scholarly journals An Exploratory Spatial Analysis of the Churches in the Southern Mani Peninsula, Greece

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 519-539
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Seifried ◽  
Tuna Kalaycı
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
Topological Relationship ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Byzantine Period

AbstractThe Mani Peninsula is home to hundreds of Orthodox Christian churches that were built within the last millennium. As in other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean countryside, the topological relationship between churches and settlements is a critical factor in understanding the significance of the sacred landscape. Many churches are situated in the central part of a village or on its very edge, but others – what are referred to as “outlying churches” or exokklisia – are built at great distances away. In this paper, we make the first attempt to assess the spatial relationship between the spaces where people worshipped (the churches) and the spaces where they lived (the settlements) at a regional scale, focused specifically on the Middle Byzantine period and later (mid-9th century CE to the present day). Comparing these patterns across the Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern periods allows us to frame Mani’s sacred infrastructure within a changing, diachronic perspective. The results point to a change in the topological relationship between church and settlement that is best described as the “nucleation of the sacred landscape.”

Modeling drift-induced maritime connectivity between Cyprus and its surrounding coastal areas during early Holocene

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Nikolaidis ◽  
Evangelos Akylas ◽  
Constantine Michailides ◽  
Theodora Moutsiou ◽  
Georgios Leventis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Particle Tracking ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Ocean Modeling ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Regional Ocean Modeling System ◽  
Coastal Regions

<p>Maritime connectivity between Cyprus and other Eastern Mediterranean coastal regions on the mainland constitutes a critical factor towards understanding the origins of the early visitors to Cyprus during the onset of the Holocene (circa 12,000 years before present) in connection with the spread of the Neolithic in the region (Dawson, 2014). <br>In this work, ocean circulation modeling and particle tracking are employed for characterizing drift-induced sea-borne connectivity for that period, using data and assumptions to approximate prevailing paleo-geographical conditions (re-constructed coastline from global sea level curves), and rudimentary vessel (rafts, dugouts) characteristics, as well as present-day weather conditions. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS, Shchepetkin and mcWilliams, 2005), forced by Copernicus Marine portal hydrological data, with wave and wind forcing derived from a combination of global reanalysis data and regional-scale numerical weather predictions (ERA5 and E-WAVE project products), are employed to provide the physical domain and atmospheric conditions. Particle-tracking is carried out using the OpenDrift model (Dagestad et al., 2018) to simulate drift-induced (involuntary) sea-borne movement. The sensitivity of the results on the hydrodynamic response (e.g. drag) of rudimentary vessels, such as rafts of postulated shape, size, and weight, that are believed to have been used for maritime travel during the period of interest, is also investigated. The simulation results are used to estimate the degree of maritime connectivity, due to drift-induced sea-borne movement, between segments of Cyprus coastline as well as its neighboring mainlands, and identify areas of both coastlines where landing/departure might be most favorable.<br>This work aims to provide novel insights into the possible prehistoric maritime pathways between Cyprus and other Eastern Mediterranean coastal regions, and is carried out within the context of project SaRoCy (https://sarocy.cut.ac.cy), a two-year research project implemented under the “Excellence Hubs” Programme (contract number EXCELLENCE/0198/0143) of the RESTART 2016-2020 Programmes for Research, Technological Development and Innovation administered by the Research and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus.</p><p>References</p><p>Dagestad K.-F., Röhrs J., Breivik Ø., Aadlandsvik B. 2018. “OpenDrift: A generic framework for trajectory modeling'', Geoscientific Model Development 11, 1405-1420. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1405-2018.</p><p>Dawson, H. 2014. Mediterranean Voyages: The Archaeology of Island Colonisation and Abandonment. Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press Inc.</p><p>Shchepetkin, A. F., & McWilliams, J. C. 2005. “The regional oceanic modeling system (ROMS): A split-explicit, free-surface, topography-following-coordinate oceanic model”. Ocean Modelling 9, no. 4, 347-404. https://doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2004.08.002.</p>

Vegetation dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean region during the Holocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esmeralda Cruz-Silva ◽  
Sandy P. Harrison ◽  
Elena Marinova ◽  
I. Colin Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Likelihood Function ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Similarity Index ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation Patterns

