Social and Religious Differences in the Rural Village of Gózquez (San Martín de la Vega, Madrid, Spain) (original) (raw)
Related papers
New Directions in the Study of Visigothic Spain
History Compass, 2016
Since the fall of the Visigothic kingdom in 711, analysis of its history has been tied to contemporary Spanish politics. Political and economic developments in Spain since the 1970s have driven research into the late antique and early medieval period. Most notably, archaeological evidence has come to play a much more prominent role in analyses of the Visigothic period in Spain. This article synthesises archaeological and historical research from the past 20 years. It draws on recent developments in urban and rural archaeology in order to examine key avenues of research on the period: the negotiated nature of power, post-Roman identity politics, and law and literacy. In recent decades, there has been a burgeoning interest in the study of late antique and early medieval Spanish history. A number of factors have contributed to this development: the collapse of the Franco regime and its teleological and single-purpose historiographical discourse, a higher degree of collaboration between Spanish and non-Spanish scholars, which has broken the 'language barrier' that in the past hindered interactions between Spanish academia and other scholarly traditions 1 and the large amount of material obtained from the boom in commercial archaeology in the 1990s and early 2000s. The main objective of this article is to sketch brief ly some of the current themes in Visigothic studies, from historical and archaeological perspectives, citing many of the main scholars, publications and research projects of the past 20 years (since 1995). Although traditional scholarship has traced the origins of Spain to the Visigothic period, current approaches to the topic generally seek to move away from this monolithic view. Key trends in this movement away from this singular vision of the Visigothic period are the creation and interaction of central and local powers (and the methodologies by which these can be identified), the nature of power relationships and identity (or, more accurately, identities). The breakdown of the Roman system is the key starting point for understanding a Visigothic period (mid-fifth to early eighth century) characterised by the emergence of a series of new power structures and relationships. Historical studies of the Visigothic period in Spain have traditionally been framed in terms of binaries of power. The dominant paradigms were of underlying tension often exploding into open conf lict between royalty and aristocracy, between church and state, between Goths and Romans and between Nicene ('Catholic', 'orthodox') Christians and all kinds of 'deviant' groups (Jews, 'Arians'). These oppositions used to dominate conceptualisations of the Spanish political, social and religious landscape after the end of the Western Roman Empire and, more recently, scholarship has begun to reveal, are the result of scholars' uncritical acceptance of royal and ecclesiastical sources written from a 'centre-ist' perspective. 2 Churchmen such as Isidore of Seville, the seventh century bishops of Toledo and the Visigothic royal laws present power and decision-making as highly centralised, both historically and in contemporary politics and society. 3 This centre-ist narrative has affected traditional approaches to the material culture of the Visigothic period deeply. Art-historical approaches dominated studies of the material culture of the
An overview of the economic profile of the visigothic (6the8th AD) village of Gózquez, as exemplified by its faunal and botanical record, is presented. The site, located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, has been one of the first Early Medieval rural sites in Spain to be extensively excavated in the context of preventive/rescue archaeology. Archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data reveal a degree of integration between farming and stockbreeding that calls into question the traditionally wielded paradigm of medieval historiography, in particular the stereotype of precarious settlements (in residential terms) subjected to the limitations imposed by an economy of strict subsistence.
A Treinta años de Arqueología Medieval en España
British medieval archaeology is becoming increasingly integrated as new methodologies, research programmes and data sets encourage researchers to cross the boundaries between the study of settlements, burials, and landscapes. This paper reviews, through a series of case studies, new approaches to 'social landscapes' and in particular assembly sites, including fairs, legal assemblies, cemeteries and places of execution. These studies illustrate how a greater willingness to 'trespass' into other disciplines such as place‐name studies and legal history is yielding new insights into the archaeological record. The paper concludes that it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the study of early medieval burial, settlement and landscape into distinct sub‐disciplines, especially for the period between c 600‐1000, a time when conceptions of 'community' were rapidly changing.
This paper presents the results of a series of studies conducted in two villages located in the region of Asturias, north of the Iberian Peninsula. These studies explore medieval settlements as well as agricultural and cattle farming activities in these villages, with a special focus on areas still inhabited today as well as surrounding productive spaces. An interdisciplinary methodology was used, which involves pollen and sedimentological analyses, physical and chemical soil analyses, and includes micromorphological studies and radiocarbon dating. These data are combined with the interpretation of stratigraphic information derived from archaeological excavations. The areas of study in the village of Vigaña comprise the necropolis and a nearby meadow, which provided a stratigraphic sequence from the Neolithic era to the present day, and are characterized by the continued significance of farming activities. In Villanueva, meanwhile, both village areas and productive spaces were excavated, which provided information from the Roman period, and revealed the existence of combined agricultural and farming activities since the early medieval era.
After a decade of intense debate on the chronology of the so-called Visigothic churches in Spain the divergent opinions have made little progress owing to the lack of reliable chronologies and the limits of a very stylistic approach. This article aims to present an analysis of the social and economic conditions of the seventh century (particularly the second half) as a background to understanding and defending the existence of church building in late Visigothic Spain. Their physical type (monumental but not enormous), the quality of their construction techniques and decoration, their function (absence of baptisteries and, often, presence of privileged burials) suggest aristocratic patronage of these buildings, an identification widely supported by textual and epigraphical evidence.
A place for the ancestors Early medieval burial sites in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula
The study of belief, faith and religious practices can provide a deep insight into historical societies, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. They form a constant of human behaviour. Through religion, cult and rituals, multi-layered and complex cultural norms are expressed, demonstrating group affiliation. However, popular devotion and belief in a rural environment can include practices that are out with those of the official religion. Some of these practices discussed in this book can be investigated through archaeology. Important religious sites like churches, monasteries, mosques and synagogues as well as caves, holy wells and hermitages are discussed. Furthermore burials of children, revenants and the condemned are analysed, as they often deviate from normal practice and shed light on particular communities and their beliefs. Rituals concerning the protection of buildings and persons which focus on objects attributed with religious qualities are another area explored. Through archaeological research it is possible to gain an understanding of popular religion of medieval and early modern times and also to draw conclusions about religious ideas that are not written in documents. By bringing together these topics this book is of particular interest to scholars working in the field of archaeology, history and cultural anthropology. The addressed subjects were the theme of an international conference of the RURALIA association held in Clervaux, Luxemburg, in September 2015. Ruralia promotes the archaeology of medieval settlement and rural life. Current research questions in rural archaeology are discussed in an European wide context. The aim is to strengthen the exchange of knowledge in, and the development of, archaeologically comparable studies, and to make archaeological results available to other disciplines. Religion, Kulte und Rituale in der mittelalterlichen bäuerlichen Umgebung Réligion, cultes et rituels au milieu rural médiéval