Papers by Manuel Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 11 (2-3), 2023
This article reviews the possible cause for the underwater deposition of a series of Phoenician b... more This article reviews the possible cause for the underwater deposition of a series of Phoenician bronze figurines dated between the eighth and seventh centuries BC and discovered on the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, around the Islet of Sancti Petri (Cadiz) and on the coast near the city of Huelva. These figurines have been interpreted as votive offerings thrown into the waters near the ports of Cadiz and Huelva by Phoenician seafarers and merchants at the end of their voyages as an expression of gratitude to the god Melqart. Instead, I propose that these objects may have been thrown into the waters as part of religious rituals intended to appease the waters of the ocean following the occurrence of catastrophic marine floods, such as those that apparently affected the seaboard of the Gulf of Cadiz in the middle of the first millennium BC.
S. Celestino y E. Baquedano (eds.) Los últimos días de Tarteso. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueológico Regional, Comunidad de Madrid, 14-25., 2023
Seismological Research Letters, 2023
This article offers an overview of the published evidence of the possible occurrence of an earthq... more This article offers an overview of the published evidence of the possible occurrence of an earthquake and tsunami that, if factual, would have struck the shores of the Gulf of Cadiz sometime in the sixth century B.C. It addresses the oldest literary sources containing accounts of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Iberian peninsula, and their inclusion in the most important seismic catalogs in Spain and Portugal, as well as examining the geoarchaeological evidence of an earthquake and tsunami in the city of Huelva, dating to the first quarter of the sixth century B.C., relating it to geomorphological and sedimentary evidence of extreme wave events in the Gulf of Cadiz in about 2500 B.P. The information provided by Greek authors writing in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., which depicts the ocean beyond the Strait of Gibraltar as impassable and replete with shallows, might also be an indirect reference to that seismic and high-energy marine event, whose intensity, exact date, and repercussions for the inhabitants of the Gulf of Cadiz are essential objects of research.
S. Celestino y E. Rodríguez González (eds): Tarteso: nuevas fronteras. Mérida: Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida – CSIC, Serie MYTRA 12, 373–394., 2023
This paper addresses the literature on the possible occurrence of a tsunami in the excavations of... more This paper addresses the literature on the possible occurrence of a tsunami in the excavations of the site at Calle Méndez Núñez 7-13 - Plaza de las Monjas 12 in Huelva and reviews the stratigraphies of several sites excavated in the 1980s in the centre of the city, in which evidence of flooding was documented in levels from the Tartessian period, until now interpreted as deposits generated by episodes of heavy rainfall. Based on the sedimentological characteristics of the tsunami deposits, a new interpretation of the nature of these levels is proposed, as deposits generated by high-energy marine sedimentary events, occurring in the first quarter and last third of the 6th century BC, respectively.
Williams, H. and Clare, R. (eds): The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception, Liverpool University Press., 2022
M. Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar and F. Machuca Prieto (eds): Historical Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula. Singapore, Springer Nature, Natural Science in Archaeology Series., 2022
This chapter performs a historiographical overview for the purpose of describing the evolution of... more This chapter performs a historiographical overview for the purpose of describing the evolution of recent earthquake and tsunami research in the Iberian Peninsula, characterised by the convergence of information deriving from different scientific disciplines, such as historical seismology, geology and archaeology. From the early 1990s down to the present day, several stages of research are identified, while placing the spotlight on the boom years in geological research on paleotsunamis in Portugal and Spain, in the wake of the catastrophic tsunamis in the Indian Ocean in 2004 and in Japan in 2011, as well as addressing future perspectives for interdisciplinary collaboration. The final section describes the aim of this book, plus the organisation and content of its chapters, as well as reflects on the future challenges facing research in this field.
M. Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar and F. Machuca Prieto (eds): Historical Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula. Singapore, Springer Nature, Natural Science in Archaeology Series., 2022
The Mediterranean coast of Spain, much of which is built-up and densely populated, is today a tou... more The Mediterranean coast of Spain, much of which is built-up and densely populated, is today a tourist hot spot. Additionally, there are vital infrastructures, including airports, harbours and industrial facilities along its coastal motorways. In comparison with the western and southern Atlantic coastlines, the region is relatively protected from storms, while earthquake-related inundations, namely, tsunamis, are also rare. The very imprecise historical and sedimentary record of a tsunami in 1522 near Almeria bear this out. However, new evidence is provided here for the oldest extreme wave event (EWE) affecting human settlements on the Iberian Peninsula. The Phoenician site of Cerro del Villar, located near the Andalusian city of Malaga, in the estuary of the river Guadalhorce, suffered two episodes of destructive flooding at the beginning and at the end of the seventh century BC. In this paper, the initial interpretation of the former as a fluvial flood is recovered, while the latter is reinterpreted as an extreme wave event of a possible tsunami.
M. Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar and F. Machuca Prieto (eds): Historical Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula. Singapore, Springer Nature, Natural Science in Archaeology Series., 2022
According to recent Portuguese and Spanish seismic catalogues, a remarkable number of earthquakes... more According to recent Portuguese and Spanish seismic catalogues, a remarkable number of earthquakes and tsunamis were recorded in the Iberian Peninsula during Antiquity. They list earthquakes and tsunamis in 218–209 BC (Gulf of Cadiz); 60 BC (Galicia and Portugal); 365 AD (Southern Spain); and 382 AD (Cape St. Vincent, Portugal). In this chapter, the origin of these and other references to ancient earthquakes and tsunamis in the Iberian Peninsula is identified and their literary and historiographical contexts are analysed in order to assess their historicity. Most of this information is provided by two chroniclers: the Spanish historian Florián de Ocampo (ca. 1495–ca. 1558) and the Portuguese chronicler Bernardo de Brito (1569–1617). The historicity of most of the literature on ancient earthquakes and tsunamis in the Iberian Peninsula is very dubious, when not totally lacking credibility. However, sometimes, and especially in the case of Ocampo’s references to the ancient city of Cadiz, the information may reflect the collective memory of catastrophic events that occurred at a still undetermined moment in the past.
G. Garbati and T. Pedrazzi (eds), Transformations and crisis in the Mediterranean. “Identity” and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 5th-2nd Centuries BCE. CNR Edizioni, Roma., 2021
Recent geoarchaeological research has revealed that the Gulf of Cadiz was struck at least once by... more Recent geoarchaeological research has revealed that the Gulf of Cadiz was struck at least once by a large tsunami during the Phoenician period, roughly between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE. In this contribution, at attempt is made to reconstruct the religious reactions of the Phoenician communities of Iberia and, specifically, those of Gadir, in the wake of cataclysms of this type, revolving around the city’s tutelary god Melqart. The Ugaritic tale of the conflict between Baal and Yam and the biblical tradition in the account of Yahweh’s struggle against the sea reveal a way of representing the containment of the forces of ocean chaos through the establishment of a cosmic boundary. After the catastrophic events unfolding in the Gulf of Cadiz, the Baalic attributes of the Melqart of Gadir must surely have been emphasised in an account in which he is attributed with the victory over the forces of ocean chaos and, by his divine command, the establishment of a cosmic boundary of containment and perpetual protection against the threat posed by the sea. This account, which is apparently echoed in Pindar, Strabo and Philostratus, may be at the root of the ancient and medieval notion of Gades as the edge of the world.
Seismological Research Letters, 2020
In this article, the original accounts of the first 19 earthquakes—occurring before A.D. 881—reco... more In this article, the original accounts of the first 19 earthquakes—occurring before A.D. 881—recorded in Martínez-Solares and Mezcua’s Catálogo sísmico de la Península Ibérica (Martínez-Solares and Mezcua, 2002) are reviewed. Their evolution is traced through references to them in the works of Spanish and Portuguese historians and authors published between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it is shown how they subsequently made their way into the main Spanish and Portuguese seismic compilations and catalogs. By identifying the first references to news of historical earthquakes in the Iberian Peninsula in the literary sources, the intention is to gain a better understanding of the context in which this information originated over time and to verify its historicity with greater precision. The review performed here shows that the majority of these accounts lack a firm historical basis.
E. Ferrer Albelda (ed.), La ruta de las Estrímnides. Navegación y conocimiento del litoral atlántico de Iberia en la Antigüedad. Monografías de GAHIA 4. Universidad de Alcalá - Universidad de Sevilla, Alcalá de Henares, 227–245., 2019
The chapter addresses a review of the episode of the naval expedition commanded by Julius Caesar ... more The chapter addresses a review of the episode of the naval expedition commanded by Julius Caesar in 61 B.C. on the Atlantic coasts of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, which ended with the conquest of Brigantium, in the Bay of A Coruña. It is an episode that culminates the military activities of his mandate as governor of Hispania Ulterior, and in which both economic and symbolic components have been identified. This contribution delves into the symbolic aspects of Caesar’s initiative, within the framework of his relationship with the Balbii, with the city of Gades and with its patron god, Heracles-Melqart, whose sanctuary he visited in 68 B.C., during his quaestorship in Hispania Ulterior. Gades’ contribution to the expedition would not be restricted to the fleet transporting Caesar to Brigantium, but would extend to the Phoenician conceptions of the western boundaries of the world, and the role of Brigantium as an extreme and singular place in the Phoenician geography. Furthermore, we propose a valuation of Phoenician components as key inspiration for the Caesarean feat, linked to the mythology of the Herakles-Melqart of Gades as a god who defeats the forces of chaos in the confines of the world.
