RADIOCARBON DATING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL RECOVERED FROM THE BASIN OF MEXICO

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Francisco Antonio Balcorta Yépez ◽  
Montserrat Alavez Ortúzar ◽  
Zulema Berenice Flores Montes de Oca ◽  
Miguel Ángel Martínez-Carrillo ◽  
Corina Solís ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Mexico City Basin has had exceptional plant and animal diversity since ancient times due to its varied orography and benign climate. This environment attracted diverse human groups, from hunter-gatherers to one of the most influential pre-Hispanic cultures of Mesoamerica: the Mexica, also known as the Aztec. The subsoil of Mexico City hides a rich and varied cultural heritage. The Archaeological Rescue Department works to preserve cultural heritage, review archaeological studies, and expand archaeological information with new findings. We report on archaeological rescue works carried out at two sites in the Mexico City Basin prior to the beginning of new construction projects. The first one is the Reforma Hidalgo Complex Office in Teocaltitlán, one of the neighborhoods of ancient Mexica City, Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Some wooden post samples were selected for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating, believed to have been used as chinampa supports. We seek to determine their temporality and possible reuse by Hispanic builders. The second one, the La Otra Banda Site, is part of the human settlements that were founded around Cuicuilco, one of the main ancient urban centers of the highlands of Central Mexico. Some human bones and coal samples were selected to be dated, aiming to establish the site’s occupation time.

Author(s):  
Sarah Beckhart

Historians have extensively explored the topic of architecture in Mexico City in the 20th century. From the relationships between politics, public patrons, new construction technologies, and new idioms of modernism, the impressive story of architecture in this megalopolis continues to astound and captivate people’s imaginations. Architecture was a channel that politicians used to address housing, education, and health care needs in a rapidly growing city. Yet scholars have not been especially concerned with private construction projects and their influence on the process of shaping and being shaped by the visual representation of Mexico City. Private building projects reveal an alternative reality of the city—one not envisioned by politicians and public institutions. Private construction projects in the historic city center are particularly interesting due to their location. These buildings are built on ancient clay lakebeds and volcanic soil on which the Aztecs first built the city. Not only are these buildings located in the heart of the city, the buildings in the rest of the historic district are also sinking. Any building in a historic district that has withstood the test of time should be an object of interest to scholars. The Torre Latinoamericana is perhaps the only building in the historic district and the entire city that ceases to sink, and instead floats! Located on the corner of Madero and San Juan de Letrán, the building sits at the heart of history, culture, and ancient Aztec clay lakebeds. The Torre Latinoamericana was built between 1948 and 1956 and is one of the most important visual symbols of resilience and modernity in Mexico City today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5041
Author(s):  
Ayyagari Ramani ◽  
Borja García de Soto

Multiple sustainability standards and rating systems have been developed to draw attention to constructing sustainable buildings. The Pearl Rating System (PRS) is a mandate for all new construction projects in Abu Dhabi. Hence, it is important to understand the main components, advantages, and limitations of the PRS. The feasibility and the practical relevance of the PRS are still being studied. This paper addresses this gap and critically evaluates the PRS against some of the well-established rating systems like LEED and BREEAM. The analysis suggests that the PRS considers the cultural aspect of sustainability, in addition to the environmental, societal, and economic aspects. It was also found that most rating systems, including the PRS, have a very superficial inclusion of life cycle assessment (LCA). The paper finally concludes with other observations and outlook for a more robust implementation of the PRS.


Mundo Agrario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (46) ◽  
pp. e130
Author(s):  
Maria-Aparecida Lopes ◽  
Reynaldo De los Reyes Patiño

This paper examines Mexico City’s meat supply system from the 1850s to 1967. During this period, whereas some urban centers in the Americas replaced traditional provisioning methods – abattoir system – with meatpacking companies, Mexico City continued to rely on the municipal monopoly to provide meat for the masses. This study focuses on the role that ranchers, cattle purveyors (introductores), and slaughterhouse (rastro) workers, alongside city officials, played in this process. It shows how these actors evolved accommodating to any authority in power, regardless of ideology. As interest groups, introductores, workers, and ranchers not only delivered a service to city dwellers but with varying degrees of influence, they also provided essential political support to governments. For their part, city officials protected these associations as a means of managing supplies and in the name of public order. Such a mutually beneficial relationship allowed both (interest groups and the municipality) to resist meatpacking conglomerates well into the twentieth century. The work underscores that although at occasions these arrangements facilitated meat provision, in others, they hindered the extension of animal proteins to the working poor – one of the main goals of post-revolutionary Mexico.


