Etnicidad vs. Aculturación: Las necrópolis castellanas de los siglos V-VI d.C. y el asentamiento visigodo en la Península Ibérica. Una mirada desde la meseta sur

The Visigoth settlement in the Iberian Peninsula and its relationship with the archaeological record of the 5th-6th centuries AD continues to be one of the most controversial issues in Spanish archaeology. The controversy relates to politics as much as it relates to archaeological research with two points remaining particularly controversial: the alleged use of the Visigoth past by the Francoist intelligentsia as an ideological affirmation of the regime and the contribution of archaeologist Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla in supporting and enabling this re-interpretation of Visigothic archaeology. The purely archaeological aspect of the controversy relates to an archaeological interpretation, stemming from the ranks of the so-called New Archeology, of the Castilian necropoleis containing grave goods of Pontic-Danubian type. This interpretation places special emphasis on social and cultural phenomena above the ethnic criteria defended by the Vienna School. This volume approaches the ideological question that underlies these controversies, as well as their repercussions in the direction adopted by later archaeological investigations in relation to the history of Spain. The author attempts to deconstruct the work of Martínez Santa-Olalla and places it in the context of the scientific production of his time. At the same time, it relativizes the role played by the Visigoth period in the Francoist ideological construction. Once the discussion is framed in these terms, the author dedicates his study to a refutation of the cultural interpretation of the phenomenon of the Visigothic necropoleis of the Castilian plateau based on the archaeological data and by comparing this data with literary sources. The study also addresses two other historical problems that could be related to the Gothic settlement in the Castilian plateau: the creation of the bishopric of Segovia and the flourishing of the city of Toledo. | El asentamiento visigodo en la Península Ibérica y su relación con el registro arqueológico de los siglos V-VI d.C. continúa siendo en la actualidad una de las cuestiones más controvertidas de la arqueología española. Gran parte de esa controversia tiene que ver con aspectos que trascienden a la propia investigación arqueológica y nos sitúan en el plano de la política. Así, a la hora de abordar el problema hay dos puntos que han resultado especialmente polémicos: la presunta utilización del pasado visigodo por parte de la intelectualidad franquista como...