Paper short abstract:

Identity and space are related concepts in archaeology. Space is created by human groups and human groups act as hubs that concentrate individual agencies in the creation of a shared fluid identity through technologies.

Paper long abstract:

In archaeology, the concepts of identity and space are closely linked. In this paper I intend to relate the creation of space and identity showing as a case-study the process of islamization of the Iberian Peninsula in the early middle ages. When in 711-4 AD the Muslims took over the peninsula, they were constituted in a set of essentially different groups with different expectations about the outcome of the invading campaign, and they encountered populations with diverse views of their respective situations. This created a fragmented society (or societies) where human groups had to negotiate actively their identities and their technologies of subsistence (and thus their occupation of space).

Archaeology of the early Islamic period in Iberia has extensively studied pottery and irrigation as markers of social change. Pottery of this period shows a pattern of technological and morphological variety that can be reflected in the territory. Irrigation steadily spreaded throughout the peninsula, but the pace of the process varied regionally. Even when both technologies show parallel developments, local-scale studies show that different groups had their say.

The creation of space obeyed to the application of different technologies, but at the same time the latter were part of the negotiations of identity of each group. In this society, a group is a hub that concentrates individual agencies in the constant creation of a common fluid identity. Fluidity in identity is thus fluidity of a space that is continuously created, and thus understanding different technologies on space we can get to understand the interplay of identities on it.