Archaeological remains from the siege of Madinat Basta (Baza, Spain), by the catholic monarchs in 1489

The Catholic Monarchs (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) besieged the cities of the last Islamic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula during the War of Granada (1482-1492), until surrender the capital of the Nasrid dynasty, Madinat Garnata and Madina Alhambra. The military campaigns were strategically programmed. A series of cities was chosen so that their fall would cause the surrender of a part of the territory, due to a domino effect. The capture of Madinat Basta (Baza), to the extreme North of the Nasrid kingdom, was seen as an easy target by the strategists of the Catholic Monarchs. However, the battle-hardened defence of the population and the special configuration and territorial layout of the city resulted in one of the hardest sieges of the campaign, lasting from mid-June to the beginning of December, 1489. To achieve this goal they adopted a strategy that Scipio Africanus the Younger had already developed in 133 B.C., when he surrounded the Celtiberian city of Numantia. Around Baza there are archaeological remains of different structures that can be linked to this conflict. In this communication we have analysed the fortification works that could have been built during the Christian siege of 1489, on the basis of the archaeological evidence and the historical written sources.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Effective Labor Regulation and Microeconomic Flexibility

Microeconomic flexibility, by facilitating the process of creative-destruction, is at the core of economic growth in modern market economies. The main reason for why this process is not infinitely fast is the presence of adjustment costs, some of them technological, others institutional. Chief among the latter is labor market regulation. While few economists would object to such a view, its empirical support is rather weak. In this paper we revisit this hypothesis and find strong evidence for it. We use a new sectoral panel for 60 countries and a methodology suitable for such a panel. We find that job security regulation clearly hampers the creative-destruction process, especially in countries where regulations are likely to be enforced. Moving from the 20th to the 80th percentile in job security, in countries with strong rule of law, cuts the annual speed of adjustment to shocks by a third while shaving off about one percent from annual productivity growth. The same movement has negligible effects in countries with weak rule of law.Microeconomic rigidities, creative-destruction, job security regulation, adjustment costs, rule of law, productivity growth

Microeconomic Flexibility in Latin America

We characterize the degree of microeconomic inflexibility in several Latin American economies and find that Brazil, Chile and Colombia are more flexible than Mexico and Venezuela. The difference in flexibility among these economies is mainly explained by the behavior of large establishments, which adjust more promptly in the more flexible economies, especially when accumulated shocks are substantial. We also study the path of flexibility in Chile and show that it declined in the aftermath of the Asian crisis. This decline can account for a substantial fraction of the large decline in TFP-growth in Chile since 1997 (from 3.1 percent per year for the preceding decade, to about 0.3 percent after that). Moreover, if it were to persist, it could permanently shave off almost half of a percent from Chile's structural rate of growth.Microeconomic rigidities, creative-destruction, job flows, restructuring and reallocation, productivity growth

Effective Labor Regulation and Microeconomic Flexibility

Microeconomic flexibility, by facilitating the process of creative-destruction, is at the core of economic growth in modern market economies. The main reason for why this process is not infinitely fast, is the presence of adjustment costs, some of them technological, other institutional. Chief among the latter is labor market regulation. While few economists would object to such a view, its empirical support is rather weak. In this paper we revisit this hypothesis and find strong evidence for it. We use a new sectoral panel for 60 countries and a methodology suitable for such a panel. We find that job security regulation clearly hampers the creative-destruction process, especially in countries where regulations are likely to be enforced. Moving from the 20th to the 80th percentile in job security, in countries with strong rule of law, cuts the annual speed of adjustment to shocks by a third while shaving off about one percent from annual productivity growth. The same movement has negligible effects in countries with weak rule of law.

El conjunto arqueológico de Saqsaywaman (Cusco): una aproximación a su arquitectura

Saqsaywaman is the most extensive archaeological complex of the ancient imperial capital of Cuzco. Despite the excavations carried out in the last 70 years, it lacks even an architectural and functional interpretation that claimed its extraordinary importance in the context of Inca architecture. This paper presents an architectural study of the sector of Muyukmarca as a result of the training seminar on «Archaeology of architecture» held in Cusco between the years 2010 and 2011. The examination of material remains and of information gathered by colonial chroniclers indicates that the most important spaces had religious functions, agreeing on the idea that Saqaywaman was the great Sun House of Hanan Qusqu, built as a counterpoint to Coricancha in the unitary design of the city decided by the great Pachacuti.Saqsaywaman es el conjunto arqueológico más extenso que se ha conservado de la antigua capital imperial del Cusco. A pesar de las grandes excavaciones realizadas en los últimos 70 años, carecemos aún de interpretaciones arquitectónicas y funcionales que reivindiquen su extraordinaria importancia en el contexto de la arquitectura inca. Presentamos en estas páginas el estudio arquitectónico del sector de Muyukmarca como resultado del seminario didáctico sobre «Arqueología de la Arquitectura» realizado en el Cusco entre los años 2010 y 2011. El examen de los restos y las noticias recogidas por los cronistas coloniales permiten afirmar que Saqsaywaman era la gran Casa del Sol de Hanan Qusqu, construida como contrapunto del Coricancha en el diseño unitario de la ciudad decidido por el gran Pachacuti

10^{10}Be in the Cluster Shell Model

The Cluster Shell Model (CSM)describes light nuclei in terms of $k-\alpha$ particles and $x$ extra nucleons, in which the extra nucleon move in the deformed field generated by the geometric configuration of $\alpha$-particles. We present the first study for the case $x=2$ nucleons in application to $^{10}Be$ as a cluster of two $\alpha$-particles and two neutrons.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, to be published in Journal of Physics Conference Serie