Productive strategies and consumption patterns in the Early Medieval village of Gózquez (Madrid, Spain)

Quaternary International xxx (2013) 1e13

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Productive strategies and consumption patterns in the Early Medieval village of Gózquez (Madrid, Spain) A. Vigil-Escalera Guirado a, *, M. Moreno-García b, L. Peña-Chocarro c, A. Morales Muñiz d, L. Llorente Rodríguez d, D. Sabato e, M. Ucchesu e a Departamento de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Facultad de Letras, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain b G.I. Arqueobiología, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CCHS-CSIC), Albasanz 26-28, 28037 Madrid, Spain c Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, CSIC, via di Torre Argentina 18, 00186 Roma, Italy d Laboratorio de Arqueozoología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Darwin 2, 28049 Madrid, Spain e Centro Conservazione Biodiversitá (CCB), Universitá degli Studi di Cagliari, v.le Sant’Ignazio da Laconi 13, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Available online xxx

An overview of the economic profile of the visigothic (6the8th AD) village of Gózquez, as exemplified by its faunal and botanical record, is presented. The site, located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, has been one of the first Early Medieval rural sites in Spain to be extensively excavated in the context of preventive/rescue archaeology. Archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data reveal a degree of integration between farming and stockbreeding that calls into question the traditionally wielded paradigm of medieval historiography, in particular the stereotype of precarious settlements (in residential terms) subjected to the limitations imposed by an economy of strict subsistence. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

elements will be provided to the current discussion on the economic history of this period (McCormick, 2001, 2003; Crabtree, 2010; Hodges, 2012), particularly with respect to the social condition of the peasantry and the changes of agricultural production in post Roman societies (Wickham, 2005; Devroey, 2006, 2009, 2012; Henning, 2008, 2009; Banaji, 2009; Sarris, 2009). They will also impinge upon the suitability of the 8the9th- centuries as the date when the widespread economic take-off in many European regions took place without forgetting the caveat that Henning pointed out: “In light of the scarce written evidence between 500 and 700, we should be cautious about assuming an economic ‘awakening of the eighth century’ so long as we do not really know how economic (especially rural) organization worked in the first post-Roman centuries” (Henning, 2008: 34). Detailed knowledge on this issue is therefore of crucial importance in order to understand whether newly emerged urban centers were the promoters of intensification in production at this time, whether intensification was a strictly rural development or whether rural and urban centers both contributed to this phenomenon through an interplay of forces.

Archaeological research carried out over the last fifteen years in the Iberian Peninsula has contributed to reveal a picture of the Early Medieval period quite different from that proposed by the scarce written sources (Quirós Castillo, 2007, 2009, 2011; Escalona Monge, 2009; Martín Viso, 2012). The two most significant advances have been the increase in the number of extensive excavations of abandoned villages and the integration of bioarchaeological records to the body of historical data. Although the scarcity of publications concerning such records imposes heavy constraints on comparative analyses, available data suggest that rural settlements in central Iberia between the 5th- and the 9th-centuries AD exhibited remarkable parallels with similar sites from western Europe (Hamerow, 2002, 2012; Peytremann, 2003; Van Ossel, 2010). The aim of this paper is to analyze the productive strategies and derived consumption patterns during the Early Medieval period in the center of the Iberian Peninsula through the study of the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological samples recovered from the Visigothic peasant community of Gózquez. While doing so, new

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Vigil-Escalera Guirado).

2. The Early Medieval village of Gózquez: the archaeological background The site of Gózquez is located 20 km to the southeast of the city of Madrid and 56 km to the northeast of Toledo, former capital of

1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.031

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Fig. 1. Location of the site of Gózquez and some of the main ancient cities of inner Iberia.

Fig. 2. Gózquez and other contemporary sites in the countrysides to the south of Madrid.

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Fig. 3. Gózquez: plan of the whole village.

