scholarly journals Polyhedron Seals of the Transcaucasian Origin Dated 2nd – 1st CC BC from the Burials of the Nomads of Asian Sarmatia of the 1st – First Half of the 2nd Century AD

Author(s):  
Mikhail Treister ◽  

The article features the gem of rather rare forms, namely so-called prisms, polyhedra, scaraboids and bifacial gems which were found in the burials of the Asian Sarmatia nomads. The author describes an attempt to attribute seals in the form of polyhedra from Sarmatian burials dated back to the 1st – first half of the 2nd century AD within the Lower and Upper Don and the Lower Volga regions. Polyhedra belong to the forms of gems, which became widespread in the Classical era, both among Greek and so-called Greek-Persian gems. In the 2nd – 1st centuries BC the seals in the form of polyhedra were widely distributed across the Caucasus and, especially, in Transcaucasia region. According to the finds, they are represented by numerous items made of carved stone, as well as of dark blue glass, milky white and greenish color. Moreover, there are also known rectangular forms of prints of such seals on the bulls, in particular which were excavated from the palace at Dedoplis Gora in Caucasian Iberia, dated to the 1st century BC – 1st century AD. The analysis of the shapes, materials and subjects of the images on the seals from the Sarmatian burials considered in the current article suggests that they were made in Transcaucasian workshops of the 2nd – 1st centuries BC. The probable Transcaucasian origin of the seals and their dating to the late Hellenistic period are an indirect confirmation of the hypothesis previously expressed by the author about the early cylindrical, conical seals and scaraboids of the mid-2nd – mid-1st millennium BC found in Sarmatian burials of the 1st century BC – 2nd century AD, originating from the sanctuaries of Transcaucasia.

1955 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 106-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Caputo ◽  
Richard Goodchild

Introduction.—The systematic exploration of Ptolemais (modern Tolmeita), in Cyrenaica, began in 1935 under the auspices of the Italian Government, and under the direction of the first-named writer. The general programme of excavation took into consideration not only the important Hellenistic period, which gave the city its name and saw its first development as an autonomous trading-centre, but also the late-Roman age when, upon Diocletian's reforms, Ptolemais became capital of the new province of Libya Pentapolis and a Metropolitan See, later occupied by Bishop Synesius.As one of several starting-points for the study of this later period, there was selected the area first noted by the Beecheys as containing ‘heaps of columns’, which later yielded the monumental inscriptions of Valentinian, Arcadius, and Honorius, published by Oliverio. Here excavation soon brought to light a decumanus, running from the major cardo on the west towards the great Byzantine fortress on the east. Architectural and other discoveries made in 1935–36 justified the provisional title ‘Monumental Street’ assigned to this ancient thoroughfare. In terms of the general town-plan, which is extremely regular, this street may be called ‘Decumanus II North’, since two rows of long rectangular insulae separate it from the Decumanus Maximus leading to the West Gate, still erect. The clearing of the Monumental Street and its frontages revealed the well-known Maenad reliefs, attributed to the sculptor Callimachus, a late-Roman triple Triumphal Arch, and fragments of monumental inscriptions similar in character to those previously published from the same area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monnica T. Williams

In a 2017 article in Perspectives on Psychological Science, Scott Lilienfeld critiqued the conceptual basis for microaggressions as well as the scientific rigor of scholarship on the topic. The current article provides a response that systematically analyzes the arguments and representations made in Lilienfeld’s critique with regard to the concept of microaggressions and the state of the related research. I show that, in contrast to the claim that the concept of microaggressions is vague and inconsistent, the term is well defined and can be decisively linked to individual prejudice in offenders and mental-health outcomes in targets. I explain how the concept of microaggressions is connected to pathological stereotypes, power structures, structural racism, and multiple forms of racial prejudice. Also described are recent research advances that address some of Lilienfeld’s original critiques. Further, this article highlights potentially problematic attitudes, assumptions, and approaches embedded in Lilienfeld’s analysis that are common to the field of psychology as a whole. It is important for all academics to acknowledge and question their own biases and perspectives when conducting scientific research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1307-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rom Y Schrift ◽  
Jeffrey R Parker ◽  
Gal Zauberman ◽  
Shalena Srna

