Archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula

Madinat al-Zahra is today one of the most important archaeological sites of the Islamic culture in the west Mediterranean region. In 2018 the site was designated a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. A five-year project which is conducted by the German Archaeological Institute and the Junta de Andalucía in cooperation with the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid is dedicated to the investigation of the Plaza de Armas of Madīnat az-Zahrāʾ, the main public square of the caliphal city. The aim of the second season of field work was the investigation of the eastern side of the plaza, an area previously untouched by excavations. The excavation work revealed the remains of an isolated pavilion which stood on top of a high platform. The T-shaped layout of the pavilion is reminiscent of Sasanian and Abbasid reception halls (maglis al-Hiri). The pavilion is the first example of this type to be found west of Tunisia, and sheds new light on the influence of Abbasid architecture on the design of Madinat al-Zahra.

This paper focus on a century of interaction between a colonial agent (Rome) and an indigenous people (known in classical texts as the Laietani), who inhabited the area before the arrival of the conquerors. This paper investigates how contact between the two societies may be detected in the archaeological record, and, where possible, what changes in local culture resulted.
The paper is in two parts. The first and largest part presents the archaeological sites of the Cabrera de Mar valley and its material culture, and documents the contacts over time between those that occupied the valley and those who arrived from the Italian peninsula. A number of indices of such contacts are considered; these include architecture, construction techniques, imported pottery, epigraphy and the monetary system. The second part of the paper considers whether it is possible to detect in the valley not only cultural contact, but also cultural change.

"This poster presents part of the results of a PhD project funded by the Catalan Government (2001 FI 00215) focused on the exploitation and use of local stone in the NE of Spain in Roman times that was included on broader research project on artistic, epigraphic and other Roman remains made of stone in Hispania. A global approach to the stone industries both from the extraction point (quarries) and from the final use (stone objects, buildings, etc.) was intended to get an overall picture of the whole process, its organization and, when possible, its impact on the local Roman society.
Among all the areas studied, the case of the stone used at the Roman town of Aeso (modern Isona) was exceptional in several aspects. The town, which originated as a settlement occupied by the local pre-Roman people, lies on the southern slopes of the Pre-Pyrenees mountain chain. It preserves several remains of its Roman past, among which the Roman walls and an unusually large collection of inscribed pedestals stand out. Even though the urbanism of the town (and thus, the Walls) as well as the epigraphs (which were object of interest since mid 19th century) had been well studied, the origin of the stone used to build and carve them was not known. The stone used in epigraphy was particularly interesting as previous studies revealed that, contrary to what it seemed at first, it was not a regionally-imported stone but a local limestone (Isona limestone) (Fabre et alii 1985). Thus, not only a good example of the building stone but also of a finer one was available. Besides, the high number of pedestals suggested that Isona limestone extraction should have been an important activity in the area during the Roman period.
Therefore, the location of the place where these stones were prized off (i.e. the quarries) was attempted. The followed methodology included a comprehensive bibliographic survey, the sampling of both types of stone, their petrographic characterization, the identification of the most likely geological outcrops and the field survey in order to identify evidences of stone extraction.
As a result, two quarries that supplied building stone to the town were located while the location of the source of Isona limestone proved less straightforward due to the lack of clear quarrying evidences at the geologically matching outcrops. Therefore, other related factors (river networks, accessibility and block transport from the extraction site to site of processing and use, etc) played a key role that led to suggest the use of unusual strategies to make use of the stone resources.


REFERENCES
Fabré et alii 1985 = Fabré, G., Mayer, M., Rodà, I. 1985. Inscriptions Romaines de Catalogne. II. Lérida. Paris. "

The paper presents preliminary results of archaeobotanical studies carried out at the Madīnat Ilbīra site in Spain. The functioning of the town, which was the capital of one of the administrative districts (kūras) of alAndalus, falls in the period between the second half of the 9th century and the 11th century. However, the analysed soil samples were collected from archaeological contexts dated mostly to the last decades of the 10th century and to the 11th century. The samples yielded an interesting set of data about the preserved plant remains. Although the taxonomic diversity of the plants is not high, the analysis revealed remains of naked and hulled wheat (emmer wheat), millet, poppy seeds, perhaps peas, cucumber or melon, and grapevine. Although crop plants played an important role in the everyday diet of the town inhabitants, wild plants also were probably collected and used. The latter are represented in the analysed materials by, for example, wild strawberry, common mallow a...

