OVARIAN HISTOLOGY and FOLLICULAR SCORE IN FEMALE RATS TREATED WITH NANDROLONE DECANOATE and SUBMITTED TO PHYSICAL EFFORT

The study was conducted to analyze the histology of the ovaries of adults rats treated with steroids, and submitted or not to physical effort. The control group consisted of females submitted to physical effort and sedentary females, both of which received a physiological solution of 0.9% saline. Treated females, sedentary or not, received 6 mg/kg of body weight of nandrolone decanoate. The steroid and physiological solution were administered intraperitoneally, with a single injection per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The applied physical effort was swimming (20 minutes daily, 5 days/week, for the 4 weeks of treatment). Serial sections (5 mu m) of ovaries were prepared for histological evaluation and follicular score. The weight of ovaries and hypophysis, the number of antral and atretic follicles, and the area of corpus luteum were all affected by the steroids. In the ovaries of the control groups, well-developed corpus luteum was observed. In the treated groups, the cortical stroma was occupied by ovarian interstitial tissue. The females treated with steroids presented estral acyclicity. The use of nandrolone decanoate, whether associated with physical effort or not, affected the morphological pattern of the ovaries

Geological heritage in archaeological sites: case examples from Italy and Russia

Archaeological and geological information may coincide in the same objects (sites, collection specimens, etc.). Understanding this is important in making correct judgments about geological heritage, geoconservation, geotourism planning, and in defining geodiversity in wide sense. Five different archaeological sites from Italy and Russia, namely La Pietra and Pietralba (Tuscany), Cala Bianca (Campania), and Guzeripl’ and the Mezmajskaja Cave (Western Caucasus), indicate the presence of several geological features (stratigraphical, geomorphological, etc.). For instance, the ancient quarrying site of La Pietra and the megalithic construction of Guzeripl’ may serve as proof of the geological activity of past populations. Geological heritage can be associated with archaeological sites and/or archaeological material. For example, in the case of La Pietra, the landform is a local geomorphosite (a geomorphological site with a scientific, cultural/historical, aesthetic and/or social/economic value), and the archaeological material collected in the Mezmajskaja Cave is itself of geological (palaeontological) importance. Geological features of archaeological sites may be of heritage value. However, some sites exhibit only ‘‘ordinary’’ geological features that cannot be assigned as having heritage value. It appears that the co-occurrence of archaeological and geological heritage may be treated, with some caution, within the context of geodiversity. Recognition of the geological heritage value of archaeological sites facilitates their use for the purposes of geotourism

Notes on Etruscan cosmology: the case of the Tumulus of the Crosses at Cerveteri

The aim of this contribution is to test the possibility of the use of cosmological principles connected with Etruscan religion, for composing an inscription which is incised on the wall of a passageway running beneath a ramp attached to the northeast side of the Tumulus of the Crosses, in the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri. The ramp features a stairway leading to a \ufb02at ceremonial platform. On the basis of the letterforms the inscription may be dated to the end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century BCE. It is a rare example of a monumental inscription of the Orientalizing period of Etruscan Civilization. Directly beneath the inscription is a sign (siglum) formed by a cross inscribed in a circle. This sign has been recognized as the representation of the Etruscan concept of sacred space, whose crucial attributes are delimitation, division and orientation. A recent new reading of the inscription points out four theonymic elements, which recall divinities that, in the Etruscan cosmology, it may be argued, occupied the northeastern quadrant of the sky. Any ampli\ufb01cation of this recent new reading must take into account interdisciplinary research focused on a possible relationship, in the \ufb01eld of archaeoastronomy, between the theonymic elements and the physical space that they occupy on the wall of the passageway, since the ramp is a crucial element of Etruscan funerary cultic practices