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This article examines the role played by the control of common lands (commons) in the configuration of power in the northern Iberian Peninsula during the early Middle Ages. Although there were mark...

The article focuses on analysing Duenas, a territory located in the central Duero valley, between the tenth and twelfth centuries. A relatively extensive, although not trouble-free, documentary record allows a reconstruction of the evolution of this area in certain aspects: the presence of a castle that could be a landmark of royal power since the tenth century, and the territory’s geographic and social dimension, with special emphasis on communal spaces. The idea of a previous territory is suggested where royal control took over and created a series of political dynamics that led to the royal lordship or realengo. However, the central role of communal usage in the definition of territory and the idea of the realengo’s origin in this region are reconsidered.

espanolLos estudios sobre el sur del Duero medieval han subrayado la importancia de los espacios comunales bajo control concejil. Se considera que su origen procede de la abundancia de baldios en un territorio escasamente poblado y del interes ganadero de las elites de las villas. Sin embargo, la revision de los datos existentes, tanto escritos como palinologicos, revela que se trataba de paisajes que ya estaban en uso antes del siglo XII, cuando se produjo la integracion politica en los reinos cristianos. La construccion del poder concejil se llevo a cabo mediante la afirmacion de su funcion como garante de estas areas. Se mantuvo asi un modelo de usos que combinaba la propiedad concejil y el aprovechamiento por parte de los habitantes de las aldeas vecinas en el marco de unos territorios supralocales que mostraron una acusada resiliencia. Por tanto, la relevancia de los espacios comunales no provenia de una iniciativa sobre areas baldias sino de la adecuacion a una realidad preexistente, aunque a partir del siglo XII se produjeron cambios provocados por la redefinicion y “politizacion” de tales areas de uso mancomunal. EnglishStudies of the southern Duero Valley have highlighted the importance of the common spaces controlled by urban councils (concejos). According to those studies, their origin lay in the abundance of wastelands in a scarcely populated region and in the town elites’ interest in livestock. However a review of written and palynological data reveals that these landscapes were in use before the 12th century, when the region was integrated into the Christian kingdoms. The shaping of council power was achieved via affirmation of their function as guarantor of these areas. As a consequence, a pattern of uses was maintained that combined council ownership and the exploitation by the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages within the framework of particularly resilient supralocal territories. The relevance of the common spaces resulted not from the presence of wastelands, but from adaptation to a pre-existing reality, although from the 12th century onwards some changes occurred in relation to to the redefinition and “politicization” of these areas of common use

Cet article propose une analyse comparée de l’évolution des communs dans deux grandes régions de l’Europe méridionale médiévale : l’Italie du centre-nord et le plateau du Duero dans la Péninsule ibérique. Au cours des dernières années, les recherches menées à partir des études économiques d’Elinor Ostrom sur différentes régions d’Europe du Nord ont insisté sur la centralité des communs dans l’agrosystème et l’organisation des communautés depuis le haut Moyen Âge. Face à une Europe du Nord résiliente, où la présence de biens communs stables a permis de résorber les inégalités sociales, les communs en Europe du Sud auraient été moins solides, entraînant une moindre cohésion des communautés. L’étude comparative de longue durée des deux régions met en évidence l’existence de biens communs dès le début du Moyen Âge, puis leurs évolutions successives au Moyen Âge central et au bas Moyen Âge, en même temps que les pratiques documentaires qui les ont enregistrés. Cette résilience a pris des formes différentes dans chacune des régions, en raison de facteurs contingents tout aussi divers. Partie prenante d’une « économie morale », les biens communaux ont donc pu s’adapter à des conditions changeantes et à la présence de nouveaux acteurs sociaux. Finalement, ces formes d’utilisation collective, en dialogue constant avec les notions de propriété et d’appropriation, étaient liées à la création et à la pérennité d’identités (rurales, urbaines) opérant à différentes échelles.

