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The Greek marble statue of the Auriga of Mozia Island, in Sicily, is the most important artwork displayed at the Whitaker Foundation Archaeological Museum. It underwent geophysical investigations twice, in 2012 and 2021, to assess the marble's degradation. The 2012 investigation prepared the statue for transfer to the Paul Getty Museum in New York and repositioning on an anti-seismic pedestal. The 2021 investigation evaluated potential new damage before another transfer. Both investigations utilized 3D ultrasonic tomography (UST) to detect degraded marble areas and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to identify internal discontinuities, such as fractures or lesions, and locate metal pins that were previously inserted to reassemble the statue and its pedestal. Results from the UST indicate an average marble velocity of approximately 4700 m/s, suggesting good mechanical strength, with some areas showing lower velocities (~3000 m/s) within the material's variability range. The GPR profiles demonstrated internal signal homogeneity, excluding internal fracture surfaces or lesions, and confirmed the presence of metallic pins. This study highlights the effectiveness of integrating UST and GPR for non-invasive diagnostics of marble sculptures, providing detailed insights into the marble's condition and identifying hidden defects or damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses the origins and history of the British Museum, highlighting key figures and collections that contributed to its formation. It explores the concept of the "cabinet of curiosity" and the motivations behind the establishment of the museum. The text also touches on the controversy surrounding the Parthenon Marbles and the efforts of the museum to acknowledge the contested nature of some of its collections. Additionally, it mentions the British Museum's initiative to move away from its Euro-centric focus and recognize items from the British Empire. [Extracted from the article]

The article takes a look at the treatment of marble surfaces by examining various busts by sculptor Louis François Roubiliac, particularly the busts of Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke and other busts at Wilton House in Wiltshire, England. Topics discussed include pattern of the folds of the drapery from the sitter's right shoulder and terracotta relief, connection between Mary, Countess of Pembroke, Martin Folkes and Sir Andrew Fountaine, and finishes characteristic of Roubiliac's marbles.

i points beyond itself as it stylizes the ambiguity inherent in all things that are made: their capacity to include I and i exclude, protect I and i harm, create I and i destroy. Heaton's I Zen Men i are lumped together; in one we can just about make out a thinker's pose, while the other merely slouches. i (2007, see Figure 1) by Southport- and London-based sculptor and performance artist Tony Heaton, we first encounter an uninviting fortress made from the same stone as St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and the Bank of England. The original blue (which, Heaton notes, became derogatively known as spaz blue) turns into lamé, a shimmering fabric, which is a play on the word I lame i , indicating the fickle balance between ability and disability. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on the role of the most common mineralogical techniques applied to the identification of the different statuary qualities in white, grey, and black Göktepe marble. For this purpose, the case of a Roman sculpture marble collection from the rural villa of Valdetorres de Jarama (central Iberia), dating to the 4th century AD, is presented. The mythological statuary, combining white, grey, and black marbles, is one of the most outstanding marble collections in the Aphrodisian style found in Hispania. The analytical results (achieved through Petrography, Cathodoluminescence, C and O isotopes, and Sr and Mn concentration) support the identification of two varieties of "black" Göktepe, traditionally referred to as bigio morato and bigio antico, as well as the best statuary quality of white Göktepe. In addition, the analytical identification of other Asiatic marbles in the Valdetorres collection, a white coarse-grain originally from the quarries of Aphrodisias city, and one small piece identified as Carian red from Iasos, corroborates the already suggested strong connection existing between artists and the stone material they chose for their works. Finally, the identification carried out on the marble of the bases that served as seats for the sculptures is noteworthy, as it is a white marble of lower quality whose analytical characteristics are consistent with the Microasiatic marble of Denizli. The use of these exotic and exceptional raw materials confirms the taste for luxury and decorative richness in Late Antique Hispanic rural villae and contributes to a better understanding of the distribution of Aphrodisian production and trade networks with the Western Roman provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Bertha Burleigh's 1912 marble and onyx monument to the war artist Melton Prior (1845–1910) alongside a range of earlier memorials to 'special correspondents' in the crypt in St Paul's Cathedral. It considers the monument in the context of significant shifts in the nature of war reportage in the early twentieth century, as new and increasingly brutal technologies and methods of war placed significant strain on romantic Victorian conceptions of conflict. Exploring the extent to which war artists such as Prior were implicated in the violence they were tasked with documenting, the article also asks how such visual reportage informed the racial politics of memory embodied in the crypt, anointing some men as imperial heroes worthy of sombre commemoration and others as 'ungrieveable'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the perhaps surprising centrality of sculptural engagements with Afghanistan and the broader north-west frontier of the Raj during the century after the Battle of Waterloo. The article ranges across a broad array of commemorative media, from standing white marble figurative statues and portrait busts, through allegorical mourning figures and memorial brasses, to High Church religious sculpture and scenes of biblical history. It argues that sculptors never really settled on a sculptural iconography for Afghanistan, in spite of drawing on key photographic and print representations of the region, but that the very malleability of the genre of Anglo-Afghan monuments in St Paul's might itself have collectively represented a necessary linguistic, conceptual and personal mobility on the north-west frontier of the Raj. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on the need for a comprehensively conscious conservation approach when dealing with ancient stone sculptures coming from historical collections, that is to say those antiquities that were collected from the Renaissance onwards and were thus sometimes radically modified due to restorations accomplished between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. In the last decades, after the abandonment of the destructive approach of ent-restaurierung (de-restoration) widely practiced during the twentieth century, the preservation of marble accretions has gradually acquired a recognized historical significance, but still today inadequate attention seems to be paid concerning cleaning and surface issues. As demonstrated both by written sources and material evidence, cleaning used to be a crucial and extensive component of historical conservation treatments, often resulting in a dramatic alteration of the ancient piece. Patination and surface applications were part of the historical treatments. As shown by the recent conservation and exhibition of the Torlonia marbles, newly performed treatments aiming at preserving the rich and multi-layered history that sculptures acquired over time should be more careful in considering such aspects, both in terms of treatments and in the exhibition of objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a list of references cited in an article titled "When Blue and White Obscure Black and Red: Conditions of Wedgwood's 1787 Antislavery Medallion." The article explores the historical context and significance of Josiah Wedgwood's anti-slavery medallion, examining the use of color and symbolism in the piece. The references include sources on topics such as the creation of color in eighteenth-century Europe, the history of the color blue, the use of ceramics in Cherokee culture, and the representation of race in art. The article aims to provide a comprehensive and well-researched analysis of Wedgwood's medallion and its cultural implications. [Extracted from the article]

Harriet Hosmer's lost sculpture The Pompeian Sentinel (c. 1877) marks a dramatic shift at the end of her artistic career, from highly idealized and beautifully finished white marble figures to experimental media and a more expansive stylistic approach. Displayed in London in 1878, Hosmer's statue was a monument to a mythical sentinel, made famous through Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel The Last Days of Pompeii. This article explores the implications of the work's material, and its relationship to Pompeii's most morbid artefacts, the plaster casts of the victims' bodies made most successfully and famously by Giuseppe Fiorelli after 1863. Hosmer's use of plaster and wax suggests a connection to the cast bodies through material and historical similarities, if not exact resemblance. Rather than arguing that Hosmer was attempting to replicate the casts exactly, this article explores the parallel myths and narratives, popular connections and material similarities between Bulwer-Lytton's novel, the plaster bodies and the sculpture, including the scientific and archaeological debunking of these myths. It problematizes the use of narrative and critique in analysing an untraced work through a single fragmentary image, and uses material and textual histories to explore the absent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zephyrus is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Environmental geochemistry examines the presence, dispersion, and movement of elements on the Earth's surface. This research explores the environmental geochemistry of the Idofian area in Kwara State, Nigeria, with a particular emphasis on water and stream sediments. The heavy metals were ascertained using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). The study revealed the presence of marble, diorite, gneiss, pegmatite and amphibolite in the Idofian area. Furthermore, the XRD analysis provided information about the mineral composition including quartz, micas, lepidolite, laumontite, orthoclase, plagioclase, dolomite and anthophyllite. The findings revealed the absence of sediment contamination, while highlighting substantial contamination in the study area's water. This contamination, attributed to a combination of geogenic and anthropogenic factors, underscores the crucial necessity for implementing sustainable management practices in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A selection of the most outstanding white marble sculptures from Tarraco has been archaeometrically studied to know more about the marble sources and their respective artistic workshops. All are imperial portraits of the 2nd century AD (Trajan, Hadrian, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius) and a thoracata bust assigned to Hadrian, found on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona (MNAT). The well-established multimethod approach, combining petrography, cathodoluminescence, C and O isotopes and Sr and Mn trace element composition, has revealed the use of different very fine- to fine-grained marbles of the highest quality exploited in classical times. In contrast to what was thought until now, in which all the pieces had been assigned to Luni-Carrara, this present study identifies the use of two varieties of the recently discovered site of Göktepe near Aphrodisias and Paros-lychnites marbles, being Carrara, in minority. This study confirms the importance of strontium concentration and the contribution of cathodoluminescence to distinguish Göktepe from Carrara marble, while carbon and oxygen isotopes were crucial for the identification of Cycladic marble. Finally, in line with recent published interdisciplinary studies, the marble provenance forces us to rethink the discourse on the use of marble, its sculptural workshops and its distribution in this temporal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1863 a French archaeological mission led by Consul Charles Champoiseau dug up part of the bust and body of a large female statue on the now Greek island of Samothrace. Currently, the Winged Victory of Samothrace is one of the most reproduced works of art in the world, but its discovery was surrounded by political intrigue. Further excavations were planned, but the Ottoman Empire's policies on accessing and extracting objects from archaeological sites became an obstacle. In order to continue his work, Champoiseau began a series of negotiations with Osman Hamdi Bey, a painter and the director of the Ottoman Imperial Museum, in which he used copies of the statue as bargaining chips. Two plaster casts of the sculpture were sent to Hamdi Bey as diplomatic gifts with the intention of defusing political tensions. The main aim of this article is to examine the political implications of the plaster casts of the Winged Victory that travelled between France and the Ottoman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La Vetta e L'Abisso is a sequence of photographs which address the problems associated with over-mining in the famous white marble mines of Carrara, Tuscany. As a visual essay, the series attempts to undercut contemporary notions of the sublime in the documentation of mineral extractivism, which has been dominant in recent years due to the popularity of photographers such as Edward Burtynsky. Furthermore, the title of the essay, and the display of the monochrome large format photographs with the addition of a gold-selenium tone, alludes to eco-Marxist notions of commodity fetishism and social alienation, which underpin the exploitative logic of capitalist (re-)production. Drawing on the authors previously published critical commentaries on the qualities of photography and environmental activism, this essay proposes an approach to praxis which undercuts the distant passivity of the sublime in favour of encountering the negative effects of extractivism first-hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Babylon Center for Humanities Studies is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Philostrato is the property of Epiarte, S.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Complutum is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Animal combats (venationes) were a popular entertainment in the Roman world. Splashy panels of inlaid marble (opus sectile) commemorate these bloody contests in several buildings in and around Rome. Among the most well-known are survivals from the 4th century CE Basilica of Junius Bassus and, several decades later, the marble-revetted hall from Porta Marina at Ostia. On the face of it, the wall decoration from these sites memorializes typical Roman activities, but the panels expose the vast geography implicated in these combat spectacles. The brilliant stones used to render them came from lands as far off as the Caspian tigers and Asiatic lions they depicted. The iconography of the panels was also foreign: the animal combat, or symplegma (intertwining), is seen on works from pre-Achaemenid sculpture to Sasanian textiles, and most recognizably, at the Achaemenid palace at Persepolis, where a lion attacks a bull in relief on the Apadana stairway. Reading these panels through a Persianist lens illuminates the ways in which the Persepolitan model animated Roman themes and visual programs. Though they recalled events in the Roman arena, they also imparted political and astrological signification to the decoration by means of their Persian associations. By alluding to the Achaemenid empire, a great power of the past and a continuing rival in the form of the Sasanians, the Roman patron accrued to himself some measure of the veneration for this culture and showed himself able to communicate in an idiom legible to an international clientele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meristematic black fungi are a highly damaging group of microorganisms responsible for the deterioration of outdoor exposed monuments. Their resilience to various stresses poses significant challenges for removal efforts. This study focuses on the community of meristematic fungi inhabiting the external white marble of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, where they contribute to its darkening. Twenty-four strains were isolated from two differently exposed sites of the Cathedral, and their characterization was conducted. Phylogenetic analysis using ITS and LSU rDNA regions revealed a wide diversity of rock-inhabiting fungal strains within the sampled areas. Eight strains, belonging to different genera, were also tested for thermal preferences, salt tolerance, and acid production to investigate their tolerance to environmental stressors and their interaction with stone. All tested strains were able to grow in the range of 5–30 °C, in the presence 5% NaCl, and seven out of eight strains were positive for the production of acid. Their sensitivities to essential oils of thyme and oregano and to the commercial biocide Biotin T were also tested. The essential oils were found to be the most effective against black fungi growth, indicating the possibility of developing a treatment with a low environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses different approaches to the problems of restoration of marble sculpture in terms of the philosophical justifications taken towards the artworks. One of the aims of the paper is to contrast the approach taken towards the subject of restoration by Western philosophers and to compare that with the field of conservation. A few brief paragraphs frame the discussion of restoration. The nature of the fragment in its historical and aesthetic duality is then discussed, taking a brief incursion into the topic of supervenience. Michelangelo's Pietà and its restoration, following from extensive damage caused in 1974 by a museum visitor, results in a series of disputations between writers who favour a purist restoration and those who prefer an aesthetic reintegration of the work. The work of several philosophers who have written about sculpture and restoration is reviewed. The Pietà case study is contrasted with the restoration of the Lansdowne Heracles in the Getty Museum. It is essential to also consider here marble sculpture in terms of works that have been re-restored, de-restored, and deceptively partially restored, taking as a seminal example of the latter, the Adam by Lombardo in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The conclusion attempts to bring together some of the issues raised in the paper, including a discussion of the extent to which information is displayed in the museum for the benefit of the observer, and the importance of the role of the conservator in all aspects of the de-restoration and re-restoration of marble sculpture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth Sciences Museum of the University of Bari (Italy) boasts the presence of a precious and complete nineteenth-century collection of white marbles and colored stones used by the Romans to embellish their buildings and, afterward, reuse in new buildings and artworks for their high symbolic and aesthetic value. This collection, arranged by Francesco and Filippo Belli, consists of 577 samples and a printed inventory and other documents, which allowed to reconstruct the history of the collection. Another collection of 29 marble samples was donated to the museum in 2010 by the Armenise family. Both collections represent a very useful reference tool in provenance studies for marble pieces at the archaeological and artistic sites and for samples of other collections. The systematic organization of these collections and their sharing among scholars, especially through the web network, is clearly essential. The work presented here focuses on the most recent discoveries about Belli's collection, on the results of the identification of Armenise's marbles and stones, and above all, on the actions undertaken in recent years in order to valorize this museum's heritage. Specifically, both collections were reorganized following novel insights about lithotypes and the provenance of each sample, a detailed database including data on each sample was created, and a website reporting information and images of the two collections was built in order to guarantee the correct dissemination of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 and 2021 excavation seasons at Corinth explored an area in the southern third of the field northeast of the Theater, where work has focused since 2018. Among the results of these two seasons were the discoveries of a Roman road (cardo) running northward from the paved plaza northeast of the Theater and of a sumptuous Roman room lined with marble-veneered benches and paved with an opus sectile floor. The excavations also brought to light more evidence of the Byzantine road that succeeded the Roman cardo and slight remains of other Byzantine structures, including a small circular structure, perhaps an oven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines eight marble samples from the architectural elements and liturgical furniture of the ecclesiastical complex of Santa Giustina in Padova (Italy), founded by the Rufus Venantius Opilio before AD 524. The provenance determination of the marbles was carried out by means of a multi-analytical approach combining mineralogical–petrographic investigations, performed by microscopic observations of thin sections, and the measurement of the ratios of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes. The results obtained were compared with up-to-date petrographic and isotopic databases (Antonelli and Lazzarini 2015), and they showed that the analyzed marbles come from the quarries of the island of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, modern Marmara Adası (Turkey). Archaeometric evidence, together with the stylistic and functional analysis of the pieces, suggests the direct importation of a complete set of sculptures, shipped at different stages of workmanship from the workshops of Constantinople and expressly ordered by a single patron, who can be identified as Opilio, founder of the basilica of Santa Giustina and praetorian prefect at the court of King Theodoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on marble samples from sculpture fragments found at Beth Shean, Israel, aimed at identifying their origin and potential dating. Samples from a hand and a head were analyzed using various techniques, including optical microscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and stable isotope analysis. Comparison with known ancient marble quarries suggests distinct origins for the two samples, indicating they likely belong to different statues.

The article delves into the analysis of a marble head believed to be a Roman portrait of Alexander the Great, originating from Tel Beth Shean, an archeological site in Israel and currently housed in the Israel Museum. While initially considered a Hellenistic statue of Dionysos by some scholars, subsequent analyses proposed it as a portrait of Alexander, with debates continuing into the post-World War II era.

Many museums have been producing reproductions for several years to replace artworks weakened by outdoor exhibition. Among these, in order to imitate the original aesthetic, the French consortium Réunion des Musées Nationaux–Grand Palais has chosen to work from large-format marble sculpture molds to complex composite materials based on resins comprising mineral fillers. However, similar to the original works of art, these reproductions age and deteriorate due to constant outdoor exposure. For this reason, current research focuses on the preventive conservation and monitoring of the structural health of these reconstructed objects. The goal of this paper was to study the resin/mineral powder composite materials used to produce cultural heritage reproductions of sculptures. This work is oriented toward a comparison of the mechanical properties of composite materials used in the replacement of cultural heritage sculptures (for instance, in the Garden of the Palace of Versailles or the Rodin Museum). The objectives were to first characterize the physical and mechanical properties of these materials in order to identify the most suitable material for cultural heritage reproduction, and secondly, to propose a method with minimal contact that obtained equivalent information as analyses performed with conventional ultrasonic techniques. These nondestructive evaluation techniques could be used for laboratory and in situ analyses. Samples of different polymer/mineral powder filler compositions were analyzed by compressional, shear and surface waves, generated by a 1 MHz center frequency ultrasonic transducer. Firstly, the measurements made it possible to evaluate the velocities of the bulk acoustic waves and extract the Young's modulus of each tested material. Secondly, in order to have minimal contact with the analyzed structure, a laser interferometry system was used to detect waves at the surface and follow their propagation. The results clearly showed the possibility of using this technique to extract mechanical characteristics of composite materials, allowing for selection of material for the reproduction of large-format statues. For different types of polymer resins, the ability of ultrasonic analysis to track the impact of rock powder (marble or slate) on the mechanical properties of these synthetic materials was clearly observed, proving that this technique holds promise for monitoring the structural health of large-format artwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exhibition's curator, Francesco Caglioti, whose scholarship and ideas shaped at every turn the attributions and arguments of this beautiful show and its catalogue, writes in the latter's preface of the Donatello "earthquake [ I terremoto i ]", an event so "violent [ I violento i ]" that it caused "continual tremors [ I ripetute scosse i ]". This exhibition amply and vividly demonstrated how Donatello's followers and artistic descendants, especially in the geographic regions where he was most active, engaged with stylistic elements of his sculptures (expressions, bodies, poses, drapery, compositions, and spatial settings), the types he renewed (e.g., the I spiritello i , the freestanding nude), the carving techniques he devised, and his focus on emotion. Before 2022, comprehensive museum exhibitions featured Donatello's art twice: in 1887, on the fifth centenary of his birth, and in 1985-6, when an exhibition staged in three cities marked the sixth centenary. The exhibition expanded, potentially, even beyond these sites, as signage encouraged visitors to explore other cultural institutions in Florence and outside the city in Tuscany where additional examples of Donatello's art can be found - or where sculptures included in the exhibition usually reside. [Extracted from the article]

The collection of antiquities displayed at Gołuchów castle in Poland by Izabela Działyńska was one of the largest private collections in Europe of ancient works of art from the Middle East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Ancient pottery, stelae from Cyprus, fragments of Roman marble sculpture, and a large collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts were exhibited in the Greek Vases Hall, the Antiquities Hall, and the Egyptian Hall. The invasion of Poland by Nazi troops on 1 September 1939 and the attack of Soviet troops on 17 September started a two-front war in Poland. On 28 September 1939, the German-Soviet Frontier and Friendship Treaty was signed, marking the border between the two aggressors on Polish lands along the line of the rivers San-Bug-Narew-Pisa. This division of Poland continued until the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941. As a result of these wartime events, the collection of Izabela Działyńska was dispersed. Many of the objects are now in various museums in Poland, but some, including ancient artefacts and other valuable works of art, are considered lost. It cannot be ruled out that some were destroyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ge-Conservación is the property of Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Adalya is the property of Koc University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the article, "Smear Gel Paper for a Contingent Marble Sculpture. A Reply to some Critics" Sorgner answers selected criticisms of his monograph "We have always been cyborgs" (2022) which were put forward by Russel Blackford, Steven Umbrello, Steve Fuller, Maurizio Balistreri, and John Danaher. The meaning of the term "violence" was central for issues raised by Russel Blackford. Steven Umbrello questions whether Sorgner has sufficiently taken into consideration the ethical turn towards design-embedded norms and values. According to Steve Fuller, Sorgner presents a bioconservative, cishuman transhumanism. There is a difference between replanning the human and enhancing human capacities, according to Maurizio Balistreri. John Danaher confronts Sorgner's weak transhumanism with arguments in favour of a classic version of transhumanism. Each criticism is being dealt with in a separate sub-chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-technique approach combining petrographic, cathodoluminescence, and stable isotope analyses is commonly used in provenance studies of archaeological marbles. In the present paper, this characterization approach transcends provenance, and it is applied to the reconstruction of fragmented sculptures. The potential of this novel application of archaeometric measurements is illustrated with a case study consisting in 16 scattered marble fragments retrieved from a Roman villa (Els Munts) near Tarraco (presently Northeastern Spain). The samples were grouped taking into account their similarity in quantified parameters such as the cathodoluminescence color clusters and the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios. The results permitted classification of the fragments into three groups corresponding to three different statues depicting Antinous (7 fragments), Minerva goddess (4 fragments), and an undetermined character (3 fragments). Two other fragments could not be ascribed to any particular statue. The archaeometric grouping provides arguments that can be used to confirm or refute archaeological hypotheses of statue reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aesthetics as commonly understood is bound up in Western notions of beauty, taste, discernment, worthiness, and superiority. One need only peruse 19th-century writings on 'primitive art', or how cultural gatekeepers of refinement and respectability responded to every innovative musical trend of the 20th century, to appreciate that aesthetics is enmeshed within notions of cultural supremacy and hierarchies of value. This paper argues that for archaeological analysis of aesthetic experience to generate productive insight into cultural dynamics, it must return to the term's conceptual foundations as the perception and feeling of things. The archaeology of aesthetics can benefit from the perspective of material engagement, which examines how recursive relationships between materials, perception, skill, and social interaction constitute subjective and intersubjective experiences of affective value. To demonstrate such an approach, this paper engages in a brief case study of Cycladic sculpting, examining the relationships between the properties of marble and the development of skill, attention, and social interaction. The paper concludes with a reflection upon how aesthetic experience is intrinsic to the semiotics of value and collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In preparation for my first review, I have had the pleasure to read books that showcase the current breadth of contemporary study of ancient visual and material cultures, from subjects as diverse as canine skeletons in Athens, Egyptian papyri, and medieval mosques, and approaches ranging from the close analysis of pigment on Roman marble sculpture to the exploration of 'viewsheds' on the acropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]