MEDITERRANEAN LANDSCAPES IN POST ANTIQUITY

Nueva publicación sobre paisajes mediterráneos medievales

S. Gelichi, L. Olmo-Enciso (ed.) Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity, Summertown, Archaeopress Archaeology, 2019

Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity: New frontiers and new perspectives highlights the fact that the study of landscape has in recent years been a field for considerable analytical archaeological experimentation. This new situation has made it possible to rethink the orientation of some theoretical approaches to the subject; equally these methods have been profitably used for the formation of a new theoretical and conceptual framework. These analytical trends have also featured in the Mediterranean area. Although the Mediterranean is the home of classicism (which also defines a particular archaeological methodology), it has seen the implementation of projects of this new kind, and in regions of Spain and Italy, after some delay, the proliferation of landscape archaeology studies. There are examples of more-or-less sophisticated postcolonial archaeological work, albeit conducted at the same time as examples of unreconstructed colonial archaeology. It is not easy to resolve a situation like this which requires the full integration of the different national archaeological cultures into a truly global forum. But some reflection on the cultural differences between the various landscape archaeologies, at least in the West is required. These considerations have given rise to the idea of this book which examines these themes in the framework of the Mediterranean area.

Contents

Mediterranean landscapes in post antiquity: new frontier and new perspectives - by Sauro Gelichi and Lauro Olmo-Enciso

The transformation of Medieval and Post-Medieval archaeology in Greece - by John Bintliff

Post-antique settlement patterns in the central Balkans: use of Justinianic landscape in the early middle ages - by Vujadin Ivanišević and Ivan Bugarski

Time travelling: multidisciplinary solutions reveal historical landscape and settlements (a case study of Sant’Ilario, Mira, VE) - by Elisa Corrò, Cecilia Moine and Sandra Primon

Settlement dynamics in the rural Bolognese area between the late middle ages and the modern era - by Mauro Librenti

‘Emptyscapes’ and medieval landscapes: is a new wave of research changing content and understanding of the rural archaeological record? - by Stefano Campana

Human-environmental interactions in the upper Ebro Valley (Spain): plant and animal husbandry in La Noguera (La Rioja) during the Roman and medieval periods - by Carlos López de Calle, Juan Manuel Tudanca, Leonor Peña-Chocarro, Guillem Pérez Jordà and Marta Moreno-García

The construction and dynamics of Early Medieval landscapes in central Iberia - by Lauro Olmo-Enciso, Manuel Castro Priego, Blanca Ruiz Zapata, Mª José Gil García, Marian Galindo Pellicena, Joaquín Checa-Herráiz and Amaya de la Torre-Verdejo

Archaeology of medieval peasantry in northwestern Iberia - by Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo and Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado

The rural and suburban landscape of Eio-Iyyuh (Tolmo de Minateda, Hellín, Spain): new methodological approaches to detect and interpret its main generating elements - by Julia Sarabia Bautista, Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret, and Victoria Amorós Ruiz

Animal husbandry and saltworks in the Kingdom of Granada (13th-15th centuries): The dynamics of landscapes in a Mediterranean territory - by Antonio Malpica Cuello, Sonia Villar Mañas, Marcos García García and Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz

A Mediterranean mountain landscape: the transformation of the Frailes–Velillos Vall - by Alberto García Porras, Luca Mattei and Moisés Alonso Valladares

Urban foundation and irrigated landscape construction in the medieval western Maghreb. Aġmāt (Morocco) - by Patrice Cressier and Ricardo González Villaescusa

Hydraulic system of the hawz of Agmât

P. Cressier, R. González Villaescusa, Urban foundation and irrigated landscape construction in the medieval western Maghreb. Aġmāt (Morocco), in S. Gelichi, L. Olmo-Enciso (ed.) Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity, Summertown, Archaeopress Archaeology, 2019, 185-199.

Abstract:

This article examines the genesis of the city of Aġmāt Ūrīka (Morocco), a Medieval regional capital about 30 km south of Marrakech (founded later by the Almoravids), as well as the evolution of irrigation and the city’s supply network. Although this network has evolved over the centuries, it is still observable today. A field survey, the analysis of vertical aerial photographs and the observation of the archaeological remains of the city itself allowed the establishment of a relative chronology.

This research leads to the conclusion that the urban foundation of Aġmāt and the establishment of the irrigated network were indeed contemporary, while the historic sources suggest dating this joint process to the 9th century.

Keywords:

Irrigated Systems, Constructed Landscapes, Medieval landscapes, Urban Foundation, Ḥawz, Morocco.