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)

Sonic Hedgehog is a determinant of γδ T-Cell differentiation in the Thymus

Here we investigate the function of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in thymic γδ T-cell maturation and subset differentiation. Analysis of Hh mutants showed that Hh signaling promotes γδ T-cell development in the thymus and influences γδ T-cell effector subset distribution. Hh-mediated transcription in thymic γδ cells increased γδ T-cell number, and promoted their maturation and increased the γδNKT subset, whereas inhibition of Hh-mediated transcription reduced the thymic γδ T-cell population and increased expression of many genes that are normally down-regulated during γδ T-cell maturation. These changes were also evident in spleen, where increased Hh signaling increased γδNKT cells, but reduced CD27-CD44+ and Vγ2+ populations. Systemic in vivo pharmacological Smoothened-inhibition reduced γδ T-cell and γδNKT cells in the thymus, and also reduced splenic γδ T-cell and γδNKT populations, indicating that Hh signaling also influences homeostasis of peripheral γδ T-cell populations. Taken together our data indicate that Sonic Hedgehog is an important determinant of γδ T-cell effector subset differentiation

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

Inventing the Neolithic? Putting evidence-based interpretation back into the study of faunal remains from causewayed enclosures.

ArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in World Archaeology on 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00438243.2015.1072476The paper argues that our current understanding of the animal bones from causewayed enclosure sites in Britain is flawed. During the 1980-90s, a number of key interpretations, still frequently espoused, were based more upon anecdote and theory-driven assertion than on empirical evidence. An example is that evidence of bone processing (butchery and bone fracture) does not feature heavily in the faunal record from causewayed enclosures. Using data from the sites of Etton and Staines, this view must now be questioned. Both butchery and peri-mortem bone fracture are present in these assemblages in substantial quantities. These sites are compared with Ludwinowo 7, a Linearbandkeramik settlement site in Poland and there are considerable similarities between the three different sites. This suggests possibility that the broader economic utility of animal bone assemblages at causewayed enclosures has been underestimated, having been, up to now, regarded as ‘not indicative of domestic settlement’

A bone grease processing station at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village: archaeological evidence for the exploitation of bone fats

© Association for Environmental Archaeology 2015. Author's accepted manuscript version deposited in accordance with SHERPA RoMEO guidelines. The definitive version is available at http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000035.Recent excavations at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, an Initial Middle Missouri site in Mitchell, South Dakota have revealed a large, clay-lined feature filled with fractured and fragmented bison bones. Fracture and fragmentation analysis, along with taphonomic evidence, suggests that the bones preserved within the feature represent evidence of prehistoric bone marrow and bone grease exploitation. Further, the character of the feature suggests that it served as a bone grease processing station. Bone fat exploitation is an activity that is frequently cited as a causal explanation for the nature of many fractured and fragmented bone assemblages in prehistory, and zooarchaeological assemblages have frequently been studied as evidence of bone fat exploitation. The Mitchell example provides some of the first direct, in-situ archaeological evidence of a bone grease processing feature, and this interpretation is sustained by substantial analytical evidence suggesting bone fat exploitation. This new evidence provides a clearer concept of the nature of bone fat exploitation in prehistory as well as an indication of the scale and degree to which bone grease exploitation occurred at the Mitchell site. Finally, this research demonstrates the importance of careful zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis for the interpretation of both artifactual remains as well as archaeological features

Further Evidence for Cosmological Evolution of the Fine Structure Constant

We describe the results of a search for time variability of the fine structure constant, alpha, using absorption systems in the spectra of distant quasars. Three large optical datasets and two 21cm/mm absorption systems provide four independent samples, spanning 23% to 87% of the age of the universe. Each sample yields a smaller alpha in the past and the optical sample shows a 4-sigma deviation: da/a = -0.72 +/- 0.18 x 10^{-5} over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 3.5. We find no systematic effects which can explain our results. The only potentially significant systematic effects push da/a towards positive values, i.e. our results would become more significant were we to correct for them.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Published in Phys. Rev. Lett. Small changes to discussion, added an acknowledgement and a referenc

Determining the effect of drying time on phosphorus solubilization from three agricultural soils under climate change scenarios

Climate projections for the future indicate that the United Kingdom will experience hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters, bringing longer dry periods followed by rewetting. This will result in changes in phosphorus (P) mobilization patterns that will influence the transfer of P from land to water. We tested the hypothesis that changes in the future patterns of drying–rewetting will affect the amount of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) solubilized from soil. Estimations of dry period characteristics (duration and temperature) under current and predicted climate were determined using data from the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) Weather Generator tool. Three soils (sieved 25°C are predicted in some places and dry periods of 30 to 90 d extremes are predicted. Combining the frequency of projected dry periods with the SRP concentration in leachate suggests that this may result overall in increased mobilization of P; however, critical breakpoints of 6.9 to 14.5 d dry occur wherein up to 28% more SRP can be solubilized following a rapid rewetting event. The precise cause of this increase could not be identified and warrants further investigation as the process is not currently included in P transfer models

Human biogeography and faunal exploitation in Diamante River basin, central western Argentina

A biogeographic model used to describe human peopling of southern Mendoza, central western Argentina, proposed an intensification process activated by an increase in population growth rate during the Late Holocene. During this process, high-ranked resources at the surroundings of residential camps were depleted, and hunter–gatherers broadened their diet by incorporating a larger number of low-ranked prey and domesticated plant resources. In this paper, we evaluate an alternative hypothesis, focusing on zooarchaeological data from the Diamante River basin. The results show that faunal resource intensification does not appear to have occurred in the Diamante River basin during the Late Holocene. Faunal consumption in Diamante River basin mainly reflects the local fauna in each ecological zone. The data do not show a lack of higher ranked resources. We suggest it is more likely that the demographic increase was not significant enough to cause an impact on the faunal resources. The archaeological evidence should be improved and analysed in smaller scales to continue with the intensification debate.Fil: Otaola, Clara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Giardina, Miguel Angel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Franchetti, Fernando Ricardo. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs

The focus of researchers, media and policy on doping in cycling is often limited to the professional level of the sport. However, anti-doping test results since 2001 demonstrate that banned substances are also used by US cyclists at lower levels of the sport, necessitating a broader view of the patterns and motivations of substance use within the sport. In this article, we describe and explain the doping culture that has emerged in domestic US cycling among amateur and semi-professionals. Through analysis of records from sports governing bodies and journalistic reports, we assess the range of violation types and discuss the detection and punishing of riders who were not proven to have intended to cheat but became "collateral damage" in the war on doping. We argue that the phenomenon of doping is more complex than what has been shown to occur in elite sport, as it includes a wider variety of behaviours, situations and motivations. We develop fresh insights by examining cases where doping has been accidental, intrinsically motivated, non-performance enhancing or the result of prescribed medical treatments banned by anti-doping authorities. Such trends call into question the fairness of anti-doping measures, and we discuss the possibility of developing localised solutions to testing and sanctioning amateur athletes