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"This material has been published in Power from Below in Premodern Societies: The Dynamics of Political Complexity in the Archaeological Record edited by T. L. Thurston and Manuel Fernández-Götz. [https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042826]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © Cambridge University Press"., Spanish singer-songwriter Javier Krahe once described the 20th century as “a total disgust”: “According to those who experienced it, last century was a hell of a traumatic experience.”1 Indeed, the twentieth century was fraught with disturbing experiences where the worst side of human beings showed its ugly head (Hobsbawm, 1994). And yet, this “disgust” of a century has also provided repeated evidence that, even in the most extreme situations, groups of people have somehow managed to articulate their collective agencies, often in the form of resistance, and even generated counterpowers from below (De León, 2015; Moore, 1993; Scott, 1985; Wolf, 1973).

The involvement of eleventh-century kings in ecclesiastical reform initiatives has usually been approached from the standpoint of their relationship with high-standing ecclesiastical institutions a...

This article proposes a novel approach to a much neglected source of information: the monetary penalties in charters. Historians have long had difficulties in explaining the rationale underlying such clauses. An analysis of over 500 charters from León from the Astur-Leonese period (854–1037) unveils the relationship between the quantities and types of unit by which monetary penalties were set, the status of the parties involved and the nature of the business in which they were engaged. In a significant subset of charters penalties were established according to a wider system of valuation and, especially in local contexts, they were often connected to expression of social status. Moreover, both monetary penalties and the transactions of which they were part had a performative dimension, contributing to the definition of the relationships between the parties, their negotiation and presentation to wider audiences., Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación Postdoctoral Grant ref. IJCI-2015-23391

This article focuses on the study of secular sanction clauses in the charters from early medieval Leon. It considers the implications they have for our understanding of how sales were conceptualized, setting its study against the background of current debates on early medieval land markets. It explores the different contexts in which sanction clauses were used and contrasts this with the use of sanctions more generally. Lastly, the article considers one particular aspect of secular sanctions, who is held responsible for the payment of the penalties they prescribe. It demonstrates that in the case of sales the responsibility usually fell on the part of the seller/s. Ultimately, it is argued that beyond diplomatic practice secular sanctions can be interpreted as a reflection of the actual obligations in which a seller – or a group of sellers – incurred as a result of a sale.Abbreviations: Ast = Gregoria Cavero Dominguez and Encarnacion Martin Lopez, Coleccion documental de la catedral de Astorga (Le...

This paper was completed within the framework of the FES2 project (HAR2010-21950-C03-01) as part of the research project HAR 2010-21950-C03-02; and withing the framework of an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. I am frateful to the members of the project for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would particularly like to thanks Julio Escalona, Iñaki Martín Viso, and José María Mínguez for their support during the research for this paper.

Neste artigo presentamos os principais resultado dos traballos arqueolóxicos realizados nunha serie de asentamentos fortificados situados no sueste da Galiza. Estes, coñecidos na historiografía, levaban tempo, porén, requirindo unha revisión arqueolóxica en profundidade debido á fragmentación dos dados sobre eles. Esta incluíu unha caracterización morfolóxica do sitio e unha análise da materialidade depositada nos museos de referencia. Mentres que a realidade da aparición dunha paisaxe fortificada na época pos-romana en lugares tan próximos como o Val do Douro, por exemplo, é algo asumido, para a historiografía galega esta realidade é algo descoñecido ou excluído. Ao longo deste texto pretendemos profundar no coñecemento existente arredor desta paisaxe fortificada para a Gallaecia, reformulando algunhas das principais hipóteses historiográficas para este período.

This article considers how different elite individuals and groups contributed to shaping the socio-political framework in Leon (North-Western Iberia) between the late ninth and the early eleventh centuries. Earlier interpretations were based on the idea that the kings were able to build an administrative framework to govern those lands and that this determined the way in which socio-political relationships were produced and reproduced in the area. However, a reassessment of the written sources shows a more complex reality. The authority of the kings was unevenly recognized throughout the different territories and their capacity to control the land effectively was limited to certain areas. At the same time, other elite groups were building their own political networks. The relationships they built both with the kings and among themselves were very varied in their nature. Nevertheless, political relations were negotiated and articulated within a shared political sphere. It is suggested that rather than as a...

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar de qué manera el estudio de las prácticas colectivas de gestión de los espacios agrarios en la Alta Edad Media puede permitirnos revisar críticamente la historiografía sobre las sociedades rurales altomedievales y abrir nuevas vías para la interpretación de las evidencias disponibles. Contrasta, para ello, dos tradiciones historiográficas contrapuestas, la de Irlanda y la del noroeste de la península Ibérica, a través del estudio de dos elementos centrales en cada caso: los raths en Irlanda y las sernas en el noroeste peninsular. El artículo plantea una relectura crítica de las interpretaciones propuestas para cada fenómeno a través de una revisión de las evidencias disponibles: la arqueología y los tratados legales en el primer caso; y las fuentes diplomáticas en el segundo. Se argumenta que el análisis de las prácticas colectivas de gestión puede ayudarnos a iluminar aspectos de las sociedades campesinas altomedievales que hasta ahora han estado relegados a un segundo plano; a elaborar narrativas más adecuadas de las transformaciones que las sociedades locales sufrieron a lo largo del periodo; y a entender mejor de qué manera pudieron condicionar los procesos socioeconómicos y políticos que afectaron a estas regiones durante estos siglos. PALABRAS CLAVE: Alta Edad Media, gestión de comunales, península Ibérica, Irlanda The aim of this article is to analyse how the study of collective practices in early medieval localities can further critical assessment of peasant society historiography and open new avenues for the interpretation of evidence. In order to do so, the historiography and sources of two case studies, the Irish rath and Iberian sernas, will be contrasted in regards to two elements that have played a central role in the construction of their descriptive models. This involves evaluating both past and current interpretations and evidence; specifically, archaeology and legal arrangements for Ireland, and charters in the case of Spain. An analysis of collective governance practices sheds new light on aspects of early medieval society that have hitherto been neglected, providing a more nuanced account of the socioeconomic transformations that local peasant societies underwent during the aforementioned timeframe, and strengthening our understanding of their influence on the overarching socioeconomic and political processes

