From Machair to Mountains

South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled with hundreds of settlement mounds, occupied from the Beaker period 4,000 years ago until a few centuries ago. The blacklands bear the traces of past farming practices as well as the remains of medieval settlements, more recent blackhouses and lochs containing duns, brochs and crannogs. In the hills lie the upstanding remains of shielings, Iron Age wheel houses and Neolithic chambered tombs.<br/>The results of large-scale excavations of Bronze Age houses (Cladh Hallan), an Iron Age broch (Dun Vulan), Viking settlements (Bornais and Cille Pheadair) and post-medieval blackhouses (Airigh Mhuillin), combined with extensive surveys and small-scale excavations that have identified hundreds of new sites, are being brought together in a series of volumes to provide an invaluable record and assessment of South Uist's archaeology covering the last 6,000 years. The large set-piece excavations are to be published in separate monographs. The results of the surveys and small-scale excavations are presented here

From Machair to Mountains

South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled with hundreds of settlement mounds, occupied from the Beaker period 4,000 years ago until a few centuries ago. The blacklands bear the traces of past farming practices as well as the remains of medieval settlements, more recent blackhouses and lochs containing duns, brochs and crannogs. In the hills lie the upstanding remains of shielings, Iron Age wheel houses and Neolithic chambered tombs.<br/>The results of large-scale excavations of Bronze Age houses (Cladh Hallan), an Iron Age broch (Dun Vulan), Viking settlements (Bornais and Cille Pheadair) and post-medieval blackhouses (Airigh Mhuillin), combined with extensive surveys and small-scale excavations that have identified hundreds of new sites, are being brought together in a series of volumes to provide an invaluable record and assessment of South Uist's archaeology covering the last 6,000 years. The large set-piece excavations are to be published in separate monographs. The results of the surveys and small-scale excavations are presented here

Fiskerton

Fiskerton, located in the Witham valley of Lincoln, is one of only a handful of excavated sites in Europe to reveal the Iron Age practice of ritually destroying special and elite objects by placing them in a body of water. This volume reports on the 1981 excavations on the bank of the River Witham and provides fascinating insights into this important aspect of Iron Age religion and culture. A remarkable group of Iron Age and Roman artefacts was found in association with a wooden causeway in use from at least 457 to 321BC, including bronze and iron weapons and tools (some decorated with ornamental motifs), bone tools, stone tools, jewellery and pottery. The Iron Age finds are earlier than those from similar watery sites such as La Tène in Switzerland and Llyn Cerrig Bach in Wales, and the precise dating of the Fiskerton causeway by dendrochronology establishes it as one of the earliest known structures in Europe belonging to the La Tène culture. This report provides detailed descriptions of the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval artefacts and the human and animal bones found at the site. The authors compare the Fiskerton evidence with other British, Irish and European examples of ritual or votive deposition in water; they discuss the construction and the appearance of the causeway; and they examine the significance of Fiskerton as a religious site, especially in terms of its topographical context, as a river crossing and as a boundary or liminal area between mainland Britain and the former island of Lindsey

Matérialité et rituel. L'origine des tombeaux en pierre du sud de Madagascar

RÉSUMÉMatérialité et rituel L'origine des tombeaux en pierre du sud de MadagascarPourquoi certaines sociétés s'adonnent-elles à la construction de tombeaux monumentaux en pierre alors qu'elles résident dans de petites structures éphémères ? Qui est responsable de la construction de ces tombeaux en pierre ? Quelles furent les conditions sociales et géopolitiques à l'origine des traditions de complexes funéraires monumentaux ? Les changements apportés au rituel funéraire ont-ils influé sur l'évolution de l'architecture funéraire ? Cet article propose une exploration des circonstances qui entourent l'utilisation des tombeaux monumentaux en pierre construits par les Tandroy du sud de Madagascar.Mots clés : Parker Pearson, monumentalité, sépultures, histoire, Tandroy, MadagascarABSTRACTMateriality and RituaL The Origins of Stone Tombs in Southern MadagascarWhy do certain societies build monumental stone funerary architecture yet live in small, flimsy houses ? Who initiates practices of building tombs in stone ? In what social and geopolitical circumstances monumental tomb traditions began ? How do changes in funerary architecture compare with changes in funerary ritual ? This paper explores the history and context of monumental stone tombs currentiy built by the Tandroy people of Southern Madagascar.Key words : Parker Pearson, monumentality, funerary, history, Tandroy, Madagasca

Early Scottish Monasteries and Prehistory: A Preliminary Dialogue

Reflecting oil the diversity of monastic attributes found in the east and west of Britain, the author proposes that prehistoric ritual practice was influential on monastic form. An argument is advanced that this was not based solely oil inspiration Front the landscape, nor oil conservative tradition, but oil the intellectual reconciliation of Christian and non-Christian ideas, with disparate results that account. for the differences in monumentality. Among more general matters tentatively credited with a prehistoric root are the cult of relics, the tonsure and the date of Easter

