Central Places in the Post-Roman Mediterranean

Regional Models for the Iberian Peninsula

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12221925
AutoresJavier Martínez Jiménez (0000-0003-4132-4135, Oxford Archaeology, autor de correspondencia), Carlos Tejerizo‐garcía (0000-0001-9479-2720, Universidad Metropolitana de Honduras), Carlos Tejerizo García
Año2015
Volumen28
Número1
Páginas81-103
Fecha de publicación2015-06-16
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0952-7648 • E-ISSN: 1743-1700
EditorialSheffield Academic Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/jmea.v28i1.27502
OpenAlexW2192507392
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5

Most current discussions on Late Antique and early medieval archaeology are focused on issues such as the use of the landscape, the abandonment of towns, and the reorganisation of rural settlements. The common element in all these cases is that the presence of a central place is key to analysing the social, political, and economic interrelations between sites, areas, and territories. Within the academic literature, however, the notion of a ‘central place’ has been determined by the conceptualisation of Roman towns, and this is not necessarily applicable to Late Antique contexts. Discussing this, and taking the Iberian peninsula as a case study, we propose various different archaeological regional trends to define how a central place was configured in the Visigoth period. These regions are the north coast, the north plateau, the Toledo–Reccopolis axis, and the Mediterranean coastline, taking advantage of the most recent archaeological finds. For this, special attention is given to towns (older Roman settlements and new foundations), hill-forts, and other major places that had a primary economic, religious, or administrative role in a given territory. These models, in which various degrees of urbanisation and territorial organisation are noticeable, form the basis for further discussion of Iberian central places in the Late Antique Mediterranean context

Abandonment (legal · Ancient history · Antique · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Geography · Human settlement · Mediterranean climate · Peninsula · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Urbanization · Archaeological and Historical Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · History · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology