scholarly journals Beccles Triple Post Alignment, Beccles Marshes, Suffolk: Excavation and Palaeoenvironmental Analyses of an Iron Age Wetland Site

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 231-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Gearey ◽  
Henry P. Chapman ◽  
Andrew J. Howard ◽  
Kristina Krawiec ◽  
Michael Bamforth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Single Phase ◽  
Lap Joints ◽  
Floodplain Vegetation ◽  
North West ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Wetland Site ◽  
Before And After ◽  
And Function ◽  
Floodplain Hydrology

This paper describes the results of two seasons of excavation and associated palaeoenvironmental analyses of a wetland site on Beccles Marshes, Beccles, Suffolk. The site has been identified as a triple post alignment of oak timbers (0.6–2.0 m long), over 100 m in length, and 3–4 m wide, running north-west to south-east towards the River Waveney. It was constructed in a single phase which has been dated dendrochronologically to 75 BC, although discrete brushwood features identified as possible short trackways have been dated by radiocarbon to both before and after the alignment was built. It is unclear if the posts ever supported a superstructure but notches (‘halving lap joints’) in some of the posts appear to have held timbers to support the posts and/or aid in their insertion. In addition, fragments of both Iron Age and Romano-British pottery were recovered. A substantial assemblage of worked wooden remains appears to reflect the construction of the post row itself and perhaps the on-site clearance of floodplain vegetation. This assemblage also contains waste material derived from the reduction splitting of timbers larger than the posts of the alignment, but which have not been recovered from the site. Environmental analyses indicate that the current landscape context of the site with respect to the River Waveney is probably similar to that which pertained in prehistory. The coleoptera (beetle) record illustrates a series of changes in the on-site vegetation in the period before, during and after the main phase of human activity which may be related to a range of factors including floodplain hydrology and anthropogenic utilisation of Beccles Marshes. The possible form and function of the site is discussed in relation to the later prehistoric period in Suffolk.

Conclusions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
And Function

This book began by stating that histories of religious architecture can be accounts of both buildings and people. This particular history, focused on the archaeological evidence for the development of cult buildings in early central Italy, has reconsidered traditional narratives about the form and function of Etrusco-Italic religious architecture and proposed an alternative reconstruction of how their architects and audiences may have interacted with one another in Rome, Latium, and Etruria between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. Comparison with the construction of monumental temples elsewhere also indicated that settlements including Rome, Satricum, Pyrgi, and Tarquinia can perhaps be considered part of a network of Archaic Mediterranean settlements with material, commercial, and religious connections, and that monumental architecture may have been a mechanism for successful social interaction. This study has therefore supported the suggestion that the physical and social fabric of ancient communities were closely linked, and that regional studies of Latium and Etruria may furthermore benefit from being set in Italic and Mediterranean contexts. This concluding chapter briefly recapitulates the arguments made in the main body of the book and the significance of each of those arguments for studies of ancient architecture and society. It also assesses how these findings relate to broader debates about Archaic Italy. Finally, it acknowledges the limitations of this analysis and highlights opportunities for future research. Part I of this book demonstrated that ancient religious architecture was a protean phenomenon. Three chapters analysed the ambiguous evidence for Iron Age sacred huts, the range of different buildings types associated with ritual activities in the seventh century BC, and the emergence of a separate architectural language for religious buildings during the Archaic period. Detailed analyses of foundations and roofs revealed that as changes in technology and society led to the widespread use of more permanent building materials, the physical fabric of central Italic settlements was also increasingly marked by the use of particular architectural forms and decorations to differentiate cult buildings from other structures, setting them apart in a form of architectural consecration.

Ritual activation: altars, cult statues, and temples

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
And Function

Religious buildings, altars, and cult statues are often conceived of as complementary, if not indivisible, elements of Roman republican and imperial cult sites. The design and function of religious architecture have been ascribed to their interaction, with the result that it is not uncommon for one to be used to explain the presence of the others: buildings were constructed to shelter cult statues, which were aligned with external altars to provide sightlines between the gods and their worshippers. Together the three components shaped ritual space and made communication with the divine intelligible and tangible. Yet these three elements were not inherent parts of all ancient religious rituals and venues. There is no evidence of dedicated religious buildings, altars, or cult statues at the water sources that received some of the earliest votive deposits in central Italy, such as the spring at Campoverde, and the arrangement of accumulated votive offerings and statuettes in caves such as the closed deposit of the Caverna della Stipe similarly suggests that no image was accorded particular prominence or accompanied by a permanent altar. Proposals that some Iron Age residences hosted ritual meals do not theorize the complementary presence of cult statues and open-air altars, nor do suggestions that Greco- Roman temples developed from aristocratic banqueting halls. If the resulting impression of an era without cult statues and prominent altars is correct, then histories of religious architecture should consider the evidence for the introduction of such features and their influence on the form and function of relevant cult buildings. This chapter will accordingly examine the archaeological evidence for pre-republican altars and cult statues in Latium and Etruria. It will explore the problematic identification of these religious accessories, and identify the quantity and nature of those that can be connected with cult buildings. The significance of altars and cult statues as religious markers, or potential means of distinguishing cult buildings from other structures, will also be considered. Finally, it will evaluate the theory that the introduction of altars and anthropomorphic cult statues stimulated the construction of monumental temples.

