Stephen T. Driscoll

Picts and prehistory: Cultural resource management in early medieval Scotland

Prehistoric monuments are a conspicuous feature of royal centres in the early medieval Celtic world. This paper argues that this interest in the past represents conscious efforts to exploit the ancient monuments for political advantage in a period when new political structures were taking shape. This paper examines the situation in Scotland and considers some of the ideological issues raised by this active appropriation of the past.

Discourse on the frontiers of history: Material culture and social reproduction in Early Scotland

The historical archaeology of early Medieval Scotland is of interest outside of Britain because, unlike much of Europe, Scotland experienced little direct intervention from the Roman Empire. Early Scotland has left few contemporary documents and is therefore only barely historical; consequently archaeology has always played a significant role in the study of its origins. That role has generally been to provide illustrations for historical discussions, especially in the case of the Picts who occupied what was to become the core of the Scottish state. This study suggests how the archaeological evidence can be used to go beyond mere illustration and beyond the limitations of the aristocratic interests which are embodied in the contemporary sources and to begin writing a representative social history. The concept of fields of discourse is used to provide a materialist method for integrating texts and artifacts. Attention here is focused on the architecture of the hillforts, the significance of the Symbol Stones, and on the settlement patterns as revealed by aerial photography.

Symbols of power in Ireland and Scotland, 8th-10th century

Resumen: Teniendo como base fuentes cronisticas y documentales elaboradas en el espacio galaico, se analiza el papel de los obispos como intermediarios principales en la relacion politica entre los monarcas ovetenses y el territorio sometido a su dominio. Su enraizamiento en las familias de la aristocracia, en ocasiones la jefatura de algunas de ellas, la riqueza, la cultura hicieron de los prelados de los siglos VIII al X cauces privilegiados de la doble corriente que, en una direccion, legitimaba y hacia posible el desempeno practico del poder y, en la otra, proporcionaba soporte teorico y material a la monarquia sacralizada. Palabras clave: Alta Edad Media, historia politica, historia medieval de Espana, Santiago de Compostela. Abstract: The paper conducts an analysis of the role played by bishops as key intermediaries in the political relationship between the kings of Oviedo and the territory under their dominance. The analysis builds upon sources from the Galician domain, including documents and chronicles. Prelates between the VIII and the X centuries had profound roots in aristocratic families, in occasions even becoming their visible heads. This preeminent position, as well as their substantial richness and culture, made them privileged channels of communication to, in one hand, legitimate and make the practical exercise of power possible and, in the other, offer theoretical and material uphold to the sacred monarchy. Keywords: Early Middle Ages, political history, spanish medieval history, Santiago de CompostelaResumen: En este trabajo se examina la importancia que tenian los documentos para los habitantes de los condados catalanes mil anos atras. Aunque la inmensa mayoria de la poblacion no sabia leer ni escribir, los que tenian propiedades procuraban guardar en sus casas los documentos (escrituras de compraventa, sobre todo) que justificaban sus derechos de propiedad. Habia, por tanto, un consenso social sobre el valor del documento, que reposaba en la tradicion legal (Liber Iudicum) y en la consideracion de la escritura como un recurso de la memoria: preservar el recuerdo del acto juridico. La profesion de escribano, en esta epoca generalmente ejercida por clerigos, gozaba de gran reputacion. Se escribia sobre pergamino y el texto, adaptado a la forma de este soporte, tenia generalmente una gran perfeccion formal. La ley goda establecia que solo el documento correctamente redactado (con fecha y signaturas) tenia validez, es decir, era un instrumentum . Por otra parte, el latin de estos documentos, por el contacto con la lengua hablada (catalan o, si se quiere, precatalan), se alejaba del latin clasico. Aunque la redaccion de escrituras era un imperativo juridico (un mandato del Liber Iudicum), lo que daba fuerza al documento era el consenso social. Solo cuando se ponia en duda la validez de un documento se acudia al juez que, despues de una investigacion, dictaminaba sobre su legalidad. Lo mas sorprendente es que, en una sociedad como aquella, formada mayoritariamente por campesinos iletrados, los