Fatty Acids and Their Metal Salts: A Review of Their Infrared Spectra in Light of Their Presence in Cultural Heritage

In a cultural heritage context, fatty acids are usually found as breakdown products of lipid-containing organic remains in archaeological findings, binders in aged oil paintings, and additives in modern art-related materials. They may further interact with the ionic environment transforming into metal soaps, a process that has been recognized as a threat in aged paintings but has received less attention in archaeological objects. The investigation of the above related categories of materials with infrared spectroscopy can provide an overall picture of the organic components’ identity and demonstrate their condition and prehistory. The capability of investigating and distinguishing fatty acids and their metal soaps through their rich infrared features, such as the acidic carbonyl, the carboxylate shifts, the variable splits of alkyl chain stretching, bending, twisting, wagging, and rocking vibrations, as well as the hydroxyl peak envelopes and acid dimer bands, allows for their direct detailed characterization. This paper reviews the infrared spectra of selected saturated fatty monoacids and diacids, and their corresponding sodium, calcium, and zinc salts and, supported by newly recorded data, highlights the significance of their spectroscopic features.

Life cycle assessment of aquaculture bivalve shellfish production — a critical review of methodological trends

Purpose The increase of shellfish production has raised environmental concerns, i.e., enrichment and redistribution of nutrients and energy consumption. Efforts assessing the environmental burdens arising from the expansion of shellfish production have been made using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Although LCA has been extensively applied and reviewed in aquaculture systems, shellfish production remains scarcely studied. The objective of this review is to identify methodological trends, highlight gaps and limitations, and provide guidelines for future studies. Methods A systematic literature review was applied to scientific studies published up to 2021. A total of 13 documents were shorted by abstract and full text-screening. Literature meeting the inclusion criteria were further analyzed in six different aspects of a LCA (functional unit, system boundaries, data and data quality, allocation, impact assessment methods, interpretation methods). Discussion and guidelines are provided for each reviewed aspect. Results and discussions Shellfish LCAs differ considerably from other aquaculture studies mainly because shellfish avoids the allocation of impacts derived from the production of fishmeal. Co-products are present when the shellfish is processed, e.g., in canned products. Furthermore, shellfish studies do not take into account the positive credits from the removal of nutrients from the ecosystems and from the valorization of the shellfish waste (shell and organic remains). Limited information was found for countries outside Europe and species different from mussels. Despite the variability on goals and scopes of the studies, methodological trends were found. The local impacts of the shellfish with the farming area and the impacts on biodiversity have not been included into the studies. Conclusions and recommendations Effort should be made in providing the data associated with the fore-background system within the studies in order to improve transparency and to allow the reproduction of the results. Information regarding the natural condition of the cultivation area should be provided as the shellfish production depends mainly on non-anthropogenic conditions. Application of biodiversity assessment methodologies should be encouraged, despite their limitations.

The fossilist and his engraver: Samuel Springsguth’s illustrations of James Parkinson’s Organic Remains

ABSTRACT James Parkinson was an apothecary surgeon, political activist, and paleontologist during the latter part of the long eighteenth century. He is most famous for his 1817 work, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he was the first to describe and define the symptoms of paralysis agitans, a condition now known as Parkinson’s disease. During his lifetime, however, he was internationally renowned for his three-volume study of fossils, Organic Remains of a Former World. Sales of this work continued for 25 years after Parkinson’s death, even though much of its scientific content had become redundant. This was due to the beauty and fidelity of its illustrations, although Samuel Springsguth, the illustrator and engraver, is never explicitly acknowledged in the work. By examining several extant fossils known to have been in Parkinson’s collection and illustrated in his works, it has been possible to gain some insight into the way that Parkinson and Springsguth worked together when illustrating these volumes.

Cremated animal remains and shattered pottery. Rare ritual deposits from the Middle to Late Bronze Age at Aalst – Siesegemkouter (Belgium)

Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assemblage, and comparison with two other pits showing similarities, provides strong indications of a closing deposit or another type of ‘site maintenance practice’. In the Low Countries, comparable contexts generally date from the Iron Age, suggesting that the finds from Aalst – Siesegemkouter represent early forerunners of this ritual practice. On top of this early date, the large volume of cremated animal bone represents an almost unique characteristic for which, until now, parallels from the Metal Ages have hardly been found, even on a Northwestern European scale. In general, the role played by organic remains in ritual contexts from these periods and regions is poorly understood, often due to bad preservation conditions or the lack of a multidisciplinary approach.

Super interesting black hole? The micromorphology of organic materials in a Mesolithic hearth pit feature from the site of Soest-Staringlaan (the Netherlands)

A series of thin sections from a Mesolithic hearth pit from the site of Soest-Staringlaan (the Netherlands) were studied to assess the variability of the charred and non-charred organic remains inside them. Non-charred remains included plant roots; fungal fruiting bodies and hyphae; mesofauna coprolites; and podzolization-related polymorphic humus and monomorphic humus coatings. Charred remains included charcoal of coniferous wood, charred non-woody plant material and fragments of wood. However, a large proportion of the charred material consists of fine, powdery fragments. This may at least partly be due to trampling and/or eluviation of disintegrating charcoal. Most of the micromorphological features in the Soest pit are similar to those found in pits from previously investigated Mesolithic sites. Common features include the presence of large fragments of charcoal in the lower parts of hearth pits, tar, charred humus and evidence for charcoal disintegration and eluviation. The combined results first and foremost demonstrate the strong variability between samples within the same feature. This implies that multiple samples from a pit are necessary in order to at least attempt to try to capture this variability. It is also clear from the results that sampling should include layers or deposits that macroscopically seem to be outside the feature proper. These may contain parts of the phenomenon studied that are difficult to recognize with the naked eye. These observations add to the notion that Mesolithic hearth pits are generally formed by the same human activities, formation processes and taphonomy. However, they make clear that intense sampling is needed for any research to better understand the formation of these pits and that supplemental chemical analyses may be needed to better interpret the observed features and get a better idea of the potential use of these common Mesolithic features.

