Beyond Adornment: Cowry Use as Potter's Tool in the First Impressed Wares of the Southwestern Mediterranean Coast (Northern Morocco)

The use of seashells for the decoration of pottery from the sixth millennium cal BC is well known in the western Mediterranean, with the emergence of so-called Cardial Pottery. Actually, the most discussed issue up until now has been the use of bivalves for impressed decoration. However, the experimental approach followed in the present study provides for the first time clear evidence for the utilization of a very specific group of shells as tools for the decoration of some of the early pottery productions in northwest Africa. In particular, we propose the use of cowry, a gastropod family with a well-known ideological and symbolic role in many human cultures around the world. Also, it is suggested that cowry was used for making impressed wares on the opposite European shore. The implications for reconstruction of Neolithic diffusion along both the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean are of great significance.     

Protocol,Potentials, and Limitations of Ancient Teeth 3D Printing

Bioarchaeological analyses of teeth rely traditionally on noninvasive methods that reveal essential information about past individuals and populations. Methodological developments have revolutionized the discipline, but their application is commonly invasive and destructive. The resulting loss of material and information can be buffered through 3D technology applications. Although useful, it is essential that we carefully assess the reliability of these methods, in order to understand what data are preserved and which ones are lost through their application. This study offers a protocol for the implementation of 3D technology in the fabrication of ancient teeth analogs. Analog accuracy was assessed by comparing metric and non-metric traits between the originals and their respective analogs. Results showed that metric traits preserved well, but the preservation of non-metric traits was partially hindered.     

Digital heritage research re-theorised: ontologies and epistemologies in a world of big data

ABSTRACT

This article provides the first theoretical treatment of the ontologies and epistemologies of digital heritage research at the time of the interconnected and social web, based on extensive empirical and analytical investigation. We draw on observations and concepts developed while conducting the first study of public experiences of the past that utilised big data – over 1.4 million Facebook posts, comments and replies – to revisit or generate new theory from the ground up. We expect that this will help scholars from a range of fields in the humanities, social and computing sciences who are interested in undertaking digital heritage research to understand the deeper implications of their work, the complexities and limitations of the knowledge they create, and its value in exposing the processes via which heritage is made and assessed.     

Book reviews

Emilio Franzina (1995) Gli italiani al nuovo mondo; L'emigrazione italiana in America 1492‐1942 (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore), pp. 1‐644. 65,000 lire, ISBN 88‐04‐35977‐3.

Marta Petrusewicz (1996) Latifundium. Moral Economy and Material Life in a European Periphery, translated by Judith C. Green (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), pp. i‐xx, 1‐289, ISBN 047‐2103423 hardback.

H. James Burgwyn (1997) Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918‐1940 (Westport, Conn.: Praeger), pp. i‐xx, 1‐246, ISBN 0‐275‐94877‐3 hardback.

Lutz Klinkhammer (1997) Stragi naziste in Italia. La guerra contro i civili (1943‐44), translated by Suzanne Meyer (Rome: Donzelli), pp. i‐xii, 1‐165, 18,000 lire; Paolo Pezzino (1997) Anatomia di un massacro. Controversia sopra una strage tedesca (Bologna: Il Mulino), pp. 1‐243, 26,000 lire, paperback.

Mabel Berezin (1997) Making the Fascist Self: the Political Culture of Interwar Italy (Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press), pp. 1‐267, ISBN 0‐8014‐8420‐9 paperback; Simonetta Falasca‐Zamponi (1997) Fascist Spectacle: the Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy (Berkeley and London: University of California Press), pp. 1‐314, $40.00, ISBN 0‐520‐20623‐1 hardback.

David Ward (1996) Antifascisms: Cultural Politics in Italy, 1943‐46. Benedetto Croce and the Liberals, Carlo Levi and the ‘Actionists’ (Madison, NJ: Farteigh‐Dickinson University Press), pp. 1‐244, ISBN 0‐8363‐3676‐4.

David Forgacs and Robert Lumley (eds) (1996) Italian Cultural Studies: an Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 1‐368, $19.95, ISBN 0‐19‐871509‐9 paperback.

Maurizio Degl'lnnocenti (1995) La società unificata, Associazone, sindacato, partito sotto il fasdsmo (Manduria: Piero Lacaita Editore), pp. 1‐216, 25,000 lire, paperback.

Nello Ajello (1997) Illungo addio, intellettuali e PCI dal 1958 al 1991 (Rome‐Bari: Laterza), pp. 1‐425, 35,000 lire, ISBN 88‐420‐5323‐6.

