For years, paleobiology has been a science that contributes to the natural and cultural history of the planet by reconstructing life from its beginnings and providing new insights into human evolution. The latest issue of the historical dissemination magazine ‘Andalucía en la historia’, titled ‘The sciences of the past in history: paleobiology’ (AH 87), focuses on showcasing how these experimental sciences have contributed to the history of Andalucía in recent decades, presenting the method, technique, and most relevant results of some analyzed sites.
To set the theme, the coordinator of the dossier and head of the Paleobiology Laboratory at the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH), Eloísa Bernáldez Sánchez, points out that «History, in certain circumstances, needs Experimental Sciences to confirm and rectify some theories about the past of humanity that can turn what was once fiction into ‘reality’.» Comprising nine articles and involving 22 researchers from various universities and research centers, the dossier brings together some of the most renowned specialists in this field at an international level. The monograph’s goal is to demonstrate the contributions that experimental scientific techniques and disciplines have made to the understanding of the cultural and natural past of Andalucía over a period spanning 4.5 million years.
‘Footprints on the sands of Doñana’ by Eduardo Mayoral and team is the article that kicks off the dossier, showcasing the characteristics of hominids and animals from over 200,000 years ago through the study of fossil footprints found in the El Pichilín and El Coto sites in Matalascañas (Huelva). A remarkable discovery depicting the lives of children, women, and men, whose footprints were found around a lagoon where they likely fished and gathered. Next, ‘The last crocodile of Europe’ by Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro and colleagues focuses on the fauna of the Pliocene site in Baza, Granada, which 4.5 million years ago was a tropical climatic refuge, while ‘Elephants on the menu’ by M. Patrocinio Espigares and team allows us to witness an episode of the Lower Pleistocene preserved at the Fuente Nueva-3 site in the Granada municipality of Orce, where hyenas and humans competed for the carcass of an elephant in a landscape marked by the danger of shifting sands. Moving closer to the present, the article ‘Recycling and adorning in life and death’ by Juan Jesús Cantillo and David Cuenca explains that recycling was a common activity in the Upper Paleolithic, in this case to adorn, worship, or use the shells and snails eaten or collected on the beach.
Detail of the front and back cover of issue 87 of ‘Andalucía en la Historia’.
The history of domestication is unveiled through the paleobiological study of past Doñana in ‘What bones and shells tell us’, an article by Esteban García-Viñas detailing the background and evolution of the natural space at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. On the other hand, Jennifer A. Leonard with ‘The horses of Andalucía’ unfolds the unique history of a millennia-old legacy of Iberian horses and the influence of their domestication on social development. While fauna history predominates in these articles, there is also room for paleobotany with M. Oliva Rodríguez-Ariza’s text, ‘Olives with a lot of history’. The pollens, charcoals, wood remnants, and olive bones found in archaeological sites offer valuable insights into this Andalusian symbol.
The monograph also includes the work of two archaeologists who have applied experimental sciences such as biology, genetics, paleontology, statistics, chemistry, or physics to their studies, while Darío Bernal, with the article ‘Rome, cradle of refined palates’, shows us the marine products industry and its journey in Roman times, Milagros Alzaga in ‘Sailing makes history’ explains the trade of organic products from America during the Modern Age, which were identified through molecular biology techniques due to the 400 years they spent in the waters of Cádiz.
Articles
Regarding the articles, issue 87 of the magazine includes the text ‘Notaries endowed with public faith by apostolic authority’ by Abraham Fernández, detailing the functions of apostolic notaries and their introduction in Seville in the 14th and 15th centuries. Colonel and History Ph.D. Joaquín Gil-Honduvilla reviews the biography of General José Cuesta Monereo, his role as a conspirator and creator of a network of involved individuals in each of the Andalusian provinces for the July 1936 uprising. Also related to the Spanish Civil War, researcher Gloria Román-Ruiz signs ‘Between poverty and roguery’, dedicated to post-war children in the period between 1939 and 1952, detailing the hardships suffered by the most disadvantaged minors.
Skeleton of an elephant at the Fuente Nueva-3 site, in the Granada municipality of Orce.
On the other hand, Plácido Fernández-Viagas Escudero is the author of the article ‘Sexuality and forced marriage in the 13th century’, analyzing the Córdoba charter granted by Fernando III to the city in 1241. In the 13th century, death penalty for male homosexuality was common in local regulations, and adultery by married women was frequently regarded as a serious offense in the charters. ‘The triumph of tenacity’ is the text by Julio Velasco that reveals the story of Carlos Mendoza and the Alcalá del Río dam, a colossal project initiated in the 20th century aiming to make the Guadalquivir River navigable between Seville and Córdoba. Lastly, María Grove-Gordillo signs ‘Thomas Howell, an English merchant in 16th-century Seville’ analyzing the significant English merchant community that settled in various ports in the region and particularly focusing on Howell, whose legacy is currently embodied in two schools in Wales.
Among the sections of issue 87, we find ‘Andalucía in its documents’, signed by José Ramón Barroso Rosendo, revealing the journey of navigator and cartographer, Juan Manuel Ayala, first explorer of San Francisco, and a new installment of ‘Google Time’ by Eva Díaz-Pérez, delving into the forests of the Sierra del Segura in Jaén, utilized in the 18th century to build ships for the Royal Navy. In ‘Young Values’, students Lorenzo Calle, Claudia Cebrián, and Rocío Molina carry out the demystification of the figure of Bécquer beyond the romantic legend, while the ‘Books’ section features two reviews of the titles ‘El Rey Regente’ by José Calvo Poyato and ‘Deixis. A new dawn’ by Francisco Javier López and Ignacio Alcalde.
The magazine ‘Andalucía en la Historia’ is a quarterly publication of historical dissemination edited by the Andalusian Center for Studies Foundation (CENTRA) and directed by the full professor of Contemporary History at the University of Seville, José Antonio Parejo.