100 research outputs found
Donato Attanasio, Mauro Brilli & Neil Ogle, The Isotopic Signature of Classical Marbles, 2006
No full textDemelenne Marie. Donato Attanasio, Mauro Brilli & Neil Ogle, The Isotopic Signature of Classical Marbles, 2006. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 77, 2008. pp. 757-758
Donato Attanasio, Mauro Brilli & Neil Ogle, The Isotopic Signature of Classical Marbles, 2006
No full textDemelenne Marie. Donato Attanasio, Mauro Brilli & Neil Ogle, The Isotopic Signature of Classical Marbles, 2006. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 77, 2008. pp. 757-758
Coping with Iberian monopolies: Genoese trade networks and formal institutions in Spain and Portugal during the second half of the eighteenth century
No full textThis article explores Genoese trade interests in Cadiz and Lisbon, the two capitals of Iberian colonial trade at the end of the early-modern period. The author aims to explain the persisting intermediary role of a merchant community that has been largely overlooked by historians. The structure of the trade networks established in the two cities will be reconstructed by using the primary sources conserved in the archive of the Durazzos, a powerful aristocratic family of the Republic which has left a unique collection of private correspondence. This sizeable and largely unexplored documentation illuminates the different strategies used to access the Spanish and Portuguese monopolistic systems, the main actors who traded in both contexts, their relations with the local elite, and the nature of the business networks linking Genoese investors in the mother city with the expatriated agents. The author concludes with a comparative analysis of the institutional resources that Genoese used to maintain their interests, with particular attention paid to the religious institutions established by the 'nation' in the two port cities
The role of water-rock ratio and temperature in the isotopic alteration of flysch rock in the Tolfa Mountain mining district (Latium, Central Italy)
No full textCarbon and oxygen isotope analyses have been performed on calcium carbonate samples from flysch rocks collected in the south of Tolfa and Allumiere villages (Central Italy). Large variation it) delta(18)O occurs from values around +28 per mil (SMOW), typical of marine carbonates, down to values of about +9 per mil (SMOW). The lower values are measured on samples collected close to phanerocrystalline carbonate deposits outcropping in the area and interpreted as part of a hydrothermal vein system. delta(13)C does not show large variation, and, aside from a few outliers, falls within a range of 0 and +2 per mil (PDB). Similar carbon and oxygen isotope spatial relationships between the flysch country rocks and the phanerocrystalline carbonate deposits were determined in a previous study by FERRINI & MASI (1987), who interpreted the O-18 depletion as due to interaction of the host rock with an aqueous fluid at hydrothermal temperatures below 250degreesC and with a water to rock ratio progressively increasing toward the carbonate vein. The combined results indicate that hydrothermal fluid temperature largely regulates oxygen isotope variation (and possibly the carbon and oxygen deltas co-variation) with respect to the variation of the water to rock ratio
Does stable isotope analysis separate transgenic and traditional corn (Zea mays L.) detritus and their consumers?
No full textTransgenic corn Crops (including the Bt variety) are expanding rapidly worldwide, and the large amounts of cultural residues remaining after harvest pose questions about the fate of this novel source of plant detritus in soil. To verily whether transgenic and conventional corn litters were different in their isotopic signatures, the C-13 and N-15 stable isotopes of different portions of Bt and non-Bt Aristis corn plants after harvest were analysed. Laboratory feeding experiments were then conducted to assess the transfer of corn isotopic signals to detritivores using the isopod Trachelipus sp, reared on either Bt or non-Bt corn dead leaves as the only food source. delta N-15 differed significantly between Bt and non-Bt corn in kernels and sterns, whereas both delta N-15 and delta C-13 were different in leaves before and after exposure to isopods. During feeding, the N and C isotopic signatures of' isopods shifted towards the diet values. Significant differences existed both between sampling dates and corn treatments. The results suggest that detritus from transgenic and conventional corn crops may have different isotopic signatures and the isotopic differences can persist through the trophic levels, making corn detritus feeders suitable sentinel species for the Bt corn isotopic signal in agroecosystems. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
AT THE ORIGINS OF ROME: URBANIZATION, AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE IN IRON AGE
No full textThe beginning of Iron Age in Central Italy witnessed increasing social complexity, urbanization processes and climatic instability. However, understanding the mutual relations of these events as well as their effects on past agriculture is still a complex matter. This research aims at investigating changes in agricultural systems and environmental variability through the analysis of macrobotanical samples retrieved from multiple archaeological contexts dating between the 10th and the 6th century BCE. Recent excavations at the site of Gabii, situated at the outskirt of Rome, provided charred carpological material (seeds, fruits and woods) coming from different Iron Age and Archaic levels. As Gabii was an important Latin city which experienced this phase of urbanisation such data are crucial for the understanding of its socio-economic development. Preliminary results show the presence of several cultivated cereals, mainly represented by caryopsis of Hordeum vulgare and Triticum dicoccum but also few T. monococcum. Pulses include Vicia faba and V. ervillia. Some weeds are also attested, such as Lolium sp. In addition, the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen of both charred seeds/fruits and woods will allow the study of the past water availability as well as the crops growing conditions and farming practices, informing us, to a certain extent, about the possible effects of climate fluctuation on the development of these ancient societies and their agriculture
Volcanic eruptions from ghost magma chambers
No full textRecent studies have proposed that magma reservoirs crystallized to a virtually rigid crystal-mush can be partially remelted by diffusion of hot fluids. We show that for a crystal mush with the composition of a K-trachyte from the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) Eruption, remelting can occur without a significant increase of the magma temperature, but simply by diffusion of H2O by the magmatic gases feeding the system. The CI origin is not the issue here, but rather the chemical and physical behavior of an almost solidified magma mass left over in a reservoir after a major eruption. To test our hypothesis, we run high pressure/high temperature laboratory experiments to study the kinetics of water diffusion, together with thermodynamics and fluid diffusion modelling. For small diffusivities, or large diffusion time, the remelting mechanism proposed above needs to be replaced by other processes as gas percolation or intrusion of a magmatic mass
Dante’s New Lives: Biography and Autobiography
No full textInternational audienceNumerous books have attempted to chronicle the life of Dante Alighieri, yet essential questions remain unanswered. How did a self-taught Florentine become the celebrated author of the Divine Comedy? Was his exile from Florence so extraordinary? How did Dante make himself the main protagonist in his works, in a literary context that advised against it? And why has his life interested so many readers? In Dante’s New Lives, eminent scholars Elisa Brilli and Giuliano Milani answer these questions and many more. Their account reappraises Dante’s life and work by assessing archival and literary evidence and examining the most recent scholarship. The book is a model of interdisciplinary biography, as fascinating as it is rigorous
Dante’s New Lives: Biography and Autobiography
No full textInternational audienceNumerous books have attempted to chronicle the life of Dante Alighieri, yet essential questions remain unanswered. How did a self-taught Florentine become the celebrated author of the Divine Comedy? Was his exile from Florence so extraordinary? How did Dante make himself the main protagonist in his works, in a literary context that advised against it? And why has his life interested so many readers? In Dante’s New Lives, eminent scholars Elisa Brilli and Giuliano Milani answer these questions and many more. Their account reappraises Dante’s life and work by assessing archival and literary evidence and examining the most recent scholarship. The book is a model of interdisciplinary biography, as fascinating as it is rigorous
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