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October 2010 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (99)
Following a complementary non-invasive analysis including satellite and aerial imagery, as well as UAV-based photogrammetric and LiDAR surveys, this paper presents and discusses the Roman military evidence identified at Alto do Golado (São Pedro do Sul) and Modedufe (Lamego). Though the archaeological remains of these sites have been partly noticed...
Recent advancements in remote sensing and artificial intelligence can potentially revolutionize the automated detection of archaeological sites. However, the challenging task of interpreting remote sensing imagery combined with the intricate shapes of archaeological sites can hinder the performance of computer vision systems. This work presents a c...
The increasing relevance of remote sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) for archaeological research and cultural heritage management is undeniable. However, there is a critical gap in this field. Many studies conclude with identifying hundreds or even thousands of potential sites, but very few follow through with crucial fieldwork validation to...
Geospatial data acquisition methods like airborne LiDAR allow for obtaining large volumes of data, such as aerial and satellite imagery, which are increasingly being used in archaeology. As in other subjects, the ability to produce raw datasets far exceeds the capacity of domain experts to process and analyze them, but recent developments in image...
The collaboration between the Concello de Larouco and the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidades of the Xunta de Galicia made it possible to set in motion a series of actions from 2020 to the present day for the investigation and valorisation of the archaeological site of O Castrillón, an Iron Age fortified settlement located at the conf...
This paper discusses the archaeological research and historical contextualisation of the Alto da Raia enclosure located on the border between northern Portugal and Galicia, identified as a possible Roman camp, following an interdisciplinary and multi-proxy approach. This included archaeological excavation, remote sensing and geophysical survey, as...
This study presents a new tridimensional perspective on Castelo Velho de Safara (Moura), one of the great walled settlements of the Iron Age/Roman Republic by the Guadiana River, obtained through a high-resolution survey using a drone integrated with a LiDAR sensor. The outline of the walls was defined in more detail, which meant revising the occup...
This paper provides a brief summary of some activities and results obtained within the framework of two research projects, IberianTin and Gold.PT, which are partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT-MCTES). The projects focus on the mining and metallurgy of tin, bronze, gold, and silver in the Western Iberian Pen...
[ES] Este trabajo sintetiza la investigación desarrollada por el colectivo Romanarmy.eu desde la celebración del anterior Congreso Internacional de Estudios sobre la Frontera Romana en 2015. Durante este periodo de tres años, se ha consolidado la metodología para la documentación y estudio de asentamientos militares romanos con recurso a la teledet...
In the Esla basin (provinces of León and Zamora), the absence of material evidence of the Roman army contrasts with the development of some episodes of warfare highlighted by classical authors. Several military fortifications located with remote sensing techniques that may represent a meeting point between both sources are analysed in this paper. W...
The Castelos (Beja) and Laço (Serpa) sites are part of a Late Bronze Age settlement network, made up of various fortified settlements on the banks of the Guadiana River and other types of settlements in the surrounding area.
Their plans and areas of occupation have been poorly documented, with only the identification of a few sections of ramparts a...
The recent availability of a systematic airborne LiDAR coverage for England in the scope of the Environment Agency's 'National LiDAR Programme' has enabled the mapping of a new Roman road network system in South West Britain, an area where there was little solid evidence for a system of long-distance roads. To understand the rationale behind their...
We present three sites in NW Iberia with examples of archaeological material related with tin mining and metallurgy attributed to the first millennium BC, studied in the frame of the IberianTin project.
Mapping potential archaeological sites using remote sensing and artificial intelligence can be an efficient tool to assist archaeologists during project planning and fieldwork. This paper explores the use of airborne LiDAR data and data-centric artificial intelligence for identifying potential burial mounds. The challenge of exploring the landscape...
GIS are an essential element in archaeology. Their use has become widespread for their potential to store, reference, analyse and visualise spatial information. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, a systematic review of academic peer-reviewed publications related to the use of GIS, as a framework, in archaeology has never been presented befo...
