Testing recipes: an experimental approach to paint production processes in Levantine rock art (Spain)

Over more than a century, several proposals have been made on the composition and technical features of the pictorial recipes used by Levantine prehistoric painters. In this paper all these proposals are surveyed and tested through systematic experiments to determine the technical affordance of pigments and binders in different pictorial recipes. Experimental results were then used as independent analytical parameters employed as diagnostic criteria to systematically study an archaeological sample of nine sites located in the Maestrazgo region (Spain) and their surroundings. Results reveal that out of 112 experimental recipes, only 16 afforded the production of paintings technically similar to Levantine rock art.     

Two Books for Juveniles

Book reviewed in this article: The Wonder Child & Other Jewish Fairy Tales: Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush Magid Fasts for Ramadan: Mary Matthews     

Reviews

A Persian Requiem , Simin Daneshvar, trans. Roxane Zand, New York: George Brazillier, Inc., 1992, 279 pp., $12.50.

Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh , Dick Davis, Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas Press, 1992, 222 pp., $30.00.

Modern Capitalism and Islamic Ideology in Iran , Cyrus Bina and Hamid Zangeneh, eds., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992, 301 pp., incl. bibliography, index, $45.00 (cloth).

Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480–1889 , R. D. McChesney, Princeton University Press, 1991, 319 pp. + Glossary, Bibliography, and Index, $49.50.

Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center , Carl W. Ernst, New York: State University of New York Press, 1992, xxxi + 381 pp.

The Warriors of Islam: Iran's Revolutionary Guard , Kenneth Katz‐man, Boulder, San Francisco and London: Westview Press, 1993, 180 pp., Bibliography to page 185, Index to page 192, $42.50.

The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism , Leonard Lewisohn, ed., London, New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1992, 434 pp.

Les otages américains à Téhéran , Nouchine Yavari‐d'Hellencourt, Paris: La Documentation Francaise, 1992, 128 pp., FF 95.

Entre l'Iran et l'occident: adaptation et assimilation des idées et techniques occidentales en Iran , Yann Richard, ed., Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1989, 242 pp.

Zerfall der Staatsmacht Persiens unter Nasir ad‐Din Schah Qa?ar (1848–1896): Einblicke in die Machtsverhältnisse am Teheraner Hof nach den Tagebüchern I'timad as‐Saltanas , Mostafa Edjtehadi, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1992, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen Bd. 161, 184 pp.

Irangeles: Iranians in Los Angeles , Ron Kelley, Jonathan Friedlander and Anita Colby, eds., with photography by Ron Kelley, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993, 381 pp., incl. index, $35.00 (paper).

Sociology in Iran , Ali Akbar Mahdi and Abdolali Lahsaeizadeh, Bethesda, Md.: Jahan Book Company, Middle Eastern Series N 27, 1992, 141 pp., $8.00.

Education and the Making of Modern Iran , David Menashri, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992, xvii + 328 pp., bibliography (p. 342), index (p. 352).

The Theology of .al‐'Allama al‐Hilli (d. 726/1325) , Sabine Schmidtke, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Band 152 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1991), 260 pp. + bibliography, indices.

Ay kūtah astinan , ’Ali Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani, Costa Mesa, Calif. and Bethesda, Md.: Mazda Publishers (in association with Iranbooks, Inc.), 1991, 263 pp., no price listed.

From Palace to Prison: Inside the Iranian Revolution , Ehsan Naraghi, trans. from the French by Nilou Mobasser, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1994, ix + 283 pp.

Whirling Dervishes , Shems Friedlander, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, 160 pp., hard cover $30.50 paperback $12.95.

The History of al‐Tabari (Ta'rikh al‐rusul wa'l‐muluk), vol. XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ‘Uthman, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35, Muhammad b. Jarir al‐Tabari, trans. and annot. R. Stephen Humphreys, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990.cover $39.50, paperback $12.95.

An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book, and the Law , Michel Chodkiewicz, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993, 184 pp.     

Milling Cereals/Legumes and Stamping Bread in Mauretanian Tamuda (Morocco): An Interdisciplinary Study

African Archaeological Review - Recent archaeological excavations (2016–2019) in the city of Tamuda (northern Morocco) yielded evidence of commercial milling and bread-making facilities dated...     

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.