Talking to others: analysing tourists’ communications on cultural heritage experiences

In the area of cultural heritage, tourists’ experiences emphasise not only the moment and its personal nature but also socio-cultural traits. These experiences when expressed (social communications) are an important gateway to knowledge about tourists’ sense-making processes. This paper reports on the mediation between tourists and heritage sites via comments on a digital platform (TripAdvisor) about two Spanish tourist destinations with opposing characteristics and four heritage sites, which are analysed. The methodology used seeks to transcend the individual and anecdotal aspects of tourists’ comments. Indeed, the results obtained show the relevance of the humanisation and the discursive weight of heritage contexts in emotional/personal stories. Tendencies observed in non-regulated contexts confirm the role of a complex negotiation at cultural heritage sites and highlight the need to explore possible exchanges of sense in tourists’ encounters with such sites.     

Seismic performance of historical vaulted adobe constructions: a numerical case study from Yazd,Iran

Past earthquakes have demonstrated that historical vaulted adobe buildings are highly vulnerable to seismic actions. Hence, it is crucial for such building typologies to be evaluated in terms of seismic capacity. To this end, this article deals with the seismic performance of historical vaulted adobe houses from the city of Yazd, Iran as one of the seismically active areas of the world and possessing a very rich adobe heritage. Thus, and based on a detailed geometrical survey, a representative sample of adobe houses from Yazd was studied using a simplified in-plane analysis based on three geometric indexes. Concerning the out-of-plane behavior, a deeper assessment was conducted by performing a numerical study, where the main influential parameters on the seismic behavior of vaulted adobe buildings were considered. The numerical analyses were carried out by adopting the limit analysis theory implemented in the Block2D software. The results obtained indicate the safe in-plane behavior of most of the houses and the safe out-of-plane response of the sample under gravitational loads. However, the sample out-of-plane safety under earthquake-induced loads seems to be a matter of concern.     

First fossil record of amiid fishes (Halecomorphi,Amiiformes, Amiidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Uberaba,Minas Gerais State,Brazil

Martinelli, A.G., Bogan, S., Agnolin, F.L., Ribeiro, L.C.B., Cavellani, C.L., Ferraz, M.L.F. & Teixeira, V.P.A., iFirst article. First fossil record of amiid fishes (Halecomorphi, Amiiformes, Amiidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Uberaba, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Alcheringa, 1–9. ISSN 0311-5518.

The first fossil amiid fishes (Halecomorphi, Amiiformes) from the Late Cretaceous Marília Formation (Bauru Group) at Uberaba County, Triângulo Mineiro region (Minas Gerais State, Brazil), are described. The material includes some partial maxillae, a dermopterotic, a cleithrum, several vertebral centra and teeth. Features such as the absence of a supramaxillary notch on the dorsal edge of the maxilla, a wide and deep pit on the maxilla for the articulation of the premaxilla, anterior portion of the maxilla with a sub-circular cross-section, teeth with acrodine cup with strong mesial and distal keels, among others, permit confident referral of the material to the Subfamily Vidalamiine (Amiidae), previously recognized in Lower Cretaceous strata of northeasthern Brazil. These specimens constitute the first Late Cretaceous record of this group in Brazil and one of the few in South America.

Agustín G. Martinelli [agustín_martinelli@yahoo.com.ar], Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas Llewellyn Ivor Price, Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis (CCCP/UFTM), BR-262, Km 784, Bairro Peirópolis, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Sergio Bogan [sergiobogan@yahoo.com.ar], Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología, CEBBAD—Universidad Maimónides, Hidalgo 775 piso 7 (1405BDB), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Federico Agnolín* [fedeagnolin@yahoo.com.ar], Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470 (C1405BDB), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luiz Carlos Borges Ribeiro [lcbrmg@terra.com.br], Camila Lourencini Cavellani [camila@patge.uftm.edu.br], Mara Lúcia da Fonseca Ferraz [mara@patge.uftm.edu.br] and Vicente de Paula Antunes Teixeira [vicente@patge.uftm.edu.br], Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas Llewellyn Ivor Price, Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis (CCCP/UFTM), BR-262, Km 784, Bairro Peirópolis, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. *Also affiliated with: Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología, CEBBAD—Universidad Maimónides, Valentín Virasoro 732 (C1405BDB), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Received 15.4.2012; revised 11.6.2012; accepted 20.6.2012.     

Differences in the location of urban museums and their impact on urban areas

Traditionally, museums spaces have tended to be located in the central areas of cities, thereby reinforcing existing dynamics and limiting their potential impact on more peripheral areas. The present study examines the locations chosen for museums that have been opened in three European cities: Barcelona, Paris and Turin, between the years 2000 and 2013. It shows how the locating of museums and galleries has not been homogeneous and how each potential location has its strengths and weaknesses. This is particularly evident when we consider such factors as the environmental impact of museums and how they influence the commercial offer, image and attractiveness of their host city. This paper identifies and examines the different types of impact that museum location strategies have on urban areas.     

