Asentamientos fortificados en el Rif Oriental (siglos VIII-XV). Nuevos datos sobre Ghassasa y Tazouda (Nador, Marruecos)

Abstract

Fortified settlements in Eastern Rif (eighth-fifteenth centuries): new data on Ghassasa and Tazouda (Nador, Morocco)The present paper attempts to aproximate to the archaeological research of two of the most relevants fortified settlements of the Medieval Rif (north of Morocco), Ghassasa and Tazouda. Reviewing the written sources –Ibn Ḥawqal, al-Bakrī, al-Idrīsī, Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Bādisī, etc.– and comparing the data they offer with the archaeological records of surface, we report here the recent hypothesis deduced from the analysis of their emerging structures and pottery, trying to trace some new information of the fortification process in the Rif since Early Medieval centuries to the fifteenth century and to detect the development of the interrelations and influences by the commercial exchanges between twice Mediterranean coasts: North African and al-Andalus. So, we offer the planimetry of both settlements, Ghassasa and Tazouda, which haven´t been documented before, and also some typologies of Magrib’s medieval pottery founded there, contributing with an original research to the study of medieval urbanism in Magrib al-Aqṣā and the role that they take on the trade routes existing between Bilād al-Sūdān, to Siŷilmāsa, and al-Andalus.