scholarly journals A Multisensory Approach to Rock Art: Exploring Tactile and Visual Dimensions in the Southern Scandinavian Rock Art Tradition

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Peter Skoglund ◽  
Tomas Persson ◽  
Anna Cabak Rédei
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Multisensory Interaction ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Human Tendency ◽  
Dynamic Relations ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Incomplete Images ◽  
Over Time

This paper discusses rock art in southern Scandinavia as a multisensory format, where both sight and touch would have contributed to the comprehension of the images. From a structural semiotic point of view, we suggest that rock art can be construed as an organised set of features, such as visual and tactile elements, organised into heterogeneous unities with dynamic relations between elements that can change over time with respect to how they are experienced. We argue that in order to understand the rock art medium, it is crucial to take into consideration the multisensory interaction between the perceiver and the qualities of the rock art surface. The reason for including tactile elements in our interpretation of the conception of rock art is the way it was created: by hands interacting with tools and rock surfaces, as well as the spontaneous human tendency to explore the physical world through touch. One can identify key features in the images that would arguably facilitate tactile recognition, as well as be better explained from a multisensorial perspective. This includes the position of the images on horizontal outcrops, the moderate size of the images, the application of an orthographic perspective, the use of ‘tactile markers’ (ie crucial features having a strategic function for understanding images by touch), and the occurrence of incomplete images. A multisensorial perspective on rock art furthermore has semiotic implications. Incomplete images, for example, can be understood as indexical stand-ins for the whole imagined picture, ie as iconic indices. A multisensorial approach to Scandinavian rock art thus allows for new explanations for certain design choices, as well as a new understanding of how the images could relay meaning to a perceiver.

Transforming the Rocks – Time and Rock Art in Bohuslän, Sweden

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Horn ◽  
Rich Potter
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Reflectance Transformation Imaging ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Individual Human

Human representations are one of the most important groups of depictions in rock art in southern Scandinavia. These humans have long been discussed as complete, stable, and temporally-fixed images. The results of a new survey challenge this view. Recording rock art with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) enabled us to discern a possible sequence of production of individual human representations, their bodily features, and associated objects. Figures from a rock art site in Finntorp (Tanum, Sweden) will be used as an example. Differences in the dimensions of the engraved lines, the chronology of the depicted objects, and the placement of body parts suggest that several individuals may have been involved in making human representations on the rocks, and that their appearance as complete figures is the result of repeated transformations. The results presented demonstrate that Scandinavian rock art is not stable in time. We suggest that rock art is best understood as the creation of communities over time, which enables them to engage with the past by transforming the rocks.

LES AXES DE LA CRÉATION ET LA NAISSANCE DE LʹIMAGINAIRE COMME LANGAGE MYTHIQUE

Trictrac ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Danciu ◽  
Petru Adrian Danciu
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Space ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Written Form ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
Rich Spectrum

The axes of the creation and birth of the imaginary as a mythical language. Our research follows the relationships of the concepts that are taking into account creation on the double axis of verticality and horizontality. We highlight those symbolic elements which would later constitute the mythical language about the sacred space-temporality. Inside this space-temporality a rich spectrum of mythical images develops; images capable of explaining the relationships of the creation plans. Without a religious perception of the temporality, the conceptualization of the axis would remain a philosophical approach. Through our point of view, the two are born simultaneously. Thanks to them, creation can be imagined. The first “frozen” formula of the mystical human spirit can be thought, brought to a palpable reality, expressed in an oral and then a written form. Studied together, temporality (sacred or not) and space are permanently imagined together. For example, a loss of mundane temporality in the secret ecstasy that offers to the soul an ascending direction does not mean getting out of universal temporality, but of its mundane section. In the sacred space the soul relates to time. Even the gods are submitted by the sacred, Aeon sometimes being synonymous to destiny. The universal creator seems to evade every touch, but not consistently, only when he avoids the descent into its created worlds. In sacredness, time and space seem or become confused, both expressing the same reality, by the immediate swing from thinking to deed. The mythical imagery conceives the displacement in the primary space-temporality by the spoken word. So, for something to appear and live, the spoken word is required. Even the divine dream appears as a pre-word of a creator’s thought. The thought follows the spoken word, the spoken word follows the gestures which finally indicate the meanings of the creative act, controlling the rhythm of the creation days. These three will later be adapted through imitation in rite. We are now situated at the limit of the physical world, a real challenge for the mythical imagery. The general feature of the mythical expression on the creation of the material world is the state of the divinity’s exhaustion, most often conceptualized by sacrifice or divine fatigue. The world geography identifies with the anatomy of a self-gutted god. Practically, material creation is most likely the complete revelation of God’s body autopsy. As each body decomposes, everything in it is an illusion. An axial approach of the phenomenon exists in all religious systems. The created element’s origin is exterior, with or without a pre-existing matter, by a god’s sacrifice or only because it has to be that way. This is the starting point of the discussion on the symbolism of axiality as a reason for the constitution of the language of creation, capable of retelling the imaginary construction of myth in an oral and then written form.

