10. English Version Prologue
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10. ENGLISH VERSION PROLOGUE A KEY discovery FOR THE history buried, still dressed and in the state they view of “rabbinic jurisprudence”, that OF medieval EUROPE were in when they were murdered. The the Talmud of Babylon admits the pre- excavation thus reveals a tragic moment, eminence of national laws over the PAUL SALMONA but also brings us closer to the magical Halakha, the Jewish law. This principle DIRECTOR OF THE MUSÉE D’ART practices in use in 14th-century Catalonia, is appears in the statement “Dina de ET D’HISTOIRE DU JUDAÏSME, PARIS which the Jewish texts make no mention malkhuta dina” (literally: “The law of the of. This shows the breach between the kingdom is the law”) and it reappears The discovery by Anna Colet, Oriol Saula religious norms and individual attitudes. in Morocco in a saying preserved by and their team of the Jewish necropolis This way, the archaeology enriches the Castilian Jews: “Donde fueres, has como in the site at Les Roquetes in Tàrrega history supplying material data that veres” (Wherever you go, do as you see).6 in 2007, was a very important event escape from the ideological or religious Thus, as Walter Laqueur explains, in the for our knowledge of the European tendencies of the written sources. medieval epoch, this rule had become Middle Ages. Indeed, in that preventive From the historical point of view, the a general principle in the relations archaeological dig, skeletons were works by Anna Colet, Oriol Saula and between Jews and the civil authorities: exhumed of seventy individuals their team are essentials. However, it “The law of the country [where the Jews (children, adults and the old) murdered should be remembered that previous live] is the supreme law and respect for during a massacre that took place in the studies of other tombs in the Jewish it is shown in the set of interpretations Jewish quarter of Tàrrega. The context necropolis of Les Roquetes meant a and comments made about it”.7 Thus, is well known from numerous sources: confrontation with certain Jewish from the viewpoint of the Jewish in 1348, the spread of the Black Death organisations that wielded strictly tradition, the application of the national provoked a series of extremely violent religious motives before the political law in questions of scientific research is anti-Jewish reactions across medieval and administrative authorities to halt perfectly acceptable. This does not mean Europe, and which happened at the the anthropological analyses that were that once the work by the researchers same rate as the spread of the epidemic, being carried out on those remains. The is completed, it is understandable that in a kind of criminal catharsis. In fact, archaeologists had to accept the reburial certain groups want to apply to human the massacre de Tàrrega appears of the bones in Collserola cemetery remains they believe belong to their in the archives of the Catalan Royal in Barcelona before they were able to community similar care to the funeral Chancellery, in documents that wish to complete their studies. This was a great rites as given to Jews today. return the survivors their rights. And loss. The exhibition “Tragedy in the call. if the archaeological discovery of the One can only lament these intromissions Tàrrega 1348”, presented in the Urgell evidence for a crime is exceptional, in that endanger the progress of District Museum, demonstrates this case, the combining of the historical knowledge: with the interruption unequivocally that the best way to sources and the archaeological data was of the research, not only was part of respect the victims is to study their crucial for characterising the remains. the history of the Jewish presence in remains as scientifically as possible, Excavations of old mass graves are Tàrrega sacrificed, but also part of the know their fate accurately, elucidate their not very common. In this sense, the history of the medieval Jewish world and story to give them back their dignity with “fossar dels jueus” can be likened to the European history. a symbolic burial, notwithstanding the graves at Virée de Galerne, dug in 1793 In this sense, the claim by some groups material burial they would have desired. in Mans in western France,1 during of exclusive rights over the “ancient 1 the revolutionary wars; It can also dead” raises legal, ethical and scientific See http://www.inrap.fr/archeologie- be compared to the remains of mass questions. Can the norms that regulate preventive/Actualites/Communiques- murders, like those of the Spanish Civil the current funerary practices of a de-presse/p-11883-Le-Mans- War or the Pinochet coup in Chile in 1973, religious group prevail over the general archeologie-de-la-viree-de-Galerne. or the massacres of Tutsis in Rwanda law that regulates the scientific study htm. in 1994 (the modus operandi of which of archaeological remains from seven 2 See William HAGLUND (2008), was similar to that of the massacre in centuries ago? Do the convictions Tàrrega with the use of knives and blunt “L’archéologie et l’anthropologie of a community suffice to demand médico-légales dans un contexte objects), or the systematic executions that knowledge be sacrificed against of Bosnian civilians by the Serbian international”, in Jean-Paul DEMOULE the general rights? Can a minority and Bernard STIEGLER (dir.), L’avenir forces of Ratko Mladi in Srebrenica prohibit a whole nation access to its in 1995. Like the work of forensic du passé: Modernité de l’archéologie, past? Nowadays, do the Catalan Jews, Paris, La Découverte. scientists and archaeologists in the without any family links to the victims 20th-century graves,2 the excavation of 1348, have any “particular right” 3 in Tàrrega documented el crime with See the exhibition “Angels & demons. over these ancient deaths? In contrast, Jewish magic through the ages”, anthropological data analogous to the would it not be better for the “rights” of forensic evidence. Seven centuries after presented in the Bible Lands Museum, possible descendents of the converts Jerusalem, in 2011. the events, it is evident that this evidence who remained in Tàrrega after the edict will not be used to seek those guilty of of expulsion in 1492 to prevail, currently 4 In his works on the Jews in Provence, the crime, but it is true that they confer a unaware of their Jewish origins but Danièle Iancu-Agou shows how tangible aspect to the massacre that can potentially linked, from the genealogic the recently converted Provençal or only be achieved through abstraction point of view, to the defunct in the Jewish Languedoc “neophytes” maintained uniquely with the documentary proof. necropolis of Les Roquetes?4 Whatever, cerain links to the rest of the Jewish The traces of the blows visible on the the case is that the political and family in the County of Venaissin after bones of the victims (sometimes more administrative authorities paid attention the Jews were expelled from France in than twenty on one individual) explain to these particular claims, although they 1394. See Danièle IANCU-AGOU (1998), the violence of the criminal acts better were not unique: in Europe, in many Être Juif en Provence au temps du roi than any description. Numerous preventive excavations of graveyards René, Paris, Albin Michel. medieval chronicles narrate the fury affected by building works, these claims that was unleashed against the Jewish arise and interrupt the work of the 5 La intervenció arqueològica a les communities in France, Germany and researchers. necròpolis històriques: Els cementiris the Iberian Peninsula, but this barbarity In 2009, in the congress “The jueus (2009), Barcelona, MUHBA and is still palpable in Tàrrega. archaeological excavations in historic Ajuntament de Barcelona, Institut de Another unique aspect of the graves cemeteries”, organised by the Museum Cultura, 2009. at Les Roquetes is, like the burning of History of Barcelona,5 the imperative 6 Reine AKRICHE and Christian clouds that swept over Pompeii, having need for research and cooperation NICAISE (2005), Proverbes judéo- preserved archaeological data that between the parties involved was espagnols: Refranes y dichos de mi never appears in a medieval Jewish shown, including in this the Jewish abuela Beïda Lévy, Rouen, L’Instant funerary context. One of the victims communities today, to carry out Perpétuel. was wearing amulets, which does not scientific studies begun with the fit very well with the vision of the norms discovery of graveyards. This position 7 of Judaism.3 Indeed, in the conventional Walter LAQUEUR (2006), The was formulated solemnly in Barcelona changing face of anti-Semitism: From funeral, this type of object is almost Declaration on Old Jewish Cemeteries, never used, as the Jewish ritual imposes ancient times to the present day, New which recalled the legal framework York, Oxford University Press. a great austerity on burials, so the that is established for the modalities dead are stripped of all kinds of funeral of archaeological intervention. This furnishings. In Tàrrega, because of the text confirmed the pre-eminence of context of extreme violence, the most the general law in a democratic state. likely is that the victims were hurriedly I may then note that, from the point of 362 ENGLISH VERSION ENGLISH VERSION 363 1. FROM crossroads to MARKET toWN 1.1. CONQUEST, colonisation AND territories, but it also blocked the 3 The survey of the March of Berga fortification (“castellare”) that was traces that remain are around the road (PAPELL, 2005: I, 349-351, doc. 240), 1.2. THE MARKET toWN It was also decided to grant the transformation OF THE road NETWORK southward expansion of the counts of does not refer to the stretch between improved with the building of an between Balaguer and Tàrrega and which we can interpret as an indication towns that held markets the power Cerdanya through the March of Berga.