Bell Beaker Communities in Thy: The First Bronze Age Society in Denmark

Lane Anderson Beck (ed.): Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis. (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology). Plenum Press, New York and London 1995. XIX + 280 pp., 60 figs. ISBN 0–306–44931–5 (hardback).

Sandra Billington and Miranda Green (eds): The Concept of the Goddess. Routledge, London, 1996. XIV + 192 pp. 26 figs. ISBN 0–4151421–3.     

The cultural paradiplomacy of Barcelona since the 1980s: understanding transformations in local cultural paradiplomacy

This article seeks to explain the conditions for the emergence and institutionalization of the cultural paradiplomacy of the city of Barcelona and its local effects. The recognition of the city as an active participant on the international stage is based on its evolution from an industrial to a service economy. Against this backdrop, Barcelona’s city council, in common with many other city authorities operating in the world’s metropolises during the 1980s, initiated its own cultural paradiplomacy as a strategy for attracting capital and promoting local development. This policy became established as part of a new multilevel system of governance. This article analyzes the causes of the institutionalization of this activity from an intergovernmental perspective. It concludes that in the context of economic globalization, the emergence of cities’ cultural paradiplomacy is strongly related to the restructuring of the State and its external administration and to the intensification of the ‘cultural branding’ of cities as a tool for global competition.     

Neanderthal Survival in the North of the Iberian Peninsula? Reflections from a Catalan and Cantabrian Perspective

In the debate over Western Europe??s Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition we need to consider the importance of both the chronology and the ecological context of the different techno-complexes, as well as the organization of production and consumption activities. In this article we study the adaptative strategies of Middle Palaeolithic human communities based on the information obtained from archaeological sites north of the river Ebro. This transition in the northern part of the peninsula presents a chronological and geographic dichotomy, with the appearance of the Upper Palaeolithic and survival of the Middle Palaeolithic. The geographic distribution appears to indicate intergroup competition and the existence of contact, albeit of an unverified nature. This competition would explain the time that elapsed before one of the cultural, and perhaps biological, groups triumphed over the other in a process culminating in the expansion of Upper Palaeolithic technology.     

October 2017 in Catalonia: The anarchists and the procés

The circumstances surrounding the call for a referendum on national independence in Catalonia in October 2017 led to high levels of collaboration between two, at first sight, unlikely partners: anarchists and Catalan independentists. Unlikely as this alliance may seem, it was well grounded on a number of factors: first of all, in the State response to the independentist challenge—the massive repression and the blockading of institutional channels to process nationalist demands pushed both movements closer in opposition to the central government; and secondly, in the prolonged interactions (in specific regions and industries) and engagement in joint solidarity activities between anarchists and segments of the Catalan left who had been influenced by the bottom-up approach of the indignados movement. Finally, this collaboration was also rooted on a long history of mutual engagement between anarchism and sectors of Catalan nationalism that, while not unproblematic, provided deep roots to this dialogue.     

Introduction: cultural policies in Ibero-America at the beginning of the XXI century

ABSTRACT

This editorial introduction presents the aims and contents of a special issue devoted to cultural policies in Ibero-America. The issue provides a wide-ranging overview about the subject. In addition to papers focused on the development of cultural policy in specific countries, it also includes articles analyzing particular cultural policies in a transnational perspective, paying attention to their multiple programmatic transferences. It also includes articles centred on the development of cultural diplomacy and institutional networks within this area. In this way, it intends to highlight the commonalities among countries and the relations between them, so offering a new and deeper vision of the development of cultural policies in the Ibero American region. In this introduction we offer some theoretical keys for analyzing this development, in particular the notion of family of nations proposed by Castle (1993) and we evaluate its applicability to the case and beyond.     

La Espiral Cave (Cuba): Guano and signs of Plant Substances Used as Paint Ingredients

At La Espiral cave, located in Bahia Honda municipality (Artemisa province, Cuba), there are several pictographs, including two of particular importance due to the design used: one of concentric circles and another of a spiral. We analyzed the pigments and binders used in one of these pictographs. The chemical ingredients of the paint are considered in this article, as well as the use of bat guano as a major pigment compound. The apparent presence of ellagic acid, ellagitannin, or anthocyanins would strengthen the hypothesis that artists used vegetable protein as a paint binder or solvent.     

Beyond Adornment: Cowry Use as Potter's Tool in the First Impressed Wares of the Southwestern Mediterranean Coast (Northern Morocco)

The use of seashells for the decoration of pottery from the sixth millennium cal BC is well known in the western Mediterranean, with the emergence of so-called Cardial Pottery. Actually, the most discussed issue up until now has been the use of bivalves for impressed decoration. However, the experimental approach followed in the present study provides for the first time clear evidence for the utilization of a very specific group of shells as tools for the decoration of some of the early pottery productions in northwest Africa. In particular, we propose the use of cowry, a gastropod family with a well-known ideological and symbolic role in many human cultures around the world. Also, it is suggested that cowry was used for making impressed wares on the opposite European shore. The implications for reconstruction of Neolithic diffusion along both the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean are of great significance.     

Stable Isotope and Radiocarbon Dating of the Remains of the Medieval Royal House of Aragon (Spain) Shed Light on Their Diets,Life Histories and Identities

The remains of 20 individuals buried in three different pantheons, putatively pertaining to the medieval Royal House of Aragon, were analysed for their isotope (¹⁴C, ¹³C and ¹⁵N) measurements. The radiocarbon dates and stable isotope data contributed to identifying individual members and, combined with additional osteological and taphonomic information, as well as documentary evidence, provided a fuller picture of the diets and life histories of particular people. This group comprised the first members of a royal dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Aragon before the Spanish Crown was established, and that played a significant role in the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim control, this being of paramount importance in the Spanish and European history.