Search

The purpose of this paper is to encourage a reflection on the changes that occurred in Aegean archaeological terminology during the last sixty years. Comparing select Nestor database entries with the same entries in the JSTOR digital library, it is possible to recognize the appearance, popularity, and eventual decline of specific words used in books and articles titles. The changing use of archaeological terminology also potentially parallels the socio-anthropological use of the same terms.

IntroductionX-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is the most common inherited peroxisomal disorder caused by variants in the ABCD1 gene. The main phenotypes observed in men with X-ALD are primary adrenal insufficiency, adrenomyeloneuropathy, and cerebral ALD (cALD). Cerebral ALD consists of a demyelinating progressive cerebral white matter (WM) disease associated with rapid clinical decline and is fatal if left untreated. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the standard treatment for cALD as it stabilizes WM degeneration when performed early in the disease. For this reason, early diagnosis is crucial, and several countries have already implemented their newborn screening programs (NBS) with the assessment of C26:0-lysophosphatidylcholine (C26:0-LPC) values as screening for X-ALD.MethodsIn June 2021, an Italian group in Lombardy launched a pilot study for the implementation of X-ALD in the Italian NBS program. A three-tiered approach was adopted, and it involved quantifying the values of C26:0-LPC and other metabolites in dried blood spots with FIA-MS/MS first, followed by the more specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) technique and, finally, the genetic confirmation via focused NGS.DiscussionGenetically confirmed patients are set to undergo a follow-up protocol and are periodically evaluated to promptly start a specific treatment if and when the first signs of brain damage appear, as suggested by international guidelines. A specific disease monitoring protocol has been created based on literature data and personal direct experience.ConclusionThe primary aim of this study was to develop a model able to improve the early diagnosis and subsequent follow-up and timely treatment of X-ALD.EthicsThe study was approved by the local ethics committee. The research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationship that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The Mediterranean common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, was an important symbolic icon in the Greek Bronze Age, and is a very widespread motif encountered on pottery, paintings, jewellery and so on, although its connotation is not fully understood. This cephalopod is one of the 13 autochthonous octopods living in the Mediterranean and the most easily observable because it can be found in very shallow waters. In agreement with its scientific and vernacular names - e.g. Greek: ???????, English: octopus - the actual Octopus vulgaris has eight arms (or tentacles). However, in many Bronze age representations, the common octopus is figured with a variable number of arms, including odd numbers which disrupt its natural bilateral symmetry: we can find octopuses with 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and also 10 tentacles. Through an integrated analysis of archaeological contexts, iconographies with 'wrong' numbers of tentacles, zoological identification and biological features, the paper will explore the various ways it was represented, as well as human-animal interactions and possible symbolic meanings of this truly fascinating animal.

Nei territori del Mediterraneo interno, spesso caratterizzati da limitata accessibilità e scarsa attrattività, la presenza diffusa di siti archeologici anche 'minori' può rivelarsi come una chiave di interpretazione di paesaggi in divenire e di orientamento per strategie di valorizzazione turistica integrata. In questi ambiti, il progetto di itinerari tematici multipli, accessibili e in rete può sistematizzare le peculiarità paesaggistiche e le forme di turismo compatibile, andando a definire trame di fruizione integrata e differenziata misurate dalla presenza di tappe archeologiche. Nei Balcani interni, zona di transito tra Oriente e Occidente già in età preistorica, la grande diffusione di siti archeologici testimonia il particolare senso che questo territorio ha avuto nel corso dei secoli come terreno d'incontro tra culture differenti e di scontro fra opposti imperialismi. Tra i maggiori insediamenti della Dalmazia romana, le antiche città di Doclea, (I-VII sec. d.C.) a nord della capitale Podgorica, e Municipium S, (I-V sec. d.C.) nel comune di Pljevlja a confine con la Serbia, presentano notevoli fattori di interesse in relazione alla costruzione di una prospettiva di valorizzazione legata all'Heritage Tourism. Ancora poco conosciuti a livello internazionale e in parte non scavati, i due siti sono al centro delle attività di ricerca di due progetti bilaterali Italia - Montenegro sviluppati dall'Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. L'obiettivo dei progetti è quello di definire un approccio concreto e intersettoriale e una metodologia interscalare di valorizzazione dei paesaggi archeologici, che tenga conto delle differenti caratteristiche delle rovine e dei contesti, per orientare prospettive di sviluppo complessivo per questi territori a partire dalla loro specifica identità di aree di transito. In questo senso, il contributo presenta una prospettiva di valorizzazione del paesaggio dei Balcani interni attraverso la reinterpretazione dei due siti come tappe archeologiche di un sistema più ampio di fruizione turistica. Definita dal paesaggio fluviale e collinare della fascia periurbana settentrionale di Podgorica, Doclea viene riletta come l'innesco di una rete di percorsi escursionistici a carattere storico-naturalistico ed etnografico verso il doppio lungo fiume e i rilievi circostanti punteggiati da insediamenti fortificati. Più a nord, Municipium S rappresenta la tappa archeologica di un itinerario legato alla natura montuosa e selvaggia del paesaggio già caratterizzato da parchi attrezzati per lo svolgimento di attività sportive all'aperto e agli aspetti storico-religiosi in relazione alla presenza di importanti monumenti e del Museo Civico di Pljevlja

This paper presents a feasibility study for the electrification of a farming tractor. In such an application the working cycle is not that trivial and then the system design is not straightforward: power has to be supplied at both road and power take off for implements. The purpose of this paper is to prove the convenience in adopting hyrid tractor. Therefore, duty cycles and powertrains for agriculture are introduced. Then, by means of simulations, consumptions are compared between traditional and hybrid tractor, including costs analysis. As first approach, the benefit of full electric mode usability for light duty is proved, regardless innovative power management strategies [1]. For this work a plug-in solution has been preferred, powered with a parallel mild hybrid electric powertrain.

Since 2017, a multidisciplinary research project has been in progress for the study and enhancement of the Roman town of Doclea in Montenegro and the area in which the archaeological site is located. Located a few kilometres from the capital Podgorica, Doclea has seen in the last century long phases of abandonment, alternating with some archaeological excavations, but not apparently integrated in a long-term strategy. The necessity to breathe new life into a site so important for the cultural identity of Montenegro has encouraged cross-discipline dialogues and frequent exchanges between the Italian team of the National Research Council, made up of archaeologists, topographers, remote sensing experts, geophysics and architects, and the Montenegrin team, of historians of the University and conservators of the Superintendence. The Italian expertize in dealing with very complex cultural settlements and landscapes has worked as a stimulus for the creation of a shared intervention protocol and methodology. The need to preserve and enhance the entire area, in cultural and economic terms, produced a real 'cultural contamination' of different views and actors, such as archaeologists and architects, with their varying points of convergences and divergences. The final result is a project aimed at a profound modification not only of the area itself with the construction of infrastructures and facilities, but also the global perception and appreciation of an ancient site by the local population and international visitors.

The Roman town of Doclea is one of the most important archaeological site of Montenegro, not only for its impressive remains, but also for the meaning the site takes on for the cultural identity of modern Montenegro, representing a sort of bridge linking the country with the history of Europe and the Mediterranean. Doclea was the second-largest city in the province of Roman Dalmatia, a municipium created in the 1st cent. AD and named after the Illyrian tribe Docleati. Built strategically within the lowland stretching between the Zeta and the Mora?a rivers, it is surrounded by monumental walls, delimitating an area of 24 hectares. Only few sectors of the town have been excavated: a square-shaped forum, buildings of different sizes, tabernae, a basilica, three temples, two baths, a domus. Since the 5th cent. AD the history of the town is less known: the East Goths ravaged the city in 489, an earthquake damaged it in 518 and the Avars and Slavs destroyed it again in 609. Doclea had indeed an important Late antique phase, represented by three churches, basilica A, basilica B and a third with a cruciform plan, probably dated to the 9th cent. AD. Even though the area is of great interest for Montenegro, in the last century the site has seen long phases of abandonment alternated with few archaeological excavations, apparently not integrated in a long-term strategy. The presence of a railway cutting the site in the middle, the missing of any facility for visitors, the fact that parts of the town are in private land make a project of enhancement absolutely essential. Following an international agreement between the National Research Council of Italy and the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, since 2017 a multidisciplinary research project is in progress for the study and valorisation of the town and its territory. Through the application of different technologies and methodologies (remote sensing, (satellite, aerial and drone images analysis) and geophysical prospections (Ground Penetrating Radar method) integrated with historical approaches, as archival research, archaeological surveys and architectonic reconstructions) the Italian-Montenegrin team is working for a better knowledge of the town and, in the same time for its enhancement, through an innovative project integrating the new collected data with the need to design new strategies and structures. The valorisation project wants to bridge the gap between Doclea and its surrounding material and immaterial context, developing, in a first phase, a territorial-landscape strategy that attributes great importance to the beautiful natural landscape in which the site is inserted and to the still visible remains of its ancient history. Through a system of new accessibility (physical and digital), reception and use of the site and a network of new pavilions, which combine the inclusion of new economic activities and the consolidation of the existing ones, the project creates new connections and alternative management methods for a transversal future of the Montenegrin archaeological heritage.

The origin of the tholos tomb is a topic that has been carefully analyzed in the last decades, but it seems that there is still something to say. The aim of this paper is to analyze not the technical aspects, already well reported in a very rich literature, but to investigate the possible different meanings and uses of two funerary monuments that apparently belong to the same category: namely the 'Minoan' tholos and the 'Mycenaean' tholos. But with particular reference to examples embedded in a very specific territory, the Knossos valley, where the two types seem to follow one another

Ricostruzione del paesaggio funerario di Cnosso, Creta, durante il II millennio a.C., secondo un approccio di tipo fenomenologico. Si mettono in rilievo gli aspetti "visuali" del paesaggio e i loro cambiamenti nel passaggio dal periodo "minoico" (Medio Minoico III-Tardo Minoico I) al periodo "miceneo" (Tardo Minoico II-III).