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Abstract The term “stress” remains poorly defined, often misused, and has clearly lost its meaning in the study of archaeological human remains. In this special issue we reconsider the use of this term in human remains research, to untangle what we actually mean when we say “stress” in archaeology. To this aim, we looked at this topic from two broad perspectives: dental anthropology and paleopathology. Based on revision of the previous work on this topic, the new contributions of this issue, and in the light of the rapid advancement in other medical disciplines, we conclude that the term “stress” is not suitable for the study of archaeological skeletal remains unless it is precisely defined (e.g. mechanical stress).

In this paper, we present a statistical approach to Language Understanding that allows to avoid the effort of obtaining new semantic models when changing the language. This way, it is not necessary to acquire and label new training corpora in the new language. Our approach consists of learning all the semantic models in a target language and to do the semantic decoding of the sentences pronounced in the source language after a translation process. In order to deal with the errors and the lack of coverage of the translations, a mechanism to generalize the result of several translators is proposed. The graph of words generated in this phase is the input to the semantic decoding algorithm specifically designed to combine statistical models and graphs of words. Some experiments that show the good behavior of the proposed approach are also presented.

Abstract Excavations at the site of Bosutswe on the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana have uncovered over 4 m of deposit ranging in age from CE 700 to 1700. Our research has produced quantitative and qualitative measures of the material and ecological dimensions that structured the everyday actions and behaviors through which social identities were constituted, maintained, and transformed during the period when the polities of Toutswe, Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Khami rose to power. By examining the material dimensions that underlay shifting relations of production, exchange, and social stratification we are able to contextualize the social judgments that ascribed value to material goods and food ways, while specifying the ways these were used to create and naturalize social relationships and power differentials. Stable isotope analyses, combined with evidence of vitrified dung, further enable us to suggest changes in herd management strategies used by the inhabitants of the site to compensate for ecological changes brought about by long-term occupation, while at the same time enabling them to economically tie subordinates to them as social divisions became more rigidly defined after CE 1300. The cultural and economic changes that took place at Bosutswe thus directly impact our understanding of the social transformations that immediately preceded contemporary configurations of ethnicity in Botswana.

Its focus on dependencies and patterns in relational data makes network science a promising addition to the analytic toolbox in archaeology. Despite its tradition in a number of other fields, however, the methodology of network science is only in development and its scope and proper usage are subject to debate. We argue that the historical linkage with graph theory and limitations in commonly available software form an obstacle to leveraging the full potential of network methods. This is illustrated via replication of a study of Maya obsidian (Golitko et al. Antiquity, 2012), in which it seemed necessary to discard detailed information in order to represent data in networks suitable for further processing. We propose means to avoid such information loss by using methods capable of handling valued rather than binarized data. The resulting representations corroborate previous conclusions but are more reliable and thus justify a more detailed interpretation of shifting supply routes as an underlying process contributing to the collapse of Maya urban centers. Some general conclusions for the use of network science in archaeology are offered. published

In the summer of 1972 the Isle of Wight River and Water authority undertook extensive modification of the course of the River Medina near Newport, Isle of Wight. In one area, New Shide Bridge (SZ505883), it was necessaryto cut a new channel for the stream, involving excavation to a depth of some 5 m below the present river flood-plain. The section of alluvial deposits thus exposed was visible for only a short time, due to rapid flooding, but it proved possible to draw, photograph and sample the sediments, which included a stratified peat bed containing valuable palaeoenvironmental remains.

Abstract: This short contribution presents faunal data from new fieldwork at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France). This important sequence continues to serve as both a reference sequence to which other Western European Middle Palaeolithic sites are often compared and the basis of several models of Neanderthal subsistence and environmental context. However, several researchers have highlighted the likelihood that skeletal part profiles were biased as a consequence of the incomplete recovery methods used during previous excavations at Combe-Grenal. A comparison of faunal remains recovered during new excavations with data from the original collections allows recovery bias induced by previous excavation protocols to be quantified. The unreliability of the original skeletal part profiles is confirmed by our study, while, more importantly and unexpectedly, radical biases in species frequencies were equally identified. These results cast doubts on several interpretive models held to account for variability in Mousterian industries, the evolution of Neanderthal hunting strategies, as well as Pleistocene environmental changes. Furthermore, Combe-Grenal provides an instructive example to archaeologists working on sites with less than ideal recovery methods of faunal material. In such cases, recovery biases may be so substantial than even basic faunal data, such as species lists, prove unreliable.

[EN] The application of integrated survey techniques and 3D modelling methodologies for Cultural Heritage analysis is now considered a consolidated process, while preserving and suggesting continuous research lines related from one side to the evolution of acquisition and restitution instruments, from the other to the problems linked to the specific case study and the goal of the research. This article describes the analysis of one of the largest and best-preserved gates of Rome, located within the Aurelian walls: Porta San Sebastiano. The original name of this gate was Porta Appia, transformed in the Middle Ages into San Sebastiano from the name of the Christian martyr buried in the Basilica on the Via Appia, located just outside the walls. The current gate aspect is the result of many architectural changes over the centuries, as well as a transformation happened in the twentieth century which has led it to a residential use, a unique example of its kind. Through the integration of different survey techniques, a geometric analysis of the complex building is completed, highlighting the construction complexity and the spatial articulation. A parametric model of a portion of the building is then suggested, aimed at understanding the logic underlying the definition of a HBIM model related to an existing complex artefact. Through an integrated analysis, the aim of the article is to provide an advancement in the knowledge of the specific Cultural Heritage through the integration of complementary methods of analysis and representation.

A public latrine in the 'Imperial Baths' of Sagalassos was transformed into a dump site in the early Byzantine period. Several layers of urban waste, including ceramics, bones, glass and perhaps excrements were deposited on the floor. Faecal biomarker analyses and archaeobotanical analyses were conducted to reconstruct the history of the room. 5β-stanols of human origin, such as coprostanol, were found in the sewage channels together with mineralised plant remains, indicating a human faecal context. The botanical remains are furthermore representative of the Roman diet of the Sagalassians. Soil layers, deposited on top of the latrine floor and dating to the early Byzantine period, contained herbivore derived 5β-stanols, such as 5β-stigmastanol and epi-5β-stigmastanol. Additionally, a clear predominance of epi-5β-stanols over 5β-stanols showed that the animal dung has been subject to composting. In this period, the former latrine was clearly used as a manure production site which is further confirmed by stratigraphic evidence of large amounts of urban waste artefacts, which were commonly collected together with manure before application on the fields. The results of the present study support the theory of off-site potsherd scattering as a proxy for manuring events. Additionally, the data show key evidence for vertical migration of 5β-stanols and presumably also for the leaching of bile acids. ispartof: Journal of Archaeological Science vol:39 issue:4 pages:1143-1159 status: published