Landscapes of (re)conquest: dynamics of multicultural frontiers in medieval South-west Europe (original) (raw)
Related papers
2018
El proyecto «Landscapes of (Re) Conquest: Dynamics of Multicultural Frontiers in Medieval South Western Europe» propone el estudio de las relaciones entre los cambios culturales y los cambios medioambientales en las sociedades fronterizas del suroeste de Europa durante el periodo formativo de la Edad Media, en el momento en el que estos territorios fueron conformados y definidos por sucesivas oleadas de guerras, cambios de regimen politico, oposiciones identitarias y procesos de colonizacion. El Proyecto esta organizado en torno a las capacidades tecnicas y de analisis historico, arqueologico y paleoambiental de un nutrido grupo de investigadores que trabajan en torno a tres instituciones academicas: la University of Reading y la University of York, ambas en Reino Unido, y la Universidad de Granada, en Espana.
In the last two decades, the archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula for both Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages has grown in scale, depth and understanding. Currently, these periods of important historical transition occupy an increasingly prominent position in archaeological research, as reflected in publications, projects, and conferences, these exploring themes such as landscape change, the reorganization of rural settlement and the evolution (or not) of towns and the socio-economic characters of these centres and their territories. To fully evaluate these changing settlement patterns and social dynamics in the face of changing polities between the 5th and 8th centuries AD – from late Roman to Visigothic to Arab control – it is of course essential to create a broader panorama of these (at times) confused and chaotic times. As this paper seeks to show, however, change is happening, owing much to the current invigoration of Spanish early medieval archaeology; indeed, a very striking feature of very recent archaeological and historical debate for the period is the greater inclusion of Spain within wider European debates. The images generated for Spain – as discussed in this paper – reveal coincidences with other territories, but also much diversity.
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.
Guarding the frontier: Castilian settlers on the border with Granada in the fifteenth century
Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 2018
The border between the Crown of Castile and the Sultanate of Granada lasted for two hundred years, from 1246 until the conquest of the latter in 1492. Due to the scarcity of available written records, very little is known about the Castilian frontier towns and their inhabitants, who guarded the border. It has often been assumed that these guards were professional soldiers exclusively devoted to the defence of Castile. However, the study of unpublished documents from the early sixteenth century indicates that many of them were, in fact, settlers who combined their military duties with other civilian occupations, especially agriculture. This paper analyses the composition of the population of Olvera and Archidona, two Castilian towns on the border with Granada, during the second half of the fifteenth century, and shows the fluid nature of these late medieval settlers, who performed regular military service and spearheaded the colonisation of newly conquered territories while retaining their primary role as farmers. Follow the link for a full copy of the paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IwyEk5Q4bmRI6SnFQJCh/full