Reinterpreting chronology and society at the mortuary complex of Jebel Moya (Sudan)
Tell Barri/Kahat (al Hassake)
Author: Michael Jonathan Brass. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 92. ISBN 9781784914325.
The Jebel Moya massif is situated in the relatively under-explored southern Gezira Plain in the Sudan, approximately 250km south south-east of Khartoum and ca. 30km west of Sennar. The massif has a perimeter of ca. 11km. Its north-eastern valley was excavated by (later Sir) Henry Wellcome, the founder of the Wellcome Trust, over four field seasons from 1911 – 1914. Around a fifth of the estimated 10.4 hectares of the valley floor was excavated over four seasons, yielding a recorded 3135 human burials from 2791 graves. It is by far the largest and most intensively excavated cemetery anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
The archaeological and bioanthropological reports were published in 1949 and 1955 respectively. The vast majority of extant assemblages and the expedition records are curated at different institutions in the United Kingdom. The excavation cards and extant skeletal assemblages at the Duckworth Laboratory (University of Cambridge) together with a field diary from the second season’s field director, geological reports from the third and fourth seasons, a topographical survey map, Addison’s correspondences, plans of some of the burials excavated during the fourth and final season, cards describing artefacts and the photographic archive at the Griffiths Institute (Oxford) and the pottery samples at the British and Petrie Museums comprise the key materials curated in the United Kingdom. They have not been comprehensively re-evaluated, subsequent to the original reports, to determine the nature of social evolution at Jebel Moya.
Developments in archaeological inference and techniques provide a unique opportunity to re-orientate the published and extant material evidence within an updated interpretive framework on mortuary social organisation at Jebel Moya. The present work places the site’s different phases of occupation in secure temporal contexts to allow for informed social analysis of change over time. In particular, it focuses on questions of social organization and evaluates the nature of socio-political order in the southern Gezira Plain. Download (pdf)
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Taken from A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites by Raffaella Pierobon Benoit. Pages 304-308.
Tell Barri is located in western Jazira, on the left bank of the river JaghJagh, a tributary of the Habur. The river was fully navigable in antiquity and permitted easy communications as far as the Euphrates. The river supplied water, used not only for drinking but for crops and artisanal activities; cuneiform tablets provide evidence that fishing was also practised. This part of the Jazira was, in any case, favourable to settlements thanks to sufficient rainfall for the development of semi-arid agriculture. Its products, especially grains, combined with intense animal husbandry, notably sheep, formed the mixed economy that seems to have characterized all phases of the life of the site. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here. Download (pdf)
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Middle to Late Neolithic animal exploitation at UAQ2 (5500–4000 cal BC): an Ubaid-related coastal site at Umm al-Quwain Emirate, United Arab Emirates
Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46 (2016) by Marjan Mashkour, Mark Jonathan Beech, Karyne Debue, Lisa Yeomans, Stéphanie Bréhard, Dalia Gasparini & Sophie Méry. Pages 195-210.
