Raspadita: a new lithic tool from the Isthmus of Rivas,Nicaragua

A new lithic tool type was discovered at the Pacific Nicaraguan archaeological site of Santa Isabel (AD 800–1350) and named raspadita (small scraper). Thousands of these small tools (1–2 cm in length) were found. They have a rounded proximal edge and a pointed distal end. In this study, the raspaditas are proved to be a coherent tool class with minimal variation in size, shape, material type and usewear. They were manufactured from white chert bladelet cores using soft hammer percussion and pressure flaking unifacial retouch. Usewear points to a composite tool form and a scraping function for the raspaditas. Scanning electron microscopy determined a ventral leading, dorsal following, unidirectional scraping motion for the raspadita proximal end. The material that was scraped has still to be definitely determined but phytoliths visible in the SEM images suggest that the composite tool was used for plant processing.     

Recent Books in the Field of Mediaeval Literature

In the Cantigas de Santa María, King Alfonso X unveils an intricate cultural, political, and economic system that defines the relationship between Christian society and religious minorities. This article illustrates that the Cantigas must be understood as an ideological instrument of cultural codification that reaffirms the established Christian social order in relation to three principal groups: heretics, Jews, and Muslims.     

Chemical and mineralogical characterization of historic mortars from the Santa Eulalia de Bóveda temple,NW Spain

Bulk samples of mortars from the Santa Eulalia de Bóveda temple (NW Spain) have been characterized from a chemical and mineralogical point of view, with the aims of contributing technological and provenance inferences, and evaluating possible correlations with the various identified stages along historical periods of construction.     

Ethologists in the Kindergarten: Natural Behavior,Social Rank,and the Search for the “Innate” in Early Human Ethology (1960s-1970s)

During the 1970s, ethologists at the German Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen started a series of research projects at several regional kindergartens in search of natural predispositions in human behavior. This so-called “Kindergarten Project” became one of the pillars of research activity at the newly founded Forschungsstelle für Humanethologie (Research Center for Human Ethology) where Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and a team of researchers set out to explore new fields of research for the discipline of ethology. Taking the research project conducted by biologist Barbara Hold on ranking behavior among kindergarten children as a vantage point, this paper explores the shift in ethology from animal to human behavior which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes how human ethologists coped with the methodological, conceptual, and ethico-political challenges which arose from crossing the human-animal divide. This article thus sheds light on the hitherto unwritten history of human ethology as it was developed at the MPI since the late 1960s.     

Engaging geographies of public art: indwellers,the ‘Butt Plug Gnome’ and their locale

This paper focuses on particularities of indwellers' perceptions of public art and its locale by drawing on the epistemology of ‘situated knowledges’ (Haraway 1991, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Women. New York: Routledge) and the notion of ‘geographies of engagement’ (Zebracki, Van Der Vaart and Van Aalst 2010, Geoforum 41(5): 786–795). We employ the case of Paul McCarthy's internationally acclaimed public artwork Santa Claus in Rotterdam to illustrate the sundry outlooks on its spatialities, aesthetics and moralities, and its functionalities in relation to place. Santa Claus's alleged sexual nature is highly disputed among local politicians and the local population. This dispute is narratively covered by media sources and inscribed by its popular renaming as the ‘Butt Plug Gnome’. We empirically situate documented media views within the way indwellers perceive Santa Claus and its experienced locale in interrelation with themselves. We try to open up differential vistas on public-art narration in relation to people, time and space, whereby we elaborate on the reflexive idea of ‘social relationality’ (Massey and Rose 2003, Personal Views: Public Art Research Project. Milton Keynes: The Open University) by revealing how socio-spatial differences in public-art narration are negotiated. As such, we examine how public art is geographically reconstituted through the publics, namely those for whom public art is essentially intended yet who have been neglected actors of analysis in public-art research.     

Systematic status of the Miocene darter ‘Liptornis’ hesternus Ameghino, 1895 (Aves,Suliformes, Anhingidae) from Patagonia,Argentina

Diederle, J.M., 1.8.2015. Systematic status of the Miocene darter ‘Liptornis’ hesternus Ameghino, 1895 (Aves, Suliformes, Anhingidae) from Patagonia, Argentina. Alcheringa 39, 589–594. ISSN 0311-5518.

Liptornis hesternus was established by Ameghino in the late 1800s on the basis of a cervical vertebra (NHMUK-A599) from the Santa Cruz Formation (Santacrucian, South American Land Mammal Age, early Miocene, Burdigalian Stage) of Patagonia, Argentina. Although taxonomic attributions were controversial, the specimen is now confidently assigned to Anhingidae. Recently, however, L. hesternus was designated a nomen dubium because of its uninformative diagnostic characters and apparent loss of the holotype. Nevertheless, NHMUK-A599 has been relocated and is redescribed here prompting referral to Anhinga. A combination of traits are shared with the extant Anhinga anhinga and A. melanogaster, and the material is dimensionally compatible with A. anhinga. The estimated body size of NHMUK-A599 would have been larger than A. minuta but less than A. grandis, A. subvolans, A. fraileyi and A. walterbolesi. Finally, Anhinga hesterna is considered valid and represents the stratigraphically oldest occurrence of the genus in South America and the southernmost yet recorded.

