Archaeology and Social Processes (IH, CCHS)

This paper addresses the importance of focusing on prior student knowledge and its relationship to course learning outcomes. Regarding this, Bass comments in the article “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: What’s the Problem?” the following: “I realized I didn’t know really if the better students in a course who demonstrated a real understanding of the material by the end of the semester were actually acquiring that understanding in my course, or were merely the percentage of students who entered the course with a high level of background and aptitude” (3). Indeed, there is a need for professors across the curriculum in higher education to consider student prior knowledge in relation to course learning outcomes for the sake being able to emphasize specific learning outcomes and to help guide pedagogy. This paper, taking a scholarship of teaching and learning approach, focuses on three different courses and explores the problem of understanding student prior knowledge in relation to course learning outcomes and includes results pre and post student surveys, feedback from students, and final course grades. Overall, in a collaborative spirit, this paper seeks to help other professors refocus their attention on what they specifically want students to learn by the end of a course, why learning such objectives is important, and how to help students achieve these learning goals.

Purpose

There are currently various methodologies used for carrying out impact assessments of cultural heritage. This paper aims to critically explore the reasons for this diversity and ascertain their varying consistency.
Design/methodology/approach

The paper does a comparative analysis of the methodologies used, exploring how they measure up to the theoretical underpinnings of the ecosystem services approach and the cultural values model, considered to be the most comprehensive strategies for assessing the impact of cultural heritage.
Findings

The study reveals that there are few methodologies, and they only inconsistently work upon the theoretical perspectives mentioned earlier. In addition, from the public policy perspective, surprisingly few areas endowed with cultural heritage have been, in one way or another, assessed for impact, perhaps in part due to the lack of adequate methodologies.
Research limitations/implications

The methods analysed are those that have been made public, which can be found in English. Also, they may be exploratory themselves, so some of the conclusions reached here may have also been found by the analysts themselves. This research serves to provide some scientific groundings for developing a more comprehensive impact assessment method.
Practical implications

The results of this paper highlight certain glaring absences from current methodologies which invite the development of more definitive cultural impact assessment models. This is possible given the current state of the art, and further research and practice are necessary to develop a more comprehensive cultural values model–based research assessment.
Social implications

By focussing on the absence of certain indicators on behalf of impact assessment methodologies, this paper sheds light on the overlooked (or under-measured) benefits derived from cultural heritage. Many of the benefits derived from this type of resource find an opportunity to come out in the open, greatly affecting researchers, cultural heritage planners and local communities.
Originality/value

This paper also serves to substantiate a glaring absence within the ecosystem services framework, which is the lack of practical methodologies for measuring some of these service values.

El arqueólogo tiene dos objetivos fundamentales: adquirir un mayor conocimiento de procesos históricos, y poner en valor patrimonio. Este último objetivo tiene la intención de crear unos recursos que puedan servir en beneficio de las comunidades locales. Es previsible que la existencia de dichos recursos pueda servir para atraer más visitantes, aumentando los beneficios derivados del turismo local. Sin embargo, rara vez se da un verdadero análisis para valorar hasta qué punto a) esos turistas realmente vienen y b) si su llegada favorece la sostenibilidad de dichas comunidades. En este artículo se exploran las inconsistencias en este mecanismo de transferencia, y la disociación entre el beneficio turístico y la sostenibilidad.

Resumen. La Convención Europea del Paisaje cumple 20 años. Sin embargo, todavía existen carencias a la hora de conceptualizar el significado que esto tiene tanto para la arqueología, como para la sociedad. La definición allí contenida integra la realidad física del territorio, con la población que en él habita, y el tiempo. En este artículo se van a explorar las consecuencias que esto tiene para la práctica arqueológica, y para la gestión del patrimonio cultural. La progresiva asociación de los conceptos de paisaje y patrimonio es el fruto de grandes esfuerzos por parte de organismos y asociaciones, que con variado éxito han recogido las políticas públicas y científicas. Cuando el patrimonio es paisaje, ya no hay límites, acotaciones ni zonificación. Todo es importante porque todo es testimonio de los procesos que lo han formado, y que lo transformarán de nuevo. Es difícil, desde la perspectiva del patrimonio cultural, comprender la transitoriedad del mismo, su fluidez. Pero es necesario. La arqueología, al gestionar esta última fase, y ejercer su papel como mecanismo para el desarrollo sostenible de las comunidades locales en adelante, se convierte en una disciplina cuya relevancia principal reside en cómo su conocimiento es transferido, y utilizado en dicho proceso.

This paper intends to weigh the importance of archaeology by how much impact it has, or could have, on society. Heritage values are precisely the language in which that impact translates to the general public. It is necessary, however, to balance the duty to protect heritage with the mutating and negotiated nature of these values. Archaeologists should not be seen as the wardens but rather as the enablers, the midwives, of local communities coming to terms with a deeper understanding of their past. The more effectively this heritage stimulates the relation of the community with these values, the greater the potential it will have to stimulate social innovation, which is the foundation for sustainable development or abandonment. For many the boon of cultural heritage is tourism, and this is true but to an insufficient extent. In order to be sustainable, tourism must be part of a broader social innovation strategy that foregoes easy pickings in favor of the creation of quality brands, employment, and the protection of traditional lifeways. Only in this way can heritage truly unlock a sustainable horizon.

ABSTRACT Excerpt: "This scientific pathology consists of two steps. First, the author acknowledges the latest advances in the field; Jones and Hall are the main references, with echoes of Eriksen, Shennan, Hodder and, ultimately, Barth. Following this, the author proceeds to ignore any consequences derived from the first introductory part and continues to interpret variations in material culture as signs of ethnic change. In this sense, there is not much difference in such works from the Siedlungsarchäologie practised by Kossinna. This is the ‘introduction to ethnicity-syndrome’, essentially tipping your hat to recent advances, and then moving on to classic ethnic interpretations."

El grupo de investigación Estructura Social y Territorio-Arqueología del Paisaje, del Instituto de Historia (CCHS, CSIC) de Madrid lleva una larga trayectoria a la vanguardia de los estudios relacionados con la llegada del mundo romano y su efecto en las sociedades indígenas del noroeste hispánico. Uno de los ámbitos más explorados ha sido el de la minería del oro, abundante en esta región, y cuya presencia marcó de manera muy clara la interacción entre Roma y sus súbditos. La arqueología del paisaje constituye un enfoque o conjunto de metodologías que ponen el énfasis en la integración entre factores humanos y naturales en la conformación de los paisajes culturales. Todo esto solo puede ser comprendido dentro de su marco social actual, dado que la investigación es el primer paso hacia la puesta en valor de un paisaje.

""El artículo revisa los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto “Minería y Civitates en el Noreste de Portugal (Bragança, Guarda y Castelo Branco)” (MinCiNEP I), dentro del cual se han analizado áreas portuguesas con el objetivo de detectar los procesos de transformación derivados de la conquista romana. Se ha puesto especial interés en la identificación de minería romana, pero integrada dentro de la ocupación y explotación del territorio. This articles reviews the results of the project «Research and valorisation of mining areas and civitates in NE Portugal (Bragança, Guarda and Castelo Branco districts bordering with Spain) (MinCiNEP)». Within it, archaeological areas of bordering Portugal have been studied, in order to detect processes of transformation witnessed on the Spanish side after the Roman conquest. Special attention has been paid to the identification of Roman mining activity, understood within an integrated view of settlement and territory. Likewise, Roman epigraphy from these areas has been revised ""