Author(s):  
Amra Šačić Beća

Medicinal sulfuric springs at present-day Ilidža helped to create Roman thermae that gave the Roman municipium the name Aquae. Systematic archaeological examinations conducted by Carl Patch and Esad Pašalić suggest that this Roman  settlement in Ilidža had existed without interruptions from the 1st  to the 4th  century. Based on the comparison of literary sources and the results of archaeologic research and epigraphic inscriptions, this paper will determine the genesis of administrative development of this Roman administrative unit whose administration included the upper course of the Bosna river and the Sarajevo area. This is an attempt at answering the following question: «Can we speak of Aquae in the context of Roman  citizens at all?” Another important question is what methodology should we use to  treat the expression res publica Aquae S(...?) that was carved on the base of Diocletian’s statue discovered in Ilidža. BiH scholarship has so far based its understanding  of this term on Mócsy’s definition of the noun phrase res publica in the context  of “pseudo-municipal” status. The results of analysis of inscriptions found on epigraphic monuments that will be presented in this paper suggest that one should  step away from understanding the phrase res publica as an administrative category. Finally, we should point out that the objective of this paper is to present the territorial and administrative development of Aquae, as it is an exact example of the  Roman municipalization model in the provincial interior. This interior was usually geographically very distant from the most important economic and urban centers  of the Roman Empire that has also left an impact on its cultural and historical development. Systematic archaeological research on the right bank of the Željeznica river  in 2016 and 2017 has revealed several stratigraphic layers which include, among others, the ancient period. These new findings have been discovered more to the  east compared to the previous findings, indicating that the urban complex of Aquae  had been expanding toward the Sarajevo area.


Author(s):  
Elena Nikolaevna Chernyavskaya

The object of this research is the methods used in design practices of post-Soviet time to give historical appearance to landscapes of former estates of Moscow region, which faded away, i.e. the methods of historicization. The landscapes under review are being protected by the government as the objects of Moscow cultural heritage, and designated as museums (reserve museums) and public parks. The subject of this research is disclosure of the essence of these methods and their assessment from the perspective of alignment with historical primary sources, implementation, proliferation, and attractiveness. The author conducts systematization of methods in accordance to the degree of conformance to the historical realities, and divides them into the following groups: 1) that provide accurate reproduction of historical forms, 2) that create similarities, 3) that create new forms. Each group is divided into subgroups. By frequency of application, the leading place belongs to the methods of first group, which are aimed at reproduction of the shapes of buildings and structures. The rest two methods focus on reviving the memory of the past. The application is attributed to new construction, which can be assessed as landscape evolution and a modern artistic phenomenon. The methods of second group lead to landscape development in spirit of historicism, while the methods of third group – to the development of territory based on modern vision of the past. The conducted analysis is valued for the general outlook upon the process of preservation of one of the most complex types of cultural heritage of Moscow.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2630 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braden T. Smith ◽  
Robert A. Moore ◽  
Isaac L. Howard

This paper presents a discussion with data on factors related to the in-place density measurement of asphalt pavements. A review of the literature traces changes to asphalt density measurement technologies over the past 60 years. Two phases of investigation then are presented in which in-place density was evaluated for an ongoing study of environmental effects at a test section in Columbus, Mississippi. A series of laboratory and field activities was performed in Phase 1. In Phase 2, studies were made of laboratory drying practices of specimens that were cored after an extended period of field aging. The key conclusion from these efforts was that ASTM D7227 might not remove sufficient moisture from some specimens to achieve accurate density measurement when pavements have been exposed to moisture for extended periods of time. This paper presents a case with an average error in air void measurement of 0.9% (measured 9.1% when 10% was correct) for specimens that were cored, dried according to ASTM D7227, and then measured for mass in air 1 day later. This finding is of most concern to rehabilitation and research work in areas in which aggregates have high potential for absorption but is of no concern to new construction projects. Furthermore, the work presented here validated the use of ASTM D7227 in circumstances in which mixtures were exposed to moisture for short periods of time. The work also suggested three options to take to accurately measure in-place density for performance testing of aged pavements that contain high-absorption aggregates (i.e., dry in oven, develop correlation equations, or dry for several weeks).


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danijela Tasic ◽  
Zorica Dimitrijevic ◽  
Stevan Glogovac ◽  
Andriana Jovanovic ◽  
Tamara Vrecic