Juan M. Diederle [juandiederle@cicyttp.org.ar], Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción (CICYTTP-CONICET), Materi y España, E3105BWA Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina.     

Mapping Spain in the Sixteenth Century: The Escorial Atlas and Pedro de Esquivel’s Notebook

ABSTRACT

The twenty-one maps of Spain that comprise the Escorial atlas (El atlas de El Escorial) and the later notebook compiled by Pedro de Esquivel for another map of Spain have long been confused. Recently identified documents in the Royal Library, Stockholm, have allowed us to recognize the two works as completely separate and to shed new light on each. In this article we describe their respective histories, starting with the Escorial atlas, now known to have been commissioned by Emperor Charles V from the Sevillian cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz, who between c.1538 and 1545 produced an index map and 20 regional sheets drawn to the scale of 1:400 000. We then go on to show how, later in the century (between c.1552 and 1565), Pedro de Esquivel was using a version of the topographical methods described in Peter Apian’s Cosmographia to assemble data for the map of Spain commissioned by Philip II before and just after he became king in 1556. Esquivel died in 1565 before all the data had been collected, his map was never drawn, and his notebooks, with all his astronomical measurements and calculations of angles and distances, took a curious journey that ended in Stockholm in the archives of the Royal Library of Sweden.     

Prison and sacrament in the cult of saints: images of St Barbara in late medieval art

This article analyses the changing visual representation of St Barbara during the later middle ages. The article identifies a shift in St Barbara's iconography: whereas earlier medieval representations of the saint almost always show her with her prison tower, a number of fifteenth-century representations show the saint holding a chalice and host. The article traces how and why this shift occurred. In particular, the article explores the ways in which medieval thinking linking incarceration and liberation were integrated into new representations of St Barbara to stress her intercessionary, sacramental functions. Overall, the article argues that the visual transformation of St Barbara's prison tower into a liturgical vessel reveals how saints like Barbara were increasingly viewed as conduits to the inclusive sort of freedom that participation in Christianity's sacramental economy invited.     

GPR and inductive electromagnetic surveys applied in three coastal sambaqui (shell mounds) archaeological sites in Santa Catarina state, South Brazil

In this article, GPR – Ground Penetrating Radar and inductive electromagnetic (EM38 equipment) results are presented for three archaeological sites of shell mounds located between Laguna and Jaguaruna cities, mid-southern coast of Santa Catarina state, Brazil. The Jabuticabeira II, Santa Marta IV, and Encantada III sites were studied. These sites consist of carbonate shell mounds built by societies that inhabited this region during the pre-colonial period (7.5–1.3 ky BP). Geophysical responses obtained in these archaeological sites had allowed the identification of anomalous regions related to archaeological point targets as well as continuous targets, correlated to the shell mound's structure and buried geologic features. GPR numerical modelling studies were done in order to evaluate the performance of the GPR method in relation to materials found in that environment, besides helping interpretations of real results. The synthetic GPR model was a good match with real data obtained in the field. So, the real and synthetic results serve as a reference guide to direct excavation activities in these archaeological and geological structures. In the Jabuticabeira II shell mound, lithic materials and burials were found amidst archaeological layers characterized by sediment rich in organic material, ferruginous concretions, and loose shells. In the Santa Marta IV archaeological site, a concentration of ceramic materials, burials and fireplaces were found. In the Encantada III site, a strong anomaly characterized by a hyperbolic reflection was related to the presence of a silicified tree root; a great example of ambiguity in shallow geophysics interpretation in archaeological applications. Results functioned as a guide to archaeological excavations, allowing cost and time reduction as well as contributing to improve the knowledge of these archaeological sites situated in southern Brazil.     

Reduction of topography effect in inductive electromagnetic profiles: application on coastal sambaqui (shell mound) archaeological site in Santa Catarina state, Brazil

We present results of electrical conductivity profiles obtained with inductive electromagnetic geophysical method in Santa Marta archaeological site, Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil. This site is a sambaqui (shell mound), in which several human occupation remains are found during pre-colonial period such as buried lithic and bone artifacts, fire-place, etc. Most of these mounds include as well many human burials, which, in many cases, point to funerary ritual as a main agency for mound building. A set of profiles of apparent electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility was acquired in two sites aiming the identification of geophysical anomalies with potential interest for excavation. To enhance conductivity data, we applied an effective procedure to remove topographical effects in the apparent conductivity measurements, which are rather conditioned by the presence of a variable water table depth or conductive sediment layer. A linear dependence among conductivity values and the site elevation provided a simple linear model to remove the influence of topography. Corrected electric conductivity maps substantially improved the definition of anomalies, many of them rather subtle in raw data images. Corrected maps also show a better adherence with magnetic susceptibility maps, both of them identifying archaeological structures of interest: a well-structured fire-place and a concentration of ceramic fragments.