Reduced intensity of bone fat exploitation correlates with increased potential access to dairy fats in early Neolithic Europe

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Important nutritional resources can be acquired by breaking bone shafts to access marrow, whereas heavy comminution and boiling of cancellous bone is required to extract bone grease. Since labour and fuel costs of these processes differ considerably, the relative intensities of these activities provide a possible proxy for nutritional stress or elevated fat requirements in the context of an overall subsistence strategy. We investigated faunal material from eleven early Neolithic sites in central Europe for bone fracture and fragmentation patterns to ascertain the intensity of bone marrow and grease exploitation. These data indicate that bone grease processing was practised rarely if at all during the early Neolithic, likely made unnecessary by ample access to crop carbohydrates. Bone marrow was exploited at all sites, but with varying intensity that exhibited a significant negative correlation with the proportion of milk-producing domestic ruminants. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that fats obtained from dairy products reduced requirements for intensive marrow exploitation.This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant ERC324202)

A catalogue of absorption-line systems in QSO spectra

We present a new catalog of absprption-line systems identified in the quasar spectra. It contains data on 821 QSOs and 8558 absorption systems comprizing 16139 absorption lines with measured redshifts in the QSO spectra. The catalog includes absorption-line systems consisting of lines of heavy elements, lines of neutral hydrogen, Lyman limit systems, damped Ly\alpha absorption systems, and broad absorption-line systems. The catalog is available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/412/707 and at www.ioffe.ru/astro/QC. Using the data of the present catalog we also discuss redshift distributions of absorption-line systems.Comment: 3 pages with 1 postscript figur

Sequencing of segment kinetic energy in the golf swing.

The proximal-to-distal sequence has been associated with mechanical and muscular rewards which enable high speed to be produced at the distal end of a linked system. Although the proximal-to-distal sequence has frequently been examined using analyses of segment angular velocity, analyses of segment kinetic energy can provide the most appropriate means of exploring sequential movements. However, due to methodological complexities few studies have adopted this technique. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to determine if a sequence of segment KE was evident in the golf swing. To enable segment kinetic energy to be calculated body segment inertial parameters were estimated for 17 rigid bodies using a 30 shape geometric model. Kinematic data were then collected using a sixteen-channel Polhemus Liberty electromagnetic tracking system sampling at 240 Hz and twelve, six-degrees-of-freedom electromagnetic sensors. Using this data, total kinetic energy, calculated as the sum of the translational, local rotational and remote rotational kinetic energies was then determined for four grouped segments (Lower Body, Upper Body, Arms and Club) in the downswing phase of the golf swing. The thesis then established that the data collection technique was capable of producing reliable measures of segment KE in the golf swing. Therefore, three further studies were performed which examined the effect of club type, playing standard and weight transfer style on the sequencing of segment KE in the golf swing. In all studies, peak total segment kinetic energy increased sequentially from the proximal to the distal segment. However, the timing of peak total segment kinetic energy did not follow a proximal-to-distal sequence. Instead, peak total segment kinetic energy for the Lower Body, Upper Body and Arms occurred simultaneously at approximately 74% of the downswing, significantly earlier in the downswing than peak total Club kinetic energy which occurred just before ball contact. For skilled golfers, the results suggested that peak translational and rotational kinetic energy increased sequentially from the Upper Body to the Club. Furthermore, when the driver was used, larger magnitudes of peak translational Arms and local rotational Upper Body kinetic energies were produced and peak translational Lower Body and Upper Body KE occurred significantly later in the downswing. The results also identified that highly skilled golfers generated significantly larger magnitudes of total Arms and Club kinetic energies than less skilled golfers. Furthermore, a sequence of translational KE from the Upper Body to the Club was only produced by highly skilled players. Finally, the results indicated peak translational and local rotational Lower Body, peak translational Upper Body and peak remote rotational Arms KE occurred significantly later for the Front Foot players. In conclusion, club type, playing standard and weight transfer style had little effect on the magnitude and timing of peak total segment kinetic energy. However, significant effects were identified on measures of translational and rotational components of peak segment KE. These findings should encourage golf coaches and researchers to use analyses of segment kinetic energy rather than analyses of segment angular velocity as they are sensitive to subtle changes in technique and consider the 3D translation and rotation of body segments. The findings also highlight the importance for future analyses to consider the different weight transfer styles that exist within the golf swing

