The Middle Holocene ‘funerary avenues’ of north-west Arabia

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110604
Author(s):  
Matthew Dalton ◽  
Jane McMahon ◽  
Melissa A Kennedy ◽  
Rebecca Repper ◽  
Saifi Eisa Al Shilali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Radiometric Dating ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
North West ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Third Millennium Bce ◽  
New Evidence

The desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula and Levant are criss-crossed by innumerable pathways. Across large areas of north-west Arabia, many of these pathways are flanked by stone monuments, the vast majority of which are ancient tombs. Recent radiometric dating indicates that the most abundant of these monuments, elaborate and morphologically diverse ‘pendant’ structures, were constructed during the mid-to-late third millennium BCE. Thousands of kilometres of these composite path and monument features, ‘funerary avenues’, can be traced across the landscape, especially around and between major perennial water sources. By evidencing routes of human movement during this period, these features provide an emerging source for reconstructing important aspects of ancient mobility and social and economic connectivity. They also provide significant new evidence for human/environment interactions and subsistence strategies during the later Middle Holocene of north-west Arabia, and suggest the parallel existence of mobile pastoralist lifeways and more permanent, oasis-centred settlement. This paper draws upon the results of recent excavations and intensive remote sensing, aerial and ground surveys in Saudi Arabia to present the first detailed examination of these features and the vast cultural landscape that they constitute.

scholarly journals Middle-Holocene environmental change and archaeology in coastal wetlands: Further implications for our understanding of the history of Taxus woodland

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-314
Author(s):  
Christopher Robert Batchelor ◽  
Nicholas P Branch ◽  
Timothy Carew ◽  
Scott E Elias ◽  
Rowena Gale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Coastal Wetlands ◽  
Coastal Wetland ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
North West ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
History Of ◽  
Response To Environmental Change ◽  
The Bronze Age

A radiocarbon-dated multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental record from Beckton in the Lower Thames Valley, Southern England, has permitted a detailed reconstruction of human activities and environmental change during the middle-Holocene. Peat accumulation occurred over river terrace gravels from ca. 7200 to 6600 until at least 3450–3240 cal. BP, and in the later period a trackway and platform structure provide unequivocal evidence for human exploitation of the floodplain environment during the Bronze Age. The site is unique in offering the first certain evidence of the utilisation of Taxus in the construction of a wooden prehistoric platform. Across north-west Europe during the middle-Holocene, the colonisation of Taxus on peat is well documented; at Beckton, it occurred between ca. 5220–4940 and 4410–4220 cal. BP. This research provides important insights into the former distribution of Taxus, and reasons for its expansion and decline during the Holocene, which has relevance to present-day concerns over the conservation and management of Taxus woodland. Abandonment of the site occurred in response to environmental change to wetter conditions. The study employed multi-proxy analyses, including pollen, plant and wood macrofossils, and uniquely Coleoptera; Coleopteran analysis has significant potential to enhance understandings of environmental change and human–environment interactions in coastal wetland research.

The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Colin Haselgrove ◽  
Marc Vander Linden ◽  
Leo Webley
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
North West ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Late Mesolithic

The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe provides a unique, up-to-date, and easily accessible synthesis of the later prehistoric archaeology of north-west Europe, transcending political and language barriers that can hinder understanding. By surveying changes in social forms, landscape organization, monument types, and ritual practices over six millennia, the volume reassesses the prehistory of north-west Europe from the late Mesolithic to the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. It explores how far common patterns of social development are apparent across north-west Europe, and whether there were periods when local differences were emphasized instead. In relation to this, it also examines changes through time in the main axes of contact between the various regions of continental Europe, Britain, and Ireland. Key to the volume's broad scope is its focus on the vast mass of new evidence provided by recent development-led excavations. The authors collate data that has been gathered on thousands of sites across Britain, Ireland, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, and Denmark, using sources including unpublished 'grey literature' reports. The results challenge many aspects of previous narratives of later prehistory, allowing the volume to present a distinctively fresh perspective.

scholarly journals New evidence of dhole Cuon alpinus populations in north-west China

Oryx ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Riordan ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Kun Shi ◽  
Hongyan Fu ◽  
Zhu Dabuxilike ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West China ◽  
North West ◽  
Cuon Alpinus ◽  
New Evidence

scholarly journals Young Pioneers, Vitality, and Commercial Gentrification in Mudan Street, Changchun, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Zuopeng Ma ◽  
Dawei Li ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Yao Tong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Governance Strategies ◽  
Culture Production ◽  
New Evidence

The pioneers who started the gentrification process have contributed significantly to the activation of gentrified neighborhoods, but are often overlooked in top-down urban governance strategies. We studied the core participants, who were avant-garde café owners, in the initial stage of the commercial gentrification of Mudan Street in Changchun, China. By participatory observations and in-depth interviews, we closely investigated the statuses, behaviors, and preferences of the early gentrifiers, their contributions to block revivals, and the impacts of urban renewal policies on the gentrifiers themselves. Our conclusions are as follows. Most early gentrifiers were young and highly educated. They started the process of gentrification by youth culture production, which exhibited idealistic operating behaviors, such as the decoration of shops, creation of cultural atmospheres, and organization of cultural activities. They were the pioneers who drove bottom-up block renewal, reshaped traditional blocks into youth cultural consumption centers, and stimulated commercial vitality. However, commercialization was followed by soaring rents and increasing business competition that have forced many pioneers with low economic capital to leave. Furthermore, urban governance has had strong impacts on block renewal and gentrification. Inclusive management has promoted bottom-up neighborhood renewal, whereas arbitrary management has quickly destroyed the cultural landscape and business atmosphere, thereby accelerating the displacement of the pioneers. This study provides new evidence for gentrification theories, and offers a practical reflection for urban governance by constructing the profiles of early gentrifiers and discussing the paradox of gentrification in the context of urban China.

