The vast transformation of the Roman world at the end of antiquity has been a subject of broad scholarly interest for decades, but until now no book has focused specifically on the Iberian Peninsula in the period as seen through an archaeological lens. Given the sparse documentary evidence available, archaeology holds the key to a richer understanding of the developments of the period, and this book addresses a number of issues that arise from analysis of the available material culture, including questions of the process of Christianisation and Islamisation, continuity and abandonment of Roman urban patterns and forms, the end of villas and the growth of villages, and the adaptation of the population and the elites to the changing political circumstances.
Author(s): Javier Martínez Jiménez, Isaac Sastre de Diego, Carlos Tejerizo García
Series: Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia, 6
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 396
Acknowledgements 17
Preliminary notes 19
Preface 21
Introduction: An archaeological perspective on the Iberian peninsula between Rome and the Middle Ages 23
Part 1. The Late Roman period
1. The settings of late Roman Hispania 47
Roman Spain on the eve of late Antiquity 47
Roman internal transformations 51
External factors 58
The beginning of regionalization 60
Changing tides in the economy of the late Empire 63
2. New townscapes in the late Empire 67
What constituted a late Roman city? 67
Fortifications 69
The old Roman public buildings 76
The fate of urban infrastructure 82
New late Roman monuments? 87
Suburbanization and de-urbanization 91
New domestic architecture 95
3. The economy and the rural world in the late Empire 101
Blurring lines between the 'urbs' and the 'rus' 102
The late Roman villa: redefinition, expansion and collapse 107
Industrial exploitations of the landscape 114
The rural societies: Towards a new settlement pattern 120
4. Christianization and Germanization: New evidence for current debates 125
Understanding Christianity through archaeology 125
Locals and barbarians 138
Part 2. The post-Roman period
5. Towns and cities under Christian prevalence 153
The late Roman urban legacy in the post-Roman world 153
The consolidation of a Christian monumentality 161
Visigothic state formation and urban renewal 168
State intervention in the Byzantine and Suevic territories 180
Developments in the seventh and eighth centuries 186
Trade and towns in the post-Roman period 188
6. The new rural landscape 193
Hillfort occupations 193
Farmstead and village networks and other lay rural settlements 202
Funerary rituals in the rural world 209
Churches, monasteries and ecclesiastical sites 218
Other rural sites 224
7. A new material culture: a new society, a new economy 229
Snapshots of the new daily life: pottery and glass 229
The solid foundations of society and state: building and architecture 236
Representing the self and the community: identity and display 247
Beyond pots: coins and slates in their economic context 255
Part 3. The Early Middle Ages
8. The formation of a new Medieval materiality 267
The formation of new medieval polities 268
Early material traces of the newcomers 269
Archaeologies of power 276
Archaeologies of religion and identity in al-Andalus 291
Changing townscapes 299
Transitions in the rural world 303
9. Conclusions 315
From the collapse of the Roman Empire to a Brave New World
Appendix 1. Site reference table 323
Appendix 2. Maps 329
Appendix 3. Lists of rulers 335
Abbreviations 339
Bibliography 341
Index 389
