Hispania and the Atlantic Route in Roman Times: new Approaches to Ports and Trade

This paper explores the role of Hispania in the Atlantic route in Roman times. We analyse the different Atlantic Iberian territories along this route, based on recent archaeological advances and discoveries related to trade as well as the shipping infrastructure. The aim is to explain the origin and evolution of a new maritime area that was completely integrated with the political and commercial structure of the Empire, with trade routes that followed the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula all the way to the Mediterranean.     

Identity,Gender Relations and Community Life in the History of the Migration of Italian Anarchists to Brazil (1890–1922)

This article investigates how women within the anarchist movement participated in the great migratory wave which saw millions of Italians leave Italy to emigrate to Brazil between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It analyses how this participation developed in the country of arrival, and in particular whether the ideals of freedom and emancipation relating to the so-called ‘women's question’ supported by the anarchists were realised in the context of the migration project. It focuses on the comparison between the experience of women of the first generation, who were an integral part of a family migration project that left little room for individual growth, and young women of the second generation, raised in Brazil within anarchist communities and on the basis of the ideals that inspired them. It was the opportunity to grow in a context culturally inspired by the principles of freedom and autonomy that allowed some of these younger women to determine themselves, despite the generally conservative reality even within anarchist communities. This article seeks to reassess and deepen themes that previous historiography has only partially assessed due to a difficult and fragmented source based on female migration, which has often led scholars to fall back on the unfounded statement that there had only been low female participation in anarchist migration to Brazil.     

Of Mumps and Men: Masculinity and the Severity of a Vaccine Preventable Disease in Western Medicine, 1760s–1960s

This article, based on an analysis of English language medical literature on mumps’ manifestation in men, women and children from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, examines the role of gender in shaping conceptualisations of mumps’ severity and medical significance. Over time, gendered social roles undermined the medical notion of mumps as a severe disease of women while elevating mumps’ reputation as a severe and significant disease of men, eventually casting the disease as a threat to masculinity. When the modern mumps vaccine was commercialised in the 1960s, its development built on a long history of gendered conceptualisations of mumps and its use cast children as safeguards of a legacy of masculine citizenship defined by military activity and fatherhood.     

Characterization of Glass,Shell, and Fishbone Beads on Ibo Island (Northern Mozambique) in the Context of the Indian Ocean Trade

African Archaeological Review - A set of beads made of glass, gastropod mollusk shell, and fishbone from a Swahili occupation level on Ibo Island (northern Mozambique) is dated to the eleventh and...     

The Santa María pottery of El Bolsón valley (Catamarca,Argentina): Compositional characterization and implications on the elaboration processes,ca. 1000–1600 ce

The results obtained from the multi-analytic compositional characterization of ceramic pastes and paints of the Santa María style, from the El Bolsón valley (Belén Department, Catamarca Province, Argentina), are presented here. This pottery style had a wide regional distribution in Northwestern Argentina between ca. 1000 and1600 ce and is characterized by its complex iconography painted in black, cream and red. The analyses show that the containers correspond to the technical tradition of using grog temper and suggest that its manufacture involved a double firing process. This reveals a new practice for the time.     

Variation in human bone bioerosion during the Late Eneolithic/Bronze Age in Moravia (Czech Republic): A novel approach to BSE-SEM image quality and quantity assessment

Human bones from Late Eneolithic graves and Bronze Age settlement pits in Moravia (Czech Republic) were studied to reconstruct their post-mortem histories based on the distribution of their microbial destruction. Backscattered electrons in a scanning electron microscope (BSE-SEM) were used for visual assessment of bioerosion. Visual data from the histological analysis were transformed into quantitative data using the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) toolkit. The results show that the presence of bioerosion is different between the two groups of samples. The bones from settlement pits display extensive bioerosion whereas the bones from graves display no or arrested bioerosion. The absence of bioerosion in graves is most probably linked with tomb burials of Corded Ware Culture. Given the tombs are frequently not preserved archaeologically, the state of bone bioerosion may serve as an indicator of their existence.     

Gastrointestinal parasites in ancient South American camelid feces from the Atacama Desert (Pampa del Tamarugal,Tarapacá, northern Chile)

Faunal remains from archeological sites worldwide, especially feces and regurgitated pellets, are usually subjected to paleoparasitological examination, allowing the identification of past animal parasites. In this study, we analyzed 10 samples of South American camelid dung, which played an important role for the ancient human groups in the South-Central Andes, dated between 341 and 1635 calCE, from the Iluga Túmulos site (Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá region, Atacama Desert, Chile). Microscopy examination revealed parasite remains in seven samples, in which oocysts of Eimeria macusaniensis and eggs of Lamanema chavezi/Nematodirus lamae, Trichuris sp., Moniezia sp., capillariids, strongylids, and unidentified nematodes were found. Although some of these species pose a potential health risk to camelids, most are not considered to be of major zoonotic importance, which could explain the absence of these parasites on human coprolites from this site analyzed previously. This first paleoparasitological study on camelid fecal remains from northern Chile sheds light on the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites and its relationship with Andean ancient human populations and the environment.