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Landscape plays a vital role in the development of military campaigns through the definition of geostrategic landmarks that structure the control of the territory, the imposition of constraints to the movement of armies, and the identification of positions that facilitate defensive tactics against aggressors. These factors are linked to the study of past spatial mobility which is typically performed using Least-Cost Path analysis (LCP). LCP identifies the optimal route that connects any two given points based on minimizing the accumulated cost based on a friction surface map, thus allowing archaeologists to identify the most efficient pathways across a territory. The main challenge of LCP analysis for archaeological regions is that optimal pathways are not well suited to define general mobility patterns within highly uncertain scenarios. Connectivity modelling based on Circuit Theory (CT) is an alternative approach to the study of mobility. CT does not generate a single path like LCP does; it captures the connectivity of an entire region identifying not only optimal paths, but also bottlenecks, dead-ends and any other spatial feature that may impact movement.We present here a framework to study landscapes of conflict using connectivity modelling; the framework combines CT, visibility analysis and statistical hypothesis testing to understand the reasons behind the assault and destruction of Puig Ciutat (NE Iberian Peninsula) during Julius Caesar's civil war. Results suggest that the site exerted decisive control over a highly connected area linking two possible logistical bases (Emporion and Massalia) to the armies fighting at Ilerda (49 BC).

This paper presents the results of the investigations carried out from 2009 to 2013 in the multi-period archaeological site of La Dou (Sant Esteve d’en Bas, Girona, Catalonia). The authors expose the strategy applied to create the surveys and results of the excavations conducted to verify and date the detected features. The site was discovered in 2005 in a rescue excavation due to the building of a road, revealing a group of firing pits and other stratigraphic remains of a rare Neolithic, open-air settlement, dated from the 5th millennium BC. In 2009, a team of archaeologists from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) created a project to expand the investigations to the cultivation fields surrounding the first findings. A magnetic survey was used to locate new archaeological remains and delimit the possible extents of the site. The results revealed a complex magnetic map that included several groups of anomalies interpreted as possible archaeological remains in an area of circa 2.4 ha. The attention of the team was then focused on a possible ditch detected in the survey and that was partially excavated. The excavation results and the C14 analysis expanded the chronology of the site until the Bronze Age, revealing an uncommon settlement that is still the object of investigations. Le document présente les résultats de la recherche menée entre 2009 et 2013 sur le site archéologique multi-période de La Dou (Sant Esteve d’en Bas, Girona, Catalogne). Les auteurs exposent la stratégie d’exploration appliquée et les résultats des fouilles menées pour vérifier et dater les structures détectées. Le site a été découvert en 2005 lors de fouilles préventives réalisées en raison de la construction d’une route. Elles ont révélé un groupe de structures de combustion et d’autres vestiges stratigraphiques d’un site Néolithique daté du 5e millénaire avant notre ère. En 2009, une équipe d’archéologues de l’Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) a créé un projet visant à étendre la recherche aux champs entourant les premières structures découvertes. Une prospection magnétique a été réalisée afin de localiser de nouveaux vestiges archéologiques et de délimiter l’étendue du site. Les résultats ont révélé une carte magnétique complexe qui comprend plusieurs groupes d’anomalies interprétées comme de possibles vestiges archéologiques dispersés sur une étendue d’environ 2,4 ha hectares. L’attention de l’équipe a été portée sur une structure interprétée comme un possible fossé et partiellement fouillée. Les résultats des fouilles et des datations au carbone 14 ont permis d’élargir la chronologie du site à l’Âge du bronze et de révéler un établissement humain rare faisant toujours l’objet de recherches.

Archaeological geophysics is a vital part of exploring and documenting cultural heritage. Three of the most commonly used techniques are magnetometry, resistivity, and ground penetrating radar. These methods help archaeological geophysicists to unravel the complexity of many archaeological sites, including urban ones, old buildings, and built structures of cultural importance. However, local factors, such as constraints on time, local environment, pre-existing available information, and budgets, all contribute to a given site requiring unique geophysical surveying strategies. Four Spanish-based, but generally applicable, case studies will illustrate key geophysical strategy types for particular local archaeological conditions.

