The early middle palaeolithic blade industry from Hummal, Central Syria

The Hummal site, situated in the El-Kowm area of central Syria, is characterised by the presence of many artesian springs related to faults in the substratum, and by high-quality Lower Eocene flint outcrops. The Hummal site is in direct contact with the old artesian spring that supplied water to a pool of variable size. Attracted by the water, animals and raw material, humans settled continuously in the immediate vicinity of the source from the Lower to the Upper Palaeolithic, as attested by an archaeological record more than 20 metres deep. Systematic excavations in Hummal began in 1999 under the direction of J.-M. Le Tensorer and S. Muhesen (Le Tensorer 2000). More than 20 archaeological layers from Upper to Lower Palaeolithic were recognised and thousands of artefacts gathered. This in situ sequence, containing layers 6a, 6b, 6c and 7a, 7c, integrated the Hummalian. A blade industry was additionally discovered in a massive sand deposit, subsequently labelled alpha h. From 2001 systematic excavation of the upper sequence of the Hummalian was undertaken under the direction of the author. The excavation area reached 26m2, and more than 7000 lithic objects and more than a hundred faunal remains were collected. The excavated area was divided into two distinct parts: West and East. In 2009 the new Sondage S1 was opened in the southern part of the site and a surface of about 2m2 was excavated. The Hummalian blade industry excavated in all three sectors is subdivided into stratified archaeological layers and is clearly positioned between the Yabrudian and Mousterian complexes. Taphonomic factors such as erosion, diagenesis and trampling, alongside the probable lack of sedimentation, had a destructive effect on a number of the archaeological remains. The common flaking technique is direct percussion with a hard hammer. The unidirectional flaking system dominates in all layers, but bidirectional is also well represented, especially in Sand alpha h and layers 6c-2 and 7c. The goal of production was elongated blanks regardless of their size. The blank blades encompass a number of specimens with different morphologies. These blanks, although looking morphologically different – either prismatic or Levallois-like – seem to be the result of a single reduction strategy involving different kinds of core volume management. It seems that the flint knapper moved from Laminar debitage to Levallois-like debitage when the volume of cores decreased, with the core becoming flatter and requiring more preparations to control the manufacture of blanks. But many times the morphology of cores seems to have remained constant despite the diminishing size, showing that the core volume management was maintained from the early stage through to exhaustion. As blank production was carried out until exhaustion of the core, the assemblage includes blanks with a size scale ranging from elongated blades to small bladelets. But there was also a separate production of bladelets from burin-cores, and of bladelet cores and small flakes from truncated-faceted pieces. Their presence cannot be solely interpreted as being aimed at maximising the productivity of the flint. The end-products obtained during their flaking must have represented a desired supplementary element next to implements manufactured by the main reduction strategy. All these elements indicate a level of complexity in blank production. The importance of recycling in the Hummalian is demonstrated by double patinated tools, the reuse of broken items and debris for bladelet manufacturing, and Yabrudian scrapers as cores. The retouched tools made on flakes and blades seem to be quite standardised in their metrical and non-metrical attributes, both between the assemblages and the tools categories. The estimated TL age for Hummalian is approximately 200 ka (Richter 2006, Richter et al. 2011) and is comparable to those of the Laminar phenomenon highlighted at Hayonim layer ‘F top’ and ‘F base’, which have mean TL-dates on heated flint of 210 ± 28 ka and 221 ± 21 ka, respectively (Mercier et al., 2007), or with Tabun’s unit IX (Tabun D-type), with its mean TL dates of 256 ± 26 ka, and Rosh Ein Mor, dated 200 ka (Rink et al. 2003). These assemblages were discovered at different site types that varied in their use of Laminar and Levallois reduction strategies and in their production of diverse tools. The collections from Tabun and Rosh Ein Mor, in contrast to the Hummalian, seem to be dominated by the Levallois method (Meignen 1994, 143, Hauck 2010, 200). At present it seems that the lithic industries from Hayonim layers F and E (Meignen 1998, 2000) and the undated Abu Sif layers B and C (Neuville 1951) show the greatest resemblance to the Hummalian industry

From the east or the west? Blade production in the Levant and northwest of Europe during the Middle Pleistocene

Even though the blade production from the Levant and Europe share many similarities such as producing elongated blanks and using hard hammer percussion, there are significant differences between them. Both EMP assemblages from the Levant and Europe (e.g., Cave dall 'Olio, Mesvin IV) show simultaneously the use of Laminar and Levallois reduction strategies to produce their blanks. Yet in the Levant blade production is most prominent whereas in Europe blades appeared as a marginal phenomenon alongside flake production. Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference concerning the appearance of blade and Levallois technologies. In Europe, the oldest evidence of the Levallois (proto-Levallois) dated back to MIS 12-11 in France, MIS 10 in Italy and only at the end of MIS 9 beginning of MIS 8 did the Laminar system start to While in the Levant, the Laminar system began around 400 000 BP before the emergence of the Levallois system in the EMP

Kilka uwag na temat otoczenia regulacyjnego rynku finansowego Unii Europejskiej

Otoczenie regulacyjne rynku finansowego Unii Europejskiej, łączące w sobie prawo publiczne z elementami prawa prywatnego, kształtowane jest w oparciu o cele, jakie powinny zostać osiągnięte przez wprowadzaną regulację. Te z kolei wyznaczają zakres regulacji, a zatem obszar aktywności unijnego prawodawcy, a także koncepcję (filozofię) regulacji, zgodnie z którą aktywność ta jest podejmowana. Opracowanie stanowi analizę unijnego prawa rynku finansowego, zwłaszcza zaś instrumentów prawnych przyjętych na przestrzeni ostatnich pięciu lat, pozwalającą na ustalenie zmian w hierarchicznej strukturze jego celów, koncepcji i w zakresie regulacji, determinowanych potrzebami samego zintegrowanego rynku finansowego, który, podlegając przeobrażeniom, jednocześnie staje się bardziej podatny na czynniki destabilizujące