Archaeological supplement B to Damgaard et al. 2018: discussion of the archaeology of Central Asian and East Asian Neolithic to Bronze Age hunter-gatherers and early pastoralists, including consideration of horse domestication

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Zenodo via the DOI in this recordThis is part of the additional supplementary material for Damgaard et al., The first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze Age steppe expansions into Asia. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7711. Note that the author accepted manuscript version of the article plus supplementary material and additional supplementary material is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/32791The archaeological evidence relating to selected key cultures from Central and East Asia from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is summarized. These cultures include the Eneolithic (Copper Age) Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan, the Bronze Age Okunevo culture from the Minusinsk Basin in Russia and Neolithic to Bronze Age cultures of the Baikal Region in East Siberia. Special consideration is given to the debate surrounding horse domestication within the Botai Culture, and the key lines of evidence are summarized

Diel turbidity cycles in a headwater stream: evidence of nocturnal bioturbation?

Purpose: A small number of recent studies have linked daily cycles in stream turbidity to nocturnal bioturbation by aquatic fauna, principally crayfish, and demonstrated this process can significantly impact upon water quality under baseflow conditions. Adding to this limited body of research, we use high-resolution water quality monitoring data to investigate evidence of diel turbidity cycles in a lowland, headwater stream with a known signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) population and explore a range of potential causal mechanisms. Materials and methods: Automatic bankside monitoring stations measured turbidity and other water quality parameters at 30-min resolution at three locations on the River Blackwater, Norfolk, UK during 2013. Specifically, we focused on two 20-day periods of baseflow conditions during January and April 2013 which displayed turbidity trends typical of winter and spring seasons, respectively. The turbidity time-series, which were smoothed with 6.5 hour Savitzky-Golay filters to highlight diel trends, were correlated against temperature, stage, dissolved oxygen and pH to assess the importance of abiotic influences on turbidity. Turbidity was also calibrated against suspended particulate matter (SPM) over a wide range of values via linear regression. Results and discussion: Pronounced diel turbidity cycles were found at two of the three sites under baseflow conditions during April. Spring night-time turbidity values consistently peaked between 21:00 and 04:00 with values increasing by ~10 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) compared with the lowest recorded daytime values which occurred between 10:00 and 14:00. This translated into statistically significant increases in median midnight SPM concentration of up to 76% compared with midday, with night-time (18:00 – 05:30) SPM loads also up to 30% higher than that recorded during the daytime (06:00 – 17:30). Relating turbidity to other water quality parameters exhibiting diel cycles revealed there to be neither any correlation that might indicate a causal link, nor any obvious mechanistic connections to explain the temporal turbidity trends. Diel turbidity cycles were less prominent at all sites during the winter. Conclusions: Considering the seasonality and timing of elevated turbidity, visual observations of crayfish activity, and an absence of mechanistic connections with other water quality parameters, the results presented here are consistent with the hypothesis that nocturnal bioturbation is responsible for generating diel turbidity cycles under baseflow conditions in headwater streams. However, further research in a variety of fluvial environments is required to better assess the spatial extent, importance and causal mechanisms of this phenomenon

Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan

© 2011 Antiquity PublicationsThe authors examine the role of horses as expressed in assemblages from settlement sites and cemeteries between the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age in Kazakhstan. In this land, known for its rich association with horses, the skeletal evidence appears to indicate a fading of ritual interest. But that's not the whole story, and once again micro-archaeology reveals the true balance. The horses are present at the funeral, but now as meat for the pot, detected in bone fragments and lipids in the pot walls.Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/B504506) and the British Academy (grants SG-35540 and SG-42656)

Correlation function of quasars in real and redshift space from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7

We analyze the quasar two-point correlation function (2pCF) within the redshift interval $0.8<z<2.2$ using a sample of 52303 quasars selected from the recent 7th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our approach to 2pCF uses a concept of locally Lorentz (Fermi) frame for determination of the distance between objects and permutation method of the random catalogue generation. Assuming the spatially flat cosmological model with given $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.726$, we found that the real-space 2pCF is fitted well with the power-low model within the distance range $1<\sigma<35$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc with the correlation length $r_{0}=5.85\pm0.33$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc and the slope $\gamma=1.87\pm0.07$. The redshift-space 2pCF is approximated with $s_{0}=6.43\pm0.63$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc and $\gamma=1.21\pm0.24$ for $1<s<10$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc, and $s_{0}=7.37\pm0.81$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc and $\gamma=1.90\pm0.24$ for $1010\,h^{-1}$ Mpc the parameter describing the large-scale infall to density inhomogeneities is $\beta=0.63\pm0.10$ with the linear bias $b=1.44\pm0.22$ that marginally (within 2$\sigma$) agrees with the linear theory of cosmological perturbations. We discuss possibilities to obtain a statistical estimate of the random component of quasars velocities (different from the large-scale infall). We note rather slight dependence of quasars velocity dispersion upon the 2pCF parameters in the region $r<2$ Mpc.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, online published in MNRAS; final version to match the published versio

High-frequency monitoring of nitrogen and phosphorus response in three rural catchments to the end of the 2011–2012 drought in England

This paper uses high-frequency bankside measurements from three catchments selected as part of the UK government-funded Demonstration Test Catchments (DTC) project. We compare the hydrological and hydrochemical patterns during the water year 2011–2012 from the Wylye tributary of the River Avon with mixed land use, the Blackwater tributary of the River Wensum with arable land use and the Newby Beck tributary of the River Eden with grassland land use. The beginning of the hydrological year was unusually dry and all three catchments were in states of drought. A sudden change to a wet summer occurred in April 2012 when a heavy rainfall event affected all three catchments. The year-long time series and the individual storm responses captured by in situ nutrient measurements of nitrate and phosphorus (total phosphorus and total reactive phosphorus) concentrations at each site reveal different pollutant sources and pathways operating in each catchment. Large storm-induced nutrient transfers of nitrogen and or phosphorus to each stream were recorded at all three sites during the late April rainfall event. Hysteresis loops suggested transport-limited delivery of nitrate in the Blackwater and of total phosphorus in the Wylye and Newby Beck, which was thought to be exacerbated by the dry antecedent conditions prior to the storm. The high rate of nutrient transport in each system highlights the scale of the challenges faced by environmental managers when designing mitigation measures to reduce the flux of nutrients to rivers from diffuse agricultural sources. It also highlights the scale of the challenge in adapting to future extreme weather events under a changing climate

Ice Age megafauna rock art in the Colombian Amazon?

Megafauna paintings have accompanied the earliest archaeological contexts across the continents, revealing a fundamental inter-relationship between early humans and megafauna during the global human expansion as unfamiliar landscapes were humanized and identities built into new territories. However, the identification of extinct megafauna from rock art is controversial. Here, we examine potential megafauna depictions in the rock art of Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombian Amazon, that includes a giant sloth, a gomphothere, a camelid, horses and three-toed ungulates with trunks. We argue that they are Ice Age rock art based on the (i) naturalistic appearance and diagnostic morphological features of the animal images, (ii) late Pleistocene archaeological dates from La Lindosa confirming the contemporaneity of humans and megafauna, (iii) recovery of ochre pigments in late Pleistocene archaeological strata, (iv) the presence of most megafauna identified in the region during the late Pleistocene as attested by archaeological and palaeontological records, and (v) widespread depiction of extinct megafauna in rock art across the Americas. Our findings contribute to the emerging picture of considerable geographical and stylistic variation of geometric and figurative rock art from early human occupations across South America. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the early human history of tropical South America. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.1. Introduction 2. Early rock art in the Americas, study region and brief archaeological background 3. The La Lindosa rock art 4. The megafauna paintings (a) Giant ground sloth (Megatheriidae) (b) Proboscidean (Gomphotheriidae) (c) Horse (Equidae) (d) Camelid (Camelidae) (e) Macraucheniid (Macraucheniidae) 5. Concluding remark