<p>The circum-Mediterranean region is characterized by high climatic diversity derived from its orographic heterogeneity and the influence of global marine and atmospheric circulation patterns. The region also has a long and dynamic history of human occupation dating back to ~ 8000 years BP.  The complexity of this area is a challenge for reconstructing the dynamics of the vegetation through the Holocene. Rule-based approaches to reconstructing changing vegetation patterns through time are insufficient as they require the imposition of subjective boundaries between biomes and can be affected by known biases in pollen representation.  We have developed and tested a new method that characterises biomes as a function of observed pollen assemblages based on a similarity index, conceptually related to the likelihood function, which takes account of within-biome variability in taxon abundances. We use 1181 modern pollen samples from the EMBSeCBIO database and assign these samples to biomes as represented in a map of potential natural vegetation that was developed using machine learning. The method was applied down-core to reconstruct past vegetation changes. Preliminary results show that this new methodology produces more accurate biome assignments under modern conditions (<80% accuracy) and more stable down-core reconstructions, apparently reducing the "flickering switch" problem found when using the traditional biomisation method for this purpose. Climate-induced vegetation changes are observable on a sub-regional scale in the Eastern Mediterranean through the Holocene. Most of the records show a change from humid to more arid biomes between 4000 and 3000 years BP. However, they are distinct subregional patterns in the expression and timing of wetter conditions during the Holocene. Mountain regions appear to show more muted changes during the Holocene, although there are biome shifts everywhere across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.</p>

scholarly journals Abundance and Sources of Atmospheric Halocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Schoenenberger ◽  
Stephan Henne ◽  
Matthias Hill ◽  
Martin K. Vollmer ◽  
Giorgos Kouvarakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Inversion Domain ◽  
Hfc 134A ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hfc 152A

Abstract. A wide range of anthropogenic halocarbons is released to the atmosphere, contributing to stratospheric ozone depletion and global warming. Using measurements of atmospheric abundances for the estimation of halocarbon emissions on the global and regional scale has become an important top-down tool for emission validation in the recent past, but many populated and developing areas of the world are only poorly covered by the existing atmospheric halocarbon measurement network. Here we present six months of continuous halocarbon observations from Finokalia on the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean. The gases measured are the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), HFC-134a (CH2FCF3), HFC-125 (CHF2CF3), HFC-152a (CH3CHF2) and HFC-143a (CH3CF3), and the hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), HCFC-22 (CHClF2) and HCFC-142b (CH3CClF2). The Eastern Mediterranean is home to 250 million inhabitants, consisting of a number of developed and developing countries, for which different emission regulations exist under the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols. Regional emissions of halocarbons were estimated with Lagrangian atmospheric transport simulations and a Bayesian inverse modelling system, using measurements at Finokalia in conjunction with those from Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) sites at Mace Head (Ireland), Jungfraujoch (Switzerland) and Monte Cimone (Italy). Measured peak mole fractions at Finokalia showed generally smaller amplitudes for HFCs than at the European AGAGE sites, except periodic peaks of HFC-152a, indicating strong upwind sources. Higher peak mole fractions were observed for HCFCs, suggesting continued emissions from nearby developing regions such as Egypt and the Middle East. For 2013, the Eastern Mediterranean inverse emission estimates for the four analysed HFCs and the two HCFCs were 14.7 (6.7–23.3) Tg CO2eq yr-1 and 9.7 (4.3–15.7) Tg CO2eq yr-1, respectively. These emissions contributed 17.3 % (7.9–27.4 %) and 53 % (23.5–86%) to the total inversion domain, which covers the Eastern Mediterranean as well as Central and Western Europe. Greek bottom-up HFC emissions reported to the UNFCCC were much smaller than our top-down estimates, whereas for Turkey our estimates agreed with UNFCCC-reported values for HFC-125 and HFC-143a, but were much and slightly smaller for HFC-134a and HFC-152a, respectively. Sensitivity estimates suggest an improvement of the a posteriori emission estimates, i.e. a reduction of the uncertainties by 40–80 %, compared to an inversion using only the existing Central European AGAGE observations.

scholarly journals Marble vessels from Jiyeh (Porphyreon)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Gwiazda
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Geographical Factors ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
A Site ◽  
Early Byzantine

Imported marble vessels from Jiyeh (Porphyreon), a site on the Phoenician coast, could not be easily identified in terms of function and dating for lack of sound stratigraphic evidence. An examination of parallels from other sites in the Eastern Mediterranean was needed in order to determine the chronology and uses of these objects. Virtually all of the Jiyeh vessels were thus dated to the early Byzantine period. Forms included utilitarian mortars and plates, as well as tentative liturgical tabletops. The repertoire represents standard exports of vessels of these shapes to Syro-Palestine from Greece and Asia Minor. Their distribution in Syro-Palestine was conditioned by geographical factors, as well as the affluence of settlements that imported such objects.

