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Spanish Archaeology under the Franco Regime

During the regime of Francisco Franco, Spanish archaeology, and the sciences as a whole, experienced a period of isolation, which allowed Franco to exercise a great amount of ideological control. While the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Italy relied on the misrepresentation of pre-historical archaeology to support their ideas of racial superiority, the Francoist regime affirmed it’s nationalist superiority with the theoretical reunification of the Spanish state under the Catholic Monarchs during the Middle Ages (Díaz-Andreu, 75). Spanish nationhood was understood as an imperialist project undertaken by the Catholic Monarchs, and Catholicism was understood to be its backbone. As with all fascist projects, attempts were made to “prove” or trace the origins of the Spanish state into the Bronze Age, or more commonly, the age of Rome, although these projects were largely owned by individual archaeologists, rather than the regime itself (Díaz-Andreu, 76). 

The Francoist regime’s apparent disinterest in archaeology did not prevent the field from being impacted by Francoist forces after the Civil War. Several archaeologists of prominence were killed in action during the fighting, made political prisoners, or fled from Spain during the war and refused to return. The Civil War led to the destruction of several regional archaeological institutes, as they were affiliated with ethno-national identities in Basque Country, Galicia, and Valencia (Díaz-Andreu, 76). As with most aspects of Spanish life during the post-Civil War Period, Madrid became the center of archaeological research and academic production, assisted by the destruction of regional institutions. The newly developed institutions in Madrid were quickly populated by Franciosts and falangists, the most notable being Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. 

Martínez Santa-Olalla occupied the lead role of the Comisaría General de Excavaciones Arqueológicas, Franco’s new administrative body of Spanish archaeology, and served as the chair of Ethnology and Prehistory at the University of Madrid. Martínez Santa-Olalla’s position as head of the Comisaría General and Department Chair in Madrid, granted him broad control over a variety of publications, all of which espoused Francoist beliefs. Martínez Santa-Olalla had fought on behalf of Franco during the Civil War as part of the falangist faction (Díaz-Andreu, 77). He visited and was invited to several conferences and universities in Germany, and spent time visiting with Nazi-affliated professors of prehistory. Martínez Santa-Olalla even attended excavations led by the Schutzstaffel (SS), during their attempts to connect German prehistory to the Nazi mythos of Aryan excellence (Mederos Martin, 9). 

In addition to Martínez Santa-Olalla’s appointment, the directors of other departments and museums were quickly replaced with pro-Franco professionals, who worked to embed Spanish nationalist ideas into institutions that were once deeply committed to their regional identities. As these professionals worked to insert Francoist and fascist ideology into their works, post-Civil War Spanish archaeology became characterized by strong centralization and poor funding. Archaeology became a method by which fascists could support and endorse fascist ideas about human evolution, societies, and ethnography (Díaz-Andreu, 80).The evolution of Spanish archaeology into a vehicle for fascist ideology was only hampered by the Franco regime's preference for the Middle Ages, but it nonetheless dutifully occupied its role under the fascist government. 

The emphasis on prehistoric archaeology was no coincidence. Some archaeologists used their expertise to argue for a prehistoric unified Spain, in order to support the work of Franco to diminish ethno-nationalist movements and to encourage the superiority of a Spanish national identity. While the Franco regime spoke of a deep interest in the Middle Ages, their interest was more deeply rooted in self-interest, as the Francoist story of the Spanish Middle Ages was better adapted to support Spanish nationhood. For Francoists, the Spanish nation was created when the last Christion monarchs in the north began a series of conquests, pushing Muslim leaders further and further south. These efforts culminated in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando, and their conquest of Granada, the last Muslim taifa. The story of conquest, or reconquest (reconquista) became a popularized method of understanding Spanish history and nationhood. Francoists were entirely uninterested with the Muslim kingdoms, which were present for the majority of Spain’s medieval history, and therefore, did not fund excavations or archaeological studies on the topic. For Spanish archaeologists, the prehistoric time was far more likely to receive funding or attention, whereas anything after the Islamic conquest in 711 was unprofitable (Valor and Gutiérrez, 6). 

Under the Franco regime, Spanish archaeology was heavily centralized and focused on Spanish prehistory, in order to support Francoist ideas of national identity. It remained isolated until the 1970s, when universities began expanding. More positions became available, allowing some new ideas and theoretical frameworks to be introduced, although no institutional changes occurred until after the end of the regime. The introduction of new perspectives was slow, as author Margarita Díaz-Andreu remarks in her 1993 article Theory and Ideology in Archaeology: Spanish Archaeology under the Franco regime, “We will still have to wait for Spanish archaeology to show an effective change in the theoretical field”.

Citations:

Díaz-Andreu, Margarita. “Theory and Ideology in Archaeology: Spanish Archaeology under the Franco Régime.” Antiquity 67, no. 254 (1993): 74–82. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00045075. (requires subscription)

Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. (n.d.). Real Academia De La Historia. https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/27622/julio-martinez-santa-olalla

Mederos Martin, Alfredo. “The National-Socialist Mirage. The Relationship between Two Professors of Prehistory, Oswald Menghin and Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla (1935-1952).” Trabajos de Prehistoria 71, no. 2 (2014): 119–220. doi:10.3989/tp.2014.12131. (requires subscription)

Valor, M., & Gutiérrez, A. (2014). The study of Medieval Archaeology. In The Archaeology of Medieval Spain, 1100-1500. Equinox Publishing Ltd. (requires subscription)