Wave Hindcasting and Anchoring Activities in Ancient Harbours: The Impact of Coastal Dynamics on Ancient Carthago Nova (Cartagena,Spain)

Journal of Maritime Archaeology - This study analyses nautical harbour activities and their spatial distribution using a high-resolution method of wind-wave hindcasting, in order to identify the...     

Aroche (Huelva,Andalucía): a new Neolithic axehead of Alpine jade in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula

The discovery of a Neolithic Alpine jade axehead in Aroche, in the southwest of Spain, revives the question of long-distance exchange between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. This polished blade belongs to a typological model quite characteristic of Alpine production during the second half of the 5th millennium B.C. Different mineralogical approaches (macroscopic features examination, specific gravity, direct XRD, non-destructive μXRF spectroscopy, optical stereomicroscopy, magnetic susceptibility determination and microprobe analysis) have identified the rock as an omphacitic jadeitite (mixed jade) with some tiny garnets and a weak retromorphosis. This analysis and the comparison of the rock structure with the referential JADE of Alpine natural jade samples, as well as the extraction modalities and shaping of the axe, provide strong arguments to assign the Aroche axe to a production of Mont Viso: the origin of thousands of axes that circulated in Europe between Ireland and Sicily. The Aroche axe, discovered not far from the variscite mines of Encinasola, could be considered as part of a possible exchange system between the Iberian Peninsula and the Gulf of Morbihan, in Brittany.     

Anthropogenic units fingerprinted by REE in archaeological stratigraphy: Mas d'Is (Spain) case

On occasions, archaeologists have to deal with serious difficulties to differentiate between processes that ultimately are responsible for the formation of stratigraphic units.Sometimes we face problems related with depositional units in multilayered deposits and other times, we ask for the character of some dark surface soils, very similar to natural paleosols and usually associated with archaeological findings. In both cases, the problems we must address concern the relative impact of human activities.The imbalance between anthropic and natural processes in the formation of archaeological deposits is crucial for a correct interpretation of the processes involved in the formation of archaeological sites, but also of their occupation-abandonment dynamics and the understanding of their spatial behaviors and relationship with the environment.In this paper we propose a new methodological approach for the identification of anthropogenic fingerprints in stratigraphic units through Rare Earth Elements (REE) soil analysis. The role of REE for the effective identification of sediment provenance due to their coherent behavior during weathering, erosion and fluvial transportation and their high resistance to chemical mobilization is well known in other areas of knowledge. We try to explore its potentiality in a challenging archaeological context. Our purpose was to identify human traces in stratigraphic units where archaeological materials are scarce or absent intertwined with others richer in archaeological remains by the determination of multiple elements and statistical studies. We believe that Rare Earth Elements (REE) soil analysis provides unique insights for a better characterization of natural and archaeological sediments but more importantly to recognize different stages of the gradient. We expect to discern between natural versus anthropic units and between primary versus secondary deposits (redeposition), using the case of the Neolithic site of Mas d'Is (Alicante, Spain) as an example. The application of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) remarks differences in REE values, those analysis show differences between units of undoubtedly anthropogenic origin and control samples taken from natural sediments –including marls bedrock–, in their vicinity, but also we could notice finer nuances like the degree of human contributions to paleosols formation.     

Late Mesolithic burials at Casa Corona (Villena,Spain): direct radiocarbon and palaeodietary evidence of the last forager populations in Eastern Iberia

Current knowledge about the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Central and Western Mediterranean European regions is deeply limited by the paucity of Late Mesolithic human osteological data and the presence of chronological gaps covering several centuries between the last foragers and the first archaeological evidence of farming peoples. In this work, we present new data to fill these gaps. We provide direct AMS radiocarbon dating and carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) stable isotope analysis were carried out on bone collagen samples of two single burials from the recently discovered open-air Late Mesolithic site of Casa Corona (Villena, Spain). The results shed new light on the chronology and subsistence patterns of the last Mesolithic communities in the Central Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula. Radiocarbon results date the human remains and funerary activity of the site to 6059–5849 cal BC, statistically different from other Late Mesolithic sites and the earliest Neolithic contexts, and bridging the 500 yrs chronological gap of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition from the area. Isotopic evidence shows that diet was based on terrestrial resources despite the proximity to the site of lagoon and marine ecosystems. This and previous isotope studies from the region suggest a lower reliance upon marine resources than for Atlantic and Cantabrian sites, although intra-regional patterns of neighbouring Mesolithic populations exhibit both fully terrestrial diets and diets with significant amounts of aquatic resources in them. We hypothesize that in the Central Mediterranean region of Spain the Late Mesolithic dietary adaptations imposed structural limits on demographic growth of the last foragers and favoured rapid assimilation by the earliest Neolithic populations.     