The Iron Age societies of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, like their Greek and Etruscan counterparts, used stone sculptures to decorate their sanctuaries and cemeteries. Limestone was the raw material used. While abundant throughout the region, it was not always of sufficient quality to implement the iconographic projects at hand. This paper describes a study of Jutia monument (fourth to second centuries BCE), an architectural structure supporting a number of zoomorphic sculptures. Located at a distance from any major city of the time, the sculptor’s workshop had to select the best materials in the surrounds. The present study aims to establish the origin of the limestone used and ascertain how decisions were made and collective work invested to build this monument. A geological study of the possible areas of origin is supplemented with the petrological characterisation of the respective outcropped materials and the archaeological elements recovered. Colour parameters, ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) and limestone hardness and geochemical composition, the latter using a handheld XRF instrument, are also determined. The findings reveal that the figures were sculpted from Upper Miocene calcarenite or sandy limestones quarried at around 3 km from the site. In contrast, other parts of the building were erected with bioclastic limestone from the immediate surrounds, at just 200 m from the monument.

The severe storms that hit the coast of Galicia during the beginning of 2014 uncovered a deposit of shells on the Cantabrian coast of Lugo, very close to the site of Punta do Castro. It was observed that they were the remains, cemented to the rock, of an ancient shell midden. Both these relics and the processing of the surrounding sediment show a predominance of purple (Stramonita haemastoma). The high fragmentation  index suggests that the processing of  this mollusk was connected to obtaining this precious dye.

This paper presents the results obtained from a review of the archaeological record available for the prehistoric site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain), one of the most important settlements of SW Iberia in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Two main variables, namely demography and metallurgical production, are examined in the light of both conventional and spatial statistical methods (with particular emphasis on significance testing) with the aim of assessing the wider issue of social complexity. Among the various conclusions emerging from this empirical study, two stand out. Firstly, neither the correlation between the total extension of the settlement and the complexity of its internal organisation, nor the spatial delimitation
between domestic/productive and funerary practices is as straightforward as previously claimed. Secondly, no simple, clear-cut statistical patterns are found in the spatial distribution of human remains or metal objects. These conclusions
provide the basis for a critique of currently held interpretations of Valencina de la Concepción as the political centre of an early state extending across the lower Guadalquivir valley.

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula. We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming. We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by ~2500 BCE and, by ~2000 BCE, the replacement of 40% of Iberia’s ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry. We show that, in the Iron Age, Steppe ancestry had spread not only into Indo-European–speaking regions but also into non-Indo-European–speaking ones, and we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia. Additionally, we document how, beginning at least in the Roman period, the ancestry of the peninsula was transformed by gene flow from North Africa and the east...

Genomics of the Iberian Peninsula Ancient DNA studies have begun to help us understand the genetic history and movements of people across the globe. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, Olalde et al. report genome-wide data from 271 ancient individuals from Iberia (see the Perspective by Vander Linden). The findings provide a comprehensive genetic time transect of the region. Linguistics analysis and genetic analysis of archaeological human remains dating from about 7000 years ago to the present elucidate the genetic impact of prehistoric and historic migrations from Europe and North Africa. Science , this issue p. 1230 ; see also p. 1153

From September 2008 to January 2010, a series of archaeological activities were carried out as a result of the specific modification of the Arrigorriaga urban planning bylaws in the Bentako-Erreka area. These activities included the intense prospecting of the areas to be affected by future building work, the carrying out of prospecting with soil pits and an excavation in Aguirre Tower. As a result, the remains of the Kantarape and Angoti mills were documented, along with the channel that linked them. An interesting stratigraphic sequence was discovered in Aguirre Tower, ranging from the moment of its construction to the moment at which it was abandoned.

"This is the second volume of two books dedicated to the Iron Age Economy of the Celtic people in the north of Spain.
This books contain archaeological, ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical information about the economy of this peoples in the Iron Age. In this second book with special attention to the food processing and storage, craftsmanship, the economic territory (SCA), settlement and social order in the last millennium b. C.
Was published in 2005 in Toxosoutos Editors (Coruña, Spain). Spanish and Galician edition is avaiable. Pags. 431."

Longtemps ignorée, on reconnaît aujourd’hui
l’existence d’une tradition de construction
navale propre à la côte méditerranéenne de
la péninsule Ibérique. Plusieurs épaves en
témoignent et mettent en évidence une forte
influence punico-phénicienne.