The present work aims at the archaeological characterisation and historical contextualisation of two large enclosures recently located through remote sensing in the Laboreiro Mountain on the border between Portugal and Galicia: Lomba do Mouro and Chaira da Maza. Ancient written sources, remote sensing, archaeological survey, and absolute dating wil...
This paper presents a comprehensive study of the evidence for ancient tin mining at the Ervedosa mine (Vinhais, Portugal). The geological context of the site indicates a rich cassiterite (SnO2) deposit, which was subject to mining in the twentieth century. Some ancient mining and ore processing stone tools were recovered during the twentieth centur...
The remains of a new Roman temporary military camp were located in Castrocontrigo/Castru, in La Valdería (León) in 2018. This note first presents the methodology used for its location and documentation by remote sensing techniques (from airborne LiDAR data and aerial photography). Subsequently, a description is given of the recognised evidence, com...
Este traballo presenta os resultados preliminares da intervención arqueolóxica desenvolvida en 2022 no Castelo do Faro, o xacemento arqueolóxico situado a maior altitude da provincia de Pontevedra (1148 m s.n.m.). Este recinto fortificado non se caracteriza pola monumentalidade das súas estruturas arqueolóxicas ou pola abundancia de cultura materia...
A new perspective on the Crespa Castle (Serpa), one of the great walled settlements of the Late Bronze Age by the Guadiana River, was obtained through microtopographical survey of the area using a drone and LiDAR technology. The plan of the walls was defined in more detail, which meant revising the occupation area, now estimated at circa 24 acres....
Preséntanse os indicios de sete sitios arqueolóxicos localizados a partir de ferramentas de teledetección na provincia de Lugo. Con diferentes niveis de certeza, proponse a súa interpretación como asentamentos militares de carácter temporal vinculados á presenza do exército romano neste territorio. Ao tempo, a análise da súa morfoloxía e das decisi...
Archaeology Workshop at the Department of Classical Studies at Duke University funded by an Exeter-Duke Initiator Grant. December 1, 2022.
Papers by Ioana Oltean, João Fonte and Alicia Jiménez.
This paper addresses an experimental approach to the archaeological study of Roman camps in NW Iberia using ground-penetrating radar (henceforth GPR). The main goal is to explore the capabilities of GPR to extract datasets from ephemeral features, such as temporary camps or siege works, among others. This information aims to maximise the data avail...
In the ancient region of southern Callaecia (mainly consisting of northern Portugal
and southern Galicia), early Roman-native contacts were established from the 2nd
century BC onwards, triggering the emergence of oppida. The increasing centralisation
of power in Iron Age society in the period between the campaign of Decimus Junius
Brutus (138–136 B...
Findings of Iron Age metallurgical activities related to tin metal and mining are very rare. In the present work, we present a detailed study of the Outeiro de Baltar hillfort, dated to the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period, located in a place where 20th century tin mining work took place. Elemental and microstructural analysis by portable, micro an...
EN: In recent times, archaeology has undergone a process of methodological renewal
related to the incorporation of many digital tools and resources. The increasing use of Geographic Information Technologies (GIT), the open-access to geospatial datasets (aerial photography, satellite imagery, LiDAR), the popularisation of new technical equipment –su...
This paper presents an algorithm for large-scale automatic detection of burial mounds, one of the most common types of archaeological sites globally, using LiDAR and multispectral satellite data. Although previous attempts were able to detect a good proportion of the known mounds in a given area, they still presented high numbers of false positives...
A new Roman military site was recently detected in Galicia, Spain, an area where the army presence had been challenging to trace until date. O Penedo dos Lobos is a playing-card shaped camp with very distinctive, fortified entrances. The archaeological survey conducted on this site in the summer of 2018 allowed us to recover some elements of Roman...
Northwest Iberia can be considered as one of the main areas where tin was exploited in antiquity. However, the location of ancient tin mining and metallurgy, their date and the intensity of tin production are still largely uncertain. The scale of mining activity and its socio-economical context have not been truly assessed, nor its evolution over t...
