The swastika as representation of the Sun of Helios and Mithras

At the 20th International Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Cul- ture, held in Slovenia in 2012, Reza Assasi (2013) presented the paper ‘Swastika: The For- gotten Constellation Representing the Chariot of Mithras’, in which he identified Mithras and his quadriga with the constellation Draco, centre of the zodiac in the map of the stars. Thus he proposed a new interpretation that contradicted that accepted by researchers of the Mithraic religion who associate Mithras with the sun. This article aims to show that, contrary to this new interpretation, Mithras should still be identified with the solar deity. Mithraic iconography and liturgy is analysed in the present work, paying special attention to the relationship between the two solar deities Helios and Mithras. The context in which the swastika is depicted is analysed, demon- strating that it never represented a constellation but instead represented the sun. We fol- low the theory of David Ulansey (1994), which asserts that Mithras should be identified with the “hypercosmic sun”, the sphere of fire which Greek philosophers located beyond the starry heavens

La prospección bibliográfica I: Una moneda de arekorata procedente de Torrellas en la obra de Lastanosa

La prospección bibliográfica consiste en localizar datos inéditos o erróneamente identificados en libros. Francisco Jiménez de Urrea señala en la obra de Lastanosa Museo de las Medallas Desconocidas Españolas la aparición en Torrellas (Zaragoza) de una moneda con un gallo y un delfín, que hasta el presente no ha sido identificada. Estos motivos sólo pueden corresponder a un divisor de la ceca de arekorata, actualmente identificada con la localidad de Muro (Soria), cercana al lugar del hallazgo.------- Bibliographic prospection entails localizing inedited data or erroneous identifications in publications. Francisco Jiménez de Urrea notices in Lastanosa’s Museo de las Medallas Desconocidas Españolas the finding in Torrellas (Saragossa, Spain) of a coin with a cock and a dolphin, which has not been yet identified. This iconography can only belong to any divisor of arekorata mint, nowadays associated with the town of Muro (Soria, Spain), which is located near the finding place

Geoarchaeology and castlescapes: heritage management case studies in Spain and the eastern Baltic

This paper promotes the application of geoarchaeology—joint studies using historical, archaeological and heritage approaches—to the conservation and management practice of castles and landscapes in the context of ‘castlescapes’. Using case studies from recent research on medieval castles in frontier regions of the eastern Baltic and Spain, it demonstrates how geoarchaeology can create synergies between on-site and off-site environments and between cultural and natural heritage and draw valuable information from soils and sediments about the changing form and function of spaces within castles, and about the links between these spaces and activities in their hinterlands. Geoarchaeological approaches can also illuminate the diachronic biographies that hide from visitors in the buried archaeology of castles, which to most visitors would be blank cavasses, but which can provide snap-shots of castle life in the context of a wider landscape. Castles are commonly publicly recognised as being important historical monuments, but from a heritage perspective they are often presented in isolation from their associated historical territories, and often (especially in frontier regions) appropriated within modern politics, which has influenced both heritage management decisions and research frameworks

La prospección bibliográfica I: Una moneda de arekorata procedente de Torrellas en la obra de Lastanosa

La prospección bibliográfica consiste en localizar datos inéditos o erróneamente identificados en libros. Francisco Jiménez de Urrea señala en la obra de Lastanosa Museo de las Medallas Desconocidas Españolas la aparición en Torrellas (Zaragoza) de una moneda con un gallo y un delfín, que hasta el presente no ha sido identificada. Estos motivos sólo pueden corresponder a un divisor de la ceca de arekorata, actualmente identificada con la localidad de Muro (Soria), cercana al lugar del hallazgo.------- Bibliographic prospection entails localizing inedited data or erroneous identifications in publications. Francisco Jiménez de Urrea notices in Lastanosa’s Museo de las Medallas Desconocidas Españolas the finding in Torrellas (Saragossa, Spain) of a coin with a cock and a dolphin, which has not been yet identified. This iconography can only belong to any divisor of arekorata mint, nowadays associated with the town of Muro (Soria, Spain), which is located near the finding place

“Segeda Project”: the I.T. management of the territory of a Celtiberian city-state

This article defends the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the management, analysis, examination and modelling of the archaeological data concerning the territory. Within this context, we outline some types of analyses that are being carried out with the use of GIS applied to the case of Segeda. Drawing on these and other experiments, we conclude that GIS technologies and their well-established capacity for the integration, analysis and examination of information from different sources constitute a particularly effective tool for the modelling of complex realities such as the one we are concerned with in our project