scholarly journals Contemporary Serbian Orthodox church architecture: Architectural competitions since 1990

Spatium ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bozidar Manic ◽  
Dragana Vasiljevic-Tomic ◽  
Ana Nikovic
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Architectural Competitions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Temple

This paper focuses on the architectural competitions for Orthodox Christian churches in Serbia since 1990, both on the analysis of the designs submitted and the competition requirements. The first competition for an Orthodox church in Serbia after World War II was announced for Pristina in 1991. After that, competitions for the temple in Cukarica, Novi Beograd, Nis, Aleksinac and Krusevac were conducted. Thanks to the fact that architectural competitions allow a greater degree of creative freedom to the architects than regular practice, various solutions were offered, from replicas of models from architectural history and tradition to fully non-traditional proposals. Depending on the relationship to tradition, architectural design approaches can be classified into three main groups: radically modernizing, conservatively traditionalist, and compromising. Of the six competitions conducted, four churches were built, which are among the most architecturally successful newer churches in Serbia. This points to the importance of the implementation of the architectural competition in this field of architecture. The diversity of the award-winning projects shows that there is awareness of the possibility for the further development of church architecture, favouring a moderate approach.

scholarly journals Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium

Human Ecology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Xoplaki ◽  
Jürg Luterbacher ◽  
Sebastian Wagner ◽  
Eduardo Zorita ◽  
Dominik Fleitmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Societal Resilience

Predicted spatial distribution of major copper deposits types in southeastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Camenzuli ◽  
Hartwig E. Frimmel ◽  
Adam Wooldridge
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Porphyry Cu ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Vms Deposits ◽  
Mining History ◽  
The Right

<p>The future search for mineral deposits will focus more and more on discoveries under cover. Indirect methods, such as prospective mapping, help in the early stages of exploration programmes to delineate potential target areas and thus reduce costs. On the Balkan peninsula, copper and gold ores have been mined for thousands of years and it hosts Europe’s highest concentration of large porphyry Cu (-Au) deposits. Over the last decades, the region’s mining history was strongly influenced by state-controlled mining under the previous communist regimes and the sudden demise of this mining activity after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991. Following the shutdown of the mining industry and political, social and ethnic tensions in the years thereafter, the region remained comparatively poorly explored and thus holds a high potential for modern brown- and greenfield exploration. This is exemplified by several new discoveries of porphyry Cu (-Au) deposits, e.g. Kiseljak (Serbia) and Skourries (Greece).</p><p>Here we report on a regional-scale prospectivity mapping approach applied to the Balkan peninsula, covering Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece. The area of interest (AOI) has an acreage of >1 Mill. km<sup>2</sup>. We modelled the distribution of both porphyry and related epithermal Cu-Au deposits, ophiolite-hosted volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) and sediment-hosted stratiform Cu (SSC) deposits with the help of ESRI ArcGIS. The models used were knowledge-driven and mainly based on Fuzzy overlays using Gamma operator and µ-value of 0.975. Areas favourable for porphyry and epithermal Cu-Au deposits follow magmatic arcs that are of Cretaceous and Tertiary age. While the Cretaceous arc has long been known for its fertility, our results suggest that the Tertiary arc is at least as promising. The results were validated by both the magmatic arcs, recommended porphyry Cu tracts and known deposits or occurrences. Our areas of high probability explain 67 % of the 72 existing deposits/occurrences if the location of the latter is considered with a 5 km radius. As the examined VMS deposits are ophiolite-hosted, they are distributed along the ophiolite-bearing tectonic units. Prediction of so-far undefined ophiolites based on lithology lead to a better comparability of prospective areas for VMS deposits throughout the AOI. By validation with locations of existing mines within a radius of 2.5 km, 50% of 16 known deposits lie in areas with a probability of ≥0.5. So far no SSC deposits, which constitute the globally second most important source of Cu, have been discovered in the AOI. Our results suggest that areas favourable for SSC deposits might exist in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the critical geological prerequisites for SSC formation were found in close vicinity. Whether this close spatial relationship, some of which is most likely tectonic, was realized at the right times remains to be investigated.</p>

