Late Antiquity, Visigothic Spain

Livestock farming was one of the major economic activities during the early Middle Ages. The exploitation of livestock resources became very important since the Visigothic period (C. 415–711 AD), although our knowledge is still considerably limited for the central regions of Iberia. Some historiographical works about stockbreeding during the Middle Ages as well as zooarcheological analyses exist; however, few researchers have focused on the study of farming during the early Middle Ages. We present here a taphonomical and zooarcheological analysis of several archeological sites, in order to illustrate the range of farming strategies developed in the center of the Iberian Peninsula during the VIII–XI centuries (Andalusian period). This study explores the economic exploitation and management strategies of domesticates such as Bos taurus, Ovis aries, Capra hircus, and other, less frequent animals, such as Sus domesticus, Equus ferus caballus, Equus africanus asinus, and Canis familiaris, in addition to wild species. Our results indicate that Ovis/Capra (caprines) were the most represented species at these sites, even though some animals, such as pigs, were more frequent than what we would expect in the Muslim world. Together, these lines of evidence allow us to discuss not only the economics of everyday life in the early Middle Ages, but also the nature of the changes that Iberian populations experienced with the arrival of Christian conquerors.

A study of three famous usurpations of the Visigoth period. First, the nature of the uprising of Prince Hermenegild (579-585), the ensuing civil war and the complex political context of the time is analyzed, as well as the important implications that the conflict had for the evolution of the kingdom. The second study deals with the rebellion of Duke Argimundus at the beginning of Reccared's reign and the consequences it had on the newly conquered Suebian kingdom. A prominent member of the Aula Regia and dux prouinciae, Argimundus started a rebellion in the province of Gallaecia that could have ruined the political efforts of Leovigild and Reccared. Finally, we will examine the figure of Duke Theudemirus, one of the great magnates of the kingdom of Toledo at the end of the 7th century, his actions within the complicated Visigothic political situation and the role he played in the transmission of power between Visigoths and Arabs after the fall of the kingdom of Toledo.

""Cap. 1 Territorio: Historia, cartografía e Imagen.
Cap. 2. La Vega Baja en época visigoda: Una investigación arqueológica en construcción.
Cap. 3. ¿De complejo palatino visigodo a arrabal islámico?
Cap. 4. La cultura material de la Vega Baja.
Cao. 5. Vega Baja, arqueología, ciudad y paisaje.""

En 1509, Íñigo López de Mendoza, II conde de Tendilla, explicaba que la inclusión del cimborrio en la Capilla Real de Granada era una cosa que da[ba] mucha vista y ahermosea[ba] en gran manera la Capilla y [hacía] el edificio real y magnifico. Para esas fechas tempranas del siglo XVI, el cimborrio se había convertido en un elemento dignificador de la arquitectura religiosa. Al alarde técnico que suponía su construcción, se unía su doble funcionalidad en el templo, ya que permitía aumentar la iluminación interior de los edificios –se trataba, en última instancia, de una figura de luces, tal y como lo definirá Simón García años más tarde–, que servía, a su vez, para subrayar el eje central del espacio religioso allí donde se cruzaban los brazos de la cruz. Estas razones prácticas y simbólicas favorecieron la construcción de este tipo de estructuras en toda la Europa cristiana a lo largo de la Edad Media y parte de la Moderna. El fenómeno también puede observarse en la Península Ibérica, donde comienza muy pronto, y se prolonga hasta fechas muy avanzadas. Trataremos de seguirlo a través de los ejemplos –y de los diseños– conservados.
Íñigo Lopez of Mendoza, the Second count of Tendilla, explained in1509 that the inclusion of the cimborrio in the Royal Chapel of Granada was a thing that gives many sight and embellishes in great way the Chapel and this inclusion transformed the building in to royal and magnificent. At the seearly dates of the 16th century, the cimborio had become a dignifying element of the religious architecture. The advantages were undoubted. First, the technical ostentation that supposed its construction. In addition, it had a double functionality in the temple, since it was allowing to increase the interior lighting and serves to underline the central axis of the religious space where the two parts of the cross were crossing. These practical and symbolic reasons favored the construction of this type of structures throughout the whole Christian Europe during the Middle Ages and part of the Modern one. The phenomenon can also be observed in the Iberian Peninsula; there it begins very early, and continues until very advanced dates. We’ll try to follow it through the examples –and of the designs– preserved.

El Toledo visigodo visto a través de sus restos materiales

Hablar en nuestros días del Toledo visigodo, ciudad de la que poco menos que nada ha quedado en pie, puede antojarse casi como una empresa irrealizable, como algo inaprensible por desconocido. Sin embargo, a lo largo de los siglos la imagen de la sede regia toledana no ha dejado de constituir un referente de la historia peninsular. Por un lado, al nombrar al Toledo visigodo inmediatamente viene a nuestra memoria la imagen de la capital del que fuera más esplendoroso reino bárbaro de Occidente después de la caída de Roma, y se hace inevitable recordar con ella el elenco de hombres ilustres cuyas vidas y obras se hallan indisolublemente ligadas a la antigua regia sedes visigoda. Reyes con aureola de leyenda, como los enérgicos Leovigildo y Chindasvinto, o de probada piedad exaltada durante siglos por la Iglesia, como Recaredo y Sisebuto; obispos, como los santos Eugenio, Ildefonso o Julián, de talento y cultura sin igual entre los de su época, modelos de devoción y elocuencia; incluso sucesos que no han dejado de alimentar las leyendas fundacionales de un reino a través de su historia, tales como la decalvación de Wamba o la osadía de Rodrigo entrando en la Casa de los Reyes que fue causa de la “pérdida de España”, mito sobre el que se construyó nuestra historia medieval y que puede considerarse el verdadero pecado original de la excepcionalidad medieval española. Personajes y episodios, sin duda, que han despertado a menudo el interés y la curiosidad de historiadores o literatos de todos los tiempos, pero que aparecen ante nosotros desprovistos de su entorno material, huérfanos de toda escenografía sobre la que desplegar a los protagonistas de esta fascinante historia.
En efecto, como se ha dicho, a la hora de materializar todo lo que nos es acreditado por las crónicas del Toledo visigodo nuestro conocimiento no pasa más allá de un amplio catálogo de piezas sueltas desperdigadas por diferentes construcciones y museos de la capital. No es, pues, mucho lo que conocemos de la edilicia de la antigua sede regia, ni por supuesto sobre el urbanismo de la capital del reino godo. Hoy por hoy no se conserva en pie ninguna construcción en Toledo que pueda adscribirse al periodo visigodo, ya que durante la Edad Media la ciudad no dejó de levantarse sobre los cimientos de las construcciones de épocas pretéritas. Los templos más significativos del periodo visigodo (la catedral, la basílica pretoriense de los
Santos Apóstoles Pedro y Pablo o la basílica martirial de Santa Leocadia) nos son prácticamente desconocidos, tanto en alzado como en planta, y todo lo que se sabe de ellos parte de conjeturas más o menos bien fundamentadas. Ni siquiera sabemos con exactitud cómo era el palacio de sus reyes ni dónde se hallaba situado, si en la parte alta de la ciudad o en la Vega Baja. Con todo, no han faltado intentos de relacionar diferentes piezas toledanas con la construcción a la que pertenecieron, como los excelentes trabajos de I. Velázquez y G. Ripoll acerca del propio Toledo, o los de Luis Balmaseda a propósito de los restos escultóricos conservados en esta ciudad o de las cercanas fundaciones de Guarrazar, San Pedro de la Mata y Arisgotas.
No obstante estas meritorias tentativas de reconstruir el pasado de la regia sedes visigoda, continúa siendo un problema grave no sólo nuestro desconocimiento en este campo de la arqueología visigoda en Toledo, sino el continuo aumento de material de esta época proporcionado por las diferentes excavaciones que se han venido sucediendo en su solar a lo largo de los últimos años. Así, al rico repertorio de piezas con decoración escultórica de la urbe toledana conocido ya de antiguo se ha unido en las dos últimas décadas, gracias a la realización de los Inventarios Arqueológicos, un gran número de restos decorativos procedentes de antiguas edificaciones de época visigoda. En realidad, nuestro estudio no pretende solucionar esta compleja cuestión, problema que atañe en primer lugar a sus excavadores, sino proporcionar un primer acercamiento al problema para fijar el contexto general del arte toledano de época visigoda en dos vertientes que consideramos primordiales: precisar una aproximación a la configuración urbana de la ciudad entre los siglos VI-VIII a través de la dispersión de los restos encontrados hasta la fecha, por un lado, y, por otro, realizar la clasificación del material artístico en grandes series temáticas que permitan una aproximación a lo que fue el arte visigodo toledano actualizando las aportaciones en este campo de los autores que nos han precedido.
