Yesodot, Israel: A Case for a Post-Ghassulian Entity

The site of Yesodot, in the Judean Shephela (piedmont of the Judean incline), offers a pertinent illustration of the ambiguities concerning the transition from the Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age. While most features can be assigned to either one or both periods, the assemblage as a whole is inconsistent with neither. Moreover, the common suspicion that one is faced with a mixed assemblage is overruled, given the absence of remains representing either Early Bronze or Ghassulian-Chalcolithic cultural horizons. The present article provides a concise review of the finds with particular emphasis on the manner in which it escapes the common defi nition of the relevant material cultures. Ultimately, we suggest that the assemblage in question represents a post-Ghassulian, pre-EBA cultural horizon.Le site de Yesodot, dans la Shéphélah (piémont de Judée), est une illustration pertinente des ambiguïtés relatives à la transition du Chalcolithique récent au Bronze ancien. Alors que la plupart des traits observés peuvent être rapportés à l’une de ces périodes ou aux deux conjointement, l’assemblage, considéré dans sa totalité, ne peut pas être attribuée uniquement à l’une des deux. De plus, l’hypothèse selon laquelle il s’agit d’un assemblage mixte doit être rejetée étant donné l’absence de vestiges représentatifs des horizons culturels du Bronze ancien ou du Chalcolithique-Ghassoulien. Cet article fournit un examen concis des matériaux mis au jour sur le site de Yesodot, en mettant l’accent sur la manière dont cet assemblage échappe à la définition commune, propre aux cultures matérielles considérées ici. Enfin, nous suggérons que cet assemblage représente un horizon culturel à la fois post-Ghassoulien et pré-Bronze ancien.Paz Yitzhak, Nativ Assaf. Yesodot, Israel: A Case for a Post-Ghassulian Entity. In: Paléorient, 2013, vol. 39, n°1. The Transition Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. pp. 83-93

Sustainable Removal of Ammonia from the Anaerobic Digester Supernatant Line Using a Prussian Blue Analogue (PBA) Composite Adsorbent

This paper reports on the physico-chemical removal of NH4+ from the supernatant line in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), using zinc-hexa-cyano-ferrate (ZnHCF) beads. The work is divided into three parts: First, the characteristics of three (Zn-, Co-, Ni-) types of HCF beads were determined, with a finding that ZnHCF was the most suitable for the purpose of this work. Second, synthetic and actual supernatant wastewater was passed through a ZnHCF column for many cycles until apparent steady-state results were attained. Due to the very high affinity of the beads toward NH4+ and the much lower affinity toward competing cations, the same regeneration solution could be used for many cycles (20 cycles in this work) without affecting the following adsorption breakthrough curve efficiency and the operational capacity, which was >88% at the end of all adsorption steps. Finally, a cost analysis was performed, revealing that the cost of removing ~500 mg/L of ammonia from the supernatant line is ~$0.02 per m3 of raw wastewater flowing into the plant if the ammonia is recaptured and sold as NH4Cl. This may be cost-effective when the WWTP receives a higher-than-planned load, and an incentive exists for alleviating the ammonia load on the oxidation reactor