A new research found that there are ancient vineyards in Zaballa, an abandoned village in Spain. This discovery suggests that the place used to produce vines for wines instead of cereal crops.
Researchers from University of the Basque Country led by Juan Antonio Quirós-Castillo found the 1,000-year-old vineyards along the terraced fields of Spain. Archaeological evidence shows that the region was once used to grow crops, primarily grape vines for wine production.
The ancient settlement of Zaballa flourished in the 14th century but its habitants left the city after the land lords imposed a new scheme which required people to pay rent for their homes and land. Zaballa is part of the Araba-Alava, an expansive region that once housed hundreds of medieval settlements. The research done by the experts from the University of the Basque Country is trying to look into the region’s structure, its rural heritage and way of life by examining the remains in the abandoned fields.
To gather data, the researchers probed into the fields, which are all still visible in the area’s landscape. Data gathered by these probes indicated that the soil composition, as well as the topography, was more suited to grow vine crops rather than cereal crops. Aside from these, the archaeological team was also able to find metal hand tools which were probably used to till these ancient fields.
Their analysis of the seed remains from these fields suggests that, “…the existence of vine cultivation in a relatively early period like the 10th century,” Quirós-Castillo told Discovery.com.
"The important thing is not just their number, but that in the decade that we have been working on this project, extensive work has been done on nearly half a dozen of them, and work at other levels has been done on nearly a hundred," he added.
This study is very similar to Quiros-Castillo’s research which was done in another part of the Araba-Alava settlement, Zortonegi. While the Zaballa terraced fields were dedicated for wine crops, the fields of Zortonegi was used to cultivate grains and cereals.
"Zornotegi has a completely different history," Quirós-Castillo told Discovery.com. "Even though it was founded at more or less the same time, it is a much more egalitarian social community in which such significant social differences are not observed, and nor is the action of manorial powers which, in some way, undermined the balance of the community."
Results of the study were published in the Quartenary International.
