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.

Through “three capsules” of knowledge in video format we will learn how men and women dressed in the Iron Age in the Iberian Peninsula and the sources used by archaeologists for their study. *The content of these capsules is the result of the internal research project carried out by the Department of Protohistory and Colonisation called “Protohistoric weaving and clothing”. Susana de Luis Mariño (Department of Protohistory and Colonisation) and Elena Aznar Medina (Archaeologist specialising in protohistoric weaving).

In recent prehistoric societies, not all members of the community had the right to a permanent burial. Around 4000 years ago, funerary rites began to change, collective burials gave way to personalised tombs, some of which were for children. In some cases, as in the Cerro de La Encantada (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real) over 400 years a small number of children received special treatment. This round table will present a group of funerary structures from the Bronze Age of La Mancha and will address the problems posed by the study of prehistoric child tombs.