The colors of the Fontana di Trevi: an analytical approach

During the last restoration of the Fontana di Trevi -Rome (2014–2015), it has been performed a diagnostic investigation to characterize the materials used to build and obtain the colors of the surfaces of some architectural elements of this fountain. According to the restoration teamwork needs, we focussed our efforts on the dome over the central statue of Oceanus, on the bas-relieves on the sides of the dome, and on the cliff where the water flows. Several samples were collected from these elements and therefore, they were subjected to an analytical approach including infrared spectroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopy. The achieved results indicated the use of red earth pigments on the dome. The same pigment has been revealed on the bas-relieves, although their colors have an additional contribution due to degraded layers. Samples taken from the cliff showed a complex stratigraphy, although a white scialbo has been identified as original layer, testifying the intentions of the authors in term of color rendering. This information was essential for the restores in order to choose the proper intervention procedure for each investigated surface. The research testified the importance of an integrated diagnostic analysis to preserve the original colours of monuments and building.     

The image of ‘all good Italians’. The Eichmann trial seen from Italy

ABSTRACT

The Eichmann trial held in Jerusalem in 1961 marked a turning point in the international public’s collective awareness of the extermination of Jews in Europe. In Italy, the trial contributed to the mainstream narrative of the events that concerned the deportations of the Jews. The Italian case was mentioned in the indictment of the attorney general, Hausner, and in the deposition of the only witness present at the trial, Hulda Campagnano. In this article, our analysis of the trial’s reception in Italian newspapers and media shows that the Jerusalem reports, especially through misrepresenting the words of Campagnano, created the image of Italians as ‘good people’, who would help Italian and foreign Jews, against the wishes of the Nazis. At the same time, the responsibility of Italian Fascism for the anti-Jewish laws in 1938 and the role of Italians in the arrests and deportations of Jews since 1943 have been neglected.     

Dietary patterns in human populations from northwest Patagonia during Holocene: an approach using Binford’s frames of reference and Bayesian isotope mixing models

The goal of this paper is to assess the variation in the proportional contribution of diverse resources to the diet of human populations from northwest Patagonia (Argentina) throughout the Middle-Late Holocene. Particularly, we assessed the variation among three geographic areas and two periods. We first estimated the expected proportions of terrestrial animals and plants and aquatic resources for each area according to the Binford’s frames of references approach. A Bayesian mixing method was then applied to calculate the proportion of plants and animals in the diets from stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) of human bone collagen. The isotope values suggest that the composition of diets differed spatially and temporally. Diets of South Mendoza were mainly composed of terrestrial animals (Rhea-Lama and rodents) with a greater incorporation of C₃ plants towards the later Late Holocene; in North Neuquén, Rhea and Lama represent a proportion of 0.84 of the diet consumed; and finally, the sample of Center Neuquén is the only one with high values of Araucaria in the diet. The isotopic values obtained for the three studied areas did not fit to the expectations of Binford’s model, North Neuquén being the area that departs most from the predicted proportions of terrestrial animals and plants and aquatic organisms in the diet. These findings open up new questions about the local conditions that influenced regional variation in the diet of prehistoric hunter-gatherers.     

The Innovation of the Italian Planning System: Actors,Path Dependencies,Cultural Contradictions and a Missing Epilogue

The paper aims at investigating the changes in the Italian planning system that took place in the last two decades. It is of interest because different directions of changes and combination of modes, tools and approaches have been developed and experimented. Such a plethora of changes however has been developed without a sound national reform capable to provide a legislative, disciplinary and cultural framework. At the same time, though, the condition of legislative immobility at the national level has characterized an unexpected experimenting ground for different actors and approaches at different administrative levels. In order to present its arguments, the paper combines an institutionalist approach with a strategic-relational perspective as starting point for the identification of the main interpretative categories for the processes of change. The modernization of the planning system can be investigated through its actors and the achieved innovations, its institutional path dependencies, as well as its cultural planning divergences. As a concluding consideration, we wonder if in occasion of the challenges that the ongoing socio-economic and institutional crisis has brought, the accumulated planning cultural capital can be the base ground for a new possible reforming season that would put order to a rich but scattered situation.     

Reflecting on heritage and power: dynamics,strategies and appropriations in the Catalan Pyrenees and the French Alps

In this article we will explore the way in which different agents appropriate and use heritage to compete in specific power scenarios. We approach heritage discourses and practices as defining specific political arenas within which power relations are reconfigured. The protection of spaces and places as well as the processes of patrimonialisation that take place inside specific localities give rise to the emergence of new ways of exercising power. We will examine two ethnographic cases from South European mountain areas: the Parc National des Écrins in the French Alps and a Romanesque church in the Catalan Pyrenees. An analysis of both the protected area and the constructed heritage will enable us to focus on heritage as being produced, identified and valued within specific logics and value systems. We examine the dynamics that heritage and heritage policies produce in each context as well as the interest they promote. Heritage both organises different fields of forces and is appropriated by politicians, experts, and economic actors. We will discuss the entanglements, forces and dynamics that are activated and played out as a result of heritage processes in the larger process of contemporary political transformations.