URBAN‐TO‐RURAL POPULATION GROWTH LINKAGES: EVIDENCE FROM OECD TL3 REGIONS*

The objective of this paper is to understand, from an international comparative perspective, how population growth in rural regions is affected by the relationship with their nearby urban centers. By means of a cross‐sectional analysis on OECD small regions (Territorial Level 3), the paper distinguishes spread effects—positive spillovers arising from urban growth—from the net effect of distance to nonrural places. The results show that spread effects outweigh backwash effects, so that rural regions benefit from growth in urban places. A rural region's distance from urban and intermediate regions has a negative effect on its population growth rate. Nevertheless, both the strength of this effect and the growth spillovers decline with distance, and this occurs relatively faster in Europe. The results further suggest that proximity to large urban areas has a higher positive influence than proximity to intermediate areas, but only outside Europe.     

Modern Road Archaeology: Identification and Classification Proposal

Roads built throughout Europe from the eighteenth century onwards and adapted to motor vehicles serve as an important testimony of the history of engineering. However, very few attempts have been made to identify in a systematic manner the archaeological heritage associated with these infrastructures. This article aims to establish a series of chronological milestones marking the turning points in the design of these infrastructures and to define a typological classification of the elements forming part of road heritage. Finally, on applying the established conceptual framework to the Spanish case, a more specific definition of the main archaeological traces that may still be found today is provided.     

The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Cartografía emocional entre la China y la Gloria: Agustín de Foxá, Víctor Ruiz Iriarte y la Modernidad

Both Agustín de Foxá and Víctor Ruiz Iriarte premiered their first plays very near the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The two playwrights appear to belong to the same imaginative and poetical vein, but in fact Foxá yearns for an impossible return to an idealized past, in a pessimistic lamentation against Modernity—that is, precisely, his exotic drama Cui-Ping-Sing. The poetical theatre Ruiz Iriarte endorses in Un día en la Gloria, and thinks apt to Modern times, is based in a radical optimism—the idea that fantasy can always transform and improve a disappointing reality.     

THE MAX‐P‐REGIONS PROBLEM*

ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce a new spatially constrained clustering problem called the max‐p ‐regions problem. It involves the clustering of a set of geographic areas into the maximum number of homogeneous regions such that the value of a spatially extensive regional attribute is above a predefined threshold value. We formulate the max‐p ‐regions problem as a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem, and propose a heuristic solution.     

Pigments from the Zuiddorp (Zuytdorp) ship sculpture: red,white and blue?

SUMMARY: The Dutch East India Company ship Zuiddorp (also known as Zuytdorp) met its demise in 1712 at the base of steep cliffs along the Western Australian coast. Material from the shipwreck includes an extraordinary example of a caryatid herm from the ship’s stern counter. A recent study of this sculpture and the pigments found on its surface demonstrates Zuiddorp’s archaic stern construction and adornment, which is more of a late 17th-century, than an early 18th-century, Dutch Indiaman. This paper discusses the results of this study and emphasizes how the smallest pieces of evidence can broaden our understanding of contemporaneous regional Dutch East India Company shipbuilding practices.     

An Ethnoarchaeological Study on Anthropic Markers from a Shell-midden in Tierra del Fuego (Southern Argentina): Lanashuaia II

ABSTRACT

For many years the identification of activity areas has been carried out through the spatial distribution of lithics, zooarchaeological remains and specific features such as fireplaces. However, these data are rarely combined and integrated with results from specific analytical techniques such as phytoliths, organic matter, carbonates and multielemental analysis. This research presents the first results of an intrasite spatial analysis on a layer from the site Lanashuaia II, a shell-midden located on the Beagle Channel coast (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). Ethnoarchaeology is used as a methodological tool to give content to the concept of anthropic markers by means of formulating archaeological hypothesis on the basis of ethnological information. This paper presents the application of specific anthropic markers, which have been designed and applied to identify ashy remains and waste areas through different combinations of proxies. The results show how an approach that integrates different techniques enhances data interpretation and allows to give visibility to activities that may not leave visible evidences.