Zephyrvs

Berg, R. (2023): Il Mundus Muliebris a Pompei. Specchi e oggett i da toletta in contesti domestici. Studi e Ricerche del Parco Atrcheologico di Pompei, 48. Roma-Bristol: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 564 pp.

Cruces Blázquez Cerrato — 2024-12-30

Lehmann, J. y Scheding, P. (2023): Explaining the Urban Boom. A comparison of regional city development in the Roman provinces of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Iberia Archaeologica, 22. Madrid-Wiesbaden: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut-Harras

Rosario Cebrián Fernández — 2024-12-30

Padilla Fernández, J. J. (2022). Identidades y tecnología social en la Edad del Hierro. Las cerámicas de Las Cogotas. Biblioteca Praehistorica Hispana, XXXVIII. Madrid: CSIC. 282 pp., 137 ilust., 14 tablas

Alejandra Sánchez Polo — 2024-12-30

Mederos, A.; Maier, J. y Jiménez Ávila, F. J. (2023): La necrópolis de la Cruz del Negro (Carmona, Sevilla). Los trabajos de Jorge Bonsor (1896-1911). Spal Monografías Arqueología, l. Sevilla: Univ. de Sevilla, 940 pp.

Eduardo Ferrer Albelda — 2024-12-30

Exploitation and Uses of Wood in Santa María de Abajo (Carranque, Toledo) between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (3rd to 10th centuries AD)

Mónica Ruiz-Alonso — 2024-12-30

The study of wooden remains from archaeological contexts of Roman to early medieval chronology (3rd-10th centuries AD), recovered in the excavations carried out at the Santa María de Abajo de Carranque (Toledo) site between 2007 and 2010, is presented. These anthracological evidences allow us to approach the strategies of exploitation and use of wood resources in this área, over a broad chronological period, evaluating the utilization of wood from the surrounding environment, as well as the selection of other resources not present in the immediate landscape.

Body Ornaments, Decorative Applications and Weapons from the Second Iron Age Found in the Peña del Castro (La Ercina, León)

Eduardo González Gómez de Agüero — 2024-12-30

The excavations carried out at the site of the Peña del Castro, in the northwest of the province of León, have made it possible to document an Iron Age settlement with a long occupation that ended with the Roman conquest of the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The destruction of the settlement during this conflict led to the rapid and violent sealing of the last phase of occupation, which allowed for the exceptional preservation of contexts and materials. The present work focuses on the typological study of the elements used as body adornment and clothing, as well as the weapons documented at the site, considering their spatial context. This analysis brings us closer to the social phenomena that occurred during the last phase of occupation, when there was a rupture in the socioeconomic relations between the inhabitants of the settlement. On the other hand, different aspects of the development of clothing in the Iron Age in the Cantabrian area and the importance of body aesthetics are also considered.

A Latin Metrological Alphabet Painted on a Ibero-Roman Pottery from Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alacant)

José Luis Martínez Boix — 2024-12-30

This paper presents an Ibero-Roman painted pottery fragment, featuring a latin inscription that was discovered in 1950 at the Tossal de Manises in Alicante. The analysis includes an archaeological study of the piece, a detailed description of its iconography, a reconstruction of the context in which it was found, and an epigraphic analysis of the inscribed signs. The inscription is interpreted as a metrological alphabet listing symbols for fractions of the uncia, along with their multiples and those of the as. This suggests that the inscription is not intended for practical or educational purposes but rather serves a cultic function. Additionally, the presence of a latin inscription on Iberian pottery highlights the Romanization process of the population in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, showcasing how local painted production was fully integrated into the life of the Hispanic society in the municipium of Lucentum.

Göktepe Marble Identification in the Hadrian Portrait of Los Torrejones (Yecla, Murcia) and some Considerations on the Presence of this Marble in Hispania

M.ª Pilar Lapuente Mercadal — 2024-07-23

This work characterises the high-quality white marble used in the bust of Emperor Hadrian found in the Roman villa of Los Torrejones (Yecla, Murcia). The analytical results, compared with the databases pertaining to Hispanic and Mediterranean quarry marbles, reveal its source in the quarries of Göktepe, in Muğla province, Western Turkey. The historical implications of the presence in the villa of an imperial portrait of such quality are discussed. The results also emphasise the importance of undertaking future complete archaeometric analysis of marble materials used in the sculptures of Hispania, only way to certify the provenance of the stone and, in this case, to better understand the distribution reached by the varieties of Göktepe marble in the Iberian Peninsula.

Herrera de Pisuerga, a Major Importing Center in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Evidence of the San Millán Amphorae

Cesáreo Pérez González — 2024-07-23

The variety and quantity of amphorae found at the site of San Millán reveals that it is the excavation with the highest density of this type of material documented so far in the archaeological complex Herrera de Pisuerga, Palencia province. This study shows the wealthy variety of their types –with a predominance of wine containers over those employed in transporting fish-sauces and olive-oil– as well as their origin places: Tarraconense and Baetica provinces, Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, Italic peninsula –Adriatic and Tyrrhenian coasts–, Gallia –Narbonense area– and regional productions.

Additionally, based on this information, we aim to explain the mechanisms of supplying these products to the military camp of the legio IIII Macedonica in Herrera de Pisuerga, as well as the routes followed, analysing the commercial relations and the transport features that imply Hispania Citerior Tarraconense in the final moments in the conquest of NW peninsular area and its subsequent urbanization.

Considering New Functions in Thermal Bath Buildings: The Singular Heating Water System from the Roman Spa of Termas de São Vicente (Penafiel, Portugal)

Silvia González Soutelo — 2024-12-30

The archaeological research we carried out between 2020-2023 (pipa bal-saovicente) in the Roman Spa of Termas de São Vicente, in Penafiel, Portugal, in order obtain a better understanding of this archaeological site preserved in the park of the modern spa, provided us with the opportunity to study a singular water heating system, using a piece of bronze discovered in situ at the beginning of 20th century.

In this article, we present the results of the research through the formal, analytical and functional study of this object and its archaeological context, which shed light on a new type of structure used in thermal buildings to heat and evaporate the mineral water used in these Roman mineral-medicinal bath complexes.

A New Pictorial Assemblage from a Rudera in the Southern Quarter of Baelo Claudia (Cádiz): An Example of a Mediterranean Koiné

Alicia Fernández Díaz — 2024-12-30

This paper develops the study of a pictorial set/assemblage from the fill levels of a possible tavern with artisan/commercial function, located in the southern quarter of Baelo Claudia. For the analysis of the decoration, a technical-descriptive and stylistic study of its elements has been carried out, based on the data obtained from the archaeological context and completed with an archaeometric analysis of the mortar and pigments to determine the raw material used, as well as the pictorial technique employed. The results allow us to date the decoration at the end of the 1st century ad, observing the use of a pictorial scheme of Italic origin whose use continued in the provinces from the end of the 1st century to the 3rd century ad, adapting to local tastes, as well as the use of a mixed technique of fresco and secco painting.

Ceramics with Oculate Decoration from the Middle and Lower Douro Basin

Maria Helena Lopes Barbosa — 2024-12-30

This study analyses the ceramics with oculate decoration known from the lower and middle Douro basin, focusing on their contexts of provenance and emphasising the stylistic substratum in which they are found, in order to understand their relationship with local imagery. In this way, we sought to access the assimilation processes of an allogenic motif, of peninsular circulation, at the scale of the site and taking into account its social function. It seems that the oculate motif - a symbol with a high ideological content - on ceramics 1) was reinterpreted locally, following the dominant decorative schemes; 2) first came into circulation in significant places within the sphere of the symbolic system and only later, in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, did it spread throughout the residential places, which may correspond to a change in its social status or meaning.

The Statue of Fortuna from Naples: Notes for a Reconstruction of the Neapolitan Urban Landscape in the Roman Age

Armando Cristilli — 2024-12-30

The marble statue of Fortuna from Naples, dating back to the time of the Antonines, not only enriches our understanding of the cultural heritage of Neapolitan sculpture during the Roman period, but also prompts speculation regarding its destiny. In fact, it could have been placed inside a chapel located in the decumanus inferior area of the Roman Neapolis, which corresponds to the current area of Via Mezzocannone.

Martín Esquivel, A.; Ferrandes, A. F. y Pardini, G. (eds.): Archeonumismatica. Análisis e studio del reperti monetali da contesti pluristratificati. Workshop Internazionale di Numismatica. Col. Atti, 2

Diego Barrios Rodríguez — 2024-03-14

Scalco, L. (2022): Ritratti funerari di famiglia tra Roma e le Alpi. Costruire la memoria personale nell’Italia romana. Antenor Quaderni, 53

Ana Ruiz Osuna — 2024-03-14

Istenič, J y Ragolič, A. (2023): Roman Military Decoration Torques: literary, epigraphic, representational and archaeological evidences. Catalogi et monographiae, 46

Alejandro Antolín Abad — 2024-03-14

Marín Ceballos, M.ª C.; Belén Deamós, M. y Jiménez Flores, A. M.ª (coords.) (2022): La cueva santuario de es Culleram (Ibiza). Spal Monografías Arqueología, XLVII

Carlos Gómez Bellard — 2024-03-14

Garrido, R.; Sánchez Polo, A.; Tejedor, C.; García Martínez de Lagrán, I. y Rojo, M. Á. (2021): La Edad del Bronce en el sureste de la Cuenca del Duero: el valle de Ambrona (Soria) durante el II milenio ac. Studia Archaeologica, 103

José Antonio Rodríguez Marcos — 2024-03-14

Analysis of Oil Imports from Hispania in Roman Carthage from a Study of Epigraphic Stamps on the Dressel 20 Amphorae Type

Enric Colom Mendoza — 2024-03-14

Baetican Dressel 20 amphoras occur at Carthage, but not in large quantities. Of over early 500 Roman amphoras catalogued at the Musée National de Carthage, which were conserved and published for their epigraphy, only 13 stamped Dressel 20 handles were found. Only four handles certainly come from an identifiable context, a Roman destruction level over a Punic necropolis on the summit of Bordj-Djedid, on the north side of the Roman city.

Despite of this lack of data on this important African city, the detailed analysis of this evidence will allowe us to better understanding the state of knowledge of trade relations, as well as to elucidate the role of Carthage in relation to the oil imports from Spain. Likewise, we will be able to launch some hypotheses about the possible role played by Carthage as a redistribution port of Dressel 20 amphorae to the eastern Mediterranean ports.

Collado Giraldo, H. y García Arranz, J. J. (coords.) (2022): Arte rupestre paleolítico en la Cueva de Maltravieso (Cáceres, España). Vol. I (Estudios) y Vol. II (Catálogo)

Miguel García-Bustos — 2024-03-14

The Festooned-Handled Plates in African C3 sigillata of Hayes type 51B: a unique specimen from Complutum (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid). Regarding the Trade of African Products in the Inland of Hispania

Luis Carlos Juan Tovar — 2024-03-14

The discovery of ceramic products from Mediterranean trade with North Africa in the center of Hispania during the Late Roman period has seen a significant increase in recent times due to the study of different contexts excavated in recent years. As a result of this trade, we present today an exceptional specimen of African terra sigillata plate/dish of the Hayes type 51B = Salomonson C from Phase C3, recovered in excavations conducted between 2010 and 2012 at the House of the Lamp with Teatral Mask, in Complutum Roman city, present-day Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. This domus has been dated between the 1st century ad to c. 400 ad, although it undergoes a significant transformation when several of its rooms are reused for apartments or metallurgical and handcraft production. The morphotypological study of this piece, originating from Tunisian workshops and being the first complete one found in excavation outside of Tunisia, and of the few known intact pieces of this rare form, allows us to analyze the various patterns used in its production and undertake an initial systematization of the different known ornamental models and the characteristics of the festooning on its handles. It also provides an opportunity for a brief reflection on the trade of North African ceramic products to the center of Hispania.

The Lithological Track of the Vetones ‘Verracos’. Geochemical Analysis in Zoomorphic Sculptures from the Northwestern Iberian Plateau

Isabel Sonsoles De Soto García — 2024-03-14

Archaeologically, the term verracos –Spanish for ‘boars’– is applied to Vetones’ zoomorphic sculptures typically representing bulls or pigs. The Vetones people occupied an imprecise space between the basins of the Tajo and Duero Rivers in the Iberian Peninsula from protohistory to Roman times. These animal sculptures, whose usefulness is still much discussed, usually have large dimensions, but they have been displaced from their original locations. Thus, it is necessary to study their origin in order to elucidate their use. Mineralogical analysis using polarized optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, as well as chemical analysis using inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, have made it possible to attribute certain verracos to specific production areas. They coincide with reference samples taken from different current outcrops of similar rocks, all of them of a granitic nature.

Instrumenta Textilia et Luxuria. About two Amber Distaffs Found in Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Badajoz)

Macarena Bustamante Álvarez — 2024-07-23

This paper presents two distaffs made of amber that have been found during the excavation of two funerary areas in the ancient Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania. At the beginning, an analysis of the contexts in which these finds were made is presented, as they allow us to offer a specific dating in both cases, in addition to proposing a possible hypothesis regarding the provenance of these pieces and their owners. This is followed by an exhaustive description of the pieces, accompanied by macro-photographs that help to determine their technical characteristics.

The study is completed with a detailed tracing of the parallels found in other finds in Europe. It also presents a series of reflections on the function, dispersion, use and gestures of these pieces. All of this has made it possible to extract significant data that undoubtedly open up a new line of work associated with the importation of textile instruments.

Lithic Artifacts in Ritual Contexts from the Second Iron Age in Menorca (500-123 BC): the Case of the Taula Enclosure at Sa Cudia Cremada

Antoni Ferrer Rotger — 2024-07-23

This paper presents the lithic industry located in a taula enclosure at the Talayotic settlement of Sa Cudia Cremada (Mahon, Menorca). Tools corresponding to some of the typologies which are usually found in coetaneous domestic structures have been registered in this second-iron-age ritual space, including grinding stones and hammer-stones. Proposals on the meaning of the location of these objects inside a sacred building are presented by means of morpho-typological and spatial distribution analyses, and also establishing a comparison with previously available data on lithic tools from dwellings. The results support the hypothesis in favor of a similarity between sacred and domestic spaces. The abundance of lithic tools in a ritual building seems to indicate the symbolic importance of these elements, something which has already been suggested in other studies. Moreover, the location of a large assemblage of small pebbles just before the main element inside the enclosure could indicate the existence of a ritual which wound not have been registered before inside a taula enclosure.

La Serradassa rock shelter (Vistabella, Castelló) and its contribution to the definition of Schematic Rock Art in Castelló

Inés Domingo Sanz — 2020-01-29

This paper offers for the first time a comprehensive review of La Serradassa rock shelter (Vistabella, Castelló). The motifs and themes are also analyzed within the context of Schematic Rock Art of Mediterranean Iberia. The northern Valencian region is particularly rich in Levantine rock art and it also includes an exceptional number of Final Palaeolithic Rock Art sites. Schematic rock art, on the contrary, is poorly represented in this area, with a limited number of sites sufficiently significant to conduct comparative studies on a large scale. For this purpose, La Serradasa is one of the very few examples in the region with a substantial number of schematic motifs. Alongside with the characteristics of some of the motifs preserved at this site, this fact endows the site with a high interest in this territory, since it includes both motifs with parallels within the complex world of Schematic rock art, as well as unique –foot shaped figures– or uncommon motifs –with hands up in what is known as a praying figure or horned figures– in the Schematic repertoire of Mediterranean Iberia.

Archaeometric Characterization of a Set of Glass Beads from the Veton Hillfort of Ulaca (Solosancho, Ávila)

Alejandro Pinilla Gisbert — 2024-07-23

An archaeometric study of a set of glass beads found in the Veton hillfort of Ulaca –Solosancho, Ávila– has been undertaken. The samples are associated to two contexts, the necropolis and the Torreón, dated between the 2^nd and 1^st centuries BC. The main goal has been determining their chemical composition, their technological characteristics including chromophores responsible for their coloration, as well as their possible geographical provenance and state of conservation. For this purpose, the ensemble was analyzed through conventional techniques such as optical stereo microscope, field emission scanning electron microscopy –FESEM– coupled with energy dispersive X-ray –EDS– microanalysis, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The results indicate that all the beads were made with a natron-based soda lime silicate glass with a low content of magnesium oxide known as LMG–low magnesium glass–. The comparison of their chemical composition with the composition of other glass beads also found in Iron Age contexts demonstrates their possible origin from the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition, it was identified a highly altered bead which is not made of glass but most likely of faience. The presence of non-local glass in both the necropolis and the Torreón suggests that this material must have been a precious good for the Veton communities that inhabited Ulaca.

New Proposals for Old Excavations: On the Bronze Age Huts in the Sector A of Los Tolmos (Caracena, Soria)

Alejandra Sánchez Polo — 2024-07-23

Los Tolmos, in Caracena, in the province of Soria, is a site of reference for the study of the Middle Bronze Age in the Northern Plateau. Its excavation during the 1970s and 1980s led to the discovery of several burial tombs and two collapsed huts that were attributed to the Cogotas I archaeological group. The aim of the present article is to assess the belonging of this key site in its classic ascription to the Proto-Cogotas I phase. An attempt has been made to reconsider the archaeological materials deposited in the Numantine Museum of Soria that correspond to the levels of the huts and an inhumation, as well as the stratum located immediately above them in Sector A. All this has been critically analysed using current techniques that include the bioarchaeological study and the radiometric dating of the previously documented human remains, as well as another erratic fragment, located by chance. These results, together with the study of the pottery, the re-reading of the published materials and the revision of the available inventories have made it possible to relocate the construction, maintenance and collapse of the huts in the transition from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC and to enrich their social interpretation.

New Dating for the Bronze Age in the Upper Tagus Basin. The Cave of La Noguera (Val de San García, Cifuentes, Guadalajara)

Enrique Cerrillo-Cuenca — 2024-07-23

The transition from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium cal BC in the Upper Tagus basin counts with few radiometric dates, despite having a significant archaeological record. The contribution of new dates helps to establish reference points for contexts with Bell Beaker pottery and the first ones attributable to the Bronze Age, a reality that has become particularly complex in recent decades. In this paper, we present four new radiometric dates coming from an archaeological context from the late 3rd millennium cal BC excavated at the cueva de la Noguera (Val de San García, Cifuentes). This context allows us to update the information on the cultural dynamics observed in Guadalajara province.

