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Spanish medieval archaeology: anapproach with a brief bibliography

Magdalena Valors

Introduction

Medieval Spain is a very peculiarperiod in relation to medieval Eu-rope. In Spain it encompasses a longperiod (from the 5th to the 15thcentury) and at the same time threedifferent civilisations, namely Visi-gothic, Islamic and medieval Chris-tian. First of all, each one of thesecivilisations has had its own specialistssince the beginning, so we can speakabout:

- Visigothic Archaeology (5th to7th centuries): This has traditionallybeen studied in Classical History De-partments, but also in ArchaeologyDepartments. The contribution of theDeutsches Archäologisches Institut inMadrid has also been very important,not only on account of excavationscarried out, but also on account ofpublications.

- Christian kingdoms (8th to 15thcenturies): After the Arab conquest ofthe Iberian Peninsula, the Christianpart was reduced to the far North ofthe peninsula. Therefore, from the

mid 8th century to the late 15thcentury we witness the conquest ofthe Muslim province, i.e. the conquestof al-Andalus. Several kingdoms likeAsturias-León, Castilla, and Navarraand Aragón made it possible for ex-pansion towards the South as far asthe Duero river (in the 2nd quarter ofthe 9th century). Apparently this wascaused by the Muslims’ inability tosustain the demographic occupationof the territory. The archaeology ofSpanish medieval kingdoms is not themost developed. The best known pe-riod is the Early Middle Ages from the8th to the 10th century, but is at thesame time the less known through thewritten sources. Asturias-León andCatalonia are the regions with thelongest tradition in these kinds ofstudies.

- Al-Andalus archaeology (8th to15th centuries): The most developedin Spain. This chapter of Spanishmedieval history began to be studiedafter the Romantic movement. Cer-tainly Spain has preserved a lot ofIslamic monuments, which were resto-red from the early 20th century.

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Traditionally research has beenfocused on Granada (Alhambra), Cor-doba and Medina Azahara. Nowadaysthere are many other places of interestlike Seville, Murcia and Badajoz. Also,researchers were previously moreinterested in the Omayyad period. Inrecent years, we have gained muchmore information about the Almohadsand about the Nasrid dynasties.Universities, Museums and the Casade Velázquez (dependant on the Cen-tre National de la Recherché Scienti-fique of France), are the institutionsdealing with this discipline.

The kind of topics are very similarto those dealt with by European Med-ieval Archaeology. In this respect wecan discern different periods:

1) The mid 20th centuryCemeteries, churches and metal-

work were the most studied topics inVisigothic Archaeology. Caves, castros(pre-Roman fortified settlements) andcities together with restored churchesand castles were common topics ofChristian Archaeology. Palaces andmosques were researched by architectsand art historians, to detect thebuildings’ structures.

2) The 60’s and the 70’sDuring these years an important

change came about. The research wasconcentrated not only on the study ofexceptional artefacts or architecturalstructures, but also on the archaeo-logical context and on the analysis ofcontinuity, changes and evolution.That was a significant change that canbe registered in the various aspects

and cultures. For example, in the caseof Catalonia and Asturias-León thestudy of repopulation has been verydeveloped, specially for the periodbetween the 8th and the 10th centuryin different aspects, like the evolutionof settlements, society and economy,and the frontier with al-Andalus.

The case of Al-Andalus archaeologywas the complete opposite. Researchwas related with restoration, thereforewith architects. The Alhambra, themosque of Cordoba and MedinaAzahara were managed by architects.The conseqence is that we know a lotabout the architectural structures butnothing about the archaeologicalcontext. So, in this case monumentalarchaeology was the main aim.

3) The 80'sThe definitive change in Spanish

Medieval archaeology occurred in the80’s. The reasons were:

Firstly, in 1981 the Spanish Asso-ciation for medieval archaeology wasfounded. Academics and experts fromuniversities, museums and the stateadministration formed an associationto demand a place in Spanish archaeo-logy, and to establish means of contact.

Secondly, In 1985 the first SpanishCongress of Medieval Archaeologytook place in Huesca. This is a veryimportant date, not only because itwas the first general meeting, but alsobecause of the Acts (five volumesdevoted to: Methodology (I), Visi-gothic (II), Andalusi (III and IV), andChristian (IV and V) archaeology.