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the Visigothic kingdom [Figs. 1 and 2]. It is one of the most extensively studied Early Medieval villages in the northern district of the metropolitan see of Toledo (Quirós Castillo and Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2006; Vigil-Escalera, 2007, 2009: 329e331). The site is spread over more than twelve hectares on the southern bank of a stream that flows into the Jarama River. The village is divided into two neighborhoods, with the necropolis of the community placed between them [Fig. 3]. Archaeological excavations carried out between 1997 and 2000 exposed the whole cemetery (c. 360 graves) and most of the eastern half of the site, covering about three hectares. The occupational sequence recorded in the residential contexts ranges from the second quarter of the 6th-century to the mid 8th-century AD. This chronology was obtained through a combined analysis of stratigraphically related structures and associated material, ceramics and radiocarbon dates (Vigil-Escalera, 2000, 2003a, 2007). Variations in the composition of the pottery assemblages allowed us to distinguish four successive phases of occupation (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2000: 235e246). In order to check recognizable changes in the economy of the village over time, and also to obtain samples of equivalent magnitude that would grant significance to the results of the comparisons, these four phases were pooled into two. Phase I encompasses the early contexts, dated between 525/540 and 620 CE, and Phase II covers the last ones, from 620 to 750 CE. This simplified occupational sequence has been applied to the analysis of botanical and faunal sets (Table 1). Table 1 Equivalence between phases. Pottery phases (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2000: 236e7)

Environmental pool 2013

Ia (1st half 6th century) Ib (2nd 6th century) II (1st half 7th century) III (mid 7th to mid 8th century)

Phase I (525/540e650 AD)

Phase II (650e750 AD

In the 225 years that the occupation lasted it has been estimated that Gózquez consisted of no more than ten or twelve households, representing some 80e100 inhabitants. One of the most peculiar features of this village is the strict allocation of plots to each household, from the initial arrangement until its abandonment. Trenches, pathways and aligned structures allow us to discriminate the shape and size of each plot (Fig. 4). Some of them, almost rectangular and without any structure lying inside them, appear to have been devoted to intensive and well-manured agricultural cultivation (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2010: 4). Each household consisted of a main residential building, usually with earthen walls on a perimeter bank made with uncut stones (without foundation trench), tilled roof and earthen floors. A wide range of auxiliary structures including storage pits or silos, domestic ovens, sunken featured buildings, wells, lied scattered around each dwelling. Successive reconstructions of the whole set were performed within the property boundaries until abandonment. Such behavior stands in contrast from what can be observed on other sites from the same territory during this period, much more organic in their spatial arrangement (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2010). At these, every time that either the residential or the auxiliary structures were rebuilt, shifts in location and minor displacements took place, as is often the case in equivalent European contexts (Hamerow, 2002: 105e106). The archaeological data provided by Gózquez has already allowed us to establish a preliminary taxonomy of the sunken-featured buildings (SFB hereinafter) in the Iberian Peninsula (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2000) and to follow the evolution of the regional coarse wares (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2003a). A brief note on the economic

