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With this event, the museum continues its cycle of recognitions to illustrious personalities from the world of archaeology linked to the province.
In 2005 the museum paid tribute the Swedish archaeologist Solveig Nordstrom and in 2010 the German scientist Hermanfried Schubart and now in 2013 to the Archaeologist Gabriela Martín Ávila.
The MARQ, see on 20 November, a tribute to the Valencian scientist Gabriela Martín Avila for its contribution to the research of Alicante's archaeological heritage. The event will take place in the MARQ auditorium and will be attended by prominent colleagues, collaborators and friends.
"Archaeologists in Alicante. A day with Gabriela Martín Ávila"The aim is to recognise the work carried out by the scientist in Alicante, such as the intervention with Tarradell in the Tossal de Manises (Alicante), La Serreta (Alcoi) and the Cova Ampla del Montgó (Xábia).
Born in 1935, Gabriela Martín Ávila studied at the University of Valencia, where she formed part of the research group headed by Professor Miquel Tarradell, professor of Archaeology at the university. She was also linked to the city's Archaeology Laboratory, and in 1962 she took part in the birth of its periodical publication, the Papers from the Valencia Archaeology Laboratory. She worked as an assistant lecturer and, together with other researchers such as Enrique Llobregat, she belonged to a generation of young archaeologists with international training who emerged in the 1960s, completing their training at the Italian universities of Perugia and Bordighera.
Gabriela Martín was involved in several excavations, thus completing her training as a field archaeologist. She even acquired extensive experience in underwater excavations. But above all, she showed a particular interest in the Roman world, becoming a specialist in ceramics, as demonstrated in her dissertation on the sigillata from Saguntum defended in 1962. He was also responsible for the cataloguing of these productions both at the Mallorcan site at Pollentia as in the Valentia Roman, on the occasion of the excavations carried out in the centrally located Plaza de la Reina. In this respect, it is worth noting that this researcher made a special effort to apply modern dating techniques to imported ceramics, as well as to include in her publications the essential graphic resources, many of which are still in use today in archaeological research.
The 1964 excavations at the site of Punta de l'Arenal (Xàbia), co-directed with Domingo Fletcher, were a turning point in the career of Gabriela Martín, who interpreted this enclave as a Roman fishing factory for the production of salted fish. Today considered a maritime villa with an associated nursery, this site was at the time an important stimulus for the development of studies on the vestiges of Roman fishing activities in the province of Alicante, representing in turn an important advance in the knowledge of these economic activities in this territory.
A connoisseur of classical Greco-Latin sources and aware of the criticism to which they had to be subjected when carrying out any study of past societies, Gabriela Martín used this knowledge to prepare her doctoral thesis, defended in 1967 and published three years later in the form of a monograph entitled Dianium. Roman archaeology of Denia. This work is considered a pioneer in the archaeological research of the Dénia-Xàbia region and constitutes the first modern analysis of these questions, as it masterfully combines the information provided by ancient texts and archaeological testimonies, especially epigraphy and ceramics. It is also worth mentioning the study he carries out on the possible location of the Greek colony of Hemeroskopeion He uses both criticism of written sources and analysis of archaeological finds of different types (epigraphy, numismatics, architecture, sculpture, ceramics) to relativise the validity of the references in ancient texts in the face of archaeology.
Together with her thesis supervisor, Miquel Tarradell, Gabriela developed the study of the late Roman ceramics from the 5th-6th centuries from the site known at the time as els Antigons, in the heart of Alicante's Benalúa neighbourhood, thus reopening the old debate about the possible location of the Lucentum With time, and thanks mainly to recent excavations, it has been possible to confirm that this municipality was definitely located in the Tossal de Manises.
In 1970, a fundamental change of direction in Gabriela Martín's life took place when she joined the Department of History of the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife (Brazil), where she taught Prehistory and Archaeology, and at the Catholic University of the same city. Director of several research projects, some of which have culminated in doctoral theses, she has participated in the creation and publication of several specialised journals, and has also held various positions of responsibility in the field of archaeological, historical and natural heritage management. Focused on the conservation, enhancement and dissemination of this heritage, she has also demonstrated a great knowledge of South American prehistory and, in particular, of its rock art. This dedication to Brazilian archaeology has not been an obstacle to her continuing her research work on Roman ceramic production at Valencian sites, while at the same time she has worked as a university lecturer, a position that has earned her great respect and admiration from successive generations of students and disciples.
