In a series of articles published between 1982 and 1993, Margareta Steinby put forward the hypothesis that brick stamps produced in Rome, especially those dating from Hadrian to Septimius Severus, constituted an abbreviated form of a locatio conductio, or contract for letting and hiring. According to Steinby, the hypothesis could also be used to explain the productive cycles represented by the stamps of other types of instrumenta domestica. This study builds on Steinby’s thesis to analyze Dressel 20 amphora stamps and the organization of Baetican figlinae. It explores oil amphora production in southern Spain through legal frameworks, focusing on lease and hire contracts. Case studies of public and private facilities demonstrate diverse production models. The analysis shows Steinby’s theory is broadly applicable, highlighting Roman law’s flexibility in shaping various industries beyond amphora manufacturing.

This analysis focuses on a young female portrait enclosed within an eight-pointed frame, located in the upper zone of a wall fragment discovered among a substantial assemblage of painted plaster within the fill of the torcularium of the Domus del Larario in the Municipium Augusta Bilbilis. The wall to which this fragment originally belonged likely formed part of a cubiculum within the same domus. The portrait is dated to the last quarter of the 1st c. BCE, making it the earliest known example of its kind to date. This study examines the potential significance of the portrait within one of the most prominent domus of the site, as well as its role in the broader figurative program of the wall it once adorned. In the middle zone of the composition, a couple is portrayed in a highly schematic manner. Together with the young female – likely their daughter – this may represent one of the earliest Roman depictions of a family group in a non-funerary context.

This paper presents the results of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating performed on archaeological samples (human bone, wood charcoal, and other charred plant macro-remains) from six sites located in the Lesser Poland Upland (southern Poland). We report 41 14C age measurements performed on discoveries made during the contract excavations carried out during the S7 roadway construction from 2016–2022. The resulting ages fall into a long interval, which, in terms of the regional archaeological periodization, lasts from the Late Neolithic to the Late Antiquity/Early Medieval Period (ca. 4600 BC–600 AD), and in terms of the climatological periodization corresponds to the Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic.

El estudio científico de la literatura lírica náhuatl contenida en manuscritos novohispanos como Cantares mexicanos y Romances de los señores de la Nueva España se ha enfocado en su traducción, estética, temática e interpretación. Esto ha permitido una mayor comprensión de la forma y estilística literaria mexica, así como de su manera de percibir el mundo en relación con su visión política y religiosa. Este estudio propone una aproximación etnohistórico-gastronómica a los elementos comestibles enunciados en los cantares para la interpretación de su contenido ideológico, poniendo atención en aspectos como su transformación culinaria, consumo compartido, simbolismo y significado. Se establece un inventario de sustantivos comestibles y se identifica la presencia de procedimientos culinarios, usos terapéuticos y significados mítico-religiosos que complementan la interpretación del discurso en los cantares. Para ello, se revisaron exhaustivamente los manuscritos, se introdujeron nuevas traducciones y se cotejaron las coincidencias con crónicas y herbarios-recetarios contemporáneos. La aportación consiste en la novedosa aplicación de un enfoque que pone en evidencia la presencia de elementos comestibles en la literatura lírica náhuatl y abre nuevas vías para la lectura e interpretación, más allá de lo literario y formal, de otros documentos literarios novohispanos tempranos.

Despite increased interest in dining as part of worship practices, accounts of cult meals often focus primarily on benefaction and consumption, ignoring or downplaying the practices of food preparation in and around sanctuaries. Synthesizing and analyzing kitchen spaces and their assemblages in sanctuaries dedicated to Mithras for the first time, we argue that the labor of food-making was also central to group-making in ancient cult. The display of kitchens and cooks, and the entailments of cooking installations, emphasized meat dishes and worked to create vertically stratified worship communities. At the same time, the diversity of food-production practices in Mithraic sanctuaries also suggests significant variety in how practices might have structured cult groups.

El presente texto hace parte de una corriente contemporánea de los estudios latinoamericanistas enfocada en el análisis de la navegación y las tecnologías náuticas nativas. El artículo presenta una revisión bibliográfica actualizada sobre los estudios mayistas enfocados en este tema y se inserta en las discusiones recientes. En el artículo se presenta el documento titulado “Discursos de Fray Gabriel de Salazar” escrito en 1620, y se analiza con el fin de acercarse a los conocimientos náuticos mayas del siglo diecisiete. En específico, se comenta acerca de la existencia de guías y pilotos locales, la elaboración de mapas, la construcción de embarcaciones y la comunicación del área maya con redes globales de navegación. La rica información aportada por el documento de Salazar permite apreciar la dependencia que los europeos tenían de las tecnologías náuticas y las tripulaciones mayas. Por último, se presentan algunas reflexiones sobre la navegación en el área maya y la historia náutica en América.

Undoubtedly, the imperial coinage of Faustina the Younger is the largest surviving primary source for the portraiture and public image of the empress, and excellent work on the subject has already been done.1 Martin Beckmann (B.) sets out to reevaluate the coinage, portraits, and public image of Faustina the Younger, primarily based on a die study of her gold coinage (aurei) from the imperial mint in Rome.2 Die studies are a time-consuming and tedious task, but the results often allow us to better understand the workings of the mint and the (relative) chronology of coins and the images they carry. This is of primary importance for the coins of imperial women, as they are not dated. Moreover, the attribution and chronology of the sculptured portraits almost entirely depends on the coins. Only a correct interpretation of the numismatic evidence allows us to securely establish the relative and absolute chronology of Faustina’s portraiture.