Древнерусская надпись-граффито в аббатстве Сен-Жиль на юге Франции

The abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard near Arles in the south of France was one of the most prominent pilgrimage sites in medieval Europe.Recent archaeological investigation has shown that construction of the abbey church, one of the most significant Romanesque pilgrimage churches in southern France, began ca. 1170/1180. The lower church (crypt) with the tomb of St. Giles (Lat. Aegidius, Fr. Gilles) and some of the walls of the upper church belong to that period.A well-preserved Cyrillic graffito was discovered on a pier of the upper church, close to the spot where the tomb of St. Giles is located in the crypt below. The text contains a prayer with a common formula: GI POMЪZI | RABU SVЪ|EMU SЬMKЪ|VI NINOSLA|VICHIU ‘Lord, help your servant Semko, son of Ninoslav.’ Palaeographic and linguistic analysis shows that the graffito is of Russian origin. It was probably made at some time between 1180 and 1250 by a pilgrim travelling from Russia to Santiago de Compostela, and it is the most geographically remote Old Russian graffito inscription discovered so far in western Europe.Одним из значительных паломнических центров средневековой Европы было аббатство Сен-Жиль-дю-Гар недалеко от Арля на Юге Франции. Согласно недавним археологическим исследованиям, возведение собора аббатства, одной из наиболее крупных позднероманских паломнических церквей на Юге Франции, началось около 1170/1180 года. К первой стадии строительства относятся нижний храм (крипта) с гробницей святого Эгидия (лат. Aegidius, фр. Gilles) и часть стен верхней церкви.Хорошо сохранившееся кириллическое граффито было обнаружено на колонне верхней церкви, расположенной рядом с тем местом, под котором в крипте находится гробница св. Эгидия. Текст состоит из молитвы, записанной при помощи типичной формулы: ГИ    ПОМЪЗИ | РАБУ СВЪ|ЕМУ СЬМКЪ|ВИ НИНОСЛА|ВИЧЮ ‘Господи, помоги рабу своему Семку Нинославичу’. По палеографическим и лингвистическим данным граффито является древнерусским и датируется временем не позже конца XIII века, предпочтительно — не позже середины XIII века.Вероятно, найденное граффито было оставлено паломником, следовавшим из Руси в Сантьяго-де-Компостела примерно между 1180 и 1250 годами. На сегодняшний день это самая западная из выявленных древнерусских надписей-граффити

Pitfalls and potential of high-throughput plant phenotyping platforms

Automated high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) enables non-invasive, fast and standardized evaluations of a large number of plants for size, development, and certain physiological variables. Many research groups recognize the potential of HTPP and have made significant investments in HTPP infrastructure, or are considering doing so. To make optimal use of limited resources, it is important to plan and use these facilities prudently and to interpret the results carefully. Here we present a number of points that users should consider before purchasing, building or utilizing such equipment. They relate to (1) the financial and time investment for acquisition, operation, and maintenance, (2) the constraints associated with such machines in terms of flexibility and growth conditions, (3) the pros and cons of frequent non-destructive measurements, (4) the level of information provided by proxy traits, and (5) the utilization of calibration curves. Using data from an Arabidopsis experiment, we demonstrate how diurnal changes in leaf angle can impact plant size estimates from top-view cameras, causing deviations of more than 20% over the day. Growth analysis data from another rosette species showed that there was a curvilinear relationship between total and projected leaf area. Neglecting this curvilinearity resulted in linear calibration curves that, although having a high r2 (> 0.92), also exhibited large relative errors. Another important consideration we discussed is the frequency at which calibration curves need to be generated and whether different treatments, seasons, or genotypes require distinct calibration curves. In conclusion, HTPP systems have become a valuable addition to the toolbox of plant biologists, provided that these systems are tailored to the research questions of interest, and users are aware of both the possible pitfalls and potential involved