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Henan Province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization and one of the earliest human settlements, which means that the area has an important national cultural heritage. Traditional villages are an important facet of this cultural heritage, and studying their spatiotemporal characteristics in different periods has important theoretical and practical significance for the sustainable development and protection of cultural heritage in the region. This paper takes the traditional villages of the Yellow River basin in Henan Province that were formed before 1919 as the research object. Information on the ancient river was obtained through a literature search as well as via field research, and the important tributaries of the Yellow River in different periods were mapped using ArcGIS 10.0 software. The nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse and other methods were adopted to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of the traditional villages. The factors that influenced the evolution of traditional villages were explored in depth by combining changes in the course of the river and water conservancy projects. The results show that the formation of traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province has experienced a historical track of growth, contraction, growth and prosperity and stability. The traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province generally show a clustered pattern, forming a dense concentration of traditional villages in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The center of gravity shows a migration trend from southeast to northwest. In terms of influencing factors, the spatiotemporal evolution of the relationship between villages and their distance to water is closely related to climatic fluctuations, changes in channel, water conservancy projects and social and cultural factors. This paper deepens our understanding of the relationship between traditional village evolution and watersheds by improving the consistency between village spatial distribution and historical geography and provides a useful theoretical reference for the sustainable development of China's traditional villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are Cy Twombly's sculptures made of? This article presents an overview of a non-destructive examination conducted on three sculptures by American artist Cy Twombly (1928–2011) as part of an art-technological research project at the Doerner Institut in Munich. The artworks are part of the collection of the Brandhorst Museum and belong to Twombly's series of so-called 'Original Sculptures': assemblages of individual found objects, which the artist covered and modified with layers of plaster and white paint. To develop a long-term preservation strategy, the research focused on understanding the materials and construction methods used in Twombly's sculptures. In collaboration with the Chair of Non-Destructive Testing at the Technical University of Munich, the artworks were inspected using X-ray radiography and computed tomography. The results showed that Cy Twombly used various everyday objects made from wood, plastics, metal, and paper/cardboard to build the assemblages. Unexpectedly, the examinations revealed that the individual parts are solely held together by the coating of plaster and paint, lacking additional mechanical connections. The overall structure thus proved to be very fragile and highly sensitive to physical stresses, whether due to handling, transport, or strains in the microstructure caused by climatic fluctuations. Since little was known about Cy Twombly´s choice of materials and manufacturing details, the results offer valuable insights into the overall artistic process and decision-making of one of the most influential artists of the 20th/twenty-first centuries. Conservators can use the art-technological findings to monitor the sculptures 'condition and develop or adapt long-term preservation strategies, including aspects such as ambient climatic conditions and handling storage and transport specifications. In addition, the knowledge generated can be used for further research on the specific materials and transferred to other artworks by Cy Twombly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to understand influences of bulk structure of geomaterials on water storage and transfer, in order to assess durability and climate change impact on the UNESCO world heritage sites in Alexandria, Egypt. This study deals with the responses of water towards the physiochemical and physicomechanical behaviours of Calcarenitic rocks, that are utilized in Greek and Roman monuments at Alexandria. Many vulnerable archaeological sites [2.3–2.5 m above mean sea level (M.S.L)] are identified at Alexandria, specifically at the Eastern Harbor, El-Shatby the Greek necropolis and Moustafa Kamil Roman tombs and addition to the Roman Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa which excavated with deepth − 18 m from the land surface. These UNESCO heritage sites suffer climate change impact (heavy rains and sea water rising) as well as multiple geoenvironmental and geophysical hazards. In this study a general outline of the various tests, surveys and analyses is presented, highlighting the most important issues related to the durability and climate change impact. This paper represents the comprehensive in-situ, field and laboratory surveys and tests undertaken in these outstanding world heritage sites. The field testing program comprises various geotechnical and geophysical field and laboratory tests aiming to define the physical, mechanical and dynamic properties of the hard soils/soft rock materials of the archaeological sites where these outstanding monuments are excavated and constracted. By analysis of linear correlations, some essential mechanisms should be underlined, which may connect the macrostructure to the microstructure of the geomaterial. A systematic method of analysis clearly appeared and emphasized the role of the bulk structure (i.e. grain size, grain contact, specific area, pore shape and microporosity) on petrophysical and petromechanical behavior of rock materials. The study revealed that the petrophysical and geomechanical properties of Calcarenitic rocks are influenced by size, shape, packing of grains, porosity, cement and matrix content, all controlled strongly by depositional fabric and postdepositional processes. The accurate analysis of the physiochemical and physicomechanical behaviours of Calcarenitic rocks that are utilized in Greek and Roman monuments at Alexandria allowed us to define the pathology of these monuments and to estimate the durability, climate change impact and ultimate geostatic loads that they can survive under their present geoenvironmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]