| Sumario: | This leads us to think that we are dealing with complex and multi-faceted processes, in which the foundation of churches and the consolidation of cemeteries were the result of a variety of interconnected social dynamics. cemetery-settlement relationships In the 8th to 10th centuries, unlike in the preceding period, the vast majority of burials shifted to cemeteries situated around the new churches, and this shift was accompanied by changed relationships between burial sites and settlement. On the contrary however, throughout the late antique Iberian north-west there are a wide variety of functioning burial spaces which can be grouped into three basic categories: a) ecclesiastical cemeteries; b) necropolises not linked to churches; and c) isolated burials. In addition to this is the baptistery built by Alfonso II in Oviedo cathedral, and the configuration of spaces consigned for the baptism in the narthex of many of the larger churches in the kingdom.[89] Furthermore, there is an extensive list of churches in smaller rural areas that cannot be considered as parishes, as such, which are not usually equipped with baptismal fonts, but did begin to be used as spaces for large-scale burial by peasant communities, thereby putting an end to the funerary practices of Late Antiquity. However, the churches were eventually integrated and assimilated by the ecclesiastical structures of the kingdom as it expanded and consolidated its domains, and the churches were used as a mechanism for the integration of local populations within the power structures of the monarchy.[30] The standardisation of burials around the churches also became a key component of this political strategy.
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