The new dates emphasize the complexity of the transition between the 3rd and 2nd millennium cal BC in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula and highlight the diversity in the forms of landscape occupation. In turn, the Noguera cave shows a mode of cave living that appears consistent with other occupations in the Meseta. The recovered fauna and materials found on the cave’s exterior surface indicate a possible agricultural-livestock use of the location.

Around the Bellum Hispaniense and the Glandes Inscriptae from Hispania. A New Projectile with a Caesarian Inscription from Montilla (Córdoba)

Javier Moralejo Ordax — 2023-12-22

The subject of this paper is a lead projectile from the municipality of Montilla (Córdoba) which incorporates a double inscription - of great interest due to its particularity within the framework of the study of the corpus of glandes inscriptae from the Iberian Peninsula. This piece could be directly related to the war events narrated in the Bellum Hispaniense, as some of its most important episodes took place in this region. It contributes to the increasingly advanced archaeological knowledge of the Roman civil wars in Hispania and also provides elements of analysis complementary to the corpus of projectiles with Caesarian inscriptions known to date.

New Contribution to Western Anatolian Funerary Architecture: Classical Period Rock-Cut-Built Chamber Tomb from Tisna

Emre Erdan — 2023-12-22

This paper presents preliminary observations and interpretations of a monumental tomb discovered in 2021 at Tisna, an ancient city within the boundaries of the Aeolis. The tomb was found in the lower area of a huge rock mass to the North of the acropolis of Sarıkale Tepe, which is the main area of Tisna settlement. The monumental tomb, which reflects a type unknown in the region until today, reflects a typology hitherto undocumented in Anatolia, which is novel both because it is carved into the rock mass and because it is partially constructed of stone blocks. The tomb is even more striking for its painted burial chamber.

Various archaeological artefacts have been found in and around the tomb, making it the most magnificent of the Aeolian tombs to date. Although the earliest finds date from the Geometric Period, the material continuity up to the Byzantine Period is evident. Coins recovered inside and in the surroindings of the tomb date to between the late 5th and early 4th century bc. In addition, the construction technique used in the walls, as well as other architectural features of the burial chamber, also correspond to the characteristics of the Classical Period. The strong link of Tisna to the Achaemenid Empire, which is also seen in the city’s coinage, suggests that this tomb may have belonged to a nobleman or a wider family group.

A Punic Scarab with the Iconography of Isis Kourotrophas from the Iberian Necropolis III of Alarcos (Poblete, Ciudad Real)

Pedro Miguel Naranjo — 2023-12-22

This paper studies an unpublished scarab documented in Tomb 36 of the Iberian Necropolis iii at Alarcos, currently under excavation and study. Its production in steatite, the representation on the reverse of Isis kourotropha enthroned with Harpocrates and the distribution in the Mediterranean of scarabs with this theme have allowed us to identify it as a western Phoenician-Punic production from the late 5th or early 4th century bc, possibly from the Sardinian enclave of Tharros as has been suggested for the rest of the scarabs with this iconography. The finding of a piece with this theme in a burial site could be related to the funerary conceptions of breast-feeding within Iberian religiosity. Thus, although the models are of an Egyptian type, the image was sufficiently explicit for it to be integrated into Iberian mentalities, and there was most probably a phenomenon of reformulation and adaptation in which this model served to identify the Iberian female divinity related to fertility and the regeneration of the life cycle. This divinity would also have funerary connotations, particularly those related to divine lactation and its possible link with the strengthening of the deceased in the Afterlife.

Analytic Summary

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2023-12-22

Sacra Privata: Possible Indicators of Household Cult in the Roman City of the Vascones (Los Bañales de Uncastillo, Zaragoza)

Javier Andreu Pintado — 2024-07-23

This paper reports three new and unpublished metal figurines, in bronze and lead, recovered between 2016 and 2022 in the archaeological excavations in the Roman city of Los Bañales de Uncastillo (Zaragoza), in the territory of the ancient Vascones. The pieces –representations of Amor, a turtle probably related with Mercurius and a small temple miniature or naiskos– are studied from the iconographic and symbolic point of view, a dating for them is proposed and it is argued, with several formal and typological parallels, that maybe they must have been part of domestic cult lararia contributing so to our knowledge about private religiosity in a Roman city in the interior of the provincia Tarraconensis. The role of this type of small votive statuettes as indicators of sacrality for the study of the Roman sacra privata and of the religiosity in the domestic sphere in the Roman High Imperial Period are also vindicated and reviewed.

Plaques from Megalithic Contexts in Central Portugal. The Cases of Arquinha da Moura (Tondela) and Mamaltar de Vale de Fachas (Viseu)

Raquel Vilaça — 2024-03-14

The opportunity to study two decorated stone slabs found in megalithic contexts in the Viseu/Tondela region, one decorated and known since 1912, the other unpublished until now, has added value to the knowledge of this category of ‘ideotechnical’ artefacts. Characterised at the morphotypological level, they have been the subject of X-ray fluorescence analyses which point to the possibility of the use of cinnabar as a decorative pigment in one of them. Photographic images of different spectral bands have also been used in this study, both in the visible light band and in the IR and UV radiation bands, which have corroborated the use of red pigment in some areas, as well as the use of another black or blue colouring pigment in others. In addition, the marginal, although not isolated, relationship of the findings of these plaques with the south of the Iberian Peninsula, where pieces of the same conceptual universe –the ‘idol-plate’– are counted by the thousands, has been observed. These two plaques, together with some others made with different typology, raw material and context –unpublished or in the process of evaluation–, recovered in the Duero-Tajo interfluve, show that the vacuum of this type of record in the region is only apparent.

Pillars and Bulls at the Edge of the Estuary. The New Iberian Monument of ‘Inquisición Grande’ and the Rojales Sculpture Complex (Alicante)

Fernando Prados Martínez — 2024-03-14

This paper presents an unpublished set of architectural elements, specifically Egyptian gorge cornices. The findings come from the site known as 'Inquisición Grande' (Rojales, Alicante) and have been documented in surveys carried out at the Segura River mouth. These new data provide a more complete knowledge of Iberian monumental architecture and its uses, not only funerary, in this territory. The place where they were found, allows us to relate them to a group of Iberian sculptures appeared during the Spanish Civil War and studied in 1941 by the archaeologist Augusto Fernández de Avilés.

Building Techniques and Other Uses of Mud in the Iron Age: Turó de la Font de la Canya (Avinyonet del Penedès, Barcelona)

María Pastor Quiles — 2024-03-14

In this article we present the results of the study of the hardened earth elements recovered from the settlement of Turó de la Font de la Canya, located in Avinyonet del Penedès, in the province of Barcelona. This site was occupied between the 7th and 2nd centuries BC, with different buildings and numerous negative structures. This research has brought to light the constructive use of different materials and techniques centred on the use of soil, which coexisted in the buildings of the settlement, from the so-called mixed techniques to adobe. Furthermore, the use of clay is also recorded in the manufacture of non-constructive goods, such as furniture. The study of this type of material reveals the remarkable variability by which it is often characterised and is of enormous interest for research. There are also challenges in their interpretation, especially in the case of those from secondary depositions, as in the case presented here.

Residues of Pine Resin, Animal and Vegetable Fats in Two Bronze Age —Cogotas I culture— Ceramic Vessels from La Peña del Moro (Navas de Oro, Segovia)

Raúl Martín Vela — 2024-07-23

This paper describes the results of the residue analysis carried out on two ceramic vessels from the Bronze Age hillfort of La Peña del Moro, in Navas de Oro, Segovia. The data obtained by gas chromatography (gc-ms) reveal the presence of animal and vegetable fats, highlighting the remains of pine resin identified in the walls of two of the four vessels analysed. The specific function of both ceramics is also investigated through the analysis of organic residues preserved inside them, offering a testimony of the different activities in which they were probably used. In the discussion of our work, based on archaeological, historical and ethnographic data, we place special emphasis on the use of pine resin during prehistoric times. In a very synthetic way, we will list some of the uses of pine sap found in classical sources, with the aim of trying to extrapolate some of its applications by the Cogotas community that inhabited the settlement.

Pictorial Workshops in Pompeii. Exploring some Roman Nilotic Paintings

Eleonora Voltan — 2023-12-22

From the 3rd century BP onwards, the relationship between Egypt and Rome grew clearer. When the treaty of amicitiawas signed in the year 273 BP, the political, cultural, economic and religious impact on Italian territory was increasingly evident. Also of relevance is the role of the artistic production resulting from the contact between the Roman and Egyptian worlds. The focus of this paper is on several Roman paintings characterised by the depiction of the Nile landscape. In particular, the attention is turned to the records of four Pompeian contexts: Praedia of Iulia Felix (II 4, 2), Sarno Baths (VIII 2, 17), Temple of Isis (VIII 7, 28) and House of the Pygmies (IX 5, 9). By comparing certain iconographic details, the aim of this study is to highlight some analogies in the execution of the paintings examined. On this basis, some hypotheses could be put forward regarding the presence of the same team of painters in the four contexts or, as an alternative, the use of the same models among different artisans.

