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Technology and social complexity: iron tools and peasant communities in the
Medieval period
Chapter · December 2016
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv1pzk1sr.11
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Social complexity in
early medieval rural
communities
The north-western Iberia
archaeological record
Edited by
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo
Archaeopress Archaeology
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Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
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ISBN 978 1 78491 508 7
ISBN 978 1 78491 509 4 (e-Pdf)
© Archaeopress and the authors 2016
Cover illustration: Early medieval agrarian terraces in the site of Torrentejo (Álava, Spain)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or
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Contents
List of Figures................................................................................................................................................................. ii
Authors.......................................................................................................................................................................... iv
Preface........................................................................................................................................................................... v
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo
Inequality and social complexity in peasant societies. Some approaches to early medieval
north-western Iberia................................................................................................................................................1
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo
Settlement patterns and social inequality: The Duero Basin in Early Middle Ages
(4th-8th centuries).................................................................................................................................................17
Carlos Tejerizo García
Social inequality in Early Medieval rural settlements: The case of central-northern Portugal
in the 10th century.................................................................................................................................................35
Catarina Tente
Faunal remains and social inequality in the Basque Country during the Early Middle Ages....................................47
Idoia Grau-Sologestoa
Food consumption patterns and social inequality in an early medieval rural community in the centre
of the Iberian Peninsula.........................................................................................................................................59
Maite Iris García-Collado
Technology and social complexity: iron tools and peasant communities in the Medieval period............................79
David Larreina García
Production, consumption and political complexity: early medieval pottery in Castile and Southern Tuscany
(7th-10th centuries)...............................................................................................................................................91
Francesca Grassi
Invisible social inequalities in early medieval communities: the bare bones of household slavery.......................113
Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado
Words, things and social inequality: the village of Torrentejo.................................................................................125
Igor Santos Salazar
i
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List of Figures
J. A. Quirós Castillo: Inequality and social complexity in peasant societies.
Some approaches to early medieval north-western Iberia
Figure 1. Map with sites mentioned in the book................................................................................................................................ 4
C. Tejerizo García: Settlement patterns and social inequality:
The Duero Basin in Early Middle Ages (4th-8th centuries)
Figure 1. Distribution of Visigothic necropolis according to P. Palol................................................................................................. 19
Figure 2. The site of Flixborough according to C. Loveluck and D. Atkins......................................................................................... 20
Figure 3. Sites mentioned in the text............................................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 4. Hilltop occupations in the territory between the valleys of the river Eresma and Voltoya............................................... 24
Figure 5. Early medieval sites between the valleys of the rivers Eresma and Voltoya..................................................................... 25
Figure 6. The site of La Mata del Palomar........................................................................................................................................ 26
Figure 7. Main churches in the central part of the Duero basin (6th-8th centuries)........................................................................ 28
C. Tente: Social inequality in Early Medieval rural settlements:
The case of central-northern Portugal in the 10th century
Figure 1. Map with sites and territories mentioned in text.............................................................................................................. 36
Figure 2. Topographic plan of the São Gens archaeological complex............................................................................................... 38
Figure 3. Penedo dos Mouros (3A) and Senhora do Barrocal (3B)................................................................................................... 40
Figure 4. Potsherd of an Islamic green and manganese decorated bowl from Senhora do Barrocal............................................... 41
Figure 5. Architectonic element with a Latin inscription from Senhora do Barrocal........................................................................ 42
Figure 6. Rock-cut necropolises and total number of graves by municipality.................................................................................. 44
I. Grau-Sologestoa: Faunal remains and social inequality in
the Basque Country during the Early Middle Ages
Figure 1. Relative frequency (% by NISP) of the three main domesticates at the period-assemblages with over 100 NISP............ 50
Figure 2. Proportion of animals alive in each age stage according to mandibular wear stage of the main domesticates............... 53
Table 1. NISP of faunal remains at each site...................................................................................................................................................... 50
Table 2. NISP of faunal remains classified as ‘others’ in Table 1 at sites where they were present................................................. 51
Table 3. Use of the main domesticates in the largest assemblages, according to the interpretation given by each author..............52
M. I. García-Collado: Food consumption patterns and social inequality in
an early medieval rural community in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula
Figure 1. (A) The village of Gózquez; (B) Storage pit SU 5831 containing human deposit SU 6150; (C) Storage pit SU 6640
containing human deposit SU 6444; (D) Demographic profile of the population buried in the cemetery.
(E) Demographic profile of the population buried in storage pits. (E-F) Only individuals whose age could be
determined represented............................................................................................................................................................ 64
Figure 2. The cemetery of Gózquez, indicating grave number, type of grave and presence or absence of grave goods................. 65
Figure 3. Plot of δ13C and δ15N values of human and fauna samples from Gózquez........................................................................ 68
Figure 4. Plot of δ13C and δ15N values of human and fauna samples from Gózquez, the latter separated by taxa.......................... 69
Figure 5. Plot of δ13C and δ15N values of humans from Gózquez...................................................................................................... 72
Table 1. Results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human samples from Gózquez.......................................................... 66
Table 2. Results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of fauna samples from Gózquez............................................................ 67
Table 3. Summary statistics of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human and fauna samples from Gózquez...................... 69
D. Larreina García: Technology and social complexity:
iron tools and peasant communities in the Medieval period
Figure 1. Chaîne opératoire conceptual framework. Chaîne opératoire theoretical model applied to copper production
and working and Chaîne opératoire reconstructing the technology live-history of a medieval knife........................................ 81
Figure 2. Occupational phases in Zaballa, 6th-15th centuries.......................................................................................................... 82
Figure 3. Selected agricultural implements found in Zaballa analysed by metallography................................................................ 83
Figure 4. The infield/outfield Scandinavian model adapted to iron production.............................................................................. 85
Table 1. Microstructure and carbon contain of the sampled tools.................................................................................................. 84
ii
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F. Grassi: Production, consumption and political complexity: early medieval pottery
in Castile and Southern Tuscany (7th-10th centuries)
Figure 1. Map with ten sites of Earmedcastile project..................................................................................................................... 92
Figure 2. Complete pottery assemblages from La Peña Mazo, El Pópilo, Tejuela, Zornoztegi, 6th-10th centuries.......................... 95
Figure 3. Map of pottery workshop in the North of Iberian Peninsula............................................................................................ 97
Figure 4. Number of Red Painted pottery from Solaun Bustinza 2005 and Azkarate Garai-Olaun, Solaun Bustinza, 2016.............. 98
Figure 5. Number of Red Painted Pottery from Earmedcastile project............................................................................................ 99
Figure 6. Red Painted pottery distribution....................................................................................................................................... 99
Figure 7. Pottery assemblage from Zornoztegi and presence of different way of production, 8th-10th centuries....................... 100
Figure 8. Ubication of village of Rocchette Pannocchieschi (Tuscany, Italy) from Grassi 2013....................................................... 101
Figure 9. Aerial view of Rocchette Pannocchieschi (Lap&Lab, University of Siena)....................................................................... 101
Figure 10. Chronological sequence reconstructed from the stratigraphicals evidences in the early medieval village
of Rocchette from Grassi 2013................................................................................................................................................. 102
Figure 11. Complete pottery assemblage from early medieval village of Rocchette, Period I, 8th-10th centuries....................... 102
Figure 12. Domestic furniture of Rocchette Pannocchieschi: the pottery from Grassi 2013......................................................... 103
Figure 13. Map of distribution of workshops that produced fine ware and coated ware recovered
in the early medieval village of Rocchette............................................................................................................................... 104
Figure 14. Domestic furniture of Rocchette Pannocchieschi: the glass from Mendera 2013......................................................... 105
Figure 15. Domestic furniture of Rocchette Pannocchieschi: metal artefacts from Belli 2013...................................................... 105
Figure 16. Comparison between total extension of sites, percentage of excavations
and pottery recovered between Spain and Italy...................................................................................................................... 107
A. Vigil-Escalera Guirado: Invisible social inequalities in early medieval communities:
the bare bones of household slavery
Figure 1. Types of inhumation modes in the westernmost areas of the site El Pelícano (Arroyomolinos, Madrid):
the cemetery, several isolated graves and a multiple interment in a storage pit.................................................................... 115
Figure 2. Distribution map of sites with non-burials...................................................................................................................... 117
Figure 3. At least 14 individuals were successively buried in the same grave in the cemetery of Acedinos (Getafe, Madrid)...... 118
Figure 4. Various atypical gestures match in this context from Berrocales (Vicálvaro, Madrid)..................................................... 119
I. Santos Salazar: Words, things and social inequality: the village of Torrentejo
Figure 1. Location of Torrentejo in the Ebro Valley........................................................................................................................ 126
Figure 2. Villages in which were located lands and assets donated by King Sancho (1058-1076)................................................. 128
iii
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Authors
Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado,
Postdoctoral researcher in the University of Salamanca
Francesca Grassi,
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, Faculty of Arts,
University the Basque Country
Carlos Tejerizo García,
Postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Heritage
Sciences, Spanish National Research Council
Idoia Grau Sologestoa,
Postdoctoral researcher in the University of Sheffield
Catarina Maria Santos Guerra Tente,
Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Facultade de
Ciéncias Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de
Lisboa
Igor Santos Salazar,
Postdoctoral researcher in the University of Trento
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo,
Professor of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of
the Basque Country
David Larreina,
PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University
College London
Maite Iris García,
PhD candidate, Faculty of Arts, University the Basque
Country
iv
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Technology and social complexity: iron tools and
peasant communities in the Medieval period
David Larreina García1
Abstract
This chapter aims to explore the complexity of early medieval rural societies by the integrated approach of historical sources,
archaeological evidence and archaeometric analysis of material culture. Ten iron farming tools including billhooks, horseshoes,
scissors, a knife, and a strip were metallographically analysed and the results inserted within the wider framework of historical and
archaeological data to offer a tentative reconstruction of interplay between models of iron production and peasant communities
during early medieval times in the area of Llanada Alavesa (Basque Country, north of Spain).
Keywords: Peasant communities, iron farming tools, chaîne opératoire, material sciences
(Ament 1980, p. 64) affecting production, distribution
and consumption. Metal production centres became
closely linked to political, military or religious powers
(Hamerow 2002, p. 189; Hinton 2005, p. 98) mainly
focused on supplying elites since ‘iron objects were
expensive items’ (Jaritz 1995, p. 180) not affordable
for most pockets. Archaeological evidences contribute
to this idea of scarcity of metals within the peasantry
since agricultural implements of early medieval
chronologies are infrequent: typically ‘few’ (sic) or
rather small numbers of 1 or 2 items per site (Zadora
Rio 2009; Hamerow 2011, p. 122; Loveluck 2013, pp.
57-93). Agricultural instruments are expected in later
chronologies to the point that a 12th century hoard found
in Denmark containing farming tools is labelled as ‘early
availability of iron tool parts’ (Poulsen 1997, p. 126).
Therefore, the negative archaeological evidence of iron
objects might lead to the conclusion that few iron objects
were used (Jaritz 1997, p. 126), or that iron may have
been restricted to tipped ploughs at best (Rollason 2012,
p. 187). Moreover, the decreasing number of swords
detected during the 7th century in Anglo-Saxon Europe
is interpreted as a reflection of the unfavourable socioeconomic changes (Lang 1989, p. 115). Consequently,
if even those who could afford swords – a prestige item
worth considerable sums of money (Bone 1989, p. 6370) – ceased acquiring them, then there is little doubt
that people with much more modest budgets could
hardly acquire basic tools. This prestige-utilitarian goods
argument has been reviewed by Loveluck (2013, p. 277)
who criticises that archaeologists make an over-simplistic
equation assigning vague labels of social rank related to
specific types of artefacts, and that other factors such as
the geographical location and role within society had a
considerable influence on the access to commodities,
noticing as well that items made exclusively for war are
equally rare in the archaeological record since they were
transmitted as heirlooms.
1. Introduction1
Early Middle Ages peasant communities often
represent the paradigm of the ‘Dark Ages’: stagnated;
impoverished and rather resource-limited; only capable
of practicing a subsistence economy; and most of
them subjected to slavery (Duby 1968; Bois 1992).
The situation resolves around the year AD 1000 when
drastic political, economic, social and cultural changes
took place, and when the introduction of technological
innovations contributed favourably to this development,
in which metal played a crucial role by replacing wood
in ploughs and other utensils (Bonnassie 1991). In recent
times, this perspective has been questioned and farming
communities are described not as unprogressive but as a
dynamic and complex phenomenon that was the engine
of change in society (Rollason 2012, p. 183-192) and the
productive base that supported all other aspects of life
(Loveluck 2013, p. 33). However, technology – and iron
metallurgy in particular – are matters typically excluded
from the new perspectives: the debate is focused on the
existence of the technological innovations in the 11th
century (Delatouche 1977, cited in Devroey 2001, p. 116)
or on the continuity/interruption of Roman agricultural
practices (Brunner 1995, pp. 21-40). Aspects regarding
the reduction of iron, fabrication of metal artefacts,
technological level of production, or circulation of
metallic goods remain constant.
Therefore it is assumed that the fall of the Roman Empire
had a negative impact on the iron industry across Europe
1
UCL Institute of Archaeology, London, UK. The present contribution
is part of the research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of
Economy and Competitiveness “Social Inequality in the medieval
landscapes of the north of the Iberian Peninsula: the archaeological
markers” (HUM2012-32514), and the activity of the ‘Heritage
and Cultural Landscape Research Group’ founded by the Basque
Government (IT315-10) and the UFI ‘History, Thought and Material
Culture’ (UFI 2011/02).
79
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Social complexity in early medieval rural communities
This chapter aims to investigate the engineering
parameters behind the manufacture of iron utensils
during the Early Middle Ages as well as the accessibility
of those by the peasantry by means of a triple approach
integrating written sources – main agent of the
‘traditional’ view; archaeology – successfully contrasted
with the written sources by scholars in recent decades;
and archaeometry – which is a powerful discipline much
less frequently employed and that is asserted here as an
essential contribution to the knowledge of past societies.
stages: experimentation and development, adoption by
producers, production, and consumption (Hollenback
and Schiffer 2010).
