Urban Landscapes of Power in the Iberian Peninsula from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (ULP.PILAEMA Project)

Isabel Sánchez Ramos

doi:10.14324/111.444.ai.2020.11

Abstract

Debates surrounding late antique societies have attracted renewed interest from an archaeological perspective. Attention given to this period between the fifth and the eighth centuries reflects present-day issues closely related to urban landscapes and long-term change in the human occupation of space. The aim of the ULP.PILAEMA Project is to examine the interaction of new elites on urban life between the late Roman and early Middle Ages through the study of the main components of townscape. The project is articulated around a series of key Spanish case studies selected on the basis of the quality of their architecture and topography and the reconstructions that this evidence facilitates for late antiquity. Taken together, the examples chosen present a coherent and up-to-date perspective of how cities transformed as symbolic places. The goal of the project is to explore ways in which topographies of governance were configured and to identify urban patterns to compare with other places and regions in Western Europe. Understanding the rise of bishoprics, monasteries and official buildings and their built environment as an expression of social interactions has allowed us to explain the origins and development of early medieval centres of power in Spain.

Highlights

Introduction and contextTransitional periods such as late antiquity (450–800 bce) are generally understood as the result of crises induced by traumatic events, such as wars, invasions and natural disasters, or of gradual but intense adaptation to situations that lead to new social, urban and cultural configurations
Material expressions of governance are reflected in the topography of many late antique Iberian cities through the transformation and planning of new spaces in this period revealed by archaeological investigations
The relationship that the Visigoths maintained with the Roman past suggests a tendency towards imitatio imperii given the supremacy of the Roman heritage itself rooted in the Iberian aristocracy and ecclesiastical elites in the episcopal fabric

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and contextTransitional periods such as late antiquity (450–800 bce) are generally understood as the result of crises induced by traumatic events, such as wars, invasions and natural disasters, or of gradual but intense adaptation to situations that lead to new social, urban and cultural configurations. Material expressions of governance are reflected in the topography of many late antique Iberian cities through the transformation and planning of new spaces in this period revealed by archaeological investigations. Along with new ways of interpretation, points to dynamic, changing townscapes that reveal a continuity of life within them This model of historical development was largely a product of the 1960s, but has since been directly challenged by scholarship. Late antique cities in Britain, Gaul, Italy and Hispania were administrative, tax-collecting and military centres of the late Roman Empire. Their other role was to house the new urban benefactors: bishops and imperial officials

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