Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:17:32.557Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reccopolis revealed: the first geomagnetic mapping of the early medieval Visigothic royal town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2019

Joachim Henning ,
Michael McCormick Open the ORCID record for Michael McCormick [Opens in a new window] ,
Lauro Olmo Enciso ,
Knut Rassmann  and
Eyub Fikrit Eyub
Joachim Henning
Affiliation:
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Goethe University, Hauspostfach 27, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, D-60629 Frankfurt, Germany
Michael McCormick*
Affiliation:
Initiative for the Science of the Human Past and Department of History, Robinson Hall, Harvard University, 35 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Lauro Olmo Enciso
Affiliation:
Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Calle Colegios, 2, E-28801 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain
Knut Rassmann
Affiliation:
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Palmengartenstraße 10–12, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Eyub Fikrit Eyub
Affiliation:
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Goethe University, Hauspostfach 27, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, D-60629 Frankfurt, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: sohpchair@fas.harvard.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reccopolis, in central Iberia, is the only archaeologically identified town founded by Germanic newcomers on Roman soil during the challenging socio-political and environmental circumstances of the mid to late sixth century AD. Despite archaeological investigations, doubts have persisted concerning the nature and size of Reccopolis. Recent geomagnetic survey, however, has revealed a dense urban fabric, unexpected new royal palace buildings, an extramural suburb and one of the potentially earliest Islamic mosques in Iberia. Reccopolis now stands as an exceptional example of early medieval urbanism that challenges our perceptions of urban development in sixth-century Europe.