Archaeometry is frequently considered less accessible
than history and archaeology and regarded as a complex
scientific discipline that requires extra time and money
– resources that are given without hesitation to e.g. 14C
radiocarbon – as well as invasive sampling that often
clashes against the opinion of museum curators since
sampling will ‘damage’ precious finds. In this point
I agree entirely with Rehren (2002) in that once the
archaeological excavation has been performed – a highly
destructive practice per se – in fact it is an obligation and
a ‘courtesy’ to extract all the possible information out of
the available dataset. Furthermore when peasants are far
less visible than other classes in medieval textual sources
(Jaritz 1995; Wickham 2001, p. 80-90) whereas material
culture analyses enable a consideration of the roles of
the full spectrum of population in developments where
insights from written sources can be placed (Loveluck
2013, p. 3). Therefore, the use of all possible resources –
including archaeometric studies – to reconstruct the past
‘reality’ should be imperative, particularly when basic
tools are very rarely analysed.
Specifically, it presents the case study of Zaballa, a
medieval deserted village in the Basque Country (north
of Spain). The excavation at Zaballa unearthed large
numbers (total of 242 items of medieval chronology)
of metallic household and farming implements, and in
earlier dates (8th-10th centuries) than those marked for
the ‘revolution’ around the year 1000 (Quirós Castillo
2012).
2. Methodology
Technology – as an integral part of human life – is critical
to approach and understand past human behaviours. As
a three-dimensional phenomenon comprising physical
objects, activities and processes, and knowledge
(MacKenzie and Wajcman 1985); its study enables an
approximation to the understanding of artefacts’ life
history, their interaction with the context, activities
and linkages with the individual/society. This research
thus aims to investigate the chaîne opératoire for iron
production in the Early Middle Ages in the rural world
since country people made up the vast majority of the
population and most of them were of peasant condition
(Anderson and Bellenger 2003, p. 240).
3. Case study: the deserted village of Zaballa
3.1. Textual evidence
The ‘Reja de San Millán’ is a singular document written
in the year AD 1025 concerning the Llanada Alavesa – a
region within the province of Álava in the south of the
Basque Country – included in a medieval cartulary found
in the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja).
The ‘Reja’ is a sort of cadastre listing a total of 307
settlements organised in 21 circumscriptions succinctly
registered by toponym and payable contribution, e.g.
‘Zavalla, una rega’ (Becerro Galicano, doc. 5832).
Several aspects remain unclear regarding the ‘Reja’
such as the origin of the monastery’s privilege to collect
dues from a region distant ~60 km to the south from the
Llanada Alavesa region, or the date of the document
since this could be a 12th century inventory pretending
to be earlier (Pastor 2006).
The chaîne opératoire is a conceptual framework (Fig.
1) especially suitable to reconstruct/interpret technical
information in terms of artefact ‘life-histories’ following
sequential technical operations from raw material
transformation into artefacts; the by-products generated
and discarded in the process; and on the relationship
between design, raw material and end product; especially
on technological choices of artefact production, use, and
repair (Dobres 2000, p. 167). The concept is particularly
useful since it avoids technological determinism and
gives prominence to the many individual stages involved
and the numerous choices that have to be taken in the
entire sequence of production (Ottaway 2001). Materials
and technologies as products and expressions of social
and cultural phenomena inform about their societies and
cultures of reference, allowing a better understanding
of past social and mental structures and reconstructing
relationships between humans and environment
(Dobres 2000; Martiñón-Torres 2008, p. 23), and
ultimately they can be approached through heuristic
models such as Technology life history from invention
and innovation to senescence, with four intermediate
The two incontrovertible facts about the document are that
the settlements formed a close net of stable communities,
and that the sites mentioned there had to commit with
one or more ‘rega’. Unfortunately, it is not clear what a
‘rega’ is although the most likely possibility is that this
referred to a unit of iron – being highly significant that
the manuscript is entitled ‘de ferro de alava’.
3.2. Archaeological description of Zaballa
Zaballa was excavated in 2007-2008 in a total area of
33,600 m2 including not only the inhabited nucleus but
2
80
http://www.ehu.eus/galicano/id583&l=es&tmp=1475244800489.
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D. Larreina García: Technology and social complexity
Figure 1. Chaîne opératoire conceptual framework. Chaîne opératoire theoretical model applied
to copper production and working (after Ottaway 2001, Fig. 1), and Chaîne opératoire reconstructing
the technology live-history of a medieval knife (after Blakelock 2012, Fig. 3.1).
also the surrounding areas devoted to cultivation. The
archaeological work was published in an exhaustive
monograph (Quirós Castillo 2012) from which this
summary has been extracted (Fig. 2).