Generally seen as natural peripheries, upland landscapes present particular challenges both in terms of living, and of recording past human activity within. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology has now brought considerable improvement in our ability to record and map surviving archaeological features, but not necessarily increased our app...
O planalto dos Chões de Alpompé, em Santarém, foi, pelo menos desde os anos 50 do século XX, alvo de numerosos trabalhos de prospeção e até de campanhas de escavação e acompanhamento de obras agrícolas. Tais trabalhos proporcionaram a recolha de inúmeros materiais arqueológicos, muitos dos quais já publicados, que deixam antever uma relevante ocupa...
Sixty-six new archaeological sites have been discovered thanks to the combined use of different remote sensing techniques and open access geospatial datasets (mainly aerial photography, satellite imagery, and airborne LiDAR). These sites enhance the footprint of the Roman military presence in the northern fringe of the River Duero basin (León, Pale...
A PENAPARDA (A FONSAGRADA, LUGO - SANTALLA, ASTURIAS): ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF A ROMAN CAMP IN THE WESTERNMOST
AREA OF THE CANTABRIAN MOUNTAINS
This paper presents the results of the archaeological campaign carried out in 2017 at the archaeological site of A Penaparda, a playing-card shaped Roman camp (ca. 10 ha) located on the border between A Fo...
Unevenly distributed in Europe, tin, which is indispensable for the production of bronze, is abundant in Western Iberia. This wealth is already known to classical authors, but only the Late Bronze / Iron Age mine of Logrosán (Cáceres, ES) has been excavated to date (Comendador et al. 2017; Rodríguez Díaz et al. 2016). At the same time, analyses of...
Resumo: No sítio de As Muradellas, Espanha, encontrou-se uma escória composta essencialmente por estanho (Sn) e tungsténio (W) duma possível plataforma de processamento metalúrgico que, juntamente com os teores de Sn analisados em sedimentos colhidos in situ, sugere, embora sem absoluta certeza, que este local terá sido minerado para o estanho na a...
Os recursos em estanho (cassiterite), encontram-se confinados a determinadas zonas do Ocidente Europeu, sendo os depósitos de cassiterite da Península Ibérica dos mais extensos. Na Idade do Bronze deu-se a adoção da liga de cobre e estanho (bronze), passando o estanho a ser valorizado como um material estratégico.
O projeto IberianTin (PTDC/HAR-AR...
Traditionally, the study of the Roman military presence in Galicia (Spain) and Northern Portugal has been based on the fragmentary documentation offered by Greek and Latin authors or epigraphy, with archaeology occupying a very secondary place in these historical narratives. In particular, the information is very scarce for the period between the 2...
GIS-based digital modelling tools, such as the well-known least cost paths (LCP), have been widely used in archaeology in recent years as ways of approaching forms of mobility in the past. Roman roads are among the best-known examples of ancient networks of paths and have been widely studied using such approaches. In this paper, we shall make a gen...
González Álvarez, David; Costa-García, José Manuel; Menéndez Blanco, Andrés; Fonte, João; Álvarez Martínez, Valentín; Blanco-Rotea, Rebeca and Gago Mariño, Manuel (2019): La presencia militar romana en el noroeste ibérico hacia el cambio de era: estado actual y retos de futuro. In: Vallori Márquez, Bartomeu; Rueda Galán, Carmen y Bellón Ruiz, Juan...
[EN] In the extreme northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, several Roman camps have been discovered in recent decades. Most of these sites are mainly related to Augustus' wars against indigenous communities, called Cantabri and Astures by ancient authors. The aim of this article is to present some of the archaeological sites recently discovered in the...
Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data is increasingly distributed freely for ever larger territories, albeit usually in only low resolution. This data source is extensively used in archaeology; however, various remains of past human activities are not recorded in sufficient detail, or are missing completely. The main purpose of this paper is to presen...