Así, pues, siguiendo este propósito, hemos querido estructurar el presente trabajo en dos partes claramente diferenciadas. En primer lugar, nos hemos ocupado del estudio de la escultura decorativa como medio de conocimiento de la topografía urbana de la capital visigoda, acercándonos a su historia a través de la dispersión y carácter de los restos materiales actualmente conocidos. La segunda parte del trabajo, ésta que ahora nos ocupa, está dedicada a la realización de un catálogo que pretende recoger los restos escultóricos pertenecientes a esta época documentados hasta nuestros días. Dentro de este amplio catálogo, los restos aparecerán divididos en series temáticas que permitan acercarnos a la comprensión de la arquitectura del momento -sobre todo a su arquitectura religiosa puesto que la mayoría de las piezas puede adscribirse casi con plena seguridad a este tipo de construcciones- y a la evolución del arte hispanovisigodo a lo largo de todo el periodo. En este sentido, hay que señalar que no se ha inventariado en el presente trabajo ningún resto de los localizados en las excavaciones realizadas en la Vega Baja en los últimos años, ya que éstos se encuentran inéditos y en curso de investigación por los directores del yacimiento. Este conjunto, cercano al centenar de piezas, resultará sumamente interesante para completar el presente trabajo. Por otro lado indicar que se ha hecho, siempre que ha sido posible, mención del número de inventario de los ejemplares depositados en los distintos museos.
Dada la importancia dentro de este catálogo de las piezas correspondientes a antiguas edificaciones religiosas, su estudio permite además un acercamiento a la distribución espacial de los principales centros de culto de la ciudad que, junto a los grandes conjuntos palatinos y defensivos, constituían los centros de referencia del desarrollo urbano y constituyen, por tanto, elementos clave en la configuración de la topografía urbana de la regia sedes Toletana. La importancia que en este sentido tuvieron los principales lugares de culto –y de forma principalísima quéllos destinados a venerar la memoria de un mártir– fue en creciente auge a partir del siglo IV y constituirá uno de los legados más importantes del mundo de la tardía Antigüedad a la temprana Edad Media. Ya el emperador Constantino, tenido por modelo de príncipes en este periodo de transición a la era medieval, había concebido todas sus fundaciones religiosas esencialmente como un medio de expresión del poder y la dignidad imperiales. De hecho, como indica Carles Buenacasa para los proyectos edilicios del emperador romano, “estas construcciones cristianas [acometidas por Constantino] se consideran, sencillamente, como locales públicos monumentales con matices religiosos, en los que los elementos funcionales están inextricablemente vinculados con factores religiosos… Gracias a este evergetismo estatal, no sólo se hace propaganda de la Iglesia, sino también de la del soberano, quien, de esta manera, se identifica como su protector ante sus súbditos”. La íntima relación que se dio entre religión y poder político explica además que la propia decoración de los conjuntos vinculados a la monarquía reprodujera motivos que eran asimismo habituales en la iconografía cristiana. Como tendremos ocasión de ver, en el caso toledano, sólo a partir de la aparición de algunos elementos concretos en número significativo, en conjunción con otro factor clave cual es su distribución sobre el plano, permiten adscribir, al menos de forma hipotética, algunos de los restos documentados con el antiguo conjunto palatino visigodo.