The farmstead, 6th-7th centuries
At some point in the 6th century a single family unit
settled on a hillside in the mountains that enclose the
81
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Social complexity in early medieval rural communities
Figure 2. Occupational phases in Zaballa, 6th-15th centuries.
After Quirós Castillo ed. (2012, Fig, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5 and 7.12).
territory of Llanada Alavesa. The farmstead was located
on a small plateau that dominates the valley to the east
and north and this position continued to be the core of the
settlement during the later periods.
The rise of the feudal society, AD 950-1200
The building of the church of San Tirso entailed major
alterations in the physiognomy of Zaballa as it displaced
all the dwellings from the core to the adjacent valley.
The village was ruled by Tello Muñoz and his heirs
–’lords of Zaballa’– from the 11th century as stated in
a cartulary also in the monastery of San Millán de la
Cogolla (Escalona Monge 2013). Social inequalities are
more conspicuous among the peasant community: one of
the houses – located in preferential position – is built on
a stone plinth, and a delicately decorated bronze plaque,
a pin and ring were found inside. Equally significant is
the discovery of a small treasure of 29 silver coins.
From farmstead to hamlet, AD 700-950
During this period Zaballa expanded from one to twelve
dwellings. Most of the buildings contained pottery and
metallic materials: e.g. within the same structure were
found 2 billhooks, 1 sickle, 1 knife, 1 scissor and 1
arrowhead, all of them of iron. The material assemblage
indicates that although agriculture was the main activity,
secondary crafts were practiced as well, namely
skin-tanning, wood-working and textiles. Dispersed
fragments of slag were recovered as well although no
furnace or smithing hearth was located. A sub-regional
trading system is supposed to have functioned in the
area – based on the presence of imported ceramics –, and
mild internal social differences were noted within the
community (Quirós Castillo 2013).
A village in the Late Middle Ages, AD 1200-1450
The urban design of Zaballa is deeply modified once
again. The individual dwellings disappear in favour of
cultivable land, and instead a large communal structure is
constructed. The terrain is heavily conditioned, levelled
82
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D. Larreina García: Technology and social complexity
and terraced, and water channels and drainage solutions
are introduced. It is estimated that 10,000 m3 of soil were
moved, an enormous scale of work presumably executed
with the help of people external to the community. A
remarkable fact is the exponential increase of iron horse
fittings suggesting that the complex was also operating
as a roadhouse on the main highway that linked Álava
with Castile.
The bulk of the collection was manufactured by simple
forging. This basically consists of joining by hammering
under a high heat (~1100-1200°C) two or more pieces of
the same type of low carbon iron; the final bar achieved
by this means has good qualities such as strength and
resistance against slight bending (Pleiner 2006, p. 59).
Nonetheless, wrought iron is typically very low in carbon
content and thus cannot form steel with high hardness
– a highly desirable material for tools – requiring heat
treatments to improve the quality of the blade (e.g.
quenching), but these advanced solutions are absent in
the implements from Zaballa where cold-working and
annealing were used instead. Hammering under mild
temperatures enhances largely hardness and durability,
improving the quality of the ferritic iron (Swiss and
McDonell 2003) although in any case these instruments
deteriorate and become blunt considerably faster than
those made out of medium or hard steel.
3.3. Metallography and technical material analyses
The 242 medieval metal artefacts from Zaballa are
overwhelmingly made out of iron with few bronze
objects in comparison (17), and are eminently oriented
to domestic and agricultural use as can be expected in a
rural community (Mansilla 2013) (Fig. 3).
The main interest of the metallographic study was to assess
the quality of the metal and to identify manufacturing
techniques in basic tools; the same type of instrument
was systematically chosen to allow comparisons between
equal instruments and similar chronology (Table 1).
At this preliminary stage, a diachronic approach was
considered more appropriate in order to obtain a rough
characterisation of the manufacturing techniques, and
therefore were sampled implements from the Early
and High Middle Ages. The complete information is
available in Larreina and Quirós (Larreina García and
Quirós Castillo forthcoming).
However, the scissors 242 and the billhook 60 were
created by the same technique – carburization –, and
the scissors 346 by welding two different materials:
phosphoric iron and steel. In essence, carburization
or cementation consists of sinking the instrument in a
charcoal-filled hearth for several hours until the iron
gains enough carbon to form the desirable steel-alloy.
The technique has the main advantage of reinforcing
only the critical parts of the instruments whereas the core
(protected in clay) retains toughness. However, it is not a
Figure 3. Selected agricultural implements found in Zaballa analysed by metallography.
83
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Social complexity in early medieval rural communities
Tool
Horseshoe 348
Scissors 346
Billhook 141
Strip 253
Billhook 60
Billhook 239
Billhook 240
Scissors 242
Knife 244
Billhook 174
Chronology
8th-10th cent.
