Mercè Roca Roumens (21 d'abril de 1947 - 30 de desembre de 2014)

Mercè Roca ens va deixar a les acaballes de l'any 2014. Dissortadament, la mort ens l'arrabassà just quan millor estava, il·lusionada amb tot el que feia, vital com si acabés d'arribar per primera vegada a la universitat. 'Quamuis saeua mors properans rapuerit tuam uitam, Mercè, illustris et cara magistra, memoriam tuam amici, collegae et alumni perpetuo servabunt

Pere de Palol

Con la desaparición del profesor Pere de Palol i Salellas, se cierra una etapa de producción científica que historiográficamente marca el nacimiento en la Península Ibérica de una nueva disciplina: la arqueología cristiana, y de su mano, la de la antigüedad tardía. Que estas líneas sirvan de recuerdo a la obra del maestro que fue el Dr. Palol..

Les transformacions en els assentaments i en el territori durant l'antiguitat tardana

[spa] En el artículo se reflexiona sobre la dinámica que caracteriza el territorio al final de la antigüedad una vez desaparecida la villa como modelo de ocupación y explotación del territorio. Es la época en que, por una parte, las villas que sobreviven se transforman y se destinan a nuevos usos de carácter, básicamente productivos, mientras que otras ya abandonadas son reocupadas de nuevo con la misma finalidad. Al mismo tiempo, aparece una nueva forma de hábitat agrupado que tiene en cada caso una entidad diferente y una función específica. El desarrollo de este nuevo urbanismo implica, en ciertos casos, la construcción de murallas o de iglesias. Las técnicas constructivas tradicionales romanas, que utilizan el mortero de cal, prácticamente desaparecerán. Solamente los depósitos destinados a almacenar productos como el vino y el aceite son aun estructuras de buena calidad y que juntamente con los vestigios de prensas testimonian la continuidad de la producción agraria. Los silos, como nuevo sistema de almacenaje, abundan en todas partes. Las iglesias rurales serán las únicas estructuras arquitectónicas que se podrán distinguir en el paisaje y las únicas en las que se apreciará la continuidad de las técnicas constructivas romanas. En este contexto, solamente a través de buenos registros arqueológicos y con trabajos arqueométricos sistemáticos aplicados a la cerámica, podremos conocer y explicar un nuevo mundo protomedieval del que por ahora se nos escapan muchas cosas.[fra] On présente une réflexion sur la dynamique qui prend le territoire à la fin de l'Antiquité, une fois la villa a disparue comme modèle d'occupation et d'exploitation du territoire. C'est l'époque où, d'un côté, les villae qui survivent ce sont transformées pour être destinées à des nouveaux usages qui ont un caractère essentielment agricole, tandis que la reste, déjà absolument abandonnées, sont occupées de nouveau avec la même finalité. Au même temps, apparaît une nouvelle forme d'habitat groupé qui a dans chaque cas une entité différente et une fonction spécifique. Le développement de ce nouvel urbanisme implique, dans certains cas, la construction des remparts et des églises. Les techniques constructives traditionnelles romaines, qui utilisent le mortier à chaux comme élément fondamental, sont presque disparues. Seulement les réservoirs destinés à contenir des produits comme le vin et l'huile ont encore des structures d'une certaine bonne qualité. Justement, ce sont ces réservoirs et des vestiges correspondants à des pressoirs qui nous sont arrivées, lesquels témoignent la continuité de la production agricole. À nouveau, les silos apparaissent partout comme le système le plus utilisé pour stocker. Les églises ruraux seront les seules structures architecturales qu'on poudra distinguer dans le paysage et les seules dans lesquelles on peut y trouver la permanence des techniques constructives romaines. Dans ce contexte, c'est seulement avec l'obtention de bons enregistrements stratigraphiques et avec des travails archéométriques systématiques sur la céramique, qu'ont pourra connaître et expliquer un nouveau monde protomedieval sur lequel, pour le moment, on nous échappent beaucoup des choses

A multi-scalar photogrammetric recording approach in Termez (Uzbekistan)

This paper presents the preliminary results obtained during the 3D recording campaign carried out in 2018 by the Spanish-Uzbek IPAEB mission in the archaeological site of Termez (southern border of Uzbekistan). Ancient Termez is an important historical city within the Silk Road located in the ancient Bactria region. The archaeological work performed at the site since the beginning of the 20th century allowed a large fortified urban complex to be identified that includes other walled enclosures inside it, i.e., a Hellenistic-Seleucid fortress founded after the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, several Buddhist monastic complexes dated to the Kushan period (1st to mid-3rd centuries), and a large urban settlement dated to the Islamic period which includes the city proper or shahristan and the suburbs or rabad. After the destruction by Genghis Khan in 1220, Termez was rebuilt following a different plan. Major changes involved the movement of the pottery workshops from the rabad to the previous shahristan. The research focuses on: a) the identification, study and archaeological contextualization of ceramic production centres located in different areas of the ancient Termez from the Kushan to the Islamic period (1st to 14th centuries AD); b) the integration of the pottery workshops into the general topography of the site and c) the study of their evolution in relation to the transformation of the urban design. Since the site is currently located in a military area - close to the border area between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan -, the archaeological work is restricted to specific zones and the use of aerial devices such as drones is forbidden. However, this research requires both micro and macro spatial approaches to accurately record all the archaeological structures and to evaluate the integration and evolution of the pottery workshops into the general topography of the city. In order to fill this gap, declassified images of the CORONA satellite program were analyzed and compared to historical and archaeological data. In addition, we propose a geometrical and graphical recording and distribution system of the kilns -located in the rabad and the shahristan -and the ceramics produced and used in Termez during the period studied by means of photogrammetric techniques. The results are aimed at management through open-source 3D formats and web mapping GIS libraries combined with historical satellite information that defines the different archaeological areas