The Iberian Bronze Age was a period marked by the arrival of the Phoenicians in Iberia. This Semitic population founded several settlements along the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores of the Iberian Peninsula. However, it will be in ancient Gádir (present-day Cadiz) that one of the earliest archaeological records that testify the Phoenician expansion in front of the established so-calledTartessian settlements. This research aims to study the development of the city of Gádir in the Bay of Cadiz, south of the Iberian Peninsula, from the contact between Phoenicians and Tartesians from the 9th century BC until the 6th century BC, as well as verifying, through the use of the Information System (GIS), using geoprocessing techniques applied to Archaeology, such as the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), Orthophotos as well as the Viewshed Analysis to understand how a new landscape was built in an environment of intense cultural exchanges between autochthonous and allochthonous. We intend, based on the most recent discussions, to ascertain the Phoenician urban progression ahead of the Tartessian hinterland and how was the process of this interaction and its consequences for both. It is our intention, above all, to bring the Far West to the debate since it is considered a peripheral region in the Ancient World.

La historia de las sociedades de la Hispania prerromana está llena de episodios bélicos, atestiguados por guerras, murallas y mercenarios que se sirvieron de un variado catálogo de armas. Estas armas evolucionaron a lo largo del tiempo y, especialmente, gracias a la interacción y aprendizaje de las sociedades hispanas con otros guerreros y artesanos. El estudio del armamento prerromano peninsular se ha renovado y dinamizado en los útlimos tiempos incorporando conceptos complejos interesados en completar la lectura tipológica con la comprensión social y la identificación de los sistemas de interacción cultural que definieron sus formas y usos. Las armas, hoy más que nunca a pese a su heterogeneidad cronológica y cultural, se revelan como elementos renovadores para la investigación de una parte de la Hispania prerromana. La necesidad de poner en común el estado de conocimiento de las armas y los distintos enfoques y perspectivas de trabajo motivaron el encuentro del 17 de enero de 2014 en el Instituto Arqueológico Alemán de Madrid y aquí se presentan las ocho intervenciones que se presentaron junto a otros dos trabajos invitados para ofrecer una panorámica completa tanto técnica como tipológica e histórica.

Die umfangreichen archäologischen Datenbanken, die heutzutage zur Verfügung stehen, ermöglichen einen neuen Blick auf die vorrömischen Waffen der Iberischen Halbinsel.
Hier wird eine komplette Synthese vorgelegt, die sich nicht nur auf technologische und formale Fragen erstreckt, sondern auch auf soziale, kulturelle, ökonomische und sogar politische Wechselbeziehungen. Die jüngsten und weitreichenden Ergebnisse erlauben es, die technischen Neuerungen zu untersuchen und die Chronologien genauer anzupassen. Insbesondere aber lassen sich mediterrane Einflüsse auf die Produktion der iberischen Waffen identifizieren sowie der Einfluss einer iberischen Waffenart auf die Herstellung fremder Waffen, konkret der römischen.

Despite a long history of research and conservation dating back to the late 19th century, when the current stage in the management of the three large Antequeran megalithic monuments started in 2004 there was an almost complete absence of high-resolution cartography to support their study and protection. To being to solve this severe deficiency, a high-resolution cartographic survey of Menga through terrestrial laser scanning, 3D modelling and photogrammetry was carried out in 2005. In this paper we present a short summary of that work, describing its technical and conceptual basis as well as the results that were obtained. In addition, we briefly discuss some examples of the highly positive impact this newly developed cartography has had on the management and research of this megalithic monument.

"Estas páginas contienen una reflexión sobre un tema importante en el mundo antiguo: el aprovisionamiento de cereal al ejército romano. El hecho de que la base de la alimentación fuera el grano y su ausencia la causa más frecuente del descontento y de las sublevaciones en el seno del ejército motivó el desarrollo de férreos mecanismos de control y administración de los alimentos enviados a las tropas. Este trabajo ofrece información novedosa sobre este asunto y proporciona las claves para conocer mejor la dieta del soldado y las infraestructuras y construcciones asociadas al abastecimiento militar, desde la fase republicana al periodo bajoimperial.

Para el análisis del aprovisionamiento de cereal al ejército, el principal testimonio arqueológico que se conserva son los almacenes y graneros (horrea). El estudio detallado de estos edificios pretende servir de manual de referencia para el profesional que debe interpretar correctamente las estructuras descubiertas, ofreciendo información detallada sobre técnicas constructivas, dimensiones y otros datos de interés. En último término, permite reconstruir la apariencia de estas edificaciones y conocer la evolución de los sistemas empleados en su construcción, que se fueron adaptando a las necesidades del ejército en cada uno de los periodos durante los que se mantuvo vigente la hegemonía de Roma.

