Susana Gómez-Martínez
Susana Gómez-Martínez is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Évora where she lectures on mediaeval and Islamic archaeology for both Licentiate and Master’s degree courses, and Director of History Department.
She graduated in Geography and History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1990 and completed her doctoral studies at the same university in 2004. While studying, she did internships in archaeological stations from Medieval Times in Spain, France, Israel and Portugal. She obtained a research grant from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992 and has been a researcher for the Mértola Archaeological Centre (CAM) since that time. She was a doctoral fellow of FCT from 1997 to 2000 and in 2007-2008 she was a post-PhD fellow for the European project «MERCATOR – Route des Merchands, Ville des Marchés en Méditerranée». From 2008 to 2009 she held a post-PhD grant from FCT, which she interrupted in 2009 to take on a research contract for the 2008 FCT Science Programme at the University of Coimbra as part of the Research Centre in Archaeology, Arts and Cultural Heritage (CEAACP), completed in September 2014. Between 2009 and 2018 was Invited Assistant Professor at the Universities of Lisbon, Évora and Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain).
She has already tutored two PhD thesis and 15 Master’s degree theses and is currently tutoring 5 PhD and 8 Master’s degree theses. She is Integrated PhD Researcher at the CEAACP/CAM and Collaborating Member at the CIDEHUS - Interdisciplinary Center for History, Cultures and Societies and HERCULES Lab - Cultural Heritage Studies and Safeguard.
She has written more than 200 papers, is the editor of 14 monographs, and is a member of the International Editorial Committee of several journals in Portugal and Spain including the journal Arqueologia Medieval.
Her scientific work is renowned and led to her being invited to be part of Master’s and PhD jury panels in Portugal, France and Spain, as well as being a key-note speaker at more than 100 scientific meetings in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Tur Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Gómez takes part in several research projects, of which we highlight the CEAACP’s Strategic Project for which she promoted the creation of the Study Group on Islamic Ceramics in the Garb al-Andalus (CIGA); “Alcáçova de Mértola: buildings, space and function from Late Antiquity to the Christian Reconquest” and “Reassessment of European mitochondrial DNA diversity”.
She has participated in/coordinated several projects of heritage conservation and enhancement, of which we note the Turismo Arqueológico do Alentejo funded by the Turismo de Portugal (2020-2023); LIMUS funded by the Interreg POCTEP (2017-2020); “Projecto Integrado de Valorização do Património de Mértola” funded by INALENTEJO (2010-2014); and “Discover Islamic Art” funded by the Euromed programme (2005-2007).
Her work with museums is vast and she has authored two travelling exhibitions: “Signs of Daily Life” and “At the furtherst point of al-Andalus. Mértola and the Guadiana”.
She is a member of the Mértola Archaeological Centre Board of Directors; member of the Asociación de Arqueologia Medieval (AEAM) Board of Directors and Vice-Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Association Internationale pour l'Etude des Céramiques Médiévales et Modernes en Méditerranée (AIECM3).
She graduated in Geography and History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1990 and completed her doctoral studies at the same university in 2004. While studying, she did internships in archaeological stations from Medieval Times in Spain, France, Israel and Portugal. She obtained a research grant from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992 and has been a researcher for the Mértola Archaeological Centre (CAM) since that time. She was a doctoral fellow of FCT from 1997 to 2000 and in 2007-2008 she was a post-PhD fellow for the European project «MERCATOR – Route des Merchands, Ville des Marchés en Méditerranée». From 2008 to 2009 she held a post-PhD grant from FCT, which she interrupted in 2009 to take on a research contract for the 2008 FCT Science Programme at the University of Coimbra as part of the Research Centre in Archaeology, Arts and Cultural Heritage (CEAACP), completed in September 2014. Between 2009 and 2018 was Invited Assistant Professor at the Universities of Lisbon, Évora and Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain).
She has already tutored two PhD thesis and 15 Master’s degree theses and is currently tutoring 5 PhD and 8 Master’s degree theses. She is Integrated PhD Researcher at the CEAACP/CAM and Collaborating Member at the CIDEHUS - Interdisciplinary Center for History, Cultures and Societies and HERCULES Lab - Cultural Heritage Studies and Safeguard.
She has written more than 200 papers, is the editor of 14 monographs, and is a member of the International Editorial Committee of several journals in Portugal and Spain including the journal Arqueologia Medieval.
Her scientific work is renowned and led to her being invited to be part of Master’s and PhD jury panels in Portugal, France and Spain, as well as being a key-note speaker at more than 100 scientific meetings in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Tur Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Gómez takes part in several research projects, of which we highlight the CEAACP’s Strategic Project for which she promoted the creation of the Study Group on Islamic Ceramics in the Garb al-Andalus (CIGA); “Alcáçova de Mértola: buildings, space and function from Late Antiquity to the Christian Reconquest” and “Reassessment of European mitochondrial DNA diversity”.
