Una relectura de la cronología de los incas de la Miscelánea antártica de Miguel Cabello Valboa (1586)

El presente artículo propone una lectura de la cronología de los incas presente en la Miscelánea antártica (1586) de Miguel Cabello Valboa a la luz de nueva evidencia histórica y textual. La crónica de Cabello ofrece años concretos asociados a la duración y expansión del Tawantinsuyu, razón por la cual fue utilizada por John Rowe (1945) para construir una cronología absoluta para el incario. No obstante el trabajo de Rowe ha sido cuestionado en las últimas décadas por la arqueología, la cronología de Cabello nunca ha sido abandonada del todo. El presente artículo postula que la comparación de fechas entre el registro arqueológico y etnohistórico no es correcta, puesto que parten de premisas distintas. Proponemos que los cálculos de Cabello se basaron en supuestos no empíricos los cuales, más que retratar el pasado verdadero de los incas, buscaban posicionar su historia dentro del providencial esquema que Dios había trazado para la Monarquía hispánica.     

Modeling Breastfeeding and Weaning Practices (BWP) on the Coast of Northern Chile's Atacama Desert During the Formative Period

Stable isotope analysis of bone collagen is frequently employed as a means of studying the breastfeeding and weaning practices (BWP) of archaeological populations. Such studies are strengthened greatly through the application of statistical models that permit precise and model-bound estimates of weaning age, duration, trophic enrichment, and the isotopic characterization of supplementary foods. Here we present the result of a stable isotope (δ¹⁵N) and Bayesian computational modeling study of bone collagen from human subadults from two coastal cemetery sites located near the mouth of the River Loa in the Atacama Desert. Recent bioarchaeological and paleodemographic research on remains from these marine hunter-gatherer sites, which are contemporary with the Formative Period (1500 BC–AD 400), has found evidence for notably elevated rates of female fertility. Ultimately, we argue that the modeled BWP parameters, which indicate the early introduction of supplementary foods, support an argument of high fertility as gleaned from the bioarchaeological evidence, and that these results provide novel insights into the child-rearing practices of the coastal populations of the Atacama. Indeed, these populations would have seemed to have developed a set of BWP that carefully balanced the biological and economic production/reproduction of the community.     

Critical review of desalination in Spain: a resource for the future?

There have been significant territorial changes in the Spanish Mediterranean in the last few decades because of the important growth of residential tourism functions. The Spanish National Hydrological Plan ( 2001 ) and, to a greater extent, the Action for Management and Use of Water Programme ( 2004 ) advocated large‐scale desalination of seawater to guarantee a supply for urban, tourism, and even future agricultural demands. The paralysis of urban development planning caused by the financial crisis (2007/08), together with the downward trend in the consumption of drinking water in the last decade, highlighted a capacity to produce desalinated water that was far superior to actual needs. This study reviews the current context in which desalinated water is produced in Spain, weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of this method of water management, and considers the potential role that this non‐conventional source of water could play as a strategic resource in the future. The main findings of the study are that desalination is not a panacea; rather, it should be considered in terms of technological parameters tailored to the circumstances of each geographical and socioeconomic environment.     

THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF POLLUTING PLANTS: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACT This paper uses plant‐level EPA and Census data to examine spatial factors affecting environmental performance, as measured by air pollutant emissions and regulatory compliance. We find significant effects for compliance, but not for emissions. Compliance is positively spatially correlated, partly explained by spatial correlations in observed plant characteristics, suggesting influences of industry agglomeration. The use of spatial econometric methods shows only small effects of spatially lagged compliance status, and does not greatly change the estimated contributions of other spatially explicit factors. Regulatory activity has the expected effect of increasing environmental performance, both at the inspected plant and at neighboring plants, but only for plants in the same state, demonstrating the importance of jurisdictional boundaries.     

Of mice and sparrows: Commensal faunas from the Iberian iron age in the duero valley (central spain)

This paper aims to emphasize the importance of imported commensal faunas in archaeological contexts by reporting on the earliest known house sparrows and house mice from the Iberian peninsula. The finds, which date to the Iron Age of a hinterland area of the peninsula, have been identified on the basis of osteomorphological and osteometrical criteria, which are specified in the text in order to demonstrate the reliability of the identification. The temporal and geographical coincidence of these remains in the two sites analysed with those of donkey and, secondarily, chicken remains and faunal remains of littoral origin, lends support to the hypothesis that these animals arrived with the earliest trans-Mediterranean colonizers to the southern shores of the Iberian peninsula and spread involuntarily thereafter as ‘side-products’ of the Phoenician commercial routes throughout the Iberian hinterland.     

A Note on Trip Benefits in Spatial Interaction Models

We extend the well-known transport users' benefits measure (TUB) for the doubly-constrained spatial interaction model derived by Williams (1976). The original formula expresses the TUB as composed by two terms associated with the origin and the destination zones. First, the TUB is associated here with trips instead of zones, providing a natural interpretation as a rule-of-a-half measure of benefit under inelastic demand (for the short-run case). Second, a TUB formula for the long-run case is derived, that is, when the total number of trips, trip origins, and trip destinations change. We then propose updated measures of accessibility for location behavior.