I Seminar on the ancient and medieval cult image. Iconotropy is a word of Greek origin that literally means “movement/change of the image”. According to William J. Hamblin (2007), iconotropy is the cultural phenomenon whereby there is an “accidental or deliberate misinterpretation by one culture of the images or myths of another, especially to bring them into accord with the first culture”. Thus, both in the classical culture of antiquity and in medieval culture, we can identify numerous testimonies of how – on a symbolic and material level – cult images were involved in processes of misinterpretation produced by another culture. The international seminar “Iconotropy: symbolic and material alterations of the ancient and medieval cult image” aims to revitalise studies on the ancient and medieval cult image based on the concept of “iconotropy” (movement/change of the image), and to show researchers and students how the subject can still be approached from a multidisciplinary and innovative perspective that allows common denominators to be reached in defining the symbolic and material changes of these images in different chronologies, epochs and mentalities.
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6th Seminar on Medieval Archaeology, Art and History. The aim of this seminar is to reflect on the value of material culture in the construction of identities in frontier societies or in processes of acculturation. Through a comparative study of the material culture associated with the different religious groups and social strata of the Peninsula, as well as inventories of secular and religious buildings, archaeological finds and the production and circulation of objects, we will analyse attitudes such as reuse, the meaning of spolia, appropriation or resemantization, in a long-term spectrum. Only through a multidisciplinary and diachronic approach can we understand these phenomena and advance our knowledge of our heritage. Topics such as the household furnishings of Mudejars, Old Christians and Moors; the trade and exchange of objects (textiles, books, weapons, scientific equipment, etc.) in the Mediterranean context, with its centres of production and consumption; spolia, the destruction and reuse of these objects, and the relations between centres of power and centres of knowledge through their material culture will be dealt with.
We usually associate monasteries with the Middle Ages. Monks, nuns, friars and canons played a fundamental role throughout this millennium, both in religious, cultural and economic life. There were different forms of monasticism, both male and female, from the diversity of the early Middle Ages to the establishment of religious orders, and monasteries were an articulating element of society, from the aristocracy to the peasantry. The desire to attain the perfection of Christian life clashed with the adaptation to society, in a tension that took the form of scandals and reforms. The relationship with the laity, between protection and abuse; the attitude to teaching and written culture; the different ways of organising the life of the monastic community; intercessory prayer for the living and the dead; and the tensions with bishops and secular clerics, all marked the evolution of the monastic life.
Since 2012, systematic excavation campaigns and preventive consolidation and restoration work have been carried out at the archaeological site of the Estrella de Montiel castle. The result of this work has been the discovery of a Muslim hisn, a castle of the Order of Santiago, the primitive parish church of the Virgen de la Estrella, part of the town planning and walls of the medieval town, and a series of very significant archaeological materials.Since 2018 the project has focused on the archaeological study of the Battle of Montiel (1369), in whose outcome King Pedro I of Castile died, locating the scenes of the battle and documenting various materials and structures from the conflict.
The site known as Vascos (Navalmoralejo, Toledo), despite all the monuments it has preserved, has no contemporary documentary references, so it has always raised many questions about its origin and meaning, as well as its own name. The excavations that have been carried out on the site since 1975, apart from providing us with material evidence of the daily life of those who lived there, also lead us to consider that we are dealing with an enclave that was founded in the Umayyad period with the aim of being a metallurgical production centre and that later, in the 11th century, in the Taifa period, it became a centre for metallurgical production, in the 11th century, during the Taifa period, it became an urbanised enclosure with eminently military functions, given its strategic location in the territory of al-Andalus at that time and especially in the Taifa of Toledo.
Despite being a fundamental element in the life of human communities, plants have attracted little interest in medieval archaeology. However, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in gaining a detailed understanding of the role of plants in medieval communities and this project responds to this interest. This project, funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, aims to: a) investigate the variety of plants used in the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times (6th-11th centuries AD); b) determine the introduction of new species and, c) study the interaction between human groups and plant species through different practices.
Mining in Al-Andalus is a subject with many interesting facets. Heir to Roman and Visigoth mining, it will also open its own paths in mining practice thanks to the technological advances experienced in the Arabian Peninsula between the 6th and 9th centuries. Arabic written sources will be analysed, covering topics such as property, mining, the manipulation of metals and the alchemical uses of minerals.
Relevant issues such as the relationship between mineral wealth and the manoeuvres of conquest, the link between mining and the forms of population of the territory, the expansion and commercialisation of these mining materials in the Andalusian period, as well as their legal forms of exploitation will be dealt with.
The University of Salamanca, like other European centres, was constituted before the process of royal concession of c. 1218, so that the knowledge preserved in the cloisters would be the seed of the cultural recomposition.
In addition to the books identified and other elements that provide information on the cultural universe in which the protagonists who would eventually make up the Estudio General de Salamanca moved, it is the preserved sculptural representations that confirm the relevance of the knowledge within its walls, by recognising the personification of the Liberal Arts in several Romanesque capitals in its battered cloister.
According to what has been analysed to date, these are the most remote figurations located on the Peninsula, a milestone in close agreement with those observed in the rest of Europe.
These cultural manifestations confirm that, prior to the foundation of the Studio, a powerful and highly qualified cultural elite existed in the Cathedral during the 12th and 13th centuries and that knowledge was given great importance.
The southern doorway of Jaca Cathedral is much less well known than the western entrance to the church, with its famous chrism and inscriptions. However, it was one of the first historiated doorways in the Romanesque style in the Iberian Peninsula. The alterations suffered over the centuries and the loss of original elements have undoubtedly contributed to this historiographical neglect.
A hypothesis for the reconstruction of the ensemble, based on the study of components still in situ and other decontextualised elements, will make it possible to highlight its singularities and propose new keys for reading its images. In this sense, the cathedral doorway is revealed as an important milestone in the creation of visual discourses and the configuration of entrance typologies at the end of the 11th century.
The Lower Epoch of Iberian Culture, 40 years later. Symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the AEAA.
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