guidelines of the first Early Medieval villages unearthed in this area has been published elsewhere (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2003b). Gózquez’s graveyard seems to be the only recognizable public space in the village. Several burials in the necropolis provided female dress accessories characteristic of the so-called ‘Visigothic fashion’, as is the case of the pairs of bow brooches and belt buckles with cloisonné (Contreras Martínez and Fernández Ugalde, 2006; Contreras Martínez, 2011: 22). The percentage of burials with grave goods did not exceed 33% of the total number of graves. Such figure dropped to 22% if the number of individuals with dressing accessories were considered. The cemetery is similar to other wellknown in the literature (Ripoll, 1994, 2001). Settlement features are comparable to those of other sites without any specific ethnic or identity traits associated with their burials. One particular building (E6) has been interpreted as a beam press likely used for olive processing (Fig. 5; see below). It reveals the development of productive activities. This building is associated with one of the houses with complex plan at the top of the slope (E15), which also includes one of the largest silos in the site. Despite this, no clear signs of social hierarchy or of differences in wealth among the various households have been recorded. Glass cups and imported pottery reflect a regular flow of crafts and goods from specialized workshops, perhaps linked with aristocratic elites (Schortman and Urban, 2004: 207e209; Vigil-Escalera Guirado and Quirós Castillo, 2013). The characteristics of the ceramic wares and other components of the material culture (i.e. rotary hand-querns) are nevertheless comparable to those that appeared over a wide range of sites discovered in recent years throughout this region. The homogeneity of these products at a regional scale suggests the existence of fluid exchange networks among the local communities. These archaeological sites have been severely affected by the development of traditional and modern farming. Many times, only underground structures prevail, often being the sole survivors to the horizontal razing caused by the plow. Very few horizontal layers, inside the perimeter of the preserved buildings, offer the chance of identifying occupation floors or undisturbed layers of abandonment. As it will be seen, the adequate discrimination between these layers in a primary position and the much more common deposits filling all sorts of pits allowed us to recognize the peculiar treatment and management of household waste at Gózquez. The archaeological work carried out at Gózquez was that of an emergency operation. This fact determined the excavation procedure and the detail with which the sampling and collecting of the bioarchaeological materials was accomplished. Faunal remains were collected manually, without any sieving of the sediment. The poor recovery of microfaunas including the extreme underrepresentation of birds and small vertebrates may be attributed to this lack of an appropriate retrieval method. As regards the archaeobotanical remains, the sediments analyzed included a total of 38 samples with volumes ranging between 2 and 10 L (Fig. 6). The sampling process was not systematic during fieldwork, but it can be taken to be spatially and chronologically representative. Flotation was carried out at the University of the Basque Country where flots were sieved through a column of meshes of 4, 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.25 mm. Samples from all types of archaeological contexts and structures assigned to the two phases of the occupation were included. Charred plant remains were recovered in 34 from out of 38 samples (89.47%), with an average of 259 items per positive sample. There are still very few Early Medieval sites in Spain with large bioarchaeological records published. The case of Zaballa, near Vitoria, remains exceptional (Quirós Castillo, 2012). Specialists usually have to resort to comparisons with small sample sizes and relatively uncertain reliability. It is for their capacity to provide a frame of reference for future work that, even with the aforementioned drawbacks,

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Fig. 4. Boundaries between different households, a fenced pathway and cultivated plots in the eastern half of the village of Gózquez.

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the bioarchaeological records from Gózquez are bound to constitute a crucial reference in the study of the economic activity of Early Medieval rural settlements from the Iberian Peninsula. 3. The bioarchaeological evidence 3.1. Faunal remains Despite animal husbandry being a key element of farming economies, there are still very few early medieval rural sites in Iberia where large faunal assemblages have been recovered, fully analysed and published. Gózquez, with more than 3500 identified fragments of domestic mammals, represents one of the best collections in the region of Madrid. The data used in this paper are drawn from two

total assemblage. Rabbit is the most frequent wild mammal but given that the site was profoundly disturbed by their burrows it was decided to exclude this species from the analysis along with the ferret and the hedgehog, whose contributions are minimal. Few remains of red deer, hare and birds, among which only domestic chicken and goose were documented, complete the faunal spectrum. Weight data confirm the relevance of livestock over non-food animals, with cattle and equids taking the lead over caprines (Table 2). The scarcity of pig demonstrates the marginal role of the species in this area, a phenomenon discussed by Morales Muñiz (1992) and more recently by Lewit (2009). In sum, this rural community was heavily engaged in farming activities, with the main domesticates probably used for a variety of purposes including traction, dung and maybe milk and wool, in addition to strict consumption.

Table 2 Gózquez. Total faunal assemblage. Phase I

Phase II

Total

Mammals

N

%

Weight

%

N

NISP %

Weight

%

NISP

% NISP

Equids Equus sp. Cattle Bos taurus Sheep Ovis aries Goat Capra hircus Caprine Ovis/Capra (O þ C þ O/C) Pig Sus sp. Total livestock

2*þ156 382 1*þ56 7 391 (1* þ 454) 1*þ79 4*þ1071

15 35,5 5 1 36 (42) 7 100

13122 19424 454 101 2662 (3217) 881 36644

36 53 1 <1 7 (9) 2 100

1*þ186 601 153 2*þ61 1196 (2* þ 1410) 53

8 27 7 3 53 (63) 2 100

15347 24860 1803 1509 5925 (9237) 517 49961

31 50 4 3 12 (18) 1 100

3*þ342 983 1*þ209 2*þ68 1587 (3* þ 1955) 1*þ132

10 29 6 2 46 (57) 4

Dog Canis familiaris Cat Felis catus Red deer Cervus elaphus Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus Hare Lepus granatensis Ferret Mustela putorius Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus Total NISP % NISP

1*þ46 1*þ1 4 429 e 1 e 6*þ1552 60

5*þ37 6*þ2 e 113 5 e 1* 15*þ2407 66

6*þ83 7*þ3 4 542 5 1 1* 21*þ3959 63

2 <1 <1 e <1 e e (3436) 100

Large-sized mammal Medium-sized mammal Unidentified Total %

193 236 542 971 37

357 388 419 1164 32

550 624 961 2135 34

Birds Chicken Gallus dom. Goose Anser sp.