8th-10th cent.
10th cent.
10th cent.
10th-13th cent.
13th-14th cent.
13th-14th cent.
13th-14th cent.
13th-14th cent.
15th-16th cent.
Structure
Core
Edge
Heat
Treated
Manufacture
Ferrite with pearlite
Phosphoric iron
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite with pearlite
Ferrite
Ferrite with pearlite
“
Martensite-bainite
“
“
Pearlite
“
“
Martensite-bainite
?
“
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
Forging
Simple-welding
Forging
Forging
Carburized
Forging
Forging
Carburized
?
Forging
Table 1. Microstructure and carbon contain of the sampled tools. The knife 244 presents very severe corrosion
and is not possible to identify the manufacture techniques.
particularly sophisticated technique – extremely long and
time consuming – abandoned in the 11th century (Pleiner
2006, p. 66-67). The appearance of this technique in a
pair of scissors posterior to that date opens two possible
interpretations: A first thinkable scenario is that this is a
tool manufactured during Early Middle Ages still in use
in the 13th century whereas a second scenario envisages
that carburisation was still in use during the High Middle
Ages, at least in rural areas.
there was a dense net of stable communities in Álava;
otherwise the monastery would have arranged another
system to collect the benefits different from naming the
populations one by one. Even more, although unclear in
the document, there is an organisation in the distribution
of the burden: one, two or three ‘rega’, or livestock.
Thus an internal organisation or perhaps a hierarchy
can be assumed as well for the settlements. By the title
of the document it is understandable that iron was the
fundamental unit to pay the dues although we can only
speculate about how was this materialised: e.g. if the
villages actually produced iron or if ‘rega’ was an agreed
measure of payment based on the price of it. The written
sources also inform about the political status of Zaballa
and its relation with territorial aristocracies.
The scissors 346 were produced by simple-welding of
thin strips of phosphoric iron and steel; the cutting-edge
and the peak were made of steel. A certain level of skill
is required to produce this type of instrument since the
welding together of soft iron and hard steel is ranged
‘among the masterful techniques of hand forging in the
past’, and the lamination had a good effect on the quality
of the forged piece regarding strength (Pleiner 2006,
59). The use of phosphoric iron is widely documented
in medieval tools and weapons (Thiele, Török and Költ
2012) whereas the most evident advantage of using
this alloy was an increase in the strength and resilience
although in detriment of toughness (Ehrenreich,
Hamilton and Nash 2005; Thiele et al. 2015). The former
are appropriate qualities for a pair of scissors.
The archaeological intervention confirms the existence
of agriculture-oriented settlements with evidence of
other activities – woodworking, textiles, metalworking,
etc. (Quirós Castillo 2013). This model of a cluster of
rural settlements focused mostly on cultivation with
part-time sporadic artisan activities has been found in
other areas of Europe (Devroey 2001, p. 103; Loveluck
2013, p. 33-97) but what makes the difference in the
Álava region is the abundance of metal objects in all the
rural settlements so far excavated (Quirós Castillo 2016).
Four pieces of slag were analysed complementary to the
metallographic studies. Slag in Zaballa is scant – barely
300g – and the small lumps are frequently found as
filling material in other structures (Quirós Castillo 2012).
Microscopy revealed that the evidences are secondary
smithing slag related to occasional repairs of the iron
instruments (Fig. 1 iron flowchart).
The four phases of medieval occupation in Zaballa
strongly contradict the view of a stagnated peasantry,
since the settlement reinvented itself every 200 years.
Another paradigm concerning the isolation and poor
condition of the peasantry is questioned as well in Zaballa:
wider social differences are palpable as shown by the
increase in bronze objects, different building solutions,
coins and the recurrent appearance of riding gear. These
elements fit into the figure suggested by Chris Loveluck
(2013) of a peasantry with different levels of freedom
and status, including farmsteads where successful free
4. Discussion
Regardless of the date of the ‘Reja de San Millán’, it is
clear that at some moment during early medieval times
84
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D. Larreina García: Technology and social complexity
farmers acted as local lords (thegns, milites in the written
evidence) with access to commodities and that even
participated in military actions (peasants on horseback).
Bagoeta was not a primary smelting centre until the
8th century, therefore, all the iron ore was apparently
reduced outside Llanada Alavesa. In principle the most
suitable candidate to supply the iron bars is the active
network of smelting shaft furnaces located in the Biscay
mountains on the boundary with Álava (Franco 2010).