The subsistence strategies of coastal Neolithic groups in eastern Arabia, reliant upon the exploitation of marine and terrestrial animal resources, are not yet fully understood. A central question in relevant literature is the issue of mobility. This is the reason for excavations in Umm al-Quwain (UAQ2), UAE, from 2011 by the French Archaeological Mission. UAQ2 is a site with obvious potential, occupied for 1500 years from the mid-sixth millennium BC. It has an area of approximately 6 ha with 3.2 m or more of imposing and unusual stratigraphy. A large quantity of faunal remains, including terrestrial and marine vertebrates, was recovered from UAQ2. The terrestrial mammals are composed mainly of domestic herbivores including caprines, cattle, and dogs. The most striking feature is the number of newly born and young animals among the small herbivores, a clear indication of occupation during late winter/spring. As for the fish bones, the following taxa were identified: requiem sharks, shark-suckers, marine catfish, needlefish, jacks/trevallies, milkfish, mojarra, emperors, snappers, mullet, flatheads, shortfin flounders, parrotfish, kawakawa, tuna, groupers, sea bream, barracuda, puffer, and tripod fish. These indicate that most fishing was carried out in the shallow lagoon area, but some fishing for tuna may have been carried out in the open seas beyond the local lagoon. Besides fish were also the remains of cuttlefish and swimming crabs. This assemblage provides new information on the mixed exploitation of inland and marine resources during the sixth to fifth millennium BC. The integrated study of the faunal remains contributes to the proposal of a possible year round residency, not excluding coastal mobility. The full volume is available in paperback here. Download (pdf)
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Ubaid-related sites of the southern Gulf revisited: the Abu Dhabi Coastal Heritage Initiative
Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46 (2016) by Mark Jonathan Beech, Kristian Strutt, Lucy Blue, Abdulla Khalfan al-Kaabi, Waleed Awad Omar, Ahmed Abdulla al-Haj El-Faki, Anjana Reddy Lingareddy & John Martin. Pages 9-23.
The Coastal Heritage Initiative of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) aims to investigate the rich maritime history of Abu Dhabi Emirate. Since the establishment of TCA Abu Dhabi in February 2012, a new phase of archaeological research has been carried out. Systematic mapping of sites, their integration into the Abu Dhabi geographic information system (GIS geodatabase of archaeological sites for the Emirate), as well as further investigations of key sites by both geophysical prospection and excavation have been undertaken. Recent work has concentrated on the Ubaid-related coastal sites on both Dalma Island (Jazīrat Dalmā) and Marawah Island (Jazīrat MarawaΉ). A combination of both magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) geophysical surveys, as well as follow-up excavations are discussed. These shed new light on the structure of Ubaid-related coastal settlements between the mid-sixth and early fifth millennium BC. The full volume is available in paperback here. Download (pdf)
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CAMERA KALAUREIA
An Archaeological Photo-Ethnography | Μια αρχαιολογική φωτο-εθνογραφία by Yannis Hamilakis & Fotis Ifantidis. 170 pages; illustrated in full colour throughout. Full text in English and Greek. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784914141.
How can we find alternative, sensorially rich and affective ways of engaging with the material past in the present?
How can photography play a central role in archaeological narratives, beyond representation and documentation?
This photo-book engages with these questions, not through conventional academic discourse but through evocative creative practice. The book is, at the same time, a site guide of sorts: a photographic guide to the archaeological site of the Sanctuary of Poseidon in Kalaureia, on the island of Poros, in Greece.
Ancient and not-so-ancient stones, pine trees that were “wounded” for their resin, people who lived amongst the classical ruins, and the tensions and the clashes with the archaeological apparatus and its regulations, all become palpable, affectively close and immediate.
Furthermore, the book constitutes an indirect but concrete proposal for the adoption of archaeological photo-ethnography as a research as well as public communication tool for critical heritage studies, today.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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A Dignified Passage through the Gates of Hades
The Burial Custom of Cremation and the Warrior Order of Ancient Eleutherna by Anagnostis P. Agelarakis. 24pp; illustrated throughout in colour. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784913847.
Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with a drómos into the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of “fossilized” behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of life’s journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes of ante mortem conduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of, post mortem life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times.
This book is also available to buy in paperback priced £8.00.
Access Archaeology: Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.
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Halaf Settlement in the Iraqi Kurdistan: the Shahrizor Survey Project Taken from The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions by Olivier Nieuwenhuyse, Takahiro Odaka and Simone Mühl. Pages 257-266.