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Many other congresses have takenplace in recent years:

The 2nd in Madrid in 1987The 3rd in Oviedo in 1989The 4th in Alicante in 1993The 5th in Valladolid in 1999

Thirdly, in 1986 issue 0 of theBoletín de Arqueología Medieval waspublished. This started life as a bookwith modest pretensions, but beganto receive many more contributionsafter 1989.

Topics and aspects of al-Anda-lus archaeology

Since the Arab conquest (711–716)to the final defeat of the Nasrid’s reign(1492), we have eight hundred yearsof Arab civilisation in the IberianPeninsula. We should have in mindthree different periods, which are:

1) Cordoba´s Emirat and Caliphat(713–1031).

Especially important in this periodwas the Umayyad dynasty comingfrom Syria after 756. Two and a halfcenturies, during which occurred theislamisation of Visigothic Hispania.In these years began the transforma-tion from cities, the permanentexistence of a frontier with Christianreigns, the new territorial organizationand evidently the beginning of a newculture in West Europe.

2) Petty kings and Almoravids(1031–1147).

The petty kings signified thebreakdown of the Caliphat and the

birth of a large quantity of small politiesreigned by small dynasties. At thistime took place important changes inthe organisation of the territory,especially a very intensive processes offortification.

The Almoravids was a North Afri-can dynasty, which entered the Iber-ian peninsula helping the petty kingsagainst the Christian kings, and finallyconquered each of them, convertingal-Andalus into another province oftheir North African empire.

This century signified a continuityof the Umayyad period. The architec-ture continued to be in the same way,but normally more decorated.

3) Almohad caliphat (1147–1212or 1248).

This is a very unknown period at themoment, but it seems to have been avery important century. Al-Andalus wasmuch smaller, and to resist the Chris-tian conquest they had to reorganise thefrontier and the territory, specificallythe fortifications. At the same time camea definitive aesthetic change. A newarchitecture characterised by hugebuildings, a process typical for the pe-riod after 1172 and existing throughoutthe Middle Ages.

The final development of this re-novation was Granada’s Nasrid reign(1232-1492), with a similar develop-ment like the Umayyad caliphat andthe petty kings. That means, the sameaesthetic with more complicated dec-oration.

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In the research of al-Andalusarchaeology, the researchers were atthe beginning dealing with art andarchitecture and very little witharchaeology. Basic studies were pub-lished in the 50’s by Manuel GómezMoreno and Leopoldo Torres Balbás;the most studied sites were theCordoba mosque, Medina Azaharaand the Alhambra palace in Granada.

Since 1985 we are experiencing areal explosion of publications, thistime with scientific archaeologicalapproaches, but probably with a lackof ambitious projects.

Cities, towns

1) The urban structure (Fig . 1 and2)

The Iberian Peninsula was anintensively urbanised area even beforethe Arab conquest. There was acontinuity in places with pre-Romanor Roman origins. This was the samesituation as in Syria; christian citieswith an organised housing scheme,and sometimes fortified. The isla-misation of these pre-Islamic citiesconsisted in:

- The transformations of churchesinto mosques. At the beginning thesame building was used for both cults,afterwards the church was destroyedand in the same place a mosqueconstructed. We know a few examples,like Cordoba’s Friday mosque, andthe first Friday mosque in Seville,named Ibn Adabbas.

- The birth of a political centre,named alcázar, next to the Fridaymosque. Palace areas were constructedat one extreme of the city walls, withpossible contact with the outskirt ofcities. This was named Dar al-Imara.

- The development of the marketarea around the Friday mosque. Thedifferent arts and crafts were organi-sed in categories, and depending onthis they were near or far from thetemple.

We don’t know exactly the chro-nology of the cities’ islamisation,because there are few serious projectsor urban archaeology. For example, inthe case of Seville we can say throughthe written and archaeological sourcesthat until the middle of the 12thcentury the Roman Hispalis wasrespected. There were evidently im-portant changes because they built aFriday mosque in 829 and at the sametime there existed a governor’s palace(Dar al-Imara) and a princely palaceon the outskirts of the city.

In the case of Cordoba, the firstphase of the mosque was not builtuntil 788, that means 77 years afterthe Arab conquest.

After the Arab conquest pre-Islamiccities still existed, continuity andislamisation was the common situa-tion, but there were also cities foundedby the muslims, the most interestingexample without doubt is MedinaAzahara. This city was founded by thefirst caliph of Cordoba, Abd al-Rahman III in 937 and existed until

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1010. Constructed partly in SierraMorena mountains, it was organisedinto three terrasses. The highest wasthe palace area, in the middle thegarden area, and in the lower part thecity. The Friday mosque was builtbetween the second terrace and thecity.

