The Landscape Archaeology in Lanjān Plain of Iṣfahān,Iran, During the Islamic Period (650–1722 A.D.) (Preliminary Report)

Lanjān is an ancient and fertile plain along the Zāyandeh Rūd river in south-west of I?fahān. Due to favorable environmental conditions, such as direct access to the Zāyandeh Rūd river, fertile agricultural lands and also ancient highways, the region has long been worthwhile and a key area of I?fahān. Moreover, due to the existence of prestigious and thriving town, Khān Lanjān and its mountainous castle, there are numerous mentions about Lanjān region in written sources of the early and medieval centuries of Islam. In this study, according to archaeological survey and written sources, the author is going to consider dynamic changes of Lanjān by cultural landscape archaeology approach. This project investigates different aspects of settlements, agricultural lands, water, and their relationship in the cultural and administrative geography of Lanjān during the Islamic period.     

Behind the Romanesque Frieze at Lincoln Cathedral

The purpose of this short article is to put on record the archaeological observations made between 1990 and 2002 during the decade of stonework conservation on the northern run of the frieze panels on the west front of Lincoln Cathedral. It is not concerned with the frieze sculpture itself but with its stones and the spaces behind the stones. Equally, this article is not an assessment of the sculpture and its dating but is an archaeological investigation which potentially has wider implications for the sequence of construction and carving of the Romanesque frieze now visible at Lincoln.     

Growth responses of sessile oak to climate and hydrological regime in the Zbytka Nature Reserve, Czech Republic

Complex of Nature reservation Zbytka is the rest of various fen vegetation in the northeast part of the Czech Republic. It represents an important spring area which provides high quality potable water for more than 150 000 inhabitants. Waterworks utilization was started in the 1960s and the change of land-use practices has had a strong effect on the ecosystem. Oak chronology has been showing different tree growth trends since the start of the waterworks utilization. Also the occurrences of negative pointer years differ markedly before and after initiation of pumping underground water. Dendroclimatological analyses primarily revealed a close relationship between the temperature and tree growth ?? positive influence of spring and summer temperature. The period 1983?C1992 of maximum artesian water pumping is expressed as higher tree-ring increments, but linear model analyses showed that the growth reaction of oak is not due to simple causality between temperature and under-ground water level. The radial increments reacted positively to the combination of high temperature during the vegetation season and low or, the contrary, high depth of underground water level. No direct relationship was detected between tree growth and fluctuation of underground water level; despite of the results dendrochronological data may be useful in historical ground water modelling studies. Results are also crucial for conflict of interests between nature preservation and potable water supply.     

The transport amphorae of Gela: a multidisciplinary study on provenance and technological aspects

Mineralogical, petrographic and chemical analyses were performed on thirty-eight samples of transport amphorae found at Gela, an important Greek colony on the southern coast of Sicily. Based on macroscopic observation, the amphorae, which are datable between the second half of the 6th and the end of the 5th century B.C., were supposed to be local because of similarities to the common wares from the same site. Therefore, in order to verify the provenance of the samples, they were compared to a reference group of locally made ceramics (kiln spacers, kiln wasters, common wares, ancient mud bricks, modern bricks) and twelve samples of local clayey sediments. The results of the analyses have allowed the assignment of all the amphorae to Gela, with the exclusion of five samples, maybe produced in neighbouring sites, and to determine for the first time the archaeometric characteristics of the Geloan medium-coarse ceramics. The aim of our research has also been to investigate some technological aspects of this production, as the location of the clay sources, the methods of clay preparation, and, in particular, the causes of the typical whitening effect on the surface of the vessels.     

Potash - a key raw material of glass batch for Bohemian glasses from 14th-17th centuries?

The aim of this work is to verify or refute hypothesis of existence of basic/universal glass batch: quartz sand: potash: limestone, at a ratio of 2: 1: 1 used in Bohemian glass production since the middle ages onwards and to simulate the preparation of a potassium glass type with the composition used in medieval Bohemia. The chemical composition of Bohemian glass, which incorporated in the proposed glass batch for glassmaking on a laboratory scale, was evaluated by (a) findings directly related to glassmaking (samples from glasswork in Moldava dating back to the 15th century) and (b) information from publications.Experimentally produced glasses for the present paper were prepared from raw materials such as ash, leached ash, potash, limestone and quartz sand. The plant raw materials (spruce, beech and bracken ashes, raw and refined potash) were treated and prepared by methods similar to the production procedures used in the pre-industrial era.The main contrast was found in the CaO/K₂O weight ratio, which was determined in glasses that were characteristic of given periods. While this ratio was often below 1 in glasses of the 15th century, it reached values above 1 in glasses at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. This result may indicate that the composition of the glass batch had changed.The results of the present study reject the current scholarly work dealing with glass batch composition during the 14th-17th centuries and confirm that glass produced in some Bohemian medieval glassworks could have been melted from a batch that included plant ash, making the use of limestone unnecessary. The traditional suggestion of the exact ratios of raw materials, often cited in historical literature, seems to be impossible. The glassmakers had to react to the variable composition of the raw materials, especially plant ash.     

L’ars Dictaminis Entre Enseignement et Pratique (XIIe–XIVe Siècle)

The medieval discipline of the ars dictaminis (or dictamen), which flourished during the 12(th)-14(th) centuries, can be considered as an adaptation of classical Latin rhetoric to the communicational needs of the medieval society. Yet, although the relation between the teaching of the ars and its practice is an important one, it has rarely been addressed because of the persistence of numerous misunderstandings about the various different levels at which the ars was taught. This article offers some suggestions to fill this gap.     

Object-based landform delineation and classification from DEMs for archaeological predictive mapping

In this paper we report the results of an experiment with automated landform delineation and classification from digital elevation models (DEMs) using object-based image analysis (OBIA). Archaeologists rely on accurate and detailed geomorphological maps to predict and interpret the location of archaeological sites. However, they have been using high-resolution DEMs primarily for visual interpretation and expert-judgement classification of landform. OBIA can perform these classifications much faster and in a more objective fashion. The method was tested on a study area in the south east of the Netherlands. It is concluded that OBIA is a suitable technique for quick and objective delineation of landform, but needs an improved conceptual framework adapted to the local situation and archaeological questions to better identify and interpret the derived landform objects.