Chemical Residues as Anthropic Activity Markers. Ethnoarchaeology,Experimental Archaeology and Archaeology of Food Production and Consumption

ABSTRACT

Chemical residues preserved in floors can be considered anthropic activity markers. In fact, residues are strictly related to the activities performed and reflect their spatial distribution. We present a synthesis of the work carried out over the last few decades in Mexico and Italy related to the study of chemical residues in floors. Residues can be identified performing specific chemical analyses both of plastered or earthen floors samples. We outline a methodological approach concerning the use of the markers of the activities to interpret food production and consumption in the archaeological record, based upon evidence from experimental, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological examples. Here we point out the advantages and problems of such an approach, mainly related to equifinality, of the use of spot tests and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry techniques using examples from different sites in the world.     

Carnivores as zoonotic parasite reservoirs in ancient times: the case of the Epullán Chica archaeological cave (Late Holocene,northwestern Patagonia,Argentina)

Zoonoses are currently considered as one of the most important threats for Public Health worldwide. Numerous zoonoses known today have occurred since antiquity. Carnivores act as definitive hosts for many intestinal parasites; some of them are responsible for several zoonotic diseases. The aim of this work was to study the parasite remains found in coprolites assigned to carnivores from the archaeological site Epullán Chica (ECh) and to discuss the results from a zoonotic point of view. ECh is located in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina and was occupied since the end of the Late Holocene (～2200 years B.P.). Nine coprolites were examined for parasites. Samples were processed by rehydration in a 0.5 % water solution of trissodium phosphate, followed by homogenization, filtered and processed by spontaneous sedimentation. The macroscopic remains were separated and dried at room temperature and were examined for diet analysis. Six out of 9 coprolites examined were positive for parasites. Representatives of at least 10 parasite taxa were registered. Results are in line with the reconstruction of the scenario of zoonoses in the past and the diseases that the human populations and animals from Patagonia could be exposed. The present study provides the first palaeoparasitological report of carnivore coprolites recovered from the archaeological site Ech and reflects contamination of the cave used by hunter-gatherers with different parasites causative of zoonotic diseases.     

The Political Economy of Housing Investment in the Short-Term Rental Market: Insights from Urban Portugal

Short-term rentals (STRs) emerged as holiday accommodations, disrupting the hospitality industry in the decade before COVID-19. Mainstream explanations for their growth revolved around digital tourism platforms like Airbnb as market disruptors and the sharing economy rationale. At the same time, critical scholars explored the capitalisation of greater rent gaps in urban central locations. However, these explanations are insufficient to explain the growth of STRs. We supplement them by building bridges between the urban political economy and the geographies of financialisation through the cases of Lisbon and Porto before the pandemic. The paper focuses on tourism-induced housing investment, taking a closer look at the profile of investors in association with STR property managers in the context of the late-entrepreneurial urban regime. We conclude that tourism development has allowed opportunities for housing financialisation through STR professionalisation, enhancing the allocation of interest-bearing capital in tourism-oriented real estate.     

DO FEDERAL DEFICITS MOTIVATE REGIONAL FISCAL (IM)BALANCES? EVIDENCE FOR THE SPANISH CASE

This paper studies the vertical and horizontal interactions between federal and regional governments in terms of public deficits. Recent studies commonly restraint budget slippages to the incentives created by the institutional arrangements within a country. Alternatively, we estimate here a fiscal reaction function for the Spanish regions over the period 1995–2010, paying special attention to the impact of the federal fiscal stance on regional fiscal imbalances. Our results indicate that higher public deficits for the central government encourage larger fiscal imbalances at the regional level. This vertical interaction is interpreted in the context of yardstick competition models. We also find a significant impact from fiscal decisions taken by governments at the same decision‐making tier in a specific region.     

New insights into the neolithisation process in southwest Europe according to spatial density analysis from calibrated radiocarbon dates

The agricultural way of life spreads throughout Europe via two main routes: the Danube corridor and the Mediterranean basin. Current archaeological literature describes the arrival to the Western Mediterranean as a rapid process which involves both demic and cultural models, and in this regard, the dispersal movement has been investigated using mathematical models, where the key factors are time and space. In this work, we have created a compilation of all available radiocarbon dates for the whole of Iberia, in order to draw a chronological series of maps to illustrate temporal and spatial patterns in the neolithisation process. The maps were prepared by calculating the calibrated 14C date probability density curves, as a proxy to show the spatial dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers. Several scholars have pointed out problems linked with the variability of samples, such as the overrepresentation of some sites, the degree of regional research, the nature of the dated samples and above all the archaeological context, but we are confident that the selected dates, after applying some filters and statistical protocols, constitute a good way to approach settlement spatial patterns in Iberia at the time of the neolithisation process.