The Morphology of a Working Place Linked to the World: The Railway Workshops of Jundiaí (Brazil, 1892–1998)

ABSTRACT

Material sources have done little to contribute to research on Brazilian railway history (except for heritage studies and history of architecture). This interdisciplinary case study focuses on archaeological evidence to reflect on topics not often discussed in Brazil: the physical and functional configuration of the workplaces related to railways; the changing of these spaces through time due to the evolution of technology; and their characterisation as highly globalised sites. In doing so, we take the railway workshops of Jundiaí (São Paulo) as a study sample and analyse it under the light of the expansion of industrialisation from the World's great powers to its outlying economies.     

Portable Steam Engines and Traction Engines and Their Use in Rural Areas: The Case of Lezíria Ribatejana,Portugal

In the second half of the 19th century, the area known as Lezíria, in Portugal, started to use portable steam and traction engines in agricultural production. Out of more than a hundred original examples, all of them manufactured in England, little more than a dozen survive today, with different levels of preservation. This article studies these for the first time through an archaeological perspective, identifying their use and importance in different agricultural activities in the production of goods such as olive oil.     

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.     

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.     

The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Hominin presence is well documented in a number of Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene European localities. However, the evidence currently available indicates that Acheulean handaxes spread in the fluvial basins of Western Europe during MIS 11, ～400 kyr ago, associated with Homo heidelbergensis, although a number of early Middle Pleistocene Acheulean assemblages have been dated from MIS 16 onwards. For this reason, the magnetostratigraphic dating in Southeast Spain of two archaeological localities, the open-air site of Solana del Zamborino (SZ) and the rock-shelter site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Quípar (EQ), that put back the appearance of handaxes to the Early-Middle Pleistocene limit (Scott and Gibert, 2009) is of particular interest, as the new ages suggest that H. heidelbergensis was a contemporary of H. antecessor that had the ability to produce Levallois debitage and to control fire during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. However, we have detected a number of errors in the interpretation of the archaeological assemblage from the first site as well as striking discrepancies with the original faunal lists published for both localities, with several large mammal species that are omitted or arbitrarily changed to make the assemblages consistent with the new ages deduced from magnetostratigraphy. For this reason, we suggest that: (1) the finding of reverse polarity in the sediments sampled for paleomagnetism in SZ may simply record one of the polarity reversals that took place during the Brunhes Chron, although the use by Scott and Gibert (2009) of a composite stratigraphic column precludes correlating these levels with a specific reversal; and (2) the fauna and tools of EQ correspond to the late Middle Pleistocene sedimentary infillings of this karst site, while the samples taken for paleomagnetism belong to a previous sedimentary cycle during the Matuyama Chron. Such interpretations would be in better agreement with the age estimates provided by biostratigraphy and also with the currently accepted chronology for the appearance of Acheulean industries in Western Europe.     

Globalization,trade, and material culture: Portugal’s role in the making of a multicultural Europe (1415–1806)

SUMMARY: In the Early Modern age, Portugal was among the first European countries to engage in overseas trade and colonial ventures. The influx of new people and things rapidly transformed it into a multicultural country in permanent contact with the rest of Europe and the wider world. While we possess a vast amount of knowledge describing the overseas contacts and acquisition of goods from historical documents, in recent years archaeological excavations have begun to reveal direct evidence of these interactions. This includes thousands of people and objects such as ceramics, ivory and stone artefacts produced in overseas territories in Africa, South America and Asia. They were exported in vast amounts to several European countries, and are frequently found in archaeological excavations. These commodities were in part responsible for changing European perceptions of the world, its dimensions and cultural plurality. They also rapidly left their mark on European goods production, leading to changes in aesthetics and the introduction of new forms. This paper will discuss some of these objects in terms of how they reflect an Early Modern globalized world, and their influence on European daily life.     

The Pen and the Plough: Balanta Young Men in Guinea‐Bissau

Up until the late 1990s, the Balanta of Guinea‐Bissau constituted what could be described as a ‘deep rural society’, whose central identity was linked with rice production and cattle accumulation. At the same time, it could be argued that even in the early days after Independence in 1974, the social aspirations of Balanta young men matched those of other Guinean youths in their shared desire to get away from the strictures of gerontocracy and of rural life. Surprisingly, however, this study documents the agency of many rural Balanta young men in changing oppressive social rules, and in using agriculture as a means to fund their education, to feed their families and as a route to prosperity. The authors conclude that the persistent political instability in the country (most acutely felt in the capital city) and the national and global economic crises, together with the Balanta agricultural ethos and the softening of gerontocratic power, are at the root of this revaluing of rural livelihoods. This article challenges current dominant narratives about the crisis of young men in contemporary Africa and highlights the need to study the aspirations and achievements of youth in their rural–urban nexus from a historical and holistic perspective.     

Presence of the genus Cuon in upper Pleistocene and initial Holocene sites of the Iberian Peninsula: new remains identified in archaeological contexts of the Mediterranean region

The dhole (Cuon alpinus) has been documented on the Iberian Peninsula throughout the Middle and Upper Pleistocene in archaeological and palaeontological contexts. However, this is an uncommon species among the Iberian quaternary faunae as a whole. This paper focuses on the remains of the genus Cuon recovered in three different sites of the Iberian Mediterranean region and their morphological and osteometrical study. By comparing these with fourteen complete skeletons of Canis lupus, as well as with other remains of C. alpinus, we intend to highlight some anatomical and metrical differences between Cuon and Canis that, added to those already published, could be a functional base-line for the identification of this genus. The identification of this species is complex, especially in archaeological contexts, and in some cases the dhole has been identified as Canis or Canidae. Furthermore, this paper explores the chronology of the presence of the dhole in the Iberian Peninsula and the different contexts where these animals have been recovered from.     

Testing Transferability: Quantitative Evaluation of Labor Market Area Definition Methods in Three Contrasting Countries

Sub-national economic policies increasingly use labor market areas (LMAs) rather than administrative areas for analysis and implementation. How a set of LMAs was defined influences the results of such analyses, and so accurate policy delivery needs appropriately defined LMAs. Multinational bodies need comparable LMA definitions in many countries, calling for a definition method that is transferable across national boundaries. This article applies quantitative metrics to evaluate LMAs defined in three contrasting countries by three methods that represent the main methodological approaches. The deductive approach—based on a center and hinterland—is too inflexible to deal with differing geographical circumstances and cannot cope with statistical zones that are very small, or do not respect settlement structure. The alternative inductive methods tested define appropriate LMAs in each country, with the newer method performing slightly better in statistical terms. The article also exemplifies the usefulness of the metrics for comparisons of alternative regionalizations.