Producción, uso y reuso de la escultura decorativa altomedieval de ambiente litúrgico en El Tolmo de Minateda: criterios para su contextualización cronológica y espacial

Abstract

The excavations at the site of El Tolmo de Minateda (Hellin, Albacete, Spain), especially the work carried out in the area of the religious complex from the Visigothic period, have provided an interesting set of liturgical and ornamental sculpture from the early medieval period. Most of the items recovered come from the levels of dismantling and destruction of the architectural complex. This process begins in the second half of the 8th century and increases at the beginning of the 9th offering support to the Islamic buildings, in which they were reused as a construction material. Despite this circumstance, in this paper, we will see how, thanks to a chrono-stratigraphic sequence that has been verified in several areas of the site in the last 30 years, we can clarify some chronological and functional aspects of these materials. These circumstances allow us to partially restore the elevation of the religious buildings, of which only part of its plant remains, and address, from a regional perspective, aspects of the production and distribution of this kind of ornamental architecture.