Late antique glass from Salapia: Tracking production and trading networks

The investigation of 38 late antique vessels from the archaeological excavation of Salapia has been performed using EMPA and LA-ICP-MS. The collection was made using impure sands and mineral soda. Among coloured glass, most vessels were made of ‘fresh’ glass. The use of colouring agents is rare, and most decoloured glass is obtained by Mn addition. Sb-decolouration is limited to one cup, and two colourless vessels show both manganese and antimony. As for provenance, the prevalence of Egyptian-HIMT glass over the Levantine is evident. Among Levantine glass, Jalame glass is represented, whereas Apollonia glass is absent. Among Egyptian (and deemed Egyptian) glass, the prevalence of HIMT glass over the other types has been observed. The high attestation of fresh glass, most notable in the earlier centuries, suggests the importation of glass in the form of finished objects, especially luxury vessels.     

U-series and radiocarbon dates on mollusc shells from the uppermost layer of the archaeological site of KHB-1, Ra's al Khabbah,Oman

The archaeological site of KHB-1, Oman, has been investigated in order to improve the chronological knowledge of the site, which is dated to the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. on the basis of the archaeological context. Mollusc shells of the genus Anadara, coming from the uppermost layers of the site, have been dated using two different methods, radiocarbon and U-series technique. The results of the two techniques date the last occupational phase of the site from the end of the fourth millennium B.C. to the beginning of the third millennium B.C.     

“Solidarity is our weapon”: Social Mobilisation in Scotland in the Contest of the Post‐Political Condition

The consensual climate of the post‐political order has been recently disrupted in Europe. The mass protests staged in different European countries and the resurgences of the extreme parties in response to the multiple European crises witness the “cracks” in consensual politics. While much of the scholarly attention has been drawn onto the socio‐political implications of large‐scale upraises, the contribution of bottom‐up sub‐national groups to the “return of the political” has been under‐researched. Therefore, this article focuses on sub‐national grassroots groups as instances of the “properly political” (Swyngedouw 2009, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33[3]:601–620). It is contended that these groups, by putting in place acts of solidarity, are “agonistic” political forms, containing in nuce the potential to counteract the post‐political order and to shape a new politics. To interrogate this argument, the article reports the findings of a case study analysis involving four grassroots groups based in Scotland.     

Major and Minor Turkic Language Islands in Iran with a Special Focus on Khalaj

This contribution offers a presentation of Turkic languages in Iran with special focus on Khalaj, a non-Oghuzic language spoken in the Markazī province. Attention is paid to features induced by contact with Iranian languages in particular with regard to the anaphoric pronominal stem bilä-, necessity constructions and the multifunctionality of ki/ke, providing new data on Khalaj and offering significant insights for further research.     

A case of Madelung's deformity in a skeleton from Nuragic Sardinia

The case reported here refers to the skeletal remains of a mature adult male found in a collective grave known as ‘Giant's tomb’ located near Donori (Sardinia) and dating to the end of the Bronze Age. The skeleton showed bilateral shortening of the forearm associated to radial bowing, marked deformations at the radio‐ulnar distal joints and subsequent posterior dislocation of both ulnae. The whole alterations fit well with a diagnosis of Madelung's deformity, a rare form of mesomelic dysplasia. At present, this case is the most ancient evidence of Madelung's deformity. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fractures of the lower limbs and their secondary skeletal adaptations: a 20th century example of pre‐modern healing

This study focuses on an old male skeleton, which shows severe fractures of the right femur and of the left tibia and fibula. The skeleton, complete and in a good condition of preservation, comes from a Sardinian osteological collection (from the beginning of 1900 AD) with known age, sex and life‐activity. The features of the fractures and pattern of joint disease, enthesis development and enthesopathies have been studied in order to ascertain a possible cause for these traumatic events, the functional implications for postural and locomotory behavior and, finally, the eventual evidence of medical treatment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Obsidian sources and distribution systems in Island Southeast Asia: a review of previous research

This paper summarises research on obsidian findings across the region of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), from the first reporting of obsidian on Sumatra as a result of cave excavations in the early 1900s through to the latest published discoveries in 2009. These results are the background for the first region-wide research project focussing on obsidian characterisation and its role in prehistoric inter-island exchange. It is commonly held that distribution of obsidian in ISEA was only localised and inter-island transportation limited. The review, however, suggests that this hypothesis derives from an incomplete knowledge of obsidian distribution in the region rather than typifying prehistoric social patterns. Obsidian sourcing has been carried out only intermittently in ISEA since the 1970s and has generally been focussed only at the single site level, thus explaining this very partial understanding.     

Ancient olive DNA in pits: preservation,amplification and sequence analysis

The olive tree (Olea europaea) was domesticated by vegetative propagation of selected wild individuals with superior fruit. Later, new cultivars were established repeatedly from feral trees or from crosses between wild, feral, and domesticated trees. Thus the genetic background of many contemporary domesticated lines is a mixture of ancient cultivars and local wild trees. Ancient DNA may illuminate the complicated process of olive domestication because such DNA sequences provide data about ancient genomes that existed closer to the domestication events. Well preserved DNA must be available for such studies, even though in the Mediterranean region, where olive cultivation took place, the climatic conditions are not favorable for DNA preservation. To select for well preserved pits we measured their proportions of lignin by IR spectroscopy, and correlated this with parameters of DNA quality such as template length in an olive-specific repeat array, and template quantity as determined by real-time PCR amplification. Archaeological pits that passed these tests did contain high quality ancient DNA. We present the first ancient olive DNA sequences and compare them to modern wild, feral and domesticated lines.