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
264 A. DE MAN: CONIMBRIGA, THE SURROUNDING TERRITORY, AND A SHORT REMARK ON LUSITANIAN LATE ANTIQUITY
when considering the amount of work, based on excavation, assuming the palaeochristianity of the building. At many other locations inside Conimbriga, recent fieldwork confirmed a widespread and uninterrupted domestic progress during early Visigothic times. Moreover, two important and related changes occurred at Conimbriga shortly before the third Toledo Council in 589. On the one hand, at least according to the Episcopal presences in the councils, the bishopric was transferred to Aeminium, henceforth known as Columbria or Coimbra. On the other, a fort was built at the western corner of the city wall. This ending point of the Late Roman wall circuit was cut off by a sixth century wall, thus creating a miniature of what had been accomplished during the fourth century, including a separate entrance. Excavation revealed that this complementary wall has no rock-based foundations, ending in a cul-de-sac. Its counterfort, near the gate, had always been seen as a tower, but is actually a technical solution, destined to reinforce a long structure without corners and without foundations. The most likely interpretation has to do either with a military function under Leovigild, or with an administrative one, already under Recared. 3. THE SURROUNDING TERRITORY The persistence of land exploitation models in central and northern Lusitania becomes very well inferable from the Suevic Parochiale, both through the villae themselves (Marciliana, Gomedei) and through the fundi (Carisiano, Curmiano, Cantabriano). This fundus Cantabriano, in the diocese of Lamego, is important in obvious link to the Cantaber family, mentioned by Hydatius as the local Conimbrigan aristocracy during the Suevic raids. Concerning territorial coherence, one has nothing to oppose to the view in which many late Roman villae were abandoned or transformed into what might be called a hamlet or a village during the sixth and seventh centuries. However, the situation around Conimbriga appears to be quite diverse. In several cases, settlement patterns still follow closely their Imperial precedents. There is nothing extraordinary in this picture, as agriculture did clearly not collapse because of Visigothic rule. There are many references to erogatores annonae etc., and at least until the very late sixth century the Hispano-Roman land owners managed to influence Visigothic policy. Leovigild even found strong military opposition in their territories. And the Lives of the Visigothic Fathers easily confirms the existence of a powerful land-owning aristocracy in Lusitania (Collins 1983, 97-98). The tertia Romanorum system was essentially a fiscal one, or precisely not (see Arce 2003, 145), but in any case did not really retail the latifundia, which by the way would have been a quite awkward idea, and above all with no unequivocal archaeological verification (for further reading and partial divergence, see Wickham 2005, 60). This conviction been stated, and returning to Conimbriga, there are different ways in which the villae changed during the Visigothic period. It is
undeniable that every site had a particular evolution, yet even in a global perspective, there is no unique path “from villa to village”. A first case is a reasonably well identified transference from a late Roman villa to a hilltop site. Rabaçal, known for its mosaics and curious peristyle, seems to have been abandoned somewhere during the fifth century, even though there are several traces of later occupations. It has been suggested that there might have functioned a palaeochristian basilica at the site. For the time being, one might assume an abandonment, though, and a transference of settlement to what would become a small twelfth century castle named Germanelo, two kilometres further down the valley. The castle was built by order of Afonso Henriques on a dominating hilltop, and its walls cut previous structures and layers which included late Roman material. For the moment, only parts of the courtyard have been excavated. Another case is that of Madanela, in Coles de Samuel, Soure, which is a good example of a late Roman villa with only residual Visigothic presence. A second campaign just ended, and the preliminary data point towards a slow abandonment that had might already have ended by the sixth century, at least at the sector being excavated. The villa is located on a small hilltop, facing the ancient Mondego estuary, on one of the more evident land routes between the ocean and Conimbriga. A third site is that of Santiago da Guarda, another late Roman villa that was repeatedly rebuilt until it served as a fortified tower during the Christian conquest. The tower walls are put up directly on those of the villa, and even though there was important remodelling in the fourteenth century, some intermediate layers correspond to a Late Antique occupation. It is clear from what is pointed out above that a number of changes, towards the end of the fifth century, made country life in late Roman patterns rather difficult. The latest imports in and around Conimbriga (for references, see De Man 2009) are quite later, though, circulating perhaps until the seventh century: e.g. Hayes 91, 93 B, 103 A and B, 104 A and B, 110. Phocean Slip Ware (3B, 3C and 3F) is also present in considerable quantity. A reasonable number of Late Roman Amphorae 1, 3 and 4 demonstrates the same fact, namely that import continued during the sixth and even seventh century, which also proofs the Byzantine lack of interest in boycotting commercial channels. These elements are slightly later than those at Rabaçal but equivalent to Santiago da Guarda. To ascribe the first case to Suevic and Visigothic unrest is not a reasonable explanation, or at least it does not provide more than a single factor. In a similar way, the pattern of Early Imperial villae around Conimbriga does not at all correspond to that of the fourth century, and so there is no need for anything else than fiscal and economical reasons, in which the Visigoths, of course, did play a part. By linking these three sites to the city, they had to owe tribute to their administrative centre, as is evident, for instance, in the Forum Iudicum. The very