85 2

53 6

138 8

Amphibians Fish

3 1

13 e

16 1

Total analised %

6*þ2614 42

15*þ3643 58

21*þ6257 100

Values with * represent whole carcasses. % NISP was calculated excluding intrusive species, i.e. rabbit, ferret and hedgehog.

preliminary reports produced after the excavation (Morales and Ortiz, 2000; Morales and Pino, 2000). The lack of a full understanding of the phasing and context formation processes at that time hampered any interpretations on the nature of the remains as well as any attempts to assess the role played by the main species represented in the economy of the site. Now that a comprehensive analysis of the archaeological materials has been completed and the context of the structures has been determined (Vigil-Escalera Guirado, 2009), the conditions have been set out to review the archaeozoological evidence with the aim to tackle those issues. Faunal samples have been grouped into two chronological phases that cover over 200 years of the site’s occupation. Phase I corresponds to the early contexts dated to 525/540-620 CE and Phase II covers the late contexts spanning from 620 to 750 CE. Both phases are dominated by the remains of domestic mammals (Table 1). Based on NISP counts, caprines, cattle, equids, pig, dog and cat constitute 99% of the

A closer look at the data reveals a significant increase in the number of caprines during Phase II. These double their weight contribution whereas the relative frequencies of equids and cattle decrease in relation to Phase I. Could such pattern possibly evidence a shift towards the growing importance of sheep and the intensification of its products (i.e., wool) following a trend reported in other European early medieval sites (Crabtree, 2010)? In order to answer this question it seems relevant to explore not only the faunal data but also other archaeological evidence such as the type of context the remains were retrieved from. Most of the material from Phase I derive from fillings retrieved in pits and huts with sunken floors. These features may be considered secondary or tertiary deposits where waste originating elsewhere was accumulated in a variety of ways. In contrast, nearly 60% of the samples dated to Phase II comprised in-situ occupation debris from the abandonment layers of living quarters, located within the main

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Fig. 5. Gózquez: building interpreted as containing a beam press.

buildings that shaped this early medieval rural settlement. Such primary material is critical to gain first-hand knowledge about food consumption patterns whereas the remaining assemblages are more important to recognise rubbish management practices. From such standpoint, species composition and body-part frequencies were examined for the two kinds of features documented in Phase II, namely fillings from negative structures and remains

Table 3 Gózquez. Number of remains and relative frequency of main livestock species recovered from negative structures and occupation layers in phase II. Mammals

Structures

%

Equids Cattle Bos taurus Sheep Ovis aries Goat Capra hircus Caprines Ovis/Capra (O þ C þ O/C) Pig Sus sp. Total

