Archaeology of JSARN-124 site 3, central-western Arnhem Land: Determining the age of the so-called ‘Genyornis’ painting

In 2011, Gunn et al. published the discovery in a remote part of the western Arnhem Land plateau of a rock painting that closely resembles the most recent reconstructions of an extinct megafaunal bird, the dromornithid Genyornis newtoni. Characteristics of the painting distinguish it from depictions of other bird species and support its identification as G. newtoni: a deep convex bill, unlike the shallow bill of an emu or cassowary; a globular cranium and relatively thick neck; indication of a crop (emus and cassowaries lack crops); non-pendulous posture of the wing (unlike the pendulous posture of emus); the proportions of the pelvic limb showing long tibiotarsi and stout tarsometatarsi; the short, broad toes that appear to terminate in blunt claws; and a dorsal profile paralleling that of reconstructed dromornithids and unlike an emu or any species of cassowary, in which the vertex of the back is more anterior. The several points of special resemblance between the painting and reconstructions of the extinct bird based on paleontological evidence led Gunn et al. (2011:10) to conclude, ‘on the basis of probability the painting is indeed a representation of Genyornis newtoni’. This finding brings a conundrum. If the painting is indeed a contemporaneous depiction of G. newtoni, it becomes the oldest painting known in the world, for the bird is thought to have become extinct around 50,000 +/- 5000 years ago (Miller et al. 1999; Roberts and Brook 2010; Roberts et al. 2001) or even earlier (see Grellet-Tinner et al. 2016). Or that timing for the extinction of Genyornis is wrong; or a relic population survived longer on the Arnhem Land plateau (e.g. Murray and Vickers-Rich 2004), perhaps until the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which commenced around 25,000 years ago. And, as Gunn et al. (2011) acknowledged, there are still other alternatives. The painting might be of a ‘mythological’ animal: either one rooted in ancient memory of G. newtoni, as has been suggested for the ‘mihirung’ of southern Australian Aboriginal peoples (Vickers-Rich 1987) – although in societies without writing, social memory has not been found anywhere in the world to reliably extend in recognisable form over very long periods of time (cf. Bradley 2002) – or of a creature without a material counterpart that fortuitously resembled the fossil bird. The painting occurs on a vertical rock wall under a shallow overhang. Could the motif really have survived there since Pleistocene times, whether 25,000 or 50,000 years ago? And the painting shows a speared bird, so it could be the first evidence for the hunting of extinct megafauna in Australia. With these enigmas in mind, the Jawoyn Association asked us in 2010 to study the ‘Genyornis’ site, to investigate the age of the art and its archaeological and geomorphological context. Our major aims were to ask whether the painting dates, or theoretically could date, to the time of G. newtoni, or whether it must be more recent, and to uncover contextual ancient cultural information relating to the artworks and to occupation activities at the site in the past. Here, we present the results of these archaeological and geomorphological investigations along with a summary of the chemistry of the rock surface that houses the painting of the large bird thought by Gunn et al. (2011) to be of a Genyornis.

Insularity and Religious Life: The Case of Hellenistic Ikaros/Failaka Island

This paper explores the notion of insularity and religious life in the sacred landscape of Ikaros/Failaka with a particular focus on the Hellenistic period. The little island of Ikaros/Failaka in the Persian Gulf had a long pre-Hellenistic religious history and was occupied by Alexander, explored by his officials and became part of the Seleucid kingdom. From the mid-20th century, archaeological missions working on the nesiotic space of the Persian Gulf have revealed material evidence that has altered our view of this remote part of the Hellenistic world. Research revealed a flourishing network of cultural communication and contacts between the indigenous population of the East and Greco-Macedonians. These interactions mirror the landscape of the Hellenistic East. Thus Ikaros/Failaka, an island on the periphery of the Seleucid kingdom, situated at a strategic point (near the mouth of the River Euphrates and close to the shores of the Persian Gulf) appears to be part of a chain of locations that possessed political/military, economic, and religious importance for the Seleucids. It became a fruitful landscape, where the Seleucids pursued their political and religious agenda.

