Religious transformations in the Middle Ages: towards a new archaeological agenda

The study of religious change in Europe between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology but has been riven by period, denominational and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting a holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, comparative perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives

Studies on the separation of minor actinides from high-level wastes by extraction chromatography using novel silica-based extraction resins

To develop an advanced partitioning process by extraction chromatography using a minimal organic solvent and compact equipment to separate minor actinides such as Am and Cm from nitrate acidic high-level waste (HLW) solution, several novel silica-based extraction resins have been prepared by impregnating organic extractants into the styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer, which is immobilized in porous silica particles (SiO2-P). The extractants include octyl(phenyl)-N, N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO), di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP), and bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)dithiophosphinic acid (Cyanex 301). Compared to conventional polymer-matrix resins, these new types of extraction resin are characterized by rapid kinetics and significantly low pressure loss in a packed column.The results of separation experiments revealed that trivalent actinides and lanthanides can be separated from other fission products, such as Cs, Sr, and Ru in simulated HLW solution containing concentrated nitric acid by extraction chromatography using a CMPO/SiO2-P resin-packed column. Satisfactory separation between Am(III) and a macro amount of lanthanides from simulated HLW solution with pH 4 was achieved by using a newly purified Cyanex 301/SiO2-P resin. However, the Am(III) separation was very sensitive to the purity of Cyanex 301, and the improvement of its stability is an important task for practical utilization