Exploitation of Ursus spelaeus in the Middle Palaeolithic. News from Esquilléu Cave (Cillórigo de Liébana, Cantabria)

Darío Herranz Rodrigo — 2024-03-14

The relationship between Neanderthals and cave bear –Ursus spelaeus– during the Upper Pleistocene has been a subject of controversy, primarily due to traditional historiography suggesting ideas related to a potential cult towards this species, along with other theories supporting the mass hunting of these animals. However, the evidence which links the interaction between Homo neanderthalensis and Ursus spelaeus in Europe is limited and fragmentary, primarily emanating from Italy, Germany and France, in the surroundings of the Alps. To date, no remains of Ursus spelaeus with evidence of human activity in the Middle Paleolithic have been found in the Iberian Peninsula. Nevertheless, this work presents and analyzes the consequence of the discovery of an ulna of Ursus spelaeus with cutmarks, found in the Mousterian levels of the Esquilléu Cave in Cantabria. This finding, identified through a meticulous study of the osteological sample, contributes with new insights to this debate by expanding the geographical scope and by suggesting taphonomic revisions as a source of new evidences.

Peñacalera (Obejo, Córdoba). Biography of a Copper Age Burial Cave with Organic Remains

Rafael Martínez Sánchez — 2024-03-14

The funerary practices of the 4^th and 3^rd millennia cal bc are marked by the widespread use of megalithic architecture in most of the Iberian Peninsula, alongside major social transformations taking place during the Copper Age. At the same time, we find a proliferation of collective burials in natural caves located in mountainous areas of southern Iberia, some of which also share the typical uses of megalithic chambers. In this paper, we present the unusual case of Peñacalera, in Obejo, Córdoba province, a small burial cave located in a prominent rocky outcrop in the Sierra Morena massif, discovered in 2014. The funerary context includes the skeletal remains of at least five human individuals, associated with grave goods such as ceramic vessels, and organic material in a remarkable state of preservation, especially cork bark and some textile fragments. The analysis of the radiocarbon dates suggests two separate phases of use, one during the third quarter of the 4^th and the other in the middle of the 3^rd millennia cal BC

Liceras-Garrido, R. (2022): La Edad del Hierro en el Alto Duero (siglos VII a.n.e.-I n.e.): paisajes, identidades y poder. Bar Intern. Ser., 3075. Oxford: Archaeopress, 246 pp., 111 ilust. y 7 tabs. en color

Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández — 2023-02-02

Rahmstorf, L.; Barjamovic, G. e Ialongo, N. (eds.) (2021): Merchants, Measures and Money. Understanding Technologies of Early Trade in a Comparative Perspective. Weight & Value, 2. Göttingen: Wachholtz Verlag Kiel/Hamburg, 364 pp.

Diego Barrios Rodríguez — 2023-02-02

Letters Drawn in Bone. Alphabets of Islamic València on Bovid Scapulae

Marta Blasco Martín — 2023-02-02

A study is presented on the scapulae of bovids recovered in the urban excavations of the city of València, with chronologies ranging from the ninth century to the beginning of the thirteenth, all of them with Arabic alphabets incised or chiseled. For the first time they have been studied jointly and three new specimens are unveiled, two from Street Verge de la Misericòrdia, and one found in the recent excavations of the Islamic wall. To undertake the functional analysis of these bones, it is first to address the examination of the Arabic alphabet and its social uses. From an archaeological and epigraphic point of view, the results are presented and the hypotheses that have been formulated and discussed about the fate of these objects are analyzed: one prophylactic and one educational. It is proposed to add the thesis, according to the characteristics of the Valencian material, of its artisanal character. After highlighting the importance of these pieces as examples of literacy on the part of society and valuing the artisanal work carried out for their elaboration, it is proposed that they are objects used for didactic purposes to promote learning and that they would be used as a sample to copy the letters and practice artisan techniques.

About An Anthropomorphic Pendant in an Early Medieval Context from La Alcudia of Elche (Alicante)

Victoria Amorós-Ruiz — 2023-02-02

An anthropomorphic figurine carved in bone is among the materials exhumed in recent archaeological work at the site of La Alcudia in Elche, Alicante. It comes from a stratum formed in the Early Medieval Ages that contained materials from previous phases. The ignorance of this type of figure and the stratigraphic complexity of the site led to the search for formal parallels that would allow the framing of
the origin of this piece. At first, and based on the bibliographical tradition of the site, it was compared with others of Punic origin, later expanding the search to other chronologies. A good number of figures have been located through the work with parallels and attending only to the formal characteristics. Still, they present diverse chronological frameworks and geographical locations; in some cases, their stratigraphic contextualisation could be more consistent. All these elements allow us to consider the importance of the context as a dating tool in contraposition to more classic forms of study of archaeological objects, where the formal characteristics are the central element of the analysis.

New Interpretative Outlook of ‘Verraco’ Sculptures. Analysis and Research on a Geminate Verraco from El Gordo (Cáceres)

Juan José Gordón Baeza — 2023-02-02

This paper provides the results of the research on a geminate zoomorphic sculpture that was picked up in August 2021 from the floodable area of the Valdecañas reservoir (El Gordo, Cáceres). This is the second geminated verraco to be found in the Iberian Peninsula and the only one documented that might represent a pair of male and female suidae. The morphological and comparative examination of the piece, the lithological analysis of the granite used, the research on the landscape where it was found in environmental, socioeconomic and spatial terms, and the review of the bibliography about zoomorphic sculptures of the Vetones, provide some new interesting data that lead us to reflect on some of the approaches of the current historiography regarding this sculptural phenomenon, such as the presence of female specimens among the wide variety of figures, the differentiation between wild and domesticated individuals based on certain phenotypic traits, and the interpretation of their meaning.

On the Iberian Chalcolithic. The Deer as a Sky Boat

José Luis Escacena Carrasco — 2023-02-02

During the third millennium bc the Iberian Peninsula encountered a significant proliferation of deer iconography, in scenes that many times have solar images. This association is abundant especially in parietal art, but it has also been found as a decoration carved in bell beaker pottery. On various occasions the animals have more than four limbs, which would be expected if the representations were to depict the reality. So, we could be before astral vessels that were prepared with the head of a deer on the bow, while their multiple legs allude to the oars.

The archeological record indicates, what’s more, that deer antlers were very popular among grave goods. In this case, they cannot be considered evidence of food for the deceased, since many of them are antlers that had
been shed. This data suggests that they could have been part of vessels made of perishable materials that
had antlers as a figurehead, if we are not contemplating simple synecdoches of psychopomp vessels.

Paleolithic Cave Paintings and Engravings from La Llosa Cave (Obregón de Villaescusa, Cantabria). An Extreme Case of Deterioration

César González Sainz — 2023-02-02

This work deals with an analysis of the rock art in La Llosa cave and a discussion about its integration in the Palaeolithic cave art of the Cantabrian region. It is based on a short documentation campaign that we carried out in 1997, in a cave that was already highly degraded and altered, and with parietal manifestations that were difficult to evaluate due to its bad conservation. La Llosa is an ensemble of a certain temporal depth, with at least two decorative phases. The oldest one is a composition of quadrilateral signs painted in red, and remains of other motifs, currently heavily degraded traces of paint. At a later time, a wide composition of non-figurative engravings was made, including a sketch of a hind’s head, which can be integrated into the series with striations on the chin and chest of other nearby parietal groups. This can be dated between about 17000 and 14000 BP. for its mobile parallels and associated data. La Llosa is therefore a small set in size and very altered and degraded, but it is quite expressive, due to its iconographic, technical and stylistic conventions, of the moments where the populations of the center of the Cantabrian region developed an art with a stronger personality, although always within the artistic context of European sw.

Analytic Summary

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2023-02-02

Lucius Horatius and the Oldest Stamps on Oil Amphorae from Southern Hispania. Considerations based on Recent Discoveries

Ivan Gonzalez Tobar — 2023-12-22

The late Roman Republic and early Augustan ages are of maximum importance for the understanding of the enormous volume of the Baetican exports of olive oil in later moments. Further, these initial stages mark the beginning of the phenomenon of the intense stamping on oil amphorae. The aim of this work is to analyse in depth the epigraphical production of Lucius Horatius, who appears to be the oldest stamp on south Spanish olive oil amphorae. The most recent findings are presented in detail, enlarging the nomina and geography of this production. A critical update is made of all the epigraphical and archaeological data known to date and problems related to their typological ascription are discussed as well. Through such an integral analysis the main trade routes of the Horati stamps can be traced, with an important diffusion in the Iberian Peninsula, with special incidence in the Portuguese and Galician Atlantic façade, and a second line of diffusion towards other Mediterranean regions. The findings in Galicia and Portugal are related to the definitive conquest of the Iberian Peninsula as a whole in the time of Augustus, while those of the Mediterranean façade point to other trade routes, which were expanding with other south Spanish ovoid amphorae shortly before the beginning of the Augustan period.

Sequential Dynamics Linked with Negative Structures through a Bayesian Approximation. The Case of Camí de Missena (La Pobla del Duc, València)

Pilar Escribá Ruiz — 2023-12-22

The negative structures settlements present a particular problem when interpreting their evolution and their odd discontinuous stratigraphy. One of these places is the Camí de Missena, which was classified as a typical settlement of the iii millennium cal bc, although certain archaeological data were referred to much earlier times.

Bayesian statistics have been used to relate the available radiocarbon dates with specific characteristics and features of the present material culture to solve this problem, establish the evolution of the settlement, and test the validity of the application of this novel method in a micro scale of analysis.

