Preserving the impossible: conservation of soft-sediment hominin footprint sites and strategies for three-dimensional digital data capture.

Human footprints provide some of the most publically emotive and tangible evidence of our ancestors. To the scientific community they provide evidence of stature, presence, behaviour and in the case of early hominins potential evidence with respect to the evolution of gait. While rare in the geological record the number of footprint sites has increased in recent years along with the analytical tools available for their study. Many of these sites are at risk from rapid erosion, including the Ileret footprints in northern Kenya which are second only in age to those at Laetoli (Tanzania). Unlithified, soft-sediment footprint sites such these pose a significant geoconservation challenge. In the first part of this paper conservation and preservation options are explored leading to the conclusion that to 'record and digitally rescue' provides the only viable approach. Key to such strategies is the increasing availability of three-dimensional data capture either via optical laser scanning and/or digital photogrammetry. Within the discipline there is a developing schism between those that favour one approach over the other and a requirement from geoconservationists and the scientific community for some form of objective appraisal of these alternatives is necessary. Consequently in the second part of this paper we evaluate these alternative approaches and the role they can play in a 'record and digitally rescue' conservation strategy. Using modern footprint data, digital models created via optical laser scanning are compared to those generated by state-of-the-art photogrammetry. Both methods give comparable although subtly different results. This data is evaluated alongside a review of field deployment issues to provide guidance to the community with respect to the factors which need to be considered in digital conservation of human/hominin footprints

Socio-semiotics and the symbiosis of humans, horses, and objects in later Iron Age Britain

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Archaeological Journal on 14/03/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00665983.2018.1441105Using an approach derived from material culture studies and semiotics, this paper addresses possible relationships between humans and horses in the British Iron Age.Through a study of the dominance of horse imagery found on Iron Age British coinage, specifically the Western coinage traditionally attributed to the 'Dobunni', the author explores how it may reflect possible relationships between humans and horses and their personhood therein. Drawing on wider faunal and metalwork evidence it is argued that these coins could be interpreted as a manifestation of the complex perspectives surrounding a symbiotic relationship between humans and horses

Social Memory and Ritual Performance

This paper is concerned with archaeological evidence for the mechanisms by which group memory is transmitted. How do natural places such as caves and rock shelters retain their status as foci for ritual activity? It draws upon recent social and archaeological theory around embodied memory; especially Connerton’s (1989) division of memory claims into three kinds. These are: personal memory claims; cognitive memory claims and habit-memory. It is argued that cognitive memory claims and habit-memory should be regarded as aspects of the same process of remembering: following Gell (1998) and Jones (2007) physical traces of past action are regarded as central to this act of memory. Three encounters with memory are analysed: managing memory around death; remembering how to do activities and formal ritual performances which reinforce group memories. It is argued that all three cases share some of the attributes of a formal ritual performance. An analysis of biographies of practice is proposed to draw out these links between small scale habit-memory and long term group memory

Quality of life measurement in alopecia areata. Position statement of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Task Force on Quality of Life and Patient Oriented Outcomes

New treatment options may lead to an increased interest in using reliable and sensitive instruments to assess health-related quality of life in people with alopecia areata (AA). The purpose of this paper is to present current knowledge about quality of life assessment in AA. The dermatology-specific Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was the most widely reported health-related quality of life instrument used in AA. Three AA-specific (Alopecia Areata Symptom Impact Scale, Alopecia Areata Quality of Life Index and Alopecia Areata Patients' Quality of Life) and three hair disease-specific instruments (Hairdex, Scalpdex and ‘hair-specific Skindex-29’) were identified with a range of content and validation characteristics: there is little evidence yet of the actual use of these measures in AA. Scalpdex is the best-validated hair disease-specific instrument. Further extensive validation is needed for all of the AA-specific instruments. The European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Task Force on Quality of Life and Patient Oriented Outcomes recommends the use of the dermatology-specific DLQI questionnaire, hair disease-specific Scalpdex and the alopecia areata-specific instruments the Alopecia Areata Symptom Impact Scale or Alopecia Areata Quality of Life Index, despite the limited experience of their use. We hope that new treatment methods will be able to improve both clinical signs and health-related quality of life in patients with AA. In order to assess the outcomes of trials on these new treatment methods, it would be helpful when further development and validation of AA-specific instruments is being encouraged and also conducted