Author: Diego Barrios

The Vetera Pondera in Hispania team has made a presentation of the project in the latest issue of the numismatic journal OMNI. In it we explain the objectives and the development of the project, but also a section where the information that can be obtained from the detailed analysis of the contexts in which the pieces were found is exemplified. These data are fundamental for understanding the development of weight systems in the Iberian Peninsula and how they were adopted by the indigenous population. Furthermore, it also allows us to understand the modifications that took place after the imposition of the Roman standard.

 

Access to the publication:  https://www.wikimoneda.com/OMNI/revues/OMNI17/OMNI17_6.pdf

 

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Os dejamos aquí el video donde podéis visualizar todas las conferencias realizadas en relación al I Congreso Internacional de Metrología Histórica aplicada

 

On 22-25 November, the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal) hosted a meeting focused on the presentation of archaeological research carried out in Portugal. This meeting was organised by the Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses and, as in previous editions, served to raise awareness of interesting projects such as those developed in Conimbriga and Braga.

On this occasion, the Vetera Pondera team in Hispania participated with a poster, where a first review of the ponderal objects found in the Roman city of Conimbriga was carried out. Thanks to this congress, we have been able to bring the project closer to the Portuguese scientific community and also to make visible the work carried out in the collections of the Monographic Museum of Conimbriga and of the Portugal Romano em Sico.

In addition, the proceedings of this conference have already been published including a chapter detailing the results presented in the poster: https://museuarqueologicodocarmo.pt/publicacoes/outras_publicacoes/IV_congresso_actas/Artigos/G03/Artigo3.21_IVCongAAP.pdf

On 16-17 November, a meeting was held at the Centro Español de Metrología (Tres Cantos, Madrid), focused on the presentation of studies on historical measurements (weight, length, etc.). This meeting was organised by the University of Cantabria and the research project Cartografía digital de los sistemas metrológicos en la Castilla Moderna (Ref. PID2020-118939GA-I00).

On this occasion, the Vetera Pondera team in Hispania participated with two communications. On the one hand, Dr. Cruces Blázquez Cerrato and Diego Barrios Rodríguez presented the project to the audience both in person and digitally. Afterwards, Diego Barrios Rodriguez made a review of the weights documented in Castilla y León, emphasising the results, but also the problems encountered in their documentation.

Thanks to this first congress, it has been possible to glimpse how the scientific community is interested in the study of the different measurement systems of all periods. Vetera pondera in Hispania hopes that in the future there will be further meetings like this one with a much wider participation.

The divulgation of the research results and knowledge of other specialists in this field is one of the main objectives of the project. For this reason, in November 2020 we took part in the III Congresso da Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses where we presented a poster. It contained a compilation and analysis of the Roman weights published in the territory corresponding to the ancient province of Lusitania. In this way, we carried out an analysis of the context of discovery, weight, material and morphology, among other aspects.

Weights found in Lusitania (Barrios, 2020: 1321, fig. 3).

This research was later expressed in a longer article published in the Proceedings of the Congress. In it, we provided information about the context in which each object was discovered. This analysis addressed the process of the conquest and the assimilation of Roman culture in Lusitania, where weights evidence a first period of adaptation.

Link to the paper: http://museuarqueologicodocarmo.pt/actas_ III_congresso.html

The Proceedings of the XVIII International Congress on Geological and Mining Heritage, which had been held in Ponferrada in September 2019, were published in late 2021. At this scientific meeting we presented a weight that had been found during the 2019 excavation fieldwork at the Segovian mining-metallurgical site of Cerro de los Almadenes. This was a centre for the exploitation and transformation of ore, mainly copper, where the Spanish Society for the History of Archaeology (SEHA) has carried out successive excavation seasons since 2009.

Weight found in Cerro de los Almadenes (Otero de Herreros, Segovia) (Barrios and Moncó, 2021: 23, fig. 3).

In this case, the weight is a truncated pyramid-shaped object that was found in a room next to a battery of furnaces. The first approach to the weight was complemented by a review of items known until then with a similar morphology and their relationship with mining contexts. The data examined allowed us to date it to between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, although it is possible that it remained in use until later dates. The interest of this object lies in the fact that it allows us to recognise the use of a system of weights in the Northern Plateau.

Link to article: http://www.sedpgym.es/publicaciones/actas-congresos

In 2019 we published in Hecate. Numismatic Journal a paper based on the analysis of a set of 7 ponderal ítems recovered at El Raso (Candeleda, Ávila). This settlement is located in the river valley of the Tiétar, a zone whith numerous sites dated during the last millennium BC have been documented, such as the habitat and necropolises in Pajares (Villanueva de la Vera, Cáceres) or the Castro del Freíllo and the necropolis of Las Guijas (Candeleda, Ávila). The ubication of El Raso on the southern slopes of the Sierra de Gredos has allowed us to understand the functionality of this site as a crossing point between the Northern Plateau and the fertile plains of the rivers Tajo and Guadiana, as evidenced by the numerous artefacts found in both regions.

Weight set found in El Raso de Candeleda (Ávila) (Barrios y González, 2019: 7, fig. 4). 

While we were doing the review of archaeological objects deposited in the Museo de Ávila to join in the corpus of the doctoral thesis of one the first author of the article, we identified three unpublished items. Therefore, we start their analysis, which has allowed us to understand how the society of the Castro del Freillo and their cultural and economic relationship was being outlined the significant influence arrived through the Vía de la Plata.

 Link to the paper: http://revista-hecate.org/files/6515/7728/7809/BarriosRodriguez-GonzalezHernandez.pdf