Sicily

Sicily is a large and fertile island at the center of Mediterranean trading networks. Renewed public interest in its medieval past, a surge in research in recent years, and the richness of its archaeological and architectural heritage make it particularly fascinating for scholars of the Islamic world and beyond. While conquered much later than other regions, it saw an incomplete Islamization during the two and a half centuries of Muslim rule but an incredible economic growth especially during the 10th century. The fulcrum of the Sicilian social, economic, and cultural transformations was the great metropolis, al-Madina, Balarm (Palermo). Contrary to scholarly assumption, the arrival of the Normans in 1061 was not painless, and archaeological evidence points to gradual but substantial changes. Social and cultural tensions at the end of the Norman kingdom came to a head in Swabian times. Sicily in the late 13th century is a different world to 10th-century Sicily in every way: crops, culture, language and religion, settlement models, material culture, and networks of exchange.

The ‘fertile island effect’ of Welwitschia plants on soil microbiota is influenced by plant gender

ABSTRACT Desert and semi-desert plants are often associated with a distinct soil biota under the plants and close to the root system. We aimed to understand if similar effects could be found in the taxonomically isolated desert gymnosperm Welwitschia mirabilis in the Namib Desert, and whether this island effect varied with climate and with gender of plants. We took soil cores adjacent to the plants in environments ranging from extreme desert to arid shrubland, and in nearby control sites between the plants. Soil chemistry was analysed, and deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted and sequenced for the bacterial 16s region. Soil under the plants was richer in organic C, N and moisture. Despite the range of climates, the soil around Welwitschia plants was consistently associated with a particular bacterial community composition that was distinct from samples further away. Compared to unvegetated control patches, bacterial diversity close to the plants was reduced. In the plant-associated soil community, there was a clear gender effect across all sites with a distinct community composition and greater diversity under male plants. It is unclear what differences in the soil environment might be producing these gender-associated differences, which provide an additional dimension to the fertile island effect.

A NOTE ON OVID, HEROIDES 6.117–18

At Her. 6.113–18 Hypsipyle lays out for Jason the advantages to be gained by marrying her: the prestige of her noble and even divine family, and the fertile island of Lemnos, which will come as her dowry. She then adds the fact that she is pregnant with twins (6.119–22); this thought introduces a new section, which extends until line 130.