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

Article history: Available online xxx a b s t r a c t 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 xxx (2014) 1e15 Please cite this article in press as: Fernández Mier, M., et al., The investigation of currently inhabited villages of medieval origin: Agrarian archaeology in Asturias (Spain), Quaternary International (2014), http://dx.Please cite this article in press as: Fernández Mier, M., et al., The investigation of currently inhabited villages of medieval origin: Agrarian archaeology in Asturias (Spain), Quaternary International (2014), http://dx.

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.

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.

Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity , 2019

Settlement dynamics in the rural Bolognese area between the late middle ages and the modern era�����������38 Mauro Librenti 'Emptyscapes' and medieval landscapes: is a new wave of research changing content and understanding of the rural archaeological record? �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������64

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.

Interpreting transformations of people and landscapes in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: archaeological approaches and issues. , 2018

2015

The EST-AP team (Institute of History, CSIC) has already a long trajectory on the study of ancient agrarian landscapes. Within our projects, we have developed several approaches to the analysis and the understanding of the processes of agrarian exploitation in the western provinces of the Roman Empire: on the one hand, Landscape Archaeology and the integration of Geoarchaeology to the study of landscape has offered us with new ways to the analysis agrarian spaces; on the other, these analysis have been integrated in theoretical discussions and the review of the traditional ideas on Roman rural organization. Our contribution aims to present a synthesis of the methodology and most recent results obtained in the excavation of a system of terraces in the Sierra de Francia region, in the framework of the trajectory of our work on agricultural structures. We will also summarize the future lines of research open in the light of data retrieved, with particular relevance to the interpretatio...

This paper presents a long-term synthetic overview of the socio-ecological dynamics responsible for the shaping of present-day rural landscapes in the Spanish Central System. Available historical and palaeoenvironmental records have been compiled and cross-referenced to characterise key transformations unfolding in this mountainous macroregion during the medieval time span. A sharp deforestation of upland pines and midland oaks was due to extensive Late Antique strategies. Pre-tenth-century trajectories are diverse and exhibit the recovery of high-mountain pine forests and highly localised agropastoral impact on selective mid-altitude niches. The eleventh-century early repopulation policy implied migrations, increased momentum of rural village foundation and extension of colonised agrarian landscapes in the tablelands of the Extremadurii. The pace and intensity of these phenomena depended on ecological and historical circumstances, leading to subsequently different realities. By the mid-thirteenth century the definitive pacification and the rising demographic trend facilitated the later permanent occupation and the ensuing integral and sustainable exploitation of the highlandsand especially the Transierrawithin the feudal system. High-altitude landscapes exhibit intensive forest clearances due to transterminant livestock movements and the benefit of seasonal resources, whereas low-altitude settings specialised in arboriculture and diversified crops to supply urban markets.