Finally, the analyses of the tools and the technical
materials determine that the utensils were repaired in
the same village but that this was infrequent – very low
volume of slags – and normally these were submitted
to cold working and annealing, labour that does not
require the skills of highly talented blacksmiths. The
scant fragments of slag found correspond to secondary
smithing slag which agrees well with the absence of
other features such as furnaces that indicate smelting or
smithing activities. The quality of the metal was quite
acceptable in most of the cases, and more sophisticated
tools were also accessible to the inhabitants of Zaballa.
This phenomenon of metal production centres that
worked separated from rural settlements has been noticed
by Chris Loveluck (2013, p. 72-73) who states that the
rare cases of settlements outside farming community
clusters correspond typically to metalworking activities.
Networks of exchange between settlements, on local or
regional levels and often covering long-distances, are
presupposed since both of them depend upon the other
to survive.
The hypothesis of iron smelting located on the margins
of society has been explored as well by Birch (2011)
through the Scandinavian term utmark that perceives
iron as coming from the outside, the unknown (Fig.
4). ‘Outside’ does not mean necessarily far although
in fact great dynamism in trade and socio-economical
interaction is assumed (Birch 2011, p. 12) and not only
of goods but also of great craftsman mobility, as they
transported their skills and products.
4.1. The wider look
Each approach contributes valuable input; however, the
interpretation is enhanced considerably if we consider
the three disciplines together. The following approach
is addressed primarily under the technological point of
view using the chaîne opératoire conceptual framework.
Three models of iron production have been described for
medieval times (McDonnell et al. 2012): the first one is
the self-sufficient model where the whole process takes
place in the same settlement from the collection of raw
materials to the manufacture of the objects. Furnace
remains, ores, fuel, iron blooms, stock iron, abundant
smelting and smithing slags, etc., are the archaeological
indicators of these activities. The complex-smithy
model does not reduce the iron but import it as bars
or billets to manufacture the objects. The evidences
would be smithing hearths, smithing slags, stock iron,
partially complete artefacts, etc. The third model is the
basic smithy model where nothing is produced; all the
iron artefacts were imported and the only evidence of
metallurgical activities would be some smithing slag
since occasionally objects need to be repaired. Zaballa
fits into the third model.
The blacksmith has been described as a combination
of itinerant metalworker and smith bound to a landlord
with a range of different skills, from the highly skilled
blacksmith to one competent enough to construct or
repair agricultural tools (Blakelock 2012, p. 72-74).
Since Zaballa was not producing tools these had to
be manufactured elsewhere. Currently there are two
possible candidates inside Llanada Alavesa although it
is very likely that future archaeological fieldwork will
increase the number: Bagoeta, which is a smelting and
smithing workshop (Azkarate Garai-Olaun, Soláun and
Martínez Torrecilla 2011), and Gasteiz, which is an
example of a complex-smithy and a major settlement
within the area (Azkarate Garai-Olaun and Solaun
2013, pp. 426-427). Both are at accessible distances
from Zaballa. However, we must consider if two centres
of production are enough to satisfy the apparent large
demand of the consumers within the 307 villages since
all the excavated places but the two mentioned above
are basic smithies (Quirós Castillo 2016). In addition,
Figure 4. The infield/outfield Scandinavian model
adapted to iron production (Birch 2011, Fig. 1).
85
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Social complexity in early medieval rural communities
medieval villages in Europe (Quirós Castillo 2009) only
present scant metallic artefacts but this picture could be
due to the fact that the archaeological work – constrained
frequently by funding and impact publications – is
preferentially focused on more ‘glamorous’ sites than
farmsteads (Loveluck 2013, p. 56).
The simplistic association of objects with a high/low
status raised by Loveluck (2013) is relevant at this point.
A possible explanation is that the material difference
between a thegn (local elite) and a wealthy freeman could
have been very narrow, and that a strategic geographical
location was an important contributing factor to obtain
access to merchandise (Loveluck 2013) – as was the case
of Llanada Alavesa, which bordered on several kingdoms
and was crossed by major communication routes. The
hoard of 29 silver coins is equally an indicator that
Zaballa was fully integrated within larger exchange
markets. All the data – profound transformations of
urban features, exotic commodities, abundance of iron
horse fittings, etc. – indicate that Zaballa was not an
isolated small village but that it certainly had contacts
with the exterior.
In addition, the metallurgical remains are typically
poorly treated in the archaeological description and only
vague comments are given, such as ‘slag evidences’,
‘few tools’, ‘fired clays’, etc. It would be unthinkable
for archaeological remains of buildings to be described
as ‘some walls’ with the conclusion that there were
unequivocally building activities in the site. Details
regarding construction materials, entity, dimensions,
preservation, or type of buildings are essential to
understand if they were part of a mill, a castle or
a Roman bath. Therefore it is equally necessary to
analyse and describe in more detail the metallurgical
remains to determine the nature and scale of the activity:
e.g. smithing slag is present in most of the medieval
settlements (Blakelock 2012) but the 113 kg at Wharram
Percy (McDonnell et al. 2012) are not comparable to the
300 g at Zaballa, and in both cases microscopy is the key
method to determine the type of production (e.g. copper,
iron, silver), stage within the technological process (e.g.
refining, smithing, smelting), or the relation between the
by-products and other features found in the place.
