Watermills: The Origin of the Use of Renewable Hydraulic Energy in Spain

The use of renewable hydraulic energy sources by mankind most likely has its origins in the development of the watermills. To understand the functioning of these mills, this article first reviews, through the analysis of different bibliographical sources, the technical evolution of the machinery used since the appearance of the first watermills to grind cereal grain in the 1st century bc.

Secondly, a particular area of the south-west of Spain, Alcalá de Guadaíra, has been selected for study, whose strategic location as well as its hydrological characteristics gave rise, firstly, to an intensive milling industry, and, later, a famed baking industry, from the late Middle Ages until recent decades. The huge development of these two industrial activities has made Alcalá de Guadaíra an exceptional example in Spain, with 40 watermills in the early 18th century.

Extensive work on site allowed the analysis of the state and types of watermills that still exist in this area, identifying their similarities and differences. Unfortunately, after they fell into disuse, only 28 of these mills remain today; 12 of them are in a relative good state of preservation, seven in an alarming state of ruin and, of the other nine, only some unrecognisable vestiges remain. Some of these mill buildings have been restored recently, although their machinery is missing. Only from old photographs or by visiting mills restored in other areas is it possible to determine how these watermills worked.

Due to the lack of financial resources to carry out physical restoration of the industrial heritage missing in these flour mills, a virtual model of one of them has been developed. This work provides, at least virtually, a reconstruction of the traditional mills which helps promote technological studies and shows how they worked, as part of virtual exhibitions. In addition, a computer application of augmented reality has been developed that any visitor can install on a mobile device to display the virtual reality of the machinery, generated by 3D models, so they can visualise the physical reality that they would have found in the mill.     

The Mills of Meaux

Abstract

The history of three monastic watermills and their water supplies in the marshlands of the Hull valley is traced from the records of Meaux Abbey in East Yorkshire. Occupying marginal sites where only a meagre head was available, and subsequently transformed into tide mills with an equally meagre supply of tidal water, they offer a rare insight into the medieval approach to water power in desperately unpromising circumstances.     

Women's,gender and feminist studies in Portugal: researchers’ resilience vs institutional resistance

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies in Portugal, focusing on gender and feminist geographies. Although there is a solid, diversified and mature corpus of feminist reflection in the Portuguese academia, there is a lack of institutional recognition with very few Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies formally organized in curricula or academic degrees. There have been, and still are, many resistances to a formal recognition of Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies as a scientific domain and Portugal is lagging behind in this area. The first and only scientific research centre entirely dedicated to Gender Studies was only created in 2012. The long period of dictatorship that Portugal endured for over 40?years in the past century, has had a major influence in the Portuguese society, preventing social movements, as the second wave feminism, to foster social change in the academia. The current debates at the present time in Portugal concern the widespread use of the concept of gender without an effective epistemological and methodological paradigm shift, and some researchers question the erasure of the word ‘women’ that is being almost always replaced by the word ‘gender’. In this area of study, the intersections of activism and academia in Portugal are noteworthy, and there is a positive contamination that comes through the contact with the feminist empowering movements. The Portuguese researchers’ resilience has proven to overcome the lack of support, both institutional and financial, making it possible to advance Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies.     

The Medieval and Early Modern Cornish Stamping Mill

Abstract

The exhaustion of the richest alluvial tin deposits led to development of lode tin. Stamping mills were developed to crush the ore and although considerable archaeological and documentary work had been carried out in neighbouring Devon, little research had been undertaken in Cornwall. The excavation of two mills at Colliford, the survey of further examples at Retallack and an extensive search of documentary evidence has allowed an appraisal of this aspect of the early Cornish tin industry. Much work still remains, but now it is possible to be much more positive about the character of the surviving field evidence, the potential for excavation and the need to develop a research strategy.     

Survey Results from Lagos Bay,Portugal

The Projecto de Carta Arqueológica Subaquática do Concelho de Lagos (PCASCL) aimed to locate, identify and protect existing underwater cultural heritage within the district's coastal area. This project was based on a five‐phase methodology which included archival research, assessment, survey and conservation. PCASCL resulted in the discovery of five shipwrecks and several artefacts which were added to the Portuguese archaeological record. This also led to the development of a secondary project which focused on one of the five shipwrecks as well as proposals for an underwater archaeological park in Lagos.     