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idea of urban decadence has been widely revised in moulds that go well with a place such as Conimbriga, that is, an Episcopal see until 585, which afterwards maintained a defensive and fiscal role in the region. 4. A REMARK One main issue links this entire problem: to what degree was Conimbriga an economical centre for the sites in its territory? Or, to put the question differently: did evolution of rural settlement depend on some kind of agreement, sanctioned by the city, or was there a high degree of autonomy for independent groups of people living in the ancient fundi? It might be hard to believe in this latter perspective. Private initiative, although important, was not for everyone, let alone a group of farmers building an autonomous community on a hilltop. There was strong and active state involvement in this phenomenon; when confronting the Forum Iudicum with the Theodosian Code, for instance, the laws on taxes and boundaries are precisely the ones that change very little. The image of scattered and isolated farmsteads is just too far from reality. If there is a pattern to be found, the settlement shift would certainly not be previous to the later sixth century. And it would acquire above all an economical meaning. Furthermore, the existence of parishes is a consequence and not a cause of settlement. In this perspective, a possible element to be introduced here is a local variation of the post-Roman “casal”, which might be identified in other Western micro-territories (Toubert 1973, for instance, remains a solid reference for central Italy). Peasant households in a structural form or self-organization is still hard to accept, though, at least at a more than functional, day-to-day level. The three cases around Conimbriga demonstrate adjustments in the shaping of Early Medieval landscape. There might be found some familial continuity in this evolution, that is, especially at Santiago da Guarda there is a clear maintenance of the domestic space, until its medieval fortification. A sign of late Roman and Visigothic land exploitation, and especially of wine production, in the estates around Conimbriga becomes visible by examining the decline in the import of wine amphorae (Correia; De Man 2008). As the fish derivates and the olive oil continue to be imported, and since it
is unlikely that people in the Conimbriga region stopped appreciating wine, it is probable that there existed a considerable regional wine production, exactly the opposite of what the scarcity of amphorae might suggest. To finish, a quick glimpse at a supra-regional perspective: the gravity centres of the Roman neighbouring territories did alter very significantly: Collipo, a city south of Conimbriga, was already known as Palatium Randulfi in Early Medieval times, while in the north, Aeminium, the new Colimbria, was to become the main Medieval city, coining mint and absorbing medieval river and road traffic. Of course these changes depended on the attraction of the bishoprics, since the bishop of Coimbra was simultaneously the regional monetarius. But the fact that they concentrated in certain cities has little to do with random choices by the monarchy, and is but a reflex of economical change, and a further catalyst. The point to be made is that the Visigothic villae and villulae, mentioned in legal statements, until a very late stage (e.g. Vitiza and Egica), continue to be a structural part of the rural economy and are, to the best of our knowledge, entirely independent of the vici and castella mentioned by a variety of sources, among which the well-known writing of Isidore of Seville. Until an advanced period of the eighth century, territorial coherence depended on concepts which, at the end of the day, were nothing less than “Theodosian” derivations, particularly in the field of rural or peri-urban ties to the city, thus requiring active state involvement (De Man 2009a, 199-208). Such central interference would favour the notion of a model, or at least a tendency, applicable to other Lusitanian territories, as is probably the case. For other Western regions, there are alternative proposals (Francovich 2007, 135-136 or Wickham 2005, esp. chapter 5, yet see also p. 475, on centrality of Hispanic villae until the eighth century). Brogiolo and Chavarría Arnau (2008, 198) made it clear that the ending phases of these villae did not necessarily signify abandonment of the buildings of even of the land exploitation, a claim quite well applicable at a place such as Torre Velha, near Serpa. This southern site with important Visigothic and Early Islamic occupation is a wonderful example of post-Roman hybrid forms of land occupation, apparently still within an important “Imperial” framework, yet lacking many of the features of a late Hispanic villa (De Man; Porfírio; Serra 2010).
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