Cerámica e Islamización: el origen de la tradición alfarera

La cerámica es uno de los testimonios arqueológicos más abundantes y reconocibles. Generalmente se le atribuye un importante valor histórico en tanto que informa sobre procesos socioeconómicos de gran importancia y constituye un significativo referente cronológico. No obstante, son varias las perspectivas de estudio ceramológico: sus formas de producción, las formas de distribución y comercialización y las pautas de consumo, etc. Todas ellas arrojan luz sobre aspectos que permiten estudiar las sociedades del pasado. En el caso que nos ocupa queremos discutir el valor de la cerámica en la comprensión del proceso de islamización social, es decir de integración en un nuevo sistema social y cultural. El siglo VII marca en el Mediterráneo occidental el final de un sistema económico de ámbito “mundial”, capaz de producir y distribuir cerámicas altamente estandarizadas y especializadas por todo el ámbito mediterráneo. El siglo X permite reconocer la reconstrucción de los mercados y la uniformización productiva y formal, que refleja la nueva sociedad representada en el Califato. Entre ambos extremos se abre un periodo interesante y complejo, plagado de luces y sombras, que permite reconocer tanto los procesos de reestructuración económica como la generalización de nuevos patrones culturales. En este trabajo se intentarán plantear los temas más importantes y novedosos sobre la cerámica de los siglos VII a X, a partir de varios trabajos recientes, leyendo a través de la cerámica el proceso de islamización.

La frontera marítima fortificada: de la vigilancia a la señalización (XVI-XIX)

During the 16th century an ambitious political programme for building towers and forts bordering the Spanish Empire’s littoral, to protect it, is materialised. This sighting network over the sea horizon had the essential mission of detecting the presence of vessels that supposed a threat. The network was organised through the strategic arrangement of watchtowers taking profit of the geographical features in the topography so that they could communicate among them with a system of visual signs. The virtual union of the stated settlements defined the fortified maritime borderline. At the same time, this network of sentinels was reinforced (in certain settlements) by the construction of fortifications that acted like centres of data reception and supplied the necessary personnel for detection and transmission. So, this mesh was established by observation points (watchtowers) and information and defense centres (fortifications) to make the news arrive to the decision centres. The present communication aims to demonstrate this military strategy providing the inventory of all defensive architectures that marked this limit between the Segura river mouth until the Huertas cape and that these are spotted from the ‘Flat’ island (later Nueva Tabarca). A riverside geography of approxi-mately 30 km long where 3 fortifications and 7 towers of diverse typologies successively took place. Among the most relevant documents of this research, we could mention the plans of the fortifycations in Guardamar and Santa Pola from the 16th century (drawn in the 18th). For this research, drawings of towers made by the Ministry of Public Works at the end of the 19th century are also important; these documents show the new military tactics, neither for attack neither for defense. At most, they replaced for maritime lighthouses for signage and help for navigation while the others towers were abandoned.

Muro Mediterráneo: búnkeres y baterías para la defensa del litoral (1936-1939)

The Mediterranean wall, which is a collection of defensive constructions along the coast, was built during the Spanish War (1936-39) to prevent enemy attacks. It´s called this way like the Atlantic Wall, which was built after the Second World War. These group of buildings consist of batteries, bunkers and barracks placed along the coastline, sometimes next to another kind of infrastructure. Its location (typical of a military strategy) and its peculiar morphology are like another ones: the historical watchtowers ones. They were built by the Kingdom of Spain in the same geography four centuries earlier although, in our case, the buildings are updated to the conditions of contemporary wars: camouflage against air raids. A collection of anti-aircraft devices, placed along the coast since the late 1937, were risen following the instructions of the Valencian State to defend both citizens and cities from the aviation´s bombings. The following military settlements, organized from North to South, are part of the most relevant ones of the coast of Alicante: the Denia and Javea ones, the North of Alicante and Southwest of Alicante ones, the Portichol one, the Galvany´s Clot one and, finally, the Cape and Bay of Santa Pola ones. Remains of more than 60 architectural elements, that document the first concrete´s ruins, are still there. This paper tries to document all of them (providing their location, their morphological genealogy and including some drawings of the current state) to contribute to their revaluation and to help to their necessary protection. They are a legacy of architectural heritage which consolidates and increases the memory of our culture.

Le cas des marmites modelées e type M4.1. Nouvelles données archéologiques et archéometriques

Póster presentado en XI Congrès AIECM3 sur la céramique médiévale et moderne en Méditerranée, Antalya, Turquía, 19-23 octubre 2015

An ethnopharmacological and historical analysis of “Dictamnus”, a European traditional herbal medicine

