Sulfur and iron analyses of marine archaeological wood in shipwrecks from the Baltic Sea and Scandinavian waters

Analyses of marine archaeological wood from shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea area, Kronan, Riksnyckeln, Tattran, the Puck Bay Boat and the Ghost wreck, and at the Scandinavian West coast, the Göta wreck, Stora Sofia and the Viking shipwrecks of Skuldelev, show accumulation of sulfur compounds. The penetration profiles of sulfur and iron into the wood and the speciation of characteristic sulfur groups were evaluated by combining X-ray spectroscopic analyses, in particular S K-edge XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure) and X-ray fluorescence, with ESCA and elemental analyses. The combined analyses support the hypothesis that hydrogen sulfide produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria reacts and accumulates at low iron concentration mainly as organically bound sulfur, which as in previous studies was found by X-ray spectro-microscopy to accumulate in lignin-rich parts of the wood cell walls. The presence of iron(II) ions from corroding iron promotes formation of pyrite and other iron(II) sulfides, which easily oxidise in aerobic conditions with high humidity. No significant differences in sulfur and iron accumulation were found in wood from shipwrecks in the east coast brackish water and the west coast seawater. Sediments from three wreck sites, the Göta wreck, Stora Sofia and Kronan, were analyzed to a depth of a few decimeters and showed especially at the Stora Sofia high sulfur concentrations, exceeding 3 mass%. S K-edge XANES analyses of the sediments showed mainly reduced forms of sulfur, in particular pyrite and iron(II) sulfides together with elemental sulfur.     

Reviews

The Art of Persian Music, Jean During, Zia Mirabdolbaghi, and Dariush Safvat, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1991, 280 pp. + Compact Disc entitled Anthology of Persian Music: 1930–1990, $100.

Les Kurdes et le Kurdestan, Bibliographie critique 1977–1986

Abstracta Iranica (volume 5), ed. Joyce Blau, Tehran and Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1989, xvi + 146 pp.

La Révolution française, la Turquie et l'Iran, special issue of the Cahier d'études sur la Méditerraée orientale et le monde turco‐iranien, no. 12 (Juin‐Décembre 1991), 161 pp., with additional articles and book reviews 264 pp.

The History of al‐Tabari, Volume 3: The Children of Israel, trans, and annot. William M. Brinner, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, xii + 194 pp.

Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, Marvin Zonis, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991, x + 350 pp.

Sufi Women, Javad Nurbakhsh, trans. Leonard Lewisohn, rev. ed., London: Khanigah‐i Ni'matullahi, 1990, xv + 263 pp., bibliography and index.

Die persische Gesellschaft unter Nasiru'd‐Din ?ah (1848–1896), Heinz‐Georg Migeod, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1990, 430 pp.

States and Urban‐Based Revolutions: Iran and Nicaragua, Farideh Farhi, Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1990, x + 147 pp., including notes, bibliography, and index, cloth $ 29.95.

Women's Autobiographies in Contemporary Iran, Afsaneh Najmabadi (ed.), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs 25, 78 pp., $9.95.

A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1885–1886: The Safarnameh of Mirza Mohammad Hosayn Farahani, ed., trans., and annot. Hafez Farmayan and Elton L. Daniel, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990, xxxii + 380 pp.; cloth $40, paperback $17.95.     

Daylight as a Design Strategy in the Ottoman Mosques of Tunisia and Algeria

This study investigates daylighting design in Tunisian and Algerian mosques from the Ottoman era. It aims to constitute a daylight-based architectural design knowledge which might serve the built heritage preservation as well as supports contemporary environmentally friendly mosques’ and building design. An intensive literature review and a field work research have been undertaken in Tunisia and Algeria in order to survey daylighting devices in the Ottoman mosques era. Nine Tunisian and 14 Algerian mosques, from the Ottoman era, constitute the study corpus. First, an inventory of architectural components and their associated daylighting strategies was carried out. This collected data is then examined by means of a building conformation lecture based on typological, topological, and morphological analysis. This research reveals the existence of an interrelated set of daylighting devices and structural models governing rules in the Ottoman mosque model, site conditions, and previous local architectural styles.