Collection Haut Moyen Âge dirigée par Régine Le Jan 24 NEW DIRECTIONS IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN ARCHAEOLOGY: SPAIN AND ITALY COMPARED ESSAYS FOR RICCARDO FRANCOVICH edited by Sauro Gelichi & Richard Hodges © 2015, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwhise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-2-503-56520-0 Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper INDEX Introduction 9 Sauro Gelichi & Richard Hodges PART ONE: SPAIN 13 Th e Materiality of Complex Landscapes: Central Iberia During 6th-8th centuries A.D. 15 Lauro Olmo Enciso Early al-Andalus: an Archaeological Approach to the Process of Islamization in the Iberian Peninsula (7th to 10th centuries) 43 Sonja Gutiérrez Lloret Th e Emergence of the City in al-Andalus 87 Antonio Malpica Cuello Th e Other Spain. Th e Formation of Seigneurial Society in Alava 111 Juan Antonio Quiros Castillo Th e Other Iberian Peninsula: the Cities in Early Medieval Spain 135 José Avelino Gutiérrez PART TWO: ITALY 185 ‘Islamisation’ and the Rural World: Sicily and al-Andalus. What Kind of Archaeology? 187 Alessandra Molinari Th e Still Byzantine Calabria: a Case Study 221 Ghislaine Noyé Th e Idea of the Polyfocal ‘Town’? Archaeology and the Origins of Medieval Urbanism in Italy 267 Richard Hodges Societies at the Edge: New Cities in the Adriatic Sea During the Early Middle Ages (8th-9th centuries) 285 Sauro Gelichi Analyzing the Fragmentation During the Early Middle Ages: Tuscany’s Model and the Countryside of the Centre-North Italy 301 Giovanna Bianchi Th e Economy of Italy and Spain in the Early Middle Ages 335 Chris Wickham INDEXES 347 Index of Names of Persons and Subjects 349 Index of Places 355 Sauro Gelichi - Richard Hodges INTRODUCTION L’importanza di Riccardo Francovich nell’archeologia medievale europea è indiscutibile. (A. Malpica Cuello, L’infl uenza di Riccardo Francovich nel dibattito archeologico spa- gnolo, p. 65). iccardo Francovich loved to travel. In some ways he was an archaeologi- cal grand tourist. He was a European intellectual, happiest tracking down R Medievalists in Europe, and less at ease in the New World, though fear- less in Manhattan and DC. For him grasping the world of European Medieval Archaeology stirred his passions. In particular, visiting excavations in France, Ger- many, Scandinavia or England opened his mind to a rational northern European approach to historical problem-solving and to variable methodologies of excava- tion. With these travels, too, came the opportunity to explore other cultures, their lifeways, quirks and foods. How (overly) organized were the English excavations! But did the English really drink rice and carrot wine (in 1981)? How extraordinary it was to fi nd the Vikings in the Arctic on the Lofoten Islands? How devoted the French were to their wines in their wonderful countryside, but how quirky their archaeologists were some times. But of all his travels – made with increasing regu- larity at the expense of other travels – was his passion for Spain. At dinner in his home in Antella he would describe extraordinary excavations and ferocious debates in the Iberian peninsula. Th en, with a moment’s thought, he would compare the political circumstances in Italy to those in Spain, and he would vehemently curse Italy’s politicians and more. In post-fascist Spain Ric- cardo detected a political democracy that gave rise to the kind of Mediterranean archaeology with which he was comfortable. Yes, it was not as prissily correct as English archaeology, yet there was a huge romance in building a new history for a new country. Very soon he was hosting Spanish professors and then, inimi- tably, their students. Soon those students were fi nding their future with him in Siena, while they gently lured him ever more oft en to visit their home universi- ties in Spain. Spanish archaeology, its great successes and great struggles, became a part of Riccardo’s life 1. 1 A. Malpica Cuello, L’infl uenza di Riccardo Francovich nel dibattito archeologico spagnolo, in Riccardo Francovich e I Grandi Temi del Dibattito Europeo, Florence, 2011, p. 65-72. New Directions in Early Medieval European Archaeology: Spain and Italy compared, ed. by Sauro Gelichi and Richard Hodges, Turnhout, 2015 (Haut Moyen Âge, 24), p. 9-11. © 10.1484/M.HAMA-EB.5.10799 10 introduction Th is volume of essays began as a one-day conference held at the British School at Rome the day aft er Riccardo would have been65 years old on the 11 June 2011. On that lovely day we remembered with good humour Riccardo’s impact upon each and everyone of us. We were joined by his wife, Nicoletta Onesti Francovich, his daughter, Lisa Francovich and his two grand-children, making it a festive occasion as, at the same time, we explored the