The future regnum Hierusalem. A chapter in medieval state planning

At the turn of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century a large number of treatises was written on an envisaged crusade. Most of those treatises, classified as De recuperatione Terrae Sanctae memoranda, also expressed ideas about the way in which society and government should be organized in the future kingdom in the Holy Land, when the crusade which they advocated had successfuly accomplished its aim. This image of the new state and society has not yet received scholarly attention. Its examination shows that it was above all based on an acute analysis of ‘Outremer’ and especially of its ills. These state planners were moved by two motives: to eliminate the weaknesses of the former kingdom of Jerusalem on the one hand, and on the other to create an ideal Christian state in the Levant.     

DIET AND ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH‐EASTERN IBERIA DURING THE BRONZE AGE,BASED ON ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN REMAINS

A large sample of human bones from a series of archaeological sites in the south‐eastern Iberian Peninsula was selected for δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N stable isotope analysis. Except for some contrast samples, the remains date from the first half of the second millennium cal BC and are ascribed to the Argar Culture, which developed during the Bronze Age in south‐eastern Iberia. Most authors have considered that this region reached a high degree of social hierarchical organization at this time, as demonstrated by the funerary record, both with regard to the grave goods and to the evidence of physical effort and diseases on the human remains. Results of the isotope analysis revealed the existence of differences among the settlements studied, as well as differences over time within every settlement and among the various individuals tested. Some variances can be assigned to social classes/status and others are linked to chronological factors. In particular, changes in δ¹³C can be explained by the increasing aridity of the first half of the second millennium cal BC, although other causes can be put forward too.