Mesoscale Activity in the Eastern Mediterranean: Blending Altimetry with in situ observations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Baaklini ◽  
Leila Issa ◽  
Julien Brajard ◽  
Milad Fakhri ◽  
Milena Menna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Surface Velocity ◽  
Surface Dynamics ◽  
Ocean Modelling ◽  
Lagrangian Drifters ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Surface Drifters ◽  
Lebanese Coast

<p>Mesoscale to sub-mesoscale surface dynamics in the ocean is a key parameter, driving, for instance, the dispersion of pollutants emanating from heavily populated coastal areas for example. Estimating the surface velocity can be challenging especially when data is sparse. In [1], the authors developed a near real-time 3D-Var assimilation algorithm that blends in-situ Lagrangian drifters’ positions with altimetry data to improve the estimation of the surface velocity in the Eastern Levantine Mediterranean. The algorithm was tested near the Lebanese coast and in the case of an eddy between Lebanon and Cyprus. The objective of this work is to further validate the algorithm.</p><p>First, a Comparison with Ocean color satellite images shows that eddies’ shapes and location are more consistent after the assimilation of drifter data.Independent in-situ current-meter data provided from the EGYPT campaign are also used to validate the results of the algorithm in terms of velocity intensity and direction. The comparison shows an improvement of the estimated velocity, particularly in terms of direction.</p><p>We also address the question of extending the algorithm to a larger regional scale in the Eastern Levantine Mediterranean, which is subject to a high mesoscale activity but which is less densely observed than the western part.</p><p> </p><p><span>[1] L. Issa, J. Brajard, M. Fakhri, D. Hayes, L. Mortier, P-M. Poulain. </span>Modelling Surface Currents in the Eastern Levantine Mediterranean Using Surface Drifters and Satellite Altimetry. Ocean Modelling, May 2016. Doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.05.006</p>

scholarly journals Tropospheric OH and Cl levels deduced from non-methane hydrocarbon measurements in a marine site

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (17) ◽  
pp. 4661-4673 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Arsene ◽  
A. Bougiatioti ◽  
M. Kanakidou ◽  
B. Bonsang ◽  
N. Mihalopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Oh Radicals ◽  
Atom Concentration ◽  
Diel Variations ◽  
Marine Site ◽  
Cl Atoms ◽  
Cl Atom ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. In situ continuous hourly measurements of C2–C8 non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCS) have been performed from March to October 2006 at two coastal locations (natural and rural) on the island of Crete, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Well defined diel variations were observed for several short lived NMHCS (including ethene, propene, n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, 2-methyl-pentane). The daytime concentration of hydroxyl (OH) radicals estimated from these experimental data varied from 1.3×106 to ~4.0×106 radical cm−3, in good agreement with box-model simulations. In addition the relative variability of various hydrocarbon pairs (at least 7) was used to derive the tropospheric levels of Cl atoms. The Cl atom concentration has been estimated to range between 0.6×104 and 4.7×104 atom cm−3, in good agreement with gaseous hydrochloric acid (HCl) observations in the area. Such levels of Cl atoms can be of considerable importance for the oxidation capacity of the troposphere on a regional scale.

scholarly journals Tropospheric OH and Cl levels deduced from non-methane hydrocarbon measurements in a marine site

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 6329-6356 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Arsene ◽  
A. Bougiatioti ◽  
M. Kanakidou ◽  
B. Bonsang ◽  
N. Mihalopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Diurnal Variations ◽  
Oh Radicals ◽  
Atom Concentration ◽  
Marine Site ◽  
Cl Atoms ◽  
Cl Atom ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. In situ continuous hourly measurements of C2-C8 non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCS) have been performed from March to October 2006 at two coastal locations on the island of Crete, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Well defined diurnal variations were observed for several short lived NMHCS (including ethene, propene, n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, 2-methyl-pentane). The daytime concentration of hydroxyl (OH) radicals estimated from these experimental data varied from 1.3×106 to ~4.0×106 radical cm−3, in good agreement with box-model simulations. In addition the relative variability of various hydrocarbon pairs (at least 7) was used to derive the tropospheric levels of Cl atoms. The Cl atom concentration has been estimated to range between 0.6×104 and 4.7×104 atom cm−3, in good agreement with gaseous hydrochloric acid (HCl) observations in the area. Such levels of Cl atoms can be of considerable importance for the oxidation capacity of the troposphere on a regional scale.

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