The result has allowed both the temporary location of many undated negative structures and the establishment of different chrono-cultural periods so the site’s internal evolution. These results suggest the validity of the Bayesian prediction method for this kind of archaeological problem and its great potential in both large-scale
– macro – and internal – micro – scale applications.

Excavaciones en el templo toscano de Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca): estudio de la secuencia constructiva y de los artefactos recuperados

Bartomeu Vallori Márquez — 2023-12-22

The presence of temples of classical typology in Hispania dates to the end of the 3rd or early 2nd centuries BC. A particular type, the Tuscan temple, has attracted attention by virtue of its supposed identification as capitolium. The aim of this paper is to offer an analysis of the materials recovered during the excavation of the Tuscan temple of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca), with special interest in addressing the chronology of its construction. Although these materials present a high percentage of residuality, useful for studying the previous settlement, the classes and types identified allow us to propose a dating for the building, especially if we consider the local and regional context. As a result, it has been possible to suggest a chronology for the construction between 122 and 100/80 BC, and to advance in our knowledge of the actions before to the founding of the city, as well as in the evolution of the pre-existing indigenous settlement, which would go back at least to the 4th century BC. The existence of such a temple improves the image of the original nucleus of Pollentia.

Tritium Autrigonum (Monasterio de Rodilla, BURGOS): an urban approach to a Hispano-Roman agglomeration based on recent aerial surveys

Laurent Brassous — 2023-12-22

The ancient town located at Alto de Rodilla (Monasterio de Rodilla, Burgos, Spain), identified as Tritium Autrigonum, has never been the subject of an archeological excavation, although the site has been known for a long time. However, the aerial survey campaigns conducted between 2001 and 2015 made it possible to take a large number of photographs that expose the urban form of the city. They reveal, on an unprecedented scale, a significant portion of the buried structures throughout the agglomeration. After a brief presentation of the site and the extent of our current knowledge, this work details the exploitation of the rectified and georeferenced aerial views, making it possible to obtain an unedited planimetry of the remains. It also provides an exceptionally detailed description of the site. This expanding documentary base was used in 2016 to study the remains identified as monuments. Since then, the analysis of the analysis of the aerial photographs has made it possible to obtain a general plan of the city, the various facets of its urbanism in its various aspects and to situate the city within the urban spaces of the northern Hispanic area.

First Approach to the Pollen Preserved in a Megalithic Monument of the Western Cantabrian: the Dolmen Corridor of la Cobertoria (3.500 BC), Salas, Asturias

Fernando Rodríguez del Cueto — 2023-12-22

This paper is part of the information gathered during the excavations carried out in the dolmen of the Cobertoria, between 2016 and 2019. The text is focused on the last building phase of the megalith, dated by radiocarbon in the middle of the fourth millennium bc. The architecture of the passage tomb created a capsule that collected plenty of information about the environment nearby the dolmen. All this despite its occasional openings, during the burial rites. The sieving of the samples allow us to recover an interesting group of prehistoric pollen, archaeologically contextualized thanks to a well-defined sequence. From these data the possible presence of crops, gramineous and leguminous plants, can be assured, as well as the proximity of some fungi that affects to cereals. Five different types of pollen tree were recovered in the access too. Other species very common during the recovery of the soils after fires, like the ferns, appeared in the results. Finally, other shrubs, very linked with fires due to their properties as fuel, appeared inside the dolmen.

Defensive and Domestic Architecture in the Alto de La Garma Hillfort (Cantabria)

Rafael Bolado del Castillo — 2023-02-02

The archaeological site of Alto de La Garma, in Omoño, Ribamontán al Monte, is an Early Iron Age little hillfort located in the coastal area of Cantabria. The excavations carried out have documented a settlement with two occupation phases. The first, which dates from the Iron Age i, has a defensive wall built in terraces and circular houses, whose chronology is between the end of the 8^th century bc and the end of the
6^th century bc. The second phase, after a century of abandonment, dates between the end of the 5^th and
the 4^th century bc, is characterized by the construction of a double-faced wall. Some archaeological materials and absolute dating also open the possibility that the hillfort, after a new abandonment, was in use during the Second Iron Age or the Roman Age.

In this paper we present a study of all their occupations focusing on the analysis of its defensive and domestic architecture, in relation to others archaeological sites from the Iron Age of the Cantabrian Region.

Créditos

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-07-29

Sumario analítico

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-07-29

Índice

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-07-29

Settlement and Social Change of an Isolated Territory? Proposals on the Evolution of the Territorial Occupation of the Island of Gran Canaria in Pre-Hispanic Age

Marco A. Moreno Benítez — 2022-07-29

The colonization of the Canary Islands has been the subject of several studies, however human settlement in the different territories and its evolution over time is an issue that has received practically no research attention. In this paper we provide an interpretative proposal of the occupation dynamics of Gran Canaria between the 3rd and 15th centuries ad from a temporal and comparative perspective based on the Braudelian longue durée. To this end, different variables –soils, visibility, accessibility, etc.– were established and analysed by means of a Geographic Information System –gis–, using the isochrones as a minimum observation reference. Thus, the statistical study first, and then the historical and territorial analysis of the archaeological sites, made it possible to implement a diachronic scenario of the aboriginal settlement of Gran Canaria, taking environmental infill theories as a reference. The result is the interrelation of different ways of land use, both materially and ideologically, conforming, accordingly, different archaeological landscapes.

A New Egyptian Scarab found in La Fonteta (Guardamar del Segura, Alicante)

Martín Almagro-Gorbea — 2022-07-29

This paper presents the study of a new scarab found in the Phoenician settlement of La Fonteta, in a context dated c. 720/675 BC. It is, therefore, one of the oldest scarabs from this site, located at the strategic mouth of the Segura River, in Southeastern of the Iberian Peninsula.

Its seal features a schematic representation of the goddess Tueris with the peseshkef knife. This scarab is added to eight other scarabs and scaraboids found at La Fonteta, which complement the dispersion of these Egyptian and Egyptizing objects that arrived through Phoenician trade. All of them offer an interesting evolution from c. 720 bc to the end of the site, c. 525 BC, with Egyptian scarabs replaced by those from Syrian and Phoenician workshops in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, with a possible example from Náucratis.

Researchs in Sector L1 of the Complexo Arqueológico dos Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal): Chronology and Temporality of two Chalcolithic Pit Enclosures (F1 and F2)

José E. Márquez-Romero — 2022-07-29

The University of Malaga –uma– has from 2008 to 2016 carried out a number of archaeological activities at the Complexo Arqueológico dos Perdigões, Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the Portuguese Alentejo. These include geophysical surveys, extension excavations and several trial trenches in Sector l1. The present paper aims at discerning spatio-temporal relationships between two large Prehistoric ditched enclosures –f1 y f2–. Methodologically, we first distinguish between chronology –longue durée doxa Braudel– and temporality
–series b of events in time doxa McTaggart/Ingold–, two different but complementary concepts for a correct historical approach to the phenomenon of ditched enclosures. Then, based on an extensive radiometric series, a detailed examination of their fills and stratigraphic relationships between neighbouring structures, we identify a late construction phase of this monumental ditched architecture in the 3^rd quarter of the 3^rd millennium bc. We reflect on the use of radiocarbon dating and statistical programs in contexts as complex as ditched enclosures and their particular conditions of filling.

Colossal Head from Colonia Patricia

Carlos Márquez Moreno — 2023-02-02

A colossal marble head from Cordoba that has been considered to be Hermes or Mars is studied in depth; after a detailed analysis of the piece and of various characteristics that can be seen in it, it is concluded that, in all probability, the head has been reworked from a head of Minerva; the finding of other heads of this goddess, or of an ideal character in any case, which have also undergone this reworking in different periods, leads us to provide some data on a subject which has not been dealt with much by critics, namely the reworking of sculptures representing gods and goddesses. The conclusion reached by our study is that we are looking at a representation of Mercury –in all probability of the Ludovisi type– which would form part of the ornamental programme of one of the official spaces in Roman Cordoba, very close to the Roman theatre. This concludes the presence, detected for the first time in this city, of a colossal sculpture in the first half of the 2nd century, probably in the Hadrianic period.

Analysing the sacred landscape in the Iberian Culture: GIS, caves and ritual performance

Sonia Machause López — 2023-02-02

Sacred spaces, such as Iberian caves, with liminal location and character, had important ritual significance and socio-political meanings for their communities. Through the Geographical Information Systems –GIS– techniques, we can analyse these sacred spaces in context. In this paper, by using a regional study as an example, we show the main analysis undertaken with gis, such as visibility and mobility, considering diverse variables and formulas. This will allow to develop comparative perspectives with other similar Mediterranean contexts.

A first approach to the sacred landscape of the Iberian Iron Age territory of Edeta, in Llíria, València, is presented, analysing two ritual caves in context: Cueva del Sapo and Cueva Merinel, located on the southern border of the territory and frequented between the fifth and the second centuries BC. By using diverse models, we propose access routes to them, with the final objective of thinking about the effort and symbolism that a ritual journey linked to these natural sacred locations would imply.

Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon and Textile Production: Chronotypologic Seriation of Bronze Age Loom Weights from the South-Eastern Area of the Iberian Peninsula

Ricardo Basso Rial — 2023-02-02

This article aims to demonstrate the importance, as a chronological indicator, of one of the objects of the Bronze Age archaeological record in the south-eastern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula that has not been considered until now: loom weights. From the analysis of their typological seriation, duly concatenated with the contextual information on their appearance in habitat spaces and with the chronostratigraphic data based on absolute dates associated from Argaric, Valencian Bronze Age and Bronze Age in La Mancha sites –2200-1550 cal bc– and Late Bronze Age sites –1550-1250 cal bc–, we show how, beyond the implications that their morphological changes may have had in the context of technical innovations and the organisation of textile craftsmanship over more than a millennium, they can also be used as a reliable chronological indicator in the temporal ordering.

A Provenance Analysis in Lloseta Hoard (Mallorca) and Hybridization Phenomena in the Late Bronze Age

Bartomeu Llull Estarellas — 2023-02-02

This article presents lead isotope analyses from the Lloseta (Majorca) deposit and looks into the possible provenance of the raw material used in artifacts. Thanks to the marked local character of its artifact designs, as well as likely being one of the oldest documented finds, this Late Bronze Age site is deemed one of the most important in the Balearic Islands. The results of the analyses show that the raw material used mostly came from the archipelago, with good matches with the copper minerals of Menorca and the lead minerals of Mallorca. Although it is possible that some objects were made with metals not from the islands, the findings suggest that these materials did not come from distant geographic regions. The result of the study shows a set of pieces that reflects the coexistence of local practices and traditions with new ideas and technological innovations, thus being a good example of hybridization.

Between Heroes or Deities? Iron Age Sacrificial Agencies Depicted in Rock 6 From Monte de Porreiras (Northwest Portugal)

Luis Coutinho — 2022-07-29

The aim of this work is to publish the rock engravings of Monte das Porreira 6, located in the council of Paredes de Coura, in the Northwest of Portugal. The study was based on photogrammetric surveys and subsequent contrast recurring to geometric distance determination.

It is a profusely decorated rock with a long diachrony of carving. The initial phase includes Classical Atlantic Art, integrated in the regional Neo-Chalcolithic period. The second phase includes representation of several types of equids, horsemen, and antenna-hilted daggers. Based on parallels for such weapons, it is possible to integrate these motifs between the Late Bronze Age and an Early Iron Age of North-western Iberia.

It is also possible to observe a change from an abstract grammar, during the first phase, to a figurative grammar, in which we can identify a narrative related to human and animal sacrifices, associated with the use of antenna-hilted daggers. These depictions recall a symbolism reminiscent of Strabo’s writings, including bronze objects containing sacrificial scenes. The final phase of engraving indicates new symbolic changes, with valorisation of isolated actions perpetrated by horsemen, carrying throwing weapons, which may be a representation of a deity or hero.

Internal Limits in El Argar? First Data about the Argaric Settlements from Rambla de Algeciras (Southeastern Iberia) and its Territorial Structuring

Benjamín Cutillas-Victoria — 2023-02-02

The recent fieldwork carried out in the rambla de Algeciras has determined the strong and heterogeneous occupation of this area during the Early Bronze Age (2200-1550 bc). Despite the anthropic pressure that this environment has undergone, the results obtained through selective survey, archaeological excavation and the analysis of past archaeological research point to the existence of an important population density that probably maintained a close relationship with the nearby site of La Almoloya. The analysis of the different types of identified settlement reveals an intensive occupation and exploitation of the landscape, as well as the existence of several positions dedicated to the control and surveillance of the immediate territory. Based on a multi-scale approach, the aim of this paper is to discuss the obtained results and to propose what role this area may have developed in the framework of the political and territorial entities proposed for the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the Argaric Bronze Age.

Evaluadores año 2021

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-01-27

The Cuevecicas del Estiércol (Quesa, Valencia) and their Contribution to the Debate on the Female Figure in the Levantine Rock Art of the Caroig Massif

Ximo Martorell Briz — 2022-07-29

The comprehensive study of the Cuevecicas del Estiércol rock art site has brought a dozen of paintings from Neolithic to light, distributed into two panels. They include a serpentine with a single line, a scene formed by a pair of female figures associated with a bar zig-zagging, an archer and a gathering scene starring another female figure. Despite the number of representations is reduced, the Cuevecicas presents a high interest due to the combination of these motifs and the implications at a territorial perspective that some themes show. In this paper, an attempt has been made to carry out a diachronic and territorially bounded reading in the artistic region of the Caroig massif, in the middle basin of the Júcar river, about female figures, their representation and importance throughout the artistic sequence and the implications that, at the archaeological and historical level, it has had an androcentric bias in the readings of the classical panels. One of the conclusions reached by this work is that the invisibility of female figures in peninsular post-Paleolithic rock art has only been detrimental to research and the advancement of the archaeological discipline. In the same way, and from the point of view of research, the need to continue with the prospecting and documentation projects of the assemblages is claimed to increase the known corpus.

Staff

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-01-27

Houten, Pieter (2021): Urbanisation in Roman Spain and Portugal. Civitates Hispaniae in the Early Empire. Studies in Roman Space and Urbanism. London-New York: Routledge, 460 pp., figuras y apéndices en blanco y negro. ISBN: 978-0-367-90077-9

Rosario Cebrián Fernández — 2022-01-27

Zamboni, Lorenzo; Fernández-Götz, Manuel y Metzner-Nebelsick, Carola (eds.) (2020): Crossing the Alps. Early Urbanism between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900-400 BC). Leiden: Sidestone Press, 434 pp. y 218 ilust. en color. ISBN: 978-90-8890-962-7

Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández — 2022-01-27

Delannoy, J.-J. y Geneste, J.-M. (dirs.) (2020): Atlas de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc: Volume 1 de la monographie de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 384 pp. ISBN: 978-2735125333

Miguel García-Bustos — 2022-01-27

The Naval Scene of Laja Alta Shelter-Cave (Jimena de la Frontera, Cádiz). A New Chronocultural Proposal

Ana María Gomar Barea — 2022-01-27

We present a review of the boat-shaped motifs of the Laja Alta shelter-cave, in Jimena de la Frontera, Cádiz, providing a new hypothesis on its possible affiliation to historical age. Since the discovery of this enclave, the reason for the existence and the chronology of the boats that form part of its pictorial panels have been controversial. This discussion is due, in part, to the fact that these ships are notably distant from the facies of the Schematic Rock Art in which, until now, they have been included. We think that the naval scene responds to a graphic action that fits the conception of the modes of representation of the historical graphite phenomenon. We join the prolific debate on the chrono-cultural ascription of the ships by contributing new data, obtained from a methodological proposal that proposes the analysis of the boats, isolating them from the physical space in which they are located and from the technique with which they were executed, circumstances that, until now, have conditioned most of the reflections made on them.

Archaeometric Study of Pictorial Stratigraphies from a Togatus Roman Sculpture found in Salamanca (Spain)

Jorge Souto — 2022-01-27

The decoration of a togatus Roman sculpture found in Salamanca in 2015 has been examined to identify the applied pigments. The study was performed using environmental scanning electron microscopy –ESEM– with an energy-dispersive X-ray analyser –ESEM-EDX– and Raman spectroscopy –RS– in microscopic mode. The ESEM-EDX analyser allowed the elemental chemical composition of the samples to be established, the concentration and distribution of each element in areas and cross-sections to be determined, and predefined concentration profiles in the pictorial stratum to be obtained. The ionic or molecular phases of the components in the pictorial material were identified by Raman spectroscopy. Therefore, the pigments that make up the pictorial palette of this artwork, such as iron oxides or carbon black, have been ascertained by means of these complementary techniques. The structural substrate, as well as the chemical nature of the dispersing/priming materials for the colourants, have been additionally characterised. Silica and aluminosilicates have been found to be present in combination with both the iron oxides and carbon black.

Carper Style in the Roman Wall Painting of Hispania

Lara Íñiguez Berrozpe — 2022-01-27

We propose in this work the study, based on a comparative descriptive methodology, and an update of a decorative system consisting of the ordered repetition of a module, whose motifs are usually represented independently, tangent or secant; the resulting geometric pattern can be adorned with geometric, vegetal and figurative elements, or a combination of all three. Two of the most repeated ornamental motifs are studied in depth: female heads and turkey feathers. This compositional scheme is characteristic of the ornamentation of the ceilings and the upper area of the wall, although, to a lesser extent, it can also occupy the entire middle area. In Hispanic painting it appears at the time of Tiberius and lasts until the 6th century and, thanks to the study in specific regions, it has been possible to establish workshop relationships.

Mastering Time and Space: Exploitation of Ritual and Memory in the Necropolis of La Albufereta, Alicante, in the 3rd century BC

Jorge García Cardiel — 2022-01-27

A detailed analysis of the artifacts included in the deposit L127A of the necropolis of La Albufereta, as well as the available documentation on its discovery, reveal a more nuanced picture about its functionality, chronology and meaning. It cannot be dated in the early 4^th century BC, as is generally supposed on the basis on the Attic pottery, but in the second half of the 3^rd century BC. By then, the Attic wares must have been genuine relics. The archaeological record shows the celebration of a rite in which several carefully chosen objects were cremated. Those objects had different origins and chronologies, and they had strong funerary and mystery connotations. The people responsible for the rite may try to highlight their ‘distinction’ at a particularly troubled time at local and regional level.

