dAf 46
FIXOT Michel, ZADORA-RIO Élisabeth
L'Environnement des églises et la topographie religieuse des campagnes médiévales
Actes du IIIe congrès international d'archéologie médiévale (Aix-en-Provence, 28-30 septembre 1989)
This volume comprises the published proceedings of a conference organized by the Société d'archéologie médiévale and the Groupement de recherche 94 of the CNRS which was held at Aix-en-Provence between September 1989 28th and 30th The papers were grouped according to three themes which play a leading part in the study of medieval rural settlement. The first deals with the influence of late Antiquity on the religious topography of the medieval countryside and the problem of continuity of the ecclesiastical and funerary use of sites. The second adresses the role of churches as foci for the organisation of settlement ; this phenomenon, which was promoted by the interests of the Peace of God movement, formed the basis of units of population which appear sometimes to have been in competition with the emergent system of castellanies. The last theme concerns the organisation of ecclesiastical estates.
Abstract
Abstract
1. The legacy of late Antiquity
1.1. Funerary reuse of Antique buildings during early Medieval period
J. LEMAHO
In Normandy, about forty Gallo-Roman buildings have revealed archaeological evidence of funerary (re)use in the Merovingian period. Study of these sites indicates that, in a large number of cases, the antique building had been abandoned for a long time before the earliest burials occured. Typically, at least part of the building (the balneary, in the case of a villa, the cella in the case of a fanum) was reinforced in a summary fashion and modified for water drainage so that it could serve as a funerary church. An essential problem that remains is to know whether this monumental evidence reflects continuous occupation of the larger site, or of its immediate surroundings since late Antiquity, or a reoccupation of a completely abandoned area.
1.2. Rural churches in the canton of Geneva: origins, architectural evolution and architectural context
C. BONNET
The restoration of numerous rural churches in the canton of Geneva has provided the opportunity to undertake a systematic analysis of their elevations, their sub-floor stratigraphy and their immediate vicinities. The results obtained permit us to understand the architectural evolution of each church, and to identify remains of earlier buildings on the sites. Research in the surrounding areas, which contain other structures and cemeteries, allows a better understanding of religious organization. Evidence for transformations of buildings and sites during the early Middle Ages provides interesting insight into centuries said to be obscure and, in turn, demonstrate the powerful contribution archaeology can make to the larger field of Christian topography.
1.3. The legacy of late Antiquity in the religious landscape of Medieval Provence
P.-A. FEVRIER
Although it is said to be difficult grasp to the reality of Christianization of the countryside in late Antique Provence, written sources, conciliar records and works of literature provide an idea of the structuring of the territory by the clergy whether or not the centers of workship are attested to in (later?) parish structure. The archaeological record confirms the picture given by the earliest sources, including the oldest documents recopied into cartularies. It is thus unlikely that such a density of christianization would have no correlation with evidence afforded by churches known from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
1.4. The Medieval church in rural Provence: context and territory based on recent excavations
M. AXOT
By the evidence of a number of excavations, this article attempts an historical interpretation of the religious topography of Provence. Excavated data do not provide a clear picture of the specific conditions at the end of Antiquity, and one must, as a general rule, distinguish between reoccupation of sites and their continuous use. The changes brought about in the Carolingian period seem to have been unable to withstand pressure from new organizing principles for provencal settlement which was controlled from castles. The second Romanesque period introduces a new phase in the development of religious topography: while parishes are subordinated to castles, large monasteries constitute systems which, by their size, competed with those castles, particularly when the monasteries were fortified.
2. Ecclesiastical places and rural settlement
2.1 Ecclesiastical settlement in Ireland in the early Medieval period
L. SWAN
Certain of the characteristics of early monastic sites, which developed from the 7th century onwards, are recognisable as having survived in some manner to the present day, despite neglect and destruction. Among the most important of these is the monastic enclosure itself, a circular or oval vallum formed by an earthen bank with ditch, or a cashel wall built of dry stone. The most common surviving features are the fragments of an early church or its more recent or modern replacement, together with a burial ground, sometimes abandoned, but occasionally still in use. The outline of the enclosure frequently survives as an easily recognised feature in itself, but it is commonly found to have been incorporated into a road or street or field fence pattern which may well have obscured its original purpose. An initial survey has revealed a total of approximately 500 such sites, but continuing research indicates that there may well have been upwards of 3000 or more early ecclesiastical sites in all. Excavations have demonstrated that the main period of occupation of these sites lies between the 6th and 10th centuries, with frequent examples where occupation continued into the later period of the 12th and 13th centuries.
2.2. Ecclesiastical domains and parish formation in Catalonia from the 9th to the 12th century
M. RIU, P.VALDEPENAS
A review of the sources and of the numerous studies devoted to religious topography provides a context for this article. Parish organization in Catalonia begins to develop in the Visigothic period. Subsequent castral foundations depend upon this initial Visigothic framework. The network of religious distribution is in place by the end of the eleventh century, and is reinforced by later reconstruction. From the ninth century onward the church whose limits are typically surrounded by a cemetery (called a segrera), is established by a radius of thirty paces. In the Romanesque period, this territory may be occupied by silos, underground granaries, or habitations which require the payment of an annual cens for its use.
2.3. Catalonian sagreres : settlement concentration in the "Circle Peace" of
churches (11th c.)
