scholarly journals Mainland versus Island Adaptation: Paleobiogeography of Sunda Shelf Primates Revisited

Author(s):  
Halmi Insani ◽  
Masanaru Takai

Southeast Asian primates appear to be one of the most successful mammals in the dynamic paleoclimatic changes since at least 1 mya. Human and non-human primates reflect the complex history of a wide range of ecological and geographic variation, which presents to be the source of different systematics and biogeographic models. The past combinative effects of geographic factors (latitude, bathymetric barrier, and duration of island isolation), periodic sea level changes, and the contribution of human and/or non-human primate interaction are crucial subjects in studying the north-to-south, which is from continental to archipelago of Sunda Shelf, dispersal events and phylogeographic analysis of human and non-human primates. Cranial size and shape difference between Homo erectus in mainland and island displays peculiarity on the effect of insularity. Data analyses on cranial landmarks of three non-human primate genera provide more clear resolution to reconstruct the complete scenario, whereby insular primates are dispersed and adapted to their present biogeographical distribution.

Kavkazologiya ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
A.G. KAZHAROV ◽  
◽  
M.S. TAMAZOV ◽  

The published documents were found in the archives of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. These are the materials of the meetings of the Soviet and party authorities of the Mountain Republic, which were devoted to the discussion of the problem of Kabarda's secession from the polyethnic mountain autonomy. The Kabardian problem was discussed several times by the leadership of the Mountain Republic in June 1921 before and after the congress of the peoples of Kabarda that took place this month. The minutes of the meetings have not yet been published in the published thematic collections of documents dedicated to the history of the nation-building of the peoples of the North Caucasus. The documents contribute to the understanding of the position of the statesmen of the Mountain Republic on the formation of new autonomous units and the identification of the concrete historical content of these processes. The protocols make it possible to reconstruct the process of not only the disintegration of the collective mountain statehood, but also make it possible to clarify important points in the history of its creation. Party and Soviet leaders often returned to the problems of the initial stage of the formation of the Mountain Republic. Further study of the problems of the formation of a system of national autonomies in the North Caucasus in recent times will largely depend, including on the introduction of new documents into scientific circulation and their interpretation by a wide range of researchers. In this regard, the published documents and materials are of great scientific interest.


Iraq ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter V. Bartl

The orthostats from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) at Nimrud are among the most outstanding works of art from the Ancient Near East. Today they are to be found in museums all over the world and are looked at every day by thousands of visitors. Numerous books and articles have been written about their style, their meaning and their reconstruction. Thus one would think that nothing could have escaped the eye of observers. Nevertheless, some details have been largely overlooked by researchers. Among these is the incised decoration on the edges of the garments of some of the figures depicted, showing a wide range of simple geometric and floral designs as well as complex mythical and narrative scenes. It thus forms a valuable part of the repertoire of Neo-Assyrian artistic motifs and can help us understand the essence and meaning of Neo-Assyrian political art. The evidence of these incised decorations is not only of importance for the history of art but is also fundamental to the understanding of the significance of the clothes and of the figures wearing them, forming an integral and essential part of the mythical symbolic character of the figures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6/2) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Sergey V. YARTSEV ◽  
Viktor G. ZUBAREV ◽  
Sergey L. SMEKALOV

The object of the research is the peculiarities of the historical process on the Kerch Peninsula in the context of the local history of one of its regions. The authors conduct a detailed study of the most inhabited region of the Crimean Azov region – the Adzhiel tract, located in the western part of the peninsula to the territory adjacent to the Kazantip Bay. This gully, which goes in the north-western and south-eastern direction, fences off a significant part of the Kerch peninsula and represents one of the natural protective boundaries of the Eastern Crimea. The subject of research is to reconstruct the historical picture of the area, to define the main results and prospects for further research. Relying on a wide range of sources, primarily on the archaeological material of their own perennial excavations in the specified area, with the use of the source analysis method, the authors consider the known facts and events of the ancient history of the Kerch Peninsula in a new way. The methodological basis of the work is objectivity and historicism, which contributed to conducting of unbiased research. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time on a wide material, the stages of the historical development of one of the regions of the Kerch Peninsula were highlighted and the actual directions for further research in this area were identified. Due to the abundance of water and fertile soil, the Adzhiel tract was almost always inhabited by people. However, the most intense events occurred in the tract in the era of the Bosporus kingdom, when a system of defensive fortifications of the western borders of the state functioned here. Perhaps this system was more complicated than it previously seemed. This is indicated by the remains of another, previously unknown tower discovered by the authors in 2018. Thus, the authors conclude that the further prospects of research in the Adzhiel tract are connected both with the detailed reconstruction of the defence system of the Bosporus on the western frontiers of the state and also with the continuation of the study of Christian antiquities, including medieval time, and the religious life of the population of the Khazar Khaganate.


