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EUForts is a database of European forts founded in Asia-Pacific between the 16th and 19th centuries. It includes the information about founding and successive cultural attributions, and exact locations of the forts produced specifically for this data set.

Historical narratives on Oceania have over the last two centuries mainly focused on the second half of the eighteenth century as the significant period of first encounters between Pacific Islanders and Western explorers. However, the first crossing of the region by Fernando de Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan) was in 1521. More importantly, it has been widely neglected that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese explorers navigated through parts of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, making regular landfalls and contact with many islands and archipelagos. The potentially devastating consequences of these early encounters (i.e., with interpersonal violence between natives and newcomers as well as the potential introduction of new deadly diseases) are well known for islands like Guam. They possibly also influenced the cultures and traditions of other archipelagos of Oceania before the better known voyages of Cook, La Perouse, and others more than 150 years later. Drawing on historical data and the scarcely available archaeological evidence, this paper aims to show that there is an urgent need to reconsider the early phase of Pacific-Western contacts as a key period in the shaping of the “traditional” indigenous cultural behaviors in parts of Oceania. This assessment has the potential to profoundly change our understanding of the ethnographical observations of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that have been produced and used in the last two centuries to define a baseline of the beginning of Western impacts on Indigenous societies in the region.

Despite being a perishable material, wood can nonetheless show in its full complexity the materiality of daily life activities, identity construction, economic exploitation, and adaptation in colonial processes. The study of two sets of wood samples in well-defined archaeological colonial contexts from the site of Heping Dao, on the northern coast of Taiwan, has unveiled otherwise unknown aspects of native exchange, adoption of indigenous practices, and differences and similarities between early European colonialism and Japanese imperialism in Asia-Pacific. Despite the constraints of taxonomic identification in subtropical (and tropical) areas, the use of different coniferous wood types has been recorded: Cupressaceae, cf. Chamaecyparis spp., cf. Cryptomeria japonica and cf. Cunninghamia spp. The paper highlights the close relationship between wooden objects and diachronic historical processes and stresses the complexity of their study in colonial contexts, with implications toward the prehistoric period.

The paper is an introduction to the study of European migration into Asia-Pacific through the case study of northern Taiwan. Here, several Spanish and Dutch colonial outposts were founded during the first part of the seventeenth century. Since 2011 and up to 2016 we have uncovered six burials of the cemetery of the Spanish colony of San Salvador de Kelang (Heping Dao, Keelung) (1626–42). The cemetery was associated with the Convento de Todos los Santos, Convent of All Saints, also discovered anew during our excavations. DNA analysis shows that at least one of the individuals was of European descent. This finding is unprecedented in Asia-Pacific within this early chronological framework. The archaeological evidence stands in contrast to the scarcity of contemporary written information relating to death and burials, both in Spanish and Dutch sources. We use the written sources to contextualize the archaeological data, inquiring about the life trajectories of the European colonists in Taiwan, people who truly lived in a global world. We aim to synthesize these data to create a documentary background for future research towards a better understanding of the European migration patterns into Asia-Pacific within cultural, biological, and demographic dimensions. This study offers a valuable contrast with research on the same topic elsewhere in the world., Unión Europea. FP7, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (MEC), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas / National Science Council of Taiwan, Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, University of Konstanz, Banco de Santander, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

The paper is an introduction to the study of European migration into Asia-Pacific through the case study of northern Taiwan. Here, several Spanish and Dutch colonial outposts were founded during the first part of the seventeenth century. Since 2011 and up to 2016 we have uncovered six burials of the cemetery of the Spanish colony of San Salvador de Kelang (Heping Dao, Keelung) (1626–42). The cemetery was associated with the Convento de Todos los Santos, Convent of All Saints, also discovered anew during our excavations. DNA analysis shows that at least one of the individuals was of European descent. This finding is unprecedented in Asia-Pacific within this early chronological framework. The archaeological evidence stands in contrast to the scarcity of contemporary written information relating to death and burials, both in Spanish and Dutch sources. We use the written sources to contextualize the archaeological data, inquiring about the life trajectories of the European colonists in Taiwan, people who truly lived in a global world. We aim to synthesize these data to create a documentary background for future research towards a better understanding of the European migration patterns into Asia-Pacific within cultural, biological, and demographic dimensions. This study offers a valuable contrast with research on the same topic elsewhere in the world.

Tras varios años de experiencia docente hemos podido comprobar cómo hoy en día la sociedad demanda cada vez más el acceso a una formación de calidad, siendo Internet y los MOOC (ofrecidos por diversas universidades nacionales y extranjeras) una de las vías de acceso a la misma. Es por ello que entre los objetivos a alcanzar con la presente propuesta ha estado el de diseñar un curso de formación masiva, abierta y en línea (MOOC), que aproxime de una forma dinámica y accesible al público universitario y general al conocimiento de Filipinas y el Pacífico; facilitando de este modo un acercamiento académico especializado al estudio de la región de Filipinas y el Pacífico.

We present the results of six years of archaeological work carried out in Heping Dao, Keelung, northern Taiwan. The site has revealed a rich archaeological record spanning a sequence that comprehends most of the history of Taiwan, including the most salient historical landmarks in it. The study of this long-term sequence of habitation in Heping Dao throughout prehistory to current times, allows us to attempt a historical archaeology of the longue duree of the place that in turn enables the establishment of comparisons between periods and raising of specific questions, among them: the general understanding of cultural transformation along the Neolithic and the Iron Age, and in turn the transition Iron Age/Aboriginal historic times in Taiwan, which in our view has to be observed as a history of continuity rather than of interruptions; the recognition of the Chinese presence in Taiwan in the pre-European period; the implantation of the European colony and its effects on the local populations; the differing material remains and impacts caused by the presence of pre-European Chinese and the Qing occupation; and the potential for a comparison between the European and the Japanese colonial projects as seen in the material record.

The history of the Asia-Pacific region since the 1500s has traditionally been told as one of stagnation and decline imposed by the superiority of Europeans, who also allegedly established capitalism and political and economic domination since their arrival, thus opening the era of “the Rise of the West.” In the last decades, however, there has been a rejection of the academic paradigm that placed Europe as the key player in the formation of a globalized, capitalist world. Since, ever-earlier world-systems have been subsequently defined in Asia, with particular attention paid to China’s economy. The relevance of this task can hardly be overemphasized: a decentralized global history is being delineated. Thus, the mechanisms by which European colonialism managed, eventually, to bend existing “world-economies” and resources to raise a truly global thriving exploitative economy must be made clearer. Asia-Pacific deserves, as much as any other region, a place in global history as one of the key players not only before Europeans landed there but also after (practically until the nineteenth century). In doing such historical and archaeological work, Western colonialism becomes a comparatively tiny event. This book aims to gather different disciplines and points of view to outline the development of colonialism in Asia-Pacific and its implications, and to shed light on relevant topics for a holistic understanding of the colonial processes.

This chapter argues that traditional historiography has overlooked the extent of early encounters between indigenous populations and Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By emphasizing only the eighteenth century as the time of the first relevant European presence in the Pacific, traditional historiography ignores the potential consequences of earlier encounters on local peoples. This historiographical absence is the result of several factors, and it has serious implications for the anthropological, archaeological, and historical understanding of the Pacific.

[EN] The Corpus of Levantine Rock Art [CARL] (1971-1976) is a compilation, as yet unmatched in quality, of color photographs and contextual information on three quarters of the paintings known in Mediterranean Spain. Our reconstruction of its genesis is based on published literature, archival records, and oral history (the last of these constituting a particularly important source for the history of science). Its formation by the prehistorian M. Almagro Basch and the photographer F. Gil Carles illustrates the institutional, personal, and economic context of research in the Franco era. We emphasize Almagro’s contributions in studying, documenting and protecting the art and in resorting to an external purveyor within a scientific project. Gil Carles’s training, his work and his innovative classification of the material (described here for the first time) made him Spain’s first heritage photographer. The article shows how the combined efforts of the two made the CARL the only systematic Spanish photographic archive built on an interregional scale and with explicit criteria., [ES] El Corpus de Arte Rupestre Levantino (1971-1976) es una recopilación de fotografías a color e información contextual sobre las tres cuartas partes de las pinturas conocidas en el arco mediterráneo español, cuya calidad todavía no se ha superado. La reconstrucción de su génesis se basa en bibliografía, archivos e historia oral cuyo valor para la historia de la ciencia se reivindica. La conexión de su trayectoria con las de sus creadores, el prehistoriador M. Almagro Basch y el fotógrafo F. Gil Carles, pone en evidencia el contexto institucional, personal y económico de la investigación durante el franquismo. Se destacan las aportaciones de Almagro en relación con el estudio, documentación y protección del arte y al recurrir a un suministrador externo dentro de un proyecto científico. La formación de Gil Carles, sus actividades y sistemática original de registro, presentadas aquí por primera vez, le caracterizan como primer fotógrafo español de patrimonio. El artículo expresa cómo la confluencia de ambas personalidades hicieron del CARL el único archivo fotográfico español a escala suprarregional sistemático y con criterios explícitos.

This chapter presents the theoretical framework and scientific questions behind recent archaeological investigations undertaken in the hitherto relatively under-researched Spanish colony in Taiwan, founded in the seventeenth century. Despite its potential role in subsequent global developments, this historical episode has been downplayed in mainstream literature on early modern colonialism. My emphasis is not so much on building a thorough presentation of the archaeological findings obtained (in progress), but on summarizing the main results while creating a narrative about the possibilities and constraints of archaeological research on colonialism in the Asia–Pacific region.

Se presenta una serie de experimentos con fotografía multibanda realizados en mayo de 1998 en estaciones de pintura rupestre levantina pertenecientes al conjunto del Barranco de la Valltorta (Castellón): Cova dels Cavalls y La Saltadora, así como un fragmento arrancado (posiblemente de Coves del Civil) que se conserva en el Museo de la Valltorta. El objetivo de estos experimentos fue explorar las posibilidades ofrecidas por los sistemas óptico/fotoquímicos de captación de imágenes en las regiones visible e infrarroja del espectro para la creación de imñágenes multibanda útiles en relación con varios problemas de investigación del arte rupestre y su conservación. Se recogen los planteamientos experimentales (selección de casos, equipamiento y material fotoquímico empleado) y se comentan algunos resultados en relación con la documentación no agresiva de las pinturas, seguimiento temporal del estado de conservación de los conjuntos rupestres al aire libre y análisis técnico de las pinturas., A series of experiments with multispectral photography carried out in May 1998 in Levantine rock art sites belonging to the Barranco de la Valltorta complex (Castellón, Spain): Cova dels Cavalls and La Saltadora, as well as a fragment torn off (possibly from Coves del Civil) which is kept in the Valltorta Museum. The aim of these experiments was to explore the possibilities offered by optical / photochemical imaging systems in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum for the creation of multiband images potentially useful in relation to various rock art research and conservation problems. The experimental approaches are presented (selection of cases, equipment and photochemical material used) and some results are discussed in relation to the non-aggressive documentation of the paintings, temporal monitoring of the state of conservation of open air rock art sites and technical analysis of the paintings.