Changing Places: Rock Art and Holocene Landscapes in the Wadi al-Ajal, South-West Libya

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tertia Barnett ◽  
Maria Guagnin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Human Settlement ◽  
Gis Model ◽  
South West ◽  
Settlement Location ◽  
Central Sahara ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

This article examines the relationship between rock art and landscape use by pastoral groups and early settled communities in the central Sahara from around 6000 BC to 1000 AD. During this period the region experienced significant climatic and environmental fluctuations. Using new results from a systematic survey in the Wadi al-Ajal, south-west Libya, our research combines data from over 2000 engraved rock art panels with local archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence within a GIS model. Spatial analysis of these data indicates a correspondence between the frequency of rock art sites and human settlement over time. However, while changes in settlement location were guided primarily by the constraints on accessibility imposed by surface water, the distribution of rock art relates to the availability of pasture and patterns of movement through the landscape. Although the reasons for these movements undoubtedly altered over time, natural routes that connected the Wadi al-Ajal and areas to the south continued to be a focus for carvings over several thousand years.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence, 3D Documentation, and Rock Art—Approaching and Reflecting on the Automation of Identification and Classification of Rock Art Images

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Horn ◽  
Oscar Ivarsson ◽  
Cecilia Lindhé ◽  
Rich Potter ◽  
Ashely Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Bounding Boxes

AbstractRock art carvings, which are best described as petroglyphs, were produced by removing parts of the rock surface to create a negative relief. This tradition was particularly strong during the Nordic Bronze Age (1700–550 BC) in southern Scandinavia with over 20,000 boats and thousands of humans, animals, wagons, etc. This vivid and highly engaging material provides quantitative data of high potential to understand Bronze Age social structures and ideologies. The ability to provide the technically best possible documentation and to automate identification and classification of images would help to take full advantage of the research potential of petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia and elsewhere. We, therefore, attempted to train a model that locates and classifies image objects using faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster-RCNN) based on data produced by a novel method to improve visualizing the content of 3D documentations. A newly created layer of 3D rock art documentation provides the best data currently available and has reduced inscribed bias compared to older methods. Several models were trained based on input images annotated with bounding boxes produced with different parameters to find the best solution. The data included 4305 individual images in 408 scans of rock art sites. To enhance the models and enrich the training data, we used data augmentation and transfer learning. The successful models perform exceptionally well on boats and circles, as well as with human figures and wheels. This work was an interdisciplinary undertaking which led to important reflections about archaeology, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. The reflections and the success represented by the trained models open novel avenues for future research on rock art.

scholarly journals From Substitutive to Supplementary: Institutional Interplay between Public and Occupational Sickness Benefits in Finland, 1947-2016

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-80
Author(s):  
Laura Järvi
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sickness Benefit ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Sickness Benefits ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Benefit System

In the context of the Finnish welfare state, this article examines the role of occupational welfare in the interplay between public and occupational sickness benefits from 1947 to 2016, to analyse how the two sickness benefits have interacted over time and the role occupational welfare has played in sickness provision. Previous research has noted that occupational benefits may support or compensate for the much-debated declining welfare state. Hence, it is important to acquire greater knowledge about the public-occupational interplay. The study uses in-depth individual-level analysis from a retrospective point of view, which has been rare in previous research, and examines the public-occupational interplay in the Finnish sickness benefit system from the first national collective agreements to 2016. Based on the reforms made to the public system, the article identifies and utilises six different phases of the Finnish sickness allowance system in the main analysis. The institutional development of sickness provision is investigated by analysing the compensation rate and benefit period, using metalworkers as a representative example of blue-collar workers. The results indicate that occupational benefits are strongly institutionalised in the Finnish sickness benefit system. The interplay between statutory and occupational sickness benefits has taken different forms over time, and occupational benefits have been re-negotiated as the statutory system has been reformed. The article provides valuable information on the historical development and relevance of occupational welfare, in terms of not only understanding its significance for individuals but also comprehending the logic of the interplay in the public-private mix of welfare provision.

scholarly journals Psychology in an Indeterminate World

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162095800
Author(s):  
Ludger van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Material World ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The World ◽  
Indeterminate World ◽  
Over Time

By sharing their world, humans and other animals sustain each other. Their world gets determined over time as generations of animals act in it. Current approaches to psychological science, by contrast, start from the assumption that the world is already determined before an animal’s activity. These approaches seem more concerned with uncertainty about the world than with the practical indeterminacies of the world humans and nonhuman animals experience. As human activity is making life increasingly hard for other animals, this preoccupation becomes difficult to accept. This article introduces an ecological approach to psychology to develop a view that centralizes the indeterminacies of a shared world. Specifically, it develops an open-ended notion of “affordances,” the possibilities for action offered by the environment. Affordances are processes in which (a) the material world invites individual animals to participate, while (b) participation concurrently continues the material world in a particular way. From this point of view, species codetermine the world together. Several empirical and methodological implications of this view on affordances are explored. The article ends with an explanation of how an ecological perspective brings responsibility for the shared world to the heart of psychological science.

