21 papers delivered at a conference in Madrid in 2006 which look at various aspects of the archaeology of early medieval monasticism. The essays focus as one might expect on monasteries in Spain. Essays mostly in Spanish with some in French and Italian.

The need to protect the physical and cultural environment in which we operate is the logical consequence of the dramatic transformations witnessed in recent years due to rapid urban development. This book seeks new ways to understand the natural and historic patrimony, increasing the evidences that we use to define our cultural heritage. The importance of this has been increasing in recent years leading to the creation of legal categories by the European Landscape Convention . In Toledo, as a result of a peculiar historical evolution that has prevented the existence of large urban change until very recently, a number of outstanding cultural landscapes remain to be studied. However, and despite having all kinds of statements of local, national and international protection, an end seems closer than ever due to the approval of a new Municipal Management Plan proposing the construction of new neighbourhoods in places that most assumed were exempt from such Urban development. The opportunity remains to at least document the evolution of Toledo s cultural landscapes that have reached the early twenty-first century and these are studied here using different techniques and approaches, an ambitious research project starting with the Cigarrales, the area currently under greatest threat. This book summarizes archaeological activities carried out within the framework of the project Cultural landscapes of Toledo: The Cigarrales developed between 2010 and 2012 . This monograph is intended as a summary of the work, which provides important research, not only for understanding the Cigarralera area, but all urban landscapes."

Fifteen papers from a conference held in Madrid in 2005 on the subject of Gaul and Spain from the 5th to 7th century AD, looking especially at evidence for the migration and influence of various cultural groups across Europe. The contributors examine the problems within this subject, especially interpreting the material culture evidence, and go on to look in more detail at funerary assemblages in both Gaul and Spain for evidence of the presence and influence of other cultures at the time of the disintegration of the Roman Empire. Text in Spanish, French and German.

Tres usurpadores godos es un estudio sobre tres famosas usurpaciones de epoca visigoda. Se analiza en primer lugar la naturaleza del levantamiento del principe Hermenegildo (579-585), la guerra civil y el complejo contexto politico del momento, asi como las importantes implicaciones que se derivaron del conflicto. El segundo estudio aborda la rebelion del duque Argimundo a comienzos del reinado de Recaredo y las consecuencias que esta tuvo en el recien conquistado reino suevo. Destacado miembro del Aula Regia y dux prouinciae, Argimundus inicio una rebelion en la provincia Gallaecia que pudo haber arruinado la obra politica construida por Leovigildo y Recaredo. Por ultimo, se analiza la figura del duque Theudemirus, uno de los grandes magnates del reino de Toledo de finales del siglo VII, su actuacion dentro de la complicada situacion politica visigoda y el papel que desempeno en la transmision del poder entre visigodos y arabes a la caida del reino de Toledo.