Ciències de l'Antiguitat i de l'Edat Mitjana

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo poner de manifiesto cuál fue el papel de la ciudad de Shemshara en época paleobabilónica en tanto que ciudad fronteriza, en especial bajo el reinado de Samsî-Addu; así como los movimientos que padeció su frontera más oriental, a proximidad de los Zagros.
Esta investigación se ha desarrollado en el marco del coloquio "Límites y fronteras", organizado por la cátedra extraordinaria de Historia Militar de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y Ars Militum, que tuvo lugar los días 16 y 17 de abril del 2018 en la UCM (Madrid).

Case studies of hydraulic systems in al-Andalus prove them to be inextricably linked with specific forms of local clan procedure of water allocation. On the basis of the past and ongoing research on the irrigation systems of al-Andalus, especially in the Balearic Islands, amounting to just under 200 cases studied, it can be safely said that they were conceived, created and managed by peasant groups without any significant intervention by the state. Consequently the diffusion of plants from the
east and the water technologies associated with their cultivation are best understood as a part of peasant knowledge, a technical transmission that took effect outside the Wittfogelian paradigm. In this paper I will try to show that the size of irrigated areas is important and that its modifications are key aspects of the discussion on the peasant management of the hydraulic systems of al-Andalus.

The Spanish Medieval Archaeology has recently joined the historical and archaeological debate on the question of rise of networks settlements after the collapse of the late Roman State in the West. Historians like P. Toubert, R. Fossier and J.Chapelot coined the terms “incastellamento” and “encellulement” to allude generally to the formation of such a wide new political and landscape reality. This article pretends to be a critical consideration on the achievements reached by medieval archaeologists in trying to document the case. But inevitably the weak points of their practice and the explanations offered are also stated. The recent publication of the book The archaeology of Early Medieval Villages in Europe, edited by J.A. Quirós came timely to fill up a void in Spanish Medieval archaeology. I is around this book that my considerations evolve.