This archaeological site was one ofthe very first places excavated in Spain.We know many aspects of this placenot only through the written sources,but also through the contemporarychronicles. This monument is veryimportant for the whole al-Andalusart and architecture development.

Fig. 1. Cordoba�s city plan. A Roman shape where the Friday mosque and Alc�zar are at the periphery , nextto the bridge and the river Guadalquivir. Around the mosque the market area was developed, the bazars.

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Every al-Andalus king or caliph in thenext centuries tried to know MedinaAzahara and to reuse some archi-tectural elements, and also to beinspired by the decoration.

2) The city wallsMost of the cities that the con-

querors found had Roman walls. Someof them, in places next to the frontierwith the Christians were preserved;but commonly they were abandoned,and probably the stones were reused

in new buildings. So the Zaragoza’scity walls still existed after theconquest, while Seville’s city walls wereabandoned and that is the reason whythe Vikings did not have problems toenter the city in 844.

Created cities, like Medina Azahara,Badajoz or Murcia were fortified. Butwe should speak not only about theconstruction, but also about the de-struction of some of them, especiallyin the case of rebellion against

Fig. 2. Seville�s city plan with the two urbanization phases, which are: 1) The plan until the middle of the 12thcentury, where we can see the Friday mosque and the alc�zar at the city border. At the outskirts was also builta prince palace. 2) The Almohad expansion was really significant. Not only because the walled surface was muchlarger, also because they renovated the cultural and political centre of the city. The political centre (alc�zar) wentthrough a definitive change, from a group of palaces into a city within the city, formed by many enclosures withdifferent functions. They were dedicated to gardens, orchards, cemeteries, workshop areas or palaces.

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Cordoba. This is the case of Merida orÉcija, both very important towns inRoman times, but in decadence afterthe 9th century.

Militarisation was a constantthrough the al-Andalus history fromthe beginning to the end. The wallsnot only defined the city, theyprotected it, and the leaders alsodefended themselves against thecitizens.

Umayyad walls were normally builtin stone (Sillares), and we have manyexamples in Merida, Balaguer or Seville(Fig. 3). But the most frequent buil-ding material was tabiya (fig. 4). Thisis a mixture of soil, water and lime putin a wooden mould. The hardness

could be like stone, it depends on thelime quantity added. Bricks were verycommon in al-Andalus since the 9thcentury. It was used for pavements,vaults and arches. At the end of the12th century it began to be used forcomplete buildings.

The majority of the city walls thatwe can see today were built after the12th century, and only partly we canfind fragments of earlier phases. Themore frequent cases come from theAlmohads and the Nasrid era.

3) The palacesA very intensive, urbanised civilisa-

tion had to have lots of palaces. Todayvery few still exist and many of themare mutilated. We can find palaces

Fig. 3. Reused Roman stones in Seville�s alcazar enclosure.

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from the 10th to the 15th century.

It is important to state that thelayout of these palaces has a repetitivestructure during this long period. Wecan see buildings in a rectangular formorganised with a central patio androoms around. The principal roomsused to be in the shorter wings,sometimes exclusively so. The patio isa garden and it is used as a house space.

While the structure of these palaceswas repeated, we can see an evolutionin decoration. The Omayyad modelssurvive until the second half of the12th century, with some develop-ment,but the strongest aesthetic change tookplace with Almohads. (Fig 5 and 6)

The high temperatures in summermade it necessary to construct sum-mer palaces. In the case of hot weatherthey used to make underground orsemi-underground palaces. In theAlhambra, next to the Sierra Nevadamountains, it was not necessary, butthey built in the highest area of thisplace pavilions surrounded by gard-ens. Vegetation and water was essen-tial for this kind of aristocratic houses.At the same time, emirs, kings orcaliphs used to construct an almuniaat the outskirts of the cities in placeswith a nice view and good com-munications with the alcázar. (Fig.7)

Fig. 4. Tabiya.

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4) The mosquesMosques comprice three elements:- The Patio, bigger than the prayer

hall, is the place to make ablutions, tohave a rest, to administer justice andthe place of the Koranic school. It isalso the space used as a prayer hall onFridays.

- The tower or minaret, use toadvise the citizens about the prayertime. In al-Andalus minarets arefrequently situated next to the maingate of the patio, in the north side.