She has participated in/coordinated several projects of heritage conservation and enhancement, of which we note the Turismo Arqueológico do Alentejo funded by the Turismo de Portugal (2020-2023); LIMUS funded by the Interreg POCTEP (2017-2020); “Projecto Integrado de Valorização do Património de Mértola” funded by INALENTEJO (2010-2014); and “Discover Islamic Art” funded by the Euromed programme (2005-2007).
Her work with museums is vast and she has authored two travelling exhibitions: “Signs of Daily Life” and “At the furtherst point of al-Andalus. Mértola and the Guadiana”.
She is a member of the Mértola Archaeological Centre Board of Directors; member of the Asociación de Arqueologia Medieval (AEAM) Board of Directors and Vice-Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Association Internationale pour l'Etude des Céramiques Médiévales et Modernes en Méditerranée (AIECM3).
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Campo Arqueológico de Mértola team in a building known as the Antigos CTT, between August 2019 and
February 2020. This property is located to the west of Alcoutim Castle and inside its 17th century walls, being
an important archaeological site to understand the occupational dynamic of this urban area.
This intervention was performed in two distinct phases: diagnostic survey and archaeological monitoring /
excavation. These interventions led to the identification of an associated group of structures and layers that
point to a diachrony beginning in the 15th century.
prominent iconographic elements, interpreting the symbolism and meaning that the ornamentation of these objects
had in the western territories of al-Andalus, a peripheral region where pottery was an important instrument
for the transmission of messages from the power centers of al-Andalus
with both museographical programming and tourist development in order to promote history and
archaeology as the main axis of the town’s cultural and economic progress. From its outset, the project, with
a strong political content in the sense of citizen intervention, has had its basis in the combination of rigorous
multidisciplinary research with rapid appreciation of the value of results, handing back to the community
their heritage, using the accessible, intuitive language of museography. Thus, both temporary and permanent
exhibitions have been inaugurated here, scattered over the whole area, thus promoting the idea that there is
not just one Mértola Museum but rather the town itself is the museum, along with all that belongs to it. This
heritage not only brings improvement to the population’s economic conditions due to cultural tourism, but
also contributes to give dignity to traditional know-how and affirms local identity.
of the city of Évora in the last thirty years led a very significant
and heterogeneous collection of medieval-Islamic ceramic (8th-
12th centuries), among which stands out a bowl with an ornamental
decoration technique that have never been documented in
the Iberian Peninsula until now.
To present study discuss the results of the stylistic and analytical
study developed on this piece. It reveals the originality of this new
decorative technique, characterized by a brown / opaque brown
background on which is developed a white and green decoration.
This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of Islamic
pottery in the Iberian Peninsula and subsequently in the Portuguese
territory.
Islamique de Gharb al-Andalus (CIGA), a effectué de nombreuses études destinées à faire connaître, d’une manière générale,
la céramique islamique d’al-Gharb. Lors de cette rencontre scientifique, sur le thème des grands récipients, nous proposons
une étude sur les pots et objets en céramique qui lui sont associés, en abordant des aspects technologiques et typologiques, les
répertoires décoratifs, la répartition territoriale et l’incidence chronologique sur le territoire portugais actuel.
Keywords: Natural place; Historical heritage; Defensive structure; Domestic architecture.
ABSTRACT
The river was undoubtedly a determining factor in the choice of founding Mértola in the place that it has always occupied from prehistoric times to the present day. This was due to the exceptional conditions for strategic defense and the possibility of river navigation. The meeting point of the rivers Guadiana and Oeiras transforms Mértola into almost an island and gives it an excellent defense position that was wisely complemented by a solid fortification, carefully respected and preserved throughout the centuries. The city appears unconquerable from the river, scaling the abrupt hillside.
The tide allows river navigation for small-and med-sized vessels to go as far as Mértola. However, the crossing was not easy; there were outcrops of rocks at various intervals along the way and it was only due to the high tides and people’s knowledge of the river that kept them safe. The Pulo do Lobo waterfall, a few kilometers upstream, prevents further travel.
As Mértola was the terminal point of river navigation on the Guadiana, it was inevitable that it took on eminently commercial functions and regional traffic control of both people and goods - the ordering of river traffic always being a central concern for political powers. The River Tower, constructed in the Late Antiquity to defend and control the port and access between this and the inner city, was traditionally the “legal” limit between the “sea” and the “river”. The River Gate and the ferry, which used to cross the river until the present-day bridge was built in 1961, were ways of both controlling people and goods and of collecting tolls.
