Rehabilitation Techniques for Walls during the 18th Century in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)

ABSTRACT

Although it may be thought that the rehabilitation of historical structures is a concern of modern engineering, studies on intervention processes from the past allow us to understand that this is a work carried out frequently and sometimes as a solution to low budgets for the construction of new buildings, or the need to offer quick practical solutions. The objective of this article is to show the way in which during the second half of the 18th century several important architectural and structural rehabilitation works were carried out in the walls of Cartagena de Indias, in view of the damage caused by the enemy attacks to the city as well as continuous impact by nature. By making use of primary sources (plans and original reports), the way in which two of the interventions were executed can be reconstructed: one on the Muralla Real, and another on the San José bastion, gathering information that helps explain their current state of conservation.     

EPISCOPAL GROUPS IN HISPANIA

This study considers the most important Christian architectural complex in the Late Antique city, which at the same time came to be seen as a fundamental point of reference for the ecclesiastical structure of the surrounding territory. Taking the current state of research on episcopal groups in Hispania as its starting point, this paper aims to reach a series of conclusions as regards their location, spatial evolution and the total area they occupied, as well as their internal distribution. In addition, the continuing difficulties involved in archaeologically defining the presence of these religious complexes in the majority of episcopal sees created in Hispania during this period are discussed.     

Order in movement: a GIS approach to accessibility

The aim of this paper is to extend the range of current analytical procedures that archaeologists use to understand movement. In particular, how a landscape becomes ordered by simply defining a destination. More specifically, this study proposes the derivation of a focal mobility network, i.e. the network of most likely paths towards a given destination, and explores several of its applications within a landscape archaeology framework. The suggested extensions are based on existing standard procedures within most GIS. A series of synthetic control surfaces and an archaeological study focused around Iron Age hillforts in Galicia (NW Spain) are used as case studies to illustrate different analytical possibilities.     

Fluvial dispersal potential of guanaco bones (Lama guanicoe) under controlled experimental conditions: the influence of age classes to the hydrodynamic behavior

Hydrodynamic sorting is a taphonomic process able to transport and scatter bones deposited in archaeological and paleontological sites. This study presents the results of experimentation performed in an artificial flume with guanaco (Lama guanicoe) bones of different ontogenetic development, dry and saturated in water, in hydric flows velocities of 15 and 30 cm/s. The obtained results show that bone global density, the age of the individual, the dry or wet bone state, and the hydric flow velocity influence significantly bone dispersion. In this way, bones from immature individuals with unfused secondary growth centers and relatively low bulk density have better possibility of being transported than fused bones from adult individuals. Taking into account the results obtained in this experimentation and the feasibility of discriminating age categories in fossil assemblages, two bone groups with differential potential transport are presented in this paper. These transport groups constitute a methodological tool to evaluate the role hydric current may had played in the formation of a fossil assemblage.     

A review of Australia’s Mesozoic fishes

Abstract

The Australian Mesozoic fish fauna is considered to be depauperate in comparison with fish faunas in the Northern Hemisphere. However, due to its geographical location as a potential radiation center in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia’s Mesozoic fish fauna is important for understanding fish radiations. Most of the modern fish groups originated during the Mesozoic, but the first records of a modern fish fauna (freshwater and marine) in Australia does not occur until the lower Paleogene. Here, we review all known fossil fish-bearing localities from the Mesozoic of Australia, to improve the understanding of the record. The apparent low Australian Mesozoic fish diversity is likely due to its understudied status of the constituent fossils rather than to a depauperate record. In addition, we review recent work with the aim of placing the Australian Mesozoic fish fauna in a global context. We review the taxonomy of Australian fossil fishes and conclude that the assignments of many actinopterygians need major revision within a modern phylogenetic context. The vast majority of chondrichthyans are yet to be formally described; to the contrary all of the known lungfish specimens have been described. This study considers the microscopic and fragmented remains of Mesozoic fish already found in Australia, allowing a more complete view of the diversity of the fishes that once inhabited this continent.

Rodney W. Berrell [r.berrell@postgrad.curtin.edu.au], School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102, Australia; Catherine Boisvert [Catherine.Boisvert@curtin.edu.au], School of Molecular and Life Sciences (MLS), Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102, Australia; Kate Trinajstic [K.Trinajstic@curtin.edu.au], School of Molecular and Life Sciences (MLS), Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102, Australia; Mikael Siversson# [mikael.siversson@museum.wa.gov.au], Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, 49 Kew Street, Welshpool, Western Australia, 6106, Australia; Jesús Alvarado-Ortega [jalvarado@yahoo.com.mx], Instituto Geologia Cd universitaria, Circuito de la investigacion, Del. coyoacan, C.P. 04510, Ciudad de México, México; Lionel Cavin [lionel.cavin@ville-ge.ch], Section of Earth Sciences, Muséum d’Histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genèeve, CP 6434, 1211 Genève 6, Switzerland; Steven W. Salisbury [s.salisbury@uq.edu.au], School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia; Anne Kemp [annerkemp@gmail.com], 9 Hampton Grove, Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia 5067, Australia. #Also affiliated with: School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.