Pastoral Nomads of the Second and Third Millennia AD on the Upper Tigris River, Turkey: Archaeological Evidence from the Hirbemerdon Tepe Survey

The importance of non-sedentary pastoralist groups in the social and political history of Mesopotamia has long been appreciated from the perspective of ancient texts and ethnohistorical sources, but empirical evidence from archaeology has been lacking. In two field seasons, the Hirbemerdon Tepe Survey (HMTS) in Diyarbakır province, SE Turkey, has recovered a variety of sites and landscape features associated with pastoral nomadic occupation during the last two millennia and possibly earlier. In doing so, we targeted non-alluvial areas where feature preservation was likely, and employed pedestrian survey methods more typical of Mediterranean fieldwork. If Mesopotamian archaeology is to investigate the landscapes of pastoral nomads, it must incorporate intensive survey methods and expand coverage beyond alluvial environments.Anthropolog

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Local Landscapes of Pastoral Nomads in Southeastern Turkey

The important historical role of pastoral nomads in Mesopotamia stands in stark contrast to the dearth of archaeological data on pastoral nomadic groups of any pre-modern period. Archaeological models neglect not just a significant segment of past populations; they also lack data on a substantial portion of the past food and textile production systems. Historical records and excavation have demonstrated that the resilience of Mesopotamian economy depended in part on pastoralism, but archaeologists know very little about the long-term management of the pastoral landscapes beyond core agricultural areas. This study examines empirical evidence for pastoral nomadic modes of inhabiting and transforming the landscape over the last 500 years in the upland fringes of the Upper Tigris River Valley in southeastern Turkey. Four seasons of archaeological survey mapped diachronic patterns in pastoral nomadic winter land-use, including patterns of campsites and spatially associated landscape features such as cisterns, corrals, caves, cairns, and check dams. Ethnographic and historical data as well as satellite imagery aided in archaeological interpretation. Three main conclusions about pastoral nomads are drawn from the characteristics and spatial distributions of the surveyed features. 1) Pastoral nomads altered their local landscapes for the purposes of sheltering humans and animals, collecting water, and improving pastures. Areas surrounding campsites contained abundant evidence of landscape management and capital investments in the herding potential of the area. 2) These investments were fixed, re-usable, and encouraged seasonal re-inhabitation of certain areas. Over time, these features became “landscape anchors”—geographic foci that structured the spatial organization of local landscapes. 3) The topographical position of domestic and herding features would have resulted in vertical daily movement patterns for humans and animals. These results force a reassessment of widely-held assumptions about the invisibility of campsites and the role of pastoral nomads in the transformation of Near Eastern landscapes. Although limited in time and space, this study presents grounds for optimism for a robust landscape archaeology of pastoral nomads. Intensive surveys, targeted excavations, and radiometric dating programs have enormous potential to provide more complex diachronic understandings of pastoral nomadic land-use strategies, sustainability, quotidian movement, and senses of place.Anthropolog

A perfect storm : polycystic ovary syndrome masking underlying yype 1 Von Willebrand disease

Von Willebrand Disease (vWD) is the most common inherited bleeding diathesis worldwide and results in defects in von Willebrand Factor (vWF), inducing a hypocoagulable state. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by chronic inflammation and hyperestrogenism, both of which induce acute phase reactions and increase serum levels of vWF and Factor VIII, yielding a prothrombotic state. These laboratory elevations may obscure the diagnosis of underlying vWD in patients with both conditions. We report a case of a 23 year-old female with PCOS and menorrhagia who presented prior to a surgical procedure for evaluation of bleeding risk

Infusing Engineering Design into High School STEM Courses

Society is recognizing the need to improve STEM education and introduce engineering design concepts before college. In the recent National Academy of Engineers report, Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects, the authors suggest that the STEM disciplines not be treated as ―silos‖ and that engineering might serve as a motivating context to integrate the four STEM disciplines (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). Recent research has suggested that integrated technology and engineering design curriculum can serve as a positive model for mathematics and science learning and retention (Ortiz, 2010; Wendell, 2011). The Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) strives to improve STEM education through engineering and believes every student should have the chance to engineer. Situated in Massachusetts, the first state to adopt engineering education at all levels in public schools (Massachusetts DOE, 2001), the CEEO supports the belief that engineering education starts in kindergarten and continues to develop throughout their K-12 schooling. We also believe that at the core of K-12 engineering is the Engineering Design Process (EDP). The purpose of introducing students to the EDP is not to have them ―build things‖, a common misconception. The EDP is meant to teach students that engineering is about organizing thoughts to improve decision making for the purpose of developing high quality solutions and/or products to problems. The knowledge and skills associated with the EDP are independent of the engineering discipline (e.g., mechanical, electrical, civil, etc.) and engineering science (e.g., thermodynamics, statics, or mechanics) knowledge that a particular engineering challenge may call upon. Design tasks therefore entail developing the kinds of critical thinking skills commonly associated with engineering and technology literacy. Three key concepts in successful implementation of the EDP are: students are engineers; teachers need to listen to their students; and classroom environments need to change to properly enable learning through the EDP

Global-scale comparisons of human land use: developing shared terminology for land-use practices for global change

Although archaeological data are needed to understand the impacts of past human land use on the Earth system, synthesis is hampered by a lack of consistent categories. We develop hierarchical and scalable land-use classifications for use across the globe

Assessing post-traumatic time interval in human dry bone

The post-traumatic status of antemortem fractures in human dry bone remains is currently defined as being either ‘healing’ or ‘healed’. However, detailed ‘dating’ of the related post-traumatic time interval would be desirable, since it would aid in assessing individual medical status and care at the time of death. Within forensic pathology practice, fresh tissue healing phases are routinely used as an intrinsic parameter for the length of the post-traumatic time interval. Unfortunately, the direct application of such a method is hampered when applied to dry bone skeletal material. This study explores the possibility of applying a fracture dating system, drawn forth from the traditional forensic pathology method, on dry bone remains. More specifically, the aims is to establish the extent to which various histo-morphological features indicative of specific time intervals of healing are consistently detectable. Human dry bones with fractures and amputations in various phases of healing were studied. Results show that the complementary use of radiological and histological investigation techniques improves the differentiation between various healing phases and thus allow for a more detailed dating of lesions. For future use, healing features that have proven to be consistently detectable and their related post traumatic time intervals are listed. The system aids in demarcating a considerably more ”narrow” post-traumatic time interval than usual.The Leiden University Fund (LUF)/Van Trigt and the South Africa Netherlands research Programme for Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) for partial funding.http://www.interscience.wiley.com/hb2013ay201

Mapping past human land use using archaeological data : a new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization

Abstract: In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists,..

Herbivorous dinosaur jaw disparity and its relationship to extrinsic evolutionary drivers

COPYRIGHT: © 2016 The Paleontological Society. All rights reserved This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.MacLaren JA, Anderson PSL, Barrett P, Rayfield EJ (2016) Data from: Herbivorous dinosaur jaw disparity and its relationship to extrinsic evolutionary drivers. Dryad Digital Repository. http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c78k