A Report on the late 1st\u20132nd-century-AD Venice Lido III Sewn Timber Assemblage

In 2012, fragments of hull planking bearing the signs of a Roman-era sewn vessel, with holes drilled along the plank edges, washed ashore on Venice Lido, the barrier island separating the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. This paper describes the construction features of this timber assemblage and places it within the context of other excavated sewn boats of the Upper Adriatic. The assemblage presented here best fits into the north-western Adriatic sewn tradition and likely represents either a fluvial-maritime or maritime watercraft

Constructing Identity: The Roman-Era Northwestern Adriatic Laced Tradition of Boatbuilding

This dissertation investigates the development of a local tradition of laced boatbuilding along the coasts and inland waterways of the northwestern Adriatic Sea during the Roman period (with definitive evidence between the second century B.C.E. and the sixth century C.E.). The primary focus of this research is to explore in particular how the preservation of this tradition reflects the existence of a local cultural identity for the community of builders in this region in the path of an expanding Roman presence as evidenced by changing material culture in the contemporaneous Mediterranean world. An environmental deterministic model has been proposed to explain the perseverance of the northwestern Adriatic laced tradition of boat-building; however, this model leaves several sociocultural and economic factors unexplored. This project is the first comprehensive study to contextualize northwestern Adriatic laced boats against the broader social, cultural, and economic background of the Mediterranean world and the local region, and to examine why a particular local boatbuilding tradition endured in a relatively small geographic region over an extended time period. It is the ultimate goal of this study to translate the technical aspects of the boat-building culture represented by northwestern Adriatic laced vessels into a broader discussion of the lifeways and identities of these ancient builders. The decision-making strategies of the ancient builders are examined in regards to the materials used and techniques employed in the construction of these vessels, how these features changed across time, space, and/or function, and what factors might have affected the stability or dynamism of these material and structural aspects of the boat-building tradition Through this approach, I identify the stable features of the construction method that define the tradition as well as dynamic features that likely represent distinct builders or groups of builders within the broader community of practice. Understanding the decision-making strategies of the ancient builders of northwestern Adriatic laced vessels adds to our understanding of this local tradition of boatbuilding and provides an example of the nuanced experiences of various groups with the processes of Roman colonialism and subsequent cultural change

Functional Complexity of the Axonal Growth Cone: A Proteomic Analysis

The growth cone, the tip of the emerging neurite, plays a crucial role in establishing the wiring of the developing nervous system. We performed an extensive proteomic analysis of axonal growth cones isolated from the brains of fetal Sprague-Dawley rats. Approximately 2000 proteins were identified at ≥99% confidence level. Using informatics, including functional annotation cluster and KEGG pathway analysis, we found great diversity of proteins involved in axonal pathfinding, cytoskeletal remodeling, vesicular traffic and carbohydrate metabolism, as expected. We also found a large and complex array of proteins involved in translation, protein folding, posttranslational processing, and proteasome/ubiquitination-dependent degradation. Immunofluorescence studies performed on hippocampal neurons in culture confirmed the presence in the axonal growth cone of proteins representative of these processes. These analyses also provide evidence for rough endoplasmic reticulum and reveal a reticular structure equipped with Golgi-like functions in the axonal growth cone. Furthermore, Western blot revealed the growth cone enrichment, relative to fetal brain homogenate, of some of the proteins involved in protein synthesis, folding and catabolism. Our study provides a resource for further research and amplifies the relatively recently developed concept that the axonal growth cone is equipped with proteins capable of performing a highly diverse range of functions