Ethnopharmacological relevance and background: “Dictamnus” was a popular name for a group of medicinal herbaceous plant species of the Rutaceae and Lamiaceae, which since the 4th century have been used for gynaecological problems and other illnesses BCE and still appear in numerous ethnobotanical records. Aims: This research has as four overarching aims: Determining the historical evolution of medical preparations labelled “Dictamnus” and the different factors affecting this long-standing herbal tradition. Deciphering and differentiating those medicinal uses of “Dictamnus” which strictly correspond to Dictamnus (Rutaceae), from those of Origanum dictamnus and other Lamiaceae species. Quantitatively assessing the dependence from herbal books, and pharmaceutical tradition, of modern Dictamnus ethnobotanical records. Determining whether differences between Western and Eastern Europe exist with regards to the Dictamnus albus uses in ethnopharmacology and ethnomedicine. Methods: An exhaustive review of herbals, classical pharmacopoeias, ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological literature was conducted. Systematic analysis of uses reported which were standardized according to International Classification of Diseases – 10 and multivariate analysis using factorial, hierarchical and neighbour joining methods was undertaken. Results and discussion: The popular concept “Dictamnus” includes Origanum dictamnus L., Ballota pseudodictamnus (L.) Benth. and B. acetabulosa (L.) Benth. (Lamiaceae), as well as Dictamnus albus L. and D. hispanicus Webb ex Willk. (Rutaceae), with 86 different types of uses. Between 1000 and 1700 CE numerous complex preparations with “Dictamnus” were used in the treatment of 35 different pathologies. On biogeographical grounds the widespread D. albus is a far more likely prototypical “Dictamnus” than the Cretan endemic Origanum dictamnus. However both form integral parts of the “Dictamnus” complex. Evidence exists for a sufficiently long and coherent tradition for D. albus and D. hispanicus, use to treat 47 different categories of diseases. Conclusions: This approach is a model for understanding the cultural history of plants and their role as resources for health care. “Dictamnus” shows how transmission of traditional knowledge about materia medica, over 26 centuries, represents remarkable levels of development and innovation. All this lead us to call attention to D. albus and D. hispanicus which are highly promising as potential herbal drug leads. The next steps of research should be to systematically analyse phytochemical, pharmacological and clinical evidence and to develop safety, pharmacology and toxicology profiles of the traditional preparations.

Implementation of non-local boundary layer schemes in the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System and its impact on simulated mesoscale circulations

This paper proposes the implementation of different non-local Planetary Boundary Layer schemes within the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) model. The two selected PBL parameterizations are the Medium-Range Forecast (MRF) PBL and its updated version, known as the Yonsei University (YSU) PBL. YSU is a first-order scheme that uses non-local eddy diffusivity coefficients to compute turbulent fluxes. It is based on the MRF, and improves it with an explicit treatment of the entrainment. With the aim of evaluating the RAMS results for these PBL parameterizations, a series of numerical simulations have been performed and contrasted with the results obtained using the Mellor and Yamada (MY) scheme, also widely used, and the standard PBL scheme in the RAMS model. The numerical study carried out here is focused on mesoscale circulation events during the summer, as these meteorological situations dominate this season of the year in the Western Mediterranean coast. In addition, the sensitivity of these PBL parameterizations to the initial soil moisture content is also evaluated. The results show a warmer and moister PBL for the YSU scheme compared to both MRF and MY. The model presents as well a tendency to overestimate the observed temperature and to underestimate the observed humidity, considering all PBL schemes and a low initial soil moisture content. In addition, the bias between the model and the observations is significantly reduced moistening the initial soil moisture of the corresponding run. Thus, varying this parameter has a positive effect and improves the simulated results in relation to the observations. However, there is still a significant overestimation of the wind speed over flatter terrain, independently of the PBL scheme and the initial soil moisture used, even though a different degree of accuracy is reproduced by RAMS taking into account the different sensitivity tests.

Vertical crustal motion along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coast derived from ocean altimetry and tide gauge data

Tide gauge (TG) data along the northern Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts are compared to the sea-surface height (SSH) anomaly obtained from ocean altimetry (TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1/2) for a period of nine years (1993–2001). The TG measures the SSH relative to the ground whereas the altimetry does so with respect to the geocentric reference frame; therefore their difference would be in principle a vertical ground motion of the TG sites, though there are different error sources for this estimate as is discussed in the paper. In this study we estimate such vertical ground motion, for each TG site, from the slope of the SSH time series of the (non-seasonal) difference between the TG record and the altimetry measurement at a point closest to the TG. Where possible, these estimates are further compared with those derived from nearby continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) data series. These results on vertical ground motion along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts provide useful source data for studying, contrasting, and constraining tectonic models of the region. For example, in the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and in the western coast of Greece, a general subsidence is observed which may be related to the Adriatic lithosphere subducting beneath the Eurasian plate along the Dinarides fault.

Evolution of the last koninckinids (Athyridida, Koninckinidae), a precursor signal of the early Toarcian mass extinction event in the Western Tethys

Koninckinids are a suitable group to shed light on the biotic crisis suffered by brachiopod fauna in the Early Jurassic. Koninckinid fauna recorded in the late Pliensbachian–early Toarcian from the easternmost Subbetic basin is analyzed and identified as a precursor signal for one of the most conspicuous mass extinction events of the Phylum Brachiopoda, a multi-phased interval with episodes of changing environmental conditions, whose onset can be detected from the Elisa–Mirabile subzones up to the early Toarcian extinction boundary in the lowermost Serpentinum Zone (T-OAE). The koninckinid fauna had a previously well-established migration pattern from the intra-Tethyan to the NW-European basins but a first phase with a progressive warming episode in the Pliensbachian–Toarcian transition triggered a koninckinid fauna exodus from the eastern/central Tethys toward the westernmost Mediterranean margins. A second stage shows an adaptive response to more adverse conditions in the westernmost Tethyan margins and finally, an escape and extinction phase is detected in the Atlantic areas from the mid-Polymorphum Zone onwards up to their global extinction in the lowermost Serpentinum Zone. This migration pattern is independent of the paleogeographic bioprovinciality and is unrelated to a facies-controlled pattern. The anoxic/suboxic environmental conditions should only be considered as a minor factor of partial control since well-oxygenated habitats are noted in the intra-Tethyan basins and this factor is noticeable only in the second westward migratory stage (with dwarf taxa and oligotypical assemblages). The analysis of cold-seep proxies in the Subbetic deposits suggests a radiation that is independent of methane releases in the Subbetic basin.