Santiago Riera

University of Barcelona | UB · Section of Prehistory and Archaeology

El Mercat del Born s’assenta sobre sorres del front deltaic del marge dret del riu Besòs, en el seu límit occidental, en una zona topogràficament deprimida coneguda com la Ribera. Els elements morfològics que confinen aquesta depressió són: els materials neògens del Mons Taber per l’oest, el Quaternari antic pel nord i la barra litoral pel sud-est,...

Using the skeletal remains as the center of gravity and combining the explanatory power of: (1) newly developed methods (isotopic and geometric morphometrics analysis); (2) different theoretical approaches (archaeozoology, taphonomy, bioanthropology, paleopathology); and (3) documentary and archaeological evidence, MonBones project delves into the...

Funerary cremations in Roman times were important rites of passage that involved the use of fire to accompany the dead into the afterlife. In the present study, we investigated the wood fuel that was used to build cremation pyres and the foodstuffs involved in offerings and funerary feasts in a necropolis of Barcino (present-day Barcelona), dated t...

This is the accepted version of the chapter "Landscape Archaeology in Eastern Pyrenees high mountain areas (Segre and Ter valleys, Northeast Iberian Peninsula): Human activities in the shaping of Mountain Cultural Landscapes", included in the volume Archaeology of Mountain Landscapes. Interdisciplinary Research Strategies of Agro-Pastoralism in Upl...

Woodlands are especially important spaces for city fuel provisioning. During Roman times urban centres carried out numerous activities with frequent wood-energy requirements, and as a result, they potentially impacted the composition of the surrounding forests. Considering this premise, this study discusses the wood fuel economy and the configurat...

The Mediterranean Basin is a global biodiversity hotspot, and oak tree species play an important role in it. Since the beginning of the Holocene (~11.4 kyr BP), the distribution of forests has not occurred uniformly, resulting in diverse types of vegetation landscapes. In this study, we used a maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt) to obtain the ecolog...

Bird remains recovered from two trial pits and a rubbish dump dated from the 14th to 19th centuries AD at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes in Barcelona (northeast Spain) are studied. The variety of avian taxa is low, with domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus) clearly dominating the assemblage. The age at death and the sex profile data s...

This work presents the first remains of a peacock (Pavo cristatus Linnaeus 1758) discovered in an archaeological context in Catalonia. It is a well‐preserved animal (14 remains of an adult female) located in medieval levels – datable to the 13th century (1210‐1278 cal. AD) at the site of Carrer de Sotstinent Navarro, in the city of Barcelona. We pr...

Woodlands were very important spaces for fuel-supplying in the past. In particular, in a Roman city there was a frequent wood-energy requirement due to the presence of many activities and facilities: from domestic heating and kitchens, to the widespread thermae, as well as several workshops (i.e. pottery, metallurgical and glass productions), baker...

Estudi de les restes d'au a una de les cases del conjunt arqueològic del Born CCM, Casa Corrales

Plant-based raw materials as wood or seeds/fruits were fundamental to the economy of settlements in antiquity, as they provided construction material, timber, fuel and food. In particular, in a Roman city there were many activities and facilities that required fuel according to a recurrent use of fire: from domestic heating and kitchens, to the wid...

Funerary rituals were an important part of the Roman cultural identity, as they represent, with a precise set of rules and practices, the passage from the world of livings to the deads. In this sense, fire played a significant role, as a mean for cleansing the body and the soul of the deceased through cremation, as well as for cooking funerary banq...

Carrión JS, Munuera M, Ochando J, López-Sáez JA, Casas-Gallego M, Gonzá-lez-Sampériz P, Badal E, Pérez-Díaz S, Carrión-Marco Y, Jiménez-Moreno G, López-Merino L, Burjachs F, Abel-Schaad D, Fernández S, Morales-Molino C, Alba Sánchez F, Peña-Chocarro L, Barrón E, Postigo-Mijarra JM, Gil-García MJ, Rubiales JM, Vidal-Matutano P, Aranbarri J, Ramos-Ro...

Aquest article presenta els resultats de l’estudi combinat de les anàlisis bioarqueològiques, paleoambientals i d’arqueologia del paisatge realitzades durant les excavacions del projecte PALAP a la ciutat de l’edat del bronze a Palaikastro, Creta oriental. L’estudi va indicar que la zona ja estava ocupada al neolític i va permetre conèixer l’entorn...

L’any 2020, el Reial Monestir de Pedralbes ha posat en marxa un ambiciós projecte de recuperació de l’Hort Petit del Monestir, amb l’objectiu de recuperar l’estructura històrica i tornar a posar en funcionament una producció hortícola amb finalitats museístiques i formatives. Paral·lelament, s’ha iniciat un projecte d’estudi de la dieta de la comun...

This paper examines agriculture, farming and dietary resources in east Crete, and re-evaluates the role of grape and olive in its prehistoric economy, these being key in debates on the emergence of social complexity. To do so bioarchaeological, paleoenvironmental and landscape survey data from the Bronze Age town at Palaikastro and its territory ar...

Results from the wood charcoal analysis of a Medieval and Post-Medieval structure in the Barcelona city centre are presented. The anthracological assemblage reflects, plausibly, the fuel composition used in the site and informs us about the woodland exploitation during the period considered. Data reveal high percentages of oak species in almost all...

La ciutat de Barcelona està estretament vinculada al mar i per tant, la seva història està associada a la morfologia i als canvis del seu front marítim, que configuraren diferents espais portuaris. El present treball aborda l’evolució del front litoral barceloní amb l’objectiu de caracteritzar i localitzar les àrees per a fondejar els vaixells amb...

A Barcelona, a més d’estudiar l’arquitectura pública i privada, en el marc del pla Bàrcino de l’estudi de la ciutat, s’han realitzat anàlisis bioarqueològiques multidisciplinàries, donat que l’aplicació d’estudis arqueobotànics ha estat subratllat com a una font d’informació imprescindible en l’estudi dels jardins. Així, seguint enfocaments d’altre...

Fecha de aceptación de la versión definitiva: 26-06-01 BIBLID [0514-7336 (2002) 55; 283-309] RESUMEN: En un trabajo anterior presentamos los resultados de una prospección intensiva en la comar-ca de La Armuña. En este nuevo estudio se procede a una interpretación detallada de los datos. Tras el tra-bajo de campo se observa que no existen indicios d...

Dins del projecte Pla Bàrcino del Servei d’Arqueologia de l’Institut de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona, entre els anys 2012 i 2018, s'ha dut a terme diverses intervencions arqueològiques a les finques del carrer Sotstinent Navarro 12-16 i Baixada de Caçador 8. Aquest punt coincideix amb la zona d’extramurs de la muralla i les torres romanes 2...

Environmental and landscape archaeologies have been mainly applied to the analysis of rural spaces, but these approaches have been scarcely applied to urban and suburban contexts where the study of archaeological structures and materials still prevails. However, these suburban spaces are characterised by their dynamic and transitional nature. This...

The tell site ‘Plateia Magoula Prodromos’, a type site for the early Neolithic in Greece, is located in the broad alluvial plain of western Thessaly, central Greece. It was rescue excavated in the early 70’s. Regretfully, only short excavation reports with little contextual information are available, while the stratigraphy of a trench is the only p...

Dins el programa de Conservació Preventiva d' El Born CCM, una de les alteracions que més preocupen és la presència d' humitats estacionals que afecta l'espai arqueològic de manera discontinua i irregular. Finalitzades les excavacions, l'any 2002, comencen a detectar-se diferències de comportament del subsòl segons ens situem en zones de composició...

Una aproximació arqueomalacològica a l’estudi de sediments provinents del Rec Comtal (Barcelona). La intervenció del Carrer Dos de Maig-Plaça de les Glòries.- Els gasteròpodes terrestres i d'aigua dolça són elements d'aparició freqüent en jaciments arqueològics, però sovint no se'ls presta la suficient importància. L'arqueomalacològia és una discip...

On the east Mediterranean island of Crete, a hierarchical society centred on large palatial complexes emerges during the Bronze Age. The economic basis for this significant social change has long been debated, particularly concerning the role of olive cultivation in the island's agricultural system. With the aim of studying vegetation changes and h...

Paleoenvironmental and archaeological data show that Mediterranean landscapes result from long-term socio-environmental interactions. Mediterranean islands constitute a place of passage where the creation of cultural landscapes can be traced through colonization and anthropization histories. Palynological studies carried out in the Balearic Islands...

The Session has been included in the core Theme: “The archaeology of material culture, bodies and landscapes” and the organisers are: Dr. Santiago Riera, Carme Miró, Dr. Alexandra Livarda, Dr. Professor Anna Maria Mercuri and Dr. Jordi Nadal. Urban archaeology of the historical periods traditionally deals with standing buildings and artefacts to ta...

Urban archaeology of the historical periods traditionally deals with standing buildings and artefacts to tackle questions of economy, town development and urbanization, whereas it is more rarely that the focus turns primarily on organic material. Within the framework of the so-called environmental archaeology during the last decade or so, zooarchae...

Introduction Pollen analyses started to be more commonly applied to the study of funerary sites from the 60s onwards (Girard 1968; Roux 1967). The first such studies dealt mainly with collective prehistoric burials with the aim to identify pollen assemblages contained in sediments covering the corpses, with both palaeoenvironmental and cultural obj...

For centuries, one of the main challenges faced by the inhabitants of Barcelona was to ensure the provision of water to the city. Indeed, historical Bàrcino does not stand near a river although the historic core was bordered by seasonal streams. For this reason, during Roman period, a long aqueduct was built to transfer drinking water from the Besò...

Durant segles, un dels principals objectius dels habitants de Barcelona ha estat assegurar l’aprovisionament d’aigua a la ciutat. De fet, cal tenir present que el nucli històric de Barcelona no es localitza proper a cap curs d’aigua permanent natural. Per aquest motiu, amb la fundació de Barcino en època d’August, es construí un aqüeducte d’11,3 km...

Integration of geomorphological, stratigraphic, malacological, sedimentological and micropalaeontological techniques and 14C dating allows us to characterise the processes and evolution of the coastal barrier–lagoon system of Valencia (Spain), from the middle Holocene to the historical epoch, as well as the responses to global climate events. Four...

We present a palaeoenvironmental study of the Castelló lagoon (NE Spain), an important archive for understanding long-term interactions between dynamic littoral ecosystems and human management. Combining geochemistry, mineralogy, ostracods, diatoms, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal and archaeo-historical datasets we reconstruct: 1) the tra...

Stratigraphic comparison of zone boundaries defined by the different proxies. (TIF)

Elemental concentrations of studied bulk elements. (TIF)

Location of cores obtained in this study (a-e) and previous existing cores (f). (DOCX)

This study presents the results of a multi-proxy analysis conducted to improve our understanding of the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the freshwater and brackish marshes of Cal Maurici (Barcelona, Spain) and the human impact on them during the mid-Holocene (6171–3891 cal. yr BP). The study integrates data from pollen, phytolith, diatom, charcoa...

L’any 2009, en el marc del 850è aniversari de la fundació del Reial Monestir de Santes Creus que s’havia de commemorar l’any 2010, el Museu d’Història de Catalunya va plantejar com a objectiu estratègic la restauració escultòrica del panteó reial de Santes Creus. Aquesta actuació tenia com a objectiu resoldre les deficients condicions de conservaci...

(http://www.pyrenae.com/home/index.php?lang=ca)

This paper presents the interdisciplinary study of the recent prehistory occupations (Neolithic and Early Bronze) found during the construction of El Liceu's new conservatoire, In Barcelona's El Raval district. Occupational remains correspond to a settlement with traces of combustion structures and other support elements. It emphaises the preservat...

This study presents the results of a multi-proxy analysis conducted to improve our understanding of the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the freshwater and brackish marshes of Cal Maurici (Barcelona, Spain) and the human impact on them during the mid-Holocene (6171–3891 cal. yr BP). The study integrates data from pollen, phytolith, diatom, charcoa...

The Countrasts Bog (1400 m a.s.l.), located in the western part of the Mont Lozère medium mountain, has been the object of an interdisciplinary study combining multiproxy analyses which includes pollen, nonpollen palynomorphs (NPP), macrocharcoal particles, sedimentology and geochemistry, with archaeological and archaeobotanical data. The high temp...

Le territoire de la Valentia romaine a été l'objet d'un nouveau projet de recherche, Valentia Landscape Project, qui vise à modéliser l'évolution du paysage culturel de Valencia de l'âge du Fer à la période moderne. Une grande partie du projet a porté sur la période romaine, car l'un des principaux objectifs est d'étudier les systèmes viaires et pa...

RESUMEN: Los restos de conchas recuperados en el yacimiento neolítico de la Caserna de Sant Pau del Camp (Barcelona) se caracterizan por un gran número de elementos del género Glycy-meris, muchos de ellos rodados por la actividad del mar. Por lo tanto, la mayor parte del regis-tro arqueomalacológico no tiene un origen alimentario. La comparación co...

The shell remains recovered at the ancient Neolithic site of Caserna de Sant Pau (Barcelona) are characterized by a large number of elements of the genus Glycymeris, many of them eroded by wave action. It is therefore surmised that the main part of the archaeomalaco-logical record does not have an alimentary origin. Comparison with current taphonom...

The Madriu–Perafita–Claror valleys (MPCV) (Eastern Pyrenees, Andorra) were the focus of a multidisciplinary microregional landscape research project that aimed to study the long term shaping of this UNESCO World Heritage Site in the category of cultural landscape. The study area is situated on a glacial modelled high mountain environment ranging fr...

Es presenta una nova proposta d'evolució geomorfològica del front litoral barceloní, entre el mont Tàber i el parc de la Ciutadella, a partir de la integració de nova informació sedimentològica, datacions radiocarbòniques i dades arqueològiques. Aquestes dades evidencien l'existència d'una cala preromana al peu del mont Tàber que serà regularitzada...

The listing of the Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley (Andorra) as World Heritage Site in the category of Cultural Landscape by the UNESCO was predominantly based on material remains, landscape features and traditions of late medieval, modern and contemporary periods. By employing a multidisciplinary approach, an attempt will be made in this paper to co...