The Pepper Wreck, an early 17th-century Portuguese Indiaman at the mouth of the Tagus River, Portugal

Found in 1993 of the rocks of the fortress São Julião da Barra, at the mouth of the Tagus River, the SJB2 shipwreck—or Pepper Wreck—was tentatively identified as the Portuguese Indiaman Nossa Senhora dos Mártires , lost at this location on its return voyage from Cochin, in India, on 14 September 1606. Its archaeological excavation disclosed a collection of artefacts from the late 16th and the early 17th centuries and allowed the study of the surviving hull structure. The evidence suggests that the Pepper Wreck was a typical Portuguese Indiaman, similar to those described in Portuguese 16th century ship treatises, with a keel of around 27.7 m and an overall length of nearly 40 m.     

Quarrying and Production of Milling,Implements at Antelope Hill,Arizona

Abstract

To process mesquite, maize, and other substances, aboriginal groups living in the Lower Colorado-Lower Gila rivers region of SW North America used characteristic milling equipment: squared, flat-faced, convex-based metates (lower grindstones) with elongated manos (upper grindstones) and large wooden mortars with long, cylindrical stone pestles. Andesite and sandstone bedrock outcrops where stone was quarried and milling implements produced have been located. The archaeological deposits at the quarries have not been masked by the debris of later quarrying for rotary mills or building blocks, and thus the quarry sites offer an opportunity to study the production of ancient forms of milling implements, and provide insights into the organization of an ancient stone technology. Antelope Hill, a large arkosic sandstone quarry on the Lower Gila River in Arizona is presented as an example of a widespread phenomenon in the region. Analysis of quarry debris in the field and laboratory, experimental replication, and ethnographic and historical data, combined, have resulted in an understanding of this aspect of aboriginal technology.     

Perpetual Alleluia and Sacred Violence: An Afterword

This paper re-examines Paul Schroeder's thesis concerning the new international order after 1815 and argues that the practicalities of power projection were as important in shaping foreign policy as were diplomatic principles and practices. Highlighting Wellington's role in policy-making, it re-assesses British interventions in Portugal in the 1820s to argue that the exercise of British power resulted from a range of influences apart from the adherence to the Concert system. British interventionism was constrained by the limitations of military and naval power, difficulties in securing co-operation with the Portuguese, and the nature of Portuguese politics and the Portuguese state. The experience and legacy of the Peninsular War also made British ministers sceptical about the potential impact of foreign interventions in the region during the 1820s. Interventions in Portugal demonstrated that Britain could not project power on a global or significant scale in areas where it did not locally command substantial war-making resources, as in India. Schroeder's emphasis on Concert diplomacy and C.A. Bayly's on global-reach fail, therefore, to capture the appropriate range of influences on power projection.     

Chatsworth Street Cutting,Part of the Original Terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Abstract

Recent surveys of textile mills in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and East Cheshire have laid the groundwork for future study in their respective areas. All three have necessarily referred back to precedents set in eighteenth century Derbyshire, where water power was first successfully applied to the manufacture of both silk and cotton. Derbyshire retains an important group of early cotton mills, most of them distributed along the River Derwent and its tributaries. Recent measured surveys of five of the most significant early mills and of a number of related sites by RCHME's Threatened Buildings Sections, supplemented by photographic coverage of further sites over many years, have provided a core of information on which the present article is largely based. The article concentrates on the surviving physical remains of the cotton industry, but draws also on documentary and other evidence for vanished structures.     

Arade River Archaeological Complex: Dredges and Archaeology

Situated on the southern coast of Portugal, the Arade River mouth has been visited and inhabited for over three millennia. Dredging operations, in the first and last decades of the 20th century, brought up the importance of Arade's cultural heritage and triggered a large-scale project of study, survey, and archaeological excavation. This project is conducted by Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática, the Portuguese agency for nautical archaeology, under the direction of Francisco Alves, and with the support of both local and state authorities. This paper is a preliminary assessment of the finds made so far.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

葡萄牙与《中葡和好贸易条约》的签订

《中葡和好贸易条约》是近代以来中葡两国草签的一个重要条约,葡萄牙政府在谈判过程中曾采用各种手段,以期从法律上确认对澳门的占领,清朝谈判官员的昏聩,使葡萄牙人几乎实现了他们在几个世纪里梦寐以求的目的。只是清政府在换约前提出修改条约的主张,才使其努力功亏一篑。本文依据中葡双方的档案史料,对葡萄牙殖民主义者在这次修约交涉中企图侵占澳门的险恶用心和卑劣手法做一概括说明。     

The excavation of a late-seventeenth-century water-mill at Caldecotte,Bow Brickhill,Bucks

The excavation of a watermill at Caldecotte, on the River Ouzel in the new city of Milton Keynes, Bucks., is described. It was probably a double mill with a central water- house containing two wheels separated by a sluice. On either side of the waterhouse were the mills and to the west a miller's house. Parallels from the lower Ouzel valley and the Netherlands are described.

