Geophysical Survey and Rural Settlement Architecture on the Lower Danube at the Transition to Late Antiquity

Author(s):  
M. J. BOYD

One of the key aims of the ‘Transition to Late Antiquity’ research programme has been to collect a systematic data sample in order to examine local patterns and disparities at a regional level. In this project, an understanding of inter- and intra-settlement patterns of occupation is primarily acquired by calculating total density distributions of surface material, but for the examination of individual architectural units and the relationships between them, a geophysical survey has been used because of its particular ability to provide detailed information about subsurface features over a large area without excavation. This chapter describes the approach and methodology employed in the geophysical surveys carried out to assess rural settlement patterns in Bulgaria (lower Danube) as part of the ‘Transition to Late Antiquity’ research programme. Examples of particular surveys — which in general have proved remarkably successful — are used to illustrate the results.

Geophysics ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Malamphy ◽  
James L. Vallely

Magnetic and gravimetric surveys were conducted over an area of approximately 1400 square miles in the bauxite district of central Arkansas. The primary purpose of these surveys was to discover any possible buried and hitherto unknown syenite masses favorable for the occurrence of bauxite and to determine the approximate position of the buried flanks of the known syenite masses which might offer conditions favorable for the discovery of new ore bodies. These surveys indicated that the various syenite outcrops are domes or bosses on a large batholith and that other similar domes occur on the batholith but do not outcrop. Drilling on the local geophysical anomalies proved the presence of 10 buried domes, but only 2 were found to project above the upper surface of the Midway clays, a requisite of conditions favorable for the occurrence of bauxite ore bodies. The geophysical data indicated the approximate configuration of the buried flanks of the known syenite outcrops, and the portions of these flanks that project above the Midway have now been outlined more accurately by drilling. The geophysical surveys have produced evidence permitting the elimination of a large area as unfavorable for the occurrence of bauxite. Magnetic surveys extending along the Midway‐Wilcox contact from Gurdon in Clark County on the southwest to Searcy in White County on the northeast have proved the improbability of the existence of other syenite masses similar to those found in Pulaski and Saline Counties. A detailed magnetic survey of the Magnet Cove area in Hot Spring County has proved that the syenite mass exposed in that locality is an isolated intrusion and entirely unrelated to those of Pulaski and Saline Counties. This syenite mass does not occur under conditions believed to be favorable for the occurrence of bauxite.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (1) ◽  
pp. 1054-1070
Author(s):  
Luca Ciotti ◽  
Antonio Mancino ◽  
Silvia Pellegrini ◽  
Azadeh Ziaee Lorzad

ABSTRACT Recently, two-component spherical galaxy models have been presented, where the stellar profile is described by a Jaffe law, and the total density by another Jaffe law, or by an r−3 law at large radii. We extend these two families to their ellipsoidal axisymmetric counterparts: the JJe and J3e models. The total and stellar density distributions can have different flattenings and scale lengths, and the dark matter halo is defined by difference. First, the analytical conditions required to have a nowhere negative dark matter halo density are derived. The Jeans equations for the stellar component are then solved analytically, in the limit of small flattenings, also in the presence of a central BH. The azimuthal velocity dispersion anisotropy is described by the Satoh k-decomposition. Finally, we present the analytical formulae for velocity fields near the centre and at large radii, together with the various terms entering the virial theorem. The JJe and J3e models can be useful in a number of theoretical applications, e.g. to explore the role of the various parameters (flattening, relative scale lengths, mass ratios, rotational support) in determining the behaviour of the stellar kinematical fields before performing more time-expensive integrations with specific galaxy models, to test codes of stellar dynamics and in numerical simulations of gas flows in galaxies.


2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Todd ◽  
C. F. Michael Lewis

ABSTRACT A marine geophysical survey program has been conducted in lakes of southern Ontario. The survey was designed to detect neotectonic features, if they exist, and to evaluate their geological importance. High-resolution single- and multichannel seismic reflection profiling were used to delineate late- and post-glacial sedimentary strata and structures, as well as the sediment/bedrock interface, in the Kawartha Lakes and Lake Simcoe. Results show that two seismostratigraphic sequences are common within the unconsolidated overburden. The lower unit exhibits a parallel reflection configuration having strong reflection amplitudes, whereas the upper unit is acoustically transparent and overlies the lower unit conformably in some places and unconformably in others. Both units vary in thickness within lakes and from lake to lake. Typical subbottom profiles of Precambrian rock surfaces are rolling; those of Paleozoic rock surfaces are smooth. At one location in Lower Buckhorn Lake, tilted rock surfaces may be faulted but disturbance of overlying glacioge-nic sediments was not observed. In western Lake Simcoe and Kempenfelt Bay, slumping into graben-like features was observed. Also in Lake Simcoe, a diapiric feature was documented. It is speculated that these disturbances most likely result from glacier ice block melting and fluid migration. A tectonic origin, however, cannot be discounted at this stage of investigation. Additional systematic marine geophysical surveys are required in the future to map features in detail to determine whether they are of neotectonic or glaciotectonic origin.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 523
Author(s):  
Andrzej Rosner ◽  
Monika Wesołowska

Since the Second World War, Poland has been undergoing an intensive process of transformation of the economic structure of rural areas, manifested, among other things, in the change in the occupational make-up of its inhabitants. The development of non-agricultural methods of management in rural areas has led to the emergence of multifunctional rural areas, where the role of agriculture as a source of income for the inhabitants is decreasing. There is a process of deagrarianisation of the economic structure, which has been indicated by many researchers as an unavoidable process, connected with the changes taking place in rural areas. One of the effects of this process are changes in rural settlement patterns. The aim of this article is to present the spatial effects of the deagrarianisation process in the Polish countryside, expressed in the changes in the rural settlement network. The authors used the statistical database of the Central Statistical Office (over 41 thousand records) to draw up the classification of rural areas by the nature of changes in population numbers in the period 1950–2011, which was compared with the research carried out as part of the Monitoring of Rural Development in Poland. The study confirmed that the factor behind the evolution of the rural settlement network is the process of decreasing agricultural demand for labour. As a consequence, there is a polarisation of localities into multifunctional rural localities, mainly headquarter villages and local government offices, and those with a predominantly agricultural function. On a supra-local scale, a process of polarisation of rural areas between a growing suburban population and a reducing peripheral location around large and medium-sized towns has been observed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker

Recognition of architectural patterning among groups of structures at lowland Maya sites dating from the Classic period provides insights into the ways that residences and ritual complexes were organized. Each structured group arrangement, or Plaza Plan (PP), reveals an architectural grammar that provides the database enabling us to predict urban as well as rural settlement patterns. Wide variations in sizes among examples of residential PPs suggests that heterarchy was an important aspect of Classic Maya society. Examination of PP2 at Tikal indicates that a heterarchic pattern of organization existed. Heterarchy may relate to the fragility of the structure of lowland Maya kingship, and this may explain the gradual demise of states during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods and their replacement by re-emergent Maya chiefdoms.


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