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This paper focuses on early medieval funerary practices from a landscape perspective in central Iberia. Rock‐dug graves constitute the most conspicuous remains in this region, but their informative potential has not yet been realized. The preliminary outcomes of an ongoing research project are presented here. This aims to contextualize such funerary cases by examining a mid‐altitude mountain study‐area. Through the use of intensive archaeological surveying and geographic information systems, the paper characterizes two basic funerary types: isolated graves and rural disordered cemeteries, which responded to two social strategies led by local households. By recalling ancestorship, they constituted effective mnemonic resources, contributing to claiming rights and forging identities among these dispersed and predominantly small‐scale herding communities.

RESUMEN 12345Este artículo presenta los datos de las intervenciones arqueológicas realizadas en La Genestosa (Casillas de Flores, Salamanca) en los años 2012 y 2013. Gracias al estudio de los materiales recuperados (cerámicas, vidrios, pizarras numerales), del estudio de las viviendas y de los análisis polínicos, se puede comprender la dinámica del paisaje rural en este sector del centro de la península ibérica. Se detecta la colonización de espacios de uso flexible con fines ganaderos, que serían la consecuencia de una iniciativa por grupos campesinos con diferencias internas, quienes crearon nuevos asentamientos. La coincidencia con el episodio frío altomedieval (450-950 d. C.) conllevó que determinados espacios húmedos se convirtiesen en áreas críticas, condicionando los patrones de asentamiento.

One must always remember that, even if interpretations have moved on, traditionalist archaeological views were very often based upon knowledge of the material evidence that was and is second to none.1 National Histories and Historical LabelsAll European historiographies are marked by one kind of cliché or another. Some of these clichés are so powerful that they dominate not only the national 'grand narratives' familiar to the general public, but also the perceptions of specialists, who are often just as ready to repeat inherited paradigms rather than subject them to criticism. Medieval Spain is no exception. Depending on their specific interests, many historians find themselves marooned in 'Convivencia Country' or 'Frontier Country' , or, quintessentially, 'Reconquista Country' . Such clichés often go far back in time (although often not as far as their proponents suggest), and the reason for their entrenchment and endurance is that between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries they became key components of the collective identity promoted by the nation-state, especially after History earned recognition as a formal academic discipline in the later nineteenth century. This 'canonization' fosters a tendency towards the formation of 'tags' or 'watchwords' , used so as to trigger associations between discrete historical phenomena and an overarching narrative to which such phenomena are said to belong. For that reason, when it comes to criticizing or rejecting a 'grand narrative' , it is unhelpful to do so by critically redefining its labels. In any given study, no matter how many pages are devoted to clarifying the term Reconquista, the mere appearance of the word will have a considerable impact upon the audience, evoking the network of meanings with which it is unconsciously associated, hindering any further attempt to alter it. For the same reason, we shall argue here that no matter how alive we are to the need for nuance,

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