1,720,978 research outputs found

    Sedimentological analysis of an urban soil sequence from Corfe Castle, Dorset. A history of land use and anthropogenic activity

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    The combination of traditional archaeological test pit excavation and detailed scientific analysis of an urban soil sequence from Corfe Castle has enabled a detailed history of land use and anthropogenic activity to be uncovered. Artefactual evidence indicates a chronology of land use and activity which extends from the medieval period to the present day. The 0.80m deep soil record shows evidence for possible cultivation of an in situ clay rich soil from the 1200s, with some anthropogenic amendment. More intensive manuring occurred between c.1200–1500 evidenced by an increased soil depth, fertility and drainage and the formation of distinctive hortisol deposits. The greatest phase of anthropogenic amendment occurred in the post medieval (1500–1750) and modern periods (1750–1950) when archaeological, scientific and historic information indicate the greatest deposition of organic and inorganic manuring material associated with increased cultivation, most recently in smaller subdivided garden enclosures each with on-site occupation. The results of this research highlight the potential contribution that scientific analysis of soil sequences can provide towards understanding of historic land use, occupation and human activity across the urban extent of historic settlement areas such as Corfe Castle and the importance of utilising appropriate multidisciplinary processes to discern the nuanced history of such locations

    Living with a trespasser: Riparian names and medieval settlement on the River Trent floodplain

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    The Trent is England’s third longest river. Its propensity to flood has long been recognised. Indeed it is this distinguishing trait that appears to have given the river its name. In this paper, we examine how this mercurial and potentially dangerous river was understood and how its floodplain was settled in the Middle Ages. Drawing on toponomastic and palaeoecological evidence we examine the relationship between archaeologically attested medieval riparian settlements and the river. These themes are examined against the twin backgrounds of climate and anthropogenic landscape change which ensured that England’s floodplains were some of the most dynamic, and thus complex, spaces in which medieval people chose to live

    Aridification of the Egyptian Sahara 5000–4000 cal BP revealed from x-ray fluorescence analysis of Nile Delta sediments at Kom al-Ahmer/Kom Wasit

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    Elemental XRF analysis carried out on an 8m long core from the Nile Delta reveals a gradual increase in the Ca/Ti ratio between 5000–4000 cal BP which is linked to the progressive development of hyper-aridity in this region. The increase results from elevated flux of aeolian material entering the Nile river system from calcareous source rock geologies in the dryer Egyptian Sahara. The most major increase in hyper-aridity occurs around 4000 cal BP. Such a perspective suggests a locally abrupt, regionally time-transgressive inception of hyper-aridity in this region at the end of the African Humid Period. After this time, reorganisation of wind circulation meant that less Saharan-derived aeolian material entered the Nile Valley, and the contribution of aeolian material in the Nile’s sedimentary signal was also dwarfed by an increase in Blue Nile sedimentary flux. Chronological control is provided by two radiocarbon dates and the top and bottom of a well-constrained pottery horizon that dates from the period of occupation of two nearby archaeological sites: Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit.</p

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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