scholarly journals Studying habitats and dynamical interaction in Neolithic Europe through the material culture of pile dwellings

Author(s):  
J. Verdonkschot

The Early Neolithic in Europe is one of the most dynamic and significant periods of prehistory. However, there are still many questions waiting to be answered. Pile dwellings can shed a light on this case as these sites and their material have been preserved exceptionally well due to the humid conditions of their location. Besides from this global aim they also offer the possibility of comparing several settlements extensively, including data such as architecture, tools and diet as well as the more traditional ceramic remains. This article proposes a line of investigation in which several Case Studies from different areas (the Alps, Northern Spain and Central Italy) are studied. These Case Studies consist of a specific area, including a lakeside settlement that forms the basis, and nearby contemporaneous sites. The areas are assessed based on the found archaeological record and in terms of their social organization and connections. Secondly, the dynamic relations between said areas are addressed in order to study connectivity and contact in Early Neolithic Europe. Above all this study promotes a different way of investigating, abandoning the single-site perspective, no longer looking exclusively for differences but adopting a slightly different vision and linking different sites and places.

Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood

The Conclusion to this volume returns to the three main questions posed in the Introduction, examining how a shared name, alongside material culture, can affect our understanding of ancient religious practices. The first section explores the benefits of a collaborative and comparative endeavour, drawing out examples from the earlier chapters and showing how they informed our perceptions of what a name can mean. The second and third parts ask more theoretical questions about how we can use our case studies to explore broader problems of interpreting ancient religious practices, and the role of objects within them. Finally, we return to the main theme of the volume: the name Mithra, and the ideas, expectations, and traditions that have been attached to it in antiquity and in modern scholarship. We suggest a new way of approaching the phenomenon of the shared name, and what that can entail for those interested in ancient religion.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Clementi

This paper presents a detailed study of the damages and collapses suffered by various masonry churches in the aftermath of the seismic sequence of Central Italy in 2016. The damages will first be analyzed and then compared with the numerical data obtained through 3D simulations with eigenfrequency and then nonlinear static analyses (i.e., pushover). The main purposes of this study are: (i) to create an adequately consistent sensitivity study on several definite case studies to obtain an insight into the role played by geometry—which is always unique when referred to churches—and by irregularities; (ii) validate or address the applicability limits of the more widespread nonlinear approach, widely recommended by the Italian Technical Regulations. Pushover analyses are conducted assuming that the masonry behaves as a nonlinear material with different tensile and compressive strengths. The consistent number of case studies investigated will show how conventional static approaches can identify, albeit in a qualitative way, the most critical macro-elements that usually trigger both global and local collapses, underlining once again how the phenomena are affected by the geometry of stones and bricks, the texture of the wall face, and irregularities in the plan and elevation and in addition to hypotheses made on the continuity between orthogonal walls.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo De Santis ◽  
Gianfranco Cianchini ◽  
Rita Di Giovambattista ◽  
Cristoforo Abbattista ◽  
Lucilla Alfonsi ◽  
...  

Abstract. Geosystemics (De Santis 2009, 2014) studies the Earth system as a whole focusing on the possible coupling among the Earth layers (the so called geo-layers), and using universal tools to integrate different methods that can be applied to multi-parameter data, often taken on different platforms. Its main objective is to understand the particular phenomenon of interest from a holistic point of view. In this paper we will deal with earthquakes, considered as a long term chain of processes involving, not only the interaction between different components of the Earth’s interior, but also the coupling of the solid earth with the above neutral and ionized atmosphere, and finally culminating with the main rupture along the fault of concern (De Santis et al., 2015a). Some case studies (particular emphasis is given to recent central Italy earthquakes) will be discussed in the frame of the geosystemic approach for better understanding the physics of the underlying complex dynamical system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-208
Author(s):  
Vadim Sergeevich Mosin ◽  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Yakovleva

This paper is devoted to the critical issues of historiography and source study in the early Neolithic of the Trans-Urals. The authors consider basic dated monuments in the context of radiocarbon chronology; analyze the established criteria for identifying archaeological cultures and ceramic traditions and types of this period. Based on statistical processing of the ceramics of the forest-steppe Tobol region settlements: Tashkovo 1, Dolgovskoe 3, Kochegarovo 1, Ust-Suerka 4, the authors distinguish some stadial features in the evolving of the material culture of the early Neolithic in the first and second halves of 6 thousand BC. Attention is paid, firstly, to the co-existence of Koshkino and Kozlovo ancientries within the settlements, and, secondly, to the coincidence of a number of characteristics of Koshkino and Kozlovo material culture regarding the morphology of potteries, ornamentation techniques and basic decorative motifs. Within the framework of a sociocultural approach, it is proposed to consider the bodies of evidence as complexes of two coexisting and interacting traditions within one sociocultural space, understood in the source sense as an archaeological culture, instead of dividing them into two independent lines of development. Besides it is emphasized that the problem of the Neolithization of Trans-Urals, on the basis of the available data, at this time cannot be solved plausible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Nikolaevna Dubovtseva ◽  
Lubov Lvovna Kosinskaya ◽  
Henny Piezonka

