The Archeology of the Spanish Civil War

The Heritagization Discussion and its Limits: the Case of Madrid

Abstract

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) is practically immeasurable from a historiographical point of view. Since the end of the war and throughout the eight decades that have passed, its causes, antecedents, complex evolution, and irreparable consequences have been studied and debated. This includes the political situations that created it, great military episodes, logistics, economic factors, and the internationalization of the conflict. From the beginning of the Transition to the death of Franco, there have been very notable advances in the study of the social dimension of the war and, above all, the postwar period, which have delved into crucial aspects such as exile and political repression, which was practiced cruelly on both sides during the conflict and implacably so by the dictatorship toward the end of the war. If any field has delved into the war in a truly novel way in the last three decades, it has been in archaeology. This article takes a historiographical approach to these advances and presents the current debate on the cultural heritage and the ideological dimension of the testimonies that have been preserved from the Civil War in Madrid.