Eleutheropolis and Gaza: A Newly Discovered Die Sharing in Roman Palestine

Der Artikel präsentiert eine neue Stempelkoppelung aus dem Römischen Palästina, in diesem Fall eine Verbindung zwischen Eleutheropolis und Gaza aus der Zeit des Septimius Severus.This paper presents a new occurrence of die sharing in Roman Palestine, this time between Eleutheropolis and Gaza under Septimius Severus

Some New Insights and a Note Regarding Alexander Jannaeus Anchor/Star (TJC Group L) Coins

Dieser Artikel untersucht einen spezifischen Münztyp, der von Alexander Jannaeus und wahrscheinlich von seinen Nachfolgern im 1. Jh. v. Chr. geprägt wurde. Neue Varianten und unpublizierte Exemplare werden diskutiert, einhergehend mit dem Vorschlag, diesen Münztyp in vier Untertypen aufzugliedern. Daneben wird die Herstellung der Stempel berücksichtigt, mit denen die kleinsten Exemplare dieses Typs geprägt wurden. Schließlich machen die Autoren einen Vorschlag, welches  Nominal diese Münzen im judäischen Zahlungsverkehr einnahmen.The article examines one specific type of coin that was minted by Alexander Jannaeus and probably by his successors, during the first century BCE. New variants and unpublished specimens are discussed along with a proposal that this coin type may be divided into four subtypes. The article also considers the preparation of the dies used to mint the smallest of this type of coin. Finally, the article proposes the denomination that these coins had in the ancient Judean marketplace

Dressing Up the Kink

Many quantum field theoretical models possess non-trivial solutions which are stable for topological reasons. We construct a self-consistent example for a self-interacting scalar field--the quantum (or dressed) kink--using a two particle irreducible effective action in the Hartree approximation. This new solution includes quantum fluctuations determined self-consistently and nonperturbatively at the 1-loop resummed level and allowed to backreact on the classical mean-field profile. This dressed kink is static under the familiar Hartree equations for the time evolution of quantum fields. Because the quantum fluctuation spectrum is lower lying in the presence of the defect, the quantum kink has a lower rest energy than its classical counterpart. However its energy is higher than well-known strict 1-loop results, where backreaction and fluctuation self-interactions are omitted. We also show that the quantum kink exists at finite temperature and that its profile broadens as temperature is increased until it eventually disappears.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 3 eps figures; revised with yet additional references, minor rewordin

Ancient Coins of Khirbet Qeiyafa: A Stronghold on the Road to Jerusalem; Yoav Farhi, PhD; November 16, 2010

The site of Khirbet Qeiyafa has drawn much attention—controversial and otherwise—particularly on the Iron Age stratum. Equally important, however, are the findings from the following occupational activity at the site. In this lecture, Yoav Farhi presents the numismatic findings from Khirbet Qeiyafa. Yoav Farhi (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is the numismatic (coin) expert at Khirbet Qeiyafa. He has analyzed every coin, jewelry, and metal object unearthed over the course of the excavations.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/arch_museum_lectures/1013/thumbnail.jp

Obstetric and Neonatal Outcomes following COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy

COVID-19 infection imposes a risk for pregnant individuals and may lead to adverse maternal and obstetric outcomes. This is a retrospective cohort study of all women giving birth between March and July 2021 at a single tertiary center. Obstetric and neonatal outcomes were compared between vaccinated and non-vaccinated pregnant women with singleton pregnancies. Women with prior COVID-19 infection, multiple gestations and stillbirth were excluded from the study. Of 4708 women who delivered during the study period, 3700 met the eligibility criteria, of whom 3240 were vaccinated during pregnancy. Compared with the non-vaccinated group, the vaccinated group was characterized by a lower rate of smoking (3.70% vs. 6.67%, p = 0.0028), whereasother maternal characteristics were not significantly different. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that COVID-19 mRNA vaccination was not significantly associated with increased risk of preterm birth as well as other adverse obstetric outcomes including hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, cesarean delivery and small for gestational age. However, a significantly lower risk for meconium-stained amniotic fluid was observed among the vaccinated group (adjusted odds ratio 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.46–0.86, p = 0.0039). Moreover, the vaccine was not significantly associated with increased risk of neonatal adverse outcomes including respiratory complications and NICU hospitalization. In conclusion, BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with an increased rate of adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes. Therefore, in view of its safety on one hand, and the risk associated with COVID-19 disease in pregnancy on the other hand, BNT 162b2 COVID-19 vaccine should be recommended for pregnant women

Ancient trash mounds unravel urban collapse a century before the end of Byzantine hegemony in the southern Levant.

The historic event of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was recently identified in dozens of natural and geological climate proxies of the northern hemisphere. Although this climatic downturn was proposed as a major cause for pandemic and extensive societal upheavals in the sixth-seventh centuries CE, archaeological evidence for the magnitude of societal response to this event is sparse. This study uses ancient trash mounds as a type of proxy for identifying societal crisis in the urban domain, and employs multidisciplinary investigations to establish the terminal date of organized trash collection and high-level municipal functioning on a city-wide scale. Survey, excavation, sediment analysis, and geographic information system assessment of mound volume were conducted on a series of mounds surrounding the Byzantine urban settlement of Elusa in the Negev Desert. These reveal the massive collection and dumping of domestic and construction waste over time on the city edges. Carbon dating of charred seeds and charcoal fragments combined with ceramic analysis establish the end date of orchestrated trash removal near the mid-sixth century, coinciding closely with the beginning of the LALIA event and outbreak of the Justinian Plague in the year 541. This evidence for societal decline during the sixth century ties with other arguments for urban dysfunction across the Byzantine Levant at this time. We demonstrate the utility of trash mounds as sensitive proxies of social response and unravel the time-space dynamics of urban collapse, suggesting diminished resilience to rapid climate change in the frontier Negev region of the empire