1*þ94 258 37 2*þ24 268 (2* þ 329) 31 3*þ712

Hare Lepus granatensis

5

e

Dog Canis familiaris Cat Felis catus

7 3*

e e

Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus Total NISP

1* 7*þ724

e 1032

Large-sized mammal Medium-sized mammal Unidentified Total

92 85 148 325

120 233 119 472

Birds Amphibians

3 3

Total analised % Identified % Unidentified

7*þ1055 69 31

N

OCC layers

%

N 13 36

46 4 100

e 152 104 31 743 (878) 2 1032

1504 69 31

e 15 10 3 85 <1 100

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from the living floors. Results are summarised in Table 3 and depicted in Fig. 7. The relative importance of caprines associated with the primary deposits is striking. They represent 85% of the remains recovered while the contribution of cattle is reduced to 15% and equids are absent from the record. The relative abundance of caprines’ best cuts of meat represented by the upper quarters of fore (18%) and hindlimbs (20%) as well as by a large number of ribs testifies to sheep and goats being the main meat producers. Conversely, secondary and tertiary deposits are characterised by a large variety of species that include some semi-complete carcasses of non-food animals. The fact that over 56% of the cattle remains recovered from the occupation layers represent portions of the cranial skeleton (27%) and lower limbs (i.e., metapodials 29%) suggests that their carcasses were processed, consumed and ultimately disposed of in a different manner from that of caprines. In short, it may be argued that we have no reasons here to assume an intensification of sheep husbandry during Phase II, only variability in rubbish disposal practices. Indeed, although faunal remains from settlement sites often represent food consumption leftovers, the mixed nature of the fills in secondary and tertiary deposits makes it difficult to assess which of the species were primarily consumed. Examination of the aging and sexing data is essential to reconstruct patterns of animal production. Among the caprines, culling at Gózquez focused on juvenile and sub-adult animals younger than four years of age. Females dominate the adult cohort. The mortality profile for cattle shows a different picture, with 90% of adult and senile individuals, among which both sexes are equally represented (8 __ and 9 \\). The absence of remains of juvenile and sub-adult equids resulted in a “natural” mortality profile with 40% of newborns and 60% of adult and mature individuals. This pattern of animal husbandry reveals an economic profile based on an extensive agriculture. In this way, equids and cattle (presumably sedentary stock) would be valued mainly for their power whereas caprines (a more mobile resource) would play a major role as meat providers. Given that the age structure is informing us of the animals that were consumed, it would be difficult with the data at hand to postulate the structure of the standing age of the caprines. Other secondary products such as dung (Moreno-García, 2004), milk and wool could have also been exploited. These results are supported by the palynological evidence, rich in coprophilous fungi and anthropogenic elements (López-Saez et al., 2010: 17). The landscape around Gózquez was apparently deforested, with large areas of grassland pastures that would favour the occurrence of a mixed farming economy, relying both on agriculture and animal husbandry. From the standpoint of stockbreeding practices the existence of such mixed farming would in principle preclude specialization, while explaining features such as the low frequencies of pig that would point to a breeding carried out at a household basis (i.e., 1e2 animals per family and year). Likewise, this putative lack of specialization could explain the existence of equids with different sizes, as this suggests the breeding of different types, whether species (horses and asses) or hybrids (mules and hinnies), for very specific purposes of transport of goods and people, draft labours, etc. instead on an intensive breeding focusing at a very specific need. As matters presently stand, one nevertheless remains unsure about whether the faunal data gathered at Gózquez represent a general pattern or a singularity. As more questions remain open to debate than have been answered it seems safe to conclude paraphrasing the old topic that it is hoped that new light will be thrown on the subject as data from similar sites emerges in the future.

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Fig. 6. Gózquez: spatial distribution of archaeobotanical samples.

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Fig. 7. Body-part frequencies. Representation of different parts of the skeleton of the caprines, cattle and equids at Gózquez recovered in negative structures and occupation layers. Phase II. TTH: teeth; SC: scapula; HU: humerus; RA: radius, MTC: metacarpal; PEL: pelvis; FE: femur; TI: tibia; CAL: calcaneus; AS: astragalus; MTT: metatarsal; PH1: first phalanx; PH2: second phalanx; PH3: third phalanx.

3.2. Plant remains

Table 4 Gózquez. Plant remains from Phases I and II. Phase

The sample provided below is the most comprehensive collection of botanical remains up to date from an Early Medieval site in this area. The plant remain study from Gózquez aims at exploring the way the community that inhabited the site exploited the surrounding environment by defining the main elements that characterized the subsistence bases of the group. A total of 38 samples were collected from a wide variety of contexts including silos, huts and pits. Most of the samples contained charred seeds and fruits with the exception of 4 US (5154, 6438, 5053 and 6535) which were sterile. The number of items retrieved (caryopses, fruits, weeds, chaff, etc) is of 8807 (Table 4) which are not uniformly distributed across samples and periods.