Keywords

IberiaReccopolisearly IslamicVisigothsgeomagnetictownsLeovigild
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 369 , June 2019 , pp. 735 - 751
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba Calzado, M. 2007. Diacronía de la vivienda señorial de Emerita (Lusitania, Hispania): desde las domus altoimperiales y tardoantiguas a las residencias palaciales omeyas (siglos I–IX), in Brogiolo, G.P. & Chavarría, A. (ed.) Archeologia e società tra tardoantico e alto medioevo: 163–92. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, Società Archeologica Padana.Google Scholar
Avni, G. 2014. The Byzantine–Islamic transition in Palestine: an archaeological approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684335.001.0001Google Scholar
Beltrán de Heredia, J. 2009. Arquitectura y sistemas de construcción en Barcino durante la Antigüedad Tardía. Quaderns d'arqueologia i història de la ciutat de Barcelona 5: 142–69.Google Scholar
Bonifay, M. & Bernal-Casasola, D.. 2008. Recópolis, paradigma de las importaciones africanas en el Visigothorum regnum. Un primer balance. Zona arqueológica 2008: 98–115.Google Scholar
Büntgen, U. et al. 2016. Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD. Nature Geoscience 9: 231–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2652Google Scholar
Burch, J., Garcia, G., Nolla, J.M., Palahí, L., Sagrera, J., Sureda, M., Vivó, D. & Miquel, I.. 2006. Excavacions arqueològiques a la muntanya de Sant Julià de Ramis. 2. El castellum. Girona: Universitat de Girona.Google Scholar
Caillet, J.-P., Vasić, Č., Popović, V., Duval, N., Bjelajac, L., Prica, R. & Lazić, M.. 2010. Le complexe IV, appelé couramment ‘palais épiscopal’, in Duval, N. & Popović, V. (ed.) Caričin Grad 3. L'acropole et ses monuments: 450–508. Belgrade: Institut Archéologique de Belgrade.Google Scholar
Calvo Capilla, S. 2007. Las primeras mezquitas de al-Andalus a través de las fuentes árabes (92/711–170/785). Al-Qantara 28: 143–79. https://doi.org/10.3989/alqantara.2007.v28.i1.34Google Scholar
Cardelle de Hartmann, C. (ed.). 2001. Victoris Tunnunensis Chronicon cum reliquiis ex Consularibus Caesaraugustanis et Iohannis Biclarensis Chronicon. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Carreras Monfort, C. 1995. A new perspective for the demographic study of Roman Spain. Revista de historia da arte e arqueologia 2: 59–81.Google Scholar
Castro Priego, M. 2016. Absent coinage: archaeological contexts and tremisses on the central Iberian Peninsula in the 7th and 8th centuries AD. Medieval Archaeology 60: 27–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2016.1147784Google Scholar
Christie, N. & Augenti, A. (ed.). 2012. Vrbes extinctae. Archaeologies of abandoned classical towns. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Claude, D. 1965. Studien zu Reccopolis: 2. Die historische Situation. Madrider Mitteilungen 6: 167–94.Google Scholar
Cytryn-Silverman, K. 2009. The Umayyad mosque of Tiberias. Muqarnas 26: 37–61. https://doi.org/10.1163/22118993-90000143Google Scholar
Cytryn-Silverman, K. 2012. Excavations at Tiberias (spring and autumn 2009): remains of a district capital, in Matthews, R. & Curtis, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the 7 th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12 April–16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London: 599–615. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
de Ligt, L. 2012. Urban archaeology, urban networks and population dynamics in Roman Italy, in Vermeulen, F., Burgers, G.J., Keay, S. & Corsi, C. (ed.) Urban landscape survey in Italy and the Mediterranean: 183–96. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Ewert, C. 1995. La mezquita de Córdoba: santuario modelo del occidente islámico, in López Guzmán, R.J. (ed.) La arquitectura del Islam occidental: 53–68. Granada: Legado Andalusí.Google Scholar
Feldman, M., Harbeck, M., Keller, M., Spyrou, M., Rott, A., Trautmann, B., Scholz, H.C., Päffgen, B., Peters, J., McCormick, M., Bos, K.I., Herbig, A. & Krause, J.. 2016. A high-coverage Yersinia pestis genome from a 6th-century Justinianic plague victim. Molecular Biology and Evolution 33: 2911–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw170Google Scholar
García, A., Izquierdo, R., Enciso, L. Olmo & Peris, D. (ed.). 2010. Espacios urbanos en el occidente mediterráneo (s. VI–VIII). Toledo: Toletvm Visigodo.Google Scholar
Gelichi, S. 2010. La città in Italia tra VI e VIII secolo: riflessioni dopo un trentennio di dibattito archeologico, in García, A., Izquierdo, R., Enciso, L. Olmo & Peris, D. (ed.) Espacios urbanos en el occidente mediterráneo (s. VI–VIII): 65–85. Toledo: Toletvm Visigodo.Google Scholar
Gómez de la Torre-Verdejo, A. 2008. La muralla de Recópolis, in Enciso, L. Olmo (ed.) Recópolis y la ciudad en la época visigoda: 77–86. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez Lloret, S. & Bautista, J. Sarabia. 2013. The episcopal complex of Eio-el Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete, Spain). Hortus Artium Medievalium 19: 267–300.Google Scholar
Haldon, J. 2016. Die byzantinische Stadt: Verfall and Wiederaufleben vom 6. bis zum ausgehenden 11. Jahrhundert, in Daim, F. & Drauschke, J. (ed.) Hinter den Mauern und auf dem offenen Land: Leben im Byzantinischen Reich: 9–22. Mainz: Römisch-Germanischens Zentralmuseum.Google Scholar
Henning, J. (ed.). 2007. Post-Roman towns, trade and settlement in Europe and Byzantium. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hernández Vera, J.A. 2004. La mezquita aljama de Zaragoza a la luz de la información arqueológica. Revista de ciencias de las religiones 10: 65–91.Google Scholar
