Duration: 2023 – 2024
Abstract: To evaluate the association of genetic variants at the HBB gene cluster, BCL11A gene, and HMIP region ((HBS1L-MYB intergenic polymorphisms) with HbF levels in Hemoglobin S carriers and in normal individuals of São Tomé e Príncipe.
Coordinator: Licínio Manco (CIAS)
Participants: Licínio Manco (CIAS), Celeste Bento (CIAS), Afonso Morais (CIAS)
Financial support: CIAS
Duration: 2023-2024
Abstract: Amber is a fossil resin that has had a social value since the Upper Paleolithic. This is due to its unique natural characteristics, which have made it widely used and socially valued throughout prehistory, especially as a decorative and as a symbolic element. The Baltic coast and Sicily are the main natural sources of amber exploited in prehistory. Since the beginning of modern research, the presence of amber outside these regions has been used as an indicator of the existence of long-distance exchange networks (de Navarro, 1925), and consequently amber has been considered an exotic and prestigious material. On this basis, a solid tradition of research has been established to identify the origin of amber objects (Beck, 1995; Beck et al., 1965, 1964; Beck and Hartnett, 1993), which has led to the identification of spatiotemporal patterns of their consumption. The characterization of prehistoric amber ornaments has been extensively addressed in recent years (Murillo-Barroso et al., 2018; Murillo-Barroso and Martinón-Torres, 2012; Odriozola et al., 2019b), given the strong tradition of studies on this raw material of high symbolic value.
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses have confirmed long-distance exchange as the main form of access to amber, allowing the identification of two large-scale trends in exchange flows, starting from Sicily in the 4th-3rd millennia BC and swinging to the Baltic Sea from the 2nd millennium BC (Odriozola et al., 2019b). Despite this exogenous trend, in the last decades the focus has also been put on the geological deposits of Iberian amber, with the documentation of different local sources of amber on the Cantabrian coast (Álvarez Fernández et al., 2005; Murillo-Barroso et al., 2018). On the other hand, numerous local amber outcrops remain to be characterized, such as those between the Tagus and Mondego estuaries in Portugal (Peñalver et al., 2018). Despite the acknowledged long-distance exchange of Baltic and Sicilian amber, and the lack of a comprehensive spectral record of Portuguese amber, scientists have recently suggested that Sicilian and Portuguese amber have similar spectral characteristics, compromising origin identification. Consuming local instead of foreign amber would therefore completely change the image of a united Europe.
IberAmber is a project conceived and designed in a multidisciplinary way, using chemical-analytical techniques, classical statistical methods, and more modern approaches such as machine learning to deepen the archaeological knowledge of amber trade and exchange.The principal objectives are to locate amber deposits; To characterize the amber deposits by means of FTIR, GC-MS and 13C-MAS-NMR in order to obtain more detailed information about the chemical composition of the deposits, the aging processes and the botanical origin of the amber; To create a reference spectral library of Portuguese amber;To generate a classification tool by supervised statistical analysis of geological amber;To provide a web application that predicts the origin of archaeological amber artifacts through their FTIR signatures.
In order to create a library of standardized reference spectra for each deposit, IberAmber aims to locate and chemically characterize the Portuguese amber deposits. The standardized reference spectra of the amber deposits will then be used as a fingerprint of the Portuguese amber deposits. These, in turn, will later be compared with the spectra of archaeological artifacts to determine their origin.
Coordinator: Carlos P. Odriozola Lloret
Participants: José Eduardo de Oliveira (FCUL) ; Ana Catarina Sousa (UNIARQ/FLUL); João Daniel Casal duarte (FCUL); José María Martínez Blanes (Universidade de Sevilha);José Ángel Garrido Cordero (UNIARQ/FLUL);
Daniel Sánchez Gómez (UNIARQ/FLUL); Maria Dolores Zambrana Vega (Universidade de Sevilha); Jose Luis Molina Gonzalez (Universidade de Sevilha); Victor S. Gonçalves (UNIARQ/FLUL); Cátia Delicado (UNIARQ/FLUL, CIAS/FLUC)
André Texugo (UNIARQ/FLUL, CEG) e Daniel van Calker (UNIARQ/FLUL).
Partner institutions: Universidade de Sevilha e a Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Financial support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Reference: 2022.09207.PTDC
Duration: 01/2023 – 07/2023
Abstract: The main objective of this project is to estimate the prevalence of the Hemoglobin S carriers in São Tomé and Príncipe. The secondary objectives are: to characterize sociodemographically the carriers of Hemoglobin S in the country; to map the geographic distribution of the Hemoglobin S carriers; to assess drepanocytosis literacy among participants and its sociodemographic determinants; and to estimate the prevalence of woman of childbearing age with homozygosity (HbSS) or with combinations of Hemoglobin S with other hemoglobin variants.
Coordinator (PI): Celeste Bento (CIAS)
Participants: Guilherme Queiroz (CIAS), Celdidy Monteiro, Licínio Manco (CIAS), Luis Relvas, Maria de Jesus Trovoada
Partner institutions: Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde (CIAS), Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal; Laboratorio de Eritropatologia, Unidade Funcional de Hematologia Molecular, Serviço de Hematologia Clínica, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Portugal; Associação Portuguesa de Pais e Doentes com Hemoglobinopatias (APPDH); Unidade de Saúde Pública do ACES Baixo Vouga, Administração Regional de Saúde do Centro, Portugal; Associação Filhos da Meia Lua Vermelha (AFMLV), São Tomé e Príncipe; Hospital Dr. Ayres de Menezes; Centro Nacional de Endemias S. Tomé e Príncipe (CNE).