Mértola was the theatre of commercial trade since time immemorial, being the point that linked the maritime – river routes with the overland routes. There was an enormous variety of products traded here, from basic food supplies to luxury goods.
In the present paper we will characterize the importance the river acquired through the times in the village´s historic evolution, considering the different civilizations and cultures that arrived from other Mediterranean regions.
Campo Arqueológico de Mértola team in a building known as the Antigos CTT, between August 2019 and
February 2020. This property is located to the west of Alcoutim Castle and inside its 17th century walls, being
an important archaeological site to understand the occupational dynamic of this urban area.
This intervention was performed in two distinct phases: diagnostic survey and archaeological monitoring /
excavation. These interventions led to the identification of an associated group of structures and layers that
point to a diachrony beginning in the 15th century.
prominent iconographic elements, interpreting the symbolism and meaning that the ornamentation of these objects
had in the western territories of al-Andalus, a peripheral region where pottery was an important instrument
for the transmission of messages from the power centers of al-Andalus
with both museographical programming and tourist development in order to promote history and
archaeology as the main axis of the town’s cultural and economic progress. From its outset, the project, with
a strong political content in the sense of citizen intervention, has had its basis in the combination of rigorous
multidisciplinary research with rapid appreciation of the value of results, handing back to the community
their heritage, using the accessible, intuitive language of museography. Thus, both temporary and permanent
exhibitions have been inaugurated here, scattered over the whole area, thus promoting the idea that there is
not just one Mértola Museum but rather the town itself is the museum, along with all that belongs to it. This
heritage not only brings improvement to the population’s economic conditions due to cultural tourism, but
also contributes to give dignity to traditional know-how and affirms local identity.
of the city of Évora in the last thirty years led a very significant
and heterogeneous collection of medieval-Islamic ceramic (8th-
12th centuries), among which stands out a bowl with an ornamental
decoration technique that have never been documented in
the Iberian Peninsula until now.
To present study discuss the results of the stylistic and analytical
study developed on this piece. It reveals the originality of this new
decorative technique, characterized by a brown / opaque brown
background on which is developed a white and green decoration.
This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of Islamic
pottery in the Iberian Peninsula and subsequently in the Portuguese
territory.
Islamique de Gharb al-Andalus (CIGA), a effectué de nombreuses études destinées à faire connaître, d’une manière générale,
la céramique islamique d’al-Gharb. Lors de cette rencontre scientifique, sur le thème des grands récipients, nous proposons
une étude sur les pots et objets en céramique qui lui sont associés, en abordant des aspects technologiques et typologiques, les
répertoires décoratifs, la répartition territoriale et l’incidence chronologique sur le territoire portugais actuel.
Keywords: Natural place; Historical heritage; Defensive structure; Domestic architecture.
ABSTRACT
The river was undoubtedly a determining factor in the choice of founding Mértola in the place that it has always occupied from prehistoric times to the present day. This was due to the exceptional conditions for strategic defense and the possibility of river navigation. The meeting point of the rivers Guadiana and Oeiras transforms Mértola into almost an island and gives it an excellent defense position that was wisely complemented by a solid fortification, carefully respected and preserved throughout the centuries. The city appears unconquerable from the river, scaling the abrupt hillside.
The tide allows river navigation for small-and med-sized vessels to go as far as Mértola. However, the crossing was not easy; there were outcrops of rocks at various intervals along the way and it was only due to the high tides and people’s knowledge of the river that kept them safe. The Pulo do Lobo waterfall, a few kilometers upstream, prevents further travel.
As Mértola was the terminal point of river navigation on the Guadiana, it was inevitable that it took on eminently commercial functions and regional traffic control of both people and goods - the ordering of river traffic always being a central concern for political powers. The River Tower, constructed in the Late Antiquity to defend and control the port and access between this and the inner city, was traditionally the “legal” limit between the “sea” and the “river”. The River Gate and the ferry, which used to cross the river until the present-day bridge was built in 1961, were ways of both controlling people and goods and of collecting tolls.
Mértola was the theatre of commercial trade since time immemorial, being the point that linked the maritime – river routes with the overland routes. There was an enormous variety of products traded here, from basic food supplies to luxury goods.
In the present paper we will characterize the importance the river acquired through the times in the village´s historic evolution, considering the different civilizations and cultures that arrived from other Mediterranean regions.
17th October 2014 - Abstract submission
14th November 2014 - Author Notification
23rd January 2015 – Paper submission (Conference Proceedings)
6th March 2015 - Author Notification