Approcci High Tech E Low Tech Nella Documentazione di Imbarcazionitradizionali del Mar Rosso e del Golfo

This is the final version of the article. Available from CISA

3d laser scanning and modelling of the Dhow heritage for the Qatar National Museum

This is the final version of the article. Available from SPIE via the DOI in this record.Curating boats can be difficult. They are complex structures, often demanding to conserve whether in or out of the water; they are usually large, difficult to move on land, and demanding of gallery space. Communicating life on board to a visiting public in the terra firma context of a museum can be difficult. Boats in their native environment are inherently dynamic artifacts. In a museum they can be static and divorced from the maritime context that might inspire engagement. New technologies offer new approaches to these problems. 3D laser scanning and digital modeling offers museums a multifaceted means of recording, monitoring, studying and communicating watercraft in their care. In this paper we describe the application of 3D laser scanning and subsequent digital modeling. Laser scans were further developed using computer-generated imagery (CGI) modeling techniques to produce photorealistic 3D digital models for development into interactive, media-based museum displays. The scans were also used to generate 2D naval lines and orthographic drawings as a lasting curatorial record of the dhows held by the Nationa

The maritime heritage of Yemen: a focus on traditional wooden "dhows"

This paper investigates the disappearing heritage of Yemen’s large wooden boats (dhows), both in its current socio-economic context and in historical perspective. Fieldwork conducted by members of the MARES project in February 2009 along the coast between Aden and Salif sought to record remaining evidence of wooden boats and their related industries and practices. Wooden boat use has been in sharp decline in recent decades, as dhow-based commerce has declined, and fishing communities have switched to fibreglass vessels. The fieldwork sought to record remaining dhows through simple survey techniques including photography and illustration, as well as close observation. It also involved ethnographic interviews with people who worked on these vessels, either as builders or mariners. In terms of the vessels themselves, the aim was to produce a typology of Yemeni dhows; to record examples of each; to understand construction sequences; and to inventory the distribution of surviving craft. The findings are compared with previous literature on the subject.This research was conducted as part of the MARES Project, a three-year programme investigating the maritime past and heritage of the Red Sea and Arabian-Persian Gulf. MARES is based at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of the University of Exeter (http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/mares). The programme is generously funded by the Golden Web Foundation, an educational charity registered in the UK (www.goldenweb.org). Thanks are also due to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, which provided additional financial support for the fieldwork. In addition, the MARES team would like to thank the following people for their assistance: Dr Abdulla M. Bawazir, President of Yemen’s General Organisation of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM); Dr Muhammad Taha al- Asbahi, General Director of Antiquities at GOAM; Dr Raja Batawil, head of GOAM in Aden; our GOAM-appointed field companion, Salah al-Mansuri; Mr. Hasan Saleh Shihab; Emily Allardyce, Fuad Mazid al-Matairi and their colleagues at the British Yemeni Language Institute; our driver and guide Muhammad al-Matairi; Edward Prados, Director of Amideast; Chris Evans; the British Council; and the British Embassy, Sanʿā. The team wishes to thank also the many individual informants along Yemen’s coast who generously gave of their time and expertise

The Dhow's last redoubt? Vestiges of wooden boatbuilding traditions in Yemen

This is an accepted version of an article that went on to be published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies in 2010. The reference for the published version is: Agius, D.A., Cooper, J.P., Jansen van Rensburg, J.and Zazzaro, C., 2010 " The dhow's last redoubt? Vestiges of wooden boatbuilding traditions in Yemen". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 40: 71—84. Please use the published version in any citations.The final version of the article is available from Archaeopress via the link in this record.Researchers from the MARES Project visited Yemen in February 2009 in order to investigate the building and use of traditional wooden boats (‘dhows’, in English parlance) in the country. The survey covered the coastline from Aden to Salif in the Red Sea, and visited centres of traditional dhow building and use, including Ghureira, Mocha and Khokha. The project aimed to assess the state of the industry, establish a vessel typology, understand construction processes, learn about the use of these vessels, and compile a lexicon of boatbuilding and nautical terms. This article offers the preliminary findings of the survey, pending more comprehensive publication in the future. The survey found that, in all locations visited, the building of new vessels had rapidly diminished in the preceding decade, and had now all but ceased. The only ongoing activity witnessed during the survey was repairs to existing wooden craft. In formerly large boat-building centres, wooden boat-builders, mostly elderly, have ceased work, while younger men were building fishing craft using fibreglass – the material used in the great majority of vessels in Yemen today. A preliminary typology of surviving vessel was established. The doubleended cargo-carrying za<īmahs and zārūqs were recorded only as 2 abandoned hulks. Double-ended <obrīs and transom-sterned ‘large hūrīs’, with their stern-quarter ‘fins’, continued to be used in small numbers for sein fishing and transporting livestock. Again, most examples were abandoned. Various forms of small log and plank hūrī ‘canoes’ were observed, few still in use, while the log-raft ramas survives on the Red Sea coast. The terms used for these vessel types form part of a linguistic survey of dhow activity in Yemen.This research was conducted as part of the MARES Project, a three-year programme investigating the maritime past and heritage of the Red Sea and Arabian-Persian Gulf. MARES is based at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter (http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/mares). The programme is funded by the Golden Web Foundation, an educational charity registered in the UK (www.goldenweb.org), to which our gratitude is due. 27 Thanks are also due to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, which provided additional financial support for the fieldwork. In addition, the MARES team would like to thank the following people for their assistance: Dr Abdulla M. Bawazir, President of Yemen’s General Organisation of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM); Dr Muhammad Taha al-Asbahi, General Director of Antiquities at GOAM; Dr Raja Batawil, head of GOAM in Aden; our GOAMappointed field companion, Salah al-Mansuri; Mr. Hasan Saleh Shihab; Emily Allardyce, Fuad Mazid al-Matairi and their colleagues at the British Yemeni Language Institute; our driver and guide Muhammad al-Matairi; Edward Prados, Director of Amideast; Chris Evens; the British Council; and the British Embassy. Last but not least, the team wishes to thank the many individual informants along Yemen’s coast who gave their assistance to its research