The archaeology of the Halaf period has seen a very significant increase over the past decades. This recent work almost exclusively focussed on Northern Syria and Southeastern Turkey, or Upper Mesopotamia (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003; Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2013). As scholarship returns to Iraqi Kurdistan, prehistorians bring implicit expectations and assumptions that are shaped to a large extent by the latest work in Upper Mesopotamia. At the same time, the various new projects are taking up the challenge of adapting the existing models to local expressions of the Halaf cultural idiom (Altaweel et al. 2012; Bonacossi and Iamoni 2015; Gavagnin et al. (forthcoming); Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2016; Saber et al. 2014; Tsuneki et al. 2015; Ur et al. 2013). For the Halaf period, it is necessary to develop a fine-tuned chronological system that is sensitive to local internal sub-divisions in order to assess the significance of fluctuating site densities through time. The coarsegrained chronological framework currently available only permits a generalized slicing-up of later prehistory into ‘Pre-Halaf’, ‘Halaf’ and ‘Ubaid’. Such broad chronological boundaries may well turn out to be less significant if these long periods can be split into more nuanced images of change and continuity. The ultimate aim is to develop local frameworks based on explicitly described parameters so as to facilitate inter-regional comparisons (Ball et al. 1989; Dittmann 1992; Ur 2010, 214-5; Wilkinson and Tucker 1995). Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Current Investigations into the Early Neolithic of the Zagros Foothills of Iraqi Kurdistan Taken from The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions by Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Kamal Rasheed Raheem and Kamal Rauf Aziz. Pages 219-228.
One of the most significant transformations in history took place after the last Ice Age, from c. 12,000 BC (all dates calibrated BC), when human communities changed from being mobile hunter-foragers to more settled farmers and stock-keepers, with domesticated crops and animals. This Neolithic transformation was a fundamental development in the human condition across much of the world and led ultimately, through surplus accumulation and social differentiation, to the emergence of towns, cities, and empires, shaping the modern world. The full volume is available in paperback here.
In the Neo-Assyrian Border March of the Palace Herald: Geophysical Survey and Salvage Excavations at Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka (Peshdar Plain Project 2015) Taken from The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions by Karen Radner, Andrei Ašandulesei, Jörg Fassbinder, Tina Greenfield, Jean-Jacques Herr, Janoscha Kreppner and Andrea Squitieri. Pages 353-367.
The Peshdar Plain is situated in the province of Sulaymaniyah, district of Raniyah (also known as Raparin district), in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq, directly at the border with Iran on the upper reaches of the Lower Zab. The regional centre is the town of Qaladze (Qalat Dizeh), in the northwest of the plain, whose impressive settlement mound (36° 11’ 7” N, 45° 6’ 53” E) demonstrates that the site has held this position since antiquity. The Peshdar Plain Project was inaugurated in 2015 with the goal of investigating the region in the Neo-Assyrian period and focuses on two sites: tiny Gird-i Bazar (36° 8’ 18” N, 45° 8’ 28” E; henceforth Bazar), a shallow mound (altitude: 539 m) of only 1.5 ha situated in the plain, and the more impressive Qalat-i Dinka (36° 8’ 12” N, 45° 7’ 57” E; henceforth Dinka), looming high over the Lower Zab on the imposing terminal outcrop of a crescent-shaped mountain range along the northern river bank. This first report will briefly detail the geophysical survey (section 1) and the excavations (section 2) conducted in 2015 before introducing the bioarchaeological sampling strategy (section 3) and presenting a first assessment of the sites and more generally of the significance of our work in the regional setting of the Peshdar Plain and within the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its client states (section 4). The full volume is available in paperback here.
Magnetic investigations in the Shahrizor Plain: Revealing the unseen in survey prospections Taken from The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions by Simone Mühl and Jörg Fassbinder. Pages 241-248.
