Foodways, Plant Management and Environment in the Western Roman Provinces: An Archaeobotanical Approach Using as a Case Study the Site of Iesso, Spain

Panacea, common sense, or just a label?: The value of ISO 14001 environmental management systems

The Roman invasion introduces new alloys and metallurgical practices in Iberian Peninsula. The southwestern end of this region has many evidences of connections with the Roman World, but there are no studies about the manufacture and use of copper-based artefacts during this period. Therefore, a set of about 20 ornaments, tools and small attachments recovered at the Roman sites of Monte Moliao and Cidade das Rosas was studied by an analytical approach combining micro-EDXRF, optical microscopy, SEM–EDS and Vickers microhardness testing. The artefact composition shows a good correlation with function, namely pure copper for nails and rivets, low-tin bronze (2–6 wt% Sn) for basic tools, high-tin bronze (14 wt% Sn) for fibulae and high-lead bronze (19 wt% Pb) for a decorated jug handle. The manufacture also depends on function because most artefacts were subjected to thermomechanical processing, except the ornaments that would not benefit from post-casting work. Brass and gunmetal were only present in the site with a later chronology. A metallurgy visibly ruled by economical, aesthetical and technological concerns reinforces the evidences about the total integration of Southwestern Iberian Peninsula in the Roman World, but further studies will be essential to determine the evolution of copper-based alloys in Lusitania under Roman influence.

The first meeting of specialists from different fields relating to research on the Roman army in Hispania took place in Segovia in 1998 under the title “Roman Military Archaeology in Hispania”. Its aim was to gather within one forum different experts working in this field.1 The term “military archaeology” was provocative in the Spanish academic world of the late 1990s, as military studies were viewed with slight suspicion in some quarters, both by those researching indigenous contexts and by those who remained anchored in a classical concept of Romanisation which rather neglected the contribution of the army to the process of assimilating Hispania into the Roman world. In Anglo-Saxon scholarship other terms with more historiographic tradition (e.g., “Roman army studies” or “Roman frontier studies”) were preferred. The goal in choosing the title of the 1998 congress was to create debate around a topic on which research efforts were becoming increasingly focused. Despite its limitations,2 the term “military archaeology” since then has become for many Spanish scholars the methodological basis for material-based and topographic studies of the military world and of war in its widest sense. As archaeology in the Iberian peninsula becomes increasingly open to new methodologies and practices being adopted elsewhere (especially in the Anglo-Saxon world), similar terms such as “conflict archaeology” or “battlefield archaeology” are appearing, which all form part of the conceptual frame of reference of military archaeology. In the last 15-20 years, research in this field has increased exponentially in the Iberian peninsula, particularly in the north and northwest where the Roman army had a much longer-lasting presence. This has allowed scholars, for example, to begin interpreting episodes such as the Cantabrian Wars, practically unknown from an archaeological perspective until very recently. In the last few years, progress has extended to earlier periods, affecting other regions such as the peninsula‘s northeast, southeast and E coast, where military topics are starting to be differentiated into Republican and indigenous contexts. A new generation of congresses and their resulting proceedings have generated some of the most significant contributions. The Segovia congress of 1998, its follow-up at León in 2004,3 the Roman Frontier Congress held at León in 2006,4 thematic French-Spanish congresses such as the meetings of the project “La guerre et ses traces dans la péninsule Ibérique” (2007, 2009 and 2010),5 and recent colloquia on the Republican period6 and on the Cantabrian Wars,7 have all become reference works. Coinciding with the first occasion upon which the Roman Frontier Congress was held in Spain, the first monograph — still an essential reference work — on the archaeological evidence for the Roman army in the peninsula was published.8

The subject of the Late Antiquity is, nowadays, objects of a renewed interest and is in the center of an interesting scientific discussion. The increase of the archaeological research for all Europe has allowed to draw a much more complete picture of the period that characterizes the end of the Roman World, characterized for multiple trends, sometimes contradictories, where a multivariate of the regional or micron-regional realities is evident. In the case of the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the south of the province of the Lusitania, a dense occupation of the countryside beyond the V century is a reality, with a panorama where dynamic forces of strong Mediterranean influences are conjugated with regressive trends in the plan of the material culture in relation to the previous period.