new directions that new archaeological discoveries were causing us all to consider. Th ese essays have grown out of that happy and intellectually fruitful day. Th e book takes as its core theme a comparison of Italian and Spanish Medieval Archaeology, in each case challenging the status quo and attempting to move the boundary lines of our his- torical discussions ever forwards. Riccardo, for sure, would have welcomed some of this thinking, and with a smile and passion cursed other aspects! Th at’s what made him so human, and both such a wonderful friend and teacher to all of us. By taking this approach to Italy and Spain – two places most beloved by Ric- cardo – we are attempting to evaluate if the Medieval Archaeology of these two important Mediterranean countries, largely unfamiliar on the international sta- ge, with their diff erent ‘histories’ can be compared. To do this, we have chosen to examine a key moment in their formation – the passage from the Ancient World to that of the Medieval. Above all, thanks to the analyses of diverse forms of settlements, we believe these refl ections will have great bearing on the social and economic structures of these two countries. Th is approach has highlighted not only the identifi cation of singular conjunctures (the impact of the new ‘barbaric’ aristocracies on the social structures of the Roman world, the mode across which Islam was established, for example, in the peninsula as in Sicily), but also parallel evolutions at the macro-structrutal level (for example, in the events of the town and the countryside). Taking the paradigm of fragmentation as a basic starting- point that characterizes the western world aft er the fall of the Roman Empire, it is thought-provoking to address and compare these diff erent circumstances within the covers of a book. Articulated in two distinct geographical parts, the volume aims to touch upon many of the contemporary themes in the archaeological and historical debates today in these two Mediterranean countries. So for Spain the book surveys the circumstances aft er the dissolution of the Visigothic kingdom (Lauro Olmo), the impact of Islam on the organization of territory (Sonia Gutierrez) and the reformulation of the concept of the city (Antonio Malpica). Th ese essays, however,can be viewed in parallel with the circumstances in the Christian king- doms in the north(Avelino Gutierrez; Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo). Turning to it Italy as a kind of refl ective mirror, there is an attempt to give form and to understand these same processes that appear to characterize even greater frag- mentation. Th e essays comprise the Islamisation of Sicily (Alessandra Molinari) and Byzantine continuity in Calabria (Ghislaine Noyé), before passing to three sauro gelichi – richard hodges 11 chapters that comprise a refl ections upon early Medieval urbisation (Richard Hodges), on new emerging settlements in the Adriatic Sea area (Sauro Gelichi) and end with one of the themes dearest to Riccardo, that of the riorganization of the countryside in Central-Northern Italy at the threshold of the year, AD 1000 (Giovanna Bianchi). Th ese essay off er comparative archaeologies in terms of themes, but above all else in terms of shared methods. Th e theoretical approach on a thematic basis has been strongly determined by the historical debates. Th ese archaeologies, both conservative and innovative at the same time, is the price paid for an archaeology that is restlessly seeking to look forwards. Of course, each contributor recognizes that within these apparently national tradition a certain evolutionary commo- nality can be traced in the roots of those reports started precisely by Riccardo towards the end of the ‘80s and then fi rmed up in two episodes of joint refl ec- tions 2. Several contributors actively played a part with Riccardo in these volu- mes; others joined this imagined community a little later. Th e hope is that these essays off er, together with a homage to a friend and teacher, a profi le of Medieval Archaeology of these two countries that, apart from being synthesizes of new results, also provide a platform for further projects in the new millennium. Finally, as we conclude this introduction, our thoughts return to that day in 2011 with the lectures that provided the starting-point for this book. As we have alre- ady noted, Nicoletta Onesti Francovich was with us and eagerly participated in the discussions. Riccardo’s companion for four decades, she was a true friend to each of us, off ering in equal measure hospitality and generous wisdom. Her passing in August 2014 has left a hole in our hearts, filled by many wonderful me- mories of Riccardo and Nicoletta at Antella, and as enthusiastic and thoughtful visitors to our projects.