Cities, Lands and Ports in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Archaeologies of Change
Pilar Diarte-Blasco (ed.)

This volume is based on an international colloquium held in the University of Zaragoza (Spain) in Autumn 2012 on ‘Urban and Rural Landscapes between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages’. The scholars gathered at Zaragoza debated many key aspects of the much debated process of the late Roman to early medieval transition, in particular: the influence and impact of Christianity on town and landscape; economic and military decline; cities and their socio-political role as unifying elements for territories (or provinces and kingdoms); the evolving urban form; the continuation or loss of rural villae; and changes in agricultural organization. A further area of discussion was on trade for towns and the landscape, with an emphasis placed on the evidence for the role (and nature) of ports.

This volume — Cities, Lands and Ports in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Archaeologies of Change — contains a selection of fourteen studies from the colloquium which analyze townscape and landscape transformations within the Mediterranean world, from the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, to the Atlantic, Central Europe and the Balkans. This geographical mix is important in providing a suitably wide, but culturally connected, context for the fuller understanding of this crucial transitional period in Europe, en route highlighting the crucial role played – and to be played – by archaeological investigation.

With contributes from: Ricard Andreu Expósito, Chantal Bielmann, Felipe Cerezo Andreo, Neil Christie, Pilar Diarte-Blasco, David Fernández Abella, Jaime Gutiérrez Pérez, Alessandro Luciano, Nikolina Maraković, Oriol Olesti Vila, Luis-Gethsemaní Pérez-Aguilar, Arnau Perich, Sebastián F. Ramallo Asensio, Manuel D. Ruiz Bueno, Tin Turković, Isabel Sánchez Ramos, Jaime Vizcaino Sánchez, Maja Zeman.

Table of contents

I. INTRODUCTION

• Debates, Dynamics and Directions: New Work on Townscapes and Landscapes Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Pilar Diarte-Blasco

II. URBAN LANDSCAPES

• The understanding of the late urban landscape in Hispania from a material perspective, Isabel Sánchez Ramos
• Enterramientos hispanos tardoantiguos in urbe: algunas re exiones y tendencias, Manuel D. Ruiz Bueno
• Late Antique Changes in the Urban Structure of the Dalmatian Metropolis: The Episcopal Complex in Salona, Tin Turković, Nikolina Maraković
• ‘Saintly’ space and Alpine towns in late antique Rhaetia Prima and Vallis Poenina, Chantal Bielmann
• Las transformaciones urbanísticas de Barcino durante la Antigüedad Tardía (siglos IV-VI d.C.), Arnau Perich

III. RURAL LANDSCAPES

• Rural Landscapes between Rome and the Middle Ages: Some Directions and Questions, Neil Christie
• Límites provinciales y agrimensura en la Hispania del Bajo Imperio, Ricard Andreu Expósito, Oriol Olesti Vila
• A Reverse Perspective on the Transformations of the Roman ‘Rural Landscape’ in Central Dalmatia – Hyllis Peninsula, Danilo, Bilice, Maja Zeman
• Termodinámica del No Equilibrio y Evolución del Poblamiento Rural Tardoantiguo. Re exiones y casos de estudio de la Bética Occidental, Luis-Gethsemaní Pérez-Aguilar
• La Olmeda y las villae de la submeseta norte: abastecimiento y consumo durante la Antigüedad Tardía. La Terra Sigillata Hispánica Tardía, Jaime Gutiérrez Pérez

IV. PORTS AND MARITIME CITIES

• Puertos y espacios portuarios entre la antigüedad y la alta edad media: nuevos escenarios de investigación, Sebastián F. Ramallo Asensio, Felipe Cerezo Andreo, Jaime Vizcaino Sánchez
• Escolletes y El Estacio, fondeaderos y comercio tardo antiguo. Un estudio desde la Arqueología Náutica, Felipe Cerezo Andreo
• Italian Quays in the Post-classical Age. A Carolingian Case Study: San Vincenzo al Volturno, Alessandro Luciano
• El Puerto de Bares. Nuevas aportaciones acerca de su con guración y origen, David Fernández Abella