Church, cemetery and village IN 12TH century Álava (Spain). Material evidence of the establishment of the Catholic parish?

Abstract

This paper analyses the archaeological record of six villages of Alava, north-central Iberia, in the High Middle Ages (11-13th centuries AD): Armentia and the deserted villages of Zornoztegi, Zaballa, Aistra, Torrentejo and Dulantzi. The approach focuses on their churches, their associated structures and the relationship with the surrounding domestic households, with a double aim. First, to establish if these elements were subject to widespread and synchronic transformations. Second, to assess whether these changes, if identified, had any connections with the implementation of the Catholic parish network, a process that so far has been almost exclusively studied after the written sources. The results come to confirm both issues, showing the notable heterogeneity of the process in the territory. The discussion serves here to define a set of diverse scenarios for the establishment of the parish and to evaluate the different material markers used for their identification.