Cowries in the archaeology of West Africa: the present picture

Despite the perceived importance of cowrie shells as indicators of long-distance connections in the West African past, their distribution and consumption patterns in archaeological contexts remain surprisingly underexplored, a gap that is only partly explicable by the sparse distribution of archaeological sites within the sub-continent. General writings on the timeline of importation of cowries into West Africa often fail to take into account the latest archaeological evidence and rely instead on accounts drawn from historical or ethnographic documents. This paper is based on a first-hand assessment of over 4500 shells from 78 sites across West Africa, examining chronology, shell species and processes of modification to assess what distribution patterns can tell us about the history of importation and usage of cowries. These first-hand analyses are paralleled by a consideration of published materials. We re-examine the default assumption that two distinct routes of entry existed — one overland from North Africa before the fifteenth century, another coming into use from the time sea links were established with the East African coast and becoming predominant by the middle of the nineteenth century. We focus on the eastern part of West Africa, where the importance of imported cowries to local communities in relatively recent periods is well known and from where we have a good archaeological sample. The conclusion is that on suitably large assemblages shell size can be an indication of provenance and that, while the present archaeological picture seems largely to confirm historical sources, much of this may be due to the discrepancy in archaeological data available from the Sahara/Sahel zone compared to the more forested regions of the sub-continent. Future archaeological work will clarify this matter

On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

This article contains the reasons for the establishment of sacred trees in Israel based on a field study. It includes 97 interviews with Muslim and Druze informants. While Muslims (Arabs and Bedouins) consider sacred trees especially as an abode of righteous figures' (Wellis') souls or as having a connection to their graves, the Druze relate sacred trees especially to the events or deeds in the lives of prophets and religious leaders. A literary review shows the existence of 24 known reasons for the establishment of sacred trees worldwide, 11 of which are known in Israel one of these is reported here for the first time. We found different trends in monotheistic and polytheistic religions concerning their current worship of sacred trees

Multi-Method Remote-Sensing Geophysical Investigation of Medieval Stone/Potsherd Pavements at Ita Yemoo, Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria

An integrated geophysical investigation involving the magnetic, electrical resistivity, and ground penetrating radar (GPR) methods was carried out within Ita Yemoo archaeological site at Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria. This was to assess the potency of the geophysical methods to individually or collectively identify potsherd/stone pavement and map the spatial distribution of the archaeological feature to guide future excavation and minimize invasiveness. The GPR method is the most potent geophysical method for pavement mapping at relatively shallow depth (of up to 1.0 m or thereabout) using radargrams and depth slice maps attributes. The electrical resistivity method is next in potency using 2D dipole-dipole data derived and depth-specific 2D apparent resistivity maps as diagnostic attributes. This method has the limitation of suppressing the archaeological feature due to its thin nature and overlapping resistivity values with the host materials. The 1D Micro VES has very limited but useful applications in estimating pavement resistivities and thicknesses of outcropping pavements. These geoelectrical parameters are needed to constrain the interpretation of 2D resistivity sections and maps. The magnetic method has the least potency because of the overlapping magnetic effects of the weakly magnetic potsherd/stone pavement and the equally weakly magnetic weathered basement-derived host materials. The method is, however, useful in the estimation of the depth of archaeological relevance, which is needed in field design

Clinical radioimmunotherapy-the role of radiobiology

Conventional external-beam radiation therapy is dedicated to the treatment of localized disease, whereas radioimmunotherapy represents an innovative tool for the treatment of local or diffuse tumors. Radioimmunotherapy involves the administration of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies that are directed specifically against tumor-associated antigens or against the tumor microenvironment. Although many tumor-associated antigens have been identified as possible targets for radioimmunotherapy of patients with hematological or solid tumors, clinical success has so far been achieved mostly with radiolabeled antibodies against CD20 ( 131I-tositumomab and 90 Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan) for the treatment of lymphoma. In this Review, we provide an update on the current challenges aimed to improve the efficacy of radioimmunotherapy and discuss the main radiobiological issues associated with clinical radioimmunotherapy. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved