The Excavations at Boğazköy-Hattuša in 2017

Im Verlauf der andauernden Arbeiten wurden in der nördlichen Unterstadt von Hattuša sowohl Befunde des 2. Jts. v. Chr. – der kārum-Zeit und der hethitischen Epoche – als auch der römischen Kaiserzeit untersucht. Während die nördliche Terrasse der Unterstadt in der Mittelbronzezeit noch als Wohnsiedlung diente, wurden zumindest Teile dieses Stadtviertels in der althethitischen Zeit für den Bau eines monumentalen Gebäudes genutzt, das über mehrere Bauphasen bestand und ausgebaut wurde. Die Häufung von Funden, die allgemein auf Kulthandlungen und vor allem auf Trinkrituale hinweisen, spielt für die Interpretation des Gebäudes eine entscheidende Rolle. Auf einer ausgedehnten Terrasse westlich von Mıhraplıkaya wurde die Freilegung eines großen Gebäudes mit einem Wasserbecken fortgesetzt. Im Westen dieses Areals konnte zudem ein Teil einer potentiellen Villenanlage aufgedeckt werden. Anhand der stratigraphischen Überlagerungen ist es nun möglich, die Entwicklung der römischen Besiedlung in Boğazköy vom 1. Jh. n. Chr. bis in die zweite Hälfte des 4. Jhs. n. Chr. zu beschreiben. Die Fortsetzung der Dokumentation verschiedener Bereiche mittels 3D-Scans ermöglicht nicht nur die Darstellung bisher unbekannter Bereiche der Stadt, sondern auch eine neue Beschäftigung mit den Denkmälern in Yazılıkaya und Nişantaş. Die Restaurierungs- und Konservierungsmaßnahmen konzentrierten sich auf die Neuaufstellung des Löwenbeckens, die Säuberung der Reliefs in Yazılıkaya und die Fertigstellung des westlichen Abschnitts der Poternenmauer.In the course of ongoing work, features from the 2nd millennium B.C. – the kārum period and the Hittite epoch – as well as from the Roman imperial period were investigated in the north section of the Lower City of Hattuša. While the north terrace of the Lower City still served a residential purpose in the Middle Bronze Age, in ancient Hittite times at least parts of the area were used for the construction of a monumental building that existed and was extended through several construction phases. The accumulation of finds that are indicative of cult activity and especially drinking rituals is of decisive importance for the interpretation of the building. On a wide terrace west of Mıhraplıkaya the exposure of a large building with a water basin was continued. To the west of this area, a section of a potential villa complex was fully exposed. As a result of stratigraphic overlay, it is now possible to describe the development of the Roman settlement at Boğazköy from the 1st century A.D. through to the second half of the 4th century. Continuation of the documentation of various areas using a 3D scanner allows not only the charting of previously unknown districts of the city, but also a re-engagement with the monuments at Yazılıkaya and Nişantaş. Restoration and conservation measures concentrated on re-erecting the Lion Basin, cleaning the reliefs at Yazılıkaya and completing the western section of the Postern Wall

Boğazköy, Türkei. Hattuša. Ein Resümee der letzten Forschungs­dekade. Die Arbeiten der Jahre 2009 bis 2021

In the last decade, research on Boğazköy has made significant progress. ­Contrary to earlier reconstructions, it can be assumed that there was an uninterrupted settlement development beginning at the turn of the 3rd to 2nd millennium BC. The Hittite period is characterised by dynamic ups and downs in the intensity of use of the settled area, which has so far been interpreted as completely used. Findings from the 1st millennium BC show that from the late 9th/early 8th century BC a hierarchically structured society can be expected, whose elites are visible for the first time in a monumental building. A fortified complex of the Hellenistic-Galatian era provides insights into social hierarchies for the first time by finds of prestigious objects. It is remarkable that tendencies of long-term cultural traditions are recognisable in the pottery. In the north of the lower town, an extensive use of the Roman Imperial period was uncovered, including a military camp, a bath and a large water basin with a banqueting room. Based on numerous conversions, the development of these structures can be traced from the 1st to the 4th ­century AD

Azerbaycan Astara Müzesi`ndeki bir Stel örneğinde M.Ö. 2. Binde Hazar Denizi ile Van Gölü arasındaki Yontu Sanatı

Bu məqalə Azərbaycan Respublikasının cənub-şərqində tapılmış bir qəbirüstü daş stelə həsr olunmuşdur. İkonoqrafik və üslub çatmamazlıqlarına baxmayaraq bu daş artefakt bölgələr arasındakı dini-mədəni əlaqələri göstərir. Bu stelalar Ön Asiya bölgələrindən Avroasiya çöllərinədək ərazilərdə mədəni təsiri izləməyə imkan verir. Məlumdur ki,stelalar bir qəbir elementi kimi, e.ə. III minilliyin sonlarından, cənubi rus çöllərindən cənubi-qərbi Qafqaza, Kür çayı vadisinə, oradan da bütün Cənubi Qafqaza yayılmışdır. Astara tapıntısı Hakkari stelaları ilə Şimal abidələri arasındakı boşluğu dol-durur. Eyni zamanda qeyd etmək olar ki, e.ə. II minillikdə Cənubi Qafqazda, Şərqi Anadoluda və İran Azərbaycanında analoji daşişləmə sənəti mövcud olmuşdur. Bu ənənə Yuxarı Mesopotamiyaya qədər yayılmış və son Urartu zamanına – e.ə. I min-illiyə qədər davam etmişdir. Şərqi Anadolunun və Cənubi Qafqazın mövcud abidələri bu ərazilərdə əcdad-lara sitayişin hökm sürdüyünü təsdiq edir. Stelaların hamısının kişi fiquru for-masında hazırlanması cəmiyyətdə atalara etiqadın hakim olduğunu göstərir. Qeyd etmək lazımdır ki, Cənubi Qafqazda çoxlu sayda qəbir abidəsi tədqiq olunsa da, lakin qəbir avadanlıqlarının sosial təbəqələr üzrə mənsubluğu hələlik müəyyən edilməmişdir. Bu tədqiqatlar Azərbaycanda başlanğıc mərhələsindədir

