The research that has been carried out in the Lafões/Caramulo area (central-northern Portugal) has made it possible to acquire new data on the formation of medieval territories in a mountainous area. The present paper uses data from written documentation and archaeological data to make a first approach to the study of the of the formation processes of village territories and the different-scale sociopolitical processes that were behind these processes. The focus of this study are two medieval parishes which occupy the most mountainous areas of the present-day municipality of Vouzela. The available data show significant differences between the two, particularly in the configuration of the settlement and its dynamics over time. While in one the settlement areas are quite stable, the other records changes in the settlement structure, with new foundations and abandonments throughout the Middle Ages. As far as it is possible to understand, these differences are fundamentally correlated with the actors who played in each of these territories. In fact, it was social differences of local scales which were mainly responsible for these differences in the definition of territories, ownership of rural properties, size of plots, settlement patterns and surely socio-economic practices. Micro-scale politics have determined different histories and settlement features.
Câmara Municipal de Vouzela, Portugal - ORCID: 0000-0002-8463-3256
Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal - ORCID: 0000-0002-7944-1583
Titolo del capitolo
The Formation of Medieval Territories in Mountain areas. A perspective from archaeology and written records at Caramulo (Lafões, central-northern Portugal)
Autori
Daniel Melo, Catarina Tente
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0530-6.07
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Political landscapes in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages: the Iberian Northwest in the Context of Southern Europe
Curatori
Iñaki Martín Viso
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
340
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0530-6
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0529-0
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0530-6
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0532-0
Collana
Reti Medievali E-Book
ISSN della collana
2704-6362
e-ISSN della collana
2704-6079