Ivanišević, V. 2016. Late Antique cities and their environment in northern Illyricum, in Daim, F. & Drauschke, J. (ed.) Hinter den Mauern und auf dem offenen Land: Leben im Byzantinischen Reich: 89–99. Mainz: Römisch-Germanischens Zentralmuseum.Google Scholar
Kirilov, T. 2006. Die Stadt des Frühmittelalters in Ost und West: archäologische Befunde Mitteleuropas im Vergleich zur östlichen Balkanhalbinsel. Bonn: Dr Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Lavan, L. 2012. From polis to emporion? Retail and regulation in the Late Antique city, in Morrisson, C. (ed.) Trade and markets in Byzantium: 333–77. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Liebeschuetz, J.H.W.G. 2001. Decline and fall of the Roman city. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marzano, A. 2011. Rank-size analysis and the Roman cities of the Iberian peninsula and Britain, in Bowman, A. & Wilson, A. (ed.) Settlement, urbanization, and population: 196–228. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mateos, P. & Alba, M.. 2000. De Emerita Augusta a Marida, in Zoreda, L. Caballero & Cruz, P. Mateos (ed.) Visigodos y Omeyas. Un debate entre la Antigüedad Tardía y la Alta Edad Media: 143–68. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.Google Scholar
McCormick, M. 1990. Eternal victory. Triumphal rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the early medieval West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCormick, M. 2015. Tracking mass death during the fall of Rome's empire (I). Journal of Roman Archaeology 28: 325–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759415002512Google Scholar
McCormick, M. 2016. Tracking mass death during the fall of Rome's empire (II): a first inventory of mass graves. Journal of Roman Archaeology 29: 1004–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400073190Google Scholar
Metzger, C., Duval, N., Baratte, F., Caillet, J.-P. & Prica, R.. 2010. Le bâtiment III, dit consignatorium: salle de réception épiscopale, in Duval, N. & Popović, V. (ed.) Caričin Grad 3. L'acropole et ses monuments: 265–85. Belgrade: Institut archéologique de Belgrade.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2006. Recópolis: un paseo por la ciudad visigoda. Madrid: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2008a. Recópolis: una ciudad en una época de transformaciones, in Enciso, L. Olmo (ed.) Recópolis y la ciudad en la época visigoda: 41–61. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2008b. Fuentes escritas y primeras investigaciones sobre Recópolis, in Enciso, L. Olmo (ed.) Recópolis y la ciudad en la época visigoda: 23–39. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2010. Ciudad y Estado en época visigoda: Toledo, la construcción de un nuevo paisaje urbano, in García, A., Izquierdo, R., Enciso, L. Olmo & Peris, D. (ed.) Espacios urbanos en el occidente mediterráneo (s. VI–VIII): 87–111. Toledo: Toletvm Visigodo.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2012. De Celtiberia a Šantabariyya: la gestación del espacio y el proceso de formación de la sociedad andalusí, in Baquedano, E., García Moreno, L.A. & Vigil-Escalera, A. (ed.) 711. Arqueología e historia entre dos mundos: 39–65. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L. 2015. The materiality of complex landscapes: central Iberia during the 6th–8th centuries A.D., in Gelichi, S. & Hodges, R. (ed.) New directions in early medieval European archaeology: Spain and Italy compared. Essays for Riccardo Francovich: 15–42. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Olmo Enciso, L., Priego, M. Castro, Torre-Verdejo, A. Gómez de la & Sanz Paratcha, Á.. 2008. Recópolis y su justificación cientifica: la secuencia estratigráfica, in Enciso, L. Olmo (ed.) Recópolis y la ciudad en la época visigoda: 65–90. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional.Google Scholar
Rius, M. 2000. La Alquibla en al-Andalus y al-Magrib al-Aqsà. Barcelona: Institut ‘Millás Vallicrosa’ d'Història de la Ciència Àrab.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Alonso, C. (ed.). 1975. Las historias de los Godos, Vándalos y Suevos de Isidoro de Sevilla, León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación ‘San Isidoro’.Google Scholar
Vermeulen, F., Burgers, G.J., Keay, S. & Corsi, C.. 2012. Urban landscape survey in Italy and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Vizcaíno Sánchez, J. 2007. La presencia bizantina en Hispania, siglos VI–VII: la documentación arqueológica. Murcia: Universidad de Murcia.Google Scholar
Walmsley, A. & Damgaard, K.. 2005. The Umayyad congregational mosque of Jarash in Jordan and its relationship to early mosques. Antiquity 79: 362–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00114152Google Scholar
Wendt, K.P. & Zimmermann, A.. 2008. Bevölkerungsdichte und Landnutzung in den germanischen Provinzen des Römischen Reiches im 2. Jahrhundert A.D. Germania 86: 191–226.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. 2011. City sizes and urbanization in the Roman Empire, in Bowman, A. & Wilson, A. (ed.) Settlement, urbanization, and population: 161–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199602353.003.0007Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Henning supplementary material

Henning supplementary material 1

Download Henning supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 17.6 KB