Book of the month, April 2012

CAVACO, Sandra Cristina da Costa Fialho Palma – O arrabalde da Bela Fria: contributos para o estudo da Tavira islâmica. Orient. Susana Gómez Martínez e Luís Filipe Oliveira. Faro: [s.n.], 2011. Master’s dissertation in Islamic Portugal and the Mediterranean presented to the University of Algarve, Human and Social Sciences Faculty, and to Mértola’s Archaeological Field. 156, [LII] p. + 1 CD-ROM

This dissertation presents the results of the archaeological intervention conducted in the northwest side of the hill of Santa Maria in Tavira, which identified an Almohad neighbourhood and the foundations of a previously unknown tower wall. Although the neighbourhood was short-lived as an urban entity, several alterations of the space are attested, as evidenced, for example, by the several floor levels. On the other hand, the excavated structures testify the existence of a careful urban planning, with the dwellings arranged around the road network, furrowed by public sanitation. The water supply was done with the help of a water wheel, whose existence is only confirmed by the significant presence of buckets. The study of the excavated ceramics, as well as the analysis of collected materials, allowed the assessment of the housing nature of this space, even if its crafting function isn’t entirely ruled out.

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