Search results for "Ancient"
showing 10 items of 810 documents
On the Borana Calendrical System: A Preliminary Field Report
1988
This article addresses the astronomical functioning of the lunar calendar of the Oromo Borana (Ethiopia and Kenya). It is based on the participant observation method, observing the night sky over a time of about one year with Bante Abbagala, a Borana expert in time reckoning. Differently from previous ethnographic accounts and hypotheses, the author suggests that the Borana implicitly add an intercalary month that allows keeping correspondence between season and the name of the lunar month, even if they do not acknowledge it. They do not consider the declination of the moon, sun or stars. They rather apply a complex devise that allows the direct evaluation of the relative right ascension po…
Ocher and cinnabar in the argaric funerary record
2012
The known cases of Bronze Age Argaric stained skeletons found in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, have been analysed. The various hypotheses proposed relating to the origin of these colorations have been evaluated in light of new data provided by SEM, XRD and RAMAN spectroscopic analysis carried out on five Argaric graves of Murcia and Alicante. The results have indicated the presence of ochre and cinnabar on some of the skeletons. Without discarding the possibility that both substances were used in dyeing fabrics, it is proposed that their main use was for face and body make-up, being higher the number of recorded cases on female skeletons compared to male.
The genomic history of the Aegean palatial civilizations
2021
Summary The Cycladic, the Minoan, and the Helladic (Mycenaean) cultures define the Bronze Age (BA) of Greece. Urbanism, complex social structures, craft and agricultural specialization, and the earliest forms of writing characterize this iconic period. We sequenced six Early to Middle BA whole genomes, along with 11 mitochondrial genomes, sampled from the three BA cultures of the Aegean Sea. The Early BA (EBA) genomes are homogeneous and derive most of their ancestry from Neolithic Aegeans, contrary to earlier hypotheses that the Neolithic-EBA cultural transition was due to massive population turnover. EBA Aegeans were shaped by relatively small-scale migration from East of the Aegean, as e…
Sourcing african ivory in chalcolithic Portugal
2009
A recent review of all ivory from excavations in Chalcolithic and Beaker period Iberia shows a marked coastal distribution – which strongly suggests that the material is being brought in by sea. Using microscopy and spectroscopy, the authors were able to distinguish ivories from extinct Pleistocene elephants, Asian elephants and, mostly, from African elephants of the savannah type. This all speaks of a lively ocean trade in the first half of the third millennium BC, between the Iberian Peninsula and the north-west of Africa and perhaps deeper still into the continent.
Cecilio Stazio
2020
La figura di Cecilio Stazio: profilo biografico, quadro della produzione, stile. The figure of Cecilio Stazio: biographical profile, production picture, style.
La Gipsoteca del Dipartimento Culture e Società e il valore didattico delle raccolte di calchi in gesso di scultura antica
2020
The recent opening of the Plaster Cast Collection of the Department Cultures and Societies at the University of Palermo, after a long recovery and restoration work, is the starting point for some considerations about today’s possibilities of use of the academic plaster cast galleries of ancient sculpture. These collections, since their origin devoted to serve as a help for teaching the history of ancient art, and above all the Greek sculpture, are still worthy of interest. First of all they attest an important moment of the scientific history of the subject. But they can be also useful for the present study of ancient art, on condition that we are always aware of the functional and decontex…
Space (Cases)
2014
LETTER TO THE EDITOR. CUNICULUS 'RABBIT' - A CELTIC ETYMOLOGY
2010
I ‘vasi di Centuripe’: per un approccio integrato
2017
Il contributo intende evidenziare le prospettive di un approccio interdisciplinare integrato allo studio della ceramica policroma “di Centuripe”. Dagli inizi del XX secolo, tale classe ha riscosso ampio apprezzamento per le sue delicate pitture e la ricchezza di ornamenti a rilievo applicati (dipinti e dorati) che abbelliscono i vasi, rendendoli pressoché inutilizzabili nella pratica per scopi funzionali, ma altamente efficaci come doni funerari in antico, e oggi come pezzi di grande impatto per commercianti di antichità e collezionisti moderni. Data la piaga, diffusa fino a tempi recenti, degli scavi clandestini, dei “restauri” arbitrari e delle falsificazioni, i vasi di Centuripe necessit…
On the myriad mathematical traditions of ancient greece
2002
To exert one’s historical imagination is to plunge into delicate deliberations that involve personal judgments and tastes. Historians can and do argue like lawyers, but their arguments are often made on behalf of a picture of the past, and these historical images obviously change over time. Why should the history of mathematics be any different? When we imagine the world of ancient Greek mathematics, the works of Euclid (Heath 1926), Archimedes (Heath 1897b), and Apollonius (Heath 1897a) easily spring to mind. Throughout most of the twentieth century, our dominant image of Greek mathematical traditions has been shaped by the high standards of rigor and creative achievement that are purporte…