campesinos no solo conocian el valor de los documentos, sino que podian almacenar en su memoria el contenido de muchos documentos, ya sea porque habian sido testigos de su redaccion ya sea porque habian participado en asambleas donde alguien los leia. Quiza la prueba mas solida del valor de los documentos se encuentra en los esfuerzos realizados para preservarlos, y el procedimiento seguido para repararlos o restaurarlos cuando se perdian o se destruian por algun accidente. Entre los miles de documentos de los siglos IX y X en Cataluna hay algunos escritos en sesiones judiciales ad reparandum scripturas peditas . Estas reparaciones se efectuaban siempre segun las normas del Liber Iudicum, tomadas a su vez de la tradicion legal romana. Era un sistema diferente del franco, llamado de la apennis . El procedimiento hispanogodo, en vigor en los condados en los siglos IX-XII, se basaba en la testatio amissorum instrumentorum : los perjudicados por la perdida de escrituras se presentaban ante un juez, declaraban la perdida y, a instancias del propio juez, presentaban testigos conocedores del contenido de las escrituras perdidas. Los testigos juraban conocer el contenido, declaraban este contenido con la maxima precision posible y juraban de nuevo, esta vez sobre la veracidad de lo declarado. El documento o acta que recogia todo el procedimiento seguido, con la firma de los testigos y del juez, sustituia al documento desaparecido y, de hecho, era su equivalente. Los ejemplos examinados de reparacion de escrituras muestran el alcance social de esta practica, e, indirectamente, el valor de la escritura y del derecho, la confianza de la sociedad en el sistema judicial, e incluso la difusion social del derecho de propiedad. Abstract: In this paper, we examine the importance that documents had for people who lived in the Catalan counties, one thousand years ago. Although the immense majority of people were not able to read and to write, owners used to keep in their houses charters (specially grants and selling charters) to justify their rights. Thus, there was a social agreement about the importance of the charter based on the legal tradition (Liber Iudicum) and on the consideration of writings as a resource of memory: to preserve the memory of the legally binding act. At this time, professional notaries, usually chosen among priests enjoyed a good reputation. The writings use to be on parchment and the text, adapted to the form of the parchment, usually had a large formal perfection. The Gothic law established that only the document properly written (with date and signatures) had validity, that is an instrumentum. On the other hand, the Latin of charters was different of classical Latin because of the contact with spoken language (Catalan or, if wanted, pre-Catalan). Although the writing of documents was a juridical imperative (a mandate of Liber Iudicum), the force of the charter was based on the social agreement. Only when a doubt about the validity of the document sprung off, it was possible to go to the judge who, after an investigation, sentenced about its legality. What is surprising in that society, formed essentially by illiterate peasants, is the fact that these peasants not only knew the importance of documents but also could store in their memory the content of a large number of charters, either because they acted as witnesses or they were present in assemblies where the documents were read. The strongest evidence of the importance of these documents is the effort accomplished to preserve them, and the methods used to repair or restore them when accidentally were lost or destroyed. Among thousands of documents of IX and X century in Catalonia we find some of them written in judicial meetings ad reparandum scripturas perditas . These repairs were always made according to norms of Liber Iudicum, which took them from the roman legal tradition. It was a different system to the Frankish one, known as apennis . The Hispanogothic process during the IX-XII century was fixed on the testatio amissorum instrumentorum : people damaged by the loss of documents appeared in court of justice, declared the loss and by request of the same judge, presented witnesses who known the contents of the lost documents. The witnesses swore to know the content of the document, they tried to declare with precision about the content and they swore again about the veracity of all declarations. The document or act depicted all the process with the signature of witnesses and the judge and it replaced the lost document, because it worked as its equivalent. The examined examples of repaired documents show the social importance of this process, and, indirectly, the value of writing and the law, the confidence of the society in the judicial system, and even the social diffusion of the law of property.Resumen: El articulo intenta analizar la transicion al Alto Medioevo en un area especifica, la del norte de Italia (que en gran parte se corresponde con los territorios del reino longobardo, durante los siglos VII al VIII), tratando de verificar en que formas y en que medida la arqueologia ha producido cambios significativos en los procesos historicos, a traves de los analisis de algunos componentes fundamentales, como el poblamiento y la economia. En lo que respecta al poblamiento, se hace un examen reflexionando criticamente sobre los planteamientos teoricos, con los cuales ha sido analizada la ciudad (del concepto mismo de ciudad y los tipos de ciudad documentados en nuestro Alto Medioevo) y las diferentes formas de poblamiento rural. Mientras que el debate sobre la ciudad ha experimentado un salto cualitativo gracias al numero y a la calidad de las investigaciones arqueologicas, los estudios sobre el poblamiento rural no han podido contar con una realidad analoga de investigaciones de campo. Asi pues, el debate sobre el nacimiento de la aldea y la realidad del asentamiento disperso, muy abundante en la Toscana, ha quedado bastante marginado en el norte de Italia, sin producir hasta el presente modelos validos. Otro aspecto que se ha analizado en este articulo, utilizando la documentacion arqueologica, tiene que ver con la economia. Desde este punto de vista, la arqueologia ha logrado resultados verdaderamente estimulantes en los ultimos anos, permitiendo revisar desde una optica diferente la naturaleza de la red comercial padana y sus relaciones con el Mediterraneo, entre el tardio siglo VII y el VIII. Este fenomeno ha sido puesto oportunamente en relacion con el nacimiento de los emporios altoadriaticos, entre los cuales destacan naturalmente Venecia (con sus asentamientos lacustres) y Comacchio. Palabras clave: Alto Medioevo, reino lombardo, poblamiento, aldea, ciudad, economia, red comercial. Abstract: The paper aims to analyse the transition to early middle ages in northern Italy (corresponding between the 7 th and 8 th centuries to the Lombard kingdom). It tries to verify how and how much Archaeology has produced significant changes on reading historical processes through analyzing some basic features, as are settlement and economy. Regarding the settlement, work was taken up reflecting critically on theoretical approaches by which the city (from the city concept itself to the different early medieval urban models) and the rural settlement have been studied. While current discussion on medieval town —although today lying on stand by— has experienced an outstanding improvement, due to both the quality and quantity of archaeological research, studies on rural settlement cannot unfortunately account on similar effort of field work. So, discussion carried out in Tuscany about «la naissance du village» and the maintenance of spread settlements has got no consequences in northern Italy, and subsequently an accepted model has not been designed. Otherwise, this paper analyzes the economy’s features, focusing on archaeological evidence. From this point of view, archaeology has obtained in recent years very exciting conclusions, allowing us to review under a new perspective the nature of the Padan trade net, as well as its rapports with the Mediterranean, between late 7th and 8th centuries. This phenomenon has been naturally set on rapport with the beginnings of the upper Adria commercial emporia, among which Venice and lacunars settlements and Comacchio significantly stands out. Keywords: Early Middle Ages, Lombard kingdom, settlement, village, town, economy, trade net.Resumen: Mediante el analisis de los 60 diplomas validos del periodo planteamos un estudio en tres niveles: los poderes condales, los territorios (alfoces) y las entidades de poblamiento (villas). Ello permite dar una vision general sobre las caracteristicas sociales y politicas de Castilla antes de la relativa unificacion bajo Fernan Gonzalez. Es caracterizada como una sociedad prefeudal con profundas transformaciones debido, en buena medida, a la accion de los poderes exteriores sobre las comunidades, generando propiedad, particularmente mediante monasterios, sernas y heredades. Palabras clave: alfoz, poblamiento, comunidad, monasterio, serna. Abstract: Analysing the 60 authentic charters of the period we pretend a three level study: the count power, the territories (alfoces) and the settlement entities (villas). This will allow us to obtain a global overview of social and political characteristics of Castile before the unification under count Fernan Gonzalez. We define it as a pre-feudal society with deep transformations, because of the action of external powers on local communities generating property, mainly through monasteries, sernas and heredades. Keywords: alfoz, settlement, community, monastery, Serna.