Sewn boats in the Qatar Museums collection, Doha: baggāras and kettuvallams as records of a Western Indian Ocean technological tradition

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordVernacular sewn boats from southern Iran and Kerala, India, in the collection of Qatar Museums are documented and their construction described. The Iranian baggāras are unique preservations of sewn boats from the Arabian-Persian Gulf, notable for their previously undocumented keel-garboard sewing technique and extensive use of bitumen coatings. Comparison between individual boats enable conclusions to be drawn about the builders’ conception, as well as variation within the type. The Keralite kettuvallams represent an ongoing vernacular tradition that is nevertheless poorly documented or preserved in museum contexts. Construction drawings, naval lines drawings and 3D photogrammetry models are provided for all vessels.University College London-Qatar (UCL-Q)University of ExeterUniversity of Naples ‘l’Oriental

Genomic organization and splicing evolution of the doublesex gene, a Drosophila regulator of sexual differentiation, in the dengue and yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti

Background: In the model system Drosophila melanogaster, doublesex (dsx) is the double-switch gene at the bottom of the somatic sex determination cascade that determines the differentiation of sexually dimorphic traits. Homologues of dsx are functionally conserved in various dipteran species, including the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. They show a striking conservation of sex-specific regulation, based on alternative splicing, and of the encoded sex-specific proteins, which are transcriptional regulators of downstream terminal genes that influence sexual differentiation of cells, tissues and organs. Results: In this work, we report on the molecular characterization of the dsx homologue in the dengue and yellow fever vector Aedes aegypti (Aeadsx). Aeadsx produces sex-specific transcripts by alternative splicing, which encode isoforms with a high degree of identity to Anopheles gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster homologues. Interestingly, Aeadsx produces an additional novel female-specific splicing variant. Genomic comparative analyses between the Aedes and Anopheles dsx genes revealed a partial conservation of the exon organization and extensive divergence in the intron lengths. An expression analysis showed that Aeadsx transcripts were present from early stages of development and that sex-specific regulation starts at least from late larval stages. The analysis of the female-specific untranslated region (UTR) led to the identification of putative regulatory cis-elements potentially involved in the sex-specific splicing regulation. The Aedes dsx sex-specific splicing regulation seems to be more complex with the respect of other dipteran species, suggesting slightly novel evolutionary trajectories for its regulation and hence for the recruitment of upstream splicing regulators. Conclusions: This study led to uncover the molecular evolution of Aedes aegypti dsx splicing regulation with the respect of the more closely related Culicidae Anopheles gambiae orthologue. In Aedes aegypti, the dsx gene is sex-specifically regulated and encodes two female-specific and one male-specific isoforms, all sharing a doublesex/mab 3 (DM) domain-containing N-terminus and different C-termini. The sex-specific regulation is based on a combination of exon skipping, 5' alternative splice site choice and, most likely, alternative polyadenylation. Interestingly, when the Aeadsx gene is compared to the Anopheles dsx ortholog, there are differences in the in silico predicted default and regulated sex-specific splicing events, which suggests that the upstream regulators either are different or act in a slightly different manner. Furthermore, this study is a premise for the future development of transgenic sexing strains in mosquitoes useful for sterile insect technique (SIT) programs

Remembering the Sea: Personal and Communal Recollections of Maritime Life in Jizan and the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.People create narratives of their maritime past through the remembering and forgetting of seafaring experiences, and through the retention and disposal of maritime artefacts that function mnemonically to evoke or suppress those experiences. The sustenance and reproduction of the resulting narratives depends further on effective media of intergenerational transmission; otherwise, they are lost. Rapid socio-economic transformation across Saudi Arabia in the age of oil has disrupted longstanding seafaring economies in the Red Sea archipelago of the Farasan Islands, and the nearby mainland port of Jizan. Vestiges of wooden boatbuilding activity are few; long-distance dhow trade with South Asia, the Arabian-Persian Gulf and East Africa has ceased; and a once substantial pearling and nacre (mother of pearl) collection industry has dwindled to a tiny group of hobbyists: no youth dive today. This widespread withdrawal from seafaring activity among many people in these formerly maritime-oriented communities has diminished the salience of such activity in cultural memory, and has set in motion narrative creation processes, through which memories are filtered and selected, and objects preserved, discarded, or lost. This paper is a product of the encounter of the authors with keepers of maritime memories and objects in the Farasan Islands and Jizan. An older generation of men recall memories of their experiences as boat builders, captains, seafarers, pearl divers and fishermen. Their recounted memories are inscribed, and Arabic seafaring terms recorded. The extent of the retention of maritime material cultural items as memorials is also assessed, and the rôle of individual, communal and state actors in that retention is considered. Through this reflection, it becomes clear that the extra-biological memory and archive of the region’s maritime past is sparse; that intergenerational transmission is failing; that the participation of state agencies in maritime heritage creation is highly limited; and that, as a result, memories current among the older generation have limited prospect of survival. These memories, recorded and interpreted here, identify the Farasan Islands as a former centre of the pearling industry in the Red Sea, and identify them and Jizan as open to far-reaching maritime-mediated cultural influences in an era before the imposition of the attributes of the modern nation-state.This study was funded by the Golden Web Foundation (UK registered charity number 1100608), with additional support from the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust (UK registered charity number 208669)