Menéndez Blanco, Andrés; Costa-García, José Manuel; González Álvarez, David; Álvarez Martínez, Valentín and Fonte, João (2018): «Los campamentos romanos de Cueiru y El Xuegu la Bola na vía de La Mesa. Resultaos de la campaña del 2016». In: León Gasalla, Pablo (ed.), Excavaciones Arqueológicas en Asturias 2013-2016. Oviedo: Consejería de Educación y...
Provenance and production of tin in the Ancient World has since long been a major topic of discussion among archaeologists. In Western Europe, where significant tin ore (cassiterite) deposits are known, only a few remains of ancient tin production, such as tin slags, have been detected. In the present work, elemental and microstructural analyses by...
Lino Tavares Dias e António Baptista Lopes referem a existência de um acampamento
militar romano no alto da Serra do Marão, definido por um recinto rectangular, ao qual estaria associado uma torre de planta quadrangular. Este possível acampamento foi como tal identificado por uma inscrição gravada sobre um penedo que se localiza nas proximidades on...
Com este trabalho pretendemos apresentar três novas zonas mineiras auríferas e estanhíferas de época Romana no alto vale do Tâmega (concelhos de Montalegre e Boticas, Norte de Portugal). Através de uma metodologia interdisciplinar, integrando diferentes métodos e técnicas arqueológicas, geológicas e geoespaciais, realizamos uma análise e caracteriz...
El castro de Outeiro Lesenho (Boticas, norte de Portugal) es el único poblado fortificado de la Edad del Hierro en el Noroeste Peninsular en el que han aparecido cuatro estatuas de guerreros galaicos. Todavía persisten algunas dudas sobre la procedencia de las mismas, debido a que estas no fueron encontradas en contexto arqueológico y también porqu...
The northwestern Iberian Peninsula has been well known for its mineral wealth since classical times, including for gold and for tin. In fact, the Iberian tin belt is the largest in western Europe (covering an area of c.200,000 km2), containing tin deposits that were accessible from ancient times. Nevertheless, few archaeological studies have been d...
En los últimos años hemos asistido a un incremento exponencial del número de evidencias arqueológicas relacionadas con la presencia del ejército romano en el noroeste peninsular. En este trabajo analizamos un conjunto de recintos identificados en el oriente gallego mediante el empleo de una metodología específica que aúna técnicas de teledetección...
Poster presented at AARG 2017 conference in Pula, Croatia.
Resumo: Pretendemos com este trabalho dar a conhecer um possível assentamento militar romano localizado na vertente Oriental da serra da Padrela: o Alto da Cerca (Valpaços, Portugal). O uso de uma metodologia não-invasiva permitiu-nos caracterizar arqueologicamente este sítio e diferenciá-lo em relação à rede de povoamento local. Tendo em considera...
The aim of this paper is to dig deeper in order to gain a better understanding of the territorial logic of Roman roads, following some recent approaches based on the use of digital modelling tools. Taking the case of the so-called via XVII (a ca. 330 km itinerary which joined Bracara Augusta and Asturica Augusta, NW Iberian Peninsula), the paper ex...
During the Portuguese War of Restoration (1640–1668), a series of fortifications were built along the Spanish-Portuguese border. The archaeological study of these sites combines different disciplines (landscape archaeology, archaeology of architecture, geospatial technologies, and documentary studies), with the aim of recovering the record of an an...
A collection of 35 metallic artefacts comprising various typologies, some of which can be attributed to the Bronze Age and others to later periods, were studied to provide detailed information on elemental composition, manufacturing techniques and preservation state. Elemen- tal analysis by micro-EDXRF and SEM–EDS was per- formed to investigate the...
Wattle hurdles and structures made of wood were frequent and commonly covered with clay at Iron Age sites of Northwest Iberia. The perishable nature of wood has conditioned the preservation of indirect evidences of such fences and structures. Several clay fragments with branch and trunk imprints recovered at the site of Castro de S. Vicente da Chã...