Archaeological and documental records prove the existence of a monumentalization process of Toledo and its territory along the VII century, which explains most of the findings involving decorative sculpture in Toledo up to date. Although, in general terms, thesis defended by H. Schlunk are still valid, nowadays the continuity between roman and visigothic worlds is not as certain as it used to be. On the other hand, archaeology documents the collapse of the old territorial model of the Roman Empire and its substitution by a genuine visigothic one. This model is characterised by the apparition of new monumental complexes one century after the great roman villae were abandoned, in which monastic complexes (San Pedro de la Mata-Los Hitos, Melque or Guarrazar) linked to the elite’s of Toledo acquired a marked preference. The VII century was the moment of the consolidation of regnum Gothorum, when an ambitious cultural and legislative programme, perfectly elaborated, was set into action. Architecture was especially influenced by this, and consequently transformed into the most clear image of the court and the religious hierarchy, which explains its subsequent influence in the development of the aulic ovetens or carolingic art.

Key words: Toledo, Visigothic Kingdom, villae, monastery, aulic Art, Melque.

ABSTRACT

GALLAECIA GOTHICA: FROM CONSPIRACY OF DUX ARGIMUNDUS (589/590 AD) TO INTEGRATION IN THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM OF TOLEDO.
The rebellion of the dux Argimundus was one of the most delicate moments of the reign of Reccared. We have no precise details of how the plot unfolded but certainly the throne was seriously threatened: the John of Biclaro’s Chronicle underline the seriousness of this threat expounding on punishment suffered by the rebel and his accomplices. All this topped with a lapidary phrase with John of Biclaro closes its chronic (et docuit famulos dominis non esse superbos). This categorical condemnation of the attempted overthrow King is unmatched by any other uprisings narrated throughout the pages of his chronicle. It gives us an idea of transcendence that John of Biclaro gave it in his story. The fact that the Biclarensis mentions that Argimundus was not only a member of the Aula Regia but also dux prouinciae, the name of the rebel, the Gallaecia situation and the circumstance of being a newly conquered province, and last, the parallel with the revolt of the Duke Paulus regarding modus operandi and subsequent punishment, are arguments that incline us to think that of dux Argimundus complot was not just a palace conspiracy, but a genuine revolt of the province of Gallaecia that could have ruined the political work built by Leovigild and Reccared. This interpretation confirms an old hypothesis defended decades ago by the Portuguese historian A. M. de Faria, who, based on the study of numismatics Reccared’s reign, suggested that this attempt of usurpation would have taken place in Gallaecia.
However, due to the inaccuracy of our source, it is difficult to prove what the ultimate goal of the dux Argimundus was: if Reccared overthrow the Visigothic throne or, conversely, to restore the old Suebian kingdom in Gallaecia. Some indications seem to suggest rather the latter. First, the province had recently conquered thanks in part to a clash between two factions of the Suebic nobility, and the rebel could belong one of them. Secondly, there is the deafening silence of Biclarensis on the development of the facts, silence that contrasts with the details that contributes to other similar events. And finally, we are inclined to believe in this option the way the rebels were punished, with a final ride on the back of a donkey through the streets of Toledo, in a kind of mock triumph or parody ceremony investiture, which certainly seems more akin to a military triumph than a palace conspiracy. These, in general, were solved with a series of summary trials and subsequent execution of the sentence, as we have seen in the case of conspiracies of Segga in Merida and Uldila in Toledo. In this regard, significantly, in our opinion, the punishment inflicted Argimundus is virtually identical to suffer years after dux Paulus after his unsuccessful revolt in Septimania. Through the study of Onomastic, we propose in this paper the hypothesis of a Suebian origin of dux Argimundus and his possible relationship to the Suebian royal dynasty as well as the possibility that the news transmitted by John of Biclaro hide actually an attempt to restore the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia.
In our own point of view, the importance of the rebellion of dux Argimundus is mainly to be seen as the beginning of a phenomenon that marks the future of Gallaecia in Visigothic times: the militarization of the Duchy. An analysis of the various literary and archaeological sources that we have been doing confirms the idea that the incorporation of old Suebian kingdom to the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo not has been as peaceful and complete as described in unison the chronicles of the time. On the contrary it seems clear that it was a long and gradual process, alternating with difficulties and successes, which resulted in a significant military presence in the area. In relation with this matter, we also discussed here geography Leovigild’s military campaigns in the Northwest aimed at the conquest of the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia and location of the territory inhabited by the Ruccones and the Aregenses mountains, whose location is today discussed. We propose here that the Ruccones of the Visigothic literary sources will be identified with old Luggones, an ethnic group related to the ancient Astures, who should inhabit the current region of Bierzo (province of León). And we also propose that the Aregenses mountains will be located in Cabrera’s montains, around the river Eria valley, in the border between de current provinces of León and Zamora.
Definitely Visigothic conquest prompted the province to acquire a strong military character, which would explain the emergence of a strong Suebian-Gothic aristocracy eventually get done with the reins of power and held power in Toledo during second half of 7th Century. In a certain sense, it can be assumed to Gallaecia a situation not unlike of Septimania, but in this case its closeness of Merovingian and Burgundian realms provokes a greater risk and greater chance of success on holdup, hence the need to place in front of Duchy nobles with blood ties with the ruling dynasty.
Anyway, and similar to the Narbonensis case, it seems that Gallaecia was considered a foreign body within the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo. As underlined by one author is highly significant that chronic of Alfonso III of Oviedo mentions the kingdom of the Suebi a century and a half after its conquest. The literary sources, in fact, suggest the existence of a certain feeling of uniqueness in Visigothic Gallaecia that would have kept alive well into the Middle Ages. The heavy militarization of the territory and the enormous power accumulated by his aristocratic circle will make up an important faction within the Visigothic nobility. As mentioned, unlike Narbonensis, geographic isolation of Gallaecia and the impossibility of having foreign allies difficult here any attempt of usurpation, but instead it served to tie important kinship between the Suebian nobility and Gothic one. This should further strengthen the personality of the territory and give it some political content that will hatch in the Middle Ages. In any case, the situation experienced by Gallaecia and Narbonensis during the Visigoth period will have a certain parallel with the events that followed the Arab conquest at 711 with a Kingdom of Asturias isolated and left to their fate and some counties of Septimania and Northern Tarraconensis willing to agree with the Franks. In this sense, if the Galician origin of kings who occupied the throne Toledo in the second half of the seventh Century will confirmed, the mechanisms that led to the emergence of a core of political and military domination of Islamic resistance in the Northwestern area of the Iberian Peninsula would better understand.

