Mastanabal

A la mort de Massinissa* au début de l’année 148 av. J.-C, le royaume de Numidie fut partagé, par l’entremise de Scipion, selon les dernières volontés du défunt, entre les trois héritiers légitimes : Micipsa*, l’aîné, devint chef de l’administration, Gulussa* resta chef des armées et Mastanabal, le plus jeune, obtint la justice (Appien, Libyca, 106). Ce dernier avait la réputation d’être érudit en lettres grecques (Tite-Live, Histoire romaine, Abrégés [Periochae], L) et en droit (Appien, ibid..

Marbre numidique

Au Nord-Ouest de la Tunisie, dans la partie occidentale de la moyenne vallée de la Medjerda (antique Bagrada), non loin de l’antique cité Simitthus (aujourd’hui Chimtou, Chemtou avant le décret de 1997), se trouvent les plus importantes carrières de marbre numidique, le fameux « marmor Numidicum » dont parlait Pline l’Ancien (Histoire Naturelle, V, 22). Ce marbre est désigné aujourd’hui sous différentes appellations : giallo antico (Gnoli 1988), jaune antique de Chemtou (Dubarry de Lassale 20..

Mlakou

Le site antique de Mlakou (Gsell, Atlas Archéologique de l’Algérie, Feuille no 6 ‘Fort National’ au 1/200 000è, site PETRA portant le no 148) est situé à environ 10 km au Nord-Est de la ville d’Akbou en Kabylie. C’est sur un éperon qui domine la rive droite de la Soummam, non loin de l’Adrar Gueldaman*(Camps-Fabrer, 1985, EB II, p. 263-264) qu’a été découverte une inscription latine indiquant qu’en ce lieu s’élevait le château de Petra, construit par Sammac* (Gsell, CRAI, 1901, p. 170 ; Merci..

Timing and pace of dairying inception and animal husbandry practices across Holocene North Africa

The timing and extent of the adoption and exploitation of domesticates and their secondary products, across Holocene North Africa, has long been the subject of debate. The three distinct areas within the region, Mediterranean north Africa, the Nile Valley and the Sahara, each with extremely diverse environments and ecologies, demonstrate differing trajectories to pastoralism. Here, we address this question using a combination of faunal evidence and organic residue analyses of c. 300 archaeological vessels from sites in Algeria, Libya and Sudan. This synthesis of new and published data provides a broad regional and chronological perspective on the scale and intensity of domestic animal exploitation and the inception of dairying practices in Holocene North Africa. Following the introduction of domesticated animals into the region our results confirm a hiatus of around one thousand years before the adoption of a full pastoral economy, which appears first in the Libyan Sahara, at c. 5200 BCE, subsequently appearing at c. 4600 BCE in the Nile Valley and at 4400–3900 BCE in Mediterranean north Africa

Ancient proteins provide evidence of dairy consumption in eastern Africa

Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the genetically-determined ability to drink milk into adulthood through lactase persistence (LP). As a major centre of LP diversity, Africa is of significant interest to the evolution of dairying. Here we report proteomic evidence for milk consumption in ancient Africa. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) we identify dairy proteins in human dental calculus from northeastern Africa, directly demonstrating milk consumption at least six millennia ago. Our findings indicate that pastoralist groups were drinking milk as soon as herding spread into eastern Africa, at a time when the genetic adaptation for milk digestion was absent or rare. Our study links LP status in specific ancient individuals with direct evidence for their consumption of dairy products

The Photorefractive Bragg Gratings in the Fibers for Telecommunications

This revue article describes photorefractive Bragg gratings (elaboration, interest, performances) which are planned to be used in optical fibers for telecommunications. This application justifies the effort made presently to increase the photosensitivity of the fibers and the stability of the grating inscribed in them. Since Bragg gratings are based on UV induced refractive index change, underlied mechanisms are described as long as the change of UV absorption at the origin of photo transformation of the glass. Different models invoked to describe UV induced refractive index changes are extensively presented and criticized, leading to conclusions. The different directions of research undertaken to enhance the photosensitivity: H$_{2}$ loading, other dopants, other glasses and other writing wavelengths are explicited. All this leads to a classification of Bragg gratings in terms of the UV induced mechanism involved