This book explores a new perspective for understanding the Roman world, using connectivity as a major point of departure. Globalisation is apparent in increased flows of objects, people and ideas and in the creation of translocal consciousness in everyday life. Based on these criteria, there is a case for globalisation in the ancient Roman world. Essential for anyone interested in Romanisation, this volume provides the first sustained critical exploration of globalisation theories in Roman archaeology and history. It is written by an international group of scholars who address a broad range of subjects, including Roman imperialism, economics, consumption, urbanism, migration, visual culture and heritage. The contributors explore the implications of understanding material culture in an interconnected Roman world, highlighting several novel directions for future research.

In this brief report, we present a specimen of the marine mollusk shell recovered as part of a Roman burial deposit of High-imperial period. The element comes from a tomb excavated in the city of Merida (Spain). The taxonomic analysis indicates it concerned to the species Cypraea pantherina. It is an exotic element of Indo-Pacific origin, including occasionally as funeral offerings in the Roman world from the first century BC. This species, in particular, is associated with female graves. The shell associates connotations of fertility, good childbirth and procreation. The case of Mérida (Augusta Emerita) is the only one that has been reported in the Iberian Peninsula. This allows to extend this way our knowledge on the distribution of exotic species proceeding from distant seas by means of the human activity.

Socio-economic impacts of the exposure to Roman ceramics in the inland Iron Age communities of the NW Iberian Peninsula: A quantitative approach

Representations of hooded individuals or cucullati were frequent in the Roman world. The characteristic cucullus was worn by both male individuals of a low social rank and patricians who wore hoods to avoid being recognised; also divine beings known as genii and other divinities were represented with a hood and cloak-hood, in this case with a special meaning. When studying ancient Hispania , such representations have often gone unobserved due to publication problems rather than to their absence in the archaeological record. A historiographic review of terracotta and bronze figurines or small sculptures of cucullati documented so far in the Iberian Peninsula has made it possible to analyse their origin, character, and the materials used in their manufacturing, in such a way that new knowledge is gained from a context-based analysis.

Los trabajos realizados en la villa romana de Los Villaricos (Mula, Murcia) muestran un establecimiento rural en el que se han identificado muchos de los elementos propios de las instalaciones agropecuarias del mundo romano. Ya han sido dadas a conocer la pars urbana así como una zona aneja que se interpretó como un torcularium. En los últimos años, nuestra atención ha estado centrada en una zona algo alejada de estas instalaciones comentadas, en la que se ha documentado un gran edificio de planta rectangular con una superficie de casi 700 m2 dedicado a la producción de aceite. Se trata de una de las almazaras más grandes de la Península Ibérica y en ella hemos podido identificar todas las partes propias de un torcularium dedicado a la producción de aceite. El edificio tiene una sala de recepción que a la vez pudo funcionar como cella olearia; un tabulatum, una sala de molienda con dos molinos en posición primaria; una sala de prensado con seis prensas, dividida en dos estancias, una, a cota inferior, para contener los contrapesos y otra para los lapides o fora y areae; por último, una sala de decantación en la que se han documentado lacus y una serie de dolia adosadas al muro junto a los desagües de las prensas. Se ha establecido su abandono en torno al siglo V d. C.

This is the first comparative study of Roman architecture on the Iberian peninsula, covering six centuries from the arrival of the Romans in the third century B.C. until the decline of urban life on the peninsula in the third century A.D. During this period, the peninsula became an influential cultural and political region in the Roman world. Iberia supplied writers, politicians, and emperors, a fact acknowledged by Romanists for centuries, though study of the peninsula itself has too often been brushed aside as insignificant and uninteresting. In this book William E. Mierse challenges such a view. By examining in depth the changing forms of temples and their placement within the urban fabric, Mierse shows that architecture on the peninsula displays great variation and unexpected connections. It was never a slavish imitation of an imported model but always a novel experiment. Sometimes the architectural forms are both new and unexpected; in some cases specific prototypes can be seen, but the Iberian form has been significantly altered to suit local needs. What at first may seem a repetition of forms upon closer investigation turns out to be theme and variation. Mierse brings to his quest an impressive learning, including knowledge of several modern and ancient languages and the archaeology of the Roman East, which allows him a unique perspective on the interaction between events and architecture.

Circular basins are very common functional and decorative elements in the Roman world, where they were referred to as labra . Rectangular basins have been often included within this category, but it is preferable to use the term alvei for them. Spanish historiography has not paid much attention to these elements, which is due more to a problem of publication than to an absence of these elements in the archaeological record. Sometimes, the terminological confusion has led to the identification of the fountains not by the architectural or sculptural elements from which the water spouted but by the space where they were placed. The historiography review and the reassessment of the archaeological records of the labra documented in the Iberian Peninsula, both in public and private spaces, has made it possible to analyze their origin, typology, function and material, as well as their archaeological context. Made of different varieties of both local and imported marmora , the fountain basins, in different sizes and morphologies, are usually linked to the roman baths to atriums and peristyles.

