Spanish archaeology

"Resumen: En este trabajo se presentan dos nuevos yacimientos arqueológicos del extremo occidental de la Cordillera Cantábrica, en la confluencia de los límites provinciales de Asturias, León y Galicia. Sus características nos permiten reconocerlos como castra aestiva o campamentos temporales construidos por las tropas en el transcurso de sus movimientos de campaña. Su localización nos llevan a plantear que estos yacimientos podrían ser evidencias arqueológicas del Bellum Asturicum en un territorio considerado hasta ahora como periferia del conflicto por la mayoría de autores.

Abstract: In this paper we present two new archaeological sites in the western limit of the Cantabrian Mountains, in the convergence of the borders of Asturias, León and Galicia. Their features allow us to recognize these as castra aestiva or marching camps built by a troop during campaign movements. Due to their location it is possible to think that these sites could be some archaeological evidences of the Bellum Asturicum in a territory considered the periphery of the conflict by most of the authors."

Resumen: El nacimiento de la Arqueología tiene una estrecha relación con el auge de los nacionalismos en toda Europa. En el estado español, tanto el nacionalismo centralista como los nacionalismos o regionalismos periféricos han utilizado referentes del pasado –a veces coincidentes– como sustento simbólico de sus narrativas. Es el caso de los celtas, pueblo mítico que ha servido tanto para afianzar la idea unitaria de España, como para refrendar la singularidad nacional/regional de territorios como Asturias y León. El papel de los arqueólogos en estos dos casos es analizado en este trabajo, pues supone una vía crucial para la reflexión historiográfica. Así, las narrativas académicas generadas en este ámbito adolecían habitualmente de una falta de crítica, que subordinaba el pasado prerromano a determinadas agendas políticas contemporáneas. La predominancia de la Historia Antigua o de visiones esencialistas, androcéntricas y socialmente conservadoras en los discursos arqueológicos caracterizan los estudios tradicionales sobre los grupos prerromanos de Asturias y León. Tras la consolidación del Estado de las Autonomías, el nacionalismo y el regionalismo se extendieron a amplias capas de la sociedad acompañados de discursos históricos que prescindieron de la legitimación de la Academia. Paradójicamente, estas narrativas reproducen discursos conservadores que tradicionalmente dominaban el discurso arqueológico. Ante esta situación, ¿nos corresponde a los arqueólogos asumir una posición multivocal liberal o deberíamos, en cambio, emprender acciones sociopolíticas críticas que inicien una autocrítica disciplinar y persigan transformar los marcos teórico-interpretativos dominantes?

Abstract: The origins of archaeology are intrinsically connected with the emergence of nationalism in Europe. Both Spanish centralist nationalism and peripheral nationalism and regionalist movements in the country are engaged in a political dispute but, paradoxically, have drawn upon similar symbolic resources in some cases. This is true regarding historic construct of the Celts in Asturias and León, where different political movements, either peripheral or centralist, have differently interpreted and used the Celts in their agendas depending on the historic context. This paper analyzes the role archaeologists have played in this process. Acritical discourses have prevailed in Iron Age Archaeology, which has always made the past subservient to contemporary political needs. In addition, Iron Age Archaeology has strongly relied on the disciplinary bias of Ancient History, and has been dominated by essentialist, androcentric and largely reactionary interpretations of society. With the advent of the Autonomous Communities in Spain, nationalism and regionalism permeated vast sectors of Spanish society, leading to the emergence of many popular discourses about the past that disregard Academic discourse. Paradoxically, these narratives reproduce conservative discourses that prevailed in archaeological research. Facing this situation, it is time for archaeologists to ask whether they should adopt a multivocal liberal stance tolerating different interpretations about the past, or a critical socio-political position seeking a deconstruction of the discipline and a transformation of the dominant interpretative frameworks that predate Spanish Archaeology.

