Late Antique and Early Medieval Hispanic churches and the archaeology of architecture: revisions and reinterpretation of constructions, chronologies and contexts

Abstract

Late-Antique and Early medieval Hispanic architecture has witnessed a considerable change in the last 15 years because of the introduction of the archaeological analysis of standing buildings and a new historical model that is open to the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula leading to changes in the architecture. As this paper demonstrates, stratigraphic recording and analysis of some of the most relevant buildings solves some questions and introduces others, but it mainly helps to introduce archaeological arguments within a debate previously dominated by stylistic criteria.