Link to Spain's Past Found in Thousand-Year-Old Vineyard

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The remnants of Spanish vineyards dating back more than 1,000 years have been discovered in the terraced fields of a medieval village, a new archaeological study says.

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country reported in an issue of the journal Quaternary International that they found evidence fields within the medieval settlement of Zaballa were once intensely used to grow grape vines.

"Archaeo-botanical studies of seed remains found in the excavations and pollen studies have provided material evidence of the existence of vine cultivation in a relatively early period like the 10th century," Juan Antonio Quirós-Castillo, the study's author, said in a statement.

The examination of the fields, which are still visible in the landscape, suggests they were agriculturally suited to growing vines. The archaeologists also unearthed metal tools that were likely used to maintain the ancient vineyards.

It's believed Zaballa was abandoned in the 15th century after local lords operating under a newly created rent-seeking system drove out many of the townspeople.

Zaballa is one of about 300 deserted settlements known collectively as Araba-Alava. Archaeologists from the University of the Basque Country are working to reconstruct the region's rural heritage by exploring what survives from the settlements.

"The important thing is not just their number, but that in the decade that we have been working on this project, extensive work has been done on nearly half a dozen of them, and work at other levels has been done on nearly a hundred," Quirós-Castillo said.

That said, the researchers had ended up compiling some of the most important archaeological records of medieval history throughout northern Spain, he said.

"In other words," Quirós-Castillo added, "to see how the peasant community itself gradually adapts to the political and economic changes that take place in the medieval context in which these places are located."

Quirós-Castillo and his colleagues also focused on the abandoned village of Zornotegi, which evidently sported terraced fields that were devoted to the cultivation of cereals and grains.

"Zornotegi has a completely different history," Quirós-Castillo said. "Even though it was founded at more or less the same time, it is a much more egalitarian social community in which such significant social differences are not observed, and nor is the action of manorial powers which, in some way, undermined the balance of the community."

The researchers want the Araba-Alava settlements to gain higher regard as part of the country's archaeological heritage so that it's easier to preserve the region's history.

"The space for traditional crops, still easily recognizable in the landscapes closest to us, are historical spaces brimming with explanatory significance to help us understand the societies of the past," Quirós-Castillo said. "They require attention which they have not had until now."