Concluding discussion

Trabajos de Prehistoria, 2018

Archaeological investigations of the agrarian communities of the 6 th-2 nd millennia BC in the Iberian Peninsula have undergone fundamental transformations over the past 25 years. This paper attempts to provide an overview of this research by considering three topics: 1) changes in theory, perspective, and practice, 2) the discovery of new sites or site types, and 3) developments in analytical methodologies and techniques. It concludes with some thoughts about possible future challenges and directions for research. RESUMEN Las investigaciones arqueológicas de las comunidades agrarias del VI al II milenios a. C. en la Península Ibérica han sufrido transformaciones fundamentales en los últimos 25 años. Este artículo trata de proporcionar una visión general de esta investigación considerando tres temas: 1) los cambios en la teoría, la perspectiva y la práctica, 2) el descubrimiento de nuevos sitios o tipos de sitios, y 3) la evolución de las metodologías y técnicas analíticas. Se concluye con algunas reflexiones sobre posibles futuros desafíos y direcciones para la investigación.

2019

Article history: Available online xxx a b s t r a c t This paper presents the results of a series of studies conducted in two villages located in the region of Asturias, north of the Iberian Peninsula. These studies explore medieval settlements as well as agricultural and cattle farming activities in these villages, with a special focus on areas still inhabited today as well as surrounding productive spaces. An interdisciplinary methodology was used, which involves pollen and sedimentological analyses, physical and chemical soil analyses, and includes micromorphological studies and radiocarbon dating. These data are combined with the interpretation of stratigraphic information derived from archaeological excavations. The areas of study in the village of Vigaña comprise the necropolis and a nearby meadow, which provided a stratigraphic sequence from the Neolithic era to the present day, and are characterized by the continued significance of farming activities. In Villanueva, meanwhile, both village areas and productive spaces were excavated, which provided information from the Roman period, and revealed the existence of combined agricultural and farming activities since the early medieval era. Quaternary International xxx (2014) 1e15 Please cite this article in press as: Fernández Mier, M., et al., The investigation of currently inhabited villages of medieval origin: Agrarian archaeology in Asturias (Spain), Quaternary International (2014), http://dx.Please cite this article in press as: Fernández Mier, M., et al., The investigation of currently inhabited villages of medieval origin: Agrarian archaeology in Asturias (Spain), Quaternary International (2014), http://dx.

En Paul Bahn, Natalie Franklin and Mathias Strecker : Rock Art Studies. News of the World III. Oxbow Books; pp.37-51.

In this article we set out to analyse, from a archaeological point of view, a political problem which goes beyond archaeology, as demostrated by current political debate, and even by acts of violence. Throughout the 19th century, especially in the latter half, a centralist political model for Spain was developed, which failed to find a political balance between the State and the autonomous traditions of various regions of the Iberian Peninsula. As a result of this failure, towards the end of 19th century legitimation programmes began to be constructed, based on the history of the peoples of these regions. This led to a search in protohistorical archaeology (Iberians, Celts, Tartessians, etc…) for the solution to the political problems caused by a lack of institutional agreement.

As in other countries in southern Europe, medieval archaeology in Spain is a young discipline. The predominance of prehistoric and Classical archaeology in academe has conditioned the study of medieval societies on the basis of the archaeological record. It is only in the last 30 years that medieval archaeology has undergone a significant quantitative and qualitative development. This paper presents a brief analysis of the discipline’s historiography and of the main subjects studied, and considers the main challenges currently posed by the development of the subject.