A radiographic study of the extent of variation in cortical bone thickness in soay sheep

In order to assess the effect of nutrition on bone mass, radiographs of metopodia from skeletal collections of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) were taken of animals subject to seasonal stress (from the island of Hirta, Hebrides) and those living in good nutritional conditions (from the Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge). A third set of radiographs was taken at 3 month intervals over a single year on living Soay sheep kept under good conditions at the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen.Measurements were taken on the radiographs of length, minimum shaft width (SW) and medullary cavity width (MCW), while combined cortical thickness (CCT) was calculated. The ewes from Hirta had significantly lower values for CCT than those from Babraham, whereas the rams showed no significant reduction in CCT. Since no seasonal variation in CCT was detected in the well nourished Rowett ewes, this indicates a differential effect of poor environmental conditions on bone metabolism in ewes. It is proposed here that this may be related to the additional stress imposed by gestation and lactation on female animals living under conditions of seasonally restricted food supply.     

The bovid third phalanx and prehistoric ploughing

Plough agriculture is the basis of southeast Asian rice cultivation, and has profound social implications. Yet little if anything is known of its development in prehistory. In the absence of fossil fields, remains of ploughshares or of ploughing scenes, attention is focused on the bones of potential draught animals. A multivariate analysis of exostosis development in the third phalanx indicates that cattle at the site of Ban Chiang were gracile, while water buffalo were as robust as modern draught animals.     

贯入法原位测试夯土遗址表面强度的适用性和方法研究

表面强度是夯土遗址重要的测试指标和加固效果的评价依据。常规的强度测试方法受到取样和运输等因素的制约，不适用于作为夯土遗址如夯土补筑、表面加固等措施的效果评估方法。贯入法是成熟的砂浆强度检测方法，通过改装砂浆贯入仪降低了仪器量程；制作夯土样、室内试验验证了测试的较高精度；标定了夯土样贯入深度测量值与抗压强度的幂函数关系，确定了测强曲线。在夯土遗址现场开展原位测试，分析了布点密度对测试结果精度的影响，并利用测强曲线推算了测试区域的表面抗压强度。本研究提出了一套集“仪器改装-室内标定-现场高密度布点测试”为一体的夯土遗址表面强度评估方法，为土遗址加固效果的评价体系建设提供了参考价值。     

Method-dependent variations in stable isotope results for structural carbonate in bone bioapatite

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope values (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O) were obtained for structural carbonate in the bioapatite of archaeological bones from Guatemala and Sudan using several common analytical methods. For the Sudan samples, the different methods produced δ¹³C values within ±0.1‰ and δ¹⁸O values within ±0.7‰, on average. The isotopic results for the Guatemala samples were similar in reproducibility to the Sudan samples when obtained using methods that employed lower reaction temperatures and reactions in sealed vessels. However, many Guatemala samples had highly variable and extremely low δ¹⁸O values when reacted at higher temperatures in vessels that remained open to cryogenic traps. The latter arrangement caused reaction products to be removed immediately upon their production. The anomalously low δ¹⁸O values are related to the production of a contaminant gas that causes the m/z 46/44 ratio to be lowered, either by adding to the m/z 44 peak or subtracting from the m/z 46 peak. That said, potential contaminant materials were not detectable in “anomalous” bones using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction, or inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. However, subtle structural and chemical differences between “normal” and “anomalous” samples were observed, most notably in the FTIR ν₂ CO₃ domain. We suggest that these changes promote volatilization of an oxyphosphorus compound and oxygen isotope fractionation between PO⁻ derived from this compound and CO₂ derived from bone carbonate. Production of the contaminant gas and the related “anomalous” δ¹⁸O values is reversible if the reaction occurs within a sealed vessel for a sufficient period of time, which allows a “back-reaction” to occur.     

An X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) investigation in human and animal fossil bones from Holocene to Middle Triassic

We examined by Rietveld refinement of X-ray Diffraction patterns a series of 61 human and animal fossil bones in an age range from present time to Middle Triassic (around 245 Ma). This approach, supplemented by elemental analysis according to X-ray Fluorescence, has permitted to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the mineralogical phases in the specimens, thus allowing to reconstruct the mineralization process involved. Concerning the apatite phase, after adopting a monoclinic geometry for the unit cell, the method permits to determine with fair degree of precision the unit cell volume, which is found to decrease in relatively short geological times as a function of the fluorine substitution process for the hydroxyl group –OH. After excluding the role of a high-temperature fire treatment to the bones, it is found that a certain linear correlation may exist over the geological time scale involved between the age of the specimen and the average crystallite size. This observation permits to use the XRD pattern as an evaluation of the age of the fossil, although the stratigraphic observations, where available, remain as the main reliable source for dating such biomaterials. The uncertainty related to this age estimation may be hardly better than 15–20% in absolute, because of various assumptions involved in the XRD methodology used and in the variability of the burial environment that may be subjected to discontinuous changes over the very long time of deposition.     