The excavation was directed and the report written by Martin Petchey, with the exception of the section reconstructing the mills at Willen and Caldecote, Newport Pagnell, which is by Brian Giggins.     

The aging of international migrants and strategic transnational practice in later life: Exploring Portuguese seniors in Toronto,Canada

The Portuguese community in Toronto is the largest in North America; however, its immigrant population is now aging. This paper addresses senior immigrants who had a transnational “later life” and discusses this practice in the transatlantic context, using a lifecycle model of transnational migration. Later life is a life stage that is highly feasible for transnational migration, as seniors are mostly disentangled from various obligations, such as work, child rearing, and caregiving for parents. Transnational senior migrants in Europe and North America can be categorized into four groups: Intra-Europe Rich, Intra-Europe Immigrant, North American Snowbird, and Trans-Atlantic Immigrant. Trans-Atlantic Immigrant seniors, the target group of this paper, differ from the other groups on several points, including seasonal preference for transnational migration, motivations, and legal regulations. The paper considers the questions of why senior Portuguese immigrants choose to stay in Portugal for an extended period each year, while mainly living in Canada, and how their later life is structured between the two countries. Transnational later life is a strategic practice of senior Portuguese immigrants in Canada in the last stage of their lifecycle, allowing them to maximize government pension payments while simultaneously enjoying the highest quality of life possible in both countries.     

The development of the flour-milling industry in Spain: analysis of its historical evolution and architectural legacy

The second half of the 19th century, along with the first three decades of the 20th, saw the building of hundreds of flour mills in Spain, all based on new milling and sieving machinery developed after the industrial revolution. Unfortunately, very few of these early mills are now in use: most have disappeared, and many of those that are left have been abandoned. The present work examines the growth of the flour-milling industry in Spain from the mid-19th century, and discusses the typology, design and constructional features of its associated buildings. The information presented is the result of the study of a representative sample of these mills in central Spain, and could serve as a basis for the conservation, rehabilitation and reuse of this important agroindustrial heritage.     

Foot anomalies in the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic population exhumed from the rock cut cave of São Paulo 2 (Almada,Portugal)

The study of developmental abnormalities of the tarsal bones in a Portuguese Late Neolithic population was performed, as part of an ongoing research project that includes the evaluation of foot defects in Portuguese skeletal populations from Neolithic times to modern 20th century samples. Two accessory bones were found, calcaneum secundarium and os trigonum, and three non‐osseous coalitions were detected, calcaneonavicular, cuboid‐navicular and third metatarsal‐third cuneiform. The newly presented frequencies corresponded to other published sources, except for the frequency of calcaneum secundarium, higher than in previous studies (8.6% left bones; 15.2% right bones). This result suggests population homogeneity maybe due to geographic isolation and/or marriage customs although the exact pattern of inheritance of the majority of these foot anomalies is unknown. No apparent sex bias was detected and side could not be tested since these human remains were uncovered from a commingled funerary context. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palaces,Feiras and Prazos: An Historical Archaeological Perspective of African–Portuguese Contact in Northern Zimbabwe

The consequences of the contact between Africans and Europeans during the early Atlantic Age are examined with a specific focus on the Mutapa State in northern Zimbabwe to the middle of the seventeenth century. The dynamics of contact are presented in terms of three categories of archaeological evidence, namely royal palaces (zimbabwe), trading markets (feiras) and fortifications. It is argued that some royal palaces assumed new identities as they adjusted to the new contact situations presented by the commerce with the Portuguese. The site reported in Portuguese documents as Massapa was one such palace initially, before becoming a fully fledged trading centre. With the intensification of market trade, the fortified stonewalled settlements found in the areas between the Mazowe and Ruya rivers attest to evidence for the conflict between the Mutapa state and the Portuguese, as presented in the written records, and environmental deterioration triggered by intensified exploitation of gold.     

