scholarly journals Collagen fingerprinting traces the introduction of caprines to island Eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 202341
Author(s):  
Courtney Culley ◽  
Anneke Janzen ◽  
Samantha Brown ◽  
Mary E. Prendergast ◽  
Jesse Wolfhagen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Collagen Peptide ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Human Colonization

The human colonization of eastern Africa's near- and offshore islands was accompanied by the translocation of several domestic, wild and commensal fauna, many of which had long-term impacts on local environments. To better understand the timing and nature of the introduction of domesticated caprines (sheep and goat) to these islands, this study applied collagen peptide fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) to archaeological remains from eight Iron Age sites, dating between ca 300 and 1000 CE, in the Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros archipelagos. Where previous zooarchaeological analyses had identified caprine remains at four of these sites, this study identified goat at seven sites and sheep at three, demonstrating that caprines were more widespread than previously known. The ZooMS results support an introduction of goats to island eastern Africa from at least the seventh century CE, while sheep in our sample arrived one–two centuries later. Goats may have been preferred because, as browsers, they were better adapted to the islands' environments. The results allow for a more accurate understanding of early caprine husbandry in the study region and provide a critical archaeological baseline for examining the potential long-term impacts of translocated fauna on island ecologies.

Landscape, Ecology and Mentalités: a Long-term Perspective on Developments in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt Region

2002 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 257-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Roymans ◽  
Fokke Gerritsen
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Ecology ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Social ◽  
Demographic Fluctuations ◽  
Annales School ◽  
Radical Transformation

This study presents a survey of the long-term dynamics with regard to settlement and landscape in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region (south Netherlands/north Belgium), thereby using the results of several decades of intensive archaeological fieldwork. In a theoretical sense, this study is inspired by the work of historians from the French Annales school. We use a model of long-term agricultural cycles, set against demographic fluctuations, in an attempt to understand developments within the study region. At the same time, however, we aim to incorporate the social and ideational dimensions of these changes, which are linked to a specific ordering and arrangement of the landscape. Our particular focus is the radical transformation that occurred around the Middle and Late Iron Age, as this had a major impact on the ordering and arrangement of the landscape in later periods.

Specific features of long-term domestication of australian crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus in conditions of the western part of Russian Federation

2018 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 188-192
Author(s):  
D. I. Shokasheva
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Cherax Quadricarinatus ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Adaptive Ability

Natural populations of crayfish are in depression in Russia and local species are not cultivated. In this situation, experimental cultivation of allochtonous australian crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus is conducted. This species is distinguished by high reproductive abilities and good consumer properties. It has domesticated in Russia spontaneously and produced 9–10 generations in Astrakhan Region. Certain natural selection in the process of domestication provides adaptive ability of this species to local environments and its capabil­ity to reproduce a viable progeny, so there is no doubts in good prospects of its cultivation in industrial conditions.

The History of the Judahite Bench Tomb

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Iron Age Ii ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Insight Into

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.

scholarly journals THE BEGINNING OF THE IRON AGE AT ARSLANTEPE: A 14C PERSPECTIVE

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Federico Manuelli ◽  
Cristiano Vignola ◽  
Fabio Marzaioli ◽  
Isabella Passariello ◽  
Filippo Terrasi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Archaeological Data

ABSTRACT The Iron Age chronology at Arslantepe is the result of the interpretation of Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions and archaeological data coming from the site and its surrounding region. A new round of investigations of the Iron Age levels has been conducted at the site over the last 10 years. Preliminary results allowed the combination of the archaeological sequence with the historical events that extended from the collapse of the Late Bronze Age empires to the formation and development of the new Iron Age kingdoms. The integration into this picture of a new set of radiocarbon (14C) dates is aimed at establishing a more solid local chronology. High precision 14C dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and its correlation with archaeobotanical analysis and stratigraphic data are presented here with the purpose of improving our knowledge of the site’s history and to build a reliable absolute chronology of the Iron Age. The results show that the earliest level of the sequence dates to ca. the mid-13th century BC, implying that the site started developing a new set of relationships with the Levant already before the breakdown of the Hittite empire, entailing important historical implications for the Syro-Anatolian region at the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

European Mail Armour

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn A. Wijnhoven
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Military Technology ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
First Time

Mail armour (commonly mislabelled 'chainmail') was used for more than two millennia on the battlefield. After its invention in the Iron Age, mail rapidly spread all over Europe and beyond. The Roman army, keen on new military technology, soon adopted mail armour and used it successfully for centuries. Its history did not stop there and mail played a vital role in warfare during the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Period. Given its long history, one would think mail is a well-documented material, but that is not the case. For the first time, this books lays a solid foundation for the understanding of mail armour and its context through time. It applies a long-term multi-dimensional approach to extract a wealth of as yet untapped information from archaeological, iconographic and written sources. This is complemented with technical insights on the mail maker’s chaîne opératoire.