Reclaiming nature’s rights

The research aimed at developing model of the risk assurance indicators to the utilization of natural resources and environment for sustainable development of Thai communities and evaluation of risks indicators on natural recourses and environment for sustainability of life quality, economy, and society. Mixed research methodology–both quantitative and qualitative-was employed to collect data from the various sources, related documents experts, and indigenous group from three villages- namely, upper north (Nan), central north (Uttaradit), and lower north (Pijit) with 10 villages of each to construct and validate the hypothetical indicators. A multi-stage sample size was included 80 community experts, 140 general experts, 350 community leaders, and 407 family delegates in Northern Thailand to evaluate the practicality and appropriateness of the constructed risk assurance indicators. The data were collected by group discussion, deep interview, and questionnaires. The data were analyzed by using mean, percentage, median. LISREL Program version 8.30 was applied, to evaluate the practicality and appropriateness of the constructed risk assurance indicators. The research yielded 3 main factors with associated risk indicators to the utilization of natural resources and the environment: first, natural resources and environmental revitalization with 4 sub-factors, namely, variety of plants, wildlife, forests, soil, and water; second, hazardous waste substance prevention with 4 sub-factors, namely, hazardous waste, rubbish, smoke and dust, and natural disasters; third, resource management in community, with 5 sub-factors, namely, forest, wildlife, and water animals, soil, water and energy, total 13 sub-factors 57 associated indicators in all. Also, 3 main factors with associated indicators to sustainable development are found: first, life quality with 6 sub-factors, namely, food, clothes, household equipments, health cares, housing, environment management; second, economy with 4 sub-factors, namely, raw material for productivity, distribution and transportation; third, society with 4 sub-factors, namely, cooperation, cares, safety, peace, luxury mitigation, moral ethical values, total 14 sub-factors 66 associated indicators in all. The models of risk assurance indicators to the utilization of natural resources and environment for sustainable development of life quality were fitted the empirical data with ?2 = 62.04, p = 0.06, GFI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.03, CN = 401.96, to the utilization of natural resources and environment. In evaluation of the risk assurance indicators, the data confirmed their practicality at a high level, the means were different of different part with statistical significance at the level of.05, the relation of risk assurance indicators to the utilization of natural resources and environment for sustainable development were significance. For the appropriate model and guidelines for developing there were 8 major activities, In conclusion, the developing model were appropriate.

Ornamental plants in the Southern Region of Albania contaminated by entomoparasites of U/Order Coccoinea, Insecta Class

Dryland pastures provide the basis for animal sustenance in extensive production systems in Iberian Peninsula. These systems have temporal and spatial variability of pasture quality resulting from the diversity of soil fertility and pasture floristic composition, the interaction with trees, animal grazing, and a Mediterranean climate characterized by accentuated seasonality and interannual irregularity. Grazing management decisions are dependent on assessing pasture availability and quality. Conventional analytical determination of crude protein (CP) and fiber (neutral detergent fiber, NDF) by reference laboratory methods require laborious and expensive procedures and, thus, do not meet the needs of the current animal production systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate two alternative approaches to estimate pasture CP and NDF, namely one based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) combined with multivariate data analysis and the other based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) measured in the field by a proximal active optical sensor (AOS). A total of 232 pasture samples were collected from January to June 2020 in eight fields. Of these, 96 samples were processed in fresh form using NIRS. All 232 samples were dried and subjected to reference laboratory and NIRS analysis. For NIRS, fresh and dry samples were split in two sets: a calibration set with half of the samples and an external validation set with the remaining half of the samples. The results of this study showed significant correlation between NIRS calibration models and reference methods for quantifying pasture quality parameters, with greater accuracy in dry samples (R2 = 0.936 and RPD = 4.01 for CP and R2 = 0.914 and RPD = 3.48 for NDF) than fresh samples (R2 = 0.702 and RPD = 1.88 for CP and R2 = 0.720 and RPD = 2.38 for NDF). The NDVI measured by the AOS shows a similar coefficient of determination to the NIRS approach with pasture fresh samples (R2 = 0.707 for CP and R2 = 0.648 for NDF). The results demonstrate the potential of these technologies for estimating CP and NDF in pastures, which can facilitate the farm manager’s decision making in terms of the dynamic management of animal grazing and supplementation needs.