Eocene palynology of the Mulga Rocks deposits,southern Gunbarrel Basin,Western Australia

Mack, C.L. & Milne, L.A., 19.2.2015. Eocene palynology of the Mulga Rocks deposits, southern Gunbarrel Basin, Western Australia. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Late Eocene palynomorph assemblages have been recovered from carbonaceous sediments within a tenement centred on the Mulga Rocks uranium deposits, currently under exploration by Energy and Minerals Australia. The Mulga Rocks deposits occur in a palaeovalley incised into rocks of the Cretaceous southern Gunbarrel Basin, and the underlying Neoproterozoic to Late Devonian southern Officer Basin, Western Australia. The palynomorph assemblages recovered from the Mulga Rocks deposits most closely resemble the Middle Nothofagidites asperus Zone equivalent of the Murray Basin. Many of the species recovered, and the abundance and diversity at which they are present, are considerably different from most of the southeastern Australian palynoassemblages of similar age. Common in the assemblages are species belonging to Nothofagus, Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae and Picrodendraceae. Proteaceous species are diverse, with Banksia affiliates being prominent. Of most significance are assemblages dominated by Myrtaceidites species, which also contain affiliates of Petrophile and Xylomelum that occur in modern heathland, woodland and dry sclerophyll forests. The prominence of these taxa, and their co-occurrence, suggests that sclerophylly, at present linked closely with xeromorphy and now ubiquitous in the vegetation of Western Australia, was present in the late Eocene of southern Australia and suggests that at that time this trait may have been more prevalent than previously interpreted.

Charlotte Mack [charlotte.mack@postgrad.curtin.edu.au] and Lynne Milne [l.milne@curtin.edu.au], Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. Received 4.7.2014; revised 11.2.2015; accepted 19.2.2015.     

Visions of visibility: LGBT communities in Turin

Recent anti-discrimination campaigns by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) activists in Italy have increased the visibility of these communities and individuals, but have not resulted in the desired improvements to legislation. In light of this situation, this article analyses modalities of ‘visibility’ as defined and desired by the active LGBT community in Turin, host city for National Pride 2006. The Pride committee scheduled an unprecedentedly ‘visible’ year-long programme of consciousness-raising and cultural events that went far beyond the more usual one-day march. Drawing on a series of interviews with members of the committee and of the lesbian community conducted in Turin in March and June 2006, the discussion explores social, cultural and political visibility in this LGBT community as it hosted National Pride.

I think people live in a state of non-visibility, lacking self-acceptance; there are gay men and lesbians in Italy who are in hiding. (Andrea Benedino)1 1.?Interview conducted by the author, 31 March 2006.      

Dendrochemical analysis of a tree-ring growth anomaly associated with the Late Bronze Age eruption of Thera

The most marked tree-ring growth anomaly in the Aegean dendrochronological record over the last 9000 years occurs in the mid 17th century BC, and has been speculatively correlated with the impact of the Late Bronze Age eruption of Thera (Santorini). If such a connection could be proved it would be of major interdisciplinary significance. It would open up the possibility of a precise date for a key archaeological, geological and environmental marker horizon, and offer a direct tie between tree-ring and ice-core records some 3600 years ago. A volcanic explanation for the anomaly is highly plausible, yet, in the absence of a scientifically proven causal connection, the value of the proposed correlation is limited. In order to test the hypothesis, dendrochemical analysis via Synchrotron Radiation Scanning X-ray Fluorescence Microscopy (SXFM), Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) was carried out on growth-ring series from four trees displaying the anomaly. Increases of sulfur, calcium, and rare earth elements following the onset of altered growth, plus concentration spikes of zinc and hafnium in the first affected growth-ring provide promising new evidence in support of a volcanic causal factor. Although a volcanic association is implied, the new data are not sufficient to prove a link to the exact eruption source.     

Modeling life expectancy and surplus production of dynamic pre-contact territories in leeward Kohala, Hawai‘i

Hawaiian territoriality evolved in response to the ecodynamics of changing populations set within shifting socio-political structures. Modeling agricultural surplus production and life expectancy of various prehistoric and protohistoric territorial configurations in the leeward Kohala dryland field system identifies the costs and benefits associated with dynamic territorial units. The results of the modeling indicate that if people lived autonomous lives within their territories the 18-km long landscape containing the field system would have been optimally divided into 14 territories. The archaeological and ethnohistorical data suggest that at European contact the area was divided into 32 generally smaller territorial units. This configuration, while lowering average life expectancy and increasing levels of spatial variability in surplus production, maximized average yearly surplus and reduced its temporal variability. Dividing the field system into 32 units provided opportunities for elite managers to monitor production and control the redistribution of resources. The modeling and archaeological data suggest selection occurred differentially among social units, with certain segments of society having enhanced fitness in terms of agricultural resources at the expense of others, while maximizing the potential for surplus generation and possible redistribution.     