Esta obra muestra al público general y al profesional de la arqueología un aspecto esencial en la expansión y consolidación del Imperio Romano, pues el aprovisionamiento de cereal fue una de las claves económicas que permitió a los generales romanos mantener alta la moral de sus ejércitos con alimentos a los que estaban acostumbrados y se convirtió en el motor que impulsó el ánimo y el fervor de las tropas, consiguiendo así su eficacia en la batalla y su lealtad en tiempos de paz"

Book review:
http://www.pyrenae.com/home/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=category&id=20:ressenyes-43-2-2012&lang=es

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9191541&fulltextType=BR&fileId=S0068113X14000075


http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0514-7336/article/view/9973"

http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/02/21727.html"""

Real, Manuel Luís – “Os moçárabes entre a convivência e a intolerância: resistências, apostasias, dissimulações e ambiguidades”, in Ayala Martínez, Carlos; Fernandes, Isabel Cristina F. (coord.) – Cristãos contra muçulmanos na Idade Média Peninsular. Bases ideológicas e doutrinais de um confronto (séculos X-XIV), Lisboa, Ed. Colibri / Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2015, pp. 29 – 64.

This work seeks to contribute to analyze some aspects related to the Paleohispanic divinity Ataegina. This divinity emerges as an exceptional case in western Iberian Peninsula, in many aspects and this work aims to address the known specificities that seem most relevant as well as some of the prospects that several authors have brought to light. Reflections are developed on the cult dedicated to her in Merida, approximate Proserpina, while private and linked to Merida elites and their ownership of the Lucus Feroniae.

This paper presents the archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data of the 6th to 4th millennia cal BC sequence recently documented at Dehesilla Cave, and puts forward an interdisciplinary approach to the significant ecological patterns from this key archaeological site in the Southern Iberian Peninsula throughout the entire Neolithic period. Results indicate an ecological scenario characterised mainly by oak and wild olive forests, and human populations with agricultural practices and herds of mainly sheep and goats. However, this general panorama must have undergone several remarkable fluctuations. The first Neolithic populations of Dehesilla Cave, dated around the mid-6th millennium cal BC and linked to the Mediterranean impressa pottery complex, do not yet display evidences of agriculture, while all of the subsequent Early Neolithic levels indicate a model of small-scale populations with a mixed economy but still with a greater component of livestock. The second quarter of the 5th millennium cal BC shows a marked accentuation of the monoculture of naked wheats, which could have been related to the transition from an intensive to an extensive farming system. This may have entailed a selective pressure on the environment, leading to a large deforestation spanning the second half of the 5th millennium cal BC and the constitution of relatively open thermo-Mediterranean forests with a physiognomy similar to that of the dehesa. These ecological patterns are discussed within a review of the current state of the art of the use of plant and animal resources by the Neolithic human populations in the southern regions of the Iberian Peninsula.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to describe the economic aspects at the beginning of the Phoenician colonization across the Iberian Peninsula. These mercantile characteristics are connected with the primary sector and include agriculture, cattle or fishing, among others. Equally, this starting point is useful to investigate the nature of the relationship between settlers and the indigenous communitiesin Southern Iberia, which would finally end up being called Tartessos. In order to fulfil the goal, I check the original ancient documents about this subject and, at the same time, I evaluate the archaeological remains that prove the Phoenician presence in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the native lands in the eastern Mediterranean. First of all, we must attempt to investigate the situation that was taking place in the Phoenician's mother-cities. This should inform us about the daily circumstances in the metropolis, why Phoenician people decided to leave their homes and where they went. This is an important point because the original conditions that led to a colonial movement are crucial for understanding the subsequent practices in distant places. After studying the basic condition, I carry out a meaningful research about the core elements that have influenced the colonization process. In addition to this, we try to understand the mechanisms beneath those primary settlement patterns. Without doubt, a deep analysis of the marine environment (such as winds, oceanic currents or ships) is crucial to understanding the nature of the Phoenician's routes across the Mediterranean Sea. Likewise, I have deepened into the features and characteristics of the Phoeniciansocial classes focused on commerce and trading. Knowing which kind of people took part at the beginning of this unpredictable colonial process has made my work even more meaningful. This section of the research has been extremely useful to trace this complex historical process. The study of the religious mechanisms that were implemented by the Tyre authorities in order to

"The studies on Roman provincial Art have experienced a regeneration in recent times. The evolution of the
Roman Archaeology in the last thirty years was making necessary the renovation of expositions and points
of view, for a better comprehension of the artistic provincial phenomenon. In the new status quaestionis the
Roman provincial Art is outlined as art of Rome in the provinces. The new approach here adopted revalues
the contribution of the provincial art to the consolidation and diffusion of the Roman model".