Financial support: Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde (CIAS), Universidade de Coimbra, e Associação Portuguesa de Pais e Doentes com Hemoglobinopatias (APPDH).
Duration: 2022-2026
Abstract:
Os resultados e dados recuperados através do desenvolvimento do projeto de investigação “Povoamento em Época Romana na Amadora – PERA”, que decorreu entre 2017 e 2021, revelaram-se de grande importância e abriram um novo leque de possibilidades no que respeita à investigação da ocupação humana do atual território da Amadora durante a época romana e a antiguidade tardia.
Nesse sentido, a submissão de um novo projeto de investigação plurianual em arqueologia, pela Câmara Municipal da Amadora/ Museu Municipal da Amadora pretende dar continuidade ao trabalho científico desenvolvido até à data, envolvendo novos consultores de vários ramos da ciência, num projeto que sempre privilegiou os estudos inter e multidisciplinares, iniciando um ciclo de trabalhos que certamente trarão novos dados e respostas sobre a rede de povoamento rural existente nos subúrbios de Felicitas Iulia Olisipo, da qual o território da Amadora faria parte.
Daremos continuidade às ações de escavação e prospeção, a análises de espólios artefactuais, faunísticos e osteológicos, que permitirão perceber a forma como se operou a chegada dos contingentes romanos ao atual concelho da Amadora, bem como o modelo de povoamento e exploração de recursos existente. O estudo de toda esta informação, que sabemos à partida, possuir bastante potencial científico, levará a perceções sobre o economia, sociedade, crenças e paleobiologia da população que aqui vivia possibilitando a procura e criação de paralelos com sítios conhecidos no território envolvente e que integraria o ager da cidade romana de Lisboa.
A divulgação pública dos resultados obtidos continuará a ser uma prioridade, assim como a procura de parcerias e protocolos com outras entidades e pessoas, promovendo ações diversas, tais como, exposições, workshops, palestras, visitas, integração de jovens e voluntários nas escavações e promoção de protocolos e parcerias com instituições de ensino superior, participando na formação e aprendizagem dos alunos dos cursos de arqueologia e antropologia.
Coordinator: Gisela Encarnação e Vanessa Dias (Câmara Municipal da Amadora)
Participants: Liliana Matias de Carvalho (CIAS), responsável científica pela área da bioarqueologia
Partner institutions:
Universidade de Coimbra / Departamento de Ciência da Vida / CIAS – Centro de Investigação em Antropologia da Saúde
Universidade de Évora / Laboratório HERCULES
Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Letras / UNIARQ – Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa
Universidade Nova de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas / Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM)
Financial support: Câmara Municipal da Amadora
Reference: 2016/1(338) (código de projeto DGPC – Direção Geral do Património Cultural)
Duration: 2022-2024
Abstract:
Coordinator:
Participants: Jun Zhang (CIAS)
Partner institutions:
Financial support: CityU Strategic Research Grant, City University of Hong Kong
Reference:
Duration: 2022-2024
Abstract:
Coordinator: Pedro Alexandre Soares (Universidade de Minho)
Participants: Ana Maria Gama da Silva (CIAS)
Financial support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Reference: PTDC/HAR-ARQ/3286/2021
Duration: 2022-2024
Abstract:
Coordinator:
Participants: Ivo Colmonero Costeira (CIAS)
Partner institutions:
Financial support: Primate Conservation Inc., USA; The Genetics Society, UK, Project amount: 5,200 €.
Reference:
Duration: 01/02/2023-31/01/2026
Abstract:
Coordinator: Filipa Cortesão Silva (CIAS)
Participants: Vítor Matos (CIAS)
Partner institutions: University of Seville
Financial support: Junta de Andalucía, Proyectos de Excelencia PAIDI 2020, Convocatoria 2021. Valor: 145.994,50 euros
Reference: ProyExcel_00713
Duration: 01/06/2022-31/05/2023
Abstract: Valle da Gafaria (Lagos, Portugal) has become known as the earliest and largest burial site of enslaved Africans ever found in Europe, predating one of the most shameful chapters of Western history, the Transatlantic slave trade. Bioarchaeological evidence obtained from a total of 158 individuals proves they were of African origin and forcefully deported to Lagos in the 15th to 17th centuries. However from which African regions they were abducted, and at what stages of their lives, remains unknown. This makes it difficult to connect them with descendant communities today and to assess Portugal’s early collusion in the slave trade. The combined analysis of the isotopes ratios of strontium, oxygen, sulfur, carbon and nitrogen is a powerful forensic approach to reconstruct past human environments, diets and mobility patterns during different life stages. We will measure these isotopes in early and late forming teeth in the human remains from Valle da Gafaria in collaboration with Portuguese colleagues to reconstruct individual human origins and to document the rapid changes in life conditions including shifts in geological location, climate and diet, as the result of forced migration from West and Central Africa to Portugal. For the first time, we will utilize novel (and yet unpublished) strontium isotope data from West and Central Africa, including the former Portuguese colony Angola, to determine the most likely native homelands of the enslaved people from Valle da Gafaria.
Participants: Sofia Wasterlain (CIAS), Maria Teresa Ferreira (CIAS), Ana González Ruiz (CIAS, Research fellow), Carina Leirião (CIAS, Research fellow)
Partner institutions: University of California in Santa Cruz
Financial support: National Geographic (Grant # NGS-92850R-22)
Duration: 2022-2023
Abstract:
Coordinator: Jesús Acero Pérez
Participants: Filipa Cortesão Silva (CIAS)
Partner institutions: University of Seville
Financial support: Fundación Palarq, 5.000€
Reference:
