Entre mitos y moros: un nuevo acercamiento a la historia de Gibraltar desde la arqueología (711-1462)

When documenting Gibraltar’s medieval history and that of its eponymous Straits, there is a tendency to accept at face value the historical accounts that relate the existential struggle for control of this strategic area between Christianity and Islam through time. For Gibraltar’s history this entailed a continuous occupation from at least. the 11th or even the 8th century to the present day. Here, from a historical perspective, we assess more than 20 years of archaeological research on Gibraltar to address the veracity of these accounts. This synthesis demonstrates that, instead of a slow diachronic development of the town and fortifications of Gibraltar, there is a relatively late construction –in effect the foundation of the city– during the 13th and 14th centuries in response to the newly encroaching Christian forces from the north. In this scenario the Straits became a hotly contested battleground at that time, even one invested with religious significance by some observers, between competing Muslim and Christian factions. The archaeology of Gibraltar helps elucidate these shifting patterns of hegemony for control of the Straits, culminating in the Castilian victory in the 15th century