Geoarchaeology in a peri-urban environment: a soil micromorphological case study of the “Land of Aynadamar

Abstract

Granada (Spain) was the capital of the Nasrid Kingdom, the last Islamic emirate in Iberian Peninsula during the 13th-15th centuries. Th e Land of Aynadamar is located on a hillside north of the city of Granada, on the third hill in the urban complex. Th e hill to the south is occupied by the Alhambra, the palatine city where the Nasrid sultans resided. Th e Land of Aynadamar can be considered as part of the ‘castlescape’ of the Alhambra and its study contextualises further this iconic monument, even though the Alhambra was a palatine citadel and not only a single castle. Th is research, which applies soil micromorphological analysis in conjunction with the historical sources, excavation data, and palaeoenvironmental data, demonstrates how the suburban land- scape was transformed following the Castilian conquest and the Christian colonisation in the last peri-urban place of al-Andalus. Archaeological soil and sediment micromorphological analysis has identifi ed nuances in the stratigraphic sequences from four separate areas comprising agricultural terraces, peri-urban farmsteads, and a palatine residence, and it has identifi ed periods of abandonment or the disuse of areas that are maybe contemporaneous. Th ese periods of abandonment relate to an important transition in the occupation of the Land of Aynadamar that marks the decline of Nasrid rule and changes associated with the Christian conquest from the 16th century onwards.