The ancient fortified settlement of Amnya I is a unique Early Neolithic site in the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Amnya river). It is located on a promontory and has three lines of defense and ten dwelling depressions. The structures of the excavated dwellings are very similar, though the artifact assemblage appears rather heterogeneous. We carried out a technical and technological analysis of ceramics, which showed no correlation between the texture, on the one hand, and the morphology and ornamentation of pots on the other one. Planiographic analysis of ceramics showed that vessels with comb and incising patterns are found in different dwellings, although there are objects in which both groups lie together. Various categories of stone implements (bladelets and polished arrowheads) also appear on different parts of the settlement. Most likely, the observed differences in the artefact complexes of objects are associated with the stages of the functioning of the settlement. The absolute chronology does not yet clarify the sequence of erection and existence of objects. New AMS date is probably vulnerable to a significant reservoir effect. The abundance of unsolved issues of absolute and relative chronology makes the resumption of research on this unique site urgent.


Author(s):  
Douglass Bailey ◽  
Lesley McFadyen

This article presents two bodies of work, both of which take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of buildings from Neolithic Europe. The first connects archaeology to theories in architectural history, while the second creates links between archaeology and art. This article works through four ideas about architecture which the article offers as disconnected propositions. There is no easy narrative for this article, just as there is none for the living built environment of the past or the present. This article proposes that archaeologists step away from accepted and comfortable knowledge of architectural form and interpretation. The aim of this article is to work through four case studies from our work on prehistoric European architecture. The case studies illuminate four propositions, which are offered as provocations for further work on architecture by archaeologists but also by anthropologists and other social scientists and humanities scholars whose work engages architecture concludes this article.


CrossCurrents ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-426
Author(s):  
Daniel Moulin‐Stożek ◽  
Anna K. Dulska

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2933-2950 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Federico ◽  
E. Avolio ◽  
M. Petracca ◽  
G. Panegrossi ◽  
P. Sanò ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper shows the results of a tailored version of a previously published methodology, designed to simulate lightning activity, implemented into the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). The method gives the flash density at the resolution of the RAMS grid scale allowing for a detailed analysis of the evolution of simulated lightning activity. The system is applied in detail to two case studies occurred over the Lazio Region, in Central Italy. Simulations are compared with the lightning activity detected by the LINET network. The cases refer to two thunderstorms of different intensity which occurred, respectively, on 20 October 2011 and on 15 October 2012. The number of flashes simulated (observed) over Lazio is 19435 (16231) for the first case and 7012 (4820) for the second case, and the model correctly reproduces the larger number of flashes that characterized the 20 October 2011 event compared to the 15 October 2012 event. There are, however, errors in timing and positioning of the convection, whose magnitude depends on the case study, which mirrors in timing and positioning errors of the lightning distribution. For the 20 October 2011 case study, spatial errors are of the order of a few tens of kilometres and the timing of the event is correctly simulated. For the 15 October 2012 case study, the spatial error in the positioning of the convection is of the order of 100 km and the event has a longer duration in the simulation than in the reality. To assess objectively the performance of the methodology, standard scores are presented for four additional case studies. Scores show the ability of the methodology to simulate the daily lightning activity for different spatial scales and for two different minimum thresholds of flash number density. The performance decreases at finer spatial scales and for higher thresholds. The comparison of simulated and observed lighting activity is an immediate and powerful tool to assess the model ability to reproduce the intensity and the evolution of the convection. This shows the importance of using computationally efficient lightning schemes, such as the one described in this paper, in forecast models.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 8-10

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings What makes a great leader? This particular conundrum has been sparking debate since Hannibal took his team of elephants over the Alps, and yet while many people have their views on the matter, few could point at any evidence as such. Instead, we will all no doubt think of leaders who exemplified the kind of characteristics we are thinking of – Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch – and state their personalities as some kind of evidence. However, the more you point out one-offs as exemplars, the more any argument is undermined. Practical implications This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


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