Islamic Ceramics and Rural Economy in the Trapani Mountains during the 11th century

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-77
Author(s):  
Viva Sacco ◽  
Veronica Testolini ◽  
José Maria Martin Civantos ◽  
Peter M. Day

Located in the Trapani Mountains of North-West Sicily, the hilltop site of Pizzo Monaco hasformed the focus of systematic excavation and an innovative, integrated study of the totalceramic assemblage, as part of the MEMOLA FP7 project. The date, provenance and productiontechnology of the varied types of pottery are investigated by macroscopic, morphological anddecorative analysis, in combination with petrography and scanning electron microscopy in orderto assess social, technological and economic ties of this rural site and its environs with the earlyIslamic capital of Sicily at Palermo, the wider island and North Africa. Local production of cookingvessels is compared with glazed and plain storage pottery, serving and consumption vesselsfrom Palermo, in a region where the new relationship between coastal centre and nearby mountaineconomies was being forged. Correlation of the properties of the pottery assemblage withthe unusual architecture suggests the storage of a repeated ceramic set, perhaps on a householdbasis, in a site which may be a fortified storage facility, rather than sustaining more permanentoccupation. The typological study provides new information on the range of ceramics circulatingin Sicily during the mid-11th century CE, revealing the full spectrum of ceramics consumedat this time. This approach contrasts with work that privileges a view of simple transmissionof glazing technologies across the Islamic Mediterranean. Indeed a comparison of productionsequences in the crafting of similar glazed bowls at Palermo demonstrates the co-existence ofdifferent communities of practice and cautions against over-simplified reconstructions of thetransmission of glazing technologies in the early medieval Mediterranean. The range of potteryavailable from a variety of sources highlights the consumption choices made by these communitiesin the medieval period.

1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-267
Author(s):  
Mikhail Abramzon ◽  
Irina Tunkina

Abstract This article is the publication of the plates compiled by N.N. Murzakevich, secretary of the Odessa Society for History and Antiquities. It contains tracings of 241 Classical coins and lists of coin finds from the island of Fidonisi (known as Leuke in antiquity), which had been excavated in the 1840s and early 1850s. Recent data have led to a doubling of the list of Greek centres (up to 202) and the rulers of a number of states and peoples, whose coins made their way to the island. Details of these finds and the dates of the emissions illustrate clearly the development and chronological framework of the religious and economic ties between the northern coast of Pontus with the various regions of the Classical oikumene. The geographical range of the coin finds (from Magna Graecia, Sicily and the Levant to the Aegean, the Balkans, the Pontic region and Asia and as far away as Mesopotamia) demonstrates that the sanctuary of Achilles on the island of Leuke situated at a meeting point of Black Sea trade routes, enjoyed enormous popularity in the Classical world. The publication of these plates compiled by N.N. Murzakevich makes available new information on the maritime trade in the Pontus area between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harshita Pawar ◽  
Baerbel Sinha

<p>November onwards, the poor air quality over north-west India is blamed on the large-scale paddy residue burning in Punjab and Haryana. However, the emission strength of this source remains poorly constrained due to the lack of ground-based measurements within the rural source regions. In this study, we report the particulate matter (PM) levels at Nadampur, a rural site in the Sangrur district of Punjab that witnesses rampant paddy residue burning, using the Airveda low-cost PM sensors from October to December 2019. The raw PM measurements from the sensor were corrected using the Random Forest machine learning algorithm. The daily average PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> mass concentration at Nadampur correlated well  (r > 0.7) with the daily sum of VIIRS fire counts. Agricultural activities, including paddy residue burning and harvesting operations, contributed less than 40% to the overall PM loading, even in the peak burning period at Nadampur. We show that the increased residential heating emissions in the winter season have a profound and currently neglected impact on ambient air quality. A dip in the daily average temperature by 1 ºC increased the daily emission of PM<sub>10</sub> by 6.3 tonnes and that of PM<sub>2.5</sub> by 5.8 tonnes. Overall, paddy harvest, local and regional paddy residue burning, residential heating emissions, ventilation, and wet scavenging could explain 79% of the variations in PM<sub>10</sub> and 85% of the variations in PM<sub>2.5</sub>. Day to day variations in PM emissions from residential heating in response to the ambient temperature must be incorporated into emission inventories and models for accurate air quality forecasts.</p>


Author(s):  
William W. Agresti

Discovery informatics is an emerging methodology that brings together several threads of research and practice aimed at making sense out of massive data sources. It is defined as “the study and practice of employing the full spectrum of computing and analytical science and technology to the singular pursuit of discovering new information by identifying and validating patterns in data” (Agresti, 2003).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Wang ◽  
Steffen Dörner ◽  
Sebastian Donner ◽  
Sebastian Böhnke ◽  
Isabelle De Smedt ◽  
...  