Este artículo está sujeto a una licencia CC BY 4.0, Este trabajo pretende analizar la construcción de los paisajes medievales en el Sur del Duero. La imagen que se ha elaborado desde los estudios centrados en el registro escrito enfatizan un incremento de la actividad agraria a partir del siglo XII, como consecuencia de la repoblación. Sin embargo, el análisis del caso de Monleras, una población situada en la comarca de la Ramajería (Salamanca) revela una situación más compleja. Mediante el estudio combinado del registro escrito, de los datos arqueológicos y de dos análisis paleopalinológicos sobre sendos bonales, se ha podido reconstruir una evolución distinta. Estos espacios evidencian una ocupación antrópica desde finales del siglo IX y en el siglo X, cuando se había producido aparentemente un cambio en los patrones de asentamiento que habían definido a los siglos posromanos. Por otro lado, se produjo una transformación con una intensificación de la cerealicultura desde comienzos del siglo XII, aprovechando las favorables condiciones medioambientales que habían generado los humedales. En la Baja Edad Media y a comienzos del periodo moderno, los humedales se fueron progresivamente secando, dando lugar a un paisaje de dehesa, que ha caracterizado tradicionalmente a esta comarca. Estos cambios fueron efectuados por la población local, sin que hubiera una injerencia externa (señorial o del poder urbano) y posiblemente como parte de una acción colectiva. Se puede concluir el importante papel de la resiliencia de los habitantes ante los cambios sociales y medioambientales. Aunque estos datos se refieren a un caso de estudio específico, implican la necesidad de profundizar en la agencia local y en el dinamismo en los procesos de construcción de los paisajes medievales.

Se presenta el hallazgo de fragmentos de pizarras numerales procedentes del sitio de El Castillón (Santa Eulalia de Tábara, Zamora). El lugar es un asentamiento rural fortificado con una ocupación de los siglos V-VI, sobre el que se construyó una iglesia en los siglos IX-X. Las pizarras proceden de la intervención en la iglesia, aunque posiblemente deban relacionarse con la ocupación posromana. En el artículo, se estudian esas pizarras numerales y se analizan como materiales de desecho de una posible oficina contable, señalando además cómo las estrategias de gestión de los residuos y el impacto de ocupaciones posteriores han podido ser determinantes en los procesos de conservación de este material. Se considera además que estaríamos ante los restos de un sistema matemático de uso extendido. ____________________________________________ ABSTRACT This paper is focused on the site of El Castillón (Santa Eulalia de Tábara, Zamora) and the numerical slates found there. It was a fortified rural settlement with a strong occupation during 5th and 6th centuries, including domestic units, metallurgical kilns, a lot of pottery sherds, some of them of high-level productions, and faunal remains. After an hiatus, the site was re-occupied in the 9th-10th centuries, when a monumentalized church linked to some burials was constructed. During the excavation of that church, two small fragments of numerical slates were found as removed or reused materials. Those slates have the same features than others from different sites. But there is a clear difference with other fortified rural settlements where great concentrations of slates have been found, probably as a result of accounting needs related to the control of tolls. Those slates were not archive documents if not a preliminary note discarded once the information was copied on a different text. The management of waste was a key to understand the archaeological secondary position of those pieces and their preservation, because an intense occupation of the site may be the cause of the destruction of the slates. The hypothesis is that El Castillón seems to have been an influential “central place” in Post-Roman times, with the use of accountability in slates, a material that came from other near areas. But the construction of the church disturbed the prior waste deposits and some of the slates were part of the building operations of the 9th-10th centuries. Another conclusion is the spread of the mathematical system seen on the slates, with could be used with very different functions, so it must not be understood as a single pattern.

This article has been prepared within the framework of, and with support from the research projects HAR2013-47789-C3-1-P and HAR2013-47789-C3-2-P, directed respectively by Iñaki Martín Viso and Julio Escalona.

In the North of Cantabria and Castile, Feudalism was organized in «walley communities», an primitive space which structure was mantained until the 18th. century. The «walley» is a marginal space, scarcerly hierarchical, which within the feudal system mantain peasant model., En el norte de Cantabria y de Castilla el feudalismo se organizó sobre las «comunidades de valle», un espacio primitivo cuya estructura se mantuvo hasta la Edad Moderna. El valle es un espacio marginal, poco jerarquizado, que mantuvo el modelo aldeano bajo el sistema feudal.