Prospection by magnetometer in urban environments outside the limits of excavation offers the possibility to unveil the layout of entire settlements, including street networks and residential and other architectural features, without the use of a spade. Questions about city planning, the use of built and open space and the organization of religious and other architecture at sites can all be addressed (cf. Fassbinder 2002; Fassbinder et al. 2005; Benech 2007). Magnetic prospections of sites in the Shahrizor Plain, which have been conducted since October 2013, have the potential to provide insights into the diachronic use of rural space in the region. This paper will focus on the results of investigations which were carried out at Gird-i Shatwan (bečuk – ‘the small mound Shatwan’; SSP-51 & 52), a small Parthian site in the rural environment of Wadi Shamlu in the center of the Shahrizor Plain. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Palmyra, 30 Years of Syro-German/Austrian Archaeological Research (Homs) Taken from A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites by Andreas Schmidt-Colinet, Khaled al-As‘ad and Waleed al-As‘ad. Pages 339-348.
The temple- or house-like tomb no. 36 is situated in the centre of so-called ‘Valley of the Tombs’. With about 18m length from edge to edge and about 300 graves (loculi), it is the largest representative of this palace-like type of tombs at Palmyra. The architectural decoration of the building allows a dating to about 210 to 230 AD. Furthermore the tomb can be attributed probably to the family of the famous Iulius Septimius Aurelius Vorodes. The documentation of the more than 700 fallen blocks of the ruin enables us to draw an exact reconstruction of the building. The architecture documents a fusion of different traditions as well as the grandiose will of the buildings commissioner: The palace-like facade of the entrance contrasts with the square, two-storey and uncovered peristyle courtyard in the centre of the structure. Design and metrology of the building reveal at every point Roman principles of design, brought into line with oriental taste. The themes and the stylistic evidence of the architectural sculpture prove close relations with foreign sarcophagi workshops on the Syrian coast and their connections to Roman art: Dionysos-Baalshamin sitting in the vineyards, nereids and erotes riding on dolphins, seamonsters holding a shell between them, victories,winged Medusas, tragic masks. On the other hand, the exceptionally rich architectural decoration of highest quality was worked out by local workshops and enables us to reconstruct pattern books which partly can be traced back to native textile patterns. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Satu Qala: an Assessment of the Stratigraphy of the Site Taken from The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions by Cinzia Pappi. Pages 297-307.
The view of historical developments within the area of Idu, identified with Sâtu Qalâ on the Lower Zāb in Iraqi Kurdistan (Van Soldt 2008), and its hinterland have so far been closely connected to available information on the imperial expansion of Assyria in the region. Through the support of the Directorate of Antiquities of the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq, an international team consisting of the universities of Leiden (2010-12), Leipzig (2010-14), the Salahaddin University of Erbil (2010-12), and the University of Pennsylvania (2013) was able to conduct several seasons of fieldwork at Sâtu Qalâ. Data from this fieldwork can now provide a much wider historical sequence for the settlement. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Tell el-Kerkh (Idlib) Taken from A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites by Akira Tsuneki. Pages 61-64.
Tell el-Kerkh is a large tell-complex located in the south of the Rouj Basin, Idlib province. It was occupied for long periods from the Neolithic to the Byzantine, however we concentrated our excavations on the Neolithic period. It is the oldest Neolithic settlement in northwest Syria, dating back to the middle of the 9th millennium BC. Therefore, the site provided us with data on how farming villages appeared in this region. Based on the excavated plant remains and animal bones, the subsistence of the people who first settled at Tell el-Kerkh seemed to follow the path from hunter-gatherers to farmer-herders. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Early Iron Age metal circulation in the Arabian Peninsula: the oasis of Tayma as part of a dynamic network (poster) Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46 (2016) by Martina Renzi, Andrea Intilia, Arnulf Hausleiter & Thilo Rehren. Pages 237-246.