In the 2019 Numismatic Chronicle, two of us published a comparative isotopic analysis of the struck lead from Minturnae and the grandes plomos monetiformes of Ulterior Baetica. We showed that the Italians exploited the coastal mines at Cartagena-Mazzarón before those of the Sierra Morena. We also used epigraphic evidence to identify gentes present in both Minturnae and Hispania, and to show that Minturnae was one of the first cities to exploit the Spanish Silver/lead mines soon after the Second Punic War. In our new paper, we expand our horizon to a number of aspects of the mines of the Baetican interior, and the organisation and areas of influence of the large-scale anonymous societates that exploited them. We first briefly review current ideas about the status and nature of the mining societates of the interior. We then consider further the identification of C·SAM, whom we had identified as one of the signatories of a group of lead pieces struck in Minturnae, which were in all probability made by a societas involved in the Spanish lead trade. This leads to a proposed new reading of a text from Pliny regarding what we now show to be a societas Samiarianensis, with a probable link to Minturnae. Our main focus, however, is on assembling and considering the physical evidence for the operations of the mining societates of the interior, which includes objects marked with the names of societates, two large groups of coins, and lead seals, including one in the name of the city of Corduba. We aim to provide as complete a picture as possible, as a contribution to future research. We also review the relationship of the Italo-Baetican grandes plomos monetiformes to the mines.

Far from being two distinct and distant spheres, play and ritual had blurred boundaries in antiquity, when they may have sometimes overlapped. In light of recent attention to toys in the ancient Mediterranean, this article reconsiders a remarkable yet fragmentary nude standing female figure with articulated arms from the excavations by the German Archaeological Institute in the so-called Magon Quarter at Carthage. It provides a detailed analysis of this terracotta figurine and its find-context, but it also assesses various hypotheses on its original use by considering similar artefacts in ancient and contemporary societies. Through this investigation, dolls emerge as objects whose use was not merely limited to children and play, but it could have been extended to adults and ritual, especially in those cases when a possible divine iconography was portrayed.

The economic importance of raw material exploitation, especially metal mining, for communities in antiquity has long since been addressed. Only during recent decades, however, have scholars increasingly focused the material remains. These include not only the primary mining remains, such as underground workings, process residues and installations for beneficiation, but also habitational sites and infrastructural remains that emerged in the course of exploitation. The intention of this panel at the 19th International Congress for Classical Archaeology was to provide an insight on existing and emerging research on landscapes that were distinctly transformed by mining. It aimed furthermore at discussing how mining could affect not only the natural but also the cultural landscape. By focusing on select case studies, the intention was to identify the material characteristics of such areas, to highlight and explain differences and to discuss possible recurring infrastructural and organisational patterns.

The International Symposium Purpureae Vestes VII “Redefining textile handcraft. Structures, tools and production processes” took place at the University of Granada (Spain) over the 2-4 october 2019. Almost 120 specialists on ancient textiles coming from different scientific institutions in 20 countries presented the results of their recent investigations through 50 communications and 35 posters. There were interesting discussions in the eight sessions in which the Congress was divided and on the last day participants could visit the wonderful archaeological and monumental ensemble of “La Alhambra de Granada”, World Heritage.
The Symposium had the financial support from the University of Granada (Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Grupo de Investigación GAECATAO/HUM 296) and the Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), in the framework of the Plan de Excelencia, Consolidación y Apoyo a las Universidades Andaluzas. PECA 2018, it also had the logistical support from the universities of Valencia (Spain) and Salento (Italy).

"Partimos de la caracterización sociocultural de los grupos castreños cantábricos como paso indispensable para comprender el sentido histórico profundo del potente cambio cultural que supuso la conquista militar del extremo norte peninsular y su inserción en el sistema imperial romano. Nuevos datos arqueológicos nos permiten discutir la información sobre las operaciones armadas de conquista que nos ofrecían las fuentes clásicas y comprender qué papeles jugaron los diferentes grupos (meseteños y cantábricos, principalmente) en aquella. Una relectura de la información arqueológica nos permitirá entender los diferentes tipos y resistencias a la romanización, básicamente uno asociado a la minería del oro y otro a un paisaje agrario.

The sociocultural characterization of Cantabrian Iron Age communities is as an essential step to understand the deep historical sense of cultural change that occured after the military conquest of Northern Spain, and its integration into the Roman imperial system. New archaeological data allow us to discuss the view on military operations that classical sources offered us. We will understand what roles were played by different groups -of Central Iberia and Western Cantabrian Mountains, primarily- in that conquest. Also, a reading of the archaeological information will help us to understand the different types of resistance to the Roman, basically one associated with gold mining and other to agrarian landscape."