Problemas metodológicos en el estudio del mundo rural andalusí

Abstract

This paper collects some reflections about the theoretical and methodological framework related to the study of medieval rural settlements of Al-Andalus. We are intended to put a special stress on the bad habit, among many archaeologists, to put qualifier labels on population entities without a previous base rich, descriptive and systematic of the located sites to its further documentation. It deals primarily the problem concerning to the documentation of farmsteads (al-qurà). This term, that of farmstead (al-qarya), from the Arabic language, is originally a polysemous word that presents certain difficulties in interpreting the archaeological record. As an alternative we aim to propose a descriptive and flexible classification in order to realise a tipology of the andalusí sites.

Keywords

• medieval archaeology
• archaeological survey
• andalusí settlement
• rural site
• farmstead (al-qarya)