Topografia de la Antigüedad tardia hispánica. Reflexiones para una propuesta de trabajo

On occasion of the Meeting of the Association pour l'Antiquite Tardive in Barcelona (1993), we thought it appropiate to make a first approach to the problems of carrying forward a project on the topography of the Late Antique Spain. Since it is a very large subject, we decided to write these first reflections. Christian archaeology has always studied its monuments in an individual way, but maybe now is the moment for a more global vision and, at the same time, to see how Christianity transformed the rural and the urban landscape. Its analysis requires studying texts, inscriptions and monuments, and then evaluating each of the cities to be analysed and its territory. In this text we discuss the relation between urbs suburbium, territorium and, on the other hand, the problems of the administrative geography of the Iberian Peninsula and its possible transposition in the latest ecclesiastical geography. The written sources are classified and require a more specific treatment, since, in many cases, they are late texts. Epigraphy is a relatively reliable research tool but it presents lots of problems in its archaeological contextualization and chronology. The archaeological documentation is heterogeneous. The problem is very different when we are dealing with urban webs that have had a continuity, or when cities have been abandoned. The archeology of the rural landscape can offer many solutions or, at least, new visions of the transformation. [Author revised by D. Parrish]