Reinventing the Capital: The Ideological Use of Monumental Architecture in Michael VIII Palaiologos’ Constantinople (1261–1282)

After the recapture of Constantinople (1261), Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259–82) re-shaped the city through extensive building activities. Though scholars have previously considered the involvement of Emperor Michael in the urban restoration of the capital, no attention has been devoted to the links between the different aspects of this programme of renewal. This paper advocates for the presence of an ambitious and systematic urban plan behind Michael VIII’s commissions focussed on the restoration of the southern shore of Constantinople and related to the political, religious, ideological, and aesthetic policies of this emperor.

Potential landscape stability of recreational zones on the southern shore of Lake Baikal

The article deals with the landscape stability of five recreational zones on the southern coast of Lake Baikal: Portbaikal’skaya, Kultuk-Slyudyanskaya, Utulik-Baikal’skaya, Murinskaya and Snezhinskaya, the boundaries of which were previously defined during the tourist and recreational zoning of the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory between 2017 and 2019. We studied the natural stability of recreational areas on a landscape basis using the results of component-wise assessments of vulnerability and stability. The landscape-typological structure of recreational zones and component-wise stability within the boundaries of specific landscape sections were analysed, the integral stability of landscapes was obtained, and a comparative analysis of the landscape stability of the selected recreational zones has been carried out.

Authenticity

The modern science of oenology emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, as vintners learned to remediate flawed grape must with sugar and a preservative to produce better wine. The advent of oenology was at the heart of an acrimonious dispute that pitted against each other two of Russia’s most prominent and influential vintners: Prince Lev Golitsyn, whose estate vineyard on the southern shore of Crimea produced some of the best wines in the world around the turn of the century, and Vasilii Tairov, the editor of the journal Winemaking Bulletin. At issue were the characteristics that made fine wine authentically European: was it appropriate to take oenological shortcuts, or was the production of fine wine a form of artisanship, done by methods passed down over many generations?

Sedimentology and palaeontology of the Upper Karoo Group in the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Zimbabwe: new localities and their implications for interbasinal correlation

The Triassic–Jurassic Upper Karoo Group of the Mid-Zambezi Basin (MZB; Zimbabwe) includes a thick succession of terrestrial sediments with high palaeontological potential that has been neglected since the 1970s. Here, we review the Upper Karoo Group stratigraphy, present detailed sedimentological work and identify new vertebrate-bearing sites at several measured sections along the southern shore of Lake Kariba. These fossil-bearing sites fall within the Pebbly Arkose and Forest Sandstone formations, and are the first to be recorded from the region since the discovery of Vulcanodon karibaensis nearly 50 years ago. The unique and diverse assemblage of aquatic and terrestrial fauna reported includes phytosaurs, metoposaurid amphibians, lungfish, non-dinosaurian archosauromorphs and non-sauropod sauropodomorph dinosaurs. This improvement of Upper Karoo Group biostratigraphy is important in refining its temporal resolution, and impacts both regional and global studies. Finally, the new fossil sites demonstrate the palaeontological importance of the MZB and its role in providing a holistic understanding of early Mesozoic ecosystems in southern Gondwana.

De cerca medieval islámica a frente abaluartado: génesis y evolución del Frente de Tierra de Ceuta

From Medieval Islamic Wall to Bastioned Land Front: Genesis and evolution of the Land Front of CeutaCeuta is built on a peninsula at the southern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s a strategic point for communications between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and between two continents: Europe and Africa. As Ceuta ships rule the Gibraltar Strait in Medieval and Modern Ages, main defensive efforts were tuned of to Land Front. Consequently, in 950 ‘Abd al-Rahman III built a new fence in order to protect the madina reusing Roman and Byzantine fortifications. Although repaired and enlarged by Almohads, Marinids, and Portuguese, these walls and towers protected the Land Front of Ceuta until the sixteenth century. But, at this moment, pirobalistic artillery development had made this defensive device obsolete and a new bastioned front, an early and outstanding example of the new Renaissance ideas for the defense of the cities, was built. Archival documents, cartographic sources, etc., let us follow the main lines of this evolution. Recently, an archaeological research project has added new data on how this evolution, from Medieval to Renaissance fortifications, took place.

Studying Settlement Gorodishche 1 in the Zonalnyi District

The article is devoted to the publication of obtained materials from a site in the Itkul archaeological district that includes a settlement called Gorodishche 1. The site is located on the southern shore of Lake Bol'shoi Itkul, on the border of the Zonalnyi and Troitskii districts. The land plot of the settlement has a complex layout and is limited by a moat. At the site, an area of 64 square metres was excavated, as a result, a dwelling pit and a small part of the moat were investigated. The dwelling was a semi-hut of a semi-rectangular form with an open hearth. The area of the dwelling was about 28 square metres. The location of the materials in the dwelling pit shows the special features of the layout. The place of entrance was identified. The economic zone was distinguished by the location of the hearth and the accumulation of ceramics around it; it was located at the farthest wall from the entrance. There were not many finds in the cultural layer. The finds were represented by clusters of ceramics. The vessels were round-bottomed, of lowered proportions, decorated with ornament in the upper part. The most common elements of the ornament were pits. There was also a comb duck ornament. Just one element was used in the ornamental composition. The features of the ceramic complex allowed the authors to refer the studied site to the Fominskaya stage of the Kulaiskaya culture and date it within the 2nd-4th centuries. The material is published for the first time.

The “Shield” of the Sacred Sea

During the mid-1960s, industrial development on the southern shore of Lake Baikal raised grave concerns among scientists, writers, and the general public. These concerns prompted geographers, architectural institutes, economists, and others to develop plans for national parks (or a single park) on Baikal’s shoreline. Although the ideas for Baikal’s parks varied, their supporters believed they would orient the regional economy to tourism and stave off future industrial development. In the years after the establishment of Zabaikal’skii and Pribaikal’skii National Parks in 1986, the USSR’s political and economic crisis resulted in the neglect of these parks. Supporters of Baikal’s parks turned to foreign support, especially after the USSR’s collapse, only to realize that without state support it would yield minimal results. While few planned Russian national parks were more ambitious in scope, perhaps none were more disappointing to a broad swathe of Russian environmentalists than those around Lake Baikal.