Abstract With the ever-increasing number of options from which consumers can choose, many decisions are made in stages. Whether using decision tools to sort, screen, and eliminate options, or intuitively trying to reduce the complexity of a choice, consumers often reach a decision by making sequential, attribute-level choices. The current article explores how the order in which attribute-level choices are made in such multistage decisions affects how consumers mentally represent and categorize their chosen option. The authors find that attribute choices made in the initial stage play a dominant role in how the ultimately chosen option is mentally represented, while later attribute choices serve only to update and refine the representation of that option. Across 13 studies (six of which are reported in the supplemental online materials), the authors find that merely changing the order of attribute choices in multistage decision processes alters how consumers (1) describe the chosen option, (2) perceive its similarity to other available options, (3) categorize it, (4) intend to use it, and (5) replace it. Thus, while the extant decision-making literature has mainly explored how mental representations and categorization impact choice, the current article demonstrates the reverse: that the choice process itself can impact mental representations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 307-363
Author(s):  
Paul Christesen

This article makes use of recently published graves to offer the first synthetic analysis of the typology and topography of Spartan burials that is founded on archaeological evidence. Our knowledge of Spartan burial practices has long been based almost entirely on textual sources – excavations conducted in Sparta between 1906 and 1994 uncovered fewer than 20 pre-Roman graves. The absence of pre-Roman cemeteries led scholars to conclude that, as long as the Lycurgan customs were in effect, all burials in Sparta were intracommunal and that few tombs had been found because they had been destroyed by later building activity. Burial practices have, as a result, been seen as one of many ways in which Sparta was an outlier. The aforementioned recently published graves offer a different picture of Spartan burial practices. It is now clear that there was at least one extracommunal cemetery in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. What would normally be described as extramural burials did, therefore, take place, but intracommunal burials of adults continued to be made in Sparta throughout the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. Those burials were concentrated along important roads and on the slopes of hills. The emergent understanding of Spartan burial practices takes on added significance when placed in a wider context. Burial practices in Sparta align closely with those found in Argos and Corinth. Indeed, burial practices in Sparta, rather than being exceptional, are notably similar to those of its most important Peloponnesian neighbours; a key issue is that in all three poleis intracommunal burials continued to take place through the Hellenistic period. The finding that adults were buried both extracommunally and intracommunally in Sparta, Argos and Corinth after the Geometric period calls into question the standard narrative of the development of Greek burial practices in the post-Mycenaean period.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Slaten ◽  
Jonathan K. Ferguson ◽  
Kelly-Ann Allen ◽  
Dianne-Vella Brodrick ◽  
Lea Waters

School belonging, at both a school and university level, has been well documented as a predictor of academic and psychosocial success. The construct has been examined by scholars in a variety of different professional disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, sociology) and continues to be consistently researched. Although significant contributions have been made in the field, there are still additional areas of investigation needed, as well as interventions that need to be designed and explored. The current article was designed to review the theoretical foundations of belonging, conceptualise school belonging with respect to how it is presented in the literature, discuss the key variables related to school belonging, present a summary of the predictors of school belonging, discuss school belonging in a university setting, and posit future directions for research.


Electrum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 221-244
Author(s):  
Lara Fabian

The early relationships between the polities of Armenia and K‘art‘li in the South Caucasus and their neighbours in the North Caucasus is a central, but underappreciated, factor in the development of the South Caucasus’ social and political world in the Hellenistic period. Typically, only military aspects of these interactions are considered (e.g., Alan raids and control thereof). Hazy evidence of cross-Caucasus marriage alliances preserved in both the Armenian and Georgian historiographic traditions, however, hints at a far wider sphere of interaction, despite the inherent challenges in gleaning historical reality from these medieval accounts. This paper contextualizes two stories of cross-Caucasus marriage related to foundational dynastic figures in the Armenian and Georgian traditions, Artašēs and P‘arnavaz respectively, within a wider body of evidence for and thought about North-South Caucasus interaction. Taken as a whole, this consideration argues that North-South relationships should be seen as integral to the political development of the South Caucasus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Lihua Ni ◽  
Cheng Yuan ◽  
Xiaoyan Wu

Recent progress has been made in understanding the roles and mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the development and pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Hyperglycemia induces ER stress and apoptosis in renal cells. The induction of ER stress can be cytoprotective or cytotoxic. Experimental treatment of animals with ER stress inhibitors alleviated renal damage. Considering these findings, the normalization of ER stress by pharmacological agents is a promising approach to prevent or arrest DN progression. The current article reviews the mechanisms, roles, and therapeutic aspects of these findings.