Smoking Pipes from the Excavations of the City of Nien

Белоглиняные курительные трубки на территории г. Ниена и крепости Ниеншанц отражают общую картину распространения этих изделий в городах Балтийского региона. Их количественный и качественный состав менялся на протяжении XVII столетия, и в слоях второй его половины трубки становятся массовыми находками. Значительная часть трубок, особенно первой половины XVII в., не имеет клейм и может датироваться только по форме. По имеющимся признакам, основная их часть изготавливалась в Голландии. Узкие датировки клейм, наряду с монетными находками, позволяют уточнить датировку отдельных комплексов на изученной территории и динамику поступления трубок в эту удаленную часть Прибалтики. White clay smoking pipes found on the territory of the city of Nien and the fortress of Nienschanz reflect the general picture of the distribution of the objects in the cities of the Baltic region. The quantitative and qualitative composition of the pipes was changing throughout the 17 century and in the layers of the second half of the 17century, the pipes become mass finds. A significant part of the pipes, especially of the first half of the 17 century, does not have stamps and can only be dated according to the form. The available features testify to the fact that the main part of them was made in Holland. The narrow dating of the stamps, alongside with the finds of coins, allow us to clarify the dating of separate complexes of the studied area and the dynamics of the pipe arrival in this remote part of the Baltic States.

Towards Ubiquitous Data Access Service of 3D Part Library in Cloud Scheme with Host Independence

Most current part libraries are created and deployed in specific usage environments or CAD platforms, which inevitably brings obstacles in the share and exchange for part information. To reduce repeated development and provide a uniform interface for designers in different sites, a 3D part library in cloud scheme is presented in this paper. Host programs with predetermined specification can access the part data through an adapter according to their customized requests with uniform interfaces, which constructs a ubiquitous service. To realize host independence, the part models are created in a native ACIS modeler, and then they are converted into 3D files in various formats for practical needs, finally these files are imported into CAD systems or other platforms in real designs. The whole framework can be divided into three components, namely, PLS(Part Library Service) provider, PLS adapters and hosts. PLS provider is the kernel of 3D data access service in cloud scheme, while PLS adapters serve as the bridges that connect PLS provider and hosts, and the PLS can be grafted on various applications including current mainstream CAD systems as a plug-in module or run on the websites or even mobile terminals. The PLS provider is deployed and maintained on cloud and users can acquire remote part information within a local ongoing project. In the detailed construction of this part library, diversiform knowledge for part parameters and structures is implanted to define the geometry and rule constraints in the 3D modeling, with which the backstage has the ability of conveniently editing the information in the part library for better upgrade and contrapuntally services. The concept has been implemented within a PaaS framework to provide the ubiquitous 3D part data access, which has been successfully applied in a large number of manufacturing enterprises, and accumulates considerable practical cases.

Higgs’ ‘God particle’ in neo-comparative research on mythology

The book Prehistoria – średniowiecze – romantyzm. W kręgu indoeuropejskich tematów mitologicznych: od Dumézila do Słowackiego [Prehistory – Middle Ages – Romanticism. Indo-European Mythological Themes from Dumézil to Słowacki] by Dariusz Seweryn proves that the methodology suggested by the author can be applied to the Romantic literature. It reveals both the strategies that Romantic authors are fully aware of as well as those which remain unrealised, but refer to the mythological context that goes back in time to the Indo-European ‘prehistory’ (this is Higgs’ ‘God particle’). Seweryn also proves that the antic phrase Omnes viae Romam ducunt has above anything else a propaganda, Latino-centric significance. At least some roads lead from India via Iran (also) to Rome, but Romans did not realize that their customs and literature were influenced by a tradition that originated in a remote part of the world and was significantly older than ‘the City’ itself. Seweryn’s book is certainly one of the best I have studied and reviewed in the last ten years!

Don’t Lose Your Heart to a Car. Extracorporeal Ejection of the Heart by Forceful Upward Thoraco-abdominal Blunt Trauma in Human and Animal.

The traumatic extracorporeal ejection of a beating heart has not been witnessed and reported in the literature previously, to our knowledge. Here we present two cases of vehicle accidents leading to this fatal injury, both in a rabbit and a human. Case 1. One late evening in June, in the land of the midnight sun, a young man was driving to his favourite fishing river for a spot of trout fishing in a remote part of Eastern Finland. While driving his aged Nissan Almera at 60 km/h down a dusty gravel road on this dusky night, suddenly a young male rabbit jumped onto the road and appeared in the beam of his headlights. Despite the man’s evasive manoeuvres, the rabbit was struck by the left front corner of the car. After hitting the brakes and the car eventually coming to a standstill, the young man went to inspect the animal he had hit…. In conclusion, we present that in a very rare constellation of forceful blunt trauma to the chest, the heart can be completely avulsed and ejected from the body in human as in animals. Larger prospective and randomised studies are probably not needed to confirm these findings. Just be careful – it is possible to lose your heart to a car.

