Estimation of Spatio-Temporal Correlations of Prehistoric Population and Vegetation in North America

We discuss a simple methodology to enable a statistical comparison of human population with the vegetation of North America over the past 13,000 years. Nonparametric kernel methods are applied for temporal and spatial smoothing of point data obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database and the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database, which results in sequences of maps showing the development of population and different plant taxa during the Holocene. The estimation of smooth spatial and spatio-temporal cross-correlation functions is proposed in order to detect relationships between population and vegetation in fixed time intervals. Furthermore, the effects of varying environment on demographic changes as well as potential impacts of populations on plant taxa over time are analyzed. Pointwise confidence bands for cross-correlation functions are computed and a robustness analysis is performed to assess the significance of obtained results. Considering the example of oak, an interpretation of our results for eastern North America shows the value of this methodology.     

Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia

Sexual politics play a key role in anti-Muslim narratives. This has been observed by scholarship problematising liberal feminist approaches towards ‘non-Western’ subjects focusing on countries such as France, the USA and the Netherlands. Yet interrogations into how these debates play out in European national contexts that are located outside of the European ‘West’ have attracted significantly less scholarly attention. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Poland this article aims to begin to fill this gap by analysing the centrality of feminist discourses within Islamophobic agendas in Poland. The article asks how discourses around women’s rights are mobilised simultaneously, and paradoxically, by both secular and Catholic groups in ‘post-communist’ Poland. By showcasing how feminist sentiments are employed by ideologically opposing groups, we sketch out some of the complexities in the ways Islamophobia operates in a Central and Eastern European context.     

Soil chemical identification of ten thousand years of prehistoric human activity areas at the Munsungun Lake Thoroughfare,Maine

Soils on a Palaeo-Indian to historic sequence in one Maine locale are analysed for chemical enrichment. To guide excavation of four discrete sites up to 4000 m², samples are collected in grid patterns and analysed for pH, Mg, P and Ca. Concentrations of Mg point to probable hearths to define some centres of human activity on each site. These correlate well with anomalies determined independently by magnetometric survey. Excavation of anomalies provides evidence of hearths, culturally diagnostic artifacts, but also features resulting from tree-throw and drainage variation. The P and Ca results develop definition and delimitation of activity areas thus refining directions for further excavation. Since P and Ca concentrations result from substantial or sustained human occupation, they show promise for preexcavation differentiation of habitation sites from limited and specialized activity sites such as lithic chipping stations. Soil chemical analysis provides both a synchronic and diachronic preview of site perimeters, size and activity areas. The consistent site definition at the Munsungun Lake thoroughfare is useful for explaining patterns as well as locating them.     

Exceptional preservation of a prehistoric human brain from Heslington,Yorkshire, UK

Archaeological work in advance of construction at a site on the edge of York, UK, yielded human remains of prehistoric to Romano-British date. Amongst these was a mandible and cranium, the intra-cranial space of which contained shrunken but macroscopically recognizable remains of a brain. Although the distinctive surface morphology of the organ is preserved, little recognizable brain histology survives. Though rare, the survival of brain tissue in otherwise skeletalised human remains from wet burial environments is not unique. A survey of the literature shows that similar brain masses have been previously reported in diverse circumstances. We argue for a greater awareness of these brain masses and for more attention to be paid to their detection and identification in order to improve the reporting rate and to allow a more comprehensive study of this rare archaeological survival.     

Weighted Bidimensional Regression. 加权二维回归

Shape analysis is useful for a wide variety of disciplines and has many applications. One of the many approaches to shape analysis focuses on shapes that are represented by predefined landmarks on an object. Some landmarks may be measured with greater precision, exhibit more natural variation, or be more important than others to an analysis. This article introduces a method for including this information when estimating mapping relations or assessing the degree of similarity between two objects that are represented by a set of two‐dimensional landmarks. Weighted bidimensional regression combines aspects of weighted least squares regression and bidimensional regression as a way to weight variables that are represented by a set of two‐dimensional spatial coordinates. One possible weighting scheme is suggested, and the effect of weighting is demonstrated through a face‐matching application. Results indicate that appropriate weighting increases the ability to correctly match two faces and that weighting has the largest effect when used with a projective transformation.     

Indications of embalming in Roman Greece by physical,chemical and histological analysis

The partially mummified remains of a high-status female (ca. 1700 BP, Thessaloniki, Greece) were found inside a Roman-type marble sarcophagus containing a lead coffin. The individual was positioned on a wooden pallet, wrapped in bandages, and covered with a gold-embroidered purple silk cloth. Besides the clothes, remnants of soft tissue as well as the individual's original hair style and eyebrows were exceptionally well preserved. In addition to the macroscopic examination, microscopic and biochemical analyses were undertaken. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were applied to examine the tissue preservation and probable mechanisms of mummification. The presence of chemical components, such as sesquiterpenes, triterpenoids, and diterpenoids, originating from coniferous and pistacia resins, myrrh, and other spices, verify ancient information on preparation methods of the dead in Greek and Roman times. These chemical components are thought to have played a prominent role in the mummification mechanism in this particular case. The potential effect of the lead coffin in the mummification process was also examined. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis failed to detect lead penetration into the tissues, suggesting that the coffin played a limited role in the preservation of soft tissue.