The Public Face of Post-Tridentine Italian Confraternities

Catholic reforming policies and Council of Trent rules encouraged and expanded the more public roles and responsibilities of lay confraternities, changing the nature of some old brotherhoods, and promoting new ones. The public images became more important for members, the wider church institutions including associated religious orders, and the public. This article considers some significant aspects of the "public face": processions, Forty Hour devotions, philanthropy. Confraternities contributed to the theatricality of post-tridentine, "baroque" religion in cities like Bologna, Naples and most especially Rome, where the Spanish national confraternity played a spectacular role.     

Jimmy Carter and the Foreign Policy of Human Rights:

I would hope that the nations of the world might say that we had built a lasting peace, based not on weapons of war but on international policies which reflect our own most precious values. These are not just my goals, and they will not be my accomplishments, but the affirmation of our nation's continuing moral strength and our belief in an undiminished, ever-expanding American dream. ¹
President Jimmy Carter, Inaugural Address, 20 January 20, 1977     

Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) isotopic ecology in southern South America: spatial and temporal tendencies, and archaeological implications

We synthesize and discuss available isotopic data on Holocene guanaco samples from southern South America, extending from Tierra del Fuego Island to northern Patagonia and the Pampean region. We evaluate temporal and spatial tendencies on the basis of 91 samples (mainly based on δ¹³C_collagen values), presenting implications for paleodietary research in archaeology. We conclude that there are no strong correlations with latitude in the macro-spatial scale, while there is a set of interesting patterns at smaller regional scales. These patterns lead us to evaluate the role of ecologic and topographic variables (e.g. canopy effect, variations in altitude, ecotones) in structuring isotopic variability. Finally, on the basis of the present analysis we suggest a number of hypotheses and perspectives for the use of stable isotopes as geographic tracers of guanaco distribution in the past, and specific implications for the paleodietary study of human samples.     

Differentiation of ceramic chemical element composition and vessel morphology at a pottery production center in Roman Galilee

Cooking pots and bowls from two production locations ca. 200 m from each other at the rural settlement of Kefar Hananya in Roman Galilee were compared employing chemical element composition and vessel-shape analyses. Splits of each pulverized sample, all of which were taken from ceramic wasters, were analyzed by both instrumental neutron activation and high-precision X-ray fluorescence analyses, and computerized vessel-shape analysis was employed for morphological analysis of the same vessel forms from each location. Several statistical techniques (bivariate plots, principal component analysis, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis) were used for analyzing the resultant data. It was found that both the cooking pots and bowls made at each location could be distinguished by employing either chemical composition or morphological analysis. The implications of this work, with regard to investigating both production and consumption sites, and for pottery provenance studies, are discussed. The findings suggest that these analytical techniques can be useful as an aid for chronological differentiations of archaeological pottery.     

Dietary patterns during the early prehispanic settlement in La Gomera (Canary Islands)

The dietary pattern of 10 adults interred in the Acceso al Pescante de Vallehermoso cave (La Gomera, Canary Islands), dated from 1600 to 1800 years BP, has been investigated using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures, bone barium and strontium levels, and dental and oral pathologies. In addition, trabecular bone mass – as a parameter useful to evaluate overall nutrition – was also determined.     

Adipocere withstands 1600 years of fluctuating groundwater levels in soil

An extraordinarily well-preserved skeleton of a child, interred in a stone sarcophagus in the Late-Roman era, was discovered in the city of Mainz (Germany) in 1998, covered with a puff pastry-like substance assumed to be adipocere. It is the first time that this substance, which is derived from fat under oxygen-deficient conditions and prevents corpses from decaying, has been discovered on corpses buried under conditions described in the present paper.     

Preservation potential of charcoal in alkaline environments: an experimental approach and implications for the archaeological record

Charcoalified plant material (usually wood) has been described as being inert with a high preservation potential. Although usually black on both the outside and inside, the physical and chemical properties differ as a function of temperature and time of exposure to a heat source. Post-depositional processes however may exert additional affects on charcoalified material and introduce bias into the archaeological record. This work explores the influence of alkaline conditions, often encountered in the soil environment, on the preservation potential of charcoalified material. Charcoal, experimentally produced at different temperatures, was exposed to a number of solutions of potassium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide with different pHs, to simulate exposure to alkaline soil conditions. Under these conditions chemically mediated physical interactions occur resulting in fragmentation of the charcoal samples into (very) small pieces the size of which depends upon the initial temperature of charcoalification. Moreover further interactions result in a decrease in reflectance relative to samples not exposed to alkaline conditions. Although experimentally driven the potential for physical loss of charcoal from a particular site coupled with the reduction in (expected) reflectance of any resident material, has important implications for any conclusions drawn regarding the archaeological record.