[EN] This paper is based on the data from archaeological surveysat La Genestosa (Casillas de Flores, Salamanca) in 2012 and 2013. The study of the uncovered material (pottery, glasses,numerical slates), the interpretation of building techniques and pollen analysis provided information about the dynamics of rural landscape in Central Iberia. The initiative of peasant groups, with internal social differences, was the cause of an internalcolonization for farming of some spaces of flexible use, which involved the creation of new settlements. The coincidence withthe early medieval cold episode (450-950 AD) implied that some wetlands became critical for livestock purposes. As a result, settlement patterns would be determined by the closeness of those areas., [ES] Este artículo presenta los datos de las intervenciones arqueológicas realizadas en La Genestosa (Casillas de Flores, Salamanca) en los años 2012 y 2013. Gracias al estudio de losmateriales recuperados (cerámicas, vidrios, pizarras numerales), del estudio de las viviendas y de los análisis polínicos, se puede comprender la dinámica del paisaje rural en este sector del centro de la península ibérica. Se detecta la colonizaciónde espacios de uso flexible con fines ganaderos, que serían la consecuencia de una iniciativa por grupos campesinos condiferencias internas, quienes crearon nuevos asentamientos. La coincidencia con el episodio frío altomedieval (450-950 d. C.) conllevó que determinados espacios húmedos se convirtiesen en áreas críticas, condicionando los patrones de asentamiento., Este trabajo ha sido financiado por los Proyectos de Investigación CRATAEM Colapso y regeneración en la Antigüedad Tardía y la Alta Edad Media: el caso del Noroeste peninsular (HAR2013-47889-C3-1-P) y DESIRÈ Dinámicas socio-ecológicas, resiliencia y vulnerabilidad en un paisaje de montaña: el Sistema Central (9000 cal. BC-1850 cal. AD) (HAR2013-43701-P) del Plan Nacional de I+D+i del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

This article takes as its point of departure the notion that the so-called “Visigothic” slates are archaeological material and should be analysed from this point of view. Such an analysis allows us to observe the existence of a more extended chronology in the use of slate as writing material, beginning in the late Roman era, for which time the presence of numerical slates has been detected. The leap to the use of slate as a medium for writing private documents took place in the sixth and seventh centuries in ecclesiastical contexts located in a specific regional setting. A variety of possible functions for these slates may be detected, although all of these functions must be related to the presence of social elites.

[EN]: In this paper we reflect on the use, function and chronology of the so-called 'Visigothic numeral' slates in order to offer new perspectives of analysis and to achieve a better understanding of them. Our main reference is the recently found slate from Valdelobos archaeological site, which is comprised within the ager Emeritensis, but also takes into account its relation to other similar items documented in the areas located in the southwestern-section of the Duero basin and the southern-part of the mountains of the Central System where most of the slates have been found., [ES]: En este trabajo pretendemos ofrecer algunas reflexiones sobre el uso, función y cronología de las llamadas pizarras numerales visigodas con el fin de ofrecer nuevas perspectivas de análisis que ayuden a su mejor comprensión. Para ello tomamos como referencia principal la pizarra hallada recientemente en el yacimiento de Valdelobos, inserto dentro del ager Emeritensis, pero sin descuidar su relación con los ejemplares documentados en el sector suroccidental de la cuenca del Duero y en la zona meridional del Sistema Central; región de donde procede la inmensa mayoría de las pizarras conocidas.

El objetivo del artículo es el análisis del significado social de las pizarras de época postromana(siglos V-VII). Para ello, se estudian los contextos arqueológicos en que las pizarras han aparecido en el centro de la península ibérica. El resultado es que hay una tendencia a su vinculación con espacios de poder, "lugares centrales" controlados por elites locales. Pero también aparecen pizarras en poblados rurales campesinos. A partir del estudio de cuatro casos bien documentados arqueológicamente, y haciendo especial hincapié en La Genestosa (Casillas de Flores, Salamanca), puede concluirse que estamos ante las marcas del poder de las elites sobre escenarios campesinos que no controlan directamente. The aim of this paper is to analyze the social significance of post-Roman inscribed slates (5 th -7 th centuries). The study of the archaeological contexts of those slates uncovered in the central areas of the Iberian Peninsula has been carried out to better understand their function. As a result, we can see there is a clear tendency of linkage between the concentration of slates and those places controlled by local elites. However, some slates have also been uncovered in rural settlements inhabited by peasants. The analysis of four case studies -with particular emphasis on the site of La Genestosa (Casillas de Flores)- concluded that these slates must be considered as signs of power.

