‘In territorio de Carrion in Ualle de Quoza’: Representation of Space, Identity and Political Conflict in the Territory of Carrión (10th-12th c.) (SP)

Abstract

This essay considers the way in which the territory of Carrión, in the Duero basin, was represented in the charters between the 10th and the 12th centuries. This space remained under the political control of the Banu Gómez since the late 10th century. During the second half of the 11th century, when the control of this aristocratic group was particularly intense, the territory, which had so far been always called Carrión, appears in some charters as Santa Maria. Some decades later, as royal power was reasserted over the territory, the place-name Carrión became again the norm. This essay seeks to analyse the specific documentary contexts in which these place-names appear in order to see how they relate to other factors in the production of the charters and what might have caused those changes. Ultimately, it seeks to evaluate how the analysis of place-name attribution and changes over time might help us get a better understanding of the relations and structures of power in the Duero basin during this period.