Are Nemiana Palij and Beltanelliformis Menner (Beltanelloides (Sokolov)) synonyms or different genera?

During recent decades, the issue of the nature of Ediacaran cyclic imprints, including the widely distributed in Podillia (southwestern Ukraine) Nemiana simplex Palij, 1976, and the less common Beltanelliformis brunsae Menner, 1974 (Beltanelloides sorichevae (Sokolov), 1965) has been actively debated. Several new and similar forms were discovered in other regions of the Globe. The disk-like outlines were considered to be sufficient characters to synonymize several earlier recognized genera and species. The main additional features used to distinguish cyclic genera included such features as the shape and sculpture of surfaces, facial differences, and geological age. Novel palaeobiochemical studies of these ancient remains opened a new phase of discussions on the possible identities of the organisms that formed these fossil structures. Sometimes the remains are covered with thin brown films providing biochemical evidence for the cyanobacterial nature of some structures, for example Beltanelliformis brunsae. However, these films are found only in clayey or carbonate environments (rocks). For Nemiana Palij, characteristic features are clustered communities and budding. In contrast, Beltanelliformis brunsae formed taphonomic communities of closely arranged disks almost identical in their shape and size. Nemiana simplex structures are confined to clastic rocks (mostly thin-grained sandstones or siltstone), which are not suitable for good preservation of imprints and organic remains of ancient animals, cyanobacteria, algae, and plants. Considering these and some additional considerations, synonimization of Nemiana та Beltanelliformis, as well as some other Ediacaran fossil structures differing in their morphology, is at best premature.

TAPHONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE PALEOENTOMOFAUNA ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE CENOZOIC OF THE FONSECA BASIN, SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT The Fonseca Formation (Eocene–Oligocene boundary, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is well known for its paleoflora, especially of flowering plants. The richness of this insect-bearing fossil locality is significantly less well understood, but we can shed light on the insect paleocommunity. One hundred and eight fossil insect specimens were examined and separated into four grades based on their preservational quality. We conducted analyses of taphonomic features, including body orientation, size, articulation, and chemical composition. Our results reveal differences in the body articulation of the insects. The fully articulated specimens apparently did not experience extensive flotation time at the water-air interface, whereas for partially articulated and disarticulated specimens the opposite is true. These taphonomic features would be acquired during the biostratinomy stage, and not early diagenesis. We also employed high resolution techniques (SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy) to understand their fossilization potential. Our chemical data suggest that the Fonseca insects are preserved as organic remains in carbonaceous compressions. Thus, chitin biomolecules most likely were transformed into more resistant biopolymers during diagenesis. This interpretation may also imply that the carbonaceous material originated from the insect itself. In this study, we document new discoveries and also provide future prospects for study of the Fonseca Formation.

ENGINEERING, GEOLOGICAL AND PETROGRAPHIC FEATURES OF ANTHROPOGENIC LAYERS IN THE TERRITORY OF SAMARA

The study of engineering and geological properties of anthropogenic deposits, widespread in the city of Samara. Their main properties have been identifi ed and a classifi cation based on the genetic principle has been developed. The results of a petrographic study of samples from cultural layers taken at an archaeological site are presented. Archaeological excavations were carried out on the territory of Khlebnaya Square, located in the oldest part of the city, in 2019. The object represents the cultural layers that were formed in the XVIII-XIX centuries at the site of the alleged location of the second Samara fortress. Petrographic studies of the samples were carried out under a binocular microscope at 8.75 times magnifi cation, in transmitt ed light of a polarizing microscope at 72 times magnifi cation and under a digital microscope (USB DIGITAL) at 10 times magnifi cation. It has been determined that the pebble fraction is represented by quartz ite and jasper fl int, the sandy and silty fractions are angular quartz fragments with an admixture of undecomposed organic remains. The organic cultural layers, which reach 7-8 m and more in the ancient part of the city, are especially powerful. Their presence is a limiting factor in modern urban construction.

Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey

The area of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) follows the foothills and piedmont zones around the northern limits of Asia’s interior mountains, connecting two important areas for human evolution: the Fergana valley and the Siberian Altai. Prior research has suggested the IAMC may have provided an area of connected refugia from harsh climates during the Pleistocene. To date, this region contains very few secure, dateable Pleistocene sites, but its widely available carbonate units present an opportunity for discovering cave sites, which generally preserve longer sequences and organic remains. Here we present two models for predicting karstic cave and rockshelter features in the Kazakh portion of the IAMC. The 2018 model used a combination of lithological data and unsupervised landform classification, while the 2019 model used feature locations from the results of our 2017–2018 field surveys in a supervised classification using a minimum-distance classifier and morphometric features derived from the ASTER digital elevation model (DEM). We present the results of two seasons of survey using two iterations of the karstic cave models (2018 and 2019), and evaluate their performance during survey. In total, we identified 105 cave and rockshelter features from 2017–2019. We conclude that this model-led approach significantly reduces the target area for foot survey.

Ornaments and evidence of jewellery production from the early mediaeval layer of the fill of the ancient ditch at Ryurik Gorodishche

This paper presents a review of ornaments and objects related with jewellery production provenient from undisturbed early mediaeval deposits with organic remains of the 9th–10th century in the fill of the ancient ditch at Ryurik Gorodishche (Rurik’s Hillfort). The categories of finds here discussed include 49 items from almost 750 artefacts here uncovered.