Assessing place-based identities in the early Middle Ages: a proposal for post-Roman Iberia

Abstract

In the field of early medieval identities, the importance of locality as an indicator of community belonging has largely been downplayed in favour of larger definitions based on rank, religion or ethnicity. Despite this, we believe that sociological models of place-based identity can be used to better understand the social dynamics of local communities and how they interact with their surroundings. This paper explores how these theoretical models of belonging to a place associated to communal cognitive maps can be applied to post-Roman contexts, taking the Iberian Peninsula in the Visigothic period (6th-8th c.) as a preliminary case study. We argue that this approach can give us not only a more complex understanding of community agencies but also allows us to reconsider the social context for past social interactions. Furthermore, it will open a new archaeological perspective for future work on the relations between groups and individuals with their built, social, and natural environments.