Archaeology now has its Easter cake

The Vice-Rector for Doctoral Studies, Trainee Research Staff, Talent Attraction and Dissemination, Maria Feliu, highlighted the teamwork that has been carried out, both at the University and with the guild, and invited everyone to make “this sweet gift, which also involves giving knowledge”. She also referred to the fact that, after a geologist and a biologist mona, there is now also a mona from the humanities field.

The dean of Geography and History, Ricardo Piqueras, recalled that the Faculty has been working for a year on the archaeologist figure and explained the added value of the QR that it carries, which leads to a web page with informative content. For his part, the president of the Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona, Miquel A. Zaguirre, pointed out that there are already 50 patisseries participating in the initiative, distributed in different locations. Finally, Adrià Ruiz, a teacher at the Escola de Pastisseria del Gremi (the guild’s school), who has taken part in the project since the first edition, said that the objectives set from the beginning are being met: “Every year, I learn something new with the mona de ciència” he said.

​​​​This is the third year that the UB and the Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona have joined forces to bring the mona de ciència, an Easter cake figure that aims to disseminate research and awaken scientific vocations among young people, to patisseries. Xavier Mangado (SERP) and Rocío Da Riva (GRACPE), professors at the UB’s Faculty of Geography and History, and two researchers behind this dissemination project’s scientific work note: “We want to pass on to the children the idea of discovery, the passage of time, and we want them to learn to value and better understand archaeological and culture heritage”. They give us more details about the cake: “The columns, one column and half a column to give the idea of the passage of time, are intended to represent the Greek tradition present in Catalonia, with sites such as Empúries. The amphora symbolizes Roman civilization in Catalonia, with cities such as Baetulo (Badalona), Barcino (Barcelona) and Tarraco itself (Tarragona). And the footprints on the ground recall the first preserved footprints of a human being, found in the prehistoric site of Laetoli (Tanzania), which is 3.7 million years old”. “In addition, the figure is holding a hand shovel, an essential tool for us because it allows us to carefully unearth objects from the past”, they note.

 

The added value of the Easter cake — which makes it different from other mones — is that it carries a QR code through which you can access a website with informative content. In the case of the archaeologist mona, the website has sections dedicated to methodological aspects (how archaeological finds are recorded and what is done afterwards); to “material culture” (everything related to the objects found in the excavations); archaeozoology (the relationship between humans and animals and domestication processes); the study of human skeletons; landscape (in relation to changes in climate and those caused by humans); and the world of ideas (including aspects related to art and symbolic expression).

The content of the website, aimed at children and the general public, has been developed by members of the research teams of the Research Group on the Archaeology of Complexity and Processes of Social Evolution (GRACPE) and the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar (SERP) of the Prehistory and Archaeology Section of the Faculty of Geography and History.

Geologist, biologist or archaeologist

Mones de Ciència is a project of La UB Divulga, in collaboration with the Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona, which each year is dedicated to a different scientific discipline. In the first two editions, the cake figure was a geologist and a biologist. In fact, you can choose to buy any of the three science cakes made so far. The list of pastry shops where to can buy them is available on the UB Divulga website.