- The prayer hall, evidently the

most important element. Al-Andalusmosques were orientated to the South,the south wall is much wider than theothers. In the centre is a niche namedmihrab, which indicated the directionfor the prayer.

We must note that there are diffe-rent kinds of mosques: the mostimportant is the Friday mosque(comparable to a cathedral with theChristians), further there are district’smosques named masyid (like parishchurches) and also oratories. Only theFriday mosques have the three ele-ments (patio, minaret and prayer hall),

Fig. 5. Palace of Seville�s alcazar.It is a very common type, a cross-garden, organised in two passagesand four garden spaces. Vegetationin Islamic gardens was very rich,they used to mix a lot of plants, localand imported, vegetables and orna-mental.

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the rest could have all the three or not,and only the prayer hall was essential.(Fig.8)

5) The marketsThere were different market types.

The most important was around theFriday mosque, but around the di-strict mosques existed markets for basicproducts At the outskirts were marketsfor raw materials, like charcoal orfirewood.

The market was organised in bazaarseach one specialised in certain pro-ducts, like fabrics, jewellery or spices.

Each street was devoted to the sameproduct, this was the system to avoidcompetition.

In the market area were specifictypes of buildings like a magazine anda pension; this is the case of the saltmarket or the cereal market - thename is alhóndiga - but also the luxurymerchandises used to have a specificbuilding or a group of streets withcontrolled gates, by the name ofalcaicería.

In this area were lots of smalloratories, and also baths. The structure

Fig. 6. Damas� torre of theAlhambra. The Nasriddeveloped the innovations ofthe Almohads. They built muchbigger towers and in this casewith the throne-room inside.The use of towers as part ofpalaces was an innovation ofthe 14th century.

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of these baths were very peculiar. Theyhave a cold room, a warm room and ahot room. The second one is thebiggest. There are no swimming-poolslike in the Roman baths; water mustconstantly be renewed.

Rural landscape and settlement

This is one of the less known aspectsof Medieval Spain, the reason beingthe lack of research until recent years.Regarding the landscape there aremany publications about irrigationfrom the last ten years, which is theclearest evidence of al-Andalus agri-culture that we have at present.Almería, Valencia and Mallorca arethe best known areas. The increase ofthis type of agriculture was related to

the food habits. Muslims used to eatlots of vegetables and fruits. Theyintroduced a number of crops, manyof them originating from China, intothe Iberian peninsula. Such was thecase with sugar cane, rice, cotton,fruit-trees and many vegetables likespinach, aubergine, and aromaticplants. They introduced crops typicalof their diet like palmier, lemon, andfig tree.

How was the territory organised?More and more approaches to thisaspect are presented. Territories wereorganised in provinces (coras) anddivided into districts (aqalim). Themain centre was a city or town (med-ina) and the district centres werenormally castles (hisn or qala) andexceptionally villages (al-qarya).

Fig. 7. Buhayra palace. This type of residence was signified by huge gardens and orchards organised arounda big reservoir. This one was founded in 1172 by an Almohad caliph.

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Fig. 8. Cordoba�s mosque. It is perhaps the most important building in al-Andalus for different reasons; fromthe point of view of historians it was like the architectural manual for all the following buildings. The orientation,the structure, the architectural elements, the decoration was an inspiration for generations. This building has manyphases, the construction began in 788 and continued until the end of the 10th century. The founder was the firstUmayyad�s emir in al-Andalus, Abd al-Rahman I. This prince made a typical Syrian mosque, but with some localelements like the horseshoe arch.

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We can mention as a case study theAljarafe (fig.10). At the time of theChristian conquest, it consisted ofthree castles (Hisn al-Qasr, Solucarand Hisn al-Faray). Depending onHisn al-Faray (approximately 25.669

Hc) were 69 villages; we have found38 of them, but only 12 of the villagesare still existing.

We can discern different types ofsettlement: castles, villages and coun-

Fig. 9 Banos de la Encina castle (Ja�n)

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try houses. From the beginning Arabsused to built in stone, but also intabiya. We can discern two periods:

- From the 8th to the 10th century.Many pre-Islamic castles were re-used,specially in rural areas far from cities.We know, through the written sources,some of these buildings constructedto face rebels, to control frontiers, orto function as a camp.

