Who were the Meroites? A biological investigation into the Nubian post‐hiatus group

Scholars have identified a hiatus in the archaeological record of Lower Nubia that spans approximately 1000 years. This interval may represent a desertion of Lower Nubia by its inhabitants. Evidence of occupation did not reappear in the area until the Meroitic time period. However, the identity of the returning people has been the subject of speculation. In order to determine who the Meroites of Lower Nubia were, 20 cranial non‐metric traits were observed on six Nubian groups, representing five time periods. Two groups date to time periods immediately before (Kerma) and immediately after (X‐Group) the Meroitic period. Three additional Nubian groups (two Christian samples from different sites and Sesebi, a contemporary sample) were utilised as outgroups to elucidate a clearer picture of the relationship among the six samples. Mahalanobis D² with a tetrachoric matrix was employed for calculating biological distances among the groups. Principal coordinates analysis produced two clusters of Nubians, where the Meroitics clustered with other Nubian groups. Specific distance scores indicate the Meroites were biologically similar to individuals from the time periods prior to and after their arrival in Lower Nubia. The Meroites therefore appear to be a Nubian group returning to Lower Nubia after its desertion. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ENVIRONMENTAL AND EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: TIME FOR EEG2?

This article argues that recent proposals for environmental and evolutionary economic geographies (EEG 1 and EEG2) should be integrated; EEG² is used as “passing convenience” to make this case. EEG1's emphasis on environmental imperatives is loosely framed and needs a theoretical socio‐economic evolutionary base that is the central thrust of EEG2. Meanwhile EEG2 would be empowered by incorporating environmental concerns within its mandate. Moreover, both EEG1 and EEG2 share common roots in institutional methodologies, emphasize cumulative causation and path‐dependent behaviour, have strong interests at regional scales of analysis, and both are intimately tied to the causes and consequences of innovation. This article provides a rationale and suggests an integrative conceptual approach for developing EEG². In particular, the article outlines a conceptual framework that interprets EEG² in terms of co‐evolutionary socio‐ecological and multi‐scalar processes that are situated within a reasoned history interpretation of economic development. This framework further highlights the roles of path dependency, innovation, multinational corporations and value chains. How this multi‐scalar framework may be elaborated is then discussed around three themes: extending placed‐based analysis of localized clusters; broadening the scope of global value chain analysis; and re‐engaging the analysis of core–periphery relations. Ultimately the case for EEG² is to ensure that economic geographic perspectives are fully incorporated in debates over the co‐evolution of economy and environment, in research and policy terms one of, if not the, central challenges of development in the 21st century.     

Serum Proteins in Archaeological Human Bone

Research on the decomposition of bone collagen offers the key to a wealth of hidden information, for instance, to understanding palaeoclimatic conditions; habitat-specific parameters such as altitude; and for the reconstruction of palaeodiet and subsistence patterns. Radiocarbon dating, one of the most commonly used geochronological techniques is also preferentially carried out on bone collagen. Because negatively charged ions, and especially phosphate groups, are responsible for the tight bonding between organic molecules and bone, soluble serum proteins need not necessarily be leached from buried bone. The authors' hypothesis is that intruding minerals, aided by recrystallization of the bone mineral matrix, and colloid formation, aided by humic substances, form protective layers that preserve serum proteins in bone even after long periods of burial. We have used electrophoresis and Western blotting to recover protein fractions from about 150 archaeological bones from various sites and epochs (up to 5500 BC ) and have succeeded in recovering, purifying all, and identifying some of the proteins. Molecular weight bands corresponding to albumin, transferrin and a-2HS-glycoprotein (A2HS) were frequently recovered. This paper presents the method for separating serum proteins from archaeological bone and for their identification. Twenty-five per cent of samples with the respective molecular weight band still gave a positive immunological reaction with antibodies. We conclude that non-collagenous proteins, especially serum proteins, may be well preserved in bone.     

Ceremonial objects or household items? Non‐destructive μ‐XRD2 and μ‐XRF studies on three Neolithic hematite axes from Qatar

Three small stone axes were collected by the joint Qatari‐German South Qatar Survey Project (SQSP) at two places close to the eastern and western coast of Qatar in autumn 2012. Associated with settlement remains, flint artefacts and pieces of ?Ubaid pottery, the implements have been dated to the fifth millennium BCE. Non‐destructive μ‐XRD² and μ‐XRF analyses could, for the first time, prove the use of hematite as the raw material for the manufacture of these tools in Arabia. The absence of major hematite sources in the region and the special characteristics of hematite — a unique metallic shine of polished pieces and the blood‐red colour that appears during the manufacturing process — suggest the highly symbolic character of these objects.     

The geochemical evolution of very dilute CO2‐rich water in Chungcheong Province,Korea: processes and pathways

A geochemical study was carried out on the CO₂‐rich water occurring in granite areas of Chungcheong Province, Korea. In this area, very dilute and acidic CO₂‐rich waters [62–242 mg l^?1 in total dissolved solid (TDS), 4.0–5.3 in pH; group I) occur together with normal CO₂‐rich waters (317–988 mg l^?1 in TDS, 5.5–6.0 in pH; group II). The concentration levels and ages of group I water are similar to those of recently recharged and low‐mineralized groundwater (group III). Calculation of reaction pathways suggests that group I waters are produced by direct influx of CO₂ gas into group III type waters. When the groundwater is injected with CO₂, it develops the capacity to accept dissolved solids and it can evolve into water with very high solute concentrations. Whether the water is open or closed to the CO₂ gases becomes less important in controlling the reaction pathway of the CO₂‐rich groundwater when the initial pco ₂ is high. Our data show that most of the solutes are dissolved in the CO₂‐rich groundwater at pH > 5 where the weathering rates of silicates are very slow or independent of pH. Thus, groundwater age is likely more important in developing high solute concentrations in the CO₂‐rich groundwaters than accelerated weathering kinetics because of acidic pH caused by high pco ₂.     