Settlement and Trade from AD 500 to 1800 at Angoche,Mozambique

Angoche was an important historic trading port on the northern Mozambique coast. A maritime archaeological survey was undertaken of the islands and mainland to study Swahili trade, clarify the sequence of settlement development and record the exploitation of resources during the medieval and post-medieval periods. Previous archaeological investigations have revealed local ceramics from the early second millennium AD and imports from the late fifteenth century. According to oral traditions and ancient sources, Angoche’s growth is associated with the arrival of coastal settlers from Kilwa in 1485. The survey revealed evidence for occupation dating from c. AD 500 and trading evidence from the late first millennium AD. Artefacts from the thirteenth to sixteenth century on the islands are similar to those found at Kilwa and Sofala, which shows a link to Kilwa earlier than the oral traditions and the name of one of the Angoche Islands ‘Quilua’, is Kilwa in Portuguese. The islands are well resourced in terms of rice, mangrove wood, seafood and farmland and offer sheltered inlets and access to the coastal trade route. The name of Angoche relates to a port of call and the presence of ninth-tenth-century- storage vessels from southern Iran supports this theory. Traded glass and ceramic artifacts and beads increase from the late medieval period revealing that Angoche became an important and wealthy entrepôt. The lack of coral limestone and reef coral, on the sandy Angoche Islands, indicates some building materials would have had to have been imported. Although many buildings would have been made of wood, some stone ruins are likely to have been demolished and burnt to make lime. The original stratigraphy of many sites has been destroyed by aeolian and marine processes but the survey has shown that valuable information on settlement location and ethnographic practices can still be recovered.     

Councils, memory and mills: the early development of the Peace of God in Catalonia

The Peace councils which took place throughout west Francia from the late tenth century have long been recognized as complex political, social and ritual events. Discussions of the Peace, however, often neglect the local factors which informed these councils. The earliest councils in Catalonia were characterized by remarkable variety in both their organization and in their objectives. Some elements of these councils reflect longstanding regional traditions. Earlier provincial synods, for example, shared many of the same concerns expressed at Peace councils. Both synods and councils testify to an impressive level of regional episcopal co-operation. The 1027 Council of Toulouges provides a rich opportunity to explore the microsocial and micropolitical alliances and animosities which motivated one council. The monastery of Sant Miquel de Cuixà, whose abbot organized this council and two others, had been developing a network of mills and irrigation canals near the council's site. The choice of the council's site was motivated, in part, by the desire to secure Cuixà's grip on these property rights. The mills near Toulouges are an example of the local impulses which informed early Peace councils; understanding these impulses can contribute to current debates about the Feudal Revolution.     

The Robinson Enterprises at Papplewick,Nottinghamshire: Part Two

Abstract

In Part One (Industrial Archaeology Review Vol IX No 1) the establishment of the Robinsons' water powered cotton spinning mills along the River Leen was described. By 1785 there were four mills working and a fifth was being built, all of them dependent on the same water supply. The operations of these mills were seriously threatened by the activities of a land owner upstream who obstructed the water flow. The Robinsons then resorted to litigation and also immediately sought an alternative source of power. Their approach to Boulton and Watt led to the commissioning in 1785 of the first rotary steam engine to drive cotton spinning machinery. The problems attendant upon its installation and early operation are described through the medium of letters and drawings in the Boulton and Watt Collections. Using these and other sources the author establishes the site location of the first steam engine and also that of the second Watt engine some five years later. She is very much indebted to Peter Neaverson for additional technical information and his interpretation of the Boulton and Watt drawings.     

Studies on amerindian dogs, 1: Carbon isotopes in relation to maize in the diet of domestic dogs from early Peru and Ecuador

Work initiated purely as a dating project in support of a craniometric and morphological investigation of domestic dogs from early Peru has proved to have much wider implications. The stable carbon isotoperatios (¹³C/¹²C) of hair samples from ten dogs show that maize formed a significant part of their diet. Radiocarbon dates for these remains have confirmed that they belong to the period well after the cultivation of maize was first established. Stable carbon isotope measurements can thus be used to test for the presence of maize as a dietary constituent at earlier sites even where there is otherwise only indirect evidence for its cultivation. Collagen from animal or human bone is a suitable alternative to hair for this purpose and the method has been successfully applied to collagen dating to c. 3000 BC from the Valdivia culture site of Real Alto, Ecuador, as well as to a series of early Peruvian dogs.