A network case of knowledge brokering

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle Rodway ◽  
Stephen MacGregor ◽  
Alan Daly ◽  
Yi-Hwa Liou ◽  
Susan Yonezawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) to offer a conceptual understanding of knowledge brokering from a sociometric point-of-view; and (2) to provide an empirical example of this conceptualization in an education context.Design/methodology/approachWe use social network theory and analysis tools to explore knowledge exchange patterns among a group of teachers, instructional coaches and administrators who are collectively seeking to build increased capacity for effective mathematics instruction. We propose the concept of network activity to measure direct and indirect knowledge brokerage through the use of degree and betweenness centrality measures. Further, we propose network utility—measured by tie multiplexity—as a second key component of effective knowledge brokering.FindingsOur findings suggest significant increases in both direct and indirect knowledge brokering activity across the network over time. Teachers, in particular, emerge as key knowledge brokers within this networked learning community. Importantly, there is also an increase in the number of resources exchanged through network relationships over time; the most active knowledge brokers in this social ecosystem are those individuals who are exchanging multiple forms of knowledge.Originality/valueThis study focuses on knowledge brokering as it presents itself in the relational patterns among educators within a social ecosystem. While it could be that formal organizational roles may encapsulate knowledge brokering across physical structures with an education system (e.g. between schools and central offices), these individuals are not necessarily the people who are most effectively brokering knowledge across actors within the broader social network.

scholarly journals Web Application for Statistical Tracking and Predicting the Evolution of Active Cases with the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-74
Author(s):  
Iulia Clitan ◽  
◽  
Adela Puscasiu ◽  
Vlad Muresan ◽  
Mihaela Ligia Unguresan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Web Application ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
End User ◽  
First Case ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Over Time

Since February 2020, when the first case of infection with SARS COV-2 virus appeared in Romania, the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an ascending allure, reaching in September 2020 a second wave of infections as expected. In order to understand the evolution and spread of this disease over time and space, more and more research is focused on obtaining mathematical models that are able to predict the evolution of active cases based on different scenarios and taking into account the numerous inputs that influence the spread of this infection. This paper presents a web responsive application that allows the end user to analyze the evolution of the pandemic in Romania, graphically, and that incorporates, unlike other COVID-19 statistical applications, a prediction of active cases evolution. The prediction is based on a neural network mathematical model, described from the architectural point of view.

scholarly journals Rurification of Religion. Foci and Suggrundaria at the Roman Vicus of Falacrinae (Cittareale, Rieti, Italy)

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-171
Author(s):  
Valentino Gasparini
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
North East ◽  
Urban Patterns ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Over Time

The results of the archaeological exploration of the Roman vicus of Falacrinae, placed in the Upper Sabina 78 miles north-east of Rome, represent excellent first-hand material for testing the concept of “rurification” of religion.  The frequentation of the area goes back over time at least to the late Neolithic, but it is only in the Archaic period that a temple was built, soon converting itself into a sort of pole of attraction of the local community. After the Roman conquest (290 BCE), an entire village gradually arose around the monument. 129 sacrificial foci, dated between the late 3rd and the second half of the 1st cent. BCE (probably linked with the festivals of the Feriae Sementivae, Paganalia or Compitalia), and few burials (suggrundaria) belonging to perinatal foetuses of 30/40 weeks of gestation, dated during the 2nd and the first half of the 1st cent. BCE, are the most intriguing ritual practices that the excavations have been able to identify. The analysis of these practices encourages to conclude that the local rural communities: 1) adopted group-styles of religious grouping significantly different from those taking place in urban contexts; 2) could strongly modify hierarchies and rituals performed in the cities; 3) cannot necessarily be considered as “deviant” from the normative point of view; 4) could easily negotiate between local religious traditions and urban patterns.

scholarly journals Islam and the Other: A Study on the Image of The Other in Early Muslim Societies

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-292
Author(s):  
Cemal Özel
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Over Time

In this study, the Byzantine image in the religious and literary texts produced by Muslim societies in the first four centuries of the Hijra has been examined in terms of historical process. To this end, first, a theoretical basis has been established within the framework of the concepts of identity, difference, other, and othering. Then, the imagery of Byzantium is analyzed through the interpretation of the first five verses of the Surah Rûm, with regards to naming, politics, religion, culture, science, philosophy, art and women's descriptions. The main argument of the study is that the Byzantine image of Muslims cannot be addressed independent of the relationships established with Byzantium. From a historical point of view, it is seen that the image of Byzantium, which was initially positive, turned into negative depending on the course of relations and was balanced over time in terms of change, while the style and content of political and political imagery varied, there is very little variation in descriptions of social life with regards to Constantinople, Byzantine craftsmanship, family life and women. While the Qur'an and the Sunnah culture formed the basis of the Byzantine perception in the early days, political developments became dominant over time. On the other hand, Muslims did not deal with Byzantium in a monolithic, shallow and reductive way, but they used the distinction between “us” and “them” to improve the image of Islam and reinforce Muslim identity.

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