Experimental study of the effect of variation in in‐situ stress on capillary residual trapping during CO2 geo‐sequestration in sandstone reservoirs

During a geo‐sequestration process, CO₂ injection causes an increase in reservoir pore pressure, which in turn decreases the reservoir net effective stress. Changes in effective stress can change all the reservoir and cap‐rock properties including residual saturations. This article presents the results of an experimental work carried out to understand the potential change in the volumes of residually trapped CO₂, while the porous medium tested underwent change in the net effective stress under in‐situ reservoir conditions of pore pressure and temperature. The experimental results obtained show that an initial 1725 psi (11.9 MPa) decrease in the net effective pressure caused 1.4% reduction in the volumes of residually trapped CO₂, while another 1500 psi (10.3 MPa) reduction caused a further 3.2% drop in the residual saturation of CO₂.     

Fluid dynamics and fluid‐structural relationships in the Red Lake mine trend,Red Lake greenstone belt,Ontario, Canada

The Red Lake mine trend, a deformation zone in the Archean Red Lake greenstone belt that hosts the world‐class Campbell‐Red Lake gold deposit, is characterized by abundant foliation‐parallel iron‐carbonate ± quartz veins with banded colloform‐crustiform structures and cockade breccias overprinted by silicification and gold mineralization. There is an apparent incompatibility between the cavity‐fill structures of the veins and breccias (typically developed at shallow crustal depths) and the upper greenschist to lower amphibole facies metamorphic conditions recorded in the host rocks (indicating relatively deep environments). This, together with the development of veins along the foliation plane, represents an enigmatic problem that may be related to the interplay between fluid dynamics and stress field. We approach this problem through systematic study of fluid inclusion planes (FIPs) in the vein minerals, including the orientations of the FIPs and the pressure–temperature conditions inferred from fluid inclusion microthermometry. We find that fluid inclusions in the main stage vein minerals (pregold mineralization ankerite and quartz and syn‐ore quartz) are predominantly carbonic without a visible aqueous phase, whereas many inclusions in the postore stage contain an aqueous phase. Most FIPs are subvertical, and many are subparallel to the foliation. High fluid pressure coupled with the high wetting angles of the water‐poor, carbonic fluids may have been responsible for the abundance of brittle deformation features. The development of subvertical FIPs is interpreted to indicate episodic switching of the maximum principal compressive stress (σ₁) from subhorizontal (perpendicular to the foliation) to subvertical (parallel to the foliation) orientation. The subvertical σ₁ is favorable for the formation of foliation‐parallel veins, as fractures are preferentially opened along the foliation in such a stress regime, the origin of which may be linked to the fluid source.     

The Mineralogical Characteristics of the Lamboglia 2 Roman‐Age Amphorae from the Central Adriatic (Croatia)*

The mineralogical characteristics of four Lamboglia 2 Roman‐age amphorae excavated from ancient underwater shipwreck localities in the central Adriatic were investigated. X‐ray diffraction and optical microscopy analyses showed that the amphorae have similar primary mineral compositions, mainly consisting of quartz, plagioclase, potassium feldspar, diopside, illite and calcite, most probably originating from clayey Eocene flysch deposits used as raw materials in manufacture. The difference in mineral composition between these samples is recognized from the presence or absence of melilite, high‐magnesium calcite, aragonite, gypsum and analcime. It was shown that melilite is a secondary mineral formed during the firing process, while the others, which build up through incrustation of marine benthonic communities on the amphora walls and fill the cracks in the amphora bodies, were formed by crystallization in seawater. The firing of the original pieces of amphorae showed that melilite could be formed at temperatures higher than 800°C, most probably through interaction between calcite and silicate minerals present in the raw materials. The presence of melilite, and the absence of illite and calcite, were used to estimate the firing temperature of the amphorae during their production.     

A Usable Past: History and the Politics of National Identity in Late Victorian England

For the past two decades, issues of English national identity have provided a fertile field for historical investigation. In the late Victorian era, the development of professional standards of scholarship within the academy gave a new dimension to historical debates. The bitter quarrels about appropriate research techniques from the 1860s to the 1890s, among James Anthony Froude, Edward Freeman and John Horace Round, acted as a proxy for the vision of national identity that each historian espoused. After 1870, the development of a national narrative focused on constitutional history as its primary vehicle. The battle over historical reconstruction represented a surrogate for divergent views about political values and national identity. What sometimes seemed frivolous scholarly skirmishes, therefore, had a much greater political importance. As a result, the long feud had greater importance than the eccentric personalities of the participants appeared to indicate. For Froude, the Tudor age of discovery and religious reformation represented the best of English character. For Freeman, a strong Gladstonian Liberal, consensus and continuity over many centuries defined English history best. John Horace Round, a Conservative stalwart, thought that Freeman had slanted his historical conclusions to validate his Liberal politics and reinterpreted the Norman conquest to express his own political beliefs. Thus the quibbles about shield walls and other issues provided a terrain for the real cause of antagonism: different views of national identity that history furnished. Each historian constructed a usable past in order to justify contemporary discussions of national identity.