Salamanca lies on the right bank of the river Tormes, a tributary of the Douro, on the northern sub-plateau of the Iberian peninsula (fig. 1). Although hardly mentioned in Roman historical sources, it is a reference point for work on Roman territory because the surveyor Frontinus (De Agrorum Qualitate [ed. Thulin 1971] 1–2) used Salmantica (in Lusitania) and Palantia (in Citerior) to exemplify ager per extremitatem mensura comprehensus, the system of land organization characteristic of stipendiary cities. Frontinus was writing in Flavian times, but the creation of ager mensura comprehensus in Lusitania occurred in the Augustan period, as is confirmed by remarkable epigraphic documentation. In N Lusitania, a total of 11 boundary-stones (termini Augustales) are known, nine from the reign of Augustus (and two of these provide explicit reference to Salmantica) and two from that of Claudius. The dates provided by Augustus’ tribunicia potestas allow us to date the surveying operations delimiting the urban territories to between A.D. 4–5 (the inscriptions from Peroviseu and Ul) and A.D. 5–6 (the inscriptions from Sao Salvador, Ledesma, Ciudad Rodrigo, and the new one from Jarandilla de la Vera). The Augustan ager mensura comprehensus may have conditioned the model of the subsequent rural settlement by creating a framework for territorial occupation being organized around the villa from the Flavian period on. The villa would dominate the rural countryside, until it disappeared around the first decades of the 5th c. as part of a process that can be associated with the breaking down of imperial authority and the arrival of the Germanic peoples in the year 409. Almost nothing is known about Salamanca’s territory during the Islamic occupation until the first official repopulation took place under the king of Leon, Ramiro II, in 939–49. The lack of attested settlements in the Douro valley between the 8th and 10th c. is a key question for the organization of the border area between the Islamic state of Al-Andalus and the kingdom of Leon, but scholars generally reject the thesis formulated in 1966 by C. Sánchez Albornoz, which tended to present the lands of the Douro valley as practically depopulated.

This paper presents the results of a multisystem survey using magnetometry and dual frequency ground-penetrating radar (GPR) carried out at the Iron Age Iberian site of El Moli d'Espigol, Tornabous, Catalonia, dated from the seventh to third centuries bce. The surroundings of the current urban area were explored with magnetometry in order to describe possible features related to the settlement. In the non-excavated part of the urban area was surveyed by GPR in order to describe the urban mesh. The interpretation of the data has allowed not only the identification of new areas of archaeological interest and priority action, but also the proposal of a new hypotheses on the evolution of the town planning and the defensive system of the site. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A ground-penetrating radar survey was conducted inside the Cathedral of Tarragona in order to explore the first 2 m beneath the ground surface. Initial processing and interpretation revealed a square perimeter related to a massive structure between 1 and 1.4 m below the ground surface. The results of the survey were used to test geostatistical tools by achieving a quantified data analysis and by filtering the data. The data analysis provided a description of the resolution and of the spatial distribution of the data. It included the characterization of the acquisition noise that was then filtered out by factorial kriging. This filtering technique allowed removing the acquisition noise, before the time-slice computation or any interpolation of the data, using weights of interpolation that are based on the spatial variations of the data. Having performed the filtering on the data at acquisition sampling allowed the use of optimized parameters for the visualization of the results, without having to remove remaining acquisition noise with the visualization operators. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction The paper presents the results of the use of alternative geostatistical and statistical methods to enhance visualization of the Tarragona Cathedral. These methods improve data homogeneity with time/depth, give alternative time-slice computation using other values than the mean value, and study the impact of the time-window thickness used when generating time-slices. The data used for the project was a GPR prospection of the cathedral accomplished in 2007 by Roger Sala and Ekhine ...

Introduction A 3D GPR investigation, combined with fluxgate magnetometer, has been carried out on a hill fort called Castro de la Magdalena in León (Northwest of Spain). The archaeological investigation started after remains of Celtiberian culture (dated from the first Iron Age) and a later Roman occupation were discovered in a town nearby. Figure 1: A shows the results of shallow excavations (15-30 cm) over the Roman settlement. B shows location of Roman villa and castro areas. C shows a sil...

The arenavirus Lassa is found in West Africa, where it sometimes causes a severe illness called Lassa fever. Lassa fever has been seldom investigated outside of a few hyperendemic regions, where the described epidemiology may differ from that in areas of low or moderate incidence of disease. Through a prospective cohort study, we investigated the epidemiology and clinical presentation of Lassa fever in Guinea, where the disease has been infrequently recognized. A surveillance system was established, and suspected cases were enrolled at five Guinean hospitals. Clinical observations were made, and blood was taken for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay testing and isolation of Lassa virus. Lassa fever was confirmed in 22 (7%) of 311 suspected cases. Another 43 (14%) had Lassa IgG antibodies, indicating past exposure. Both sexes and a wide variety of age and ethnic groups were affected. The disease was more frequently found, and the IgG seroprevalence generally higher, in the southeastern forest region. In some areas, there were significant discrepancies between the incidence of Lassa fever and the prevalence of antibody. Clinical presentations between those with Lassa fever and other febrile illnesses were essentially indistinguishable. Clinical predictors of a poor outcome were noted, but again were not specific for Lassa fever. Case-fatality rates for those with Lassa fever and non-Lassa febrile illnesses were 18% and 15%, respectively. Seasonal fluctuation in the incidence of Lassa fever was noted, but occurred similarly with non-Lassa febrile illnesses. Our results, perhaps typical of the scenario throughout much of West Africa, indicate Lassa virus infection to be widespread in certain areas of Guinea, but difficult to distinguish clinically.