, Brepols, 2022 Hardback, 277 pages, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:22 b/w, 8 tables b/w., 40 maps b/w, 4 maps color, 40 maps (36 b&w, 4 colour), Language: English. ISBN 9782503593975.
Summary This volume presents recent archaeological research on the agriculture and society of al-Andalus during the Middle Ages, especially from the perspective of 'hydraulic archaeology' ? an avenue of research developed by Spanish researchers which focuses on the analysis of irrigation systems created by Islamic colonists from the eighth century onwards. More recently, this research perspective has incorporated the analysis of other agricultural systems, such as dryland agriculture and pasturelands. All of these agricultural regimes are complementary in peasant-led subsistence agricultural systems. From a methodological perspective, this archaeological approach is highly innovative, and uses a wide range of techniques (aerial photography, cartographical analysis, field survey, archival research, and archaeological excavation) in order to outline the size and boundaries of cultivation and grazing areas, to define specific plots of land and the related road networks, and to identify other associated facilities, such as watermills. In connection with these topics, several issues are discussed: the earmarking of rural or urban farming areas for irrigation, draining, or dryland agriculture; the process of construction and the subsequent evolution of these farming areas; the transformations undergone by these areas after the feudal conquest; and, finally, the identification of pasturelands and the analysis of the evidence concerning their management. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. Research on Irrigation, Drainage, Dry Agriculture and Pastures in Al-Andalus ? HELENA KIRCHNER Peasant Irrigation Systems Agrarian Spaces and the Network of Andalusi Settlements of Manacor (Mallorca) ? EUG NIA SITJES Watermills in Ibiza (Balearic Islands): A Documentary and Archaeological Case Study in Santa Eul lia des Riu ? ANTONI FERRER, HELENA KIRCHNER Morphology of Irrigated Spaces in Late Medieval Mudejar Settlements: The Canal of Lorca (Riba-roja de Turia, Valencia) ? ENRIC GUINOT Urban Irrigated Areas Searching for the Origin: A New Interpretation for the Horta of Valencia in Times of Al-Andalus ? FERRAN ESQUILACHE Drainage and Irrigation Systems in Mad?na ?ur???a (Tortosa, Spain) (8th-12th Centuries) ? HELENA KIRCHNER, ARNALD PUY, ANTONI VIRGILI Dry Farming and Pasturelands On Dry Farming in al-Andalus ? F LIX RETAMERO On the Problem of Andalusi Dry Farming: Aialt (Castell de Castells), a Qarya with no Irrigation System in the Mountains of Valencia ? JOSEP TORR Deciphering Islamic Landscape in the Eastern Ebro Valley: Almunias and Livestock ? JES S BRUFAL Irrigated Pasturelands in Mountain Ranges in the South-East Of the Iberian Peninsula ? ANTONIO MALPICA, SONIA VILLAR, GUILLERMO GARC A-CONTRERAS