Abstract Background and Aims Extensive archaeological material indicates that records of the treatment of kidney disease without examining the cause and solely by examining the appearance of urine date back to ancient times. To this day, the basic clinical approach to nephrology patient included an overview of freshly sampled urine from the uncatheterized bladder and monitoring of urine output.The aim of the paper is to analyze the history of the urine analysis. Method Data were collected from books, magazines, encyclopedias and databases. Results The first nephrological experiences and doctrines that connected the clinical picture with diseases of the urinary bladder, kidneys or liver were written down in the opus Corpus Hippocraticium, which contains a total of 53 works. Opus Hippocraticium contains in its work Aphorisms a total of 22 aphorisms dedicated to uroscopy. Such examinations revealed specific changes in urine that were considered important for the onset and maintenance of the disease (Predictions II paragraphs 567,569,571). Galen (Claudios Galenos) is the most famous representative of Roman medicine and a follower of the teachings of Hippocrates. In his work De crisibus (K IX, 550-668) he described in detail the changes in urine.The physicians who marked the first and second centuries with their work on urine specificities were Selius Aurelianus (Tarde Passiones V, 3) and Cornelia Celsus (De Medicina 4:17). The apostate Oribazi (Oribasius of Pergamum; 325-403) wrote a "Medical Collection" which consists of 70 books. The importance of uroscopy for the prognosis of diseases is also described in the texts on secretions in this collection.Etius of Amida wrote (Aetius 502-575) a very semi-paired collection of "Sixteen Books of Medicine". In Book V of his work he wrote 15 chapters on the characteristics of urine. He incorporated the described changes in urine into the theory of four types of body fluids. Due to the advanced approach, this collection became the basis of all subsequent works on uroscopy.Pavle Eginski (625-690) is an Alexandrian student who practiced uroscopy and is the author of seven books entitled "Excerpts from Medicine" in which he introduces new concepts and describes in detail how to collect and examine urine. At that time, the greatest contribution to uroscopy was considered to have been made by Magnus Emesianus with his classification of urine characteristics.The most famous representative of medicine from the Byzantine era is Theophilus Protospatorius (VII century) a physician, monk, and philosopher of the Byzantine period wrote (De Urinis 68-70), a treatise on urine which was translated into Arabic and Hebrew and highly esteemed among the urologists of the time. Serbian medieval medicine was a synthesis of Western European and Byzantine science.Scientific access to treatment and permanent medical education was provided in the monastery hospitals (typical of the Hilandar / Studenica monastery), but very few manuscripts from that period have been preserved. The most extensive and significant medieval medical manuscript in the Serbian language is the "Hilandar Medical Codex".In the "Journal of Uroscopy", 62 paragraphs are dedicated to Byzantine uroscopy-macroscopic examination of changes in urine. Uroscopy has been developed until the introduction of the forerunner microscope for examining urine at the end of the 16th century. The application of microscopy in the examination of urine is constantly being improved, and the first automatic analysis of urinary sediment was done in 1985. Conclusion Although urine analysis has been used since ancient times, today the diagnosis depends a lot on the quality of interpretation of the findings. Despite attempts to standardize urine sediment analysis using various methods as a cheap and non-invasive method, it is still not sufficiently used in differentiating different kidney diseases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karno Widjaja

INTRODUCTION Sustainability principles have become an integral part of the design and construction process for many new construction projects. The selection of the project delivery method (PDM) is extremely important in the effective execution of the project, and plays a critical role in establishing communication and coordination between the key entities: owner, architect, and contractor. The goal of this paper is to hopefully serve as a starting point for further discussion to improve on the AEC industry's current integration of sustainability principles in PDMs. The first step consists of an assessment of current project delivery systems from a sustainable design perspective. This is followed by a determination of the current limitations, and examination of the various disruptions in the industry. Various literature sources are analyzed to form a framework to discuss improvements and optimization strategies beyond the current system. Thereafter, proposed solutions are introduced at both stakeholders, as well as PDM scales. In this paper, the focus for the conducted analysis and proposed methodologies is predicated on new construction projects instead of retrofits due to the resources available. However, the principles can similarly be applied to retrofit scenarios as well, depending on the specific requirements of the individual project at play.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Oluwatosin Olawumi ◽  
Daniel W.M. Chan

Purpose The increasing urbanization of the built environment has bolstered the need to promote green Building Information Modeling (BIM) initiative in new construction projects and the rehabilitation of old premises. This study aims to explore and examine the key benefits of the implementation of BIM and sustainability practices in the built environment. Design/methodology/approach The study gathered the worldwide perceptions of 220 survey participants from 21 countries which were analyzed using descriptive and inferential analytical methods. The identified individual benefits of green BIM were further categorized into their underlying clusters using factor analysis. Findings The key benefits are related to enhancing project efficiency and productivity, ensuring real-time sustainable design and multi-design alternatives, facilitating the selection of sustainable materials and components, together with reducing material wastage and project’s environmental impact, among others. The study analyzed and compared the perceptions of the diverse groups of the respondents as well. Practical implications Effective blueprints and insightful recommendations for enhancing the various stakeholders’ capacities to implement green BIM in their construction projects were put forward to achieve the aim of sustainable smart urbanization. Originality/value The study identified salient benefits of the adoption of BIM and sustainability practices. The proper integration of these concepts and the execution of the recommended useful strategies by construction stakeholders, policymakers and local authorities will enable the built environment to reap the gains of its implementation.


Atmósfera ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Omar Castillo-Miranda ◽  
◽  
Ricardo Torres-Jadón ◽  
José Agustín García-Reynoso ◽  
Bertha E. Mar-Morales ◽  
...  

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