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The Morgado Superior Rock Shelter is located near the city of Tomar, in Central Portugal. This site presents important funerary contexts that according to published information encompass the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Other non-funerary uses have not yet been characterised but were briefly suggested. A faunal sample of the 1988 and 2012 interventions is analysed from a zooarchaeological and taphonomical perspective, focusing on the leporid remains that largely dominate the assemblage. Clear indicators of a human origin are absent, while a configurational approach allows the description of exogenous and intrusive origins. The characteristics of the registered consumption taphonomical indicators are suggestive of scat and non-ingested accumulation by foxes. Furthermore, this study allows us to discuss some aspects of the formation of the stratigraphy of this important cave necropolis, while also serving as an example of the expected results of foxes' action on leporid remains in an archaeological site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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For the past 15 years, a succession of stable isotope studies have documented the abrupt dietary transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Western and Northern Europe. Portugal, with its Late Mesolithic shell middens and burials apparently coexisting with the earliest Neolithic, further illustrates the nature of that transition. Individuals from Neolithic contexts there had significantly different diets to their Mesolithic counterparts. No evidence was found for a transitional phase between the marine-oriented Mesolithic subsistence regimes and the domesticated, terrestrial Neolithic diet. Two later Neolithic individuals, however, showed evidence for partial reliance on marine or aquatic foods. This raises questions about the possible persistence of marine dietary regimes beyond the Mesolithic period. This article is followed by a brief note by Mary Jackes and David Lubell. Keywords: Portugal, Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, stable isotope analysis, carbon, nitrogen, diet, Introduction The move from hunting and gathering to food production through farming and animal husbandry represents one of the most profound cultural shifts in human prehistory. Based on the premise [...]

Copyright of Revista Jurídica (0103-3506) is the property of Revista Juridica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The thesis of W. Benjamin on the concept of History echoes as almost an anti-postmodernism manifesto: the approach to the past is structured through images, not narratives. Indeed, in the tension between history (the universal past rooted in agreed replicable methodologies for a human archetype) and memory (the ego or sociocentric past rooted in individual experiences), egos design narratives and try to fit evidence into them, whereas the historical past is constantly reconstructed through zooming in details that generate new images. The image in history, as the mental image in individuals, is not a layer of arrival, nor even a point of departure, but a vehicle of transformation of how space is perceived (as Kant argued) or constructed (following Bachelard), the phenomenological process of performing tasks in space being the driver of such construction (as argued by Ingold). The design of history through images is, in this sense, the process of social construction of cultural landscapes, i.e., of the poetics of space. This is a process that encompasses four mechanisms of change: identification (based on senses and, primarily, on touch and sound), adaptation (the Kantian perception of the space as the scenario of human aptitude), transformation (the poetics of the making, creating new landscapes by changing their core images) and method (namely the dialectics of tangible and intangible dimensions). The tension between image and narrative is, ultimately, the root of the tension between ego/socio-centered memories and the anthropic-rational history. In such a process, history builds from memories, by overcoming their narratives and preserving basic units of information that may be recombined, to create novel images of the past, but also of the present and the future. In such a process, history considers memory oblivion and an indicator of reliability or not of those memories. In this paper we discuss how material culture is the backbone of mental images and why it has a much more plastic and transformative nature than intangible narratives, which are expressions of the consolidation (and conservation) of understandings. The keyword in such a memory process is oblivion: images allow us to forget fossil narratives and to move into new utopias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mesolithic faunal assemblage from Cueva de Los Postes (Badajoz, Spain) is presented and discussed. The faunal remains from different stratigraphic units spatially associated with the Mesolithic funerary use of the cave or preceded them were analyzed. The zooarchaeological record is dominated by leporids, generally rabbit but also hare, scarce mustelids, and undetermined birds. Results indicate that these animals are not associated with the human use of the cave. The relevance of carnivore damage points to an exogenous origin for leporid accumulation. It is inferred that this mixed deposit of scats and non‐ingested remains results from foxes' activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Arqueologia is the property of Revista de Arqueologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Arqueologia is the property of Revista de Arqueologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Arqueologia Pública is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Ndalambiri rock shelter in the Ebo region of Angola is a key site for assessing human occupation there