ԿՈՒՐԱՐԱՔՍՅԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԳԵՏՔԻ ԲՐՈՆԶ-ԵՐԿԱԹԵԴԱՐՅԱՆ ՈՒՍԱԳՈՏԻՆԵՐԸ

2021 ◽  
pp. 226-246
Author(s):  
Benik Vardanyan
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Uniform ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Armenian Highland ◽  
The Military

An object type characterized as a shoulder strap was found in archaeological sites of the Armenian Highland and the South Caucasus. They served as a strap from which weapons (blade or sword) were mounted. Their purpose was to ensure quick accessibility to the weapon during combats. In ancient societies, shoulder straps symbolized the privileged status of the military aristocracy. The emergence and depiction of the straps on the inventory coincide with a transformation in the social landscape on the one hand and with the early state formation processes on the other hand. Social changes led to the formation of a militarized class of the privileged who, as part of their military uniform, possessed also the shoulder strap. This is evidenced by the multiple images of warrior-predecessors in the form of statuettes-standards and sculptures of the Bronze and Iron Age, as well as on bronze and clay vessels, which show the development of the form and function of the lash.

Fortifications and Economy in Prehistoric New Zealand

1971 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bellwood
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
White Potato ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
European Contact ◽  
The North ◽  
New Information ◽  
And Function

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the prehistoric fortifications (pa) of New Zealand, firstly by describing the cultural background as it is reconstructed by ethnographers for the period immediately preceding European contact, and then by presenting new information from two excavations which have yielded valuable results on the form and function of these sites.The New Zealand fortifications, which are mainly of the earthwork type with timber superstructures, have long been on record, and were first described by James Cook for the year 1769 (the initial discovery of New Zealand, by Tasman in 1642, was not accompanied by a landing). Recent surveys indicate that there are about 4,000 pa in New Zealand, most distributed in coastal situations in the North Island and northern South Island, and this distribution correlates with that of prehistoric populations living by simple horticulture and the exploitation of marine and forest resources. In the southerly parts of the South Island, where climate was not favourable for horticulture and where population density was slight, there appear to be no fully prehistoric fortifications. From 1769 onwards increasing European contact introduced pigs, the white potato, muskets, metals and other items which, in combination, gave rise to radically different technological and economic patterns. This paper is concerned solely with prehistoric Maori culture.Morphologically, New Zealand pa resemble the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age earthwork hillforts of north-western Europe, and many, by their size and strength, show clear evidence of engineering skill and the ability to organize large labour forces.

scholarly journals Scaling of form and function in the xenarthran femur: a 100-fold increase in body mass is mitigated by repositioning of the third trochanter

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1742) ◽  
pp. 3449-3456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Milne ◽  
Paul O'Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Coronal Plane ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Geometric Morphometric ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Third ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Muscle Loading ◽  
And Function

How animals cope with increases in body size is a key issue in biology. Here, we consider scaling of xenarthrans, particularly how femoral form and function varies to accommodate the size range between the 3 kg armadillo and its giant relative the 300 kg glyptodont. It has already been noted that femoral morphology differs between these animals and suggested that this reflects a novel adaptation to size increase in glyptodont. We test this idea by applying a finite element analysis of coronal plane forces to femoral models of these animals, simulating the stance phase in the hind limb; where the femur is subject to bending owing to longitudinal compressive as well as abduction loads on the greater trochanter. We use these models to examine the hypothesis that muscles attaching on the third trochanter (T3) can reduce this bending in the loaded femur and that the T3 forces are more effective at reducing bending in glyptodont where the T3 is situated at the level of the knee. The analysis uses traditional finite element methods to produce strain maps and examine strains at 200 points on the femur. The coordinates of these points before and after loading are also used to carry out geometric morphometric (GM) analyses of the gross deformation of the model in different loading scenarios. The results show that longitudinal compressive and abductor muscle loading increases bending in the coronal plane, and that loads applied to the T3 reduce that bending. In the glyptodont model, the T3 loads are more effective and can more readily compensate for the bending owing to longitudinal and abductor loads. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of GM methods in interpreting the results of finite element analyses.

Towards a reappraisal of henge monuments: origins, evolution and hierarchies

1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 457-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Clare
Keyword(s):  
Simple Derivation ◽  
North West ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
And Function ◽  
Regional Types ◽  
West European

A simple derivation of henges from causewayed camps is rejected. Attention is also drawn to a range of neolithic structures, some covered by a mound, some not. Though interpreted as mortuary structures, they have affinities to henges. Henges may thus best be derived from a broad tradition of neolithic structures; this may in turn have been part of a more widely distributed north-west European tradition of both ritual and domestic structures. Within Britain, similarities of form and function suggest that henges should be seen as a parallel development to ring banks, ring ditches and stone circles. Regional preferences rather than distinct regional types of monuments emerged. Later survival of henge traditions into the first millennium is also discussed.

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of DNA and RNA

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 34-35
Author(s):  
Patricia G. Arscott ◽  
Gil Lee ◽  
Victor A. Bloomfield ◽  
D. Fennell Evans
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Inorganic Materials ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Scanning Tunneling ◽  
Tunneling Microscopy ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Calf Thymus ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

STM is one of the most promising techniques available for visualizing the fine details of biomolecular structure. It has been used to map the surface topography of inorganic materials in atomic dimensions, and thus has the resolving power not only to determine the conformation of small molecules but to distinguish site-specific features within a molecule. That level of detail is of critical importance in understanding the relationship between form and function in biological systems. The size, shape, and accessibility of molecular structures can be determined much more accurately by STM than by electron microscopy since no staining, shadowing or labeling with heavy metals is required, and there is no exposure to damaging radiation by electrons. Crystallography and most other physical techniques do not give information about individual molecules.We have obtained striking images of DNA and RNA, using calf thymus DNA and two synthetic polynucleotides, poly(dG-me5dC)·poly(dG-me5dC) and poly(rA)·poly(rU).

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