Abstract. A Multi Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instrument was deployed in May and June 2016 at a monitoring station (37.18° N, 114.36° E) in the suburban area of Xingtai (one of the most polluted cities in China) during the Atmosphere-Aerosol-Boundary Layer-Cloud (A2BC) and Air chemistry Research In Asia (ARIAs) joint experiments to derive tropospheric vertical profiles of NO2, SO2, HONO, HCHO, CHOCHO and aerosols. Aerosol optical depths derived from MAX-DOAS were found to be consistent with collocated sun-photometer measurements. Also the derived near-surface aerosol extinction and HCHO mixing ratio agree well with coincident visibility meter and in situ HCHO measurements, with mean HCHO near-surface mixing ratios of ~ 3.5 ppb. Underestimates of MAX-DOAS results compared to in situ measurements of NO2 (~ 60 %), SO2 (~ 20 %) are found expectedly due to vertical and horizontal inhomogeneity of trace gases. Vertical profiles of aerosols and NO2, SO2 are reasonably consistent with those measured by a collocated Raman Lidar and aircraft spirals over the station. The deviations can be attributed to differences in sensitivity as a function of altitude and substantial horizontal gradients of pollutants. Aerosols, HCHO, and CHOCHO profiles typically extended to higher altitudes (with 75 % integrated column located below ~ 1.4 km) than did NO2, SO2, and HONO (with 75 % integrated column below ~ 0.5 km) under polluted condition. Lifted layers were systematically observed for all species, (except HONO), indicating accumulation, secondary formation, or long-range transport of the pollutants at higher altitudes. Maximum values routinely occurred in the morning for NO2, SO2, and HONO, but around noon for aerosols, HCHO, and CHOCHO, mainly dominated by photochemistry, characteristic upslope/downslope circulation and PBL dynamics. Significant day-to-day variations are found for all species due to the effect of regional transport and changes in synoptic pattern analysed with HYSPLIT trajectories. Low pollution was often observed for air masses from the north-west (behind cold fronts), and high pollution from the southern areas such as industrialized Wuan. The contribution of regional transport for the pollutants measured at the site during the observation period was estimated to be about 20 % to 30 % for trace gases, and about 50 % for aerosols. In addition, agricultural burning events impacted the day-to-day variations of HCHO, CHOCHO and aerosols.


1994 ◽  
Vol 353 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Sinclair ◽  
P.J. Agg

AbstractUK Nirex Ltd is planning the deep geological disposal of intermediate- and low-level radioactive wastes. A site close to Sellafield in Cumbria in the north-west of England has been selected for evaluation, and an extensive programme of site characterization is underway. In support of this programme of characterization, and in preparation for presentation of a post-closure radiological safety case, performance assessment using mathematical modelling has been carried out by the Disposal Safety Assessment Team at AEA Technology, on behalf of UK Nirex Ltd. This paper describes recent developments of the assessment models relating to the groundwater pathway for return of radionuclides to the environment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolando Soler-Bientz ◽  
Simon Watson ◽  
David Infield

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Adams-Thies

Previous researchers discussing cybersexuality have been fascinated with the body-less-ness of cybersex. They have focused on the textual productions and (re)formations of the self that are allowed in this space independent of the body. Thus, the cyber becomes the space of transformation and fluidity of the self while the ‘real’ becomes the site of the material, concrete and unchanging body. I posit that dichotomous thinking about the cyber and the real and the text and the body produces an errant concept of the body. Cybersex is rarely a disembodied experience. Text-making cannot create itself free from the constraints of linguistic communities of practice in the “real” world. I challenge the notion that cybersexuality is a sexuality without the body and that the body in the ‘real’ world is stable. I focus specifically on how gay men describe the experience of the anus and anal sex as a means to better understand how the body becomes a site for linguistic marking and reference.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex McConville ◽  
Tim McCreanor ◽  
Margaret Wetherell ◽  
Helen Moewaka Barnes

This article explores affect, discourse and emotion in national life. Drawing on recent thinking on discourse and affect, alongside previous work on nation and communities of practice, we focus on the print media’s use of Anzac Day in Aotearoa New Zealand, as a site through which settler identity and cultural hegemony are reproduced. One hegemonic interpretive repertoire is observed throughout, that Anzac Day is a sacred day of respectful remembrance. Within this frame, a series of associated affective-discursive positions are deployed covering issues that range from inclusion and exclusion, to conformity and dissent. We argue that this repertoire and its associated positions constitute citizens engaging with the day as a homogeneous group of national subjects, bound together as a particular kind of affected community. This imagined community and the affective practices attributed to it, however, largely ignore the bicultural makeup of Aotearoa New Zealand, narrowing down the diverse range of potential emotional positions to a just a few. Popular journalism fails readers and limits debate though its thin portrayals of community, legitimate affect and engaged citizenship. National life is impoverished when print media lack the cultural competence necessary to effectively engage in broader debates and political discourse.


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