentazione politica e la dinamicità sociale che caratterizzano l’emergenza di nuovi poteri nati a partire dell’VIII secolo a nord di Al-Andalus, ha favorito aprossimazioni tendenti a sottolineare forti discontinuità con il passato tardoromano e visigoto, e a sfumare, persino, ogni caratterizzazione, in senso pubblico, delle basi economiche e del carisma politico dei nuovi detentori dell’autorità, dai re di Pamplona all’universo di comitati con cui si articolò, lentamente, il paesaggio politico dei territori posti tra la stessa Pamplona e la città di León.
Eppure grazie ai dati archeologici ottenuti nell’ultimo quindicennio e a una nuova aprossimazione critica alle fonti d’archivio è possibile ora proporre nuovi indagini e nuovi percorsi interpretativi riguardanti le basi di tali poteri, tentando di offrire, anche, una caratterizzazione sulla natura (pubblica o privata) dei beni e delle risorse poste alla base dell’egemonia politica di re e dei conti. Uno studio, dunque, che compara realtà politiche diverse – il regno di Pamplona e i comitati di Álava e Castiglia tra i secoli IX e XI – con l'intenzione di offrire una più solida caratterizzazione delle basi economiche (terre, chiese private e mano d’opera coatta) su cui poggiava l’esercizio del potere in un tempo di forte competizione sociale e politica in uno spazio situato nelle periferie di due tra le più ricche formazioni politiche dell’Occidente medievale: il califato di Cordova e l’imperio Carolingio.

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L'incastellamento: storia e archeologia. A 40 anni da "Les Structures" di Pierre Toubert, a cura di A. Augenti e P. Galetti, CISAM, Spoleto, pp. 211-232

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This new issue contains the following articles: Editorial Looking back, moving forward: a word f... more This new issue contains the following articles:

Editorial
Looking back, moving forward: a word from the incoming Editor-in-Chief
Therese Martin
Pages: 1-2 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2020.1711562

Original Articles
An archaeology of “small worlds”: social inequality in early medieval Iberian rural communities
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo
Pages: 3-27 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2019.1678191

“Plange, Castella misera”: meaning and mourning at the royal abbey of Las Huelgas de Burgos in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries
Emily Henry
Pages: 28-43 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2019.1657235

“La Carne es la Tierra”: microcosmic Adam, cartographic Christ in the Libro de Alexandre
Fernando Riva
Pages: 44-69 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2020.1719283

Pilgrims from the land of sagas: Jacobean devotion in medieval Iceland
Santiago Barreiro
Pages: 70-83 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2019.1705373

The Portuguese eremitical Congregation of the Serra de Ossa: spatial analysis of the monastic settlements
Rolando Volzone & João Luís Fontes
Pages: 84-105 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2019.1652838

Dead horse, man-at-arms lost: cavalry and battle tactics in 15th century Castile
Ekaitz Etxeberria Gallastegi
Pages: 106-123 | DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2019.1629611

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QUIRÓS, J.A., AZKARATE, A., BOHIGAS, R., GARCÍA CAMINO, I., PALOMINO, A.L. TEJADO, J.M. (2009), Arqueología de la Alta Edad Media en el Cantábrico Oriental, LLANOS, A. (coord..) Medio siglo de arqueología en el Cantábrico Oriental y su Entorno, ISBN 978-84-7821-739-7, págs. 449-500

Medio siglo de arqueología en el Cantábrico Oriental, 2009

This text provides a summary on Archaeology in the Early Middle Ages in North-Eastern Spain (Cant... more This text provides a summary on Archaeology in the Early Middle Ages in North-Eastern Spain (Cantabria, Biscay, Guipuzcoa, Navarre, North of Burgos, Alava and La Rioja). The text is divided into two main parts. The ﬁ rst presents an overall assessment and a summary of the most recent results concerning archaeological actions undertaken in recent decades. Then, there are three thematic chapters dedicated to several territories where in-depth studies have been performed

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Castel di Mura - campagna di scavo 2021, 2021

Bando di partecipazione I paesaggi della Montagna pistoiese La fortezza di Castel di Mura: ca... more Bando di partecipazione
I paesaggi della Montagna pistoiese
La fortezza di Castel di Mura: campagna di scavo 2021
Le indagini archeologiche, in corso dal 2017 nel sito di Castel di Mura o Castrum de Muris, sulla cima del Monte Castello (827 m s.l.m) (San Marcello-Piteglio, Pistoia), hanno individuato i resti della fortezza, edificata nel XIV secolo dal Comune di Pistoia, su un precedente castello signorile. Con la campagna 2021, proseguirà lo scavo dell'area sommitale con l'obiettivo di chiarire le fasi di prima occupazione e di abbandono.

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