1,721,016 research outputs found
Diet and health in central‐southern Italy during the Roman imperial time
Full text linkThe reconstruction of ancient diets by means of stable isotopes analysis acquires a deeper meaning when their results are compared with other odonto‐skeletal indicators which are strongly contextualized in the light of historical and archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, the outcomes can be contradictory or, more realistically, they may not completely satisfy our hypotheses on how complex and diverse conditions ‐ such as health status, life style, diet and nutrition ‐ can actually interrelate in the life course of an individual. In this study we present and discuss evidences from Isola Sacra and Velia, two Roman Imperial Age coastal towns. The δ15N and δ13C values are compared with demographic and health status parameters, such as age, sex, stature, auricular exostoses, DISH, cribra orbitalia, enamel defects
Trattamento funerario differenziale di neonati di epoca tardo-romana. Le deposizioni di infanti e cani a Peltuinum.
Full text linkÈ indubbio che la ricostruzione delle caratteristiche demografiche delle popolazioni antiche trovi il suo maggiore ostacolo nella sottostima degli scheletri infantili recuperati dai contesti cimiteriali. Mentre i modelli di riferimento
prevedono, infatti, una mortalità nei primi anni di vita superiore al 30% dei decessi totali nelle popolazioni pre-industriali, gli scavi di necropoli raramente restituiscono tali proporzioni. Fattori casuali, quali il minor grado di mineralizzazione dello scheletro in accrescimento, processi post-deposizionali, scavi e recuperi parziali del materiale scheletrico, sono oggi ritenuti marginali; molto più credito viene attribuito invece a scelte culturali che implicano trattamenti differenziali - sia nelle modalità che nei luoghi - degli infanti rispetto al resto della popolazione. Nell' ambito della ricerca sulla città romana di Peltuinum
(AQ), i recenti scavi del teatro forniscono nuove ed interessanti indicazioni in tale senso. I pozzetti antistanti il muro del pulpitum
, connessi al sistema di funzionamento del sipario, hanno restituito numerosi resti di feti e neonati umani, in associazione a resti di cani e di altra fauna.The symbolic value of water as a vector to the prenatal life or deities drives the choice to bury the bodies in underground environments. It can therefore be assumed that the disused wells of the theater have been considered the most suitable place for infants burial in a rural area.
Thus, the particularity of the deposition and the high concentration of perinatal deaths, are likely connected to cultural practices, involving a differential treatment of infants, in association with an high risk of mortality at birt
AMONG THE GREEKS, AMONG THE NATIVES: STRONTIUM ISOTOPIC RATIO ANALYSIS OF HUMAN ODONTOSKELETAL REMAINS FROM PITHEKOUSSAI, ISCHIA (S ITALY)
No full textDirect evidence of plant consumption in Neolithic Eastern Sudan from dental calculus analysis
Full text linkAbstract The Neolithic communities of Eastern Sudan combined intensive pastoralism with plant exploitation as their main subsistence strategies. However, to date, it remains unclear which plant species were part of the human diet during the Neolithic. This contribution presents direct data on plant consumption in Eastern Sudan from the Early to Late Neolithic, obtained through the analysis of microdebris inclusions in the dental calculus of 37 individuals, integrated by dentoalveolar pathology analysis of 78 individuals, from the sites UA53 (4th millennium BCE) and Mahal Teglinos (3rd–2nd millennium BCE), located in the Gash Delta/Kassala region. Dental calculus inclusions indicate a diverse intake of cereals, legumes, and tubers during the Middle Neolithic, thus supporting the hypothesis of high reliance on plant resources. Dentoalveolar pathologies, possibly related to the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods, have also been recorded. For the Late Neolithic, consistent with the shift towards aridity that occurred in the Middle/Late Holocene, dental calculus exclusively indicates the exploitation of sorghum and tubers—species well adapted to arid conditions—showing how the Neolithic communities modified their subsistence in response to environmental changes. Evidence of plant processing techniques, such as cooking/heating, was also revealed from the dental calculus analysis
Dental anomalies in the past: fusion, gemination, and talon cusp in two archeological samples
No full textBackground: Disruption in odontogenesis can influence the normal development of both deciduous and permanent dentition resulting in anomalies in morphology, number, and position of teeth. Although dental anomalies are frequently reported in clinical practice, their occurrence in past populations from archeological contexts is rarely acknowledged. Aim: To describe two cases of dental anomalies on two non-adult individuals from Italian archeological sites. Design: Individual sex diagnosis was performed by analyzing amelogenin peptides from the dental enamel through liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Age-at-death estimation was based on stages of dental formation and eruption. Dental twinning and talon cusp were morphologically evaluated and classified following standardized scoring systems proposed by clinical literature. Results: The first individual, a 3-4-year-old female from the Imperial Roman necropolis of Isola Sacra, presents the fusion of the upper right deciduous central incisor with a supplementary tooth; the second individual, a 3-3.5-year-old male from a Late Antiquity catacomb, shows a case of bilateral gemination on the upper permanent central incisors with a co-occurrence of dental gemination and talon cusp on the right one. Conclusions: The cases reported here (the two anomalies in the individuals presented) are useful into understanding these dental conditions within past/archaeological populations
The human skeletal remains from Herculaneum: new evidence from the excavation of the fornici 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11
No full textMonte Vetrano (Salerno) tra Oriente e Occidente. A proposito delle tombe 74 e 111
No full textThe site of Monte Vetrano, at the confluence of Fuorni and the Picentino River valleys, near the main Etruscan settlement of Pontecagnano (Salerno), is one of the most important recent discoveries in the archaeological history of the pre-Roman Campania. The burial evidence attests the development of the settlement in the second half of the 8th century BC,when it functioned as an aggregator of people and products of the inland. Its prosperity derived fom the inclusion into the system of the Tyrrhenian trade which grew with the arrivals of the Greeks on the Campania coast and the foundation of Pithekoussai and Cumae. The paper focuses on Tomb 111 of Monte Vetrano, a female cremation dating to the third quarter of the 8th century BC. The bones, together with bronze fbulae and ornaments, an impasto spindle whorl and a burnt fragment of a chevron skyphos, are laid in a bronze cauldron according to the burial customs of the graves found in the heroon by the west gate of Eretria
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
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