A further question is how the monastery extended its
influence to territories far away. A (limited) parallel
can be made with the Cistercian order in the French
territories of Champagne and Burgundy that from the
11th-12th centuries onward ‘became heavily involved
in the mining of iron work and ironworking’ (Loveluck
2013, p. 299). Obviously, the monks themselves were
not physically carrying out the labour. Instead, they
turned the existing economic resources in their favour
through managing and trading.
To conclude, a tentative explanation is that an artery
of farming settlements – Zaballa within them –
and communities of primary and secondary iron
producers inside and outside the Llanada Alavesa grew
synchronically. The relation brought mutual benefits to
both communities that prospered, quickly generating
social differences as can be deduced by the bronze
artefacts which typically reflect wealth and, among
farming communities, may be reflecting social ranks
and affiliations (Loveluck 2013, p. 97). At some point
the prosperity of the area attracted the attention of
the monks at San Millán de la Cogolla who, favoured
by the political interests of the Christian kingdoms
in expansion, obtained the privilege of the ‘Reja’ in
a boundary territory of the two major kingdoms of
Navarre and Castile, ultimately creating complex social,
economic and politic relations where the production and
trade of iron – among other goods – was pivotal. In such
a context it would not be strange that the inhabitants of
the region had ample access to metal instruments. It is
also logical that some of them flourished more than the
rest, maybe to the extent of creating new aristocracies
who claimed rights as local lords.
Other considerations, such as how ‘expensive’ an
iron object was, are also open to revisions: e.g. the
inhabitants of Zaballa had easy access to the utensils
due to proximity to production centres – just in the
border infield/outfield? The available archaeological
data offer remarkably contrasted scenarios since these
are certainly abundant within some production centres,
e.g. 2,896 metal artefacts and scrap pieces in Bloodmoor
Hill (Lucy, Tupper, Dickens 2009), but rather exiguous
in other smithing sites, e.g. 8 implements in Gasteiz
(Azkarate Garai-Olaun and Solaun 2013). Therefore,
the conceivable circumstance that areas close to iron
production centres had easier access to artefacts is
uncertain. It can be argued that iron may have been an
expensive but affordable commodity, but then in the
vast majority of the rural sites there are sparse iron tools
(Leahy 2011) and 25 iron items recovered in a hoard
are consider ‘remarkable’ (Thomas 2010, the emphasis
is mine). Therefore judging by the scant number of
implements, rather than affordable or even expensive,
the iron items seem prohibitive. Finally, ‘knowing the
high cost of iron in many areas of Europe’ (Jaritz 1995, p.
163-188), a common idea is that metal was too valuable
to be discarded and was recycled instead, a practice more
prominent in rural settlements distant from production
centres (Woodward 1985). However, recycling small
pieces of iron is largely ‘inefficient’ due to a high loss
of metal by oxidation (McDonnell et al. 2012), and iron
was infrequently re-used (Blakelock 2012, p. 62). To
4.2. The problem of the partial investigation
Regarding the context, it is very difficult to discern
whether the metal abundance in Zaballa and Llanada
Alavesa is an exception or the rule within early medieval
peasant communities. Most of the published examples of
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D. Larreina García: Technology and social complexity
sum up, production and consumption parameters alone
seem insufficient to advance into early medieval rural
societies.
sophistication of implements in Zaballa. Is this in fact
an exceptional case of abundant basic tools occasionally
manufactured by more sophisticated techniques different
from hammering ferritic iron? Or is it that farmsteads
are underrepresented and that, apart from weaponry,
artefacts are rarely analysed metallographically because
resources are employed preferentially in the excavation
and analyses of more attractive sites/items that perhaps
can attract funding from sponsors and visitors to
museums?
The current data suggest that a much more intricate
reality existed in early medieval times in which peasantry
was certainly part of the public sphere (Wickham 2001,
p. 80-90) as a diversified and difficult to classify social
group that included individuals who could afford tens
of artefacts of decent to excellent quality, whereas
entire communities managed with nine tools (Terrats i
Jimenez 2009). To approach this tangled phenomenon
a considerably wider view than urban versus rural
or peasant versus nobility needs to be contemplated:
proximity to routes of communication, regional
networks, long-distance mobility (high or low speed),
access to raw materials, access to imported commodities
(from where and in exchange of what), relations with
aristocracy, military responsibilities, social mobility,
political context, etc., are elements to be considered,
using synergies developed from the availability of
complementary sources, research, techniques and
expertise.
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5. Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated how the combination
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