Avena sp. Hordeum vulgare H. vulgare rachis H. vulgare glumes Secale cereale S. cereale rachis Triticum aestivum/durum T. durum rachis T. aestivum rachis T. aestivum/durum rachis T. dicoccum T. dicoccum rachis T. monoc./dicoc. rachis Triticum sp. Triticum sp. awn

I

II 418 262 34 11 8 170 425 233 73 1

19 2

3 1561 391 11 25 39 378 40 86 70 2 1 1 58 (continued on next page)

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Table 4 (continued ) Phase

I

Cereal indeterminated Cereal fragments Cereal nodes Cereal culm fragments Total cereals Total chaff Lathyrus cicera/sativus Vicia/Lathyrus Legume fragments Total legumes Ficus carica pips Juglans regia fragments Quercus sp. fragments Vitis vinifera V. vinifera fragments Fruits Wild plants Poaceae rizoma frag. Dicotiledon leaf frag. Indeterminated Subtotal

998 70 25 619 1132 1 2 3 6 1 1 5 2 1 10 1593 1205 59 18 4658

II 3 290 118 1930 757 2 2

6 5 11 1164 146 49 16 4088

Hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) is the dominant species followed by the free-threshing wheats (Triticum aestivum/durum) (Fig. 8). Both are represented by caryopses and chaff. The excellent preservation of the latter has allowed identifying both species, Triticum durum and T. aestivum. The rachis segments of T. durum outnumber those of T. aestivum. Hulled wheats are also represented by caryopses of emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and some chaff of Triticum monococcum/dicoccum. Rye (Secale cereale) is also present in very low numbers. Other species such as Avena are sporadically represented. Apart from caryopses and chaff (rachis segments) large numbers of culm nodes and straw nodes have been identified.

Legumes and wild fruits are scarcely documented. The first are represented by a few seeds of Lathyrus sativus/cicera and Lathyrus/ Vicia. In the case of fruits only grapes, figs, acorns and walnuts are present. Contrary to the scarcity of legumes and wild fruits, Gózquez has produced a significant assemblage of wild plants which in most cases can be identified as arable weeds. The high numbers of Poaceae (in particular the Lolium/Festuca group) are striking. There are not significant changes in the pattern observed during the two main phases of occupation. The species represented appear to be more or less the same across the whole period of occupation. Phase I has produced an enormous dataset which is partly related to the number of samples studied (22) which is larger for this phase. Phase II, instead, has included 13 samples so the number of items identified is slightly lower. Three samples have not been assigned to any phase. Archaeobotanical studies from this period are almost inexistent for the Iberian Peninsula and, thus, direct knowledge of the type of subsistence practiced is limited and sometimes generalist. However, there is plenty of information from other sources (archaeological, textual) which point to the practice of full-developed agriculture based on the cultivation of cereals and legumes. The archaeobotanical record confirms the predominance of cereals. Although free-threshing wheats are well represented hulled barley outnumbers wheat in almost each sample. The prevalence of barley may suggest the importance of animal husbandry at the site as this species has been generally used for animal food. The presence of rye, represented by both grain and chaff in small numbers may be reflecting its role as a minor crop. Tereso et al. (2013) suggest that this crop was introduced in NW Iberia during the Iron Age, spreading out during Roman times. At the site of Monte Mozinho (Portugal) rye grains were directly radiocarbon dated to the 3rd/beginning of the 4th centuries AD (unpublished data quoted in Tereso et al. 2013). It is likely that the reduced presence of rye represents its marginal role during this period.

Fig. 8. a1 Triticum aestivum/durum; a2 Triticum durum (rachis) and T. aestivum (rachis); b1 Hordeum vulgare; b2 Hordeum vulgare (rachis); c1 Secale cereale; c2 Secale cereale (rachis).

