Manuela Martins

RAW MATERIAL SOURCES FOR THE ROMAN BRACARENSE CERAMICS (NW IBERIAN PENINSULA)

The Bracarense ceramics are characterized by a fine, pale yellow paste covered with a brownish yellow slip. The name is derived from Bracara Augusta, the Roman town located in the north of Portugal, where this type of ceramic paste was first found and identified. Various forms with the same type of paste occur, such as imitations of sigillata, terra sigillata and thin walls from the Augustus-Tiberius period, and common ware. Later, similar ceramics were also found in other archeological sites, e.g. Aquis Querquennis (Galiza, Spain), which question the location of the production center of this type of ceramic paste.Mineralogical and chemical analyses showed that the majority of the Bracarense shards studied differ from the common ware of the Braga region. Despite minor differences, the Bracarense shards collected in Aquis Querquennis have the same geochemical pattern as those found in Bracara Augusta, i.e. they appear to have been manufactured with the same clay type. The firing products found indicate a kaolin character of the source clay, and point to firing temperatures near 900°C. The Aquis Querquennis shards have greater Br contents, which can be explained by use-wear and/or post-depositional processes, as this site is located in a thermal-water region.

The use of traditional and computer-based visualization in archaeology: a user survey

Visualization methods are commonly used during the successive stages of the archaeological process. However, it is difficult to determine which methods are more intensively used in each stage and, also, which stage of the archaeological process is more demanding regarding visualization needs. Within a broader questionnaire regarding the use of computer tools, archaeologists were inquired about their use of traditional and computer-based visualization methods during the different stages of the archaeological process. The main survey results concerning visualization methods are presented and briefly analyzed.

A fundação de Bracara Augusta no contexto da politica de Augusto. Urbanismo e povoamento rural

Este trabalho pretende analisar o processo de fundacao de Bracara Augusta relacionado com a estruturacao do espaco urbano e com a reorganizacao do territorio rural, usando para o efeito o vasto acervo de dados fornecidos pela arqueologia das ultimas decadas. Para alem da analise do contexto pre-romano, serao analisados os dados disponiveis sobre a malha urbana fundacional, bem como aqueles que se articulam com a reorganizacao do povoamento no territorio envolvente da cidade. Pretende-se igualmente refletir sobre o papel desempenhado por Bracara Augusta na evolucao das comunidades indigenas da regiao bracarense, decorrente da sua integracao no Imperio e da reorganizacao da Hispânia empreendida por Augusto.

Visualization of ERT data for archaeological purposes

This work presents a visualization methodology for the correct comprehension and interpretation of ERT data by archaeologists. The authors developed a methodology based not only in colour mapping and slicing techniques but also on contouring and interaction procedures, obtaining an alternative to the traditional 2D pseudosection data visualization workflows. The implementation was carried out with the Visualization Toolkit from Kitware Inc. and is illustrated using two data samples: the first one was obtained on a hillfort in Boticas (Portugal) and the second one was acquired on an urban archaeological intervention in Braga (Portugal). CCS Concepts •Human-centered computing → Visualization; •Computing methodologies → Volumetric models; •Applied computing → Archaeology;

Entre o público e o privado. Cenários do quotidiano na domus das Carvalheiras

A domus romana provincial constitui um contexto privilegiado para analisar a adocao dos modelos arquitetonicos e construtivos classicos, a riqueza das elites urbanas e o quotidiano familiar, que se estruturava nas multiplas relacoes de sociabilidade entre os membros da familia, entre o paterfamilias e os seus clientes, ou entre a familia e os servicais. A casa era tambem o contexto onde se definiam e afirmavam diferentes identidades, bem como a estatuto social da familia. Tendo por base a domus das Carvalheiras, o unico exemplar de casa romana de elite totalmente escavado em Braga, procuraremos proceder a uma analise da sua arquitetura, tendo em vista compreender os seus custos de construcao e caracterizar os diversos espacos onde se desenvolviam as relacoes de sociabilidade do agregado familiar.

Feature enhancement from electrical resistivity data in an archaeological survey: the Sapelos hillfort experiment (Boticas, Portugal)

The PoPaTERVA project is developing applied research regarding the comprehension of the multi-layered cultural background of the Terva Valley Archaeological Park, in Boticas, Portugal. One of the main aspects focused on the project is the appliance of remote sensing techniques to enhance non visible archaeological features. An earth resistance tomography (ERT) survey was carried out at the Sapelos hillfort, by the specialized SINERGEO geophysicist’s team, using a Wenner-Schlumberger array. The resulting data was analyzed by the authors in order to extract and verify valid archaeological features regarding the settlement’s structures. There are several adequate systems that can be used to visualize the surveyed data (x, y, z, Ω). However, the authors preferred the open source Visualization Toolkit (VTK) from Kitware Inc., since it supports several visualization and modelling techniques that are useful for interpretation purposes in archaeological contexts: for instance, it is possible to represent the archaeological site as a virtual scale model, which can be freely manipulated. For the Sapelos hillfort, two distinct visualizations were developed to represent the acquired electrical resistivity data. The first one is used to create a comprehensive volume from the surveyed data, which is imported as structured 3D points and mapped into a 3D volume. However, this representation does not provide the necessary insight for analysis purposes, so a second visualization is needed to cluster the relevant data for archaeological research. This visualization is based on contouring algorithms that generate isosurfaces from scalar resistivity values (Ω), therefore enhancing the features with potential archaeological interest.

Substrato cultural das etnias pré-romanas do Norte de Portugal

This paper considers the contribution of various sources (written, inscriptions, linguistic and archaeological) in order to define the cultural and ethnic boundaries of Protohistor (Late Bronze Age/Iron Age) in the North of Portugal. After examining the available sources for the region, they are analised separately, presenting a picture of settlement suggested by the written sources and also discussing the contribution of linguistics in order to define the ethnic picture of ihis part of the Peninsula. The results provided by the most recent archaeological research (undertaken in the 1980s) permit a proposition concerning the cultural evolution of the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age to be put forward. It evaluates various aspects of the material culture, settlements, metallurgy and pottery, presented within chronological frameworks. Finally, the problems arising by using different sources are discussed, in view of the difficulty oj correlating the archaeological evidence with the social, ethnic and linguistic units.