Prof. Dr. Lauro Olmo Enciso
October 2021 - November 2021
Research Project: Transculturation and Power in Early Medieval Iberia: an Archaeological View
The project that I intend to develop there is part of an investigation that I am beginning on the 8th-9th centuries, the formative process of al-Andalus, from the perspective of Transculturation. Until now, and following the diffusionist paradigm, the research, from written and archaeological sources, has focused on the analysis of the newcomers - Arabs and Berbers - and the pacts of their elites with the Visigoth elites - Aristocrats and Bishops. But nothing is said about the majority of the local population and that is the object of my research, from a transcultural perspective. I want to define the framework of interaction between the local population and the newcomers through the inherent process of contact between complex social models. Therefore, it is about analyzing contact areas as social spaces where societies meet and establish relationships with different levels of scale. These contact zones are known archaeologically but have not been assumed as such by research, however, they are fundamental to understand the transformation that took place in them. This process, needs to be investigated contrapuntally, taking into account the material data and testimony produced as consequence of the conquest. For this purpose, it is therefore necessary to focus on the framework of assymmetrical interaction between two social models, considering them from a holistic perspective, though the inherent process of contact between social models defined by Transculturation.
Profile
Prof. Dr. Lauro Olmo-Enciso is Full Professor in Archaeology at the Department of History and Philosophy, University of Alcalá, (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid). He has been a Fulbright Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Siena. His lines of research interest and publications are focused in Medieval Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, and Heritage. He has carried out research stays at universities and research centres in the USA, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Ecuador, Jordan, Egypt. His research has received support to different projects, from the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, Spanish Ministry of Culture, Regional Research Plans of different Spanish Autonomous Communities. He directs archaeological research projects in several late Antique and medieval sites, as in the Visigothic royal foundation of Recópolis, an early medieval and Islamic city (6th-9th AD). In addition to these, he is currently co-directing a project on the application of new technologies in Recópolis and its territory, with the participation of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut- Römisch-Germanische Kommission (DAI-RGK), Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard University (SoHP) and Universidad de Alcalá (UAH). He also currently co-directs an Ecuadorian-Spanish project on the impact of spanish colonialism on indigenous populations in Manabí (Ecuador). He has directed intervention projects in Spanish World Heritage Sites such as the University of Alcalá and the city of Segovia and has participated in the drafting of laws and the implementation of projects for the research and divulgation of historical heritage. He has authored, coauthored, edited and coedited, essays, editorial works, books, book chapters and articles in national and international publishers and scientific journals.
CV
Selected Publications
Olmo-Enciso, L., (2020). "Recópolis, the Representation of Power in a Complex Landscape", S. Pazram, P. Pachá (eds) The Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo: Concepts and Forms of Power. pp. 107 - 118. Amsterdam (Holanda): Amsterdam University Press.
Gelichi, S., Olmo-Enciso, L., (2019), Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity. New Frontier and New Perspectives, Ed. Archaeopress, Oxford.
Henning, J., McCormick, M., Olmo-Enciso, L., Rassmann, K. (2019) “Reccopolis Revealed: The First Geomagnetic Mapping of the Early Medieval Visigothic Royal Town”. Antiquity, vol. 93, issue 369, June 2019, pp. 735-751.
Olmo-Enciso, L.; Castro-Priego, M.; Ruiz Zapata B.; Gil García, M. J.; Galindo Pellicena, M.; Checa-Herráiz, J.; Gómez de la Torre-Verdejo, A. (2019): “The Construction and Dynamics of Early Medieval Landscapes in Central Iberia”, in S. Gelichi, L. Olmo-Enciso (eds) Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity. New Frontiers and New Perspectives, Ed. Archeopress, Oxford, pp. 104-128.
Olmo-Enciso, L., (2018) “Spatial Inequality and the Formation of an Early Medieval Landscape in the Centre of Iberian Peninsula”, in P. Diarte, N. Christie (eds) Interpreting Transformations of People and Landscapes in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Ed. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 193-206.
Olmo-Enciso, L. (2015) “The Materiality of Complex Landscapes: Central Iberia During 6th-8th Centuries AD”, in Richard Hodges, Sauro Gelichi (eds.), New Directions in Early Medieval European Archaeology: Spain and Italy Compared. Essays for Riccardo Francovich, Ed. Brepols, Turnhout (Belgium), 2015, pp. 15-42.
Olmo-Enciso, L. (2012) “De Celtiberia a Santabariyya: la transformación del espacio entre la época visigoda y la formación de la sociedad andalusí”, in 711. Arqueología e Historia entre dos mundos. Zona Arqueológica nº 15, vol. II, Ed. Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, pp. 39-65.
Olmo-Enciso, L., (2008) “Ciudad y Estado en época visigoda: Toledo, la construcción de un nuevo paisaje urbano”, in A. García, R. Izquierdo, L. Olmo-Enciso, D. Peris (eds), Espacios Urbanos en el Occidente Mediterráneo (ss. VI-VIII), Ed. Toletum Visigodo, Toledo, pp. 87-113.
Olmo-Enciso, L., (ed.) (2008) Recópolis y la ciudad en época visigoda, Zona Arqueológica nº 9, Ed. Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid.
Olmo-Enciso, L. (1992) “El reino visigodo de Toledo y los territorios bizantinos. Datos sobre la heterogeneidad de la península ibérica en época visigoda”, Coloquio Hispano·italiano de Arqueología Medieval, Ed. Patronato de la Alhambra y el Generalife, Granada, 1992, pp. 185-199.
Olmo Enciso, L. (1991) “Ideología y Arqueología: los estudios sobre el periodo visigodo en la primera mitad del siglo XX”, en R. Olmos, J. Arce (eds), Historiografía de la Arqueología y de la Historia Antigua en España (siglos XVIII·XX), Ed. Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid 1991, pp. 156-161.