1967 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Ashmole

For three hundred years and more the meaning of the figures on the Portland Vase has been a matter for speculation of the most strange and varied character.During the first half of this century there was something of a lull, but ten years ago Professor Erika Simon, after a wide-ranging and sensitive study of all the evidence, put forward a highly ingenious theory connecting the scenes with the ancestry of Augustus and, shortly after, Professor L. Polacco embroidered it further. In 1964 Mr Denys Haynes produced the excellent little book which is on sale at the British Museum: this was reviewed by Professor H. Möbius, who had his own theory, elaborated since in a longer article; and Professor H. Biesantz has exposed the weaknesses of all the solutions, without however propounding one of his own.The wide differences of opinion among these scholars have prompted me to place on record some observations I made twenty years ago, when we first acquired the vase at the British Museum; and I shall take Mr Haynes' book as a starting-point, because it is the latest comprehensive account, and, being persuasively argued, bids fair to hold the field.However, before we begin to examine the vase in detail, a few words must be said on its technique, its date, and the circumstances in which it was made (plates I–IV, VI–VII). The technique was to make a bubble of very dark blue glass, clear but so thick that it cannot be seen through, and over it a skin of white translucent glass reaching as far upwards as the base of the neck: then to join two deep-blue glass handles from the middle of the neck to the shoulder of the vase; and, finally, using the technique of the cameo-carver, to carve, and carve away, the white glass layer in order to produce figures and landscape. The blue glass becomes the background of the scene where the white has been completely removed: where the white has been thinned but not completely removed, the blue provides suggestions of shadow and distance.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaki Matsunaga

The current article provides a guideline for conducting factor analysis, a technique used to estimate the population-level factor structure underlying the given sample data. First, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) is briefly discussed; along with this discussion, the notion of principal component analysis and why it does not provide a valid substitute of factor analysis is noted. Second, a step-by-step walk-through of conducting factor analysis is illustrated; through these walk-through instructions, various decisions that need to be made in factor analysis are discussed and recommendations provided. Specifically, suggestions for how to carry out preliminary procedures, EFA, and CFA are provided with SPSS and LISREL syntax examples. Finally, some critical issues concerning the appropriate (and not-so-appropriate) use of factor analysis are discussed along with the discussion of recommended practices.


World Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (9(49)) ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
Safarova Yegana

Language is the major means of communication among people however it impacts the acquisition of the language. This current article making use of an authentic text sheds light upon the classification of set expressions and their property of enhancing unity and stability. The words and word combinations are the main source of enriching vocabulary of a language. Some of them refer to free word combinations while the others are called set expressions. There is a staple unity used for both of them which is called the term phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups which comprise proverbs, sayings, clichés, quotations as well as various kinds of allusions may be used for stylistic purpose. Being crystallized metaphors phraseological units enhance the exits expressiveness of which is often intensified by parallelism, antithesis, and alliteration. The basic characteristics of phraseological units are that they exist in the language as ready-made units. It should be noted that they cannot be made in the process of speech. The criterion that assists to distinguish set expressions from free phrases with variable context is the stability of such word-groups which is viewed in terms of statistical probability of co-occurrence for the member words. The whole meaning of a phraseological unit doesn’t depend on the meaning of its components which is explained by the feature of a phraseological unit having a fully and partial figurative meaning being a stable, cohesive and fixed combination of words. Phraseology is supposed to merge into an agreed set of terms and frameworks which has captured a considerable interest from a wide range of language related disciplines. Despite the fact that, a number of miscellaneous approaches have been put forward, and the boundaries of this set, its classification and the place of phraseology in the vocabulary still appears as one of the controversial issues of cutting-edge linguistics. The term set expression is on more definite and self-explanatory vice-versa since the first element points out the most significant characteristic of these units, more precisely, their stability, their fixed and ready-made nature. The word "expression" is relevant in this case, because it is deployed as a general term – the words, groups of words and sentences inclusive.


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