In the medieval period, the monarch was seen as the embodiment of the community of his kingdom, the body politic. And while we've long since shed that view, it nonetheless continues to influence our understanding of contemporary politics. This book offers thirteen case studies from premodern and contemporary Europe that demonstrate the process through which political corporations-bodies politic-were and continue to be constructed and challenged. Drawing on history, archaeology, literary criticism, and art history, the contributors survey a wide geographical and chronological spectrum to offer a panoramic view of these dynamic political entities.

The concepts of scale and scale change, as they have recently been introduced in Early Medieval historiography, have opened new ways for the historical understanding of medieval socio-spatial relations. Following this line of thought, this article reviews the concept of «space of power» in order to propose the idea of «scale of action» as a complementary analytical tool. The second part develops its use through the analysis of a region that has so far been only partially considered within the framework of studies on the territorial organization of the Duero plateau: the lands between the rivers Cea and Pisuerga and the area to its south in the 10th and 11th centuries. To do so, a selection of representative case studies will be analysed in order to identify some of the constitutive elements of the scales of action of different social agents: peasant domestic units, peasant communities, local elites, monasteries and large aristocratic groups.

Resumen: La intensa renovacion de los estudios en torno al poblamiento de la Alta Edad Media en la Peninsula Iberica esta permitiendo la reorientacion de las metodologias de analisis hacia la mejor comprension de este momento historico. Asi, la creciente masa de datos disponible y el avance en los estudios regionales aumentan la capacidad de la Arqueologia para el reconocimiento y caracterizacion del esquivo poblamiento rural altomedieval. A partir de la excavacion en extension de uno de estos contextos en la zona central de la cuenca del Duero, La Mata del Palomar, se ha planteado un proyecto de prospeccion arqueologica en un territorio localizado en el noroeste de la actual provincia de Segovia, entre los rios Voltoya y Eresma. En este articulo se presentaran los primeros resultados e interrogantes surgidos a partir de la primera campana de prospeccion tomando como objeto de analisis el cambio en los patrones de estructuracion de los paisajes a partir de los datos arqueologicos y documentales. Palabras clave: Prospeccion Arqueologica; Paisaje; Poblamiento; Cuenca del Duero; Arqueologia de la Alta Edad Media; Larga duracion. Abstract: Over the last years the advancement of early medieval settlement studies in the Iberian Peninsula has enabled researchers to propose more adequate methodologies for the analysis of this historical period. Thanks to the increasing mass of archaeological data and regional studies we are in a better position to recognize and characterize early medieval settlements. This essay presents an archaeological survey project that, building on the recent excavation of an early medieval village, that of La Mata del Palomar, analyses a territory between the rivers Voltoya and Eresma, in the north west of the province of Segovia. This essay presents the results of a first archaeological survey and discusses the questions that arise from a preliminary approach to the archaeological and the documentary evidence. Keywords: Archaeological Survey; Landscape; Settlement pattern

This article has been published open access as per the agreement between Universidad de Salamanca and Wiley., [EN]The past few decades have witnessed great change in the study of the early Middle Ages in the Northern Iberian Peninsula. Spanish and Portuguese historiographies have moved away from older grand narratives such as ‘Recon-quest and Repopulation’, which traced a centuries-long process encompassing the ultimate victory of Christian-ity over Islam and the construction of distinct nations or national societies. The basic tenets of these and other essentialist approaches to a period traditionally seen as the cradle of Spain and Portugal have been questioned and now superseded by a clearer awareness of the territorial diversity characterising the 8th to 11th centuries. Yet the ballast of both nationalism and regionalism has obstructed meaning-ful comparison amongst the Iberian regions to date. Draw-ing on the work of the research group EarlyMedIberia, this article argues for a new trans-regional approach to Northern Iberia, looking beyond political and geographical boundaries to consider the whole in a comparative light, and stressing the commonalities between regional and local societies. It does so by providing an overview of the extant charter material from before 1100 (indicating the principal editions) and by reviewing the major historiography. The conclusion proposes a closer assessment of the differences and similarities amongst regional historiographies, based on a more nuanced understanding of how they have been moulded by the specificities of the charter corpus in each region, as the first step towards a more integrated, contextualised, and rigorously comparative approach to the early Middle Ages in Northern Iberia., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Ayuda Ramón y Cajal, Grant/Award Number: RYC2020-030272-I/MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Project NASD, Grant/Award Number: PID2020-112506GB-C44/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103; European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation Programme, Grant/Award Number: 850604; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Grant/Award Number: PID2020-115365GB-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Project ECOLOC, Grant/Award Number: EUR2021-122009/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Project ARPAMED, Grant/Award Number: PID2020-119365GA-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103, Publicación en abierto financiada por el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Castilla y León (BUCLE), con cargo al Programa Operativo 2014ES16RFOP009 FEDER 2014-2020 DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, Actuación:20007-CL - Apoyo Consorcio BUCLE