The use of soil chemistry data to address post-mortem diagenesis in bone mineral

The soluble and exchangeable ions for a soil profile from the Roonka archaeological site. Lower Murray Basin, South Australia, are compared with the total elemental content of the soils. Since the chemical composition of post-mortem ionic substitution phases and secondary minerals in archaeological bone will depend on the availability of ions to the soil solution under field conditions, it is suggested that models addressing diagenesis in bone employ soluble and exchangeable ions rather than total elemental soil data.     

Seleucia Pieria: an ancient harbour submitted to two successive uplifts

Historical sources ascribe the foundation of Seleucia (Seleukeia) Pieria to Seleucos I Nikator, shortly before the foundation of Antioch in the late 4th century BC. The Seleucia Pieria site seems however to have been inhabited earlier, perhaps from around 700 BC, possibly by a Greek population under an Assyrian ruler. The city became of considerable military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids; it was occupied by the Romans in the 1st century BC, but had practically disappeared in the 6th century AD.
Geomorphological surveys in the area have revealed the existence of elevated marine notches and rims bioconstructed by vermetids, oysters and calcareous algae, which occasionally erode or intersect the archaeological sites, showing that two rapid land uplift movements, probably of seismic origin, took place during the late Holocene. The first movement, which occurred about 2500 ± 100 years bp, was the strongest one and caused a local vertical displacement of about 1.7 m, which may have severely affected the earlier Greek settlement. Though several earthquakes are reported to have occurred in the area during the following ten centuries, none of them seem to have been strong enough to cause significant vertical displacements. The second movement occurred around 1400 years bp, probably in May 526 AD, when a great earthquake followed by tsunami waves is known to have caused devastating damage in Antioch and Seleucia. According to geomorphological data supported by several radiocarbon dates, the earthquake was accompanied by a 0.7 to 0 8 m upheaval. This seismotectonic event also caused a rapid silting of the Seleucia Pieria closed harbour basin and entrances, thus preventing its further use.     

Evaluating Tobler's Migration Vector Fields

In the past decade Tobler has provided an innovative cartographic presentation of migration flows. The central theme of this research has been to utilize detailed migration data to reveal the underlying structures of migration flows. Even though the analyses are not explanatory models of migration exchanges, the application of these techniques to migration flows over time and across different spatial scales provides a visual generalization of often extremely complex flows. The application of his techniques at two spatial scales for the Netherlands illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of migration force fields for the analysis of migration.     

Book review

Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies

vol. III, no. 2., ed. Robert Pinner and Walter B. Denny. Published by the Islamic Department of Sotheby’ s and OCTS, Ltd., London (n.d., 1990?). 262 pages, with 12 colour plates and many black and white illus. and diagrams; soft‐bound with colour cover.

Textile Conservation and Research

by Mechtilde Fleury‐Lemburg. Bern, Switzerland: Abegg Stiftung. 1988, 532 pp.

An Introduction to Kurdish Rugs and Other Weavings

William Eagleton. New York, Interlink Books. 1988. 144 pp., 124 full‐page color plates.

Kordi: Lives, Rugs, Flatweaves of the Kurds in Khorasan

Wilfried Stanzer, Vienna, Adil Besim. 1988. 220 pp., 78 full‐page color plates, 48 color figures in text.

Carpets in the Baluch Tradition

by Siawosch Azadi. English trans. by Maria Schlatter and Robert Pinner. Klinkhardt and Biermann, Munich, 1986.

Armenian Rugs: Fabric of a Culture. An Exhibition at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies

August 17‐October 29, 1988. Co‐sponsored by the Armenian Rug Society. Ed. Pamela B. Nelson. 40 pp; colour and black and white photographs, maps and “selected bibliography”. Philadelphia: Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1988.

Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East

by Jennifer Scarce, London and Sydney: Unwin Hyman Publishers, 1987. pp. 192