The Iron Age in the Rock Art of Vermelhosa, Portugal

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Damned dams again: the plight of Portuguese rock art

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Relazione preliminaRe dell’attività di Ricerca estiva 2016 nell’area di Paspardo. Valcamonica Rock Art Archaeology Field school & Fieldwork 2016.

Report of the archaeology fieldwork made in Paspardo in 201

Pubblico e privato nella tradizione rupestre della Valcamonica, Italia

Hidden or well visible, secret or really known by everybody, in two words public or private: it’s in this continuous dichotomy that we can describe the rock art tradition of Valcamonica. At least modern people, as we are, can see and visit (almost) always the rock art sites discovered up today. Was it possible also in the ancient times? Could everybody visit a rock art site or was the access to it normed by rules? Why are some panels well visible (because engraved on vertical surfaces), while other are practically invisible unless we don’t walk over them? Our paper tries to get a key-clue for the interpretation of these problem

Current finds in rock art research of Oman: a review and update

The petroglyphs and pictographs of Oman are little known, but for the last 9 years I have been involved, through the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Culture, in a series of surveys of the Jebel Akhdar Mountain range, that have resulted in the location of several important sites. The recording of these sites, on occasion in advance of major roadwork modernization projects, has for the first time enabled detailed research of the rock art in the area. This is being undertaken through the research of: superimpositions; cross-dating with known artistic expressions elsewhere in the region; the known dates for the introduction of writing systems in Ancient Arabic and Standard Arabic alphabet; the study of various objects of material culture; and the presence of certain animals in the rock art (such as turtles, oryxes, goats-like animals, camels and horses). I propose a preliminary chronology consisting of several major phases spanning the last 7,000 years

Epidemiology and Microbiology of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: Preliminary Results of a National Registry

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) represent a wide range of clinical conditions characterized by a considerable variety of clinical presentations and severity. Their aetiology can also vary, with numerous possible causative pathogens. While other authors previously published analyses on several types of SSTI and on restricted types of patients, we conducted a large nationwide surveillance programme on behalf of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases to assess the clinical and microbiological characteristics of the whole SSTI spectrum, from mild to severe life-threatening infections, in both inpatients and outpatients. Twenty-five Infectious Diseases (ID) Centres throughout Italy collected prospectively data concerning both the clinical and microbiological diagnosis of patients affected by SSTIs via an electronic case report form. All the cases included in our database, independently from their severity, have been managed by ID specialists joining the study while SSTIs from other wards/clinics have been excluded from this analysis. Here, we report the preliminary results of our study, referring to a 12-month period (October 2016–September 2017). During this period, the study population included 254 adult patients and a total of 291 SSTI diagnoses were posed, with 36 patients presenting more than one SSTIs. The type of infection diagnosed, the aetiological micro-organisms involved and some notes on their antimicrobial susceptibilities were collected and are reported herein. The enrichment of our registry is ongoing, but these preliminary results suggest that further analysis could soon provide useful information to better understand the national epidemiologic data and the current clinical management of SSTIs in Italy

The sacral chordoma margin

[Objective]: Aim of the manuscript is to discuss how to improve margins in sacral chordoma. [Background]: Chordoma is a rare neoplasm, arising in half cases from the sacrum, with reported local failure in >50% after surgery. [Methods]: A multidisciplinary meeting of the “Chordoma Global Consensus Group” was held in Milan in 2017, focusing on challenges in defining and achieving optimal margins in chordoma with respect to surgery, definitive particle radiation therapy (RT) and medical therapies. This review aims to report on the outcome of the consensus meeting and to provide a summary of the most recent evidence in this field. Possible new ways forward, including on-going international clinical studies, are discussed. [Results]: En-bloc tumor-sacrum resection is the cornerstone of treatment of primary sacral chordoma, aiming to achieve negative microscopic margins. Radical definitive particle therapy seems to offer a similar outcome compared to surgery, although confirmation in comparative trials is lacking; besides there is still a certain degree of technical variability across institutions, corresponding to different fields of treatment and different tumor coverage. To address some of these questions, a prospective, randomized international study comparing surgery versus definitive high-dose RT is ongoing. Available data do not support the routine use of any medical therapy as (neo)adjuvant/cytoreductive treatment. [Conclusion]: Given the significant influence of margins status on local control in patients with primary localized sacral chordoma, the clear definition of adequate margins and a standard local approach across institutions for both surgery and particle RT is vital for improving the management of these patients

BULLETIN DU MUSÉE D’ANTHROPOLOGIE PRÉHISTORIQUE DE MONACO N. 60

This volume collects the papers of two sessions of the IFRAO 2018 International Congress held in Valcamonic

Le figure incise del Pleistocene finale-inizio Olocene in Valcamonica

International audienceLate Pleistocene-Early Holocene Carved Figures In Valcamonica-Valcamonica is a glacial alpine valley in northern Italy and has one of the biggest prehistoric open air rock art concentrations of Europe. Its long and uninterrupted rock art production is rooted in the late Pleistocene-early Holocene, showing strong links with the Palaeolithic art tradition. All the known figures belonging to this phase are located in the Luine hill in Darfo-Boario Terme, in the lower valley, and they are all concentrated into two rocks: Rock No. 6 and Rock No. 34. Sixty years after their discovery, a new systematic research was undertaken producing an updated documentation of the most ancient figures. These recording and analysis activities led to significantly update the number of the known figures, up to 15, recognising a variety of figurative categories, including deer (2), elk (9), fish (2), caprid (1) and abstract motifs (1). So, Luine hill has also the richest concentration of elk figures of the Late Pleistocene of Europe known so far, offering an important insight into a disappeared landscape too. Indeed, the presence of this animal suggests the presence of open humid areas, rich in water, that probably developed after the Last Glacial Maximum, as confirmed by the faunal remains found in few other sites of northern Italy and by the few available palaeoclimatic data. Moreover, the presence of the elk in the graphic repertoire provides a key chrono-cultural reference, suggesting links with more sites both in Italy and in Europe, where elk representations were discovered on portable objects or on cave walls. The new rock art recording led even to clarify the used techniques to make the graphic units; define the relative chronology of the rock art palimpsests, recognising two graphic phases at least for the most ancient artistic production of Valcamonica whose maximum age can be established around c. 17.000 years BP; fix the rock art evidence in the wide archaeological scenario of both the Alpine and Italian contexts. Thematic and stylistic comparisons reveal how much the whole record of the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene figures of Luine are coherent with the European Palaeolithic art tradition, especially the one of west-central Europe. Coversely, they show no links with the more recent rock art production of the Valcamonica. Therefore, within this review, authors also highlight the need to avoid any use of the definition of "Proto-Camunnian" to call the most ancient period of the Valcamonica rock-art. Lastly, the study of the oldest engravings of Luine provides a privileged perspective over those populations that arrived in the Valcamonica soon after the Late Glacial Maximum, favouring the understanding of the human and cultural dynamics of this period on a medium and large scale, and encompassing the processes of both diffusion an symbolic elaboration, continuously stimulated by the lived context