Morphometric distinction between bilobate phytoliths from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panicum miliaceum</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Setaria italica</Emphasis> leaves

The development of identification criteria for crop plants based on phytoliths is of high relevance for archaeology, palaeoecology and plant systematics. While identification criteria are available for major food crops, these are mostly based on phytoliths from inflorescences, while other plant parts remain undetected. This paper focuses on bilobate phytoliths from leaves of Panicum miliaceum L. (common millet) and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv. (foxtail millet), two taxa that co-occur in regions of Asia and Europe since prehistory and regularly occur at archaeological sites in Eurasia. Leaves of the investigated taxa were systematically sampled to explore the variation of short cells and to collect 27 morphometric variables of bilobate phytoliths with newly developed open-source software. The data was analysed by discriminant analysis, analysis of variance and multiple comparison tests. The resulting morphometric data from five populations per species enables a distinction between the bilobate phytoliths of P. miliaceum and S. italica. Observed differences between populations within species affect only few parameters. This possibility to classify populations of bilobate phytoliths from P. miliaceum and S. italica leaves offers a new method for the detection and identification of these taxa in archaeology, amongst others.     

Modeling and Seismic Response Analysis of Italian Code-Conforming Reinforced Concrete Buildings

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the seismic response of reinforced concrete buildings designed according to the current Italian building code. Number of stories, site hazard, presence and distribution of masonry infill panels, and type of lateral resisting system are the key investigated parameters. The main issues related to design and modeling are discussed. Two Limit States are considered, namely Global Collapse and Usability-Preventing Damage. The main aim of the study is a comparison between the seismic response of the buildings, investigated through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. Irregularity in the distribution of infill panels and site hazard emerge as the most influential parameters.     

The Gender of Militancy: Notes on the Possibilities of a Different History of Political Action

Departing from some texts that examine women's participation in clandestine organisations in Brazil and Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s, the author discusses possibilities of a different approach towards the historiography of political action, particularly focusing on left-wing parties. Oral history contributes towards recovering subjectivity, a dimension little explored in political historiography. This dimension is usually confined to a private sphere that appears as radically severed from the public sphere. The articulation of these two spaces as well as tensions, conflicts and complementarities between masculine and feminine roles take the history of women away from the ghetto, allowing this new perspective to analyse political action in a complex way     

Paths of an Evolving City: Alternatives and Relevance in Local Policy

This paper builds on some previous results concerning: (1) a view of the industrial district as a learning region, and (2) a typology of features of local development and industrial policies. The aim here is to apply these results to a 'non-district' case study, that is the understanding of the inner logic of the economy and the framing of the local economic policy in an Italian dynamic city (Florence, and its urban system). The interest of such case is two-fold. Firstly, we see how the conceptual framework developed for the analysis of industrial districts can be applied, at least partially, to different types of local systems, and in particular to the important case of complex and dynamic urban systems. Secondly, the complexity itself makes easier, or not avoidable, the consideration of a trade-off in the inputs of local policy's relevance.     

A study by thermal treatment and X-ray powder diffraction on burnt fragmented bones from tombs II,IV and IX belonging to the hypogeic necropolis of “Sa Figu” near Ittiri,Sassari (Sardinia,Italy)

In the course of an anthropological investigation of three tombs of the hypogeic necropolis of “Sa Figu” (near the village of Ittiri in North Sardinia, Italy), numerous burnt bone fragments were collected. In particular, from the whole necropolis we selected a tenth of long bones from tomb IV, a small fragment of femur from tomb II and four fragments belonging to tomb IX. The aim of this work is to determine a temperature range to which the bone fragments were heated, in order to assess a funerary cremation which was presumably used at that time to quickly and hygienically eliminate the flashy parts of deceased people rather than a purification rite with fires inside the sepulchres. We attempted to evaluate the range of temperature to which the bones were likely subjected, making a joint use of thermal treatment and powder X-ray diffraction investigations. From our X-ray line broadening results carried out with a modern approach (Rietveld method), it emerged that a group of five fragmented burnt bones (one specimen belonging to tomb IV, the other four from tomb IX) were subjected to a heat treatment in a temperature range from 600 and 750 °C. Conversely another group of bones (belonging to tombs II and IV) turned out to be subjected to temperatures not higher than 250 °C.     

Stratigraphic and spatial variability in shell middens: microfacies identification at the ethnohistoric site Tunel VII (Tierra del Fuego,Argentina)

Based on ethnographic accounts from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, functional areas have been identified within Fueginian shell middens. In this context, archaeological microfacies acquire a functional meaning when the microscopic record is compared to information gathered from ethnology, macroscopic observations made during excavation, and experimental modern analogues. All these lines of evidence were combined for the first time at Tunel VII, an eighteenth/nineteenth century shell midden occupied repeatedly by Yamana people, the last hunter–gatherer–fisher groups of the Beagle Channel. The sampling strategy involved three sets of samples: (1) two stratigraphical columns taken from the hut “entrance” and from a portion of the shell midden (i.e., the surrounding refuse shell ring), (2) thin sections from five hearths representing successive phases of frequentation of the hut, and (3) experimental burnt valves of Mytilus edulis, the main malacological component of the site. Comparison of microfacies from groups (1) and (2) provided microscopic indicators to distinguish between shell dumping areas and occupation surfaces. Comparison of microfacies within columns from group (1) allowed recognizing periods of site abandonment and periods of more intense/longer site frequentation. The experimental samples from M. edulis served as a reference to characterize the five central hearths in terms of maximum burning temperatures reached. Different burning structures were correlated to the season of hut frequentation and to their location (and function) within different portions of the hut. The intra-site micromorphological comparison strategy within a well-documented ethnohistorical context provides valuable indicators for the identification of functional areas in archaeological contexts when ethnographical information is not available.     

A history of NASA remote sensing contributions to archaeology

During its long history of developing and deploying remote sensing instruments, NASA has provided scientific data that have benefitted a variety of scientific applications among them archaeology. Multispectral and hyperspectral instruments mounted on orbiting and sub-orbital platforms have provided new and important information for the discovery, delineation and analysis of archaeological sites worldwide. Since the early 1970s, several of the ten NASA centers have collaborated with archaeologists to refine and validate the use of active and passive remote sensing for archaeological use. The Stennis Space Center (SSC), located in Mississippi USA has been the NASA leader in archaeological research. Together with colleagues from Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SSC scientists have provided the archaeological community with useful images and sophisticated processing that have pushed the technological frontiers of archaeological research and applications. Successful projects include identifying prehistoric roads in Chaco canyon, identifying sites from the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery exploration, and assessing prehistoric settlement patterns in southeast Louisiana. The Scientific Data Purchase (SDP) stimulated commercial companies to collect archaeological data. At present, NASA formally solicits “space archaeology” proposals through its Earth Science Directorate and continues to assist archaeologists and cultural resource managers in doing their work more efficiently and effectively. This paper focuses on passive remote sensing and does not consider the significant contributions made by NASA active sensors. Hyperspectral data offers new opportunities for future archaeological discoveries.