Chapter Mills and the politics of water management in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1050

Abstract

This chapter aims to present watermills as a component of local political landscapes and as a proxy to power relations and political interactions within early medieval local communities. Research on various European regions has shown that watermills could be subject to complex property regimes, often characterised by partible ownership and shared use. Through the analysis of the evidence from the north of the Iberian Peninsula, the chapter considers the different resources and infrastructures that mills weaved together, analysing different levels of decision-making on which their management relied, and delving into the local landscapes that they contributed to shape.