- After the fall of the Cordobacaliphate (1009) began an intensivefortification process not only on thefrontiers, but also in the interior. Thereason was the permanent war betweenmany of the petty kings. After that theinsecurity and the expeditions ofChristians into al-Andalus territorybecame more and more common, sothere were many castles built at thetop of the hills.

We can discern different sizes andfunctions in castles.

- Qala, which means a big castle,formed by an alcázar, a fortified baileyand sometimes also a fortified suburb.These fortifications relate to very richvalleys from an agricultural the pointof view, or with a river with watermills.

- Hisn, is a smaller castle formed byalcázar and a walled village. We knowthat these castles had a territorydepending on them, and that theywere connected to the political cent-res of the province, the city or themadina.

- Sajra, small fortifications in a veryhigh position as a refuge for the popu-lation. Among the examples of thistype we can find very simple archi-

Fig. 10. Cuatrovita’s village in the Aljarafe (Sevilla). Church and tower (older mosque and minaret).

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tectural structures made by the ruralpopulation. Sometimes these castleswere in important routes. (Fig. 9)

- Borj (towers). We do not knowmany of them, but we know throughthe written sources that they shouldhave been very common, specially afterthe 12th century. During the Nasridperiod these towers began to be biggerand with complicated interior divi-sions. So they were used as a houses.

As regards the villages, we do notknow at the moment the structure ofandalusi villages. The only case studiedat the moment is Torre Bufilla inValencia, and there we can see a verywell organised settlement with ageometrical layout.

Brief annotated bibliography

If we consider present-day publi-cations, we find an incredible wealthof them. Lots of books, articles inreviews, acts of congresses. So it isreally impossible to keep track of all ofthem. Last year many contributionswere published, not only in Spanish,but also in regional languages likeCatalonian, Valencian, Mallorquín orGallego. This situation sometimesmakes it very difficult for contact tobe maintained among Spanish re-searchers.

If we have a look at the publicationswritten in English, French or Ger-man, this problem is certainly lesssignificant. The researching foreigninstitutions have their own reviews:

The Casa de Velázquez has theMélanges de la Casa de Velázquez. TheDeutsches Archäologisches Instituthas the Madrider Mitteilungen.

Both of them usually have only afew articles on Medieval Archaeologyeach year, because they are devoted toall the different branches studied bytheir researchers. In any case, archaeo-logists are involved in concrete projectsor regional areas. For example, theCasa de Velázquez has been workingfor several years in the Eastern part ofSpain, specially in the Levante regionthrough the archaeologist AndréBazzana and the historian PierreGuichard; but also Patrice Cressierhas been researching into the provinceof Granada, and more recently intoMorocco.

The Casa de Velázquez also publis-hes many other books, like the acts ofCastrum (I, Lyon, 1983; II, Rome,1988; III, Madrid, 1988; IV, Madrid,1992) or monographs like: Leschâteaux ruraux d’al-Andalus. Histoireet archéologie des husun du sud-est del’Espagne. Madrid. 1988 written byAndré Bazzana, Patrice Cressier andPierre Guichard or Maison d’al-Anda-lus. Madrid. 1992, written by AndréBazzana.

In the case of D.A.I. they have along-term project in Recópolis (Gua-dalajara), a city founded by theVisigoths, and abandoned after them.At the same time, the architect Chris-tian Ewert has being working on manyIslamic buildings like the Aljaferíapalace in Zaragoza, Medina Azahara

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in Córdoba, various mosques in To-ledo, and also researching in Morocco,specifically on Almohad mosques.

But there are also some Hispanistswho are not connected to these kindsof institutions. Some of them havepublished work in recent years like:

Christine Mazzoli-Guintard . Villesd’al-Andalus. L’Espagne et le Portugal àl’époque musulmane (VIIIe-XVe siècles).Rennes. 1996.

Thomas F. Glick. From Muslimfortress to Christian castle. Trowbridge.1995.

The best way to find some publi-cations from Spanish archaeologists

are in the acts of Medieval Europe,1992 and 1997, the first internationalmeetings for European MedievalArchaeology. Each one of the acts,which are divided into seven differentareas, have some articles. In somecases they were written by Spanisharchaeologists, and, in others byHispanists. There are some significantgaps, and nothing about importantresearch projects like L’Esquerdá aCatalonia developed by Inma Ollich.

Magdalena Valors �r professor vidDepartamento de Historia Medieval y Ciencias yT�cnicas Historiogr�ficas Universidad de Sevilla

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