Tom Behan (1997) The Camorra (London and New York: Routledge), pp. i‐vii, 1 ‐225, ISBN 0‐415‐09987‐0 hardback.

Sandro Setta (1995) La Destra ndl'Italia del dopoguerra (Bari: Laterza), pp. i‐xi, 1‐242, 35,000 lire, ISBN 88‐420‐4591‐8.

Manuela Gieri (1995) Contemporary Italian Filmmaking: Strategies of Subversion ‐Pirandello, Fellini, Scola and the Directors of the New Generation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), pp. 1‐301, ISBN 0‐8020‐0556‐X hardback; ISBN 0‐8020‐6979‐7 paperback.     

Archaeological and archaeomagnetic dating at a site from the ager Tarraconensis (Tarragona,Spain): El Vila-sec Roman pottery

A very accurate archaeological dating of a Roman site in NE Spain (El Vila-sec) was made based on the typology of pottery artifacts. Three different phases were identified with activity ranging from the mid-1st century BC to the early-3rd century AD. Analyses of bricks from kilns at El Vila-sec produced data on their stored archaeomagnetic vector. These data were compared with the secular variation curve for the Iberian Peninsula and the SCHA.DIF.3K regional archaeomagnetic model. Both, the reference curve and the model, produced probability distributions for the final period of use for two kilns from the second archaeological phase that were not used during the third phase. At a 95% confidence level, both time distributions cover a wide chronological range including the presumed archaeological age. Both the Iberian secular variation curve and the SCHA.DIF.3K regional model proved to be suitable models for dating the site, although on their own they do not produce a single unambiguous solution. This archaeomagnetic approach could also be applied to neighbouring archaeological sites that have an imprecise archaeological age.     

Clusters and Industry 4.0 – do they fit together?

Industry 4.0 heralds the profound transformation of business models by enabling the fusion of virtual and real worlds and the application of digitization, automatization and robotics in manufacturing. We review the basic premises of Industry 4.0 and map them against the clusters’ features with the aim to establish the kind of relations between these two categories. By exploring the likely impact of clusters on Industry 4.0, our discussion revolves around the broader question of the role of regional ecosystems in industrial transformation. Clusters, thanks to the advantages such as knowledge base and mechanisms, agglomeration economies and externalities (labour pool and critical mass of firms) and favourable more stable, less uncertain environment of trust and cooperation, may facilitate the digital transformation, particularly its phasing-in and testing phases. Notwithstanding this potential, it should be stressed that not all clusters would be able to play such prominent role. Only these equipped with adequate knowledge base and providing some expertise in the field of IT solutions, robotics, automatics, and so on, i.e. the technologies crucial to Industry 4.0 seem predestined to contribute to the emergence of fully fledged industrial internet. Despite seemingly some inconsistency between these two categories, clusters can facilitate the business transformation towards Industry 4.0.     

Solicited and Unsolicited History: The Transformation in Ömie Self-Presentation

The history presented by the Ömie in the pre-Independence research appears fundamentally different from the history presented by the Ömie in more recent research. The basis for considering these two renditions as analytically equivalent is examined. It is proposed that the justification lies not so much in the content of the two representations as in the negotiations of the terms of the ethnographic encounter which elicited them. It is proposed that these renditions of history are actually the terms of the relationship between the researcher and the informants negotiated in the course of their interaction on two separate occasions.     

Assessing the variability in taphonomic studies of modern leporid remains from Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) nest assemblages: the importance of age of prey

The Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) is an important leporid remains accumulator at archaeological sites. Taphonomical studies of modern leporid remains from nest assemblages of this nocturnal raptor aim to establish the main characteristics that define the taphonomic signature of Eagle Owls in order to distinguish them from that of other leporid predators, namely diurnal raptors, terrestrial carnivores and humans. However, analyses carried out so far have shown that the identification of diagnostic features of Eagle Owls leporid nest accumulations is not a straightforward issue – variability has been observed. Age and size of prey are pointed among others as accountable factors but little research has been done on the study of these variables. Here we present the analysis of two samples of modern leporid remains recovered from Eagle Owls nests with the aim of contributing new data to this subject. The high presence of juvenile individuals in both samples enables us to assess anatomical representation, breakage and digestion patterns of immature leporid remains and also to compare them with other assemblages richer in adult prey. Results show that the main characteristic features noted in previous works which recognise Eagle Owls as agents of leporid bones accumulations in the fossil record, are not significantly affected by the age of prey. Less variability than originally thought occurs which means other variables need to be further investigated.