The oasis of Tayma, located in north-western Arabia, between the Hijaz mountains and the great Nafud desert, was strategically situated on one of the branches of the main trade routes that connected southern Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea during the first millennium BC. During archaeological excavations at this site — a project carried out by a Saudi Arabian-German team — an architectural complex of public character dated to the Early Iron Age (eleventh–ninth centuries BC) was investigated in Area O, in the southwestern section of the ancient settlement. Among other finds, a significant concentration of luxury goods (i.e. objects made of ivory, wood, bone, and faïence) was discovered there, together with a few iron and several copper-based artefacts. Of this assemblage, fifty-eight copper-based objects have been analysed by portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), while sixteen have undergone trace element and lead isotope analyses. The objects chosen to be analysed included everyday items, such as rivets and fragments of rods, three small metal lumps, and a bracelet. The data on their elemental composition and lead isotope signatures combined to indicate that different metal sources were used, suggesting the existence of a highly dynamic metal trade in the wider region during the Early Iron Age. The full volume is available in paperback here.
Iron Age metallurgy at Salūt (Sultanate of Oman): a preliminary note (poster) Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46 (2016) by Michele Degli Esposti, Martina Renzi & Thilo Rehren. Pages 81-88.
Extensive excavations at the Iron Age site of Salūt, near Bisyā in central Oman, revealed a complex architecture, allowing the reconstruction of a long history of building activities and rearrangements. Among the discovered structures, none can clearly be associated to metal production, although a small vertical furnace could be tentatively interpreted as a metallurgical structure, possibly used for small-scale copper/bronze remelting. The presence of charcoalrich deposits, metal scraps, and stored broken objects in its vicinity also points in this direction. A selection of these items, together with some plano-convex ingots from other contexts within the site, has been analysed and the preliminary results are outlined here. The significance of this work is underlined by the current dearth of data on Iron Age metallurgy in the Oman peninsula, compared to comprehensive studies of Bronze Age metal production, when the land of Magan was widely renowned for its wealth of copper ores. Click on the PDF to read the full paper online, or download to your device. The full volume is available in paperback here.
The Crowded Desert: a multi-phase archaeological survey in the north-west of Qatar Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46 (2016) by Jose C. Carvajal Lopez, Laura Morabito, Robert Carter, Richard Fletcher & Faisal Abdullah al-Naimi. Pages 45-62.ISBN 9781784913632.
This paper introduces the conception, development, and results of the first campaign of the Crowded Desert Project, an archaeological survey of the area of Mulayhah (aka Mleiha), Umm al-Ma in north-west Qatar. The project
CAA2015. Keep The Revolution Going Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology edited by Stefano Campana, Roberto Scopigno, Gabriella Carpentiero and Marianna Cirillo. 1160 pages, illustrated throughout. Available both in print and Open Access. 229 2016. ISBN 9781784913389.
This volume brings together all the successful peer-reviewed papers submitted for the proceedings of the 43rd conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology that took place in Siena (Italy) from March 31st to April 2nd 2015.
This book is also available to buy in paperback priced £129.00.Off the Beaten Track. Epigraphy at the Borders Proceedings of 6th EAGLE International Event (24-25 September 2015, Bari, Italy) edited by Antonio E. Felle and Anita Rocco. vi+154 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784913236.
This volume contains the papers presented during the Meeting ‘Off the Beaten Track – Epigraphy at the Borders’, the sixth in a series of international events planned by the EAGLE, Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin
Access Archaeology: Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.
Structured Deposition of Animal Remains in the Fertile Crescent during the Bronze Age by José Luis Ramos Soldado. vi+58 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Access Archaeology . ISBN 9781784912697.
Although most of the animal remains recorded throughout the archaeological excavations consist usually of large assemblages of discarded and fragmented bones, it is possible to yield articulated animal skeletons in some cases. Most of them have been usually picked up from sacred and/or funerary contexts, but not all of them might fit necessarily in ritual and symbolic interpretations, and not all of the structured deposit of animal remains may be explained due to anthropic factors. In addition, zooarchaeology has traditionally focused on animal domestication, husbandry and economy, and species identification above all, shutting out further discussion about these type of findings. Moreover, the limited condition of the data is also another issue to bear in mind. Thus, the aim of this paper has been to draw up a literature review of the structured deposits of animal remains during the third and second millennia BC in the Ancient Near East for its subsequent classification and detailed interpretation. In this survey it has been attested that not only most of the articulated animal remains have been found in ritual and/or funerary contexts but also that all species recorded– but some exceptions–are domestic. Hence, I argue in this paper that there is a broad religious attitude towards the main domesticated animals of human economy in the Ancient Near East, based on the closeness of these animals to the human sphere. Therefore, it seems that domesticated animals were powerful constituents in the cultural landscape of these regions, never simply resources.