Adaptive Dynamics of Settlement Models in the Urban Landscape of Termez (Uzbekistan) from c. 300 BCE to c. 1400 CE

The archaeological site of Ancient Termez is located in southern Uzbekistan. Despite the arid environment, the city benefited from its strategic position near two rivers, the Amu Darya and the Surkhan Darya. Its significance was mainly related to the expansion of trade routes connecting Eurasia. The city comprises several enclosures that attest long-term human-environment interactions. In order to identify the adaptive dynamics of the settlement models during an extended chronology covering the period from c. 300 BCE to c. 1220 CE (Greco-Bactrian/Yuezhi, Kushan, Kushano-Sasanian, and Islamic periods), a multidisciplinary study has been carried out, which includes: (1) archaeological excavations in several areas of the urban complex; (2) pedestrian surveying inside some enclosures and in the urban periphery; (3) an aerial survey based on high-resolution satellite imagery; (4) AMS dating of charcoal and bone samples; (5) archaeobotanical investigation through anthracological analysis; (6) zooarchaeological studies. The results point to variations in the development of the inhabited spaces, in which abandonment and occupation took place. The zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data demonstrate the exploitation of natural resources in different environments (i.e., arid areas and irrigated land) and a certain evolution during the period considered

Land Use Patterns in Central Asia. Step 1: The Musical Chairs Model

Herding and farming coexisted in Central Asia for several thousand years as main options of preindustrial economic production. The relationship between people practicing different variants of these modes of subsistence is known to have been dynamic. Among the many possible explanations, we explore this dynamic by modeling mechanisms that connect aggregate decisions to land use patterns. Within the framework of the SimulPast project, we show here the results from step 1 of our modeling program: the Musical Chairs Model. This abstract agent-based model describes a mechanism of competition for land use between farming and herding. The aim is the exploration of how mobility, intensity, and interdependence of activities can influence land use pattern. After performing a set of experiments within the framework of this model, we compare the implications of each condition for the corroboration of specific land use patterns. Some historical and archaeological implications are also discussed. We suggest that the overall extension of farming in oases can be explained by the competition for land use between farming and herding, assuming that it develops with little or no interference of climatic, geographical, and historical contingencies

Rapid Intensity Decrease During the Second Half of the First Millennium BCE in Central Asia and Global Implications

Recent paleomagnetic studies have shown that important short-lived intensity fluctuations occurred during the first millennium BCE. However, the knowledge of the spatial and temporal extension of these features is still limited by the scarce availability of robust data. In this study we focus on the study of the intensity decrease that took place in Central Asia during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE after the high intensities that characterized the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly. Since previous archeointensities available for this period and region were obtained without accomplishing modern standards of quality, we present here new archeointensities that are derived from classical Thellier and Thellier experiments, including partial thermoremanent magnetization (pTRM) checks, thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) anisotropy and cooling rate corrections at the specimen level. The new 51 archeointensities, together with previous archeointensities, have been used to present a new local paleosecular variation curve for Central Asia. The results confirm the existence of an important geomagnetic field intensity decrease in South Uzbekistan from the 4th century BCE to the end of the 1st century BCE associated with rates of changes up to −15 μT/century. A critical analysis of the archeointensity global database indicates that this feature was present at continental scale, from Western Europe to Central Asia. However, this trend is not identified in other regions such as Japan or Mexico. Finally, the comparison with the dipole moment derived from recent global geomagnetic field reconstructions suggests a strong influence of non-dipolar sources upon this continental intensity feature

Equip de Recerca Arqueològica i Arqueomètrica de la Universitat de Barcelona (ERAAUB) (1992-2015)

En el marco conmemorativo de los 50 años de la revista Pyrenae, el equipo editorial ha considerado oportuno dedicar este volumen a sintetizar la investigación del Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología de la Universitat de Barcelona. Para ello se ha solicitado a cada uno de los grupos de investigación que lo conforman una síntesis de su labor investigadora. A los actos conmemorativos de la revista Pyrenae, cabe añadir otra efeméride importante como es el centenario de la lección inaugural de Pere Bosch Gimpera en la Universitat de Barcelona que se celebrará en 2016. Resulta paradójico, sin embargo, que en un momento con motivos para celebraciones, la sensación sea más bien de desazón. La Universitat de Barcelona se encuentra sumida en un proceso de reforma de sus estructuras que significará la desaparición del citado Departamento, y conllevará un futuro incierto para la arqueología. Los arqueólogos de esta universidad tenemos, por tanto, poco que celebrar, pero Pyrenae y su 50.º aniversario bien merecen el esfuerzo. Esta síntesis que ofrece el ERAAUB, uno de los grupos de investigación más antiguos del departamento, tiene, por consiguiente, un sabor agridulce y será necesariamente muy parcial, puesto que la larga trayectoria del grupo y el gran número de investigadores vinculados de una manera u otra al mismo obliga a dejar muchos aspectos sin tratar. En este sentido, esta contribución se centra en presentar someramente las principales áreas de investigación del grupo, así como los principales proyectos, haciendo mayor hincapié en el período 2009-2015, con referencias por supuesto a algunos proyectos y logros anteriores