Working in landscape archaeology:
the social and territorial significance of
the agricultural revolution in al-Andalus
J ´M M C
The agrarian transformations which took place in the Iberian Peninsula
between the eighth and the tenth century are essential for an understanding
of how al-Andalus came into being. These developments provided the basis of
a social formation which developed into a tributary mode of production. This
study is part of a research project that draws inspiration from the tenets of
landscape archaeology. Studying historic landscapes as part of the material
culture of past societies provides valuable information about cultures and the
ways they express themselves in space.
Introduction: theoretical proposal
The fundamental goal of this paper is to demonstrate, or at least to argue,
the importance for the rise of al-Andalus of the agrarian transformations
taking place in the Iberian Peninsula between the eighth and the tenth
centuries, and the development of Andalusi social formation as part of
the tributary mode of production. The agricultural revolution in
al-Andalus is best understood from the perspective of irrigated agricul-
ture, although other technical innovations as well as peasant knowledge
were also contributing factors. While the revolutionary basis was the
artificial water supply, which allowed intervention in crops’ natural ger-
mination processes, there were also important advances in the types of
resources that were being applied to agriculture and the management of
new techniques. For example, new plants were introduced from places
geographically and climatically remote and foreign to the Mediterranean
and new forms of intensive cultivation were developed.
Many studies have been written on this subject since the important
works by T. Glick and A. Watson.
Three main themes have received
T.F. Glick, Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia (Cambridge, ), Spanish translation
published in Valencia in ; A. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The
Early Medieval Europe () –
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