València la Vella, a new and very important fortified settlement of 5 hectares, emerged at the end of the 6th century. The site is 16 km away from Valentia on the Turia river. This new city was made ex novo, so it was necessary a great building effort. In addition to the large walled enclosure, three quarters and several public buildings have been located in the lower part and another in the citadel. This site must have been another center of power in Carthaginensis province.
València la Vella was abandoned in the late 7th or early 8th centuries. Contemporarily another important power center was created in Pla de Nadal, about 2 km. from València la Vella. The large palace of central courtyard was its most notorious element, but the various buildings that are appearing around it, indicate that it would be a complex yet to be delimited. Probably the recently disappeared site would be used as a quarry.

This paper tried to frame the urban reality of Toletum within the overall process of transformation that participated Hispanic and other cities in the Western Mediterranean during the Late Antiquity. The urban landscape of Toletum inherited from the roman city was altered or modified, while there was a reorganization and new concept of the ancient suburbium, its spaces, its buildings and its functions. As a long–range phenomenon, Christianity was from the IVth century one of the decisive elements in the society and urban’s transformation. And few centuries later, the consolidation of the Visigoth capital was also particular consequences in spatial planning and structuration of the new public, representation and private space. The episcopal and royal evergetism contributed to the development of a new architecture that set a special topography of urban and suburban landscape, which is conjugated civil architecture with the so–called Christian itinerary or sacred liturgy.

El trabajo de Jorge Morín de Pablos, Estudio histórico-arqueológicos de los nichos y placas-nicho de época visigoda en la Península Ibérica: origen, funcionalidad e iconografía, aborda la problemática de la serie de los nichos y placas-nicho en la
Península Ibérica, en el catálogo los ejemplares de la Sedes Regia constituyen uno de los focos peninsulares más interesantes. En las iglesias visigodas, el nicho se presenta como el punto culminante de una programación iconográfica sumamente
elaborada y concebida en sentido ascendente. Su origen inmediato hay que buscarlo en el mundo bizantino, dentro del esquema general de la “arquitectura de poder” de
las construcciones aúlicas tardorromanas. Estas consideraciones, unidas a la conservación de algunos ejemplares in situ permiten defender la idea de su ubicación en el fondo de las iglesias visigóticas, presidiendo el santuario y en relación directa con
las mesas de altar: El análisis interno de los ejemplares revela, además, la influencia del arquetipo simbólico del Templo de Jerusalén, cuyos elementos ideológicos se han visto reelaborados desde una óptica eminentemente cristológica, y en la que
se puede vislumbrar una creciente presencia de la lectura del Apocalipsis pareja a la influencia que este libro sagrado tuvo en el desarrollo de la liturgia de la época.