Expression of cytokeratin-19 (CK19) in the classical subtype of papillary thyroid carcinoma: the experience of one center in the Silesian region

Introduction. Cytokeratin-19 (CK19) is recognized as a reliable tumor marker of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). The general prognosis in the classical subtype of PTC (CSTPTC) remains favorable, but some cases can be very aggressive. The aim of this study was to evaluate the localization and intensity of immunohistochemical CK19 expression in CSTPTC and its associations with the clinical and pathological characteristics of patients with CSTPTC in the Silesian region. Material and methods. All the available clinical and histopathological data for 149 patients with CSTPTC from the Silesian region were retrospectively analyzed. The group consisted of 135 (90.6%) women and 14 (9.4%) men (mean age and SD: 52.3 ± 15.0). All these patients with CSTPTC underwent surgery at the same center between 2008 and 2013; the follow-up period was 24 to 90 months (mean and SD: 47 ± 20). Results. In 142 (95.3%) of the patients with CSTPTC, positive cytoplasmic staining of CK19 was found. A higher expression of CK19 was observed in the group of patients without the recurrence of the disease (p = 0.015). CK19 expression was not associated with age, gender, tumor focality, disease stage, tumor size (pT), lymph node involvement (pN), or distant metastases (pM). Conclusions. Decreased CK19 expression in CSTPTC cases with relapse suggests that it plays a role in the carcinoma progression of CSTPTC. The association between lower CK19 expression and patients’ unfavorable postoperative course could suggest its possible role as a marker of CSTPTC poor prognosis

Reconstructing prehistoric boats. A report on two experiments carried out during the first International Camp of Experimental. Archaeology, Toruń 2021

This article reports on two main archaeological experiments that were conducted during the first International Camp of Experimental Archaeology, which took place in August 2021 at Golub-Dobrzyń, close to Toruń, Poland. During the two weeks of this event, its participants, divided into two groups, carried out the reconstruction of two archaic boats: a dugout and a leather-covered boat known from ethnographic contexts mostly as the so-called skin-on-frame canoe. All work was carried out using exclusively techniques and tools known in the Stone and Bronze Ages. Also, this article presents a first discussion on the characteristics of use-wear traces created on the experimental tools

ERCC1-deficient cells and mice are hypersensitive to lipid peroxidation

Lipid peroxidation (LPO) products are relatively stable and abundant metabolites, which accumulate in tissues of mammals with aging, being able to modify all cellular nucleophiles, creating protein and DNA adducts including crosslinks. Here, we used cells and mice deficient in the ERCC1-XPF endonuclease required for nucleotide excision repair and the repair of DNA interstrand crosslinks to ask if specifically LPO-induced DNA damage contributes to loss of cell and tissue homeostasis. Ercc1-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts were more sensitive than wild-type (WT) cells to the LPO products: 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), crotonaldehyde and malondialdehyde. ERCC1-XPF hypomorphic mice were hypersensitive to CCl4 and a diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, two potent inducers of endogenous LPO. To gain insight into the mechanism of how LPO influences DNA repair-deficient cells, we measured the impact of the major endogenous LPO product, HNE, on WT and Ercc1-/- cells. HNE inhibited proliferation, stimulated ROS and LPO formation, induced DNA base damage, strand breaks, error-prone translesion DNA synthesis and cellular senescence much more potently in Ercc1-/- cells than in DNA repair-competent control cells. HNE also deregulated base excision repair and energy production pathways. Our observations that ERCC1-deficient cells and mice are hypersensitive to LPO implicates LPO-induced DNA damage in contributing to cellular demise and tissue degeneration, notably even when the source of LPO is dietary polyunsaturated fats

Rethinking the Humalian industry

Recent research reveals that the production of elongated blanks using different flaking techniques is an important part of the Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) industries in Near Eastern sites dated between 250 and 160 ka ago. The excavation at Hummal located in the arid steppe of Central Syria produced blade industries located in the stratigraphy between the Yabrudian and Levalloiso-Mousterian and this sequence is dated to about 200 ky. This paper presents data on the Hummalian culture from its discovery in 1980 to the systematic excavation of in situ archaeological layers between 1997 and 2010. Today the Hummalian industry is seen as a single, but very complex reduction strategy related to both the Laminar and the Levallois-like system of debitage. It is a unique reduction system containing diverse types of core volume management within which blanks of different morphologies have been produced from a single core using a direct, hammer percussion. Though, the Hummalian still shares many techno-typological similarities with the others laminar, lithic assemblages found on the Early Middle Palaeolithic sites in Levant, the same chronological and stratigraphical position and similar land-use strategies. As the EMP blade industries in Levant are preceded by the Acheulo-Yabrudian techno-complexes, the shift between both these lithic complexes, already seen in their chronological boundary, may also imply a technological discontinuity and possibly differing human populations

Expérimentation: Ecorcher et découper un chevreuil à l'aide des outils en pierre, Mutzig 2020

Un des objectifs de cette expérience était d'obtenir un référentiel permettant de lier les traces qui se forment sur les outils en phtanite et en silex pendant le travail de boucherie à celles observées sur les outils archéologiques retrouvés notamment à Mutzig. La boucherie effectuée en aout 2020 a été réalisée sur un chevreuil adulte. Des référentiels ont ainsi pu être créés et des différences ont été perçues dès l'utilisation entre la phtanite et le silex. Ces données seront exploitées lors des analyses tracéologiques menées sur le corpus de Mutzig