Procedures and Frequencies of Embalming and Heart Extractions in Modern Period in Brittany. Contribution to the Evolution of Ritual Funerary in Europe.

The evolution of funeral practices from the Middle Ages through the Modern era in Europe is generally seen as a process of secularization. The study, through imaging and autopsy, of two mummies, five lead urns containing hearts, and more than six hundred skeletons of nobles and clergymen from a Renaissance convent in Brittany has led us to reject this view. In addition to exceptional embalming, we observed instances in which hearts alone had been extracted, a phenomenon that had never before been described, and brains alone as well, and instances in which each spouse's heart had been placed on the other's coffin. In some identified cases we were able to establish links between the religious attitudes of given individuals and either ancient Medieval practices or more modern ones generated by the Council of Trent. All of these practices, which were a function of social status, were rooted in religion. They offer no evidence of secularization whatsoever

Wave-generated flow on coral reefs - an analysis for two-dimensional horizontal reef-tops with steep faces

Waves breaking on the seaward rim of a coral reef generate a flow of water from the exposed side of the reef to the sheltered side and/or to either channels through the reef-rim or lower sections of the latter. This wave-generated flow is driven by the water surface gradient resulting from the wave set-up created by the breaking waves. This paper reviews previous approaches to modelling wave-generated flows across coral reefs and discusses the influence of reef morphology and roughness upon these flows. Laboratory measurements upon a two-dimensional horizontal reef platform with a steep reef face provide the basis for extending a previous theoretical analysis for wave set-up on a reef in the absence of a flow [Gourlay, M.R., 1996b. Wave set-up on coral reefs. 2. Set-up on reefs with various profiles. Coastal Engineering 28, 1755] to include the interaction between a unidirectional flow and the wave set-up. The laboratory model results are then used to demonstrate that there are two basic reef-top flow regimes-reef-top control and reef-rim control. Using open channel flow theory, analytical relationships are derived for the reef-top current velocity in terms of the offreef wave conditions, the reef-top water depth and the physical characteristics of the reef-top topography. The wave set-up and wave-generated flow relationships are found to predict experimental values with reasonable accuracy in most cases. The analytical relationships are used to investigate wave-generated flows into a boat harbour channel on Heron Reef in the southern Great Barrier Reef. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An overview of financing models for coastal protection in Australia

Funding coastal protection works in Australia has traditionally been achieved through the allocation of public funds by Local and State government alone or in partnership. When protection works provide a benefit to private landowners, the process for reaching agreement to fund such projects is the source of significant tension between State and Local Governments and between foreshore property owners who directly benefit from the project and other rate payers.For Local Government the relatively large cost of coastal protection projects can introduce political risks of accusations of bias towards foreshore property owners by other ratepayers, and places strain on available capital. State Governments are equally reluctant to provide funding due to the perceived risk that it may establish a precedent that could become unmanageable across large stretches of coastline. This tension between parties delays and adds planning costs, compounding the already contested nature of many coastal protection projects.This research is part of an endeavour to understand the potential role of non-government finance for coastal protection projects in Australia. Through the development of a theoretical framework, which includes public goods theory, public private partnerships and ecosystem services, this paper compares a series of case studies within Australia where non-government financing has been used to fund coastal protection works

"Migration or acculturation ? The Saint-Crespin cemetery case (Romilly-sur-Andelle, Eure, France) : confrontation between biologiccal anthropological facts and burial artefacts"

International audienc

Old hearts for modern investigations: CT and MR for archaeological human hearts remains

International audienceIntroduction: Among 800 burials dated between the 15th and 18th centuries and found in the center of Rennes (Brittany, France), a collection of five heart-shaped lead urns was discovered. This material was studied using classical methods (external study, autopsy and histology), and also modern imaging like computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) before and after coronary opacification. The aim of this manuscript is to describe different steps of ancient soft tissues study, especially using imaging techniques.Methods: The study gathered various specialists: anthropologists, archeologists, forensic pathologists, radiologists, pathologic physicians, and physicists. Imaging techniques were performed, before and after coronary opacification. Finally, hearts were autopsied and different histological samples were analyzed.Results: Only heart n°2 was too damaged to be studied. Heart n°3 was considered as normal using all investigation techniques. The study of Hearts n°s 4 and 5 revealed dilated cardiomyopathy while Heart n°1 showed important signs of diffuse hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Different fibro lipid plaques were identified using imaging techniques, and were confirmed by histology.Conclusions: The study of archeological soft tissues using modern imaging is possible if the material is well-preserved. This type of research can uncover principal findings, allowing scientists to establish diseases of ancient times

Study of a seventeenth-century French artificial mummy: autopsical, native, and contrast-injected CT investigations.

