219 research outputs found
"Invisible burials" and fragmentation practices in Iron Age Europe:Excavations at the Monte Bernorio Necropolis (Northern Spain)
The scarcity of burial remains in large parts of Iron Age Europe, particularly in the Atlantic regions, has often led scholars to discuss the apparent “invisibility” of graves. This paper presents the results from several excavation campaigns at Monte Bernorio, one of the most important sites of the 1st millennium b.c. on the Iberian Peninsula. The fieldwork and post-excavation work carried out in the area of the necropolis have identified numerous burial pits, with complex ritual activities characterized by fragmentation and the practice of the pars pro toto. In addition, evidence for later rituals in some of the graves can be linked to ancestor worship. The results provide important insights into funerary practices in Late Iron Age Europe, leading us to rethink the very meaning of cemeteries in the study area and beyond.- Burial Traditions in Iron Age Europe - The Monte Bernorio Archaeological Zone - The 2007–2008 Necropolis Excavations - The 2015–2016 Necropolis Excavations - Post-Excavation Work and Interpretation: The Faunal and Human Remains - Structure and Chronology of Monte Bernorio Area 7 - Destruction of the Body, Commemoration in the Absence of a Corpse, and Visibility of the Mortuary Rite
Long-Term Habitat Degradation Drives Neotropical Macrophyte Species Loss While Assisting the Spread of Invasive Plant Species
The spread of invasive macrophyte species is a pressing threat to neotropical shallow lakes. Yet there are few studies addressing the full extent of biotic and abiotic changes that may occur in response to invasive species. Less is known of how other human-induced stressors such as eutrophication and lake draining may interact over time with invasive macrophytes to influence biodiversity. We combined limnological observations with paleoecological data from Fúquene Lake, Colombia, a eutrophic neotropical shallow lake, to provide information on the current and long-term (decades-centuries) dynamics of the spread of two well-established invasive plants Eichhornia crassipes and Egeria densa. We found a unique in macrophyte species composition in areas currently dominated by Egeria and Eichhornia. Eichhornia-dominated areas had 14 macrophyte species, turbid (secchi=19 ± 6 cm) and poorly oxygenated (3.94 ± 2.61 ppm) waters whereas Egeria-rich areas supported 5 species and had clearer (secchi=51 ± 12 cm) and better-oxygenated (6.06 ± 2.4 ppm) waters. Historical macrophyte community shifts were linked to eutrophication and lake level variation and characterized by the loss of charophytes and bryophytes before 1500 CE and subsequent reductions in Nymphaea sp., Potamogeton illinoensis and Najas guadalupensis in the early 1900s (lake draining). Eichhornia crassipes (since 1500 CE) and E. densa (early 1900s) occurred well before proposed dates of introduction (1950s and 1990 respectively). Both species have rapidly expanded since the 1990s along with Azolla filiculoides in response to an inflow water diversion scheme and heavy nutrient loads. Our results suggest that the spread of Eichhornia and Egeria was not responsible for native macrophyte species loss, but that their current dominance is exerting synergistic and antagonistic secondary effects on plant assemblages through habitat modification, competitive exclusion and promotion of habitat heterogeneity across the lake. It could therefore be misleading to suggest that invasive plants causes macrophyte species loss in degraded lakes. We suggest that aggressive species like Eichhornia, Azolla, and Egeria require hydrologically stable and eutrophic environments to spread; thus, management actions should focus on controlling these two factors. Our study demonstrates the need to use a long-term approach to fully-understand the effects of invasive macrophytes
Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
The Crab Nebula is the brightest TeV gamma-ray source in the sky and has been
used for the past 25 years as a reference source in TeV astronomy, for
calibration and verification of new TeV instruments. The High Altitude Water
Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), completed in early 2015, has been used to observe
the Crab Nebula at high significance across nearly the full spectrum of
energies to which HAWC is sensitive. HAWC is unique for its wide field-of-view,
nearly 2 sr at any instant, and its high-energy reach, up to 100 TeV. HAWC's
sensitivity improves with the gamma-ray energy. Above 1 TeV the
sensitivity is driven by the best background rejection and angular resolution
ever achieved for a wide-field ground array.
