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.

Quaternary International

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.

Elsevier, 2014

ABSTRACT: 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.

2016

One of the main challenges facing archaeology is how to shed light on the settlement patterns and landscape formation of medieval times in areas that have remained more or less unaltered and been continuously occupied until the present day. As the British studies have shown, we cannot write the history of the medieval times by drawing exclusively from the study of deserted villages. We also need to take into account and carry out research in currently inhabited villages of medieval origin. Similarly, we must defi ne research strategies for understanding the landscape of every specifi c village. Our chapter will present the results of our investigation on Vigaña, a site located in Asturias, Spain. Here, we have articulated a comprehensive research strategy based on agricultural archaeology that allowed us to deepen our understanding of settlement patterns and landscape formation during medieval times.

This paper analyses the results of the recent practice of peasant archaeology in Spain in relation to interventions carried out in Europe. The circumstances as well as some of the most significant results obtained from the archaeological study of villages in several sectors of the continent are studied. This is followed by the study of peasant archaeology in the north of Spain from a variety of viewpoints. To this end, we shall avail of a historiographic analysis to reveal the bases on which village archaeology has been built; a sociological analysis to help us understand the development of this archaeological practice within the framework of heritage management; and an historical analysis allowing us to understand the social transformations of landscape. Last of all, some of the main problems currently under study by specialists in this subject are discussed.1

The early Neolithic sites of La Lµmpara and La Revilla del Campo in the Meseta Norte (Northern Meseta) plateau in central Spain produced evidence for early agriculture from the last third of the 6th millennium B.C. The hulled wheats Triticum monococcum (einkorn) and T. dicoccum (emmer) were identified from carbonised plant remains as well as from imprints in pottery and daub. Single finds of charred remains of Hordeum vulgare (barley), Papaver somniferum/setigerum (poppy) and Linum usitatissimum (linseed) indicated other cultivated crops. The wild plants mainly indicated arable weeds, partly from less fertile soils, and garrigue vegetation from poor pastures. The spectrum of crops from the Ambrona sites was compared to other inner Iberian sites as well as to Mediterranean sites. Sediment samples as well as mineral crusts from graves were analysed from the Neolithic tumulus of La Peaea de la Abuela. Its diachronic collective burials had originated from a period of time during the first third of the 4th millennium B.C. Probably no crops, but many green vegetative parts of pine, oak, and juniper had been used as funeral gifts. Oak cupula development indicated early summer activities in the grave-mound. Wickerwork made of willow was used for embedding the dead bodies.

Imago Temporis 14, 2020

The archaeology of the medieval peasantry in Spain and Europe has attracted renewed attention in recent decades. This article is an overview of the research carried out in the last 30 years into the peasantry and their cultivated areas in the early-medieval societies in the north of the Iberian Peninsula and al-Andalus. Special attention is paid to the interpretations archaeologists make of the archaeological record. Approaches from two distinct perspectives are analysed, these being the excavation of settlements, and the archaeology of agrarian spaces. Both approaches do not usually come together in the research. It is increasingly clear that the 8 th century was a turning point in the forms of peasant settlement and the creation of new cultivated areas. The consolidation of the migration in al-Andalus or the new forms of peasant settlement that arose from the end of the 7 th century in the north of the Peninsula were essential for the later urban development. This development is closely linked to the changes in the production of artefacts and tools, as well as how these were distributed (in markets increasingly controlled from the city) and the patterns of consumption by the population, both rural and urban. Ethnic origins and religion have little to do with this process. keywoRds Peasant archeology, Medieval Archaeology, Agrarian Archaeology, Al-Andalus. cAPITAlIA veRbA Archaeologia agricola, Archaeologia mediaevalis, Archaeologia agraria, Iberia Arabica. Imago TemporIs. medIum aevum, XIV (2020):

2011

this article is a reflexion on the achievements of field system archaeology in medieval spanish archaeology. it goes throught the recent orientations in agrarian history and the limited involvement of archaeologists in this subject matter until recently. only the so-called 'hydraulic archaeology', developed for the study of the irrigated areas of al-Andalus, which has some application in feudal hydraulic systems, and the research undertaken in the mountain fieldsystems of Asturias stand out as archaeological approaches before the end of the 20th century. more recently, several archaeologists have begun to develop new methodologies for the study of medieval farmlands, most notably among which are the application of archaeological excavation techniques, radiocarbon dating, and microgeomorphological analysis of the actual forming areas. in this way hydraulic archaeology is applied to the study of the impact of the feudal conquest upon the agrarian landscape of al-Andalus. finally, this article reflects on the necessity of satisfactorily combining the resources provided by archaeology and textual records in research 1 .

The medieval archaeological site of Zaballa is a rural village located in the province of Álava (Basque Country, Northern Spain). The site has been excavated in a rescue archaeology project, covering an area of about 4,5 Ha, where human occupation ranging from 6th to the 17th century has been documented. The archaeological analysis has shown the diachronic transformation of the village, the importance of the spaces of production (cultivation spaces, storage areas, craft areas) and the Saint Tirso monastery with the adjacent cemetery. In this paper, using a multidisciplinary approach, we present the results of the study aimed at the social analysis of the archaeological record of the site in Zaballa, in view of improving the present knowledge about the organization of the peasant community, about the presence of political and economic power in the village and, finally, about the influences on the morphology and the economic structure of the village itself. Analysis of different archaeometrical parameters, such as stable and radioactive isotopes or bio-archaeological records, and studies based on the systematic use of the material sources (archaeological materials, human remains, archaeological contexts, written evidences) are discussed.

Munibe Antropologia-Arkeologia

In this paper, anthracological and palynological records of the Medieval deserted village of Zaballa in Alava (Basque Country, Northern Spain) are used to examine the transformation of rural landscapes. At this site, a large-scale archaeological project was carried out and a long period of occupation (6 th-16 th century) discovered. A good range of bioarchaeological and geoarchaeological evidence was also found. Archaeobotanical remains provided comprehensive proxies, which can be used to better understand the local economy, landscape dynamics, agrarian terraces and field systems. These data permit an examination of the role of the local community and the external agents that shaped agrarian and domestic spaces as well as the impact of aristocratic powers on rural settlements. The cross use of pollen and charcoal data allow us to relate the progressive reduction of the arboreal component during the Middle Ages with the increasing of the agrarian production, the periodical reorganization of the cultivated spaces, and the introduction of new production strategies.