52 research outputs found
Beached swords from Marano Lagoon (northern Adriatic) reveal ancient land-sea connections and recent coastal evolution
Depositional and erosional processes, subsidence and sea-level changes have strongly modified the coastal landscape of northern Adriatic lagoons. Such rapid transformations have induced significant consequences on human settlements and, thus, on the archaeological visibility of the area, still largely unexplored. We present here six metal swords fortuitously retrieved by fishermen over the last decades in front of the barrier islands of Marano Lagoon (north-eastern Italy). Multi-analytical analyses carried out on the artefacts (X-ray radiography and computed micro-tomography, radiocarbon dating and typo-chronology) combined with the study of the coastal paleo-environment (mainly based on historical cartography and remote sensing) allowed the items' main features to be defined, and highlighted both the historical importance of the area and the significant morphological changes that have occurred there over the last millennium. Data presented indicate that Marano Lagoon was a major hub in the northern Adriatic in the Late Middle Ages, during the crucial period of the Crusades, and in Early Modern times, connecting inland Europe with the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, the research highlights the onset of coastal erosion that occurred in the last century after a phase of relatively geomorphic stability, possibly deriving from the intensification of human impact and climate change
LABEC, the INFN ion beam laboratory of nuclear techniques for environment and cultural heritage
The LABEC laboratory, the INFN ion beam laboratory of nuclear techniques for
environment and cultural heritage, located in the Scientific and Technological Campus of
the University of Florence in Sesto Fiorentino, started its operational activities in 2004, after
INFN decided in 2001 to provide our applied nuclear physics group with a large laboratory
dedicated to applications of accelerator-related analytical techniques, based on a new 3 MV
Tandetron accelerator. The new accelerator greatly improved the performance of existing
Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) applications (for which we were using since the 1980s an old
single-ended Van de Graaff accelerator) and in addition allowed to start a novel activity of
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), in particular for 14C dating. Switching between IBA
and AMS operation became very easy and fast, which allowed us high flexibility in programming
the activities, mainly focused on studies of cultural heritage and atmospheric aerosol
composition, but including also applications to biology, geology, material science and forensics,
ion implantation, tests of radiation damage to components, detector performance tests
and low-energy nuclear physics. This paper describes the facilities presently available in the
LABEC laboratory, their technical features and some success stories of recent applications
Parasite prevalence in fecal samples from shelter dogs and cats across the Canadian provinces
Organi della conoscenza e operazioni della mente nel dialogo Turrius sive de intellectione
Linguaggio e pratiche di cura tra descrizione e intrepretazione. Riflessioni a partire dalla prospettiva di S. Loftus e J. Higgs
Il testo approfondisce la posizione di S. Loftus e J. Higgs in merito alla possibilit\ue0 di considerare l'approfondimento delle competenze linguistiche, da parte dei profesionisti della sanit\ue0, come elemento imprescindibile in vista di una comprensione autentica tra medico e paziente. Il fil rouge dal punto di vista teorretico \ue8 costituito dall'evoluzione del pensiero di Wittgenstein ed in particolare della sua elaborazione di significato come uso e non pi\uf9 soltanto come rappresentazione
Focus Point on New Challenges in the Scientific Applications to Cultural Heritage
Description of the actual phase of research in scientific methods applied to Cultural Heritag
Strategies for sampling difficult archaeological contexts and improving the quality of radiocarbon data: the case of Erimi Laonin tou Porakou, Cyprus
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