April - 2026

In Cidades e Sentidos na Antiguidade Tardia: transformações das topografias urbanas e dos campos sensoriais na África do Norte entre os séculos IV e VII (Editora Intermeios, 2026, 516 pages, R$92), Rafael Monpean uses archaeology as a starting point to understand the sensory composition of the urban landscape between the 4th and 5th centuries in Roman Africa. Using the history of the senses, the author addresses how the city was "felt" in daily life, especially from the perspective of subaltern groups, such as the smell of dyeing workshops, the bustle of markets, changes in circulation patterns caused by the narrowing of streets, among other phenomena. The author argues that everyday sensory experience was a factor constituted by social relations, being important for the construction of identity and the integration of workers into urban communities. These workers are, therefore, active agents who helped shape the topography of cities according to their productive and social needs. 

Cautivas (Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2025, 44 pages, $14,75), by Enrique García Riaza, uses a counter-reading of literary and archaeological sources to analyze the participation of women during the period of Roman expansion in the Mediterranean and, specifically, in the Iberian Peninsula. The author begins with the different types of violence to which women were subjected (prisoners, hostages, and enslaved) to argue that the role of women was crucial, not only as victims, but as central figures in the logistics of war and the social organization of resistance against Rome. For Riaza, the role of women was decisive, not only as victims, but as central figures in the logistics of war and the social organization of resistance against Rome, maintaining the cohesion of communities during wars, participating in resource production, and, in many cases, being the last bastion of cultural identity against Romanization.