What is this thing called Historical Archaeology?

Historical archaeology, in its narrow temporal sense -as an archaeology of the emergence and subsequent evolution of the Modern world- is steadily taking pace in Spanish academia. This paper aims at provoking a more robust debate through understanding how Spanish historical archaeology is placed in the international scene and some of its more relevant particularities. In so doing, the paper also stresses the strong links that have united historical and prehistorical archaeology since its inception, both in relation to the ontological, epistemological and methodological definition of the first as to the influence of socio-political issues in the latter. Such reflection is partly a situated reflection from prehistory as one of the paper’s authors has been a prehistorian for most of her professional life.

Negative Archaeology. The Archaeological Borders of the Present

Nowadays, archaeology is trying to redefine its relation with objects. This change is taking place at the same time as the West is breaking once and for all with the generation who did the rural exodus in the mid of the twentieth century. The present paper proposes a revision of the conditions that allow us to both define this rupture and at the same time determine our affinity with materiality. This is done through a reconsideration of the relation between the past and the present and the dynamics marking this difference. We are situated in a moment when the experience of time is shifting and thus so is the integrity of archaeological objects. Under the name of Negative Archaeology, the border between past and present is explored. This border determines the creation of the past in a present which intends to homogenise changes. Archaeology is a unique discipline which could prevent this process, or at least bear witness to the dynamics to which objects seem to be subjected. Obscolescence is introduced as a concept in an attempt to name the aforementioned problem.

¿Qué hay en un nombre? –Akko-Ptolemais–´Akka-Acre

La actual ciudad de Akko in Israel, ha tenido muchos nombres a lo largo de los siglos de su prolongado asentamiento. El nombre de Acre, con el que se le conoce en el mundo Occidental, es el residuo del nombre de San Juan de Acre que le dieron sus habitantes cruzados en el s. XII de la era Cristiana. Sin embargo, el nombre de ‘Akko y sus derivados, tienen una larga historia. Bajo tal nombre, aparece ya en las fuentes escritas de comienzos el II Milenio a.C., cuando e produjo la primera urbanización del lugar. Se mantuvo como ‘Akko, ‘Ake, etc…a lo largo de los siglos posteriors, a pesar de los inentos de varios dirigentes de cambiarelo. El asentamiento se trasladó, a causa de los cambios en la línea de costa y del río Na’aman o Belos, desde el antiguo Tel Akko a la bahía, en la que se estableció un puerto artificial,reconstruido y renovado reiteradamente durante más de 2000 años. El primer nombre conocido del sitio original del asentamiento, el tell, data de época de los cruzados. Este sufrió una alteración de su nombre, reflejo de la transformación de la historia de Akko, en la que la intervención occidental (europea9, jugó un papel decisivo.

La alquería de Pereila, un poblamiento andalusí en la Algarbía malagueña

El poblamiento rural de origen andalusí en la antigua Algarbía malagueña es un gran desconocido para la historiografía medieval. Las excavaciones y prospecciones con metodología arqueológica son prácticamente inexistentes y el recurso a la documentación escrita, en concreto la de origen castellana, ha dado un resultado muy limitado. Como excepción tenemos la información correspondiente al antiguo espacio residencial de Pereila y su territorio. La alquería estaba situada dentro del actual término municipal de Coín (Málaga) y un pleito en el 1537 entre el cabildo Catedralicio de Málaga y los beneficiados de Coín por el cobro del diezmo de dicho lugar, nos ha aportado una información valiosa sobre los límites territoriales del poblamiento, y en menor medida, de sus espacios de trabajo. También utilizaremos la metodología propia de la arqueología extensiva y los principios de la arqueología hidráulica que nos servirán para complementar la información aportada por la documentación escrita.

Upin & Ipin: Promoting malaysian culture values through animation

Malaysian children lately have been exposed or influenced heavily by digital media entertainment. The rise of such entertainment tends to drive them away from understanding and appreciating the values of Malaysian culture. Upin and Ipin animation has successfully promoted Malaysian folklore culture and has significantly portrayed the art of Malaysian values including Islamic values by providing the platform for harmonious relationship among different societies or groups or religious backgrounds. The focus of this research is to look into the usage of Malaysian culture iconic visual styles such as backgrounds, lifestyles, character archetypes and narrative (storytelling). Therefore, we hope that this research will benefit the younger generation by highlighting the meaning and importance of implicit Malaysian culture.

Flavian laws, the railway, the newspaper and Loring’s breads

It is abound the research on the formation, rise and failure of the financial and industrial network undertaken by the Loring-Heredia-Larios triangle, bourgeois families who introduced the Industrial Revolution in the south of Andalusia. On the contrary, there are almost nonexistent studies from the perspective of the mentality that sustained their business, social and ethical model in the algid decades of their action (1850-1860). In this paper we propose some hypotheses about the ideological structures of bourgeois group and point out some keys, clues and signs for a future reconstruction of this kind, which so far has not been incardinated that early and failed malaguenan industrial revolution in streams thinking of that time.