This article discusses how classical studies can use the concept of heterotopia to analyze both physical and imagined spaces in ancient civilizations. Michel Foucault has adopted the notion of heterotopia to refer to spaces and places that exist in reality, but are strikingly different from the surrounding space and reflect, negate and invert it. First, Foucault’s criteria for such other spaces are presented, and the concept of heterotopia is critically discussed before applications in ancient studies are outlined. Finally it is shown, as an example, how Foucault’s approach can help to understand the ideology and practice of ascetic monasticism in the Greek East in Late Antiquity.

Interest in the analysis of the legislation governing water use and distribution in al-Andalus is evident among scholars due to two facts: the coexistence of different legal systems and the implementation of a casuistic system of law. It deals with concepts such as responsibility and participation in water management and the conservation of water. This research is an analysis focused on justifying the roots of the Andalusi irrigation system that were grounded in Mudejar legal sources, which themselves were based on the Andalusi and Arabic sources applied in al-Andalus during the 8–17th centuries and beyond. The explanation of the irrigation system methodology concerns the migration from different territories, which allowed the implementation of new hydraulic facilities and, as a result, a new system of distribution and rational utilisation of water. Now is the right time to explain the contents of the water law enforced in the Iberian Peninsula over the centuries, thanks to the knowledge of case law from the Syrians, Egyptians, Tunisians of Qayrawan, and kadis of Ceuta whom were considered technicians in terms of hisba; a matter directly linked with water supply.

In diesem Artikel wird ein mathematisches Modell entwickelt für die Ausbreitung des Wollschafs unter Hirten im Nahen Osten und in Südosteuropa zwischen 6200 und 4200 v. Chr. In unserem Modell werden Hirten als Agenten betrachtet, deren Bewegungen durch Zufallsprozesse gesteuert werden, sodass sich die Agenten mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit in Regionen aufhalten, die attraktiv für die Schafhaltung sind. Das Modell berücksichtigt außerdem soziale Interaktionen zwischen Agenten und erlaubt die Weitergabe der Innovation zwischen Agenten mit einer bestimmten Wahrscheinlichkeit. Die Parameter des agentenbasierten Modells werden an die verfügbaren archäologischen Daten angepasst. Ein Simulationsverfahren für die räumliche und zeitliche Entwicklung des Ausbreitungsprozesses soll es ermöglichen, qualitative Effekte von verschiedenen Aspekten zu studieren, die den Ausbreitungsprozess beeinflussen.