We present a time-integrated analysis of the Crab using 507 live days of HAWC
data from 2014 November to 2016 June. The spectrum of the Crab is fit to a
function of the form . The data is well-fit with values of
, , and
log when
is fixed at 7 TeV and the fit applies between 1 and 37 TeV. Study of the
systematic errors in this HAWC measurement is discussed and estimated to be
50\% in the photon flux between 1 and 37 TeV.
Confirmation of the Crab flux serves to establish the HAWC instrument's
sensitivity for surveys of the sky. The HAWC survey will exceed sensitivity of
current-generation observatories and open a new view of 2/3 of the sky above 10
TeV.Comment: Submitted 2017/01/06 to the Astrophysical Journa
Daily monitoring of TeV gamma-ray emission from Mrk 421, Mrk 501, and the Crab Nebula with HAWC
We present results from daily monitoring of gamma rays in the energy range
to TeV with the first 17 months of data from the High
Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. Its wide field of view of 2
steradians and duty cycle of % are unique features compared to other TeV
observatories that allow us to observe every source that transits over HAWC for
up to hours each sidereal day. This regular sampling yields
unprecedented light curves from unbiased measurements that are independent of
seasons or weather conditions. For the Crab Nebula as a reference source we
find no variability in the TeV band. Our main focus is the study of the TeV
blazars Markarian (Mrk) 421 and Mrk 501. A spectral fit for Mrk 421 yields a
power law index and
an exponential cut-off
TeV. For Mrk 501, we find an index and exponential cut-off TeV. The light curves for both sources show clear
variability and a Bayesian analysis is applied to identify changes between flux
states. The highest per-transit fluxes observed from Mrk 421 exceed the Crab
Nebula flux by a factor of approximately five. For Mrk 501, several transits
show fluxes in excess of three times the Crab Nebula flux. In a comparison to
lower energy gamma-ray and X-ray monitoring data with comparable sampling we
cannot identify clear counterparts for the most significant flaring features
observed by HAWC.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
VAMOS: a Pathfinder for the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
VAMOS was a prototype detector built in 2011 at an altitude of 4100m a.s.l.
in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The aim of VAMOS was to finalize the design,
construction techniques and data acquisition system of the HAWC observatory.
HAWC is an air-shower array currently under construction at the same site of
VAMOS with the purpose to study the TeV sky. The VAMOS setup included six water
Cherenkov detectors and two different data acquisition systems. It was in
operation between October 2011 and May 2012 with an average live time of 30%.
Besides the scientific verification purposes, the eight months of data were
used to obtain the results presented in this paper: the detector response to
the Forbush decrease of March 2012, and the analysis of possible emission, at
energies above 30 GeV, for long gamma-ray bursts GRB111016B and GRB120328B.Comment: Accepted for pubblication in Astroparticle Physics Journal (20 pages,
10 figures). Corresponding authors: A.Marinelli and D.Zaboro
Extended gamma-ray sources around pulsars constrain the origin of the positron flux at Earth
The unexpectedly high flux of cosmic ray positrons detected at Earth may
originate from nearby astrophysical sources, dark matter, or unknown processes
of cosmic-ray secondary production. We report the detection, using the
HighAltitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), of extended tera-electron volt
gamma-ray emission coincident with the locations of two nearby middle-aged
pulsars (Geminga and PSR B0656+14). The HAWC observations demonstrate that
these pulsars are indeed local sources of accelerated leptons, but the measured
tera-electron volt emission profile constrains the diffusion of particles away
from these sources to be much slower than previously assumed. We demonstrate
that the leptons emitted by these objects are therefore unlikely to be the
origin of the excess positrons, which may have a more exotic origin.Comment: 16 pages (including supplementary material), 5 figure
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