Sherds of a Kingdom: Historical Pottery of the Lake Tana Region (Northern Ethiopia)

Although the Gondärine period of Ethiopian history is relatively well-known due to local and foreign historical texts, and the architectural remains of the Solomonic dynasty, little is known about the material culture of the communities who inhabited the core area of this kingdom between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. This paper deals with the historical pottery documented in the Lake Tana region, summarizing the results of a nine-year project in the area of Gondär and linking it with materials from nearby areas. A comprehensive study of the ceramic remains has been undertaken with a combination of ethnographic, written, and archaeological sources, providing a first chronological and typological framework for this pottery, and some hints about the reasons for the changes detected throughout time related to the consolidation of a centralized Ethiopian monarchy in the mid-sixteenth century.     

The Radiocarbon Chronology of Southern Spain's Late Prehistory (5600–1000 cal BC): A Comparative Review

This paper is the first updated review of the scope, depth and problems related to the current radiocarbon chronology of the late prehistory of southern Iberia. The aim is twofold. First, it critically analyses the quantity and quality of radiocarbon dates used to interpret the diverse trajectories of western Mediterranean societies throughout more than four millennia. Secondly, it reviews a set of three different and prominent archaeological phenomena from an inter‐regional comparative perspective: primary and secondary burial practices, domestic stone architecture and ditched enclosures. Our long‐term, geographically wide‐ranging approach locates similarities while highlighting the effects of local and historical conditions in certain divergent circumstances.     

Social Cooperation and Resource Management DynamicsAmong Late Hunter-Fisher-Gatherer Societies in Tierra del Fuego (South America)

This paper presents the theoretical basis and first results of an agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that is being developed to explore cooperation in hunter–gatherer societies. Specifically, we focus here on Yamana, a hunter-fisher-gatherer society that inhabited the islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina–Chile). Ethnographical and archaeological evidence suggests the existence of sporadic aggregation events, triggered by a public call through smoke signals of an extraordinary confluence of resources under unforeseeable circumstances in time and space (a beached whale or an exceptional accumulation of fish after a low tide, for example). During these aggregation events, the different social units involved used to develop and improve production, distribution and consumption processes in a collective way. This paper attempts to analyse the social dynamics that explain cooperative behaviour and resource-sharing during aggregation events using an agent-based model of indirect reciprocity. In brief, agents make their decisions based on the success of the public strategies of other agents. Fitness depends on the resource captured and the social capital exchanged in aggregation events, modified by the agent’s reputation. Our computational results identify the relative importance of resources with respect to social benefits and the ease in detecting—and hence punishing—a defector as key factors to promote and sustain cooperative behaviour among population.     

Full-Scale Experimental Testing of Retrofitting Techniques in Portuguese “Pombalino” Traditional Timber Frame Walls

Traditional timber frame walls are constructive elements representative of different timber frame buildings, well known as efficient seismic-resistant structures. They were adopted as a seismic-resistant solution in Lisbon’s reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake. To preserve these structures, a better knowledge of their seismic behavior is important and can give indications about possible retrofitting techniques. This article provides a study on possible retrofitting techniques adopting traditional solutions (bolts and steel plates). Static cyclic tests were performed on retrofitted traditional timber frame walls. The experimental results showed the overall good seismic performance of steel plates and the more ductile behavior of bolts retrofitting.     

Maritime Cultural Landscape: A New Approach to the Cascais Coastline

Portuguese Archaeology only recently began to address the concept of maritime cultural landscape. In this article we intend to analyze the impact that this kind of approach has upon the study of a littoral characterized by a cliffed coast and a seafloor that is morphologically complicated by the estuary influences of the Atlantic Ocean and the Tagus River. The coast of Cascais, located near Lisbon, is the space that we wish to address with this epistemological paradigm. A large spectrum of sites composed of fortresses, lighthouses, harbors, anchorages, and shipwrecks permits a longue durée examination. The relationships and networks between humans and archaeological remains, directly and indirectly linked to the nautical past, are observed diachronically with a focus on the early Modern Period.     

Iron Age Saunas of Northern Portugal: State of the Art and Research Perspectives

Special buildings used as saunas have been found in certain large hillforts in the north of Portugal and in the Cantabrian coastal area of Asturias and Galicia in Spain. The principal aim of this study is to highlight the importance of these buildings in the archaeology and art of the European Iron Age, where they are very rarely mentioned. Two approaches are developed: in Parts 1 and 2, we explain the structure of the buildings, their function, and the current debate surrounding their dating. In Parts 3 and 4, further analyses are developed on their position in the landscape, associating the saunas with the public life of the hillforts, and on the decorative structure of the pedras formosas (‘beautiful stones’) found in some of them, and their relation to certain artistic trends in so‐called Celtic art.