The aim of this project is the archaeological knowledge of the architectural ensembles of religious character (church and funeral) that marked the landscape of cities and their territoria in the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Antiquity and later the survival of the cultural heritage of the classical world during the Umayyad period of al-Andalus.
The new archaeological data relating to urbanism and architecture of prestige, civil and sacred, of the Late Antiquity and post 711 period are a key to overcoming the impact of the traditional historiographical approach advocated by the existence of a discontinuity and rupture of cultural landscapes between the two periods, distorting the physical interpretation and understanding of the urban phenomenon in the first Andalusian period and relegated to a secondary level the common Roman heritage in the Mediterranean which survived in the Islamic period in the West.
A significant monuments of late antique ecclesiastical character is located at the site of Paço dos Bispos (“Palace of Bishops”) of Idanha-a-Velha (old Igaeditanorum ciuitas) (Fig. 1). The 7th century episcopium of Egitania has been located in the southwest intramural and it is comprises by several phases corresponding to different buildings. There are two baptisteries and several buildings that were excavated between 1954 and the end years of the 20th century.
We have addressed a multidisciplinary study of the urban landscape of ancient Egitania. One of our methodological priorities has been the application of the provisions of the Archaeology of Architecture and Remote Sensing. As a result of this, in 2012 it has been detected with a laser scanner and GPS some architectural elements, getting a new mapping and the lifting of the elevations of the existing walls. We also perform a flight with a drone, which has generated two reservoir orthophotos and 3D modeling. In the 2014 excavation campaign two naves were opened in the south and north of a building which we interpret as a possible chapel or oratory memory of the Episcopal group. It is a rectangular construction longitudinally divided into three narrow naves (about 2 m wide and 16 m long), two rows of supports which are preserved five sections of arches east-west.
The archaeological excavation confirmed that the pillars of stones with archery and footings belong to a building of Late Antiquity and Early Medieval chronology (7-8th centuries). On the one hand, they are affected by a silo of Andalusian chronology (survey 1), and secondly, support and/or cover levels of Late Roman Empire (survey 2).
In the survey 1 has proceeded to drain clogging of a silo, then used as landfill powerful, slow and progressive training, and a wide Medieval-Islamic chronology by the presence of atypical common, varnished and glazes ceramics. Although it has noted here or in other areas intramural no structure associated with a domestic occupation of Andalusian period.
The ceramic assemblage –with about 300 fragments– is both diverse and homogeneous, showing a pattern of local/regional productions of ceramics between about the 9th and 11th centuries. They can generally be ascribed to everyday containers for kitchen and table, storage, lighting and transportation.
The Andalusian landfill also had a significant collection of 1126 remains mammalian fauna which has been practiced its mandatory archaeozoological analysis. There is a great representation of domestic species (35%) as Bos taurus, Equus caballus, Ovis aries/Capra hircus, and among wild animals have been documented lagomorphs (2.7%), Cervus elaphus (12%) and Sus Scrofa. Brands have been observed associated with the dismantling pits of some bones, after being used for different functions (production of wool, milk, transport, etc.) were used for food and meat purposes, thus having a complete amortization.
Some samples from the filling sediment of the northern profile (UU.EE. 11 and 14) were also taken. Pollen analysis reflects a high level of organic matter, which led to proliferate fungi, indicating that was slowly filling with very local sediment.
Another area that would be part of the Egitanian episcopium, perhaps a palatium of Bishops, is masked in the factory of the See of Idanha-a-Velha, that, in its present form, is a reconstruction of the late Middle Ages of a church of the 12th century. The aspect that has attracted the most attention and controversy by specialists is its distribution in three naves with a northeast-southwest direction of the main shaft, which is not canonically set or a Christian or an Islamic temple.
Claudio Torres did not hesitate to give this unique building a religious use during the Visigoth and Andalusian periods, first as a church, later as a mosque. Some of the arguments are based on a southwest facing qibla hypothetical common orientation in al-Andalus, much like a series of close parallels, and the architectural plan, comparable to that drawn by the Great Mosque of Damascus.
Manuel Luis Real, relying on the temporary conquest of the place by Alfonso III and the supposed restoration of the diocese of Egitania builds its proposal for a renovated late 9th or early 10th century.
Nevertheless, is no doubt that both positions have been built as historiographical proposals without archaeological references. In fact, others scholars deny the liturgical use of this construction and prefer consider a civil order, perhaps a palace, objecting to its use as a mosque. Little more can bring about their archaeological interpretation and functionality, since there is no material or structural or epigraphic evidence to raise its use as a mosque. Some of the items inside, including the presence of a well, provide certain optimum qualities to be engaged inside the Koranic worship. But it must be noted that no structural change that they confirm is observed, except for the late medieval adaptations, the building is clearly from the seventh century.
After 711 the previous episcopal structure would break, creating a new model of organization and structuring of the territory, where Idania, Exitania or Antaniya capital Kura counted at least four districts or iqlim, take his own place on the border lower in the southern part of Garb al-Andalus (West Iberian Peninsula). Perhaps it was controlled by Abd al-Aziz, son of Musa, who managed the western territory of the peninsula. The long episode of riots staged by Ibn Marwan was the cause of the destruction of Idahna, rather than Marwan restore itself to transform the city into their residence.
The ceramic registration documented in the excavation of the silo, with materials attached to the 11th century, suggests that it may result in a farmhouse of suburban type, residual inhabited by human groups dedicated to agriculture and livestock, and located within the boundaries of Santarém and Mérida.

