Il tempo e lo spazio in Chronopolis di J. G. Ballard

Time and space are two of the main features in Ballard’s fiction. They are also the main topic in this short story. In Chronopolis the measurement of time is forbidden. When the story’s main character, Newman, discovers the existence of clocks, he decides to defy the law to restore the previous condition. In doing so he moves from the city he used to live in to the old forsaken city. So, he moves both in time and space. He pursues the utopia of liberating time, and man, from the Orwellian prohibition of dealing with linear time. But he fails eventually, being imprisoned for having tried to break free from the State control of time. His crossing of the symbolic border between the new and the old city is a passage from a static, present time to a flowing linear time, not limited to the present. But the old Chronopolis in a sense has become a non-place, while the new one has been deprived of time, thus being characterized by non-time. Since these notions are represented by the terms, respectively, utopia and uchronia, ultimately this means a disappearing of Chronopolis on an imaginary Cartesian graph displaying it.Time and space are two of the main features in Ballard’s fiction. They are also the main topic in this short story. In Chronopolis the measurement of time is forbidden. When the story’s main character, Newman, discovers the existence of clocks, he decides to defy the law to restore the previous condition. In doing so he moves from the city he used to live in to the old forsaken city. So, he moves both in time and space. He pursues the utopia of liberating time, and man, from the Orwellian prohibition of dealing with linear time. But he fails eventually, being imprisoned for having tried to break free from the State control of time. His crossing of the symbolic border between the new and the old city is a passage from a static, present time to a flowing linear time, not limited to the present. But the old Chronopolis in a sense has become a non-place, while the new one has been deprived of time, thus being characterized by non-time. Since these notions are represented by the terms, respectively, utopia and uchronia, ultimately this means a disappearing of Chronopolis on an imaginary Cartesian graph displaying it

Uncanny Valley: dall’Olimpia di Hoffmann al robot Asimo

The ability to create life is a long time dream of mankind. Here we make a brief journey from fantasy to reality: from Golem’s legend to mechanical automatons, right up until the androids available nowadays.La capacità di creare la vita è un sogno a lungo termine dell'umanità. Qui facciamo un breve viaggio dalla fantasia alla realtà: dalla leggenda di Golem agli automi meccanici, fino agli androidi oggi disponibili.

Traduzione e significato nel Dialogo dei massimi sistemi di Tommaso Landolfi

In Tommaso Landolfi’s Dialogo dei massimi sistemi Y character’s three poems are written in a language that their author believed being Persian but will discover invented instead, much to his disappointment. Does the fact that the translation into Italian of one of them is virtually arbitrary invalidates its communication value?Nel racconto Dialogo dei massimi sistemi di Tommaso Landolfi Y scrive tre poesie in una lingua che crede essere il persiano ma scoprirà in seguito con disappunto essere inventata. La poesia riportata nel testo del racconto compie un percorso dalla sua forma originale fino alla sua traduzione in italiano. L’arbitrarietà sostanziale della traduzione in italiano ne inficia il potenziale comunicativo

Nuove ricerche subacquee nella laguna di Santa Giusta (OR) (campagna del 2009-2010)

Le ricerche avviate nel 2005 nella laguna di Santa Giusta (OR) stanno rivelando la presenza di contesti archeologici di età fenicio-punica di eccezionale rilevanza. In uno di questi, localizzato a circa 800 m dall’attuale linea di riva, è stato condotto, a partire dal 2006, uno scavo subacqueo, ancora in corso. Sono stati recuperati numerosi materiali ceramici, in larga parte rappresentati da anfore commerciali, ma anche da ceramica domestica e, più raramente, di carattere funerario e cultuale (VI-III/II sec. a.C.). In vari casi le anfore contenevano resti ossei animali, più spesso di ovicaprini, con evidenti tracce di macellazione; le condizioni anossiche garantite dal substrato limoso hanno favorito la conservazione di materiali organici, tra i quali pigne, semi di diverse specie e legni, prevalentemente lavorati, alcuni ancora in connessione.Research undertaken in 2005 in the lagoon of Santa Giusta (OR) is revealing the presence of archaeological contexts of Phoenician-Punic date of exceptional importance. In one of these, located about 800 m from the current shoreline, an underwa­ter excavation was conducted since 2006; it is still in progress. Much pottery has been recovered, mostly represented by transport amphoras, but also by domestic pottery and, more rarely, ceramics associated with funerary and cultic use (6th-2nd century BC). In several cases the amphoras contained animal remains, most often of ovicaprines, with clear traces of slaughter; the anaerobic condi­tions guaranteed by the silty substrate have favoured the preservation of organic materials, including pine cones, seeds of different species and wood, mostly worked and some still joined together.

Nuove ricerche subacquee nella laguna di Santa Giusta (OR) (campagna del 2009-2010)

Le ricerche avviate nel 2005 nella laguna di Santa Giusta (OR) stanno rivelando la presenza di contesti archeologici di età fenicio-punica di eccezionale rilevanza. In uno di questi, localizzato a circa 800 m dall’attuale linea di riva, è stato condotto, a partire dal 2006, uno scavo subacqueo, ancora in corso. Sono stati recuperati numerosi materiali ceramici, in larga parte rappresentati da anfore commerciali, ma anche da ceramica domestica e, più raramente, di carattere funerario e cultuale (VI-III/II sec. a.C.). In vari casi le anfore contenevano resti ossei animali, più spesso di ovicaprini, con evidenti tracce di macellazione; le condizioni anossiche garantite dal substrato limoso hanno favorito la conservazione di materiali organici, tra i quali pigne, semi di diverse specie e legni, prevalentemente lavorati, alcuni ancora in connessione.Research undertaken in 2005 in the lagoon of Santa Giusta (OR) is revealing the presence of archaeological contexts of Phoenician-Punic date of exceptional importance. In one of these, located about 800 m from the current shoreline, an underwa­ter excavation was conducted since 2006; it is still in progress. Much pottery has been recovered, mostly represented by transport amphoras, but also by domestic pottery and, more rarely, ceramics associated with funerary and cultic use (6th-2nd century BC). In several cases the amphoras contained animal remains, most often of ovicaprines, with clear traces of slaughter; the anaerobic condi­tions guaranteed by the silty substrate have favoured the preservation of organic materials, including pine cones, seeds of different species and wood, mostly worked and some still joined together.

Anatomical study of animal remains from Phoenician-Punic amphorae found in the Santa Giusta Pond, Sardinia (Italy)

During the underwater excavations carried out in the Santa Giusta Pond, near Oristano, Sardinia, a significant amount of Phoenician- Punic materials was brought to light including amphorae (dating back to 7th-2nd century BC) and vegetal and animal remains. All of these archaeological finds may come from Othoca, an important Phoenician- Punic city on the eastern shore of the pond, geographically corresponding with the modern-day town of Santa Giusta. Animal materials consist of more than 3000 very well-preserved remains, belonging to sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and cattle (Bos taurus). Bone analyses allowed reconstructing the slaughtering methods, as well as manipulation procedures carried out to preserve meat in order to be exported overseas. Although pig (Sus scrofa) played an important economical role in other Sardinian Phoenician-Punic settlements, in this archaeological context this species is absent, suggesting that the meat contained in the amphorae was probably destined to other areas of the Mediterranean basin, where people did not eat pork

Obsidian Economy in the Rio Saboccu Open-Air Early Neolithic Site (Sardinia, Italy)

Integrated provenance/typo-technologic/chaînes opératoires studies on obsidians from Early Neolithic (EN) assemblages are still quite exceptional in the western Mediterranean region. The Rio Saboccu S1-S2 EN dwelling structures (Central-western Sardinia) 14C dated to the last three centuries of the VIth millennium BC provided us with an opportunity to apply such an approach. A comprehensive provenance study of its 1.114 obsidian artefacts was realized through a combined visual/instrumental approach. Elemental compositions were determined mostly by ion beam analysis (PIXE) and by electron microprobe (SEM-EDS). The S1-S2 structures are situated inside the so-called supply zone of the Monte Arci volcanic complex. A technological analysis of the implements revealed a non-opportunistic behaviour in relation to obsidian procurement among the four (SA, SB1, SB2, SC) Monte Arci types locally available in various contexts (from primary to secondary sources). A comparison with other Sardinian EN sites suggests that the human groups settled near the Monte Arci sources might have acted as a ‘filter’ in the first stages of the diffusion of obsidians in Sardinia and possibly elsewhere in the northern Tyrrhenian area

Climatic changes and human impact on coastal areas of Sardinia: the example of the Mistras-Cabras barrier-lagoon system (Central-Western Sardinia)

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