Burying oneself in Community: Mechanisms for the Analysis and Reconstruction of the Funerary Paleolandscape of the Tartessian Necropolises

Esther Rodríguez González — 2022-01-27

Many tartessian necropolises dating from the Early Iron Age are well-known at present in both the Guadalquivir Valley and the Guadiana Valley. The knowledge we have of these funerary spaces comes from the study of their burials and their grave goods. Issues related to landscape and settlement patterns have not yet been addressed. In this work we propose a methodological analysis which combines LiDAR data, historical photography, and flood records. The main objectives of this analyses are to reconstruct the ancient landscape in which these necropolises are located and to discover the possible existence of a pattern related to these locations. This methodology has been put into practice in the analysis of the necropolises of the Middle Guadiana Valley dated between the 7^th and 5^th centuries BC. The result allows us to observe a pattern that connects these funerary spaces with Eastern origin traditions.

The Demarcation of Transit Spaces in Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería) and its relation to Megalithic Symbolism

Juan Antonio Cámara Serrano — 2022-01-27

Recent researches at Los Millares Chalcolithic site, Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería, have allowed us to recognize different figurative representations associated with the outermost wall or Wall I, built around 2900 cal BC. The erection of this wall represented an important extension of the village occupying areas previously intended for necropolis. It is proposed that some features belonging to the necropolis area were respected and reused in order to justify, through the ancestors, the ability to access the settlement through the main gate –with the statue-menhir placed next to the gate–, the exclusion of strangers –with all the representations at both ends of the wall–, the integration of new populations –with the Tomb 63 included in the layout of the wall–, the role of certain characters –with the statue-menhir and stela in the Tomb 63– and, ultimately, the rights to occupy and exploit a territory. The relationship of these processes with those traditionally identified in the tombs of the necropolis is also pointed out.

Faunal Remains manipulation during the Chalcolithic in Pits 13, 16 and 54 from Monte das Cabeceiras 2 (Beja, Southern Portugal)

Nelson J. Almeida — 2022-01-27

The Chalcolithic time is a period widely debated in Southwestern Iberia Late Prehistory. During the last few decades, the number of contexts known has grown, especially with the discovery and publication of several ditched enclosures from Southern Portugal. To contribute to ongoing discussions, three Chalcolithic pits –13, 16, 54– from the Complex of ditched enclosures of Monte das Monte das Cabeceiras 2, in Beja, were analysed from a zooarchaeological and taphonomical perspective. The results are combined with information from the material culture, human remains and stratigraphy in order to discuss infilling sequences. Hypothesis on the possible meaning of social practices related to the management of animals are addressed.

Bovine, caprine, swine, cervids, leporids and canids were identified with different abundances. A possible feasting or offerings of bovine –including auroch– and to a lesser extent red deer, wild boar and domestic species is suggested for pit 13, where a burial was also identified. Pottery and animal depositions were recorded in this pit, and the contiguous pit 54 that also had human remains. Pit 16 had a possible selection of horns and antlers from bovine, caprine and cervids, as well as a deposition of canid limb bones inside a large pot. The pits analysed can be framed in the wider Southwestern Iberian Peninsula phenomena of ditched enclosures where structured deposits including animal remains are recurrent.

Analytic summary

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-01-27

Index

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrus — 2022-01-27

Problems of Material Culture: Italic and Greek Fibulae in the Iberian Peninsula between the 7th and 6th centuries BC

Raimon Graells i Fabregat — 2022-07-29

A review of fourty fibulae of Mediterranean provenance recovered or known to be of peninsular provenance is presented. The paper critically evaluates pieces distributed over practically the entire peninsular territory, assessing the lack of general contexts and the diachrony of the models. To achieve this, both the typology and the state of conservation and the dynamics of cultural interaction known for each context or supposed context are examined. Greek types are represented by a single artefact, Central and North-Italic types are scattered along the coast, while Northern Italic types are documented in the peninsular hinterland. Suritallic types or models dated to chronologies prior to the mid-7th century BC are problematic. The work is a continuation of that which addressed the same topic for the Gulf of Lion, and as in that case, the repertoire of specimens of certain peninsular provenance is very limited, with the frequent presence of pieces attributed to sites or areas inconsistent with the archaeological record and the dynamics of ancient cultural interactions.

The Hero saved from the Underworld: Taweret as Psychopomp Goddess in the Punic Monument of Pozo Moro (Chinchilla de Montearagón, Albacete)

Álvaro Gómez Peña — 2022-07-29

Since the discovery of the Pozo Moro funerary monument, the so-called ‘banquet scene’ has been the most published relief among researchers. However, even though there is consensus when it comes to interpreting the set as the descent of the hero/deceased into the netherworld, there are some discrepancies about whether and how he gets saved. Trying to solve this problem, in the present study a new proposal is made based on the comparison of the elements engraved in the relief and the Egyptian funerary iconography. From that, it is proposed that the shadow of the deceased would manage to escape from the jaws of the devouring monster that presides over the scene on the left thanks to the help of a psychopomp deity, identifiable with Egyptian Taweret. This figure, situated on the far right of the panel, illuminates with a torch the path of the deceased and moves him away from danger. After that, it ends by reflecting on the Egyptian influences assumed by the Phoenician-Punic population in Southern Iberian Peninsula.

Transportation System Simulation and Analysis in the North of Roman Carpetania. A gis and Network Analysis Approach

Fernando Moreno Navarro — 2022-07-29

This paper characterises how the territory of northern Roman Carpetania was articulated through its communication routes. In this case, we have approached this work from an innovative perspective away from traditional urban-centric ones. With this aim, we have carried out a transportation network simulation in the study area using GIS. The results for the main roads fit remarkably well with the Roman roads described in the ancient sources. This provides us with a high degree of reliability to analyse the articulation of the territory through secondary roads and rural paths. We have analysed the location of some characteristic settlements on the road network as well as the areas with the greatest accessibility using tools derived from network analysis. These analyses suggest that the villages and agglomerations present in the territory played a crucial role in the territorial articulation, mainly in those areas less covered by the municipal influence areas.

The Imaginary House: Uprooting and Treethrow Hollows in Open-Air Settlements from the Late Prehistory

Andrés Teira-Brión — 2022-07-29

Tree-throw hollows are on the commonest features founded in archaeological sites. Its origin could be either natural causes, the death and fall of a tree, or anthropogenic, related to the clearance of the forest. In recent times, radiocarbon dating has meant a breakthrough in the cultural definition of archaeological background in late prehistoric open air-settlements from north-western Iberia. However, some C14 dating has been validated without assessing the consistency between the results and the events they were intended to date. The aim of this work is deciphering chronological errors based in 1) a misinterpretation of some late prehistoric dwellings in NW Iberian Peninsula, and 2) an inadequate methodology of recovering of archaeobotanical remains used for radiocarbon dates. The reinterpretation of some archaeological features as three-throw hollows can shed light on this problem and push us to reconsider the theories about the domestic spaces of the Northwestern Iberia.

The First Pottery Traditions in the Vinalopó River. Provenance and Technology of the Neolithic Ceramics from Colón Street, Number 3, of Novelda (Alicante)

Miguel del Pino Curbelo — 2022-07-29

The process of Neolithic expansion was associated with the dissemination of a range of both socio-economic and technological ideas. Among the latter, pottery allows us to observe different traditions based not only on the raw materials used, but also on the different forms of production. This paper analyses these two variables as a means of approaching the social practices of the first communities settled in the Vinalopó valley (Alicante). Based on the ceramic record of the flat settlement documented in Colón Street (Novelda), analytical techniques have been selected that allow us to observe different ways of making pottery in order to characterise not only these early pottery productions, but also the management of the surrounding space and the relationship with neighbouring regions and human communities.

New Evidences of Post-Palaeolithic Rock Art in Las Merindades (Burgos)

Eduardo Sainz-Maza — 2022-01-27

The NW of Las Merindades, Burgos, was an area with little presence of post-palaeolithic rock art, unlike other areas in the southern part of the Cordillera Cantábrica, such as the neighbouring region of Campoo-Los Valles, Cantabria, and the Karst Complex of Ojo Guareña, in Merindad de Sotoscueva, Burgos, despite sharing similar geographical characteristics with both places. Thus, the main objective of our research was aimed at solving this lack. For this, an intensive survey was used as a method, focused on a series of areas defined from a predictive model of archaeological potentiality, created through the application of Geographic Information Systems –GIS–. As a result, 14 new open-air rock art stations were documented, attributable to the recent prehistoric period, which would be added to the 5 stations of this chronology already known in the studied sector. This makes the Alto Ebro one of the regions with the highest concentration of post-Palaeolithic art in the Iberian Peninsula.

A new Roman Pavement from Baetica: the so-called ‘Dolphin Mosaic’ from Naeva (Cantillana, Seville)

Sebastián Vargas-Vázquez — 2021-06-30

We analyse a mosaic recently discovered in the ancient city of Naeva, whose chronology could be dated to the 3^rd century AD due to its stylistic peculiarities and the data derived from the study of materials that show the abandonment of the building in which this mosaic pavement is framed at the end of that century. The work also explores the main peculiarity of the mosaic, which lies in its formal aspect, as it covers the entire surface of the impluvium and the rim of a well, of a colonnaded atrium possibly belonging to an important urban domus. The theme represented in the mosaic, which is richly polychrome, combines the elements of water and earth through the representation, located on the floor, of abundant fish fauna and a unique scene of satyrs and maenads framed in an environment of thick vines, developed around the well’s rim. To all this we should add the dramatic nature of the whole, caused by the water and the possible flooding of the centre of the atrium, prepared to contain a sheet of water at certain times, which would make this marine scene more realistic.

