Mercadal from the Onset of Settlement through the Medieval Crisis in Southern Aragon (Spain)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

San Miguel de Mercadal is one of 23 villages abandoned in the late 15th century during the Medieval Crisis in the Comunidad de Aldeas de Daroca created AD 1248 to encourage resettlement and self-defense of the southern borderlands of the Kingdom of Aragon. In 2023 we conducted a geophysical and satellite survey of Mercadal and its surroundings combined with shovel testing, surface collection, limited excavation, and recovery of datable material. The 5 ha village is delimited by a water canal and stone embankment and includes tightly spaced stone foundations of functionally distinct structures linked by interior pathways centered on a Romanesque chapel still used by local residents. Modeled radiocarbon dates from 2023 indicate settlement beginning AD 771-889 coinciding with Banu al-Muhajir control of the upper March of Al-Andalus from the fortified city of Daroca, which contrasts with both the narrative history presenting the region as vacant until liberation from the Moors and the earliest documented reference to Mercadal in AD 1280. Morphometric analysis of the area surrounding Mercadal revealed varied water management features and different land types that social memory and documentary evidence indicate are associated with agropastoral activities since at least Mercadal’s inclusion in the Comunidad de Aldeas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39095.0