P. BONNASSIE
After circa 1030, sacraria becomes a key term in Catalonian documents. Sacraria (in Catalan, segrera, or sometimes celiera), refers to a zone of refuge. This zone is normally a circular space around the church with a radius of thirty paces. It benefits from the protection conferred by the peace of God. This space is densely occupied by buildings called sacrarios (in Catalan, sagrers) which are originally used for the storage of wheat or wine. Shortly afterward, however, they are converted to serve as habitations. Sacraria also included cemeteries where constructions multiplied as well. The phenomenon of ensagrerament in Catalonia gave rise to ecclesiastical villages, which were as numerous as castral villages. In Southern France, analogous developments occur, although the evidence is less precise.
2.3. Ecclesiastical villages in the Aude basin
D. BAUDREU, J.-P. CAZES
A series of case studies illustrates the immediate surroundings of churches in the Aude basin located in western Languedoc. They show the relationship between settlements and places of worship during the Romanesque period. The generic term ecclesiastic village is used to define these sites which have various forms due to building materials, evolution over time, or to spatial organisation (open or circularly-enclosed settlement cores). The circular structures correspond to sacred perimeters, with a radius of thirty paces, which were given ecclesiastic immunity by the eleventh century Peace of God councils. In the context of medieval village development, this first settlement concentration process preceded the castral agglomerations which multiply during the 17th century at the expense of existing groups.
2.5. Parish church, cemetery and castrum in Southern Languedoc (9th-12th c.)
M. BOURIN, A. DURAND
During the tenth century, written documents from southern Languedoc demonstrate that habitations begin to regroup around churches or cemeteries. A topographical separation between political " and religious centers, however, also begins to develop. From the year 1000, the castral revolution disassociates the political structure from the conservative religious organizations with churches relocated outside the castral precinct. The phenomenon is most evident in new castra built on elevated sites. By the twelfth century, churches built on lower elevations (plains and valley sites) return to the castra, but occupy marginal positions in the outer precinct zone. ln provincial zones, the church-cemetery link is definitively broken by the establishment of castral churches.
2.6. Churches in the rural landscape in Eastern Languedoc during the Middles Ages (9th-12th c.)
A. PARODI
This study of the role that the church plays in the organisation of Languedoc's rural space during the Middle Ages (9th-12th c.), has been limited to the relations between the church edifice and settlements. Contrary to traditional thought on the subject, the church always appears to be associated with either an isolated or grouped settlement. The central position of the church edifice is not relatively frequent. Only in this case does the organizing role of the church seem to be clear. After the castrum appears, its presence, however, does not suffice to stop the (more or less) long term desertion of pre-castral settlements.
2.7. Church and settlement in rural Gascony: some topographical aspects (11th 15th c.)
B. CURSENTE
Until the end of the twelfth century, the church in Gascony appears to be a structuring element in the rural landscape which was populated long before. However the dense and firmly held network of churches was disturbed by the introduction of mouted castles and castral villages. In the thirteenth century, the acceleration and generalization of the incastellamento process, in form of castelnaux, led in effect to the disappearance of a considerable number of churches, as well as to frequent topographic ruptures between the parish sanctuary and the castrum, the latter being the melting pot for purely secular social life. To the contrary, a movement starts in the late Middle Ages which recentralizes the parish church and creates new holy places in the periphery.
2.8. Population and organisation of parish cemeteries : perspectives towards an ethno-history
E. CRUBÉZY
The excavation of parish cemeteries must be viewed within the perspective of ethnohistory in which "social factors" elicted by anthropological and paleopathological analysis explains their organization. Emphasis is placed upon topographic groupings revealed by the analysis of age, sex and family as well as through paleoepidemiology.
2.9. The church and the settlement reorganization in Anjou from the 11th to the 12th century
E. ZADORA-RIO
Written documents in Anjou show that the nucleation of settlement takes place in three phases, of varying importance, during which time the Church plays an increasingly active role. The first phase is represented by fortified agglomerations built by the counts of Anjou, between the end of the tenth century and 1060. The second phase, the most important of the three, is constituted by village foundations (bourgs) dating principally to the second half of the eleventh century. They are linked with Gregorian reform and the multiplication of rural priories. The third phase is represented by the creation of new villages by the bishop or monastic establishments in the first half of the twelfth century. The new villages, designated by the word cimiterium, are related to the “sauvetés” in Southern Aquitaine.
3. Ecclesiastical domains
3.1. Monastic patrimonies in the Abruzzi region (7th-10th c.)
L. FELLER
Monastic domains in the Abruzzi region are created during the eighth and ninth centuries. They benefit from the slow development of land acquisition in the region, due to resistance on the part of allodial peasant society. A two-part domainal organization remains the rule in the agrarian landscape of early medieval Abruzzi. Monasteries rarely produce surpluses, and free peasants succeed in delaying or avoiding completely incorporation into domainal organization. From the late eighth to the late ninth century, castral domains are in conflict with monastic land organization. Incastellamento is slow and incomplete, and does not fully replace the older agrarian organization into small units until the twelfth century.
3.2. The development of the domain of the Augustinian abbey of St.-Jean-des-Vignes, Soissons (1076-1140)
S. BONDE, E. BOYDEN, C. MAINES
Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in Soissons was the mother house of a powerful, regional order of Augustinian canons. The abbey possessed an extensive domain consisting of parishes, farms, mills, and ovens, as well as properties, rights and privileges. The eccentric geographical distribution of these possessions, however, raises questions of administration and control. Phased maps, based on unpublished cartularies, present the development of the domain from the foundation of the abbey in 1076 to 1140. This evidence suggests, and textual sources confirm, that priories situated in local castles formed subcenters from which the domain was administered.
