Arquitectura religiosa y necrópolis rupestres entre el alto Arlanza y la cabecera del Duero (ss. IX-XI)

Latest research on the ghost towns from Upper Arlanza Basin (Burgos, Spain) provide with new data for a renewed interpretation of such archaeological evidences. Ancient fieldworks focused their attention to the exclusive analysis of religious areas and funerary enclosures of these evidences of peopling processes, usually neglecting most of the habitat and production structures. From this standpoint, there is a misrepresentation of these remains because of the incomplete view of these settlements, which are mostly identified on the basis of necropolis and cave-dwelling tombs. Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge has gone on. Despite the difficulties to interpret properly these material evidences, it is possible to redo some of the common elements referring to the religious buildings and their funerary areas. Through these remains, there is a chance to examine the composition of the sacred area so as the links and relationships among the use of the funerary area in order to show the progress to the strengthening of the medieval cemetery detected within rural communities.