:''There are other meanings for Amaya.'' Amaya is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

(pop. 67 ()) located in the municipality of Sotresgudo,

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

, in the region of Castile-Leon,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The name of the village has Indo-European roots and means "am (ma)" or "mother". The suffix io-ia is also used to form action names or toponyms, implying that the meaning of Amaya or Amaia is "mother city", as it will be called later "the capital". An alternative hypothesis states that the name derives from the

Proto-Basque Proto-Basque (; ; ) is a reconstructed ancient stage of the Basque language. It preceded another reconstructed stage, Common Basque, which is derived by comparing dialects of modern Basque. Common Basque is their reconstructed common ancestor. Pr ...

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

word ''Amaia'', meaning "the end".Patrick Hanks, ''Dictionary of American Family Names'' (2003), p. 32. Amaya was one of the main villages of the

Cantabri The Cantabri (, ''Kantabroi'') or Ancient Cantabrians were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. These peoples and their territor ...

Celtic tribes, and played a key role in the

Cantabrian wars The Cantabrian Wars (29–19 BC) (''Bellum Cantabricum''), sometimes also referred to as the Cantabrian and Asturian Wars (''Bellum Cantabricum et Asturicum''), were the final stage of the two-century long Roman conquest of Hispania, in what to ...

during the

Roman conquest of Hispania The romans ruled and occupied territories in the Iberian Peninsula that were previously under the control of native Celtic, Iberian, Celtiberian and Aquitanian tribes and the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian territories in the south a ...

, and later, during the

Visigothic Kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths () was a Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic people ...

, as the capital of the

Duchy of Cantabria The Duchy of Cantabria was created by the Visigoths in northern Spain. Its precise extension is unclear in the different periods, but it seems likely that it included Cantabria, parts of Northern Castile, La Rioja, and probably western areas ...

. Amaya is mentioned in the ''Chronicle'' of

John of Biclaro John of Biclaro, Biclar, or Biclarum (''c.'' 540 – after 621), also ''Iohannes Biclarensis'', was a Visigoth chronicler. He was born in Lusitania, in the city of ''Scallabis'' (modern Santarém in Portugal). He was also bishop of Girona. Ear ...

, as a town captured by the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

ic king

Liuvigild Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or ''Leovigildo'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese), ( 519 – 586) was a Visigoths, Visigothic Visigothic Kingdom, king of Hispania and Septimania from 569 to 586. Known for his Codex ...

in 574. According to the Muslim chroniclers, in the year 714,

Musa ibn Nusair Musa ibn Nusayr ( ''Mūsá bin Nuṣayr''; 640 – c. 716) was an Arab general and governor who served under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I. He ruled over the Muslim province of Ifriqiya, and directed the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic Kingdo ...

sacked Amaya for the second time after

Tariq Tariq () is an Arabic word and given name. Etymology The word is derived from the Arabic verb , ('), meaning "to strike", and into the agentive conjugated doer form , ('), meaning "striker". It became popular as a name after Tariq ibn Ziyad, ...

did the year before.

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, the provincial ''dux'', led his people into refuge in the mountains, and after the local noble

Pelayo of Asturias Pelayo is the Spanish form of the Latin name Pelagius. It may refer to: * Pelagius of Asturias, founder of the Kingdom of Asturias and beginner of the ''Reconquista'' * Pelagius of Córdoba, tenth-century Christian martyr * Pelagius of Oviedo, bi ...

in the neighbor region of

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

started a rebellion against the Berber garrison, Dux Peter as other western Galician nobles supported the election of him as new King or ''Princeps'' in the lead against the common enemy. In the first stages of the

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

, the city was part of the repopulating efforts of the

Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the nobleman Pelagius who traditionally has been described as being of Visigothic stock. Modern research is leaning towards the view that Pelagius was of Hispano-Roman ...

in the border region of

Bardulia According to some sources, Bardulia is the ancient name of the territories that composed the primitive Castile in the north of what later became the province of Burgos. The name comes from ''Varduli'', the name of a tribe who, in pre-Roman and Ro ...

, the primitive territories of Castile. After the campaigns of

Alfonso I of Asturias Alfonso I of Asturias, called the Catholic (''el Católico''), ( – 757) was the third king of Asturias, reigning from 739 to his death in 757. His reign saw an extension of the Christian domain of Asturias, reconquering Galicia and León. ...

(739-757) against the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

, the city lay an abandoned in the largely empty buffer zone between Moors and Christians known at the time as "The Desert of the Duero" and was part of the

repopulation Repopulation is the phenomenon of increasing the numerical size of human inhabitants or organisms of a particular species after they had almost gone extinct. Organisms An example of an organism that has repopulated after being on the brink of extin ...

campaign carried out a century later, during the reign of

Ordoño I of Asturias Ordoño I ( – 27 May 866) was King of Asturias from 850 until his death. He was born in Oviedo, where he spent his early life in the court of Alfonso II. He was probably raised in Lugo, capital of the province of Galicia, where his father, ...

(850-866). At that time it was an important and significant place, as a very old saying states: "Harto era Castilla pequeño rincón, cuando Amaya era la cabeza y Montes de Oca el mojón" (A very small corner was Castile, when Amaya was the head and Montes de Oca the boundary stone). Amaya was historically a short-lived bishopric, which is no longer an active residential diocese. Presently, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

recognizes Amaya as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

, which means it holds symbolic significance within the Church hierarchy.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 830

References

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Castile and León Populated places in the Province of Burgos Towns in Spain