Squaring the circle. Social and environmental implications of pre-pottery neolithic building technology at Tell Qarassa (South Syria)

We present the results of the microstratigraphic, phytolith and wood charcoal study of the remains of a 10.5 ka roof. The roof is part of a building excavated at Tell Qarassa (South Syria), assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period in the Levant coincides with the emergence of farming. This fundamental change in subsistence strategy implied the shift from mobile to settled aggregated life, and from tents and huts to hard buildings. As settled life spread across the Levant, a generalised transition from round to square buildings occurred, that is a trademark of the PPNB period. The study of these buildings is fundamental for the understanding of the ever-stronger reciprocal socio-ecological relationship humans developed with the local environment since the introduction of sedentism and domestication. Descriptions of buildings in PPN archaeological contexts are usually restricted to the macroscopic observation of wooden elements (posts and beams) and mineral components (daub, plaster and stone elements). Reconstructions of microscopic and organic components are frequently based on ethnographic analogy. The direct study of macroscopic and microscopic, organic and mineral, building components performed at Tell Qarassa provides new insights on building conception, maintenance, use and destruction. These elements reflect new emerging paradigms in the relationship between Neolithic societies and the environment. A square building was possibly covered here with a radial roof, providing a glance into a topologic shift in the conception and understanding of volumes, from round-based to square-based geometries. Macroscopic and microscopic roof components indicate buildings were conceived for year-round residence rather than seasonal mobility. This implied performing maintenance and restoration of partially damaged buildings, as well as their adaptation to seasonal variability

Tracing the Basque presence in eastern Canada during the 16th and 17th centuries, through ceramic remains: the example of the glazed pottery produced in Bilbao

Poster presentado en Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology Conference, in St John's, Newfoundland,(Canadá)(June 2010)

Aproximación al estudio de los contextos cerámicos del País Vasco, siglos XIV-XVII

Trabajo de Investigación Predoctoral 2006

La cerámica de la Segunda Edad del Hierro en el País Vasco: Estudio tecnológico, funcional y social

670 p. Capítulos de introducción, metodología, discusión y conclusiones en castellano e inglés.

Las ocupaciones rupestres en el fin de la Antigüedad. Los materiales cerámicos de Los Husos (Laguardia, Alava)

Homenaje a Ignacio Barandiarán Maestu / coord. por Javier Fernández Eraso, Juan Santos Yanguas.

Cerámica cardial en la Rioja Alavesa

[ES] Se trata de dar a conocer el descubrimiento de cerámica impresa de tipo cardial en la Rioja Alavesa. Tales hallazgos se han localizado durante las excavaciones que se están realizando en el Abrigo de Peña Larga en Cripán (Alava) desde el verano de 1985. Las fechas obtenidas para el nivel de donde proceden las referidas cerámicas son: -5830 BC (para la parte superior del nivel). -6150 BC (para la parte baja en la que se encuentran las citadas cerámicas). Esta cronología sitúa el nivel en un Neolítico pleno en consonancia con los niveles cardiales localizados en las últimas décadas en el valle del Ebro.