Portugal (11th–13th centuries), using multi-isotope analysis to understand population dynamics during this complex conquest period. Skeletal remains from two key populations were analysed: the final Muslims buried in Loulé before the Christian conquest (necropolises of Quinta da Boavista and Hospital da Misericórdia) and the earliest Christians buried in Cacela-a- Velha following the Order of Santiago’s capture...
The consolidation of village life in the southern Andes implied profound transformations in human lifeways and in people’s relationships with the environment, plants, and animals. Contributions from archaeological sciences have the potential to shed light on these transformations, particularly by providing new information about patterns of food production and consumption. In this article, we present the first r...
The intersection of socioeconomic policies and health in archaeological contexts highlights how ancient societies’ structures, practices, and regulations influenced their people’s health and well-being. This study investigates the diet and health of a 13th to 15th-century Portuguese town, Estremoz, known for having royal privileges. By analysing human remains for physiological stress indicators and employing st...
In this article, we analyse faunal samples from the Late Neolithic (Layer 4) and Early Chalcolithic (Layer 3) levels of the fortified settlement of Leceia (Oeiras, Portugal) in order to understand the management of the feeding of domestic animals recovered in these excavations. Through the analyses of stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N in bone collagen, we aim to characterise the grazing systems and the maintenan...
Skeletal remains of two equid species, Equus caballus (horse) and Equus asinus (donkey), have been found in archaeological contexts throughout Iberia since the Palaeolithic and Chalcolithic periods, respectively. These two species play different economic and cultural roles, and therefore it is important to be able to distinguish between the two species to better understand their relative importance in the past ...
Anthracological analyses of charcoal samples retrieved from Pit 16 of Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal), a secondary deposition of cremated human remains dated back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, enabled the identification of 7 different taxa: Olea europaea, Quercus spp. (evergreen), Pinus pinaster, Fraxinus cf. angustifolia, Arbutus unedo, Cistus sp. and Fabaceae. All taxa are characteristic...
(village), with evidence of making wine and olive oil. During the archaeological campaigns of 2006–2007, a rectangular Roman lacus musti (must, grape juice, settling vat) was found, built with tegulae (tiles) and bricks and containing thousands of charred grape pips and skins. By using a stepwise linear discriminant analysis method, a morphological comparison was made of these archaeological grape pips and with...
Apresenta-se o contexto registado na Fossa 96 localizada no centro de uma estrutura cerimonial em madeira (“Timber Circle”) no coração do recinto de fossos dos Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz), a qual foi reaberta para a deposição de uma cabeça humana decapitada em época campaniforme, seguida de um reenchimento ao longo do qual se registou um conjunto de deposições e actos de comensalidade. São apresentados os...
Threatened benthic ecosystems need urgent tools for effective bioassessment and relevant management. EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) obligates member states to achieve GES (Good Environmental Status) for 11 descriptors of environmental state (MSFD; 2008/56/EC). From all of the descriptors, D4 that focuses on Food Webs is the most functional-oriented indicator, but also the most challenging to impl...
Castro Marim is an Iron Age site from the Algarve region, Portugal. The earliest evidence of settlement, from the Late Bronze Age, dates to the 9th century BCE, with the Phoenician-Punic period dating from the 7th to the 3rd century BCE. This study focuses on the stable isotope analysis of plant and collagen of faunal remains to reconstruct cultivation and husbandry practices. Barley was the most abundantly cul...