This book is also available to buy in paperback priced £20.00.
Access Archaeology: Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.Proceedings of ArcheoFOSS Free, libre and open source software e open format nei processi di ricerca archeologica: VIII Edizione Catania 2013 edited by Filippo Stanco e Giovanni Gallo. viii+274 pages. Illustrated throughout in black & white. Papers in Italian with English Abstracts. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784912604.
The VIII Workshop ArcheoFOSS, Free, Libre and Open Source Software e Open Format for archeological research, has been held in Catania, at The Department of Mathematics and Informatics of Catania University, on June 18-19, 2013. The workshop has been attended by about 60 Italian scientists and specialists of open source technology for cultural heritage and archaeology. During the workshop, several original contributions have been presented in well attended talks, followed by lively Q&A and open discussion among the attenders. The Workshop sessions have been organized around general themes: Usage and application of Geographical Information Systems; 3D modeling; Data Management. The papers related to oral contribution have been expanded, revised, peer reviewed and collected here according to the same themes. The contributed talks have been also complemented by 3D modeling and digital visual effects tutorials. A lively barcamp by covering the main issues related with the main topics of the conference has concluded the meeting. To organize and coordinate the event has been a gratifying experience for us. We have been much enriched by the long and constructive discussions and exchanges during the workshop as well before it, with all members of the Scientific Committee. Our hope is that the present collection of papers will provide readers and experts useful ideas and research perspectives beyond the people attending the workshop.
About the Oldest Known Christian Buildings in the Extreme South of Lusitania The Case of Quinta De Marim (Olhão, Algarve, Portugal) by Carlos Pereira. iii+23 pages; 8 plates, 2 in colour.ISBN 9781784912284.
Quinta de Marim (Algarve, Portugal) always aroused the interest of researchers, but the ignorance on this site insists on staying. We can confirm much of what has already been written and come up with new interpretations that provide a new understanding of the archaeological site, particularly on the Christianisation of the current Algarve region. The fourth century represents the pinnacle moment in which villae spaces become liable to be Christianized, motivating the construction of religious buildings, including examples found in Quinta de Marim, serving, perhaps, funerary purposes.
The Roman Necropolis of Algarve (Portugal) About the Spaces of Death in the South of Lusitania by Carlos Pereira. iv+21 pages; 8 plates, 6 in colour.ISBN 9781784912277.
We intend to disclose some of the results of the analysis of the spaces of death from Roman times that were excavated in Algarve for over a century. The conclusions obtained do not fit, as it is understandable, in a summary article on the topic. However, it is important to disclose some that denounce the status and religion of the people who inhabited the South of the Roman province of Lusitania.
We have particularly emphasised the problems related to the transition from the cremation rite to the rite of inhumation of the corpse and the possible visibility of the first signs of Christianity in the tombs of these necropoleis. Arguments that favour and refute either situation were weighed, which cannot be fully expressed here, but are better exposed in the doctoral thesis of the author.
Best Practices of GeoInformatic Technologies for the Mapping of Archaeolandscapes edited by Apostolos Sarris. iv+269 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white.ISBN 9781784911638.
New geoinformatic technologies have recently had a transformative effect on landscape archaeology, particularly by facilitating the high resolution acquisition and analysis of data over large areas. These techniques have fundamentally changed the nature and scope of questions that can be addressed
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