2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
ED Landing ◽  
Richard A. Fortey

The Chesley Drive Group, an Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician mudstone-dominated unit, is part of the Ediacaran–Ordovician cover sequence on the North American part of the Avalon microcontinent. The upper Chesley Drive Group on McLeod Brook, Cape Breton Island (previously “McLeod Brook Formation”), has two lithofacies-specific Tremadocian biotas. An older low-diversity benthic assemblage (shallow burrowers, Bathysiphon, phosphatic brachiopods, asaphid trilobites) is in lower upper Tremadocian green-gray mudstone. This wave-influenced, slightly dysoxic facies has Bathysiphon–brachiopod shell lags in ripple troughs. The upper fauna (ca. 483 +/- 1 Ma) is in dysoxic-anoxic (d-a), unburrowed, dark gray-black, upper upper (but not uppermost) Tremadocian mudstone with a “mass kill” of the olenid Peltocare rotundifrons (Matthew)—a provincial trilobite in Avalonian North America that likely tolerated low oxygen bottom waters. Scandodus avalonensis Landing n. sp. and Lagenochitina aff. conifundus (Poumot), probable nektic elements and the first upper Tremadocian conodont and chitinozoan reported from Avalon, occur in diagenetic calcareous nodules in the dark gray-black mudstone. An upper Tremadocian transition from lower greenish to upper black mudstone is not exposed on McLeod Brook, but is comparable to a coeval green-black mudstone transition in Avalonian England. The successions suggest that late late Tremadocian (probable Baltic Hunnebergian Age) sea level was higher in Avalon than is suggested from successions on other paleocontinents. The Tremadocian sea-level history of Avalon was a shoaling-deepening-shoaling sequence from d-a black mudstone (lower Tremadocian), to dysoxic green mudstone (lower upper Tremadocian), and back to black mudstone (upper upper Tremadocian).Scandodus Lindström is emended, with the early species S. avalonensis Landing n. sp. assigned to the emended Family Protopanderodontidae. Triangulodus Van Wamel is considered a junior synonym of Scandodus. Peltocare rotundifrons is emended on the basis of complete specimens.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor' Bocharnikov

The monograph defines the origins, essence and content of the Caucasian policy of Russia, its main stages, its significance for the development of Russian statehood and the peoples of the region. The monograph pays special attention to the Caucasian wars of Russia, the experience of suppressing anti-Russian and anti-Soviet armed demonstrations in the region. The historical and modern experience of the development of the Caucasus region shows that the weakening of Russia's position in the region naturally leads to an escalation of tension and conflict, aggravation of inter-ethnic contradictions, manifestations of extremism and other forms of destructive activities that threaten the life of citizens and peoples of the Caucasus. As a result, the strength of Russia's position in the Caucasus is a guarantee of the safe and free development of the peoples of the region. The author's conclusions and suggestions presented in the monograph can be used in the process of implementing a balanced and verified policy in order to ensure the national security and interests of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus, building relations with neighboring states in the region, as well as other international actors positioning their involvement in the political processes of the South Caucasus. It is addressed to researchers, teachers, students, a wide range of readers.


These chapters survey the range of historical sources from the peoples who collided with the Byzantine Empire during this period of dramatic upheaval. The Empire that had been expanded and consolidated by Basil II (d. 1025) was to disintegrate in the face of incursions from the north and Muslim east. In addition, pilgrims and crusaders from the west passed through the Empire and settled – culminating in the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In order to understand the history of the region during this period, one must be aware of the rich source material created by these shifting populations, in a wide range of languages, and with differing traditions of historical writing. The 14 chapters give an overview of the material, highlighting any problems the historian may have in dealing with it, and provide detailed bibliographical surveys. Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Slavonic, Georgian, Armenian, and Syriac sources are all discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lisa McCarthy

