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During the Nubia Salvage Campaign and the subsequent expeditions from the 1960's to the 1980's, numerous sites attributed to the Late Palaeolithic (~25-15 ka) were found in the Nile Valley, particularly in Nubia and Upper Egypt. This region is one of the few to have allowed human occupations during the dry Marine Isotope Stage 2 and is therefore key to understanding how human populations adapted to environmental changes at this time. This paper focuses on two sites located in Upper Egypt, excavated by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition: E71K18, attributed to the Afian industry and E71K20, attributed to the Silsilian industry. It aims to review the geomorphological and chronological evidence of the sites, present a technological analysis of the lithic assemblages in order to provide data that can be used in detailed comparative studies, which will allow discussion of technological variability in the Late Palaeolithic of the Nile Valley and its place within the regional context. The lithic analysis relies on the chaîne opératoire concept combined with an attribute analysis to allow quantification. This study (1) casts doubts on the chronology of E71K18 and related Afian industry, which could be older or younger than previously suggested, highlights (2) distinct technological characteristics for the Afian and the Silsilian, as well as (3) similar technological characteristics which allow to group them under a same broad techno-cultural complex, distinct from those north or south of the area. ispartof: PLOS ONE vol:12 issue:12 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Penang, one of the component states of Malaysia, represents a microcosm of the multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious characteristics of the country's celebrated diversity. The state of Penang comprised the island and an adjacent rectangular strip of land on the mainland known as Province Wellesley (Seberang Perai). Contemporary Penang's racial diversity is undoubtedly one of its strengths offering a rich and colourful admixture of sociocultural traits and traditions. But more significantly is the peaceful, harmonious coexistence of the various ethnic groups living in close quarters to one another. Penang's sociocultural traits and diverse traditions traced their genesis to the establishment in 1786 of George Town as a port-of-call of the East India Company (EIC). As a British administered trading outpost, Penang drew merchants and traders from as far as northern Europe, North America, as well as from South, Southeast and East Asia. It was from such beginnings that George Town subsequently evolved into a cosmopolitan port-city. This article seeks to trace Penang's historical development from the social and economic aspects specifically of the contributing factors to its socio-cultural characteristics and identity of George Town and Penang in general. It will be argued that Penang since its formative days as a port-city had embraced and nurtured multiculturalism in all its facets that subsequently contributed to the development of disparate identities along ethnic lines. The years 1780-1941 covered the period from its establishment as a trading outpost to the eve of the Asia Pacific War (1941-1945). International audience

International audience; Diffraction plays a crucial role in microscopy as it prevents the recording of arbitrarily sharp images with conventional light microscopes. Many names are connected with the notion of diffraction and the definition of resolution. An overview over the contributions of the different scientists to the recognition and definition of the diffraction barrier in the past centuries is given and the recent developments that led to breaking this barrier are portrayed.

Las excavaciones de Punta Negra-1, perteneciente al período arcaico costero medio del norte de Chile permite estudiar varios problemas arqueológicos. La formación de conglomerados con patrón habita-cional constructivo de la gente de los círculos de piedra como respuesta ideológica, permitió mejorar la organización de las comunidades recolectoras pescadoras. Punta Negra-1 es un conglomerado que ocupa un espacio aproximado de 3.000 m2, donde se desarrolló gran parte de la actividad cotidiana, conformado por un sector habitacional (a), área de conchal (b) y sector de petroglifos (c). Se realizaron excavaciones en el sector a o de estructuras con el patrón antes mencionado y en el sector b o conchal; mientras que en el sector c se realizaron estudios de sus petroglifos abstractos. Las fechas radiocarbóni-cas permitieron precisar que se trata de un sitio del periodo arcaico costero medio relacionado con los movimientos nómades marítimos del área. Excavations at Punta Negra-1, belonging to the middle Archaic coastel period the northern Chile, allow the study various archaeological issues. The development of clusters with a standar of housing construction of the people of the stone circles, as an ideological response, allowed to improve the organizations of the fisher gatherer communities. Punta Negra-1, is a conglomerate, which occupies an approximate area of 3.000 m2, which developed much of the daily activity. Excavations were performed in the sector-a (pattern structures mentioned above), and in the sector-b or conchal (refuse); whereas in the sector-c, preliminary studies were conducted on its abstract petroglyphs. The radiocarbon dates allowed to specify that it is a coastal site of the middle archaic period, related to maritime nomadic movements of the area. International audience

POSTDATA (Poetry Standardization and Linked Open Data) aims at bridging the digital gap among traditional cultural assets and the growing world of data. It is focused on poetry analysis, classification and publication, applying Digital Humanities methods of academic analysis-such as XML-TEI encoding-(Dombrowski & Denbo, 2013), (Flanders &Hmali, 2013) in order to look for standardization, as well as innovation by using semantic web technologies (Cigarrán-Recuero et al 2014) to link and publish literary datasets in a structured way in the linked data cloud. The advantages of making poetry available online as machine-readable linked data are threefold: first, the academic community will have an accessible digital platform to work with poetic corpora and to contribute to its enrichment with their own texts; second, this way of encoding and standardizing poetic information will be a guarantee of preservation for poems published only in old books or even transmitted orally, as texts will be digitized and stored; third: datasets and corpora will be available and open access to be used by the community for other purposes, such as education, cultural diffusion or entertainment. POSTDATA will be materialized in the creation of a digital semantic web-based platform for poetry analysis and edition, to study, publish and share digital collections in a virtual research environment using digital humanities open standards combined with traditional philological academic analysis. The environment will be open to any language and type of poetry and accessible for multiple users with different profiles, and it will provide access to digital resources on poetry linked together through data repositories. These data will be subsequently indexed by a search engine and finally provided simultaneously on a Website interface, an API and a single point of access to enriched and open information in accordance with RDF formalism. The proposal is based in three pillars: Semantic modeling, poetry lab and infrastructure deployment. International audience

The Indonesian archipelago plays a major role in the global history of natural disaster. Traditional sources can provide crucial insights into this history, but their full potential has yet to be realized. This paper investigates a diverse range of sources from Java and Bali, spanning the eighth to the twentieth centuries, to ascertain cultural attitudes to disasters, the impacts of disasters on society, and practices of recording disaster events. These sources include royal charters, historical chronicles, temple ruins, traditional paintings, and divination manuals. The paper finds that natural disasters were considered to be signs of power, broadly conceived to include political, spiritual, and natural power. Disasters were therefore closely associated with political change and divine activity. The impacts of disaster, while sometimes severe, were normalized in Indonesian society through practices of augury and tactics of resilience. The paper's culture-focused approach allows for more reliable interpretations of traditional records of specific disaster events, such as a major eruption of Bali's Agung volcano in 1710-11. It can therefore offer valuable insights into how natural disasters have shaped global history in the long term. International audience

From the first epigraphic references in the early sixth century, the Buddhist vihāras in Bengal emerged as institutions with extensive landholdings, crucially depending on patronage from temporal powers. In the seventh and eighth centuries, they accumulated more landholdings as widely scattered land plots, a process facilitated by the growth of sub-regional kingships with several layers of rulers and the emergence of stratified land relations engendering tenurial rights. Vihāras also underwent an organizational development that was required for the management of large landholdings. In the ninth and tenth centuries, Buddhist vihāras flourished under regional kingships establishing ever stronger territorial control. The royal patronage conferred on them access to extensive resources and powers in the donated tracts, but also opened a door to political interference and made them a focus of power struggles between kings and their subordinate rulers. The accounts of the Chinese monk Yijing on the practices followed at vihāras in eastern India in the late seventh century complement the picture that can be sketched from the epigraphic sources, with more information on management of landholdings and administration. International audience

(IF 1.30; Q2); International audience; The present paper deals with the systematic description of the belemnite assemblages from the Lower Jurassic, collected at the Roche Blain quarry, Fresney-le-Puceux. In spite of the reduced thickness of the succession at Fresney-le-Puceux, 13 successive ammonite chronozones could be documented in this rather unique outcrop situation in mainland Europe. Twelve genera and 26 species of belemnites belonging to the Passaloteuthididae, Hastitidae, Megateuthididae, Salpingoteuthididae, and family incertae sedis are described and illustrated herein. The stratigraphical range of the belemnites is correlated with the standard ammonite zonation, using the chronozone concept: the described specimens range from the lower Pliensbachian (Davoei Chronozone) to the uppermost Toarcian (Aalensis Chronozone) while ammonites indicate the Aalenian (Murchisonae Chronozone) to be present too, but these beds delivered no identifiable belemnites so far. The belemnite diversity from Normandy is compared to data from coeval outcrops in Western and Central Europe.; Cet article traite de la systématique des bélemnites du Jurassique inférieur récoltées dans la carrière de la Roche Blain à Fresney-le-Puceux. Malgré l’épaisseur réduite de la succession de Fresney-le-Puceux, 13 chronozones successives d’ammonites ont été documentées dans cet affleurement assez unique en Europe continentale. Douze genres et 26 espèces de bélemnites appartenant aux Passaloteuthididae, aux Hastitidae, aux Megateuthididae et aux Salpingoteuthididae, ainsi qu’à une famille incertae sedis, sont décrits et illustrés ici. L’extension stratigraphique des bélemnites est corrélée avec la zonation standard des ammonites en utilisant le concept de chronozone : les spécimens décrits s’étendent du Pliensbachien (Chronozone à Davoei) au Toarcien supérieur (Chronozone à Aalensis), tandis que les ammonites indiquent que l’Aalénien (Chronozone à Murchisonae) pourrait être présent, mais ces niveaux n’ont pas livré de bélemnites identifiables jusqu’ici. La diversité des bélemnites de Normandie est comparée à celle d’affleurements équivalents en Europe occidentale et centrale.

Summary : An ethno-archaeological approach to timber frames supported by upright posts : the Anjou-Touraine lodges. The Anjou-Touraine lodges are small wooden agricultural buildings structured by upright posts, erected during the 20 th century. This article aims at analysing the different types of architecture recorded among around fifty lodges observed in the Indre-et-Loire and Maine-et-Loire departments. Each type is presented by surveys of the best preserved examples, along with, in certain cases, oral accounts by the builders. The study aims at providing ethno-archaeological data to help answer interrogations about the plans of buildings supported by upright posts discovered through excavation, to throw new light on the corresponding architectures and to observe, in the long term, how wood reacts within the post hole. Les loges d'Anjou-Touraine sont des petits bâtiments agricoles en bois, à poteaux plantés, construits au XX e siècle. Cet article tente d'analyser les différents types architecturaux recensés parmi une cinquantaine de loges observées en Indre-et-Loire et Maine-et-Loire. Chaque type est présenté à travers le relevé des bâtiments les mieux conservés, complété dans certains cas des témoignages oraux de leurs constructeurs. Cette étude a pour but d'apporter des éléments de réponse d'ordre ethnoarchéologique aux questions posées par les plans des bâtiments à poteaux plantés découverts en fouille, d'éclairer les architectures correspondantes et d'observer sur le temps long le compor-tement du bois dans les trous de poteau.