Entrepreneurial intention of agriculture undergraduates in Russia

Purpose. This paper aimed to investigate factors that influence the intention of educated youth in remote areas of Siberia to start-up business under the specific conditions with post-communist legacy. Special attention is paid to the willingness of graduates to run a business in agriculture. Methodology / approach. We surveyed 470 university students and applied logistic regression to analyze the probability of becoming self-employed. Results. Study results reveal that being male, an existing family entrepreneurial tradition, and effort of respondents to increase their quality of life, such as a desire for a higher income and career efforts, improve the intention to be self-employed. Preference to live in rural areas decreases the entrepreneurial intention. We identified an important path dependency problem that arises from the low entrepreneurial literacy and tradition of the families because setting up a private business is a novelty in Russia. Originality / scientific novelty. The Global Entrepreneurial Monitor Review ranks Russia among countries with the lowest entrepreneurial intention. This fact may threaten the development of the country as self-employment represents an important trigger for the economic development of a region, especially for its rural and remote part. Entrepreneurs in agriculture might help in re-cultivation of the abandoned land in Russian Siberia if the entrepreneurial education and incentives were set properly. Practical value / implications. A promotion of entrepreneurship education at the universities, removing administrative barriers to business development, and launching programs to support young entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas, might be crucial in increasing the entrepreneurial activity of youth. This study has important implications for policymakers and education system as youth entrepreneurship provides an opportunity to decrease unemployment, ensure the income of the rural population, and promote sustainable growth of rural areas.

Using Stanford’s Design Thinking Model at the Rural Village Level

A case history of a rural workshop using the Stanford Design Thinking Model in a -remote part of the Rio San Juan Nicaragua. The program is run under UNICAM UNAN-Managua believed to be the largest program of its kind. It is a chance to see how both facilitators and participants can learn in very simple settings. It is a chance to understand what kinds of things are impacting the lives of rural people in their quest for the basics of existence such as food and water. Most of all it is a living action of the dream of bringing top level education to the rural people of Nicargua. All the action takes place in a simple rancho at the edge of the Rio San Juan where participants come by canoe, and by foot.

Ordovician turbidites and black shales of Bennett Island (De Long Islands, Russian Arctic), and their significance for Arctic correlations and palaeogeography

Bennett Island stands alone in a remote part of the Arctic and information on its geology is essential to ascertain relations with other terranes in order to restore the early Palaeozoic Arctic palaeogeography. Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks throughout the island were studied thoroughly for the first time. The Ordovician section (> 1.1 km thick) comprises three units: Tremadocian, lowest Floian black shale (130–140 m); Floian, lower Dapingian carbonate turbidite (> 250 m); and Dapingian, lower Darriwilian siliciclastic turbidite (> 730 m). Ordovician deposits conformably overlie Cambrian rocks deposited within the Siberian shelf, as shown earlier. Most of the Ordovician succession was formed in a deep trough that received carbonate debris from a nearby carbonate platform and silicate material from a distant landmass located to the NE (present coordinates). The Bennett Island Ordovician rocks have much in common with those of both the Central and Northern Taimyr belts. It could be tentatively suggested that both belts merged at their eastern continuation in the vicinity of De Long Islands. The whole system probably extends further eastwards. The Ordovician facies patterns and faunal assemblages in the New Siberian Islands are notably similar to those of northwestern Alaska, where the same lateral transition from turbidites to shelf limestones was reported.

Commemorating economic crisis at a liminal site: Memory, creativity and dissent at Achill Henge, Ireland

This paper draws on a case study of Achill Henge, County Mayo, Ireland, to examine the interplay between economic crisis, rebel creativity and shifting geographies of commemoration. Built in 2011 in a remote part of the west of Ireland, Achill Henge is a highly contested monument. Unfinished and under perennial threat of demolition, the Stonehenge-like structure was originally conceived as a ‘tomb of the Celtic Tiger’, in reference to Ireland’s ill-fated economic ‘miracle’ of the 1990s and 2000s. This paper examines this economic context before adopting two perspectives. Firstly, drawing on critical ideas about commemoration, we identify how the Henge remembers economic and political failure, materialising a unique site of subaltern memory. Situating it within memorial landscapes in Ireland, we explore how it can serve to critically analyse practices of traditional and contemporary commemoration. Secondly, we examine how its unsanctioned liminality produces a valuable, exemplary site at which numerous unregulated, playful, performative and political practices can be carried out, away from mainstream convention and commercial banality.