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The significant presence of chaff remains from all the cereal species represented opens an interesting debate. Chaff and fragments of straw (culm nodes and culm fragments) are present in almost all samples and throughout the various phases. Its presence reflects the arrival at the site of a type of remain that is generally eliminated during the crop processing sequence. The number of weed species present at Gózquez is very high including numerous species typical of arable lands. Many families (Chenopodiaceae, Rubiaceae, Caryophillaceae, Poaceae, etc.) are represented with a variable number of specimens. The Lolium/Festuca category is the most abundant reaching a total of more than 2000 seeds. When looking at the ratio of grain to weed seeds in samples with a considerable number of seeds, it is evident that almost all samples considered contain an important number of weed seeds. Such ratios of cereal grain to weed seeds together with the high presence of chaff and other straw remains suggest that samples have arrived to the site in a semi-cleaned state. Most of the cereal cleaning steps undertaken at the threshing floor, intended to clean the grain from contaminants (weeds and chaff remains), such as winnowing or sieving are generally carried out outdoors. Although threshing areas are generally at some distance from the village, It is difficult to establish their location on the basis of the plant species identified. There are, however, some steps involved in the last cleaning phases (further sievings, hand sorting) which can take place on piecemeal bases. It is striking that neither does it seem to be differences according to the various contexts identified (huts, pits and silos) nor to the chronological phase from where they have been retrieved. There is some variation in the number of items preserved but the categories present are more or less the same across the various phases and context. It is therefore difficult to explore variation across the site. In some of the contexts studied there are evidences of the presence of straw visible to the naked eye. Although some of the contexts with such remains have been interpreted as silos, their study has not provided evidence of plant remains. On the contrary, other structures such as silo 6895 contain large amounts of grass rhizomes which might be interpreted as part of the isolating material used inside the silos. Ethnographic observations from Morocco (Peña-Chocarro et al., 2000, 2005) show the use of einkorn straw to cover the walls of underground pits in order to protect the cereals from humidity. This abundance of grass rhizomes appear also in other contexts. In fact, in some of the huts, the presence of these accumulations of rhizomes might be pointing to the use of straw for thatching purposes. The presence of legumes is very limited, being absent the main species of the period (broad beans, peas, lentils, etc.). The Lathyrus sativus/cicera includes both species used for human and animal consumption and the same can be said of the other group present (Vicia/Lathyrus) which could also comprise wild and cultivated forms. Diet was likely complemented with fruits from which evidence is always scant. The presence of seeds of figs (Ficus carica), walnuts (Juglans regia), acorns (Quercus sp.) and grapes (Vitis vinifera) demonstrates that this category of plant remains was part of the diet of the community living at Gózquez providing a nutritional complement particularly important in case of failures in crop production. However, the small numbers preserved do not allow exploring the scale to which these trees were managed. The surrounding environment must have also provided with wide variety of wild resources from which evidence is absent, i.e. wild food, fibres, dyes, medicines, etc. Current work in contemporaneous sites will certainly provide new elements of comparison so a better understanding of the food production system of these communities can be achieved.

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4. Discussion Faunal and carbonized plant remains offer the possibility to understanding how the relatively diversified productive activities worked in the rural settlement of Gózquez. Diversification and risk minimization appear as central strategies for the survival of any given peasant community (Halstead and O’Shea, 1989). These activities should satisfy the basic needs of consumption and the generation of strategic surpluses. Contrary to what happened in Roman times, these were privately managed and stored by every household in the village, as evidenced by the numerous storage pits (silos). It is not possible to ascertain whether some surplus production was also designed to cover the payment of rent or taxes, or if it served for economic interaction with other communities in the region. The complete demonetization of the daily life during this period and throughout the whole region does not preclude the possibility that part of the production was market-oriented. In a parallel fashion, an exchange system embedded in vertical social relations may offer a convincing explanation for the arrival of refined glass goblets and bowls, imported pottery or dressing accessories in bronze to these households. “In all economies, ancient or modern, market exchange, when present, coexists with other modes of transfer and exchange” (Feinman and Garraty, 2010: 171). However, as stated above in relation with stockbreeding practices, it seems quite difficult to find clear signs of economic specialization in Gózquez. Economic selfsufficiency traditionally postulated for Visigothic rural settlements should be exposed to unexpected data that are now beginning to emerge. Thus, oil production would not point to the kind of products that anyone expects to find among autarchic peasants. Integration between livestock husbandry and agricultural practices is also evidenced by the planning of the site. A trail to the center of the village is marked by two parallel fences separating domestic plots from others designed to agrarian uses. Certainly, care was taken to ensure that livestock circulation did not damage the crops. Gózquez has not provided material remains of agricultural tools that would help us to infer the technical means at the disposal of these people. For example, there is no evidence of serrated or toothed sickles that have been recorded in the contemporaneous sites of El Pelícano and Buzanca (Moreno-García et al. 2006; Grau, 2012), close to Gózquez. The analysis of plant remains nevertheless suggests a wide diversification in the types of crops, with a probable predominance of hulled barley followed by the freethreshing wheats. Crop processing would allow for the subsequent use of straw in the roofs of some auxiliary structures (SFB’s). The set of archaeological evidence briefly offered in these pages and the information provided on the economic performance of the villages of inner Iberia during the earliest of the medieval centuries make it difficult the interpretation of the nature of social and economic webs within which these communities operated. From a methodological point of view, the results from the faunal analyses draw our attention to the substantial difference observed in the type of remains recovered from two quite different kinds of archaeological contexts. In this way, in many of the rural sites of this period, most of the faunal samples derive from the fillings of pits (SFB’s, trenches, wells, storage pits.) because they are the only contexts preserved. The faunal spectrum then is dominated by species not regularly consumed as is the case of dogs, cats and equids, quite often as carcasses or large articulated portions (Morris, 2011). Less frequent are undisturbed horizontal occupation or abandonment layers where one can more adequately recognize consumption patterns. An additional problem in connection with this issue is that these contexts normally represent the final event corresponding to the abandonment of the site. Consequently, the