Boğazköy-Ḫattuša, Türkei: Restaurierungen

Restoration work has been conducted parallel to archaeological research at Boğazköy-Hattusha continuously since the 1960s when P. Neve first established a method to conserve the excavated buildings on the one hand and to make them visible for the visitors on the other. During the last years (2011– 2014) work concentrated on the reconstruction and restoration of the socalled postern wall, the oldest fortification of the Hittite city, the placement of copies of the two sphinxes on top the artificial rampart of Yerkapı and the conservation of the large worked socle stones of the Great Temple in the Lower Town, the most important Hittite religious building

Testing BSM Physics with Gravitational Waves

The Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background (CGWB) is an irreducible background of gravitational waves generated by particle exchange in the early Universe plasma. Standard Model particles contribute to such a stochastic background with a peak at $f\sim 80$ GHz. Any physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) may modify the CGWB spectrum, making it a potential testing ground for BSM physics. We consider the impact of general BSM scenarios on the CGWB, including an arbitrary number of hidden sectors. We find that the largest amplitude of the CGWB comes from the sector that dominates the energy density after reheating and confirm the dominance of the SM for standard cosmological histories. For non-standard cosmological histories, such as those with a stiff equation of state $\omega >1/3$, like in kination, BSM physics may dominate and modify the spectrum substantially. We conclude that, if the CGWB is detected at lower frequencies and amplitudes compared to that of the SM, it will hint at extra massive degrees of freedom or hidden sectors. If it is instead measured at higher values, it will imply a period with $\omega >1/3$. We argue that for scenarios with periods of kination in the early Universe, a significant fraction of the parameter space can be ruled out from dark radiation bounds at BBN.Comment: 16 pages + appendix, 7 figures v2: minor edits, references added. Matches published versio

A database of Calabi-Yau orientifolds and the size of D3-tadpoles

The classification of 4D reflexive polytopes by Kreuzer and Skarke allows for a systematic construction of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces as fine, regular, star triangulations (FRSTs). Until now, the vastness of this geometric landscape remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we construct Calabi-Yau orientifolds from holomorphic reflection involutions of such hypersurfaces with Hodge numbers h(1,1) <= 12. In particular, we compute orientifold configurations for all favourable FRSTs for h(1,1) <= 7, while randomly sampling triangulations for each pair of Hodge numbers up to h(1,1) = 12. We find explicit string compactifications on these orientifolded Calabi-Yaus for which the D3-charge contribution coming from Op-planes grows linearly with the number of complex structure and Kahler moduli. We further consider non-local D7-tadpole cancellation through Whitney branes. We argue that this leads to a significant enhancement of the total D3-tadpole as compared to conventional SO(8) stacks with (4 + 4) D7-branes on top of 07-planes. In particular, before turning-on worldvolume fluxes, we find that the largest D3-tadpole in this class occurs for Calabi-Yau threefolds with (h(+)(1,1), h(-)(1,2) ) = (11, 491) with D3-brane charges vertical bar Q(D3)vertical bar = 504 for the local D7 case and vertical bar Q(D3)vertical bar = 6, 664 for the non-local Whitney branes case, which appears to be large enough to cancel tadpoles and allow fluxes to stabilise all complex structure moduli. Our data is publicly available under the following link https://github.com/AndreasSchachner/CY_Orientifold_database

J1/tenascin-related molecules are not responsible for the segmented pattern of neural crest cells or motor axons in the chick embryo

It has been suggested that substrate adhesion molecules of the tenascin family may be responsible for the segmented outgrowth of motor axons and neural crest cells during formation of the peripheral nervous system. We have used two monoclonal antibodies (M1B4 and 578) and an antiserum [KAF9(1)] to study the expression of J1/tenascin-related molecules within the somites of the chick embryo. Neural crest cells were identified with monoclonal antibodies HNK-1 and 20B4. Young somites are surrounded by J1/tenascin immunoreactive material, while old sclerotomes are immunoreactive predominantly in their rostral halves, as described by other authors (Tan et al. 1987--Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 7977; Mackie et al. 1988--Development 102, 237). At intermediate stages of development, however, immunoreactivity is found mainly in the caudal half of each sclerotome. After ablation of the neural crest, the pattern of immunoreactivity is no longer localised to the rostral halves of the older, neural-crest-free sclerotomes. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of affinity-purified somite tissue, extracted using M1B4 antibody, shows a characteristic set of bands, including one of about 230 x 10(3), as described for cytotactin, J1-200/220 and the monomeric form of tenascin. Affinity-purified somite material obtained from neural-crest-ablated somites reveals some of the bands seen in older control embryos, but the high molecular weight components (120-230 x 10(3] are missing. Young epithelial somites also lack the higher molecular mass components. The neural crest may therefore participate in the expression of J1/tenascin-related molecules in the chick embryo. These results suggest that these molecules are not directly responsible for the segmented outgrowth of precursors of the peripheral nervous system