Late Ordovician cephalopods,tentaculitides, machaeridians and echinoderms from Kuh-e Faraghan,High Zagros,Iran

Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Evans, D.H., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Álvaro, J.J., Rakhmonov, U., Klishevich, I.A. & Ehsani, M.D., 15.5.2015. Late Ordovician cephalopods, tentaculitides, machaeridians and echinoderm columnals from Kuh-e Faraghun, High Zagros, Iran. Alcheringa 39, 530–549. ISSN 0311-5518.

Late Ordovician (Katian, uppermost Acanthochitina barbata to Armoricochitina nigerica chitinozoan zones) cephalopods, tentaculitides, machaeridians and echinoderms are documented for the first time from the southern Zagros Ranges. A low-diversity cephalopod fauna includes Geisonocerina dargazense sp. nov., Isorthoceras sp. cf. I. bisignatum (Barrande) and other undetermined orthoceratides. The presence of Late Ordovician tentaculitides in the high- to mid-latitude margins of Gondwana has been documented previously, but no examples have been described in detail. Thus, Costatulites kimi sp. nov., which currently occurs associated with brachiopods characteristic of the Svobodaina havliceki (brachiopod) Association, represents the earliest undoubted record of tentaculitides in Gondwana. Machaeridians constitute a relatively common component of the Late Ordovician benthic faunas from the Mediterranean margin of Gondwana, but no previous records on the Gondwanan Iranian-Arabian segment have been reported. Three echinoderm taxa based on dissociated columnals are documented from the Armoricochitina nigerica chitinozoan Zone, including Sumsaricystis radiatus Stukalina, Ristnacrinus sp. and Rosulicrinus rosulus Stukalina.

Mohammad Ghavidel-Syooki [m_ghavidelsyooki@yahoo.com] Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Technical Faculty of Tehran University, PO Box 11365-4563, Tehran, Iran; David H. Evans [david.evans@naturalengland.org.uk], Natural England, Suite D, Unex House, Bourges Boulevard, Peterborough PE1 1NG, UK; Mansoureh Ghobadi Pour* [mghobadipour@yahoo.co.uk], Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran; Leonid E. Popov [leonid.popov@museumwales.ac.uk], Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK; J. Javier Álvaro [jj.alvaro@csic.es], Instituto de Geociencias (CSIC-UCM), c/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain; Utkyr Rakhmonov, Kitab State Geological Reserve, 9 Ipak Yuli Street, Sakhrisabz, Uzbekistan; Inna A. Klishevich, Department of Historical Geology, Geological Faculty, St Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya 7/9, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia [inna@IK4848.spb.edu]; Mohammad H. Ehsani [mh_ehsani@hotmail.com], Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Technical Faculty of Tehran University, PO Box 11365-4563, Tehran, Iran. *Also affiliated with Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK.     

Modelling the heritage world: Economic,legal and political considerations

Abstract

The economic literature on heritage has primarily analysed the impact of building preservation on real‐estate values and community redevelopment. Recently, economists have expanded their study on heritage to include everything from historic buildings and antiques to museums and monuments. However, this research ignores the political and legal characteristics of heritage and is used primarily to justify government expenditures on heritage. The economic study of heritage should include a conceptual framework to explain the process through which certain artefacts acquire historic significance and value. This framework would provide guidance to establish which economic agents form part of the heritage world and what incentives guide them to join it. With this framework in place., we can evaluate how the tools used by these agents to obtain their own goals affect the provision of historic resources.     

The Effect of Public Infrastructure on the Private Productive Sector of Spanish Regions

In this paper we analyze the effect of infrastructure on the cost and productivity performance of the private productive sector of Spanish regions over the period 1980–1993. We use a dual approach based on cost functions that allows us to recover the usual parameters estimated with production functions. In addition, we obtain rates of return and cost elasticities of production factors at the regional level. Our framework explicitly considers that some factors are quasi-fixed and their volume can differ from their optimal endowment levels. Our results indicate that the public sector has contributed significantly to enhance productivity and reduce costs in the private sector of almost every Spanish region. Nevertheless, there is still scope for the government to continue its investment efforts, given that there remains an appreciable gap between observed and optimal public capital, and we find that in the long run, public capital promotes private investment.     

Potters and pigments: preliminary technological assessment of pigment recipes of American majolica by synchrotron radiation micro-X-ray diffraction (Sr-μXRD)

This paper assesses the impact of European ceramics on preexisting American potting technologies. Specifically we investigate the technological features of pigments used for production of colonial American majolica. In order to achieve this goal, majolica sherds from Puebla (4), and Oaxaca (2), both in Mexico, from Antigua (Guatemala) (2), from Panama (1), and from Mission San Luis (Florida) (5) were analyzed by synchrotron micro-X-ray diffraction (μ-XRD). Eleven out of these fourteen samples were also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The combination of micro-chemical and micro-structural techniques provides a cross sectional profile of the constituent minerals present ultimately providing information about the nature and distribution of the pigments used in their decorations, their dissolution in the glassy matrix, and the formation of crystalline compounds. Our results reveal significant differences among productions.