Political collapse and local societies: the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula (8th-9th Century)

Abstract

The eighth and ninth centuries are still a difficult period in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula owing to the lack of written and archaeological data. Theories that considered the area was uninhabited are here refuted but also more modern perspectives that advocate a “colonising” paradigm. The reality of this large region in the post-Roman period is studied as the essential starting point in an analysis of the processes that commenced in the eighth century. Certain phenomena, such as the lack of written texts, of investment in monuments and of a currency, in addition to the study of pollen data, are suggestive of a process of collapse. This is not conceived as catastrophic but the sociopolitical response to the sudden disappearance of a central power, which resulted in a decrease in complexity. This collapse was most apparent in the case of the elites, who were clearly affected, albeit with large geographic differences. In contrast, peasant communities do not appear to have undergone such drastic changes. The consequence was the formation of power structures at a local scale, and these actively integrated into the Kingdom of Asturias.