Hair today,gone tomorrow: Analysing potential mercury exposure in 19th-century New Zealand gold miners using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Toxic metal or element exposure has the potential to cause significant negative health effects in human populations. During the goldrushes of the colonial period, mercury amalgamation was one of the most common methods of extracting gold from alluvial deposits or crushed ore, and exposure to mercury was an occupational health hazard. In this study we examine mercury exposure in mining populations from New Zealand’s first major goldrush, which began in Central Otago in 1861. We explore mercury toxicity through laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometric analysis of archaeological hair and sediment samples associated with the Tuapeka goldfields. Our analysis highlights ubiquitous low-level mercury exposure on the goldfields, as well as one individual with such high mercury concentrations in their hair that we suspect direct mercury intake, perhaps medicinally, rather than from environmental contamination.     

Making the Dead Visible: Problems and Solutions for “Big” Picture Approaches to the Past,and Dealing with Large “Mortuary” Datasets

There can be few “bigger” questions than the nature and development of human experience and self-awareness and few better ways to study it than through the changing treatment of the dead over time. Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the ‘Invisible Dead’ project (Durham University) is exploring diachronic changes in mortuary practices across two regions: Britain and the Levant. In doing so, it uses archaeology as a way to approach fundamental questions about the human condition. This paper explores the principal difficulties faced during the construction of a database for this project and their wider relevance for the development of robust and successful methods for the study of large “mortuary” datasets in the future. It discusses the issues and biases identified within the mortuary record and how the project has sought to mitigate some of these. By adopting a flexible and ultimately expandable approach to data entry and analysis, value can be added to legacy datasets and “grey” literature, allowing us to make comparisons between regions which are both geographically and chronologically distinct.     

Reviews

The Art of Persian Music, Jean During, Zia Mirabdolbaghi, and Dariush Safvat, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1991, 280 pp. + Compact Disc entitled Anthology of Persian Music: 1930–1990, $100.

Les Kurdes et le Kurdestan, Bibliographie critique 1977–1986

Abstracta Iranica (volume 5), ed. Joyce Blau, Tehran and Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1989, xvi + 146 pp.

La Révolution française, la Turquie et l'Iran, special issue of the Cahier d'études sur la Méditerraée orientale et le monde turco‐iranien, no. 12 (Juin‐Décembre 1991), 161 pp., with additional articles and book reviews 264 pp.

The History of al‐Tabari, Volume 3: The Children of Israel, trans, and annot. William M. Brinner, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, xii + 194 pp.

Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, Marvin Zonis, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991, x + 350 pp.

Sufi Women, Javad Nurbakhsh, trans. Leonard Lewisohn, rev. ed., London: Khanigah‐i Ni'matullahi, 1990, xv + 263 pp., bibliography and index.

Die persische Gesellschaft unter Nasiru'd‐Din ?ah (1848–1896), Heinz‐Georg Migeod, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1990, 430 pp.

States and Urban‐Based Revolutions: Iran and Nicaragua, Farideh Farhi, Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1990, x + 147 pp., including notes, bibliography, and index, cloth $ 29.95.

Women's Autobiographies in Contemporary Iran, Afsaneh Najmabadi (ed.), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs 25, 78 pp., $9.95.

A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1885–1886: The Safarnameh of Mirza Mohammad Hosayn Farahani, ed., trans., and annot. Hafez Farmayan and Elton L. Daniel, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990, xxxii + 380 pp.; cloth $40, paperback $17.95.     

Microscopical findings associated with the diagnosis of osteoporosis in palaeopathology

This paper presents some preliminary results on microscopical identification of microfractures in human skeletal remains which may be associated with osteoporosis. A technique is described for the examination of cancellous bone and applied to a number of vertebrae and one radius. All the material used is Romano-British or English medieval. However, microscopical screening for osteoporosis could form a useful part of comparative studies on historically or geographically different populations. The archaeological significance of osteoporosis in terms of skeletal ageing and nutritional status is discussed.