Compression and digestion as agents of vertebral deformation in Sciaenidae,Merlucidae and Gadidae remains: an experimental study to interpret archaeological assemblages

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Fish taphonomy from archaeological sites provides considerable useful information about human behaviours and environmental contexts as potential food...     

Landschaft,pueblo and altepetl: a consideration of landscape in sixteenth-century Central Mexico

In 1521, the Spanish conquistadors defeated the Nahuas of Central Mexico. Spain was ruled at the time by the House of Habsburg, and its administrators became familiar with the German concept of Landschaft. By 1570, they used this concept to prepare and launch a survey of the indigenous communities which called themselves—and their lands—altepetl. The purpose of this paper is to show to what extent the terms Landschaft and altepetl are equivalent since modern scholars have described both as organized “communities” subject to a customary “law” and possessing a specific piece of “land”. The main obstacle for this comparison is that in the sixteenth century the Spaniards did not have a word equivalent to landscape, and they used words like pueblo, pago and pintura instead, depending on the context. This paper describes the general characteristics of the altepetl in Central Mexico and focuses on its representation by analysing some maps made after the conquest in the area of Cholula, current State of Puebla. The comparison of Landschaft, pueblo and altepetl in historical context is pertinent for cultural geographers since it was during the sixteenth century that the concept of landscape, as we know it today, was taking shape.     

Unraveling a Neanderthal palimpsest from a zooarcheological and taphonomic perspective

Practically all archeological assemblages are palimpsests. In spite of the high temporal resolution of Abric Romaní site, level O, dated to around 55 ka, is not an exception. This paper focuses on a zooarcheological and taphonomic analysis of this level, paying special attention to spatial and temporal approaches. The main goal is to unravel the palimpsest at the finest possible level by using different methods and techniques, such as archeostratigraphy, anatomical and taxonomical identification, taphonomic analysis, faunal refits and tooth wear analysis. The results obtained are compared to ethnoarcheological data so as to interpret site structure. In addition, activities carried out over different time spans (from individual episodes to long-term behaviors) are detected, and their spatial extent is explored, allowing to do inferences on settlement dynamics. This leads us to discuss the temporal and spatial scales over which Neanderthals carried out different activities within the site, and how they can be studied through the archeological record.     

Scattered shipwreck site prospection: the combined use of numerical modeling and documentary research (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Fougueux</Emphasis>, 1805)

A shipwreck site located off Sancti Petri sand spit (Cadiz, Spain) was identified as a Temeraire-class 74-gun French ship. The archaeological deposits relate it to the Fougueux, sunken after the Battle of Trafalgar. The site contains some pieces of the naval structure, 32 iron guns, and a large anchor, but two thirds of the ship is missing. Available information (including ship logbooks of weather observations and other historic documents) establishes that a dismasted French ship ran aground on 22 October 1805 and broke up into pieces on the 25th due to tempestuous weather. Combining that information and a set of numerical models (ocean, atmosphere, and dispersion), we aim to simulate different scenarios in order to determine the most probable areas for finding the shipwreck remains of the Fougueux, taking into account the uncertainty of the information used and the modeling limitations. The probability of finding scattered remains belonging to the Fougueux was calculated using the modeled scenarios. As a result, it was found that the high probability area contained four additional sites comprising 40 guns and 5 anchors whose characteristics and dating are similar to those of the previously known site. The results of our study highlight the value of numerical modeling in underwater archaeology as a tool for the identification and optimization of resources in prospecting scattered shipwreck sites.     

The shrinkage cracks and the diameter of the log: a experimental approach toward fuel management by Patagonian hunter-gatherer (Paredón Lanfré site. Río Negro Province,Argentin)

The anthracological study of Paredón Lanfré (Patagonia, Argentina) highlights the presence of radial cracks with a marked difference between the percentage of affected coniferous charcoal (Fitzroya cupressoides and Austrocedrus chilensis) compared to the angiosperms (e.g., Nothofagus antarctica and Nothofagus dombeyi). The aim of this work was to obtain experimental comparison data from two Patagonian conifers to understand the prehistoric combustion behavior of the region. These results showed a discrepancy between the average of shrinkage cracks made with green wood fires and those with dry wood fires. The study of the caliber of charcoal recovered from Paredón Lanfré showed significant differences between the samples of F. cupressoides and A. chilensis. The calculation of correlation between size and shrinkage cracks suggests for both species that the size is not related to the number of registered shrinkage cracks in charcoal studied. Therefore, the gauge would not be a variable which could influence the presence of shrinkage cracks in the charcoal. Consequently, the difference of average shrinkage cracks between the two specimens may result from another variable that remains to be identified.     

Urbanization in Iron Age Europe: Trajectories,Patterns, and Social Dynamics

The development of the first urban centers is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the history of temperate Europe. New research demonstrates that the earliest cities developed north of the Alps between the sixth and fifth centuries BC as a consequence of processes of demographic growth, hierarchization, and centralization that have their roots in the immediately preceding period. However, this was an ephemeral urban phenomenon, which was followed by a period of crisis characterized by the abandonment of major centers and the return to more decentralized settlement patterns. A new trend toward urbanization occurred in the third and second centuries BC with the appearance of supra-local sanctuaries, open agglomerations, and finally the fortified oppida. Late Iron Age settlement patterns and urban trajectories were much more complex than traditionally thought and included manifold interrelations between open and fortified sites. Political and religious aspects played a key role in the development of central places, and in many cases the oppida were established on locations that already had a sacred character as places for rituals and assemblies. The Roman conquest largely brought to an end Iron Age urbanization processes, but with heterogeneous results of both abandonment and disruption and also continuity and integration.     

Taking center stage: Early modern women’s tragedies on the contemporary stage

Abstract

From wife murder to cloak-and-dagger plays, female bodies, minds, and financial status are, for the most part, disempowered and abused by male protagonists with societal compliance. Since the 2000s, coinciding with the approval of the Ley Integral contra la Violencia de Género (2004), a wave of stage adaptations emerged in Spain that questioned the marginalization of women characters in the comedia. I claim that this trend in performance has become a sociocultural phenomenon that uses the symbolic capital of the comedia to raise awareness of women’s misrepresentation and gender violence and inequality.