ABSTRACT This paper uses the archaeological record to analyse the forms of social inequality that existed within early medieval rural communities. The paper takes as its case study Álava, where there is a significant density of high- resolution archaeological records, making it possible to compare the nature of the changes that took place within various peasant communities, and explore their interactions with active domain structures at the local and supralocal levels. Therefore, a bottom-up multilayer perspective has been used, based on the contrast between the logics of political economy and moral economy. Three main themes are explored: the formation of medieval villages and village communities; the hierarchisation of peasant communities; and the interaction between these communities and the networks of aristocratic power. As opposed to narratives that have analysed this period in terms of the progressive and necessary subjection of the peasantry to the power of lordship, it is concluded that local societies constituted active arenas of negotiation, counter- positioning, and experimentation in the early Middle Ages, which, although barely visible in the written documentation, generated multiple forms of dominance, and asymmetric social cooperation, and conflict.

中文翻译：

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“小世界”考古：中世纪早期伊比利亚农村社区的社会不平等

摘要本文使用考古记录来分析中世纪早期农村社区中存在的社会不平等形式。本文以阿尔瓦为案例研究，那里有大量的高分辨率考古记录，因此可以比较不同农民社区内部变化的性质，并探讨它们与该地区活跃领域结构的相互作用。本地和超本地级别。因此，基于政治经济学和道德经济学的逻辑对比，使用了自下而上的多层视角。探索了三个主要主题：中世纪村庄和村庄社区的形成；农民社区的等级制度；这些社区与贵族权力网络之间的互动。