CONGRESS CANCELED Archaeology of the Medieval Iberian Peninsula: The Archaeological Problem of Córdoba

Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

Description

There is no doubt that archeology is bringing lots of new information to the study of the Middle Ages as well as providing new analytical perspectives. Where text is unavailable, material evidence helps us to discover realities that would otherwise be impossible to study. Additionally, Medieval Archaeology is giving a face to the people, something that is barely reflected in written documents. Over the past thirty years, medieval archaeology in Spain and Portugal has yielded an enormous amount of historically valuable information. Many of the results have not been widely disseminated, especially when the findings originate outside of well-planned scientific projects. Nevertheless, findings which are the result of emergency operations, pre-construction interventions, or urban projects in our cities can still provide a valuable resource of information. Results of this type are rarely published in a scientific context and usually end up in administrative reports of little consequence.

A case of special relevance is that of Córdoba / Qurtuba, the most important city of the Iberian Peninsula between the 8th and 11th centuries, due to its political, religious and demographic importance. Its two main monuments were, without doubt: the Great Mosque and the city-palace of Madinat al-Zahra. The panel that I propose to highlight the most significant advances made by Archeology in recent years in the city of Cordoba relating to the Islamic period. The discoveries made in the part of the building of the main mosque corresponding to the 8th century and in the zone of the maqsura, commanded by the caliph al-Hakam II are noteworthy for their importance. They are still unpublished and their value is enormous to know the symbolic content reached by this building in the context of the Umayyad caliphate policy of the West. Fernando Valdés Fernández

 
May 8th, 3:30 PM

CONGRESS CANCELED Archaeology of the Medieval Iberian Peninsula: The Archaeological Problem of Córdoba

Schneider 1350

There is no doubt that archeology is bringing lots of new information to the study of the Middle Ages as well as providing new analytical perspectives. Where text is unavailable, material evidence helps us to discover realities that would otherwise be impossible to study. Additionally, Medieval Archaeology is giving a face to the people, something that is barely reflected in written documents. Over the past thirty years, medieval archaeology in Spain and Portugal has yielded an enormous amount of historically valuable information. Many of the results have not been widely disseminated, especially when the findings originate outside of well-planned scientific projects. Nevertheless, findings which are the result of emergency operations, pre-construction interventions, or urban projects in our cities can still provide a valuable resource of information. Results of this type are rarely published in a scientific context and usually end up in administrative reports of little consequence.

A case of special relevance is that of Córdoba / Qurtuba, the most important city of the Iberian Peninsula between the 8th and 11th centuries, due to its political, religious and demographic importance. Its two main monuments were, without doubt: the Great Mosque and the city-palace of Madinat al-Zahra. The panel that I propose to highlight the most significant advances made by Archeology in recent years in the city of Cordoba relating to the Islamic period. The discoveries made in the part of the building of the main mosque corresponding to the 8th century and in the zone of the maqsura, commanded by the caliph al-Hakam II are noteworthy for their importance. They are still unpublished and their value is enormous to know the symbolic content reached by this building in the context of the Umayyad caliphate policy of the West. Fernando Valdés Fernández