Diarte Blasco Pilar - Interpreting Transformations of People and Landscapes in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

INTERPRETING TRANSFORMATIONS OF PEOPLE AND LANDSCAPES IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND ISSUES

Edited by

PILAR DIARTE-BLASCO AND NEIL CHRISTIE

Published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by

OXBOW BOOKS

The Old Music Hall, 106108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JE

and in the United States by

OXBOW BOOKS

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Oxbow Books and the individual authors 2018

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-034-3

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-035-0 (epub)

Kindle Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-036-7 (mobi)

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951274

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Front cover, from left to right: AP of Din Lligwy enclosure (Anglesey) with a combination round and rectangular stone buildings of Romano-British date ( Crown copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Hawlfraint y Goron: Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru)/Mosaic from the villa at Estada, Huesca (photo: J. Garrido. Courtesy of Museo de Zaragoza)/A Simancas-type knife and belt buckle, deposited next to the body in a grave from the fortified site of Dehesa de la Oliva, Madrid (photo: A. Vigil-Escalera)/Aerial view of Recopolis (source: cnig. es Centro Nacional de Informacin Geogrfica, PNOA 2010, Spain).

This volume has been published as part of the MED-FARWEST project based at the University of Leicester (UK) from 201517 and funded by the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 658045.

D R P ILAR D IARTE -B LASCO

Investigadora Juan de la Cierva (MICINN), Universidad

de Alcal, Departamento de Historia y Filosofa, rea

de Arqueologa, C/Trinidad, 1, 28801 Alcal de Henares

(Madrid), Spain

P ROF N EIL C HRISTIE

School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of

Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

P ROF J AVIER A RCE

85, rue Yves Decugis, 59650, Villeneuve dAscq., France

P ROF E NRIQUE A RIO G IL

Departamento de Prehistoria, H a Antigua y Arqueologa,

Universidad de Salamanca, C/Cervantes s/n, 37002

Salamanca, Spain

P ROF G IAN P IETRO B ROGIOLO

Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali, Universit degli Studi di

Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35139 Padova, Italy

P ROF.SSA A LEXANDRA C HAVARRIA

Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali, Universit degli Studi di

Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35139 Padova, Italy

D R R OB C OLLINS

School of History, Classics & Archaeology, Newcastle

University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

P ROF S IMON E SMONDE C LEARY

Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology,

University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

D R R OBERTO G OFFREDO

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici. Lettere, Beni Culturali,

Scienze della Formazione, Universit degli Studi di Foggia,

Foggia, Italy

D R S TIJN H EEREN

Cordinator PAN: Portable Antiquities of the Netherlands,

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen/

Faculty of Humanities, Department of

Archaeology, Classics and Near Eastern Studies, De

Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands

D R R OBERTO M ENEGHINI

Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, Via IV

Novembre, 94, 00187 Roma, Italy

P ROF L AURO O LMO -E NCISO

Universidad de Alcal, Departamento de Historia y Filosofa,

rea de Arqueologa, C/Trinidad, 1, 28801 Alcal de

Henares (Madrid), Spain

P ROF C LAUDE R AYNAUD

CNRS (UMR 5140), LabEx-Archimede, Universit Paul

Valry Montpellier 3, Site Saint-Charles Bureau 202,

Route de Mende, 34199 Montpellier, France

P ROF S TEPHEN R IPPON

Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver

Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK

D R A NDREW S EAMAN

Archaeology Programme, School of Humanities, Canterbury

Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury

CT1 1QU, UK

D R A BIGAIL T OMPKINS

West Berkshire Archaeology Service, West Berkshire

Council, Market Street, Newbury RG14 5LD, UK

D R A LFONSO V IGIL -E SCALERA G UIRADO

Investigador contratado Programa Extraordinario Usal

2016, Departamento de Historia Medieval, Moderna y

Contempornea, Universidad de Salamanca, C/Cervantes

s/n, 37002 Salamanca, Spain

P ROF G IULIANO V OLPE

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici. Lettere, Beni Culturali,

Scienze della Formazione, Universit degli Studi di Foggia,

Foggia, Italy

D R R OGER W HITE

School of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology,

European Research Institute, University of Birmingham,

Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

This volume is the fruit of two valuable conferences-cum-workshops held in 2016 which had as their core theme current debates in interpreting changes in landscapes, towns and societies in the period of Late Antiquity. While we set a working timeframe of c . AD 350600, it was recognised that issues in interpretation and in the evidence base could, in various territories, be extended back into the 3rd century; likewise, a proper understanding of the changes wrought often required consideration of archaeological sequences extending into the Early Middle Ages, to c . AD 700. Our geographical focus was on the western half of the old Roman world, where, as is well known, the historical record of Roman decay and late to post-Roman transition to new rulers is broadly but patchily drawn, while the related archaeologies are both complex and fragmentary and, of course, still being sought out and questioned. This volume is very much focussed on the archaeologies urban, rural, material, social of Late Antiquity but necessarily connects to the historical framework of new powers, conflicts and upheavals (natural as well as human).

We were honoured to have an array of leading scholars come to present and debate at our conferences, and to include a number of emerging researchers who benefitted much from the events. The first conference on Interpreting Transformations of Landscapes and People in Late Antiquity took place in Rome on 1011 October 2016 and focussed on landscape/settlement and social change in the western and central Mediterranean regions. The aim here was to observe or question how far changes in what were the more developed Roman provinces (in terms of economics, rural outputs and urbanism) were comparable: did towns endure longer even if their classical forms changed? How soon did the villa landscapes decay and fail? Did international trade and trans-Mediterranean connections persist after barbarian takeover? Do new settlement and economic forms emerge and if so, how rapidly and how widespread? Did a central control endure?