<p>The Branch Sandstone is located within an overall transgressive, marine sedimentary succession in Marlborough, on the East Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It has previously been interpreted as an anomalous sedimentary unit that was inferred to indicate abrupt and dramatic shallowing. The development of a presumed short-lived regressive deposit was thought to reflect a change in relative sea level, which had significant implications for the geological history of the Marlborough region, and regionally for the East Coast Basin.  The distribution and lithology of Branch Sandstone is described in detail from outcrop studies at Branch Stream, and through the compilation of existing regional data. Two approximately correlative sections from the East Coast of the North Island (Tangaruhe Stream and Angora Stream) are also examined to provide regional context. Depositional environments were interpreted using sedimentology and palynology, and age control was developed from dinoflagellate biostratigraphy. Data derived from these methods were combined with the work of previous authors to establish depositional models for each section which were then interpreted in the context of relative sea level fluctuations.  At Branch Stream, Branch Sandstone is interpreted as a shelfal marine sandstone, that disconformably overlies Herring Formation. The Branch Sandstone is interpreted as a more distal deposit than uppermost Herring Formation, whilst the disconformity is suggested to have developed during a fall in relative sea level. At Branch Stream, higher frequency tectonic or eustatic sea-level changes can therefore be distinguished within a passive margin sedimentary sequence, where sedimentation broadly reflects subsidence following rifting of the Tasman Sea. Development of a long-lived disconformity at Tangaruhe Stream and deposition of sediment gravity flow deposits at Angora Stream occurred at similar times to the fall in relative sea level documented at the top of the Herring Formation at Branch Stream. These features may reflect a basin-wide relative sea-level event, that coincides with global records of eustatic sea level fall.</p>


Author(s):  
Э.Б. САТЦАЕВ ◽  
E.B. SATTSAEV

В статье исследуются вопросы эволюции категории рода в иранских языках. Особое внимание отводится исследованию западно- и восточноиранских языков в исторической перспективе. На основе широкого спектра лингвистических данных подробно описаны и охарактеризованы как общие черты, так и особенности грамматики языков иранской группы. Последняя входит в индоевропейскую языковую семью, представленную в настоя- щее время на обширном географическом пространстве. Наиболее многочисленной ветвью данной семьи является индоиранская, включающая в себя индоарийские и иранские языки, обособление которых началось с миграций предков современных индоариев в северо-запад- ную Индию. История ираноязычных племен и народностей, территория расселения ко- торых в прошлом простиралась от берегов Черного моря на западе до границ Китая на востоке и от Южного Урала на севере до берегов Персидского залива и Индии на юге, охва- тывает огромный временной промежуток — от II тыс. до н.э. вплоть до наших дней. Ди- алекты многих из них еще на рубеже двух эр сохраняли значительную степень единства, унаследованного от общего древнеиранского языка-основы, близкого к авестийскому. The article investigates the evolution of gender in the Iranian languages. Special attention is given to the study of West and East Iranian languages in the historical perspective. On the basis of a wide range of various linguistic data the generalities and peculiarities of the grammar of Iranian languages, especially the category of gender, are described and characterized in detail. Iranian linguistic group belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, which are currently spoken on a vast territory. The most numerous branch of this family is Indo-Iranian, which includes Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages. Their separation began with the migrations of the ancestors of modern Indo- Aryans to Northwest India. The history of Iranian-speaking tribes and peoples, who in the past lived on the geography stretching from the shores of Black sea in the west to the borders of China in the east and from the southern Urals in the north to the shores of the Persian Gulf and India in the south, covers a vast period of time — from the II millennium BC up to the present day. The dialects of many tribes by the turn of the new era still retained a significant degree of initial community, inherited from the ancient Iranian source language close to Avestan.


Author(s):  
А.Х. Хадикова

В статье анализируются основные достижения научного алановедения советского периода, рассматриваются фундаментальные изыскательские направления, сложившиеся либо продолжавшиеся в это время. Наиболее приоритетными становятся вопросы происхождения алан и условий их выхода на историческую арену. Безусловно, главные гипотезы были обозначены ранее, но именно советские исследователи историки, лингвисты, археологи и др. сформулировали основные подходы и наиболее жизнеспособные концепции. И, конечно же, новый импульс отечественное алановедение получило в связи с усилением интереса ученых к скифославянской проблематике. В статье последовательно и обстоятельно систематизируются выдвинутые в рассматриваемый период версии истории алан с учетом двух классификационных групп, в рамках которых и развивались изыскания советских ученых автохтонистской и миграционной. Помимо этого, в обзоре нашли свое отражение и достаточно казуистические предположения, отрицающие этническое содержание самого термина аланы . В анализе историографии аланской проблематики в советский период учитывается хронологический принцип формирования концептуальных взглядов, а в случае, когда это необходимо и их научной критики. То немалое значение, которое играли аланы в средневековой истории юговостока СССР, предопределило появление широкого ряда исследований, затрагивающих общие и частные вопросы истории алан на Северном Кавказе, а также их культурной и генетической преемственности с живыми этносами этого региона. Указанное направление изначально связано с этногенезом осетин. В статье представлен анализ разработок и этого вопроса в трудах ученых. Советская наука с ее внушительной историографической традицией внесла значительный вклад в полуторавековую историю развития отечественной и мировой аланистики. The article analyzes the main achievements of the Soviet period ofscientificAlanic studies. The fundamental research directions that developed or were being continued at that time in the Alanic studies are considered. The most priority issues are the origin of the Alans and the context of their entry into the historical arena. The main relevant hypotheses had been outlined earlier, but due to the Soviet researchers historians, linguists, archaeologists, etc. the main approaches and the most viable conceptswere formulated. And, of course, the Alanicstudies receiveda new impetus in connection with the increased interest of the scientists in the ScythianSlavic problems. The article consistently and in great detail systematizes all the versions of the main Alanian problem put forward in the Soviet period, taking into account the two classification groups, within which the research of Soviet scientists developedalongsideautochthonous and migration lines. In addition, this review considers rather casuistic assumptions, for example, the one denying the ethnic content of the term Alans. The analysis of the historiography of the Alanian problems in the Soviet period takes into account the chronological principle of the formation of conceptual views, and when necessary their scientific criticism. The considerable importance played by the Alans in the medieval history of the SouthEast of the USSR, predetermined a wide range of studies dealing with general and particular issues of the history of the Alans in the North Caucasus, their cultural and genetic relationship with the living ethnic groups of the region. This line was originally associated with the ethnogenesis of the Ossetians. The article presents an analysis of this issue in the works of major Soviet scientists as well. The Soviet science, with its impressive historiographic tradition, has made a very significant contribution to the history of a century and a half of development of domestic and world Alanic studies.


2001 ◽  
Vol 172 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Camus

Abstract The Mediterranean catchment of the Cevennes (S. France) presents deep incision of the river network (fig. 1 and 2). Combined geomorphology and analyses of the residual sedimentary formations allows to reconstruct a complex history of river network evolution, including capture of tributaries of the Herault River (fig. 1, 2 and 3). The history of uplift of the upstream drainage area could be estimated from the provenance studies of the fluvial and karstic deposits, however river incision is also controlled sea-level changes and differential erosion, which makes reconstruction more complex. Allochthonous clasts types: Analyses of allochthonous deposits on the Grands Causses surface reveals different origin for sediments from the hill top and the Airoles valley (fig. 4 b), which was previously unrecognised. Facies 1 is found on the highest points of the Grands Causses surface (well sorted rounded quartz pebbles in red shale matrix) it corresponds to a weathered residual sediments (dismantling of an ancient cover). Facies 2 is found on the slope of the Airoles Valley (fig. 7). It consists of alluvial crystalline poorly sorted clasts with outsized clasts (up to 50 cm) of quartz-vein, schists in a matrix of shales and sand (weathered granite). Between the hill tops and the Airoles Valley, karstic network presents a sediment fill with clasts reworked from facies 1 and facies 2 (fig. 6). Airoles valley model; an example of diachronic formation of drainage network: The Airoles dry valley stretches on the Grands Causses from the north (700 m) to the south into the present thalweg line of the Vis canyon (500 m) (fig. 1b & 3). Crystalline deposits witness an ancient catchment in the Cevennes. Presently, the catchment in the crystalline basement is disconnected and captured by the Arre River flowing eastwards (fig. 3 & 4a). The profile of the Airoles abandoned valley connects with the present Vis Canyon, therefore, at the time of capture, incision of the Vis canyon had reached its present altitude (fig. 4a). The geomorphologic evolution of this area took place in three stages (fig. 8). 1) The Grands Causses acted as piedmont for the crystalline highlands of the Massif Central (fig. 8A). A latter karstic evolution (tropical climate) allowed the weathered residual sediments (facies 1) (fig. 8A). 2) Incision of the Vis karstic canyon implies that the Herault incision and terraces (facies 2) (fig. 8B) of the Airoles valley occurred during this stage. 3) The Arre valley head propagates westward by regressive erosion and finally captured the Airoles river crystalline catchment (fig. 8C). Consequence for the Cevennes uplift and hydrographic network development: Although the values of present vertical incision in the Vis canyon and in the Arre valley are similar, but they achieved at different time. In addition, the narrow and deep canyon of the Vis is due to vertical incision from the karstic surface of the Grands Causses, whereas the Arre wide valley results from (a younger) lateral slopes retreat from a low Herault base-level. The Vis karstic canyon developed in a similar way to the major karstic canyons of both Mediterranean and Atlantic catchment (i.e. Tarn). This rules out a Messinian Mediterranean desiccation as incision driving mechanism and suggests tectonic uplift of the Cevennes and surrounding areas. The Tarn being already incised by 13 My [Ambert, 1990], it implies a Miocene age for the incision. Conclusion: The amplitude of the vertical incision cannot therefore be used in a simple way to interpret the uplift history of the basement. Consequently, geomorphologic analysis appears to be a prerequisite to distinguish the part played by each factor, and to select the site of uplift measurement.


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