Allochthonous red pigments used in burial practices at the Copper Age site of Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla,Spain): characterisation and social dimension

The use of red pigments linked to burial practices is widely documented in the Iberian prehistoric record and very often it has been traditionally interpreted as a ritual practice entailing the utilisation of local raw materials (iron oxides). Some research works, nevertheless, have also detected the use of red pigments which can only be interpreted as allochthonous. The red pigments spread over a single inhumation in a monumental Megalithic tomb surrounding Valencina de la Concepción Copper Age settlement was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence, micro-Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. This approach allowed characterising the red pigments as cinnabar, mixed with tiny amounts of iron oxides. The presence of cinnabar, a product that was necessarily imported, in a context of an exceptional set of grave goods, suggests that the use of cinnabar was linked not only to ritual but also to practices related to the display of social status.     

Maya heritage: entangled and transformed

This article discusses two aspects of heritage – entanglement and transformation – that became clear during a recent cultural heritage project in Yucatan, Mexico. Regarding entanglement, heritage becomes relevant only when coupled with other concerns, ranging from politics to livelihood to personal biographies. An unpredictable array of entanglements came into being during the project and these entanglements elevated the impact and visibility of local heritage to an unanticipated degree. Transformation refers to the claim that heritage is not frozen in the past. Instead, it is in motion and subject to change. The transformations of heritage discussed in this paper are examined from the perspective of a mobilities paradigm and understood, in part, as resulting from the experience of performing heritage for outsiders for the first time. In so far as the heritage project precipitated changes in identity, this paper explores what is meant by Maya identity and argues that it is a fluid construct that can be both anchored in the past and negotiated in the present. This perspective makes sense of an event in which contemporary people anchored their identity in a spectacular 1000-year-old ruin, but falls short of explaining the uneven recognition of smaller ruins.     

Constructing America from the Sea: Maritime Archaeology Research,International Cooperation and Best Practices in the Underwater Cultural Heritage of Latin America

This article introduces this special issue of the Journal of Maritime Archaeology by giving a brief introduction to the current situation of the practice of maritime archaeology in Latin America, as well as reviewing the main challenges that the discipline faces here. An assessment of existing regional cooperation, the presence of maritime archaeology within the international community and its importance to develop new theoretical and methodological perspectives that advance access to knowledge is made. Finally, the article focuses on some of the current work carried out in Latin America.     

Regional Maritime Contexts and the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Maritorium</Emphasis>: A Latin American Perspective on Archaeological Land and Sea Integration

In the field of maritime archaeology, the use of maritime, coastal, riverine, and lacustrine spaces by past societies has been perceived in different and changing viewpoints. These perspectives have flourished in dynamic and varying ways in many countries, and under different theoretical constructs. If in the 1970s the subject was perhaps not recognized as a central research subject by much of our community, it is now not only accepted but it has become a robust area of interest in maritime research. Two concepts in Latin America have been accepted that have had widespread application and influence, namely the regional maritime context and the maritorio. The points of contact between both are so intense that it is possible to speak about a single alternative with two possible names. In this article, their origins, applications, and theoretical influences are presented in a way that unifies these two concepts into a single approach (the maritorium), and examines how these ideas have been applied to research carried out in Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay. These applications are wide ranging, as they include the interconnected complexity between land and sea as used and inhabited by past societies. They have been applied in the study of ship traps, whole fleets, sites of maritime conflict and warfare, exploration activities, and ethnographic research. These will also be presented in light of other concepts of similar interest in the international sphere, such as the widespread concept of the Maritime Cultural Landscape, and also in view of other theoretical frameworks coming from the wider sphere of the profession, such as Landscape Archaeology and Phenomenological Archaeology.     

The rise and fall of a speculative bubble: geostrategic concerns,public debate and the promotion of an American trans-oceanic canal in the 1820s

The article examines the interest in the United States for the construction of a trans-oceanic canal in Central America. In 1820, William Davis Robinson published a book, Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution, which contained an appendix discussing the practicability of building a trans-oceanic canal including detailed analysis of the potential routes for its construction. The appendix sparked a lively debate among American political and economic leaders. This debate would not abate until the enormity of the financial and engineering realities of the project coupled with the continuing political instability of Mexico, Greater Colombia, and the Republic of Central America dampened investor enthusiasm.