Resumen:

La intervención arqueológica en el yacimiento de La Quebrada II ha permitido documentar un enclave con tres momentos de ocupación. Los inicios de la actividad humana nos llevan a época romana y van ligados a la construcción del abastecimiento de aguas de la ciudad de Segóbriga, que aprovecha los manantiales cercanos al yacimiento, como el de la Quebrada. Un segundo momento de actividad esta ligado a la época hispanovisigoda, localizándose un hábitat –cabañas y silos- y su correspondiente necrópolis. Por ultimo, la zona es poblada intensamente coincidiendo con las taifas andalusíes, en pleno siglo XI. Se ha podido localizar un extenso “campo de silos”, que pertenecería a un hábitat cercano, así como su correspondiente necrópolis. En este sentido, esta circunstancia nos ha permitido abordar en profundidad la problemática de la funcionalidad de este tipo de estructuras en la Alta Edad Media Hispana.
El libro se ha publicado dividido en dos volúmenes. En este primer volumen se recogen los resultados de la intervención arqueológica de cada uno de los espacios y el estudio de materiales. El volumen cuenta con una amplia introducción histórica del territorio en época visigoda y andalusí, desde la época emiral a las taifas, así como los conflictos entre León y Castilla y los Imperios magrebíes. El segundo volumen recoge las conclusiones y la problemática de la funcionalidad de los “silos” en la Alta Edad Media hispana, así como los anejos de las analíticas –Estudios antropológicos, malacológicos, etc.-

Palabras clave: La Quebrada, abastecimiento de agua, Segóbriga, hispanovisigodo, necrópolis, Cuenca, silos, andalusí, taifas, imperios magrebíes.

ÍNDICE VOLUMEN II

VI. CONCLUSIONES
1. Un hábitat hispanovisigodo en el territorio del obispado de Ercávica
2. La necrópolis hispanovisigoda de La Quebrada II.
3. El hábitat rural en la Cuenca hispanomusulmana. El poblado de La Quebrada de Saelices.
VII. ESTUDIO ANTROPOLÓGICO (Miguel Paniagua)
VIII. ESTUDIO FAUNÍSTICO (José Yravedra)
IX. ESTUDIO MALACOLÓGICO (Cristina Crespo)
X. BIBLIOGRAFÍA