Grave‐goods from the long chamber tomb “Dibba 76/1” (Fujairah,UAE): a first inventory

The aim of this paper is to present the rich set of finds collected inside the grave Dibba 76/1, in the Emirate of Fujairah, during a season of rescue excavation conducted under the direction of S. Ali Hassan in 1994. The recovered grave‐goods include pottery, soft‐stone vessels, metal finds, personal ornaments, coins, and other items. Although comparable with other corpuses of material excavated in south‐eastern Arabia, the material of Dibba 76/1 stands out for the inner variety of the different artefacts’ classes and their remarkable chronological heterogeneity. The study of the grave‐goods suggests that Dibba 76/1 was reused over several centuries, showing a strong continuity in the funerary destination of this specific place from the end of the Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC) to the first phases of the late pre‐Islamic period (250 BC–AD 400), and the full integration of the area of Dibba in the succession of the various cultural facies known during this long time span.     

A Hybrid Masonry and Steel Mirror-Type Vault with Lunettes: Survey and Structural Analysis

ABSTRACT

The structural analysis of a mirror-type vault, consisting of a single- or double-curvature perimeter and a nearly flat part, is carried out. The vault is similar to a number of hybrid iron (or steel) and masonry vaults built between the late 19th century and the early 20th century to span large halls. The numerical analyses were preceded by an accurate geometrical survey and mechanical tests aimed at evaluating the properties of the materials. Thermography allowed the complex brick pattern of the vault to be detected. The influence of rib-walls (frenelli) and the material anisotropy on the stress and deformation of the vault is discussed. Eventually, attention is focused on one of the segmental vaults in the central part of the structure: it is found that the stress can be safely estimated by assuming its boundary to be fixed.     

Multiproxy approach to the study of Medieval food habits in Tuscany (central Italy)

A multiproxy approach based on archaeobotanical, organic residue and isotopic analyses was carried out on materials from 12 Medieval archaeological sites in Tuscany (central Italy), in order to provide a diachronic overview of local diet in rural and urban sites from the mid-eighth to the fourteenth centuries AD. Archaeobotanical analyses were applied to 130,578 seeds/fruits, residue analyses involved 87 samples from cooking and storing vessels, whereas analyses of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes included 63 human bone samples and 26 animal specimens. The results indicate that from the mid-eighth century AD, crop production was of high quality similar, to that of the Roman Age. The main cultivations were naked wheats, barley and horse bean, a diversity that attests the technological skills reached by Tuscan peasants during the whole Middle Ages. Different cereals and pulse abundantly supplemented the diet. This strategy not only ensured peasants’ subsistence in the mid-eighth century AD, minimizing the risks of environmental adversities, but it also increased crop production – from the mid-ninth century AD on, for the revived markets and trade. Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries AD, C4 plants had a dominant role in the peasants’ diet, when the wheat production was strictly collected first by the landlords and then by the cities for their own needs. Crop production was integrated by swine farming; animal meat consumption is well documented in rural and urban populations from the ninth century AD. Wine and olive oil, considered important elements of diet in Medieval Tuscany, have a very scarce presence, but they are recorded for later periods, mainly in urban areas and in higher social classes, such as the religious and aristocratic ones. In fact, only between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD was the great expansion of olive groves and vineyards recorded, when cities and urban populations claim to have access to these luxury foods.     

“All Gone Now”: The Material,Discursive and Political Erasure of Bank and Building Society Branches in Britain

Abstract: This paper examines an apparent anomaly that lies at the heart of processes of financial exclusion within Britain. Given that the branch networks of banks and building societies have shrunk in size by about one‐third since 1989, a period during which the Government has launched a wide‐ranging set of policies to tackle financial exclusion, why is it that the issue of branch closure has been neutralised as a political issue? After providing evidence to show the extent of branch closure in Britain and illustrating the ways in which geographical research in particular has drawn attention to the nature of this problem, we look at the way the issue of physical access to financial services has been discursively and politically marginalised. We undertake a detailed history of public policy in the area, and the ways in which research funded by industry bodies and Government departments has been used and framed to build a pro‐market, neoliberal policy programme that constructs branch closures as natural and inevitable.     

Molecular markers for the discrimination of Triticum turgidum L. subsp. dicoccum (Schrank ex Schübl.) Thell. and Triticum timopheevii (Zhuk.) Zhuk. subsp. timopheevii

The persistent uncertainty on the classification of the “new” glume wheat found in Neolithic and Bronze Age sites from Greece and other European settlements might be resolved only through analysis of its ancient DNA. Tools able to discriminate among different Triticum species on the basis of scarce, very damaged DNA, are therefore essential. While current attempts concentrate on DNA fragments sequencing and comparison, in some instances PCR-based selective amplification techniques might offer a cheaper and quicker alternative. The purpose of this research was therefore the identification of species-specific primers, able to distinguish caryopses of Triticum timopheevii subsp. timopheevii from those of Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum. Primers and their working conditions were defined and optimized using DNA from modern accessions. The ribosomal primers ITS1 tim and ITS2 tim, and the nuclear primer acetyl-coenzyme A tim clearly discriminated the sequences of Triticum timopheevii from other species. Finally, Neolithic charred wheat grains found in the sites of Sammardenchia (Pozzuolo del Friuli, Udine) and La Marmotta (Lago di Bracciano, Roma), belonging to the “new” wheat type or to emmer, were tested with the three selected primers. However, the results were not conclusive, because the samples analysed were apparently too degraded to yield useful DNA.     

Integrating archaeology,archaeometry and geology: local production technology and imports at Paola (Cosenza,Southern Italy)

This paper documents a comprehensive study of coarse wares for table use, serving, washing and cooking, found at the archaeological site of Paola (Cosenza, southern Italy). Major aims of the study were to group local products and imports and to determine technological features of local products. Results were obtained through a combination of archaeological (stratigraphy and ceramic typology), chemical and mineralogical–petrographical techniques (ICP-OES, ICP-MS, INAA, XRF, OM, SEM-EDS and EMPA). Data integration revealed that the coarse wares found at Paola were produced locally or imported over short (Calabria region), medium (Campania, Pantelleria, Sicily) and long distances (Greece and Africa). The local production focused on basins, stewpots, pitchers, bowls, pans, casseroles and lids, sometimes imitating African, or Pompei (Campania) or San Foca (Puglia) typical shapes. The production technology of local ceramics used a sandy–clayey blend of materials collected in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site, fired at intermediate (about 800 °C) to low (around 650–750 °C) temperatures and used a Fe-rich clayey compound as a red ceramic coating. From a technological perspective, the Paola example arise new questions about table wares produced with clay bodies typical of cooking wares.     

The archaeology and paleoenvironment of an Upper Pleistocene hyena den: An integrated approach

Data of high resolution for reconstructions of archaeological site formation processes can be obtained only by the use of precise excavation methods and comprehensive recovery techniques using fine-mesh water screening, followed by meticulous sorting and quantitative studies of all the small organic components from the screens. These methods are generally used at human occupation sites, but are not often employed at paleontological or mixed human-carnivore sites. At the site of Bois Roche, an Upper Pleistocene hyena den, we have used these meticulous recovery techniques in combination with absolute dating, geoarchaeological observations, taphonomic analyses, studies of microvertebrates and pollen analysis. Correlation of the site environmental data from pollen and microvertebrate assemblages with the vegetation record of a deep-sea core taken in the Bay of Biscay have allowed us to constrain the ages provided by ESR dating of bovid teeth and to reconstruct the physical environment of the site with a degree of confidence rarely achieved by the use of fossil remains from archaeological sites alone.