Abstract:

In the last decades archaeological study has been complemented and enriched by the use of various methodologies from different scientific disciplines, such as Geography, Social and Natural sciences, etc. This has allowed the genesis of specialized archeological research areas such as Spatial Archeology or Landscape Archeology. The conception of this doctoral project was born from the preliminary development of a first approximation to the settlement systems of fundamentally rural communities over time, from Roman to Medieval times, in a geographic context of the north-west of the Duero basin, between the Esla and Cea rivers. The centuries of transition between these periods – characterized by well-differentiated socio-economic and political systems – are an interval of great change, very dynamic, but one that is quite unknown in archaeological terms, especially in certain areas apart from urban studies or large structures and monuments. The historical reconstruction of these centuries that were defined as “dark” has been conditioned by historiographic paradigms such as the depopulationist theory of the “Duero desert” that today are being overcome by the advance of archaeological research and the implementation of new techniques to its study.