E. Sánchez Moreno (coord.): Veinticinco estampas de la España antigua cincuenta años después (1967-2017). En torno a la obra de Antonio García y Bellido y su actualización científica. Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla., 2019
C. López-Ruiz and B. R. Doak (eds): The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford University Press., 2019
This chapter focuses on the connection between Tyre and its colony Gadir via the foundational fig... more This chapter focuses on the connection between Tyre and its colony Gadir via the foundational figure of Melqart and his respective temples in these cities, a relationship which is well-known thanks to historiographical and literary testimonies dating to the Roman period.
The chapter also draws a comparison with the case of the other main Tyrian colony of Carthage. This comparison allows us to note, among other things, that the religious and
cultural axis which united Gadir with its metropoleis was not restricted to the colonial period itself (ninth–sixth centuries BCE) but, rather, continued to actively develop until at least the fourth century BCE.
Cruz Andreotti (ed.): Roman Turdetania. Romanization, Identity and Socio-Cultural Interaction in the South of the Iberian Peninsula between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE. Leiden - Boston: Brill., 2019
T. Ñaco and F. López-Sánchez (eds), Warlords, War and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean, Brill ‘Impact of Empire’ Series, Leiden., 2018
Euphrosyne, 2017
Recent seismic catalogues include a surprisingly high number of earthquakes and tsunamis in the I... more Recent seismic catalogues include a surprisingly high number of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Iberian Peninsula during antiquity. The Monarchia Lusytana (1597-1609) by the Portuguese historian Bernardo de Brito is identifi ed in this essay as the primary source for the catastrophic events dated between the Second Punic War and late antiquity in those
catalogues. Brito includes catastrophic episodes in 216 BC, 63 BC, 55 BC, 47 BC, 33 CE and c. 365 CE. Greek and Roman references for some of these catastrophic events are revised, the role played by spurious sources, such as Laimundo Ortega and Pedro Aladio, is addressed, and the purpose and function of these cataclysms within the Monarchia Lusytana is discussed.
Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, 2017
Recent research on extreme high wave phenomena in the Iberian Peninsula during antiquity has been... more Recent research on extreme high wave phenomena in the Iberian Peninsula during antiquity has been taking into account some supposedly historic earthquakes and tsunamis, such as the one in the Gulf of Cádiz dated 218-209 BC, in need of a critical evaluation. In this paper I identify the original sources of the historiographical tradition about earthquakes and tsunamis in Iberia in order to assess its historical reliability, especially focusing on the alleged cataclysm of the end of the third century BC. Although geomorphologic evidence shows the historicity of the first millennium BC EWE in SW Iberia, its precise chronology is still an open issue.
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 2017
En la escena de la visita de Apolonio de Tiana al Herakleion de Gades (VA 5.5.), hacia el 67 d.C.... more En la escena de la visita de Apolonio de Tiana al Herakleion de Gades (VA 5.5.), hacia el 67 d.C., se contiene la descripción de unas singulares ‘stelai’ con inscripciones indescifrables, cuyo función sigue siendo oscura para la investigación actual. Partiendo de pasajes del propio Filóstrato y de Amiano Marcelino, en este ensayo se identifica un modelo de representación del tsunami en términos cosmológicos en el mundo antiguo con el que se revisa la escena del Herakleion. Se concluye que Apolonio interpreta las ‘stelai’ como talismanes destinados a prevenir inundaciones marinas, en lo que podría ser la noticia más antigua de la larga tradición sobre la relación del filósofo neopitagórico con los talismanes. La existencia de un tsunami de gran intensidad en la segunda mitad del primer milenio a.C. en el Golfo de Cádiz permite plantear que los propios gaditanos pudieron haber otorgado propiedades talismánicas a las 'stelai' del santuario de Melqart-Heracles en Gades.
Andalucía en la Historia 51 (Dosier: Tarteso, nuevas interpretaciones), 2016
Pocos temas de la Historia de Andalucía han suscitado tanta fascinación como Tarteso. Ya desde la... more Pocos temas de la Historia de Andalucía han suscitado tanta fascinación como Tarteso. Ya desde la Antigüedad clásica, Historia y Literatura se mezclaron abundantemente para describir esta cultura, cuyo nombre se convirtió en sinónimo de emporio económico y cultural. La insistencia sobre los mitos ha provocado que, en buena medida, todavía hoy las nuevas interpretaciones historiográfi cas, provenientes tanto de la Arqueología como de la investigación en fuentes literarias, sigan sin ser conocidas por el gran público. Este dosier, coordinado por el catedrático de Arqueología de la Universidad de Huelva, Juan M. Campos Carrasco, aborda los temas clave para el conocimiento y puesta al día de esta rica cultura que estuvo ubicada en un triángulo formado por las provincias de Sevilla, Huelva y Cádiz.