Durrington Walls to West Amesbury by way of Stonehenge: a major transformation of the Holocene landscape

A new sequence of Holocene landscape change has been discovered through an investigation of sediment sequences, palaeosols, pollen and molluscan data discovered during the Stonehenge Riverside Project. The early post-glacial vegetational succession in the Avon valley at Durrington Walls was apparently slow and partial, with intermittent woodland modification and the opening-up of this landscape in the later Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic, though a strong element of pine lingered into the third millennium BC. There appears to have been a major hiatus around 2900 cal BC, coincident with the beginnings of demonstrable human activities at Durrington Walls, but slightly after activity started at Stonehenge. This was reflected in episodic increases in channel sedimentation and tree and shrub clearance, leading to a more open downland, with greater indications of anthropogenic activity, and an increasingly wet floodplain with sedges and alder along the river’s edge. Nonetheless, a localized woodland cover remained in the vicinity of DurringtonWalls throughout the third and second millennia BC, perhaps on the higher parts of the downs, while stable grassland, with rendzina soils, predominated on the downland slopes, and alder–hazel carr woodland and sedges continued to fringe the wet floodplain. This evidence is strongly indicative of a stable and managed landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age times. It is not until c 800–500 cal BC that this landscape was completely cleared, except for the marshy-sedge fringe of the floodplain, and that colluvial sedimentation began in earnest associated with increased arable agriculture, a situation that continued through Roman and historic times

A Patient-Centered Prescription Drug Label to Promote Appropriate Medication Use and Adherence

BACKGROUND: Patient misunderstanding of prescription drug label instructions is a common cause of unintentional misuse of medication and adverse health outcomes. Those with limited literacy and English proficiency are at greater risk. OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of a patient-centered drug label strategy, including a Universal Medication Schedule (UMS), to improve proper regimen use and adherence compared to a current standard. DESIGN: Two-arm, multi-site patient-randomized pragmatic trial. PARTICIPANTS: English- and Spanish-speaking patients from eight community health centers in northern Virginia who received prescriptions from a central-fill pharmacy and who were 1) ≥30 years of age, 2) diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension, and 3) taking ≥2 oral medications. INTERVENTION: A patient-centered label (PCL) strategy that incorporated evidence-based practices for format and content, including prioritized information, larger font size, and increased white space. Most notably, instructions were conveyed with the UMS, which uses standard intervals for expressing when to take medicine (morning, noon, evening, bedtime). MAIN MEASURES: Demonstrated proper use of a multi-drug regimen; medication adherence measured by self-report and pill count at 3 and 9 months. KEY RESULTS: A total of 845 patients participated in the study (85.6 % cooperation rate). Patients receiving the PCL demonstrated slightly better proper use of their drug regimens at first exposure (76.9 % vs. 70.1 %, p = 0.06) and at 9 months (85.9 % vs. 77.4 %, p = 0.03). The effect of the PCL was significant for English-speaking patients (OR 2.21, 95 % CI 1.13-4.31) but not for Spanish speakers (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 0.63-2.24). Overall, the intervention did not improve medication adherence. However, significant benefits from the PCL were found among patients with limited literacy (OR 5.08, 95 % CI 1.15-22.37) and for those with medications to be taken ≥2 times a day (OR 2.77, 95 % CI 1.17-6.53). CONCLUSIONS: A simple modification to pharmacy-generated labeling, with minimal investment required, can offer modest improvements to regimen use and adherence, mostly among patients with limited literacy and more complex regimens. Trial Registration (ClinicalTrials.gov): NCT00973180, NCT01200849

Severe postpartum sepsis with prolonged myocardial dysfunction: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Severe sepsis during pregnancy or in the postpartum period is a rare clinical event. In non obstetric surviving patients, the cardiovascular changes seen in sepsis and septic shock are fully reversible five to ten days after their onset. We report a case of septic myocardial dysfunction lasting longer than ten days. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of prolonged septic myocardial dysfunction in a parturient.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 24 year old Hispanic woman with no previous medical history developed pyelonephritis and severe sepsis with prolonged myocardial dysfunction after a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Septic myocardial dysfunction may be prolonged in parturients requiring longer term follow up and pharmacologic treatment.</p

Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined

© 2010 Antiquity PublicationsA log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the fill armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.The project has been funded by grants from the British Academy, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Natural Environment Research Council, Royal Archaeological Institute and Scarborough Museums Trust. CJK’s participation in this project was funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (RF/6/RFG/2008/0253)