EL ORIGEN DE LA RED ALDEANA EN EL ALTO ARLANZA (Burgos)

The Alto Arlanza is part of the natural region of Pinares, located south of the Sierra de la Demanda and Urbión. It is a mountainous region, of medium altitude, forming part of the western edge of the Iberian System, situated between the provinces of Burgos and Soria. This territorial area is unique in that it connects the upper basin of the Arlanza River with the headwaters of the Duero, and is referred to as the territorial framework of the Alto Arlanza, a natural area with characteristics typical of a high mountain environment. In this sense, the altitude and orography of the area impose harsh conditions that have historically affected the establishment of permanent settlements.
The research project began in the 1990s by the Group of Medieval and Postmedieval Archaeology of the University of Barcelona, GRAMPMed. However, it was not until 2014 that our research group undertook the ambitious project to revitalize the study of this territory with a new strategy focused on understanding settlement patterns, leaving aside the funerary work for which these sites have traditionally been known. The research conducted from 2014 to the present has allowed us to better understand the ways of life and the structures of social organization in this mountain area during the transition from antiquity to the medieval world, often blurred in analyses that are exclusively centered on necropolises and their structures.
The aim of the research is to study the formation of the medieval landscape in a micro-regional context, focusing on a territory that offers favorable conditions, using an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective, with a focus on archaeological results. The fragmentary nature of the archaeological remains we have poses a challenge in the study of these settlements, requiring a shift in focus that has led to successful outcomes.
The interventions carried out from 2014 to the present have allowed us to understand the internal structure of the village of Revenga (Comunero de Revenga). Several habitation areas and production spaces have been identified, which have various parallels in sites of the Central Plateau, dating from the 6th and 7th centuries. The archaeological evidence confirms the existence in the area of a complex spatial organization based on a network of inhabited nuclei in the form of villages, with other smaller entities and various nuclear forms. This research project is defined within a framework centered on a period historically little known during the transition to the medieval world. It is a historical stage of great transformations, shifting from an ancient social model to a society where certain values and mentalities, which the current society in this mountainous area inherits, are defined.
The multiple pieces of evidence provided by the territory and the survey work have highlighted the great archaeological potential of the area, providing data that allows us to undertake archaeological work in the Alto Arlanza. The most significant contribution from these survey efforts has been the discovery, in 2023, of the Rinieblas site (Canicosa de la Sierra). Thus, this year we have started work on the settlement of Rinieblas, located on two rocky outcrops, offering a rock-cut habitat that is just at the beginning of its investigation and has very significant archaeological evidence. The Rinieblas settlement is representative of other mountainous settlements with characteristics similar to Revenga, and its excavation would significantly contribute to building a richer archaeological record for a better and more complete understanding of settlement processes during the transitional period between the ancient and medieval worlds.
Therefore, the archaeological study of the settlements of Revenga and Rinieblas provides two exceptional cases for gaining deeper insight into the processes of occupation and exploitation of territory in a peripheral, mountainous environment of Alto Arlanza, far from the major territorial circuits formed by landscape articulation during a period of transition.
The research work is made possible by funding from the Provincial Council of Burgos and the municipalities of Canicosa, Regumiel, and Quintanar de la Sierra (Burgos), and is carried out by GRAMPMed of the University of Barcelona.