The administration of Egyptian Thebes in the Early Ptolemaic period

This thesis examines the organization and evolution of the administration of Egyptian Thebes in the early Ptolemaic period, as reflected in the papyri and ostraca of a community of mortuary priests. It has long been known that most of the papyri from early Ptolemaic Thebes belonged to this community of mortuary priests, but it is now clear that many of the ostraca from early Ptolemaic Thebes also belonged to this community. Consequently, prosopographic evidence can be used to determine the dates and functions of many of the papyri and ostraca from early Ptolemaic Thebes. The civil administration of early Ptolemaic Thebes is represented in the documents of the community of mortuary priests for the most part by Demotic contracts. Demotic contracts embodied traditional Egyptian contract law, and coexisted with Greek contracts that embodied recently introduced Greek contract law. Demotic and Greek contracts were administered separately, each with their own notaries, registration systems and courts. Criminal and tort law was administered by the local representatives of the king and by the police. The financial administration of early Ptolemaic Thebes is represented in the documents of the community of mortuary priests for the most part by tax receipts on ostraca. The increased use of coinage in Egypt in the Ptolemaic period allowed the Ptolemies to supplement the traditional harvest taxes in kind and the occasional sales taxes in money with more regular money taxes, notably a poll tax with surcharges and several commodity monopolies. The Ptolemies also introduced the practice of tax-farming to collect the new money taxes, and probably introduced the widespread use of tax receipts on ostraca to protect the tax-payers from overzealous tax-farmers

Origin and paleoclimatic significance of late Quaternary loess in Nebraska: Evidence from stratigraphy, chronology, sedimentology, and geochemistry

Loess is one of the most extensive surfi cial geologic deposits in mid-continental North America, particularly in the central Great Plains region of Nebraska. Last-glacial-age loess (Peoria Loess) reaches its greatest known thickness in the world in this area. New stratigraphic, geochronologic, mineralogic, and geochemical data yield information about the age and provenance of Peoria Loess, as well as evaluation of recent climate models

Evidence that Ubiquinone Is a Required Intermediate for Rhodoquinone Biosynthesis in Rhodospirillum rubrum▿

Rhodoquinone (RQ) is an important cofactor used in the anaerobic energy metabolism of Rhodospirillum rubrum. RQ is structurally similar to ubiquinone (coenzyme Q or Q), a polyprenylated benzoquinone used in the aerobic respiratory chain. RQ is also found in several eukaryotic species that utilize a fumarate reductase pathway for anaerobic respiration, an important example being the parasitic helminths. RQ is not found in humans or other mammals, and therefore inhibition of its biosynthesis may provide a parasite-specific drug target. In this report, we describe several in vivo feeding experiments with R. rubrum used for the identification of RQ biosynthetic intermediates. Cultures of R. rubrum were grown in the presence of synthetic analogs of ubiquinone and the known Q biosynthetic precursors demethylubiquinone, demethoxyubiquinone, and demethyldemethoxyubiquinone, and assays were monitored for the formation of RQ3. Data from time course experiments and S-adenosyl-l-methionine-dependent O-methyltransferase inhibition studies are discussed. Based on the results presented, we have demonstrated that Q is a required intermediate for the biosynthesis of RQ in R. rubrum