On an Unusual Female Head from Italica (Santiponce, Seville)

David Ojeda — 2021-06-30

A previously unpublished female head, which decorated the residential area of the Hadrianic extension of Italica, was found in excavations carried out by A. Parladé in 1929/1930 in the proximity of the House of the Neptune Mosaic. Its most particular characteristic is that the upper part was formed by a separately worked segment of hair. This head is the first to be documented in Hispania made with this technique, in which a tenon is located in the back of the head. As it is an unusual technique, other examples in the Empire of similar characteristics are detailed in a list. Finally, a series of arguments are given to date the object in the second quarter of the 2^ndcentury AD and include it in the group of ideal heads made during that time in Italica.

The Voice through the Horn. The Documentary Paradigm of Carnyx

Gabriel Sopeña Genzor — 2021-06-30

Both Greek and Latin literary sources also as Celtic iconography show the great relevance of the carnyx –as a paradigm of the feritas, in the general view of Hellenes and Romans– and as an exponent of the decorum, for the natives themselves. This way, the ancestral Celtic bronze war horn –as well with the peculiarity of the Celtiberian trumpets in clay– exhibits a defining archaeological and symbolic relevance connected to the ideology and the ethos of these people of protohistoric Europe. The discoveries of the 21st century allow the reconstruction of some prototypes that show a certain musical potential, of course only in our contemporary terms, beside their prominent and primal military purpose, of warning and intimidation. The zoomorphic decoration of their speakers characterizes these unique pieces in the History of Organology: a defining trait related to their function as translators of a sacra dictio in the sacrificial panorama of the Celtic war sphere.

Who is buried into the Phoenician Male Anthropoid Sarcophagus of Gadir (Cádiz)?

M.ª Milagros Macías López — 2021-06-30

The unexpected discovery of the Sidonian anthropomorphic sarcophagus in 1887 raised great expectation among the population and the authorities of Cadiz, as well as contemporary specialists. Thus, many researchers became interested in the study of both the sarcophagus and the skeleton found inside. The skeleton was presumed to be male as the representation sculpted on its lid presaged. The purpose of this work is to evidence that the exhibition of the skeleton and the piece’s continuous transfers caused the irremediable deterioration of the remains over time as it was reported by scholars and the replacement of the original bones for others. Additionally, we aim to determine the sex of the buried individual by analyzing photographs taken during the coffin opening and the first anthropological studies carried out in the immediate years after the discovery before the replacement of the skeleton. Despite the difficulties, we believe to have enough evidence to propose that, in contrast to the widespread perception, the original remains could correspond to an individual of the female sex.

Early Iron Age ‘black’ glass in Southwestern Iberia: typology, distribution, and context

Francisco B. Gomes — 2021-06-30

In the past few years, deeply colored black-appearing glass has garnered a growing interest in the context of research on Iron Age glass technology and trade. The numerous ‘black’ glass beads found in Early Iron Age contexts of Southern Portugal have not however been considered in this discussion, and they remain largely unsystematized. In this contribution, a typological survey of these objects is presented which highlights their unusual concentration in a well-delimited area of Southern Portugal and their relatively circumscribed chronological setting. This is particularly striking when compared with other groups of beads, namely blue beads of various types, which are much more widespread and long-lasting. The global position of these beads is also considered, with typological comparisons and the few available compositional data suggesting that they may be the product of Punic, and perhaps specifically Carthaginian trade with the Western Iberian Peninsula. Finally, the possible specific historic context in which these beads arrived in Southern Portugal is considered.

Mediterranean and Atlantic. Archaeometallurgy of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age from the settlement El Morred

Paloma Aranda-Contamina — 2021-06-30

The excavations carried out between 2002 and 2004 at El Morredón, a Late Bronze and Early Iron Age site located in the Huecha valley, Zaragoza, have enabled the site to be revised and its unpublished materials to be studied using new techniques and methodologies. The metallic repertoire of the site is identified with a set of domestic objects, mostly made of bronze, of a reduced typology, in which decorative objects predominate, followed by weapons and working tools. In order to determine the composition of the metallic materials, X-ray fluorescence –XRF– analyses were carried out. The presence of two different alloys has been documented: Cu-Sn binary bronze and Cu-Sn-Pb ternary bronze. This composition points to possible connections with the Lower Ebro and, in turn, with the Southern Meseta, Levante or Andalusia, while the typology of some pieces seems to be linked to the Atlantic or Central European Bronze tradition. The metallurgical production that took place in the settlement itself is another example of the confluence of Mediterranean and Atlantic traditions, which is becoming increasingly clearer and more intense in this area.

The Use of Vegetal Mats as a Building Material: Evidence from the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late

María Pastor Quiles — 2021-06-30

In this paper we present diverse archaeological evidence of a building aspect that has not been addressed up to now by the research on the Late Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula and little known in general: the use of vegetal woven mats integrated in structures as just another construction material. These have been recovered from various prehistoric sites from the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula through the study of daub fragments. The main evidence comes from the chalcolithic site of Les Moreres (Crevillente, Alicante), along with other signs coming from five enclaves, the Neolithic site of Los Limoneros II (Elche, Alicante) and those of the Bronze Age Caramoro I (Elche, Alicante), Cabezo del Polovar and Terlinques (Villena, Alicante), as well as Lloma de Betxí (Paterna, Valencia). Those findings highlight the highly informative potential of hardened mud pieces and the necessity of considering more elements as prospective building materials from Prehistoric dates.

Visibility as a Locational Factor in the Megaliths of Southern Galicia

Miguel Carrero-Pazos — 2021-06-30

The analysis of the visual role of ancient monuments has a long tradition in the archaeological field, being one of the most important applications of GIS methods today. This paper analyses the visibility as a locational factor in the megaliths of Monte Penide and Serra do Galiñeiro, using Geographic Information Systems and spatial statistics. The research aims to analyse if it was the view from the mounds, the view to them, or a joint explanation among both factors, the element which determined the spatial value of the megalithic structures. To this end, the geographic territory in which the megaliths are located –visualscapes– and the horizon lining of the landscape is analysed; a study of the size of the visual basins of the megaliths and the visibility from the natural transit routes is also carried out. The results point out the complexity of this locational variable which, with high probability, was crucial in the choice of the location of the megalithic barrows. We argue that a homogeneous visual presence of the megalithic mound may have been one of the elements that marked the conformation of spatial structures in Neolithic communities, i.e. their territories.

Pottery decoration in the Neolithic of Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tetouan, Morocco). AGRIWESTMED Works 2012

Rafael M. Martínez Sánchez — 2021-06-30

Here we present the study of the pottery remains from the Neolithic phase of Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Mechrouha, Tetouan, Morocco), focused on the analysis of decorative patterns and techniques. In its early phase, its association with the first evidence of agriculture and livestock in the western Maghreb, framed in the third quarter of the 6^th millennium BC, is noteworthy. A variety of impressions are dominant in the decorations, those made with striated and smooth shells, combs, and cowry. The use of these techniques could include these first ceramic productions within the impressa-cardial complex of central-western Mediterranean Europe. An advanced phase, assigned to the Middle Neolithic, includes a group of ceramics with strong analogies and connections with the so-called Ashakar Ware, of notably different technical and stylistic features. These include the use of coloured slip and the application of roulette-corded impressions, suggesting a link with former traditions specific to the Sahara territory.

Dance Scenes in the Levantine Rock Art of Bajo Aragón and Maestrazgo: A Critical Synthesis

Neemias Santos da Rosa — 2021-06-30

From the beginning of the research on Levantine rock art a series of scenes have been interpreted as representations of dances. This article aims to check the likelihood of this identification as dances by analyzing the corpus of scenes as such in the stylistic province of Bajo Aragón and Maestrazgo. Using the theoretical concepts and methodological approaches put forward by the Archaeology of Dance, we examine the scenes according to an explicitly defined set of criteria. These criteria refer to the individuals that participate in the dance and to the type of dance. As a result of our analysis, we conclude that only five out of the thirteen scenes published as dances present features that fit the parameters needed to represent this activity. Among the accepted scenes we identify one individual dance, two dances with couples and two collective dances. We argue that dance scenes seem to have been represented predominantly in the last chrono-stylistic periods of this rock art tradition.

Analytic summary

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrvs — 2021-06-30

Index

Secretaría de redacción Zephyrvs — 2021-06-30

Aquae pluviae et caducae. Drainage and Waterproofing Systems to Avoid Surface Runoff in Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain) and Mirobriga (Santiago do Cacém, Portugal)

Jesús Acero Pérez — 2022-01-27

This work focuses on a hardly analysed issue in Roman urbanism studies, namely the drainage of runoff water from streets and public areas. We present the cases of two cities located in the province of Lusitania, Augusta Emerita and Mirobriga, each one representative of two different urban layouts, which are here compared. The first case, the provincial capital, was a Roman colony founded ex novo which had an underground sewer network designed along with the orthogonal city plan. The second, Mirobriga, developed from a pre-Roman oppidum, was a secondary town that did not have a proper drainage infrastructure, that resulted in both rain and wastewater flowing through the paved streets. While the first case study offered a wide range of drains to carry the runoff to the sewers, the second case produced different waterproofing structures designed to protect the buildings from the excess of water flowing on the surface.