Please cite this article in press as: Vigil-Escalera Guirado, A., et al., Productive strategies and consumption patterns in the Early Medieval village of Gózquez (Madrid, Spain), Quaternary International (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.031

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remains from these layers are difficult to compare with those of previous phases that are usually lost. All these drawbacks, based on the type of context from which the sample derive, need to be overcome in order to achieve an adjusted interpretation of the faunal record. Such recommendation should be taken into account in future comparative analyses on equivalent sites from this period. One way or the other, the picture furnished by the village of Gózquez and the whole set of similar sites in the territory of southern Madrid (Spain) is far away from one associated with postRoman marginal population remnants, primarily dedicated to stockbreeding and, thus with highly unstable settlement patterns. Both the ubiquity of long term grain storage systems (silos) and the centrality of the cemeteries in the social life of the communities constitute irrefutable proof about the stable character of these groups. The widespread production and circulation of ceramics (tiles and domestic wares) or rotary hand querns on a regional scale also suggest a high level of interaction (social, economic and/or ritual) between village communities (Sanmark and Semple, 2008; Baker et al., 2011; Vigil-Escalera and Quirós, 2013). This evidence would likely point to the existence of exchange places where meetings took place on a regular basis in order to guarantee the substantial balanced and integrated economy attested in the archaeological record (Hirth, 2010; Stark and Garraty, 2010). 5. Conclusion The results of bioarchaeological analyses presented in this paper allowed us to throw some light on the history of Early Medieval rural communities of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula from a diverse range of perspectives emphasizing our knowledge of peasant livelihoods, their productive strategies and social interactions. This study opens the possibility to propose a radically different discourse to the conventional view of a Dark Age of unstable populations permanently on the brink of a subsistence crisis. The emerging picture conforms better with an integrated network of settlements featuring a well balanced mixture of animal husbandry and agricultural practices dependent on the techniques and the means of production available in each case. Being a first approach, it would be difficult at this point to determine not only whether or not our results fit better with the alleged theoretical standards, but also whether these data should be considered to be the rule or the exception for the time and area. The challenge for the future involves our ability to compare these records with others. That will enable us to distinguish between elite production sites and consumption patterns and those typical of peasant households and communities. It will help in our quest to not only establish possible differences at the supra-local and regional levels but also to identify developments or changes through time. Once we are all aware of the limitations that constrain this type of research, it will be possible to draw a strategic plan of action to reframe goals and make up for any deficiencies. Acknowledgements This study was financed by the Research Group IT315-10 of the Government of the Basque Country and the Research Project HUM2012-32514 funded by the Spanish Minister of Economic Affairs and Competition. The authors gratefully acknowledge the constructive suggestions provided by the two anonymous reviewers of the paper. References Baker, J., Brookes, S., Reynolds, A., 2011. Landscapes of governance: assembly sites in England, fifth-eleventh centuries. Post-classical Archaeology 1, 499e502.

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