Vegetation history at the multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty,Co. Down,Northern Ireland

Palaeoecological methods can provide an environmental context for archaeological sites, enabling the nature of past human activity to be explored from an indirect but alternative perspective. Through a palynological study of a small fen peatland located within the catchment of a multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, we reconstruct the vegetation history of the area during the early prehistoric period. The pollen record reveals tentative evidence for Mesolithic activity in the area at 6410–6220 cal BC, with woodland disturbance identified during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transitional period ca. 4430–3890 cal BC. A more significant impact on the landscape is observed in the Early Neolithic from 3950 to 3700 cal BC, with an opening up of the forest and the establishment of a mixed agricultural economy. This activity precedes and continues to be evident through the Mid-Neolithic during which megalithic tombs and related burial sites were constructed at Ballynahatty. Due to chronological uncertainties and a possible hiatus in peat accumulation in the fen, the contemporary environment of the Ballynahatty timber circle complex (constructed and used ca. 3080–2490 cal BC) and henge (dating to the third millennium cal BC) cannot certainly be established. Nevertheless, the pollen record suggests that the landscape remained open through to the Bronze Age, implying a long continuity of human activity in the area. These findings support the idea that the Ballynahatty prehistoric complex was the product of a gradual and repeated restructuring of the ritual and ceremonial landscape whose significance continued to be recognised throughout the early prehistoric period.     

International R&D Cooperation between Low-tech SMEs: The Role of Cultural and Geographical Proximity

Although there is a considerable amount of empirical evidence on inter-firm collaborations within technology-based industries, there are only a few works focussing on R&D cooperation by low-tech firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Providing further and new evidence based on a recently built database of CRAFT projects, this study analyses the relationship between technology and proximity in international R&D networks using HOMALS and statistical cluster techniques. The resulting typology of international cooperative R&D projects highlights that successful international cooperative R&D projects are both culturally/geographically closer and distant. Moreover, and quite interestingly, geographically distant projects are technologically more advanced whereas those located near each other are essentially low-tech. Such evidence is likely to reflect the tacit-codified knowledge debate boosted recently by the information and communication technology (ICT) “revolution” emphasized by the prophets of the “Death of Distance” and the “End of Geography”.     

Identifying the Impacts of Land-Use Spatial Patterns on Street-Network Accessibility Using Geospatial Methods

While the land use-street network nexus is well acknowledged, evidence for the one-way impacts of land-use patterns on street accessibility is still inadequate. The measurements of land-use patterns and street accessibility lack systematic knowledge. Their empirical correlations also lack geographical variability, constraining site-specific land-use practices. Therefore, this study overcame the aforementioned limitations by examining the two-level spatial models to formulate accessibility-oriented land plans, using a well-developed Chinese city as an example. Firstly, two landscape metrics—Euclidean Nearest-Neighbor Distance (ENN) and Similarity Index (SIMI)—were used to quantify the intra- and inter-land-use configurations, respectively. Both city-level and local accessibility were measured using spatial design network analysis. Performing both ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models, results identified the statistically significant effects of inter-land-use patterns on two-level street accessibility. An exception was that land-use configurations within residential and industrial regions were irrelevant to street accessibility. We also found GWR was a better-fitting model than OLS when estimating locally-varied accessibility, suggesting hierarchical multiscale land-use planning. Overall, locally heterogeneous evidence in this study can substantialize land use-street network interactions and support the decision-making and implementation of place-specific accessibility-oriented land use.     

Civilization and Barbarism: When Barbarism Builds Cities

Around the mid-nineteenth century, D. F. Sarmiento introduced in Argentine literature the duality of “civilization and barbarism,” assuming that it was, at that time, an inescapable model in the analysis of society. Early in the 1880s, when the “conquest of the desert” came to an end and conflicts between city inhabitants and their urbanistic and “civilizing” urban plannings, vis-à-vis the rural populations that assumedly resisted change, worsened, the model acquired a new meaning. Taking one particular case of analysis, the foundation of the city of La Plata in lands owned by the Estancia Iraola, this paper uses archaeology to explore the limitations and falsehoods of such duality, jointly with the assumption of a simplistic relation of determinism between an environment and a particular human group.     

THE ACEHÚCHE GOLD TORC: GOLD AND SACRED LAND ON THE SHORES OF THE TAGUS RIVER (CÁCERES,WESTERN SPAIN)

This article describes the important discovery of a Late Bronze Age gold torc that was unearthed in a field of Acehúche (Cáceres, Spain). It was buried underneath some rocks at a site near a river crossing over the Tagus river. In its immediate vicinity, archaeological remains dating from the Copper Age to the Late Bronze Age have been found, which indicates the long use of this crossing. Until recently here, there existed a ferry and a chapel; and the place went by the toponym of the Dehesa de San Cristóbal. Legend too has it that the water from the river had curative properties. All of these components have maintained the sacred nature of the spot, otherwise transformed over the course of time, and reflect an earlier sacred landscape with quite ancient roots.     

Soluble Salts Amplify the Effect of Small Heterogeneities in the Structure of Porous Building Materials During Drying

Salt crystallization is a major cause of degradation in old buildings. One of the issues that stills need clarification is regarding the influence of the salts on the capillary absorption and subsequent drying of porous building materials. This article presents an experimental study that included capillary absorption and evaporative drying tests on two types of material (lime mortar and ceramic brick) using pure water or saturated solutions of six salts (sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, sodium nitrate, sodium carbonate, potassium nitrate, or potassium carbonate). The results of capillary absorption agree only roughly with the linear relationship, predicted by theory, between sorptivity and the square root of the ratio between viscosity η and surface tension σ of the solution (σ/η)^1/2. This poor agreement is probably due to material heterogeneity. The drying dynamics was regular and showed little dispersion between specimens, but only for the uncontaminated materials. Indeed, the drying dynamics of the salt contaminated materials was often irregular or diverged among similar specimens, and the same happened with their salt decay patterns. The main conclusion is that soluble salts can amplify the effects on drying of the small structural heterogeneities that porous building materials normally depict.     

Geometry,Construction and Structural Analysis of the Crossed-Arch Vault of the Chapel of Villaviciosa,in the Mosque of Córdoba

The vault of Villaviciosa is one of the oldest existing examples of a true ribbed vault, and is the first of the crossed-arch type. Although its perfection suggests earlier trials, none has been found so far. It predates the oldest Romanesque ribbed vaults by more than a century. Notwithstanding its importance, no construction and structural study has ever been done; neither has an accurate survey been published. The purpose of this article is to fill this gap in the history of vault construction. A detailed survey has been made, providing the first accurate drawings of the vault. A close inspection of the extrados, completed with a visual inspection of interior damages, has allowed ascertaining the main construction features. With the geometry and the material data a structural analysis has been carried out. This analysis explains the fundamental structural behavior of the vault and throws new light into some historical issues; for example, it leads to discarding the widespread belief that the ribs are decorative: they are supporting the weight of the vault.