263 Adriaan De Man (Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa – Uniarq)
ESPACIOS URBANOS EN EL OCCIDENTE MEDITERRÁNEO (S. VI - VIII) / 263 - 266
CONIMBRIGA, THE SURROUNDING TERRITORY, AND A SHORT REMARK ON LUSITANIAN LATE ANTIQUITY
1. PRECEDENTS As often stated elsewhere, any fifth century settlement analysis on Conimbriga would require a previous confrontation between bishop Hydatius’ written account and, on the other hand, the existing archaeological evidence. In short, there has been a persistent historical discomfort towards a well-known passage in the Chronicon, which portrays a dead city after one of the more than common Suevic raids on Lusitanian walled cities. Such incursions envisaged above all the loyalty of local aristocracies, and their factual outcome caused little or no damage on urban infrastructures. In fact, Hydatian claims on the city’s razed walls and buildings, as well as on the site’s complete and utter depopulation, are challenged by a quite disagreeing physical record. The mere maintenance of a bishopric for at least another century, that is, until an advanced stage of Recared’s reign, is a reasonably clear argument in favour of everyday life continuities in and around Conimbriga. Yet what could this abstraction – “continuities” – mean in terms of public and domestic space? Some examples, though somewhat curtailed by the shortage in the available data, illustrate internal vigour during post-Roman phases. The French and Portuguese excavations of the 1960s concentrated mainly on an axis linking the extensive southern baths to the forum, and culminated in the outstanding publication of the Fouilles de Conimbriga, in seven volumes. For many different reasons, both earlier and more recent interventions did not achieve a similar magnitude, and led to a more modest outcome. However, the last decade and a half witnessed a progressive focus on the post-Roman contexts, which had hitherto been largely unrecognized, or at least strongly undervalued. Either by reinterpretation of existing data or through recent excavation, quite a few researchers have identified important traces of Late Antique and Early Medieval occupations at the entire extension of the walled plateau (for synopsis and references, see De Man 2010). Interesting is the abandonment of the area outside the tetrarchic wall. During the fifth century, no evidence of domestic occupation is visible there, only a necropolis, and the small number of import wares are found in waste pits, ground levelling layers, and so forth. The forum itself revealed graphic sequences pointing towards the christianization of the temple, and its utilization as such during what seems to be a relatively short period of
the fifth century. On the other hand, many houses underwent a functional disarticulation between the fifth and sixth centuries, a very well observable process at the house of Cantaber, where the closing of inner passages and the opening of other, towards the street, indicate above all a huge social shift. The former peristyles seem to have been kept functional as a sort of common courtyards. Another major change is the reutilization of former residential spaces for manufacturing purposes, a wide-ranging phenomenon, common to other Hispanic cities (Ramallo Asensio 2000, 369-370). It is to be pointed out that these evolutions took place within the existing Late Roman structure, that is, it looks as if there were no important modifications in the general layout of the city before the Early Middle Ages. 2. THE VISIGOTHIC EVIDENCE First of all, urban analysis has to deal with the question whether seventh century Conimbriga can be called a city in the full acceptance of the term. On the paradox of Visigothic “de-urbanized” cities, a great deal of work has been realized, both in the field of Late Roman precedents (specifically on Conimbriga, see Étienne and Alarcão 1977) and of Islamic studies. Yet many of the post-Roman initiatives on city planning are hardly explainable through mere inertia. To advance only one example, Gutiérrez-Lloret (2000, 98101) has pointed out serious engineering works in the cities of the Tudmīr pact, and there is furthermore no originality in recalling the several literary sources indicating the monarchy’s preoccupation with public building and maintenance. The troubling period between the end of direct imperial input and the recentralization of the late sixth century monarchy did in fact alter local governance, as well as a number of more measurable features, such as architectonical adaptations or consumption patterns. One of these “autarkic” linkages towards medievalism is discernible at what is nowadays the church of Condeixa-a-Velha, on the main road to Coimbra, quite possibly built on a basilica, since a sixth century epitaph was found during a casual remodelling. As for the so-called palaeochristian basilica, supposedly on the house of Tancinus, the building has been re-excavated by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Conimbriga Museum. Although there is clear Visigothic presence in this sector, one fails to find unequivocal proof of liturgical activity before the tenth century, something rather surprising