Continuities in Architectural Traditions: The Subterráneos of Prehistoric and Modern Northern Mexico

The recent discovery of a pit house village, 40 km northwest of Monterrey, challenges the conventional view of inland northeastern Mexico as the domain of purely nomadic hunters and gatherers throughout prehistory. Las Casitas consists of fifty-three subterranean rooms and forty-eight smaller depressions aligned in three slightly arcuate tiers in a small valley adjacent to Boca de Potrerillos, an extremely large open campsite and petroglyph complex that is now an archeological park. Other features of the site are some 325 hearths that surround the depressions and a very limited artifact assemblage numbering only thirty-seven items. Two hearths produced radiocarbon samples that date site occupancy to approximately a.d. 1450, just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the New World. Las Casitas provides the first evidence of semi-sedentary, surplus producing populations in central northeastern Mexico.

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“El centauro Quirón” / "Chiron Centaur"

Revista Internacional de Tecnología, Ciencia y Sociedad ◽

10.37467/gka-revtechno.v2.1274 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

José Luis González Quirós

Keyword(s):

New World ◽

Conventional View ◽

The Creation

ABSTRACTAs so often happens with the philosophy of Ortega, a beautiful metaphor serves as a solution to reconcile two versions in tension within his thought. First, Ortega is loyal to an image os the techniques as a creature of desire and as a generator of problems, to a conventional view of the technique than the majority of his contemporaries, the technique as discovery of the possibility, as the creation of a new world that is possible because the reality is revealed in its requirements as something broader and more complex, more seductive. The technique can be like the centaur Chiron, who was the master of the Greeks, wich leads us to a more complex understanding of the reality, of our being in it, and as such, a new philosophical way to seize what things are and can be, the meaning of our life.RESUMENComo tantas veces sucede con la filosofía de Ortega, una hermosa metáfora le sirve de solución de compromiso para compatibilizar dos versiones en tensión en el seno de su pensamiento. Por una parte, Ortega es fiel a una imagen de la técnica como criatura del deseo y como generadora de problemas, a una visión convencional de la técnica, pero, por otra parte, Ortega ha sido capaz de ver en la técnica unas dimensiones más amplias e interesantes que la de la generalidad de sus contemporáneos.

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High-resolution structure determination by ALCHEMI

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100074707 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 178-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Peter G. Self ◽

Peter R. Buseck

Keyword(s):

Site Occupancy ◽

Real Space ◽

Unit Cell ◽

Bragg Angle ◽

Electron Current ◽

High Resolution Structure ◽

Beam Incident ◽

Crystallographic Planes ◽

Electron Beam Incident ◽

Resolution Structure

ALCHEMI (Atom Location by CHanneling Enhanced Microanalysis) enables the site occupancy of atoms in single crystals to be determined. In this article the fundamentals of the method for both EDS and EELS will be discussed. Unlike HRTEM, ALCHEMI does not place stringent resolution requirements on the microscope and, because EDS clearly distinguishes between elements of similar atomic number, it can offer some advantages over HRTEM. It does however, place certain constraints on the crystal. These constraints are: a) the sites of interest must lie on alternate crystallographic planes, b) the projected charge density on the alternate planes must be significantly different, and c) there must be at least one atomic species that lies solely on one of the planes.An electron beam incident on a crystal undergoes elastic scattering; in reciprocal space this is seen as a diffraction pattern and in real space this is a modulation of the electron current across the unit cell. When diffraction is strong (i.e., when the crystal is oriented near to the Bragg angle of a low-order reflection) the electron current at one point in the unit cell will differ significantly from that at another point.

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Zone-axis ALCHEMI for the rapid assessment of site occupancies in garnets

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100144905 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 706-707

Author(s):

M.T. Otten ◽

P.R. Buseck

Keyword(s):

Single Crystals ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Site Occupancy ◽

Zone Axis ◽

Synthetic Compounds ◽

X Ray ◽

Large Group ◽

Crystallographic Planes

ALCHEMI (Atom Location by CHannelling-Enhanced Microanalysis) is a TEM technique for determining site occupancies in single crystals. The method uses the channelling of incident electrons along specific crystallographic planes. This channelling results in enhanced x-ray emission from the atoms on those planes, thereby providing the required site-occupancy information. ALCHEMI has been applied with success to spinel, olivine and feldspar. For the garnets, which form a large group of important minerals and synthetic compounds, the channelling effect is weaker, and significant results are more difficult to obtain. It was found, however, that the channelling effect is pronounced for low-index zone-axis orientations, yielding a method for assessing site occupancies that is rapid and easy to perform.

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Site occupancy in gamma alumina

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100165732 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 654-655

Author(s):

C. A. Bateman ◽

A.Z. Ringwelski ◽

R.W. Broach

Keyword(s):

Spinel Structure ◽

Site Occupancy ◽

Unit Cell ◽

Neutron Diffraction Data ◽

Gamma Alumina ◽

Tetrahedral Sites ◽

Powder Neutron Diffraction ◽

Cation Sites ◽

Powder Neutron Diffraction Data ◽

Insufficient Number

Gamma (γ) alumina is referred to as a defect spinel because it has a tetragonally distorted spinel structure (AB2O4) and an insufficient number of cations to fill all cation sites. In the spinel structure, the oxygen lattice is cubic close packed with A- and B-site cations in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination, respectively. The 2l⅓ Al atoms per unit cell of γ alumina can distribute themselves across 16 octahedral and 8 tetrahedral sites.The literature differs on where the 2⅔ cation vacancies per unit cell are located. Wilson and McConnell proposed that the vacancies in γ alumina, as first formed by calcining boehmite, are predominantly on the tetrahedral lattice but, with further heat treatment, move to occupy random positions on both octahedral and tetrahedral lattices. One study using NMR showed that the vacancies lay exclusively on the tetrahedral lattice, independent of the calcination temperature. A more-recent study using Rietveld refinement of powder neutron diffraction data suggested that both octahedral and tetrahedral lattices were partially occupied.

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