Cartografía del paisaje de la colonización agrícola musulmana (s. VIII-XII) en la Sierra de Segura (Jaén, España) mediante Sistemas de Información Geográfica

Abstract

In order to orient in a landscape, it is necessary to draw a map. A cartography that accurately represents the elements involved in the formation of the territory. This work focuses on the landscape defined by a system of medieval rural settlements, preserved in a Sierra de Segura valley (Jaén) in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Thirty-eight sites with structures and remains built with rammed earth technique. The aim is to analyse new sources of information useful for drawing up a map with which to interpret the palimpsest of the landscape. An interdisciplinary methodology has been designed based on a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) developed in geographic information systems (GIS). These tools allow a macro-spatial reading of the territory and measure the influence of variables such as altitude, slope, visibility or distance to rivers or roads, among others. From here it is possible to determine settlement patterns. This process has shed light on the agricultural colonisation process of Arab, Yemeni and Berber tribes in a specific valley of al-Andalus between the 8th and 12th centuries.