Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez (Apr 2006)
Arqueología e historia de una casa bajomedieval en Toledo
Abstract
One of the problems of urban history concerns the complex relationship between place and society, for while urban buildings do not in themselves constitute a social reality, the human components cannot be understood in isolation from these buildings. Therefore, to understand the past of an urban nucleus, once the process whereby it became urbanised is known, the categories of historical science (economics, society, demographics, politics, culture, etc.) must be addressed in conjunction with spatial/material categories more proper to archaeology. And that is what this article seeks to do. Some mediaeval writings that turned up in the course of an archaeological exploration in a house in Toledo, which likewise dates back to the Middle Ages, were taken as a reference to reconstruct the architectural context and the social environment of the house in the late 15th century and from there present as plausible an explanation as possible for the writings found in the house.
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