Quem chegar por último é mulher do padre: as Cartas de Perdão de concubinas de padres na baixa Idade Média portuguesa Last one there's the priest's wife: the Letters of Pardon to priests concubines in lower portuguese Middle Ages

Na sociedade medieval portuguesa, a prática do concubinato clerical representou uma ameaça ao celibato e ao casamento religioso, instituições fundamentais para o projeto de ordenamento social defendido pela Igreja e pela monarquia. Nos séculos XIV e XV, as leis civis definiram o concubinato clerical como um crime. No entanto, havia a possibilidade de absolvição ou diminuição da pena por meio das Cartas de Perdão, importante instrumento jurídico para compreender as representações de gênero que mediaram o olhar da justiça, forjando a imagem das concubinas como pecadoras e criminosas.<br>In the medieval Portuguese society, the practice of clerical concubinage represented a threat to celibacy and religious marriages. These were fundamental institutions to the social ordination project defended by the Church and the monarchy. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the civil laws defined clerical concubinage as crime. However, there was the possibility of acquittal or sentence reduction by means of Letters of Pardon, an important legal tool to understand the gender representations that have mediated the eye of justice, forging the image of concubines as sinners and criminals

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved