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Based on the combination of petrologic characteristics of the deposits and carbon-14 dating of charcoal pieces, we determined the burial age of the ancient Roman villa, believed to belong to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, at the northern foot of Mt. Vesuvius. Volcanic deposits covering the site consist of three geological formations related to the eruptive activity of Mt. Vesuvius. Juvenile material of the lowest formation show the same whole-rock chemical composition as that of the AD472 eruption, and carbon-14 ages of charcoal in and below the deposits coincide with AD472, indicating that the villa was first buried by the AD472 eruption. The villa itself is thought to have been already abandoned, judging from the depositional relation of the Plinian-fall and pyroclastic surge deposits to the damaged building frames.

Cultural landscapes were prominent during the Early Roman period when agronomic knowledge allowed the spread of intensive land exploitation in most of the available land. The aim of this contribution is to explore whether for the Campania region (Southern Italy) archaeoenvironmental data would support continuity or change in the cultural landscape of Roman tradition in the 4th and 5th centuries. To do so, new data from two sites located on the northern slopes of the Vesuvius, both buried by the AD 472 eruption have been investigated. Charcoal analysis, 14 C dating, and chemical analysis of organic residues were carried out in order to study the landscape and the food production at these sites. The results suggest the persistence of the Roman cultural landscape until the 4th and 5th centuries in this area. The landscape is in fact strongly marked both in agriculture and woodland exploitation and management, being characterized by managed chestnut forests as well as valuable cultivations of walnut, large vineyards, olive groves, and probably orchards and crops. The integrated approach with archaeobotanical and archaeometric analyses proves to be a powerful method for the study of the past landscapes, providing a good insight into the environment. Furthermore, this study provided the most ancient evidence of chestnut silviculture for wood.

Detailed descriptions of the effects of explosive eruptions on urban settlements available to volcanologists are relatively rare. Apart from disease and starvation, the largest number of human deaths caused by explosive eruptions in the twentieth century are due to pyroclastic flows. The relationship between the number of victims related to a specific hazard and the presence of urban settlements in the area covered by the eruption has been shown. However, pyroclastic falls are also extremely dangerous under certain conditions. These conclusions are based on archaeological and volcanological studies carried out on the victims of the well-known AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed and buried the Roman city of Pompeii. The stratigraphic level in the pyroclastic deposit and the location of all the casualties found are described and discussed. The total number of victims recovered during the archaeological excavations amounts to 1150. Of these, 1044 well recognisable bodies plus an additional group of 100 individuals were identified based on the analysis of several groups of scattered bones. Of the former, 394 were found in the lower pumice lapilli fall deposit and 650 in the upper stratified ash and pumice lapilli pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) deposits. In addition, a tentative evaluation suggests that 464 corpses may still be buried in the unexcavated part of the city. According to the reconstruction presented in this paper, during the first phase of the eruption (August 24, AD 79) a huge quantity of pumice lapilli fell on Pompeii burying the city under 3 m of pyroclastic material. During this eruptive phase, most of the inhabitants managed to leave the city. However, 38% of the known victims were killed during this phase mainly as a consequence of roofs and walls collapsing under the increasing weight of the pumice lapilli deposit. During the second phase of the eruption (August 25, AD 79) 49% of the total victims were on the roadways and 51% inside buildings. All of these inhabitants, regardless of their location, were killed by the unanticipated PDCs overrunning the city. New data concerning the stratigraphic level of the victims in the pyroclastic succession allow us to discriminate between the sequential events responsible for their deaths. In fact, casts of some recently excavated corpses lay well above the lower PDCs deposit, testifying that some of the inhabitants survived the first pyroclastic current. Finally, during the PDCs phase the victims died quite rapidly by ash asphyxiation. From the attitude of some casts, it seems that some people survived the initial impact of the second pyroclastic current and tried to support head and bust during the progressive aggradation of the deposit at the base of the current.

A high frequency permeability for an electroplated CoNiFeS film having high saturation magnetic flux density(Bs) of 1.7T and high resistivity(ρ) of 51μΩ-cm was investigated in comparing with CoNiFe film having ρ=25μΩ-cm value. Both films had suitable thermal stability on magnetic properties up to 300°C and magnetic anisotropy(Hk) could be controlled by annealing with magnetic field. Higher permeability of the CoNiFeS film could be attributed to decrease the eddy current loss based on twice higher resistivity compared with the CoNiFe film.

The present author considers that the pinakes is not only a painting within mural-painting, but also its decorative motif functions as an architectural one. He has chosen six important wall-decorations, containing pinakes in Pompei such as at the cubiculum of Villa dei Misteri, the oecus of Casa del Criptoportico, the cubiculum of Casa Omerica, caldarium of Casa del Menandro, the cubiculum of Domus Obelii Firmi, and the hall of Aphrodite of Villa from Boscoreale, and two more examples in Rome as the sala di Polifemo of Casa di Livia and the cubiculum B of Villa della Farnesina.The relationship between pinakes and the wall-decoration system of the high period of the second style is considered in the first part. It is concluded that they were one of the decorative motives and that they reflected traditional elements as replicas of original hellenistic paintings as well.In the second part, the two Roman examples of the late second style are discussed as showing a tendancy of the next period of wall-decoration in which the original intent of pinakes as a tableau painting was revived.It can be drawn from the observation of the above-mentioned pinakes that the high period of the second style as the most classical wall-decoration one at the republic and the imperial period is related to the fourth style while the late period of the second style develops into the third style, including the problem of the pinacothecae.

Among the existing Hellenistic Mosaics, the Sophilos Mosaics is of particular interest iconographically and has been mentioned by Rostovzeff, Brown and Robertson. However, there has not been a comprehensive treatment of the iconography and style of the Sophilos Mosaics. In this paper, the author has attempted a comparison of the iconography, style and dates between Sophilos Mosaic and other Hellenistic Mosaics from Pergamon, Delos, Pompeii and Arsameia.The origins and development of the decorative motif called crenellation or “tours crenellees” as well as the double meander in perspective are investigated. The identity of the above two motifs is clarified and the results coincide with Brown's conclusions.The motif of the personification of Alexandria on the “emblema” is compared to the “Alexander Mosaic”, “Herakles and Telephos” and other pieces excavated at Pompeii. This motif is proven to belong to the same artistic style that existed during the first half of the third century B. C.From these two observations, the Sophilos Mosaic was probably executed around B. C. 200 while the original mosaics preceded it during the first half of the third century B. C.

It has passed almost twenty years since Buchthal published “The Foundations for a chronology of Gandhara Sculpture” in which he tried to set the Eros-with-Garland motif of Gandhara sculpture in the second century A. D. It is clear that with this study he intended to support the romano-buddhistic theory. One of the facts in favor of his arguments is that the garland of the present motif in Gandhara sculpture has always a bunch of grapes hanging down from the lowest part of a garland, and the same type of this motif can be found in the garland-sarcophagi sculptured in Asia-Minor and Alexandria in the second century A. D.Schlumberger, like some other scholars, noted in his recent article that Buchthal wasn't so prudent for publishing his theory, specially for collecting the materials, and as one of the example against the Buchthal's view he cited the reliefs of St. Remy dated about the first half of the first century A. D.The present author classified in the first chapter the greek Eros in three types as the classification of Seltman, and he makes it clear that the second type of Aphrodite, became to be treated like usual boys, not in single but in plural, in the Hellenistic Period. In this type of Eros we can find the so-called “prototype” of Eros of the Eros-with-Garland as in Pergamon ceramics and the silver Kantharos from Tarant. In the following chapter, the relation between the “prototype” and the first complete examples of the Eros-with-Garland is studied, for setting up a chronology of this motif. The most flourish period for the Eros-with-Garland motif is in the Roman Empire, because it was used as the one of the chief motif of the sarcophagus decorations. He classifies many variations of this motif into seven types, which brings to light the way of the development of this motif from the Hellenistic period to the Roman period.The present author ended this article with which the hellenistic character of this motif played a big role to develop and spread not only in the classical world but also in the eastern world like Gandhara, which will be treated in another article.