Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Survey with Commercial-Grade Instruments: A Case Study from the Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey,Iraq

Low-altitude photography in archaeology is now common practice at the scale of excavations; however, landscape-scale applications are a relatively new endeavor with promising analytical potential. From 2014–2016, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a mounted camera was used to document sites recorded as part of the Eastern ?abur Archaeological Survey (E?AS), an archaeological reconnaissance project in western Dohuk Province, Iraqi Kurdistan. The E?AS team documented over 70 archaeological sites with the UAV, from single-phase artifact scatters, to archaeological remains with standing architecture, to tells that cover more than 30 hectares. Representative examples from this survey are presented here to outline the project workflow and primary output data layers, including digital orthomosaics and digital elevation models. The quality and utility of results are then assessed in relationship to available satellite-based data. Methods for analysis and interpretation are then considered to demonstrate applications in landscape archaeology. An A) orthomosaic and B) shaded relief model with surface collection area (in red) of site EHAS-C045 created from photographs taken from a UAV.     

Archaeometrical characterization of pigments and paintings on Pre-Hispanic pottery from the regions of Fiambalá and Chaschuil (Catamarca,Argentina)*

The results of an analysis of pigments used in slips and designs deployed in ceramic assemblages recovered from archaeological sites located in different environments, expressing the socio-historical process developed in the regions of Fiambalá and Chaschuil (Catamarca, Argentina) during the last 1500 years are presented. The sample, formed by fragments of different ceramic styles and natural pigments, was analysed via Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Results indicate the continuity in use of certain pigments (mainly hematite for red hues and Mn oxides in combination with magnetite for black paints) within the different socio-political organizations that inhabited the region from the first to the 14th centuries ce , in spite of the diverse shades of colour, which suggests an intentional search linked with their cultural conventions. For the Inca Period, this scenery of continuities in minerals employed for reds and blacks is complemented by the use of new compounds (Ti oxide, apatite and gypsum) in order to generate the ‘cream’ tones applied as slips, all of which have not been identified for previous moments.     

X射线荧光光谱技术与拉曼光谱技术在齐家文化玉器研究中的应用

为分析判断齐家文化玉器的材质,利用X射线荧光光谱技术对宁夏博物馆藏5件齐家文化玉器进行无损检测分析。结果表明,5件玉器所含元素及相对含量与和田玉相似。再借助齐家文化历史史料的有关信息,可推断为和田玉成分;利用拉曼光谱技术测得5件样品的拉曼光谱图,通过与和田玉样品拉曼光谱图比对,最强及次强特征峰位整体与之相似。可以明显看到透闪石矿物的特征峰,两种检测分析结果相互验证。研究结果为探索齐家文化玉器的玉质和玉料来源提供了重要的科学依据和准确的数据支撑。     

Wood identification of a wooden mask using synchrotron X-ray microtomography

Recently, an old wooden mask was discovered at Yatsushiro city, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. This mask has been handed down from the end of the 16th century; a Japanese man of arms brought it from the Korean Peninsula during the war between Japan and Korea. In the Korean Peninsula, Hahoe masks have been stored in the Hahoe village and were designated as national treasures in 1964 and are presently possessed by the National Central Museum. Some concerns existed that this wooden mask could be one of the Hahoe masks. Since the Hahoe masks in Korea have all been made of alders (Alnus spp.), wood identification became a key issue to answer the abovementioned concerns. In fact, a flaked sample fragment was available and it was small and brittle enough to be sectioned without embedding. Furthermore, the sample was compressed in the tangential direction so that the surface was not clear enough to be explored by a scanning electron microscope. In this study therefore, a synchrotron X-ray microtomography at SPring-8 was used for the first time for wood identification. The experimental setup of BL20XU at SPring-8 allowed us to image any wood sample at a special resolution of 0.5 μm, which is enough to explore most anatomical features for wood identification established using optical microscopy. The sample was clearly diffuse-porous hardwood characterized by uniseriate heterogeneous ray and simple perforation. As a result, the mask turned out to be made of Salix sp., and the possibility that it is one of the Hahoe masks was ruled out.     

Can trace elements in fossils provide information about palaeodiet?

The main aim of this study is to try to see if, despite the diagenetic changes undergone by the fossil bones buried in Venta Micena (Orce, Spain), the concentration of trace elements permits the differentiation of particular groups. It is possible that some chemical elements allow us to identify different dietary groups in accord with their archaeological context. Different multivariant methods—correlation, principal component analysis and cluster analysis—were applied to the data, and in all cases the results show that two elements (Ba and Zn) seem able to discriminate between groups with different diets. In this sense, diagenesis cannot explain all the variability found in the concentrations of trace elements in fossils from the Orce region. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

REPORT Neurology of the Arts Mansell Bequest Symposium at the Medical Society of London 30 April–1 May 2001

Philosophical instruments were designed to examine phenomena experimentally, rather than by naturalistic observation alone. In the nineteenth century, some instruments were called philosophical toys because they provided popular amusement as well as experimental assistance. They were applied widely in natural philosophy, but attention here is directed particularly to manipulations of perceived space and time and their influence on art. One of the earliest instruments, which had a profound impact on art as well as science, was the camera obscura. It assisted image formation in art before it was applied as an analogy to the eye at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Later philosophical toys were used to address visual perception of motion and depth. Development was initially driven by the need for stimulus control so that the methods of physics could be applied to the study of perceptual phenomena. The principal instruments were invented in the first half of the nineteenth century, and they consisted of simple contrivances that manipulated time and space in ways that had not previously been appreciated. They included thaumatropes, phenakistoscopes, stroboscopes, anorthoscopes, stereoscopes, tachistoscopes, and chronoscopes. Several of these philosophical toys proved to be phenomenally popular, particularly when combined with photography.