A contribution to the study of post-depositional alterations of pottery using TL dating analysis

In luminescence dating, the potassium concentration significantly contributes to the dose rate value in the age estimation. Within this study, fine-grain thermoluminescence dating has been applied on sherds of calcareous pottery of known age, excavated at a Roman site in Mallorca, Spain. For those of the samples that showed signs of severe potassium leaching, according to chemical and mineralogical examination, the thermoluminescence analysis provided overestimated dates. By using the known archaeological age of the samples, a corrected dose rate value can be estimated which provides the potassium concentration averaged for the burial period. Finally, a step-like model can then be used to estimate the fraction of the burial period after which most of the alteration effects took place.     

Urban Planning System in Contemporary Spain

This work analyses the main Spanish legislative and urban planning instruments, highlighting some of the most important structural problems of the current Spanish urban realities. The survey on legislation runs from the first Land Use Act of 1956 to the decentralization of the administration and the culmination of the transfer processes to the respective Spanish regions. Later, we study the complete well-structured hierarchy of urban planning instruments in use at present. Finally, we analyse how these and other factors have an influence on the capacity to control housing prices and on a lack of sustainability characterized by the excessive urbanizing use of the land.     

Evidence of Stress Fracture in a Homo antecessor Metatarsal from Gran Dolina Site (Atapuerca,Spain)

We present the palaeopathological analysis of a right fourth metatarsal (ATD6‐124) recovered from the Atapuerca–Gran Dolina site (Spain). This fossil, ca. 1 Ma, belongs to Homo antecessor, the earliest known European hominin species. The metatarsal exhibits a proliferative lesion on its medial periosteal surface. Periosteal reaction can be the bone response to a wide number of injurious processes. We describe a lesion on the basis of macroscopic and microscopic analyses, including microtomography and scanning electron microscopy. Externally, the osteoblastic lesion presents a highly porotic and disorganised morphology. Internally, we observe a series of micro‐fractures on the compact bone that do not affect the medullary canal. We provide a differential diagnosis and suggest that the ATD6‐124 lesion could correspond to a pedal stress fracture, also known as fatigue or march fracture. Stress fractures have been related to a load increase and muscular fatigue. This type of fracture has been widely reported in the foot of soldiers and athletes, which are usually engaged in strenuous, excessive or prolonged locomotive activities. Despite its high frequency in these groups, stress fractures have not been reported as such in fossil collections, with the exception of a metatarsal belonging to the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Against War! Regional Identity Across a National Border in Late Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia

During every war between Denmark and Sweden from at least 1505 to 1676 popular peace treaties were concluded by common men on both sides of the national border. These treaties were negotiated in contrast to the aggressive policy of the political leaders and to the nationalistic discourse of the elite. The aim of this article is to use archaeology to give an economic, social, and mental background to these treaties, and to the regional identity across the border that they presuppose. Above all a specific building tradition seems to have given the peasants a mental affinity across the border.     

Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines

Vie Scientifique

Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines     

Singulières archives

Archives, although fundamental to historical research, are rarely appreciated in terms of their place in epistemology. The concept of «archive»-usually given in the singular-has, however, been treated by several philosophers, including most recently Paul Ric?ur. This paper focuses on Ric?ur's latest work,La Mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli, to analyse Ric?ur's use of the term «archive» and its resonances with the work of Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau. It investigates, as well, how the concept of archive, closely linked to that of witnessing or testimony, presents certain difficulties from the vantage point of historical epistemology, and proposes another use of the term, one involving greater attention to the historicity and materiality of the «archive» in the interests of a more textual and hermeneutic interpretation.