El texto recoge la conferencia presentada en las IV Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores sobre Sociedades Precapitalistas. El objetivo es ofrecer una imagen panorámica de cómo las diferentes estructuras políticas que se implantaron entre los siglos V al X en la cuenca del Duero influyeron en la organización de las comunidades campesinas. Aunque estas disfrutaron de una considerable agencia social, política y económica, el tributo y el control de los espacios de uso comunal facilitaron la intervención de elites relacionadas con el poder estatal, con la excepción del periodo de colapso que se abrió en los siglos VIII y IX., The article is based on the paper presented to the IV Conference of Young Scholars about Precapitalist Societies. It is a general view about how the different polities which were implemented in the Duero’s basin between the 5th and 10th centuries influenced the way that rural communities were organized. Although rural communities enjoyed a great social, political and economic agency, the taxes and the control of commons make the intervention of elites linked to the central authority easy, with the exception of the collapse in 8th an 9th centuries., Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación

The “Visigothic” slates are a group of texts that have been found in different archaeological sites of the central part of Iberian Peninsula. Although they are one of the rare remains of late antique private documentation, there is not any social analysis of them, due to the problems of their interpretation. In spite of this, some philological works has been carried out, making some aspects about the language and culture clear. This paper tries to achieve a first approach to a social explanation of the slates through three hypothesis: the tributary meaning of great part of the pieces, the connection of the remains with some intermediate places of the countryside and the view of the slates as a trace of the implementation of channels that linked the central authority with the local powers.

Envisaging political power as dynamic allows the historian to deal with its structures with some sophistication. This paper approaches political power, not as a circumscribed block of bureaucratic elements, but as a complex phenomenon rooted in social reality. The authors explore the dialogue between local and central power, understanding ‘dialogue’ in its widest sense. Thus the relationships (both amicable and hostile) between local and central spheres of influence are studied. The authors propose a new analytical framework for the study of the config uration of political power in the northern zone of the Iberian peninsula, over a long period of time, which takes in both the post-Roman world a nd the political structures of the early Middle Ages.

Le sepolture scavate nella roccia sono uno dei pochi indizi disponibili per tentare di comprendere le logiche del paesaggio rurale altomedievale nel centro della penisola iberica. Dallo studio delle evidenze identificabili in una vasta regione, il centro-ovest iberico, e in particolare dei casi specifici costituiti da due aree, Ciudad Rodrigo e la Sierra de Ávila, si può ipotizzare il ruolo delle tombe come marcatori territoriali e di controllo sociale ed economico degli spazi agrari e di allevamento delle comunità locali. Infatti, lungo i secoli dal VII al XI, i loro membri usarono la memoria familiare e comunitaria a questo scopo: ciò ha permesso di considerare le tombe come elementi di un paesaggio sacralizzato, nonostante fossero inserite in aree in cui mancava ogni forma di organizzazione ecclesiastica. L’introduzione della rete parrocchiale fra XII e XIII secolo, conseguenza dell’inglobamento di questa regione nelle monarchie cristiane ‒ un lungo processo descritto dalla storiografia tradizionale come repoblación (ripopolamento) ‒ fece, infatti, venir meno questo antico modello di organizzazione dello spazio. In seguito i cimiteri parrocchiali e le chiese furono costruiti in luoghi nuovi, imposti dalla nuova organizzazione ecclesiastica. Si crearono, dunque, ex novo, un paesaggio ecclesiastico e una nuova identità locale. Un caso diverso fu, invece, quello delle necropoli sorte nei central places connessi con la repoblación attuata lungo il X secolo. Questi cimiteri furono infatti ricuperati dalla istituzione di chiese parrocchiali che riutilizzarono a favore della loro nuova centralità tutto il capitale simbolico delle antiche sepolture., Reti Medievali Rivista, Vol 13, N° 2 (2012)

The aim of this paper is the study of some patterns about the cemeteries of graves dug in the rock, which are the most frequent and eloquent remains of the post-Roman age in the Iberian peninsula. The analysis takes into account a vast area, the Western territories around the Central Chain, although it is focused more intensively in the Portuguese district of Riba Coa. The research is based on three issues: the chronology of these burials, their link with the settlement pattern and their social meaning. The result is an explanatory hypothesis that points out their connection with the communitarian structures shaped after the collapse of the Roman system.

The valley of Valdeiglesias was a part of the highlands of central Spain. The Andalusi had not established permanent control of these lends, so a traditional system of territorial organization based on settlements in these highlands and a strong system of ownership inside the community was able to survive. The Castilian kings managed to break up the pre-feudal model by creating the Monastery of Santa María, which received a patrimony of estates in the surrounding areas, providing a basis for monks` dominance over the inhabitants. Yett the kings could not supplant the old system of common pasturelands which strengthened the position of the inhabitants of the region, organized in their own council that,although not independent, controlled much of the local production. This impasse meant that Santa María de Valdeiglesias did not achieve a solid seigniorial power.

UID/HIS/00749/2013 publishersversion published

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