The object of our study will focus only on the beginning and the development of travel writing. This way of describing the events, places and customs experienced during a journey is the starting point of ancient history, geography, ethnology and cartography.
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The boar on the seal from the Museo Arqueológico Nacional shows the originality of this countermark device on the obverse of Clunia issue. The animal is neither erect nor in motion but lying with its legs under its body. The lying posture seems to bear no relation to portrayals from the legionary milieu as found on seals, emblems, standards, and so forth. This unprecedented countermark device, struck only on the obverse, is associated with an image on the reverse of the coinage showing the animal’s cranium. The image has always been described as a «boar’s head», although its shape and detail depict the animal’s skinless skull. No plausible explanation has been given. What is certain is the relationship between the two types, always paired, the former on the obverse, the latter on the reverse. The two countermarks were struck at Clunia in the spring of 68 CE in the context of events culminating with Galba’s acclamation. They represent the whole series of propitiatory rites, from initial animal sacrifice, with victim depicted prone, to the ritual banquet that wraps up the ceremonies, where the skinned skull is trophy and loot. The countermarks’ application exclusively to Clunia issue shows that the events of spring 68 CE directly involved not only the legionary milieu, which was responsible for Galba’s acclamation, but also the whole community of citizens called upon to take active part in the political process.
The Valsadornín Treasure, found in 1937 next to the old road linking the Palencia towns of Valsadornín and Gramedo, is one of the most important archaeological testimonies of the insecurity suffered by the Roman Empire in the middle decades of the 3rd century. It is a bronze pot containing thousands of coins, all of them Antoninian, hidden or lost around 270 AD.
Once the whole was assigned to the Museum of Palencia, the vessel, incomplete but still with a significant number of coins attached, was deposited in the National Archaeological Museum (MAN). In 2016-2018 it underwent restoration and various analyses aimed at its study and better conservation, in an institutional collaboration between the Museum of Palencia, the MAN and the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (IPCE). Prior to its return to Palencia, it was presented to the public in MAN’s Showcase ZERO between October 2018 and January 2019.
The re-reading of two Roman imperial countermarks, preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid (figs. 4-5), allows us to clarify and update what is known about the types related to the Legio X Gemina in the Hispanic area: two of them (B-C) are already included in the bibliography, but interpreted incompletely and not related to each other; moreover, a new specimen of type B (fig. 3) confirms the use of archaic cursive spelling for the letter E, in the form of II, and makes the two types B-C unique for the epigraphic customs of the imperial countermarks of the E, in the form of II. 3) confirms the use of the archaic cursive spelling for the letter E, in the form of II, and makes the two types B-C unique for the epigraphic customs of the Roman imperial countermarks.
This article provides some details on specific aspects of the Roman quarries of Almadén de la Plata, focusing on the relationship they may have had with the pagus Marmorariensis, the attempt to identify them with the Mons Mariorum mentioned in an ancient itinerary, their relationship with the statio serrariorum Augustorum documented in Italica and the problem of the inclusion of the quarries in the Patrimonium Caesaris. The hypothesis of a Severan building project in Italica is also raised.
Recensión.El vientre controlado es la publicación de la tesis doctoral de Patricia de los Ángeles González Gutiérrez leída en julio de 2015 en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y dirigida por
el profesor Carlos González Wagner. El trabajo ha sido revisado y modificado para su
publicación como libro en una editorial que se dedica a temas feministas pero que tiene un
claro perfil de investigación de la Antigüedad.
This article is a comparative study of the theme of the hero’s struggle against the sea monster. On the one hand there is the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and the aquatic family of the sacred city of Eridu, and, on the other, the translation and actualisation of the theme through the trials or Labours of the Greek hero Heracles. Both worlds conceive the quest for Immortality through a journey to the Beyond. The heroic journey will have its destination in the sacred island of Dilmun on the Babylonian side and in the Garden of the Hesperides on the Greek side. Despite the similarities, there are also notable differences due to the religious conceptions of the two peoples.
This paper deals with the history of research on the Greek presence in Iberia during the 20th century. It analyses the historical idealism and what we could call the philological archaeology of the works of Schulten, Obermaier, Carpenter and Bosch Gimpera in the first half of the century, the great figure of García y Bellido, the positivist archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s, led by Gloria Trías, the new excavations carried out in the 1980s, and the new approaches of the 1990s, in which an attempt is made to reconstruct the history of this process from the point of view of the consequences that this commercial action had on the economic, social and political development of the communities involved in the exchange with the Greek world.
Los vasos de la tumba 43 de Baza forman un conjunto homogéneo no sólo cronológicamente, con unafecha hacia mediados del siglo I v sino iconográficamenteya que, sin repeticiones, reunen las tres escenas más frecuentes en los vasos áticos procedentes del mundo ibérico andaluz. En este trabajo propongo una lectura y una interpretación iconográfica conjunta para las tres grandes crateras. Unos vasos cuyo fin fue, desde el momento de su adquisición, exclusivardentefunerario. Sus imágenes, desde la mirada ibérica, pudieron interpretarse como modelo y expresión del imaginario de la muerte: los caballos psicopompos, el banquete del Más Allá o la plenitud en lo divino del ámbito dionisíaco.
In this paper we present an ascus made around 300 BC in the Apulian city of Canosa. This vase belongs to the group of so-called ‘Scylla ascos’. The upper part of the ascos is decorated with the plastic figure of this sea monster, described in the Odyssey, which devoured sailors trying to avoid the whirlpool of Charybdis. The iconographic programme of these vessels alludes to the journey to the afterlife through evil; for in the Surithalic world Scylla is a daimonfunerario who leads the souls of the deceased to the Isles of the Blessed.
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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