En 1998 la UNESCO incorporó al Patrimonio mundial el conjunto del arte rupestre del arco mediterráneo español. Esta declaración resulta de un siglo de actuaciones para su investigación, documentación, conservación y puesta en valor público. Martin Almagro Basch, fundador y director del Instituto Español de Prehistoria (CSIC), entre 1971 y 1976, dirigió un proyecto de documentación integral de este arte con la participación del fotógrafo Fernando Gil Carles. El Corpus de Pintura Rupestre Levantina resultante (unas 2800 fichas arqueológicas y mas de 6000 fotografías) incluye 96 conjuntos rupestres de cinco comunidades autónomas que, a principios de los 1990, constituía la mas extensa serie existente. Su valor intrínseco es haberlos reproducido antes del deterioro reciente provocado por factores antrópicos y ambientales. El CSIC inventaría el CPRL, en 1992, entre sus bienes patrimoniales históricos abriendo paso a actuaciones para su conservación y a dos proyectos de investigación dirigidos por J. M. Vicent con participantes del CSIC y del Dpto. de Prehistoria de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Sus tres líneas principales han sido, (1) Bancos de imágenes digitales y sistemas de información (IDEArq. Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de Investigación Arqueológica. Arte rupestre. Corpus de Pintura Rupestre Levantina (CPRL) http://www.idearqueologia.org/index.php?ln=es, acceso 4-3-2024)., (2) Desarrollo y evaluación de técnicas documentales basadas en la imagen digital., (3) Desarrollo y evaluación de técnicas analíticas basadas en el proceso de imágenes multiespectrales digitales.

[EN] Adequate graphic recording has been one of the main objectives of rock art research. Photography has increased its role as a documentary technique. Now, digital image and its treatment allows new ways to observe the details of the figures and to develop a recording procedure which is as, or more, accurate than direct tracing. This technique also avoid deterioration of the rock paintings. The mathematical basis of this method is also presented., [ES] La correcta documentación del arte rupestre ha sido una preocupación constante por parte de los investigadores. En el desarrollo de nuevas técnicas de registro, directas e indirectas, la fotografía ha ido adquiriendo mayor protagonismo. La imagen digital y su tratamiento permiten nuevas posibilidades de observación de las figuras representadas y, en consecuencia, una lectura mediante la realización de calcos indirectos de tanta o mayor fiabilidad que la observación directa. Este sistema evita los riesgos de deterioro que provocan los calcos directos. Se incluyen las bases matemáticas que sustentan el método.

Moturiki is one of the high islands in the Lomaiviti Group, central Fiji. In this article we present exhaustive empirical information on archaeological survey and test pit excavations carried out in 2008 and 2010. An interesting archaeological landscape emerged, with 89 archaeological sites found on Moturiki and neighboring islands Yanuca Levu, Leleuvia, and Caqalai. The sites include ring-ditch villages, terraced villages, isolated house mounds (yavus), and burial sites. Results from one of the test pits on the southeast of the island indicate possible landscape changes in the last millennium, since the ancient coastline is currently buried at around 1 m below the surface. This lowland area has therefore received large amounts of sediment from higher areas, a likely result of human activity. We also documented remains from a previously recorded Lapita site in the island. Overall, a shift in the settlement patterns from the coast, to the interior areas, back to the coast, has been documented. This shift, taking place on extremely small islands, can hardly be explained by environmental changes. The article puts together our findings and hypothesis, as well as providing the emphasis of our methodological approach.

We argue in this paper that Levantine rock art in the Spanish Mediterranean basin allows us to ‘map’ the economic landscape of its makers. Rock art would be the ‘monumental’ side of a dual process of landscape construction: on the one hand, rock art is the first ‘cultural’ action on the landscape beginning in the Early Neolithic; on the other hand, the first evidence of active modification of the Mediterranean vegetation comes from this period. But this evidence as well as other kinds of archaeological remains are still relatively scarce in the uplands; rock art is therefore the most complete type of evidence we can use to support an early use of the Mediterranean upland environment. We use statistical and geographical analysis, together with archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources and pollen data, in order to support the idea of early use and exploitation of the Mediterranean uplands since the Neolithic, and into contemporary times.