A lead coffin was fortuitously discovered in a church called "Eglise des Toussaints" in Rennes (French Brittany). A collaborative taskforce investigated this extraordinary discovery. A multi-disciplinary team of experts from the National Institute for Preventive Archeological Research (INRAP) and Rangueil University Hospital of Toulouse was created, including anthropologists, archeologists, forensic pathologists, radiologists, and pathologists. The inscription on the lead coffin specified that the body belonged to "Messer Louys de Bruslon, Lord of Plessis," a nobleman who died on November 1, 1661. Multiple holes were visible in the lead coffin, and deterioration threatened the mummy. We opened the lead coffin and discovered an excellently preserved mummy, except for mostly skeletonized upper and lower limbs. The mummy was conserved in several layers of shrouds. Vegetal embalming material covered the head and filled the face, the thorax, and the abdomen. The embalmers had removed all thoracic and abdominal organs and conserved some pelvic organs (e.g., the bladder). Multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scanner evaluated the mummy, at each step of our analysis. The excellent preservation of abdominal vascular axes led us to perform a CT angiography using Angiofil®, an oily contrast agent developed for postmortem imaging, before an autopsy. Sub-diaphragmatic arteries, including the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries, were excellently preserved. The vascular contrast agent filled all arteries. The native CT, CT angiography, and autopsy did not detect any vascular lesion. Our study, based on rare archeological material, allowed a complete examination of an excellently preserved seventeenth-century mummy, using MSCT, angiography, and an autopsy. We did not detect any arterial lesion and proposed a comprehensive description of the embalmment process

Energy flow through marine ecosystems: confronting transfer efficiency

Transfer efficiency is a key parameter describing ecosystem structure and function and is used to estimate fisheries production; however, it is also one of the most uncertain parameters.Questions remain about how habitats, food resources, fishing pressure, spatiotemporal scales, as well as temperature, primary production, and other climate drivers impact transfer efficiency.Direct measurements of transfer efficiency are difficult, but observations of marine population abundances, diets, productivity, stable isotope analysis, and models integrating these constraints can provide transfer efficiency estimates.Recent estimates suggest that transfer efficiency is more variable than previously thought, compounding uncertainties in marine ecosystem predictions and projections.Increased understanding of factors contributing to variation in transfer efficiency will improve projections of fishing and climate change impacts on marine ecosystems

Plants and aromatics for embalming in Late Middle Ages and modern period: a synthesis of written sources and archaeobotanical data (France, Italy)

International audienceOccasionally mentioned in written sources since the Early Middle Ages, embalming with evisceration spreads considerably and becomes quite usual practice for aristocratic elites from the late 13th century to the early 19th century. Apothecaries prepare aromatic powders including many plant organs and exudates supposed to preserve the body. Numerous encyclopaedias and treatises of medicine list these ingredients and show that the recipes are very diverse. Moreover, several studies of embalmed bodies have demonstrated the potential of archaeobotanical analyses coupling pollen and macro-remains for identifying this material. This paper aims to compile a synthesis of written and archaeological sources from France and Italy, and to assess the relevance of an interdisciplinary approach for a better understanding of this aristocratic burial practice. It demonstrates that both types of sources and approaches are strongly complementary and highlights their inherent advantages and methodological limitations. In order to understand which criteria were determinant in the composition of the embalming powders, their medicinal, odoriferous and symbolic properties are discussed. Finally, this work proposes some methodological perspectives and triggers new research avenues on the history of pharmacy in Late Medieval and modern Europe