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Alexandria's archaeological sites face a threat of segregation between their vitality as cultural-touristic sites and the community, and so is the case with Kōm al-Nāḍūra archaeological site and its historic urban setting. It is inaccessible and unrecognisable to the public, despite its multi-layered history of the Fatimid and Mamluk eras, Ottomans, the French Expedition and Muḥammad 'Alī's reign. Kōm al-Nāḍūra area is overshadowed by the Greco-Roman archaeological remains, including the Catacombs of Kōm al-Shokāfa, Pompey's Pillar and Kōm ad-Dikka. Also, the site does not connect with other tangible historical assets of cisterns, Arab city wall remains and Sufi mosques. Following the notion of contemporary archaeology for Kōm al-Nāḍūra to endorse it as a catalyst to connect the surrounding traditional activities and integrate its multi-layered heritage to achieve sustainable urban conservation. It promotes intercultural dialogue and connects the spatial-conceptual urban dots. Also, the absence of scientific publications documenting the historic urban setting of Kōm al-Nāḍūra area; raised this paper to investigate its chronological evolution from the Fatimid era until nowadays. It highlights forms of practice and addresses gaps within the political ecologies of urban heritage. If managed by practitioners, collaborations between individuals and the constitution of the heritage of local policies may take place, thus linking culture with sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of the degradation state of an unearthed ancient artefact concerns the identification of the material composition and of the corrosive compounds that are present at the surface. The standard investigation makes use of a combination of invasive and non-invasive techniques and complex devices, while it also relies on the extensive experience of the restorer. The current paper puts forward a new possibility of employing an alternative computational solution with the support of deep learning that recognizes and delineates all the corrosive compounds from stereo microscope images of the surface of a metal item. With the input received from a portable microscope, such a fast non-destructive tool would provide straightforward assistance at the excavation site, as well as a second opinion for novice investigators. Iron archaeological objects are considered and four corrosion compounds are identified and outlined by the deep learning models, i.e. Fe 2 O 3 , FeSO 4 , FeCl 3 and FeO. The results show that the deep computational identification and delimitation of the four corrosive types is meticulous even with a minimal annotation provided for training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restoration of archaeological artefacts is naturally utterly important for preserving the cultural heritage. The first step that is undertaken in this process is the chemical analysis of the object, in order to decide the best procedures for its restoration. The gold standard in approximating the concentration of the elements in its composition (in percentages, between 0 and 100) is performed through an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine. While this is a non-invasive approach, it comes at substantial financial and training costs, and possible radiation exposure of the investigator. In this context, the present paper explores the potential of a deep learning regression model to give an estimate on the concentration of a given element from stereo microscopy slides of historical artefacts, as an alternative means to the XRF. Two problems with different degrees of complexity are examined in turn. The first one is represented by the consideration of iron objects, where the metal is strongly dominant in the chemical structure. The second comes both as a complement to the other, in order to expose the model also to non-iron items, and as a more difficult task of identifying the degree of copper that is present only as part of an alloy constitution. While for iron the one absolute value prediction of the model is always very close to the XRF approximation, copper has a wider distribution of its concentration among objects, which is more challenging to learn; hence, performance for a singular absolute estimation can rise only with the increase in the amount of data. A window of error acceptability was also implemented and it allows for an approximation that is sufficient for grasping the degree of the metal in the composition that is necessary for the restoration procedures. The findings therefore provide a first step in putting forward a computational support tool that represents a less expensive and less dangerous alternative for approximating the elemental analysis before artefact reinstatement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lichens are organisms capable of colonizing almost every type of materials, provided they are stable and have sufficient exposure to light. The growing of lichens on bone surface is rare, due to the speed to which this substrate is weathered and destroyed. For the most part, documented cases occur in extreme environments, such as the Arctic and Antarctic, where bone elements remain unaltered for long periods, although they have also been found in other latitudes. The aim of this paper is to describe the taxonomic diversity of the lichens growing on a set of human bones recovered at a looted Late Holocene aboriginal cairn burial (chenque) in southern continental Patagonia (Piedra Museo archaeological locality, Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz, Argentina). In the analyzed bone