Provenancing of Lightweight Volcanic Stones Used in Ancient Roman Concrete Vaulting: Evidence from Turkey and Tunisia

The mastery of the use of lightweight rocks in concrete as a means of controlling the thrusts of large scale vaults was among the most important contributions of the Roman builders to the development of vaulted architecture. The string of volcanoes along the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy produced a variety of lightweight rocks, which allowed the builders in Rome to develop highly sophisticated ways of manipulating form and mass to create stable structures. The use of lighter rocks in vaults and heavier in foundations occurs from the mid first century B.C. in Rome, but the systematic use of imported lightweight rocks only began in the early second century A.D. under Trajan (Lancaster 2005, 59-64). Soon thereafter the technique of using lightweight stones to build large vaults spread throughout the empire, usually to areas that had a local source of lightweight volcanic material. However, there was also a seaborne trade in lightweight rocks to areas that did not have local sources of such material. The intention of our analysis is to determine as precisely as possible the provenance of the lightweight stones used in vaulting of two areas of the Mediterranean, modern Turkey (ancient Cilicia) and Tunisia (ancient Africa Proconsularis), and thus to provide a better understanding of the nature of this trade

Biomarkers in wound drainage fluids of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients receiving neck dissection: A pilot study

Aim: In a pilot prospective study, we aimed to test the feasibility and report on the preliminary results on the expression of molecular biomarkers in wound drainage fluids (WDFs) of operated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. Material and methods: Nineteen patients undergoing primary tumor resection with en-block neck dissection were enrolled. In postoperative days 1–3, the expression of several biomarkers in WDFs was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits and correlated with clinical and histopathologic features. Results: The expression of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (CXCL-12) was significantly increased in WDFs in presence of lymph node metastases, extranodal extension (ENE), and in case of close resection margins. In addition, Osteopontin expression was significantly increased in presence of ENE, whereas transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) detection was significantly reduced. At multivariate analysis, CXCL-2 levels in both day 1 and 3 post-surgery were the only factor which retained significance in the prediction of close surgical margins (p = 0.028 and 0.025 for day 1 and day 3, respectively). Both CXCL-2 and Ostepontin assays were significantly correlated with ENE (p = 0.018 and 0.035 for day 1; 0.052 and 0.025 for day 3, respectively) whereas TGF- β expression was significant at day 1 only (p = 0.038) Conclusions: Our pilot study showed that WDFs could qualify as a potential source of relevant postoperative information. Further studies are needed to confirm the prognostic impact of CXCL-12, Osteopontin and TGF-β expressed in WDFs on the personalized management of HNSCC

Central Mediterranean tephrochronology between 313 and 366 ka. New insights from the Fucino paleolake sediment succession

Thirty-two tephra layers were identified in the time-interval 313–366 ka (Marine Isotope Stages 9–10) of the Quaternary lacustrine succession of the Fucino Basin, central Italy. Twenty-seven of these tephra layers yielded suitable geochemical material to explore their volcanic origins. Investigations also included the acquisition of geochemical data of some relevant, chronologically compatible proximal units from Italian volcanoes. The record contains tephra from some well known eruptions and eruptive sequences of Roman and Roccamonfina volcanoes, such as the Magliano Romano Plinian Fall, the Orvieto–Bagnoregio Ignimbrite, the Lower White Trachytic Tuff and the Brown Leucitic Tuff. In addition, the record documents eruptions currently undescribed in proximal (i.e. near-vent) sections, suggesting a more complex history of the major eruptions of the Colli Albani, Sabatini, Vulsini and Roccamonfinavolcanoes between 313 and 366 ka. Six of the investigated tephra layers were directly dated by single-crystal-fusion 40Ar/39Ar dating, providing the basis for a Bayesian age–depth model and a reassessment of the chronologies for both already known and dated eruptive units and for so far undated eruptions. The results provide a significant contribution for improving knowledge on the peri-Tyrrhenian explosive activity as well as for extending the Mediterranean tephrostratigraphical framework, which was previously based on limited proximal and distal archives for that time interval

Reconstructing the Late Pleistocene – Anthropocene interaction between the neotectonic and archaeological landscape evolution in the Apennines (La Sassa cave, Italy)