Why are cut mark frequencies in archaeofaunal assemblages so variable? A multivariate analysis

Cut mark frequencies in archaeological faunal assemblages are so variable that their use has recently created some skepticism. The present study analyses this variability using multivariate statistics on a set of 14 variables that involve differential skeletal element representation, fragmentation processes, carnivore ravaging impact, carcass size and tool type. All these variables affect the resulting cut mark frequencies reported in archaeological sites. A large sample of archaeofaunal assemblages has been used for this study. It was concluded that the best estimator of cut mark frequency in any given assemblage is the percentage of cut-marked long bone specimens (probably due to its better preservation than other anatomical areas), which is determined by fragmentation and carnivore ravaging. Carcass size and tool type also play a major role in differences in cut mark frequencies. Fragmentation is also a key variable determining the abundance of cut-marked specimens. It is argued that general cut mark percentages are of limited value, given the number of variables that determine them, and that a more heuristic approach involves quantifying cut marks in a qualitative manner.     

宋代兵力部署考察

北宋前期的军队部署实行内外相制原则,京师兵力和其他地方兵力相等,以互相牵制。这一原则在宋神宗时发生变化,大部兵力分布在西北地区,而京师地区兵力不断减少,北宋末只剩数万。南宋前期,恢复实行了内外相制的兵力部署原则,临安地区驻兵最强,后期再次颠倒,重兵多在边防。无论北宋还是南宋,兵力部署在地域上都是重北轻南,南宋政府对南部内地的防卫尤弱于北宋。北宋的东线防御立足于兵,并不依赖黄河天险,重兵都在黄河以北;南宋重兵分布在长江沿线,对天险的依赖加强,但几乎放弃了边界的另一天险——淮河,表明其防御是消极的以守为主的战略。     

Combined In-Situ and Laboratory Minor Destructive Testing of Historical Mortars

ABSTRACT

Mortar is of all masonry components the most difficult to be experimentally characterized in heritage buildings. This article investigates the possibility of combining different in-situ and laboratory minor destructive testing (MDT) techniques to assess the strength of mortar in historical brickwork. Lime mortar and clay brick walls were built in the laboratory and then tested in order to derive empirical correlation rules among three different MDT techniques: double punch test (DPT), helix pull-out test (HPT), and pin penetration test (PPT). The outcomes of this activity were used eventually to assess the mortar properties of an important historical heritage structure, Casa Puig i Cadafalch, located near Barcelona. The research is intended to promote the use of MDT in studies and conservation works on built cultural heritage by providing criteria for the evaluation of the strength of existing mortar with respectful sampling and testing techniques.     

Quantitative computerized tomography for the diagnosis of osteopenia in prehistoric skeletal remains

In this study, we examine the value of bone density assessed by computed tomography (QCT) of the right tibia in the diagnosis of low bone mass in prehistoric bones. Trabecular bone mass (TBM) was assessed by histomorphometry in undecalcified bone sections of a small part of the proximal epiphysis of the right tibia of 78 prehispanic individuals. Bone density was also assessed in the proximal epiphysis of the right tibia, in an area of cancellous bone immediately adjacent to the wedge which was destined to histomorphometry, with the aid of a Tomoscan 60 TX™ (Philipps Medical System, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) using a phantom of hydroxyapatite included in plastic resin at three known concentrations (50, 100 and 200 mg/cc) and ethanol as fat equivalent. Bone density (as bone hydroxyapatite concentration in milligram per cubic centimeter) was calculated by means of a specific software tool (QCT Bone Mineral Analysis System, Image Analysis, California). We compared bone density assessed with QCT with TBM in these individuals, and also, with the results obtained from a modern control group. We calculated the median TBM of the prehispanic sample and tested the sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of QCT in diagnosing TBM values below the median. We later performed the same analyses on 24 more prehispanic individuals. Both QCT (t = 5.61, p < 0.001) and TBM (t = 3.79, p < 0.001) were significantly lower among the prehispanic individuals than among the control ones. QCT showed a significant relationship with TBM (r = 0.41, p < 0.001). QCT values below 100 mg/cc serve to establish a diagnosis of low TBM values with a sensitivity of 82.1% and a specificity of 41%. In the test group sensitivity was 83.3% and specificity, 50%.     

Empires ancient and modern: strength,modernity and power in imperial ideology from the Liberal period to Fascism

This article examines the image of Empire developed in public discourse in Italy during the late Liberal period and Fascism by placing it in the context of representations of the British Empire, with which Italian imperial ambitions were compared. There is a continuity in seeing the British Empire as the expression of industrial and commercial modernity and its resultant strength, but what in the Liberal period was seen as an unparalleled superiority became under Fascism a supremacy acquired in a particular period but now exhibiting signs of decline, which Fascism should contest and surpass. Admiration of the British was mixed with disparagement: key figures expressed a competitive resentment towards Britain and its dominant international position, seeing it as the epitome of ‘modern’ imperial power against which Fascism was destined to be measured. In the 1930s signs of the British Empire's decline were sought, developing the idea in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that British domination would also rise and fall, and announcing the replacement of the ‘British order’, founded on commercial modernity and the strength of money and capital, by Fascism's new civilisation, with its authentic heritage of imperial romanità. This competitiveness towards Britain, which historiography has principally seen as a component of foreign policy (as was clear over Ethiopia), has additional significance when seen as an element of political culture that relates to the concept of the State. The autonomy and strength of the State were an important feature of Fascism's self-representation and of its legal culture, and in this light the possession of an empire came to be seen as an essential aspect of statehood and power.