given its potential association between stratigraphic contexts and rock art panels. Focusing on the Iron Age and European contact periods, this study characterised the site’s rock paintings using Raman spectroscopy, while also obtaining AMS radiocarbon dates from paint residues and charcoal collected in stratigraphic context during a trial excavation below one of the painted panels. Raman spectroscopy results revealed the use of a carbon-based pigment (charcoal?), haematite and calcite to prepare black, red and white paints respectively. AMS dating of a black paint sample showed that it was produced between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries, corresponding to the last known phase of rock art production in the area, as further indicated by its stratigraphic position and the depiction of firearms at the site. Earlier occupation of the site associated with metallurgical activity was dated to the mid-first millennium AD and may suggest that the oldest rock art at Ndalambiri corresponds to the arrival of metal-using populations in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the relevance of the Olduvai complex and of the remarkable research undertaken for decades, the picture that one gets from the current site museum display is that of the incomplete and fragmented representation of Olduvai Gorge cultural landscape. Noticeable, there are aspects and themes of presentation and interpretation at the site museum which have remained largely unchanged despite the ever changing and dynamic cultural landscape and knowledge resulting from research. This paper raises issues of comprehensive integrated presentation of all themes represented in the territory framed in the broader perspective of heritage management within integrated landscape management framework. The paper opined that 21st century museums (OG site museum) need to take into consideration the presentation of all territorial themes that incorporate tangible and intangible heritage visible or not on the cultural landscape. In the end the paper recommends rethinking presentation by modelling integrated preservation and presentation strategies that ensure the message of the past and present are interpreted and presented effectively to the indigenous communities as well as the visitors for sustainable heritage management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage education, although still often set aside, has assumed an increasing role in current mindsets, regardless of the different realities in terms of geography and socio-cultural frame. The Andakatu Project based at the Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação (Portugal) is aimed at wide audience and presents a programme, activities and contents arising from multiple archaeological research programmes conducted at the Museum and its partners (namely universities and research centres). Archaeology, being the starting point, is intertwined with various scientific and artistic aspects in order to encourage questioning, learning and citizenship through a communication based on interactive experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building from an interpretation of the theoretical constraints of prior Archaeological research in Angola, some methodological suggestions are made, related to the national inventory of Archaeological sites and the needs of training for such a purpose and for research in general, within a time horizon of two to five years. The relations of archaeology with current territorial dynamics are discussed, as well as a new paradigm in the relation among research, culture and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although archaeological tourism celebrates the cultural richness of a country or a region’s history, a question rises – how can one design and communicate an archaeological brand with success for rural areas? Our ongoing project called TURARQ is trying to answer this question. This project seeks to address an observed gap in the literature – how archaeotourism can or should be communicated to the public, potential tourists, investors, and politicians. In this study, one has relied on existing secondary data on archaeotourism brands. This data was retrieved from peer reviewed articles consulted through a search in Scopus and Web of Science, due to the lack of papers covering this subject and in a way to complement our findings a search in Google Scholar was also made. One proposes a rethinking of the way in which archaeotouristic brands are built in rural areas through a model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary on the paper by Dr. Zilhão on the preservation of the archaeological complex of the Côa valley, Portugal in 1995. Important figures of visitors, which have been above 20,000 per year, are presented. The author says nothing major happened in the valley after the year 2000, but visitors dropped by 4000 in 2001. Dr. Zilhão considered the carvings as not important, giving an image of the criteria archaeologists have on the issue of conservation of past remains. The author says figures should not be questioned and one should suggest explanations if they show that the steady growth pointed in the paper was broken in 2001.

Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500-3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000-2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200-1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neolithic. During the subsequent periods, we detect regional continuity of Early Neolithic lineages across Iberia, however the genetic contribution of hunter-gatherers is generally higher than in other parts of Europe and varies regionally. In contrast to ancient DNA findings from Central Europe, we do not observe a major turnover in the mtDNA record of the Iberian Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, suggesting that the population history of the Iberian Peninsula is distinct in character.