Caves are one of the most conservative environments on Earth, where archaeological, anthropological,climatic and tectonic data can be well-preserved. Here, we present the results of a multidisciplinarymethod that allowed us to recognize, for thefirst time in this area, the interaction between Late Pleis-tocene to Anthropocene neotectonic and archaeological evolutionary stages of a cave of the Apennines(La Sassa cave), that encompass also its surroundings (Volsci Range and Pontina Plain). Both structuraland 3D survey highlighted a step-wise shape of the cave due to normal fault steps that allowed thelocalized formation of concretions also enveloping archaeological layers. Sixteen14C ages on fauna andhuman bonds and thousands of archaeologicalfinds provided chronological constraints of faulting in theLate Pleistocene and possibly also after the Middle Bronze Age. In the frame of a region that was notpreviously recognized as tectonically active, the structural evidence is relevant for understanding thespeleogenesis of the cave from the Late Pleistocene and its human occupation. Burial and ritual activitiesin the cave from the Copper Age to the Middle Bronze Age have been recognized with implications onpossible settlement pattern schemes with the La Sassa cave as a“persistent place”in the prehistorichuman landscape. The analyses of the ceramic style in a regional framework also suggests the presenceof a cultural boundary near La Sassa, which becomes highly osmotic just after the beginning of theMiddle Bronze Age. The La Sassafindings provide as well implications for the seismic hazard assessmentin a region inhabited by about 0.4 million peopl

The Volsci Volcanic Field (central Italy). Eruptive history, magma system and implications on continental subduction processes.

Here, we report on the Quaternary Volsci Volcanic Field (VVF, central Italy). In light of new 40Ar/39Ar geochronological data and compositional characterization of juvenile eruptive products, we refine the history of VVF activity, and outline the implications on the pre-eruptive magma system and the continental subduction processes involved. Different from the nearby volcanic districts of the Roman and Campanian Provinces, the VVF was characterized by small-volume (0.01–0.1 km3) eruptions from a network of monogenetic centers (mostly tuff rings and scoria cones, with subordinate lava occurrences), clustered along high-angle faults of lithospheric depth. Leucite-bearing, high-K (HKS) magmas (for which we report for the first time the phlogopite phenocryst compositions) mostly fed the early phase of activity (∼761–539 ka), then primitive, plagioclase-bearing (KS) magmas appeared during the climactic phase (∼424–349 ka), partially overlapping with HKS ones, and then prevailed during the late phase of activity (∼300–231 ka). The fast ascent of primitive magma batches is typical of a tectonically controlled volcanic field, where the very low magma flux is a passive byproduct of regional tectonic strain. We suggest that the dominant compressive stress field acting at depth was accompanied by an extensional regime in the upper crust, associated with the gravity spreading of the Apennine chain, allowing the fast ascent of magma from the mantle source with limited stationing in shallow reservoirs

Extending the tephra and palaeoenvironmental record of the Central Mediterranean back to 430 ka: A new core from Fucino Basin, central Italy

Here we present the first tephrostratigraphic, palaeomagnetic, and multiproxy data from a new ∼98 m-deep sediment core retrieved from the Fucino Basin, central Italy, spanning the last ∼430 kyr. Palaeoenvironmental proxy data (Ca-XRF, gamma ray and magnetic susceptibility) show a cyclical variability related to interglacial-glacial cycles since the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12-MIS 11 transition. More than 130 tephra layers are visible to the naked eye, 11 of which were analysed (glass-WDS) and successfully correlated to known eruptions and/or other equivalent tephra. In addition to tephra already recognised in the previously investigated cores spanning the last 190 kyr, we identified for the first time tephra from the eruptions of: Tufo Giallo di Sacrofano, Sabatini (288.0 ± 2.0 ka); Villa Senni, Colli Albani (367.5 ± 1.6 ka); Pozzolane Nere and its precursor, Colli Albani (405.0 ± 2.0 ka, and 407.1 ± 4.2 ka, respectively) and Castel Broco, Vulsini (419–490 ka). The latter occurs at the bottom of the core and has been 40Ar/39Ar dated at 424.3 ± 3.2 ka, thus providing a robust chronological constrain for both the eruption itself and the base of the investigated succession. Direct 40Ar/39Ar dating and tephra geochemical fingerprinting provide a preliminary radioisotopic-based chronological framework for the MIS 11-MIS 7 interval, which represent a foundation for the forthcoming multiproxy studies and for investigating the remaining ∼110 tephra layers that are recorded within this interval. Such future developments will contribute towards an improved MIS 11-MIS 7 Mediterranean tephrostratigraphy, which is still poorly explored and exploited