Orientation within Early Medieval Cemeteries: Some Data from North-West Wales

2002 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Longley
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Close Correlation ◽  
Magnetic Compass ◽  
Solar Observation ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
North West ◽  
New Evidence

In volume 81 of the Antiquaries Journal, AH and Cunich presented new evidence in respect of the orientation of eleventh- and twelfth-century churches. The object of their research was to test whether the important churches of the early second millennium in England might have been aligned using a magnetic compass. Their data, meticulously collected, led them to conclude that only in a very small number of instances could the use of a magnetic compass have been possible and that solar observation was, in a significant number of instances, the determinant of orientation. More particularly, the rising of the sun above the horizon and possibly, though less frequently, the setting sun, provided the alignment. It was possible to show a close correlation with sunrise or sunset at patronal feast days, that is, the day on which the venerated saint was believed to have died, at Easter and on true east, determined by equinoctial sunrise.

scholarly journals FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES IN THE NORTH-WEST PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER OF ROSPOTREBNADZOR (ON THE 95-TH ANNIVERSARY OF INSTITUTION)

2019 ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
S.A. Gorbanev
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Occupational Diseases ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
History Of

We presented results in major scientific areas being developed in the North-West Public Health Research center throughout the 95-year history of its existence. Leningrad Institute for the Study of Occupational Diseases, which was established in 1924, have developed scientific bases for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of occupational diseases; created national school of industrial toxicology, developed procedure for hygienic regulation of harmful occupational and environmental factors in human environment. The stages of activity in the field of occupational pathology, occupational hygiene, industrial toxicology are reviewed. Currently, the research is underway to assess occupational and environmental risks to public health from exposure to harmful factors, and to improve measures to minimize them. Priorities for further development of scientific research are identified.

scholarly journals Principles of incorporating data about the environmental condition of natural-historical parks of metropolises in the atlas information system (on the example of the Moskvoretsky park)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-408
Author(s):  
Olga Markova
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
General Scheme ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Specially Protected Natural Areas ◽  
Protected Natural Areas

Within the framework of this research, the task of developing the principles of creating an atlas information system (AIS) for assessing the ecological state of specially protected natural areas of the Moscow metropolis was carried out. The research was carried out on the example of the Moskvoretsky park, the largest and most integrated natural-historical park in Moscow, located in the North-West and West administrative districts of the capital. Such parks have environmental, historical, cultural, educational and recreational significance as natural complexes and monuments of national history and culture that are especially valuable for the city. A general scheme for organizing data in the atlas information system about the protected areas of Moscow and specifically about the Moskvoretsky natural-historical park has been developed. All the various data are hierarchically linked. To obtain concentrated information, data from various sources were used and interconnected. The landscape and ecological structure of the Moskvoretsky park is considered. The historical and geographical processes that formed the appearance of the cultural landscapes of the natural-historical park—urbanization, hydrotechnical transformations, the construction of sports facilities, landscaping—are revealed. A map of the Moskvoretsky рark with all the protected areas that are part of its structure, other noteworthy objects, infrastructure, green areas was compiled. The role of this map is assumed as the basis for the further creation of an atlas information system and filling it with various data. A table for individual protected areas that are part of the structure of the Moskvoretsky рark, their types and main characteristics, features of natural and cultural heritage, cultural landscape, environmental problems, and conflicts of nature use are given has been compiled. The main environmental problem of the park is the expansion of urban construction, alienating the territory from the field of nature conservation. Prospects for the creation of AIS are associated with monitoring and solving environmental and cultural problems of a part of the metropolis that is part of the natural-historical park.

MAINLAND COSMOPOLITANISM AND THE RISE OF PERSONAL PRESTIGE: NEW EVIDENCE FROM THE COASTAL EARLY HELLADIC TOWN OF HELIKE, NORTH-WEST PELOPONNESE, GREECE

2017 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Dora Katsonopoulou ◽  
Stella Katsarou
Keyword(s):  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Gulf Of Corinth ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Architectural Transformation ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Material Evidence

Excavations carried out by The Helike Project in the Helike plain on the south-western coast of the Gulf of Corinth, north-west Peloponnese, since 2000, have brought to light the well-preserved remains of a coastal Early Helladic (EH) II–III settlement. The site developed as a densely organised settlement during the EH II period and underwent a major architectural transformation at the beginning of the following EH III. In addition to a reorganisation of the settlement on a rectangular town grid, the outstanding feature among the buildings discovered is that of a monumental Corridor House. The newly organised building plan of the settlement was most probably associated with the rise of a new socio-economic structure at the time, including advanced technological specialisation, and possibly the establishment of administrative control within the town supporting communal interests, together with a new emphasis on the status of the private individual.Considering EH Helike in its broader geographical context, the site's prosperity marks an exception to the widespread decline attested in the mainland settlements of the time, and links it rather with centres across the Aegean Sea and further east. In addition to similarities at the level of settlement organisation, such overseas links and contacts are conspicuously evidenced at Helike through the presence of an array of exotic, prestigious items and commodities including an outstanding depas cup of Trojan/Anatolian type, ornaments of precious metal from the east or the north and Melian obsidian tools, and by the adoption of ‘international’ fashions of life such as the ‘serve and drink’ culture and ‘potter's marks’. In this paper, we present the range of material evidence from the EH III town of Helike illustrating its various spheres of foreign contact, and discuss possible insights into the social and economic conditions that generated the town's floruit and cosmopolitanism in EH III.

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