La formación del hábitat medieval en Cataluña: aldeas, espacios aldeanos y vías de comunicación

Abstract

This study focuses its attention on Catalonia and points to the importance of using several literary sources as a means of identifying the main characteristics of Catalan settlements throughout the Early Middle Ages (6th-10th Centuries). Apart from the need to use written and archaeological documents, the study highlights the importance of understanding and interpreting place-names and of reconstructing landscape history. Special emphasis is placed on the interest of interpreting by means of consulting documents, maps and orthophotomaps as witnesses that allow us to know the boundaries of the Early Medieval settlements. At the centre of these boundaries stand several small population centres (hamlets) and a church. Several agricultural territories of various villages are reconstructed. Likewise, the study relates population with communication paths, churches and necropolis of the Early Middle Ages.