Tumbas, parroquias y espacios ganaderos: configuración y evolución del paisaje medieval de la sierra de Ávila

In this article agricultural landscapes are conceived as the cumulative materialization of collective perceptions and forms of land-use. This perspective is applied to the historical analysis of medieval landscapes in the Sierra de Ávila, a pastoral area that offers variable and uneven information for that period. A diachronic approach using the archaeological record, written documentation, place names and palaeoenvironmental information permits tracking the contingent and ever-changing arrangements of the agroforest landscapes in this area. In early medieval times monumental tombs of large dimensions were carved out of rock by autonomous and extensive cattle farmers. These tombs are regarded as landmarks for claiming customary rights, devices that helped in the reinforcement of social cohesion and milestones for guiding flocks and shepherds. The high medieval period involved the political and legal reorganization of the rural milieu (demarcation of village territories) and a profound change of mentality (new village identities). Communal and extensive silvopastoral spaces were lost due to growing intensification of farming. The new village and parish networks anchored the peasants to their fields, thus contributing to the abandonment of the previous burial places and the implementation of parish cemeteries. In the late Middle Ages, livestock farming took on new relevance as a key strategy for aristocratic groups seeking to maximize their revenues. Community mountain pastures (or alixares) located by the early medieval necropoleis were now devoted to new land uses (dry farming and flax fields) due to their appropriation for the exclusive use of these elite groups.