assemblage (NISP = 56), a total of 63 lichen thalli were recorded. They were assigned to seven different species, except one case that could only be determined at the genus level. This is the first well-described record of lichen flora growing on human bone remains for South America, having important implications for both archaeological and forensic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team (JCCC), part of the British Ministry of Defence, is responsible for managing the identification of human remains from British casualties who fell during WWI and WWII primarily. With this task in mind, the work to identify and rebury the historic battle casualties is at the heart of this team's work. In addition, the team also considers new evidence regarding possible identification of an individual buried as "unknown" and they administer the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. This paper provides an insight into the work undertaken by this Team, identifying and commemorating the remains of WWI and WWII British casualties. The paper also includes several case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The EnIfPe model assesses how limitations impacted information flow in past societies. • Poor information flow led to compromises in sustainable practices. • The dimensions of our lived environment shape our ability to wield information. • Archaeological cases are essential for contemporary debates on sustainability. Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species' migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society's ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society's ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methods for mass-grave documentation have changed markedly since the first forensic investigations nearly 70 years ago. Recently, however, there has been little advancement in developing new and better methodology, especially when compared to other forensic disciplines and even within traditional archaeology. This paper proposes a new approach, using 3D modelling for the documentation and eventual analysis of mass-graves. Structure-from-Motion (SfM), which creates digital 3D models from a set of still photographs, was tested on a small, simulated mass grave. The results of this test suggest that the method offers resolution previously unavailable to mass-grave investigators, and facilitates stronger analytical potential than the more traditional methods. Further tests are needed to validate these methods, but these initial findings are promising and their application could enhance our knowledge of mass grave dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nan Kiln and Lantian Kiln site in Jingdezhen were excavated in 2012 by Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other units. According to the archaeological materials, many experts agree that the ceramic industry of Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of the ancient world, can be dated back at least to Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD). An in-depth study on the celadon of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties (897–979 AD) unearthed from these two sites is very important for exploring the origin and early development of Jingdezhen ceramic industry. This paper comparatively analyzes the chemical composition and processing characteristics of the celadon aforementioned to shed light on the early celadon of Jingdezhen and its initial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of exhumations of individuals who died during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), since the year 2000, over 780 mass graves have been excavated using archaeological methodology and following forensic protocols. Most of the recovered more than 9600 bodies have tended to be from the Republican civil population, the majority having been executed extrajudicially. However, a number of exhumations relate to the remains of soldiers who died in combat. In fact, approximately 100 individual or mass graves have been investigated and exhumed, containing the remains of combatants. These burials tend to be in the same location where they fell, usually in the front line, or close to the field hospitals where they went after being wounded initially. During the recovery of the human remains, a number of artefacts related to the uniform as well as personal effects have been found. An interdisciplinary approach from archaeology, anthropology, genetics, history and other disciplines has enabled the identification of some of these combatants. The aim of this paper is to present the data obtained from these combatants and highlight the work undertaken in Spain, and the efforts by scientists to exhume, identify and return the remains to relatives where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will discuss the complexity of the investigation of mass graves in today's Serbia (part of ex Yugoslavia), belonging primarily to WWII with an exception of one mass grave from WWI, through the prism of historical events behind it. By interpreting historical and political circumstances, we will show why and on what occasions mass graves, as cultural-historical monuments and symbols of the sufferings of Serbs, Jews, Romani, and other nations or ethnic groups, remained outside the focus of expert teams. Also, through examples of explored sites related to WWII (Višnjica, Topola, Kragujevac, Ada Ciganlija), it will be shown the importance of engaging the forensic expert teams to locate sites, identifing victims and interpretation of historical events from their perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]