ABSTRACT
As is well known, the historian’s work lies in resolving the conflict resulting from the personal selection of the causes and facts used in the reconstruction of the historical discourse, and the need for this discourse to be objective and coherent. I consider that the ‘reconstruction’ of the transition between the sixth and tenth centuries in the north and west of the Iberian Peninsula represents a paradigm of this conflict. There is still no consensus amongst historians about a series of interrelated historical problems which arise in this period. In this chapter attention will be focused upon the problems posed by architecture and decorative sculpture. 1 This is a field of study with a long history of research whose origins are to be found in the history of art and the ‘antiquarian’ tradition of archaeology. This is open to criticism, but it must be remembered that it is the very basis of our knowledge and consequently affects all subsequent techniques of research that might be considered more advanced and more ‘archaeological’.