Andalucía en la Historia, 2015
Tarteso es uno de los temas más atractivos de la historia de Andalucía y quizá de los peor conoci... more Tarteso es uno de los temas más atractivos de la historia de Andalucía y quizá de los peor conocidos por el gran público por la pervivencia de tópicos ya superados por la investigación. Un mejor conocimiento de la información literaria y arqueológica revela un mundo marcado por la relación de las poblaciones locales del Bronce final con las comunidades fenicias establecidas en el sur de la Península Ibérica. El resultado es una cultura híbrida, desarrollada en el suroeste peninsular entre los siglos IX-VI a.C.
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Papers by Manuel Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar
The chapter also draws a comparison with the case of the other main Tyrian colony of Carthage. This comparison allows us to note, among other things, that the religious and
cultural axis which united Gadir with its metropoleis was not restricted to the colonial period itself (ninth–sixth centuries BCE) but, rather, continued to actively develop until at least the fourth century BCE.
catalogues. Brito includes catastrophic episodes in 216 BC, 63 BC, 55 BC, 47 BC, 33 CE and c. 365 CE. Greek and Roman references for some of these catastrophic events are revised, the role played by spurious sources, such as Laimundo Ortega and Pedro Aladio, is addressed, and the purpose and function of these cataclysms within the Monarchia Lusytana is discussed.
The chapter also draws a comparison with the case of the other main Tyrian colony of Carthage. This comparison allows us to note, among other things, that the religious and
cultural axis which united Gadir with its metropoleis was not restricted to the colonial period itself (ninth–sixth centuries BCE) but, rather, continued to actively develop until at least the fourth century BCE.
catalogues. Brito includes catastrophic episodes in 216 BC, 63 BC, 55 BC, 47 BC, 33 CE and c. 365 CE. Greek and Roman references for some of these catastrophic events are revised, the role played by spurious sources, such as Laimundo Ortega and Pedro Aladio, is addressed, and the purpose and function of these cataclysms within the Monarchia Lusytana is discussed.
Date: 23/11/2016 - 17:00 - 19:00
Institute: Institute of Classical Studies
Venue: Room 349, Third Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
That is the goal of this workshop. We want to ask how far looking at blue humanities research for other periods and cultures can help us to open up new questions about human-water relations in the ancient Mediterranean world, and bring new perspectives to current research in the broader field of ancient environmental studies. We also ask how looking at the classical and premodern past can make a difference to the blue humanities as a discipline.
By bringing together specialists from a range of different fields and fostering interdisciplinary exchange, the workshop aims to generate new perspectives and encourage the development of innovative lines of research on the complex relationship between humanity and water in a long-term perspective.
En este encuentro, que coordina el Proyecto TSUNIBER, Terremotos y tsunamis en la península ibérica en época antigua: respuestas sociales en la larga duración desde la Universidad de Málaga, se aborda el impacto de estos eventos extremos, paleoclimáticos y geológicos, en las comunidades humanas de la Península, desde el Último Máximo Glacial, y en especial desde el último máximo transgresivo, 7000 años antes del presente.
Para ello se reúnen en el Museo de Málaga grupos de investigación y especialistas de universidades y centros de investigación de España, Portugal, Alemania, Francia y Australia, con el objetivo adicional de preparar una propuesta de proyecto Horizonte 2020 de la Unión Europea sobre resiliencia de las comunidades costeras peninsulares ante catástrofes naturales.
El encuentro, con un enfoque transdisciplinar que fomenta el diálogo entre especialistas de la investigación histórica, arqueológica, geológica y en modelos climáticos, se organiza en sesiones de trabajo y en conferencias abiertas al público, que tendrán lugar el jueves 14 de noviembre, desde las 17 h. en el Museo de Málaga.
En Portugal y España, el célebre terremoto y tsunami de Lisboa de 1755 ha servido de referente para numerosos estudios encaminados a identificar las huellas geológicas de este tipo de eventos catastróficos en el pasado. Fruto de estas investigaciones ha sido la conformación de un catálogo de tsunamis en las costas peninsulares que incluye varios maremotos en época histórica, si bien su número, carácter y cronología distan aún de estar fijados con seguridad.
Este simposio internacional, que prestará especial atención a los eventos anteriores a 1755, propiciará el diálogo interdisciplinar en la investigación sobre tsunamis históricos en la Península Ibérica mediante el intercambio de evidencias, enfoques y metodologías entre especialistas de áreas como la geología, la arqueología, la historia, la oceanografía o las matemáticas.
El encuentro, que se organiza en el marco del Proyecto HAR2015-66011, tiene como objetivo contribuir a un mejor conocimiento de este tipo de fenómenos, de su impacto en las sociedades del pasado y de los riesgos que implican para el futuro de las comunidades costeras de la Península Ibérica.