The northern Black Sea and North Caucasus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valenina Mordvinceva ◽  
Sabine Reinhold
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The North ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Northern Shore ◽  
Greek Colonization

This chapter surveys the Iron Age in the region extending from the western Black Sea to the North Caucasus. As in many parts of Europe, this was the first period in which written sources named peoples, places, and historical events. The Black Sea saw Greek colonization from the seventh century BC and its northern shore later became the homeland of the important Bosporan kingdom. For a long time, researchers sought to identify tribes named by authors such as Herodotus by archaeological means, but this ethno-deterministic perspective has come under critique. Publication of important new data from across the region now permits us to draw a more coherent picture of successive cultures and of interactions between different parts of this vast area, shedding new light both on local histories and on the role ‘The East’ played in the history of Iron Age Europe.

Prehistoric Sites on the North Cornish Coast between Newquay and Perranporth

1950 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 156-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan R. Harding
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Shallow Shell ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
The North ◽  
Kitchen Midden ◽  
Surface Occurrence

The following paper is to record certain prehistoric remains in an area already famous for the seventh-century oratory of St. Pieran. Several years ago I commenced a rough survey of the whole district and discovered (within an approximately twelve-mile radius) occupation sites yielding relics of Mesolithic facies and Iron Age and Medieval antiquities. Most of the remains are associated with the extensive tracts of blown sands that lie behind and on either side of the bays of Holywell and Perran. It was the widespread surface occurrence of potsherds and kitchen-midden material within the area that pointed to the possible existence of the habitational sites lying beneath them. Accordingly I dug trial trenches at several widely separated positions, and nearly all these exposed remains of shallow shell-middens.

scholarly journals Lithium administered to pregnant, lactating and neonatal rats: entry into developing brain

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shene Yi-Shiuan Chiou ◽  
Kai Kysenius ◽  
Yifan Huang ◽  
Mark David Habgood ◽  
Liam M. Koehn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽  
Lithium Treatment ◽  
Developing Brain ◽  
Atpase Inhibitor ◽  
Inductively Coupled ◽  
Long Term Treatment ◽  
Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract Background Little is known about the extent of drug entry into developing brain, when administered to pregnant and lactating women. Lithium is commonly prescribed for bipolar disorder. Here we studied transfer of lithium given to dams, into blood, brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in embryonic and postnatal animals as well as adults. Methods Lithium chloride in a clinically relevant dose (3.2 mg/kg body weight) was injected intraperitoneally into pregnant (E15–18) and lactating dams (birth-P16/17) or directly into postnatal pups (P0–P16/17). Acute treatment involved a single injection; long-term treatment involved twice daily injections for the duration of the experiment. Following terminal anaesthesia blood plasma, CSF and brains were collected. Lithium levels and brain distribution were measured using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry and total lithium levels were confirmed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. Results Lithium was detected in blood, CSF and brain of all fetal and postnatal pups following lithium treatment of dams. Its concentration in pups’ blood was consistently below that in maternal blood (30–35%) indicating significant protection by the placenta and breast tissue. However, much of the lithium that reached the fetus entered its brain. Levels of lithium in plasma fluctuated in different treatment groups but its concentration in CSF was stable at all ages, in agreement with known stable levels of endogenous ions in CSF. There was no significant increase of lithium transfer into CSF following application of Na+/K+ ATPase inhibitor (digoxin) in vivo, indicating that lithium transfer across choroid plexus epithelium is not likely to be via the Na+/K+ ATPase mechanism, at least early in development. Comparison with passive permeability markers suggested that in acute experiments lithium permeability was less than expected for diffusion but similar in long-term experiments at P2. Conclusions Information obtained on the distribution of lithium in developing brain provides a basis for studying possible deleterious effects on brain development and behaviour in offspring of mothers undergoing lithium therapy.

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