Elaia, Pergamon's maritime satellite:The rise and fall of an ancient harbour city shaped by shoreline migration

Throughout human history, communication and trade have been key to society. Because maritime trade facilitated the rapid transportation of passengers and freight at relatively low cost, harbours became hubs for traffic, trade and exchange. This general statement holds true for the Pergamenian kingdom, which ruled wide parts of today's western Turkey during Hellenistic times. Its harbour, located at the city of Elaia on the eastern Aegean shore, was used extensively for commercial and military purposes. This study reconstructs the coastal evolution in and around the ancient harbour of Elaia and compares the observed environmental modifications with archaeological and historical findings. We use micropalaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical proxies to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental dynamics and evolution of the ancient harbour. The geoarchaeological results confirm the archaeological and historical evidence for Elaia's primacy during Hellenistic and early Roman times, and the city's gradual decline during the late Roman period. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that Elaia holds a unique position as a harbour city during ancient times in the eastern Aegean region, because it was not greatly influenced by the high sediment supply associated with river deltas. Consequently, no dredging of the harbour basins is documented, creating exceptional geo-bioarchives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

Protocolo para produção de material propagativo de batata em meio líquido Protocol for potato propagative material production in liquid medium

Os meios semi-sólidos são os mais utilizados em trabalhos de micropropagação, mas há indícios de que o estado físico dos meios de cultura influencia a multiplicação dos cultivos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estabelecer um protocolo para a multiplicação de material propagativo de batata em meio de cultura líquido. Explantes de batata da cultivar Eliza, com uma gema axilar, foram cultivados em seis diferentes meios de cultura, com (semi-sólido) ou sem (líquido) a adição do solidificante ágar. Após 21 dias de cultivo, o meio de cultura que proporcionou os melhores resultados para crescimento e taxa de multiplicação teve sua composição modificada com o objetivo de melhorar a eficiência de multiplicação de cinco cultivares em meio líquido. Foi também avaliada a necessidade de agitação dos cultivos em meio líquido. Houve ganho na eficiência de multiplicação in vitro da batata, quando se utiliza meio de cultura líquido. Os melhores resultados são obtidos quando o material é cultivado em meio constituído pelos sais de MS na concentração plena, acrescido de ácido pantotênico (5,0 mg L-1), tiamina (1,0 mg L-1), ácido giberélico (0,25 mg L-1) e sacarose (20 g L-1), sob agitação constante.<br>Semi-solid media are more commonly used in studies of micropropagation, but the physical state of the culture media seems to influence the growth and multiplication rate of the cultivation. The objective of this work was to establish a protocol for in vitro multiplication of potato in liquid culture media. Potato explants, cultivar Eliza, with an axillary bud, were cultivated in six different culture media, with (semi-solid) or without (liquid) the addition of agar. After 21 days, the culture medium that provided the best results for growth and multiplication rate had the composition modified with the objective of improving the efficiency of in vitro multiplication of five cultivars in liquid medium. The need of agitation was also evaluated in liquid culture medium. There was high efficiency of the in vitro potato multiplication when it was cultivated in liquid medium. The MS salt medium in the full concentration, added by gibberellic acid (0.25 mg L-1), panthotenic acid (5.0 mg L-1), thiamine (1.0 mg L-1) and sucrose (20 g L-1), and under constant agitation, showed to be suitable for this purpose