A Multi-Isotopic Approach to the Reconstruction of Prehistoric Mobility and Economic Patterns in the West Eurasian Steppes 3500 to 300 BC

The West Eurasian steppes during the Eneolithic, the Early and Middle Bronze and the Iron Age were largely inhabited by communities believed to show an elevated level of spatial mobility, often linked to their subsistence economy. In this doctoral thesis, questions concerning the mobility and migration as well as the diet and economy of these, in some sense mobile communities were approached by applying isotope analyses, particularly 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, δ15N and δ13C analyses. Adapting these methods to a study area of extremely large spatial and chronological dimensions and to a proportionally undersized sample set certainly tested the limits of the methods, but it also allowed a wide variety of questions to be answered

A multi-isotopic pilot study of the burial mound of Boyanovo

Zusammenfassung: Im Rahmen einer Pilotstudie wurden fünf menschliche Skelette aus dem Grabhügel Lozianska Mogila nahe des heutigen Dorfes Bojanovo, Bulgarien, für Multi-Isotopenanalysen (87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, δ13C, δ15N) ausgewählt. Die Bestattungen datieren in die Früh- und Mittelbronzezeit. Einige der frühbronzezeitlichen Individuen zeigten Übereinstimmungen mit einem Bestattungsritual, welches für die Jamnaja- oder Grubengrabkultur charakteristisch ist. Die Ergebnisse der Strontium- und Sauerstoffisotopenanalysen am Zahnschmelz der untersuchten Skelette verweisen auf einen erhöhten Grad an Mobilität, der entweder als Indikator für Migrationen oder als Hinweis auf kleinräumige Bewegungen zwischen verschiedenen regionalen Siedlungen verstanden werden kann. Sie sind jedoch kein Beleg für Migrationen aus den osteuropäischen Steppenregionen, wie auf Basis des archäologischen Materials möglicherweise vermutet. Die Ergebnisse der Kohlenstoffund Stickstoffisotopenanalysen sind relativ konsistent. Sie sind als charakteristisch für eine Ernährung anzusehen, die vornehmlich auf C3-Nahrungsressourcen basiert mit einem geringen Einfluss an C4-Nahrungskomponenten

Physicochemical Analysis of Argon Plasma-Treated Cell Culture Medium

The effects of cold plasma under atmospheric pressure are being explored for medical applications. It was found that plasma effects on cells correspond to a plasma–medium interaction; thus, plasma-treated cell culture medium alone is able to influence the cell behavior. Here, we discovered that the liquid-mediated effect of atmospheric-pressure argon plasma on mouse liver epithelial cells persists up to 21 days of storage; i.e., the liquid preserves the characteristics once induced by the argon plasma. Earlier investigations of our group revealed that temperature and pH, hydrogen peroxide production and oxygen content can be excluded as initiators of the detrimental biological changes. As we found here, the increased osmolality in the media caused by plasma treatment can also be excluded as a reason for the observed cell effects. Conversely, we found changes in the components of cell culture medium by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) and decreased cell viability in plasma-treated media independent of the presence of fetal calf serum (FCS) during plasma treatment. The persistent biological effect on plasma-treated liquids observed here could open up new medical applications. Stable plasma-treated liquids could find application for dermatological, dental, or orthopedic therapy

Un sistema inteligente para asistir la búsqueda personalizada de objetos de aprendizaje

En: Jornada “Acceso Abierto a las TIC de la UNR para educar, investigar”. Panel: “El código abierto y los desarrollos de software para educar, investigar, gestionar y producir”.Universidad Nacional de Rosario, 22 de octubre de 2009.Se presenta un sistema inteligente para asistir la búsqueda personalizada de Objetos de Aprendizaje. El objetivo es desarrollar un sistema recomendador que ayude a los usuarios a encontrar recursos educativos de acuerdo a sus características y preferencias y brinde los resultados ordenados de acuerdo a su perfil.Fil: Casali, Ana. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, and Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas (CIFASIS-CONICET-UNR-AMU); Argentin

Un Sistema Inteligente para Asistir la Búsqueda Personalizada de Objetos de Aprendizaje

En el dominio de la educación existe gran cantidad y diversidad de material que puede contribuir al proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje. La Web, herramienta fundamental para la recuperación de todo tipo de material, utilizando buscadores. problema de falta de estructura en la información. Hay formas de acceder a información más estructurada: utilizando repositorios. Búsqueda temática: No siempre el resultado es el esperado por el usuario, porque no considera otros factores relevantes: Los usuarios poseen distintas características y preferencias personales, que deberían ser consideradas en el momento de la búsqued

High-resolution isotopic evidence of specialised cattle herding in the European Neolithic.

Peer reviewe

An archaeobotanical and stable isotope approach to changing agricultural practices in the NW Mediterranean region around 4000 BC

It has recently been observed, that a change in the crop spectrum happened during the so-called Middle Neolithic in France at ca. 4000 BC. An agricultural system based on free-threshing cereals (naked wheat and naked barley) seems to shift to one based on glume wheats. This is a major change for traditional farmers and this paper aims to shed light on its possible causes. Here we describe the results of new investigations in a key area for the understanding of this process: the NW Mediterranean arch, where free-threshing cereals are the main cultivars since ca. 5100 BC. New data confirm that the shift towards glume wheats is also observed in some sites of the NE of the Iberian Peninsula and that among the glume wheats that spread at ca. 4000 BC we should not only consider emmer and einkorn but also Timopheevi’s wheat. Stable isotope analyses indicate no major decrease in soil fertility or alterations in local precipitation regimes. The agricultural change may be the result of a combination of the spread of damaging pests for free-threshing cereals and presumably new networks being developed with the North-eastern part of Italy and the Balkans

Diet and subsistence in Bronze Age pastoral communities from the southern Russian steppes and the North Caucasus

The flanks of the Caucasus Mountains and the steppe landscape to their north offered highly productive grasslands for Bronze Age herders and their flocks of sheep, goat, and cattle. While the archaeological evidence points to a largely pastoral lifestyle, knowledge regarding the general composition of human diets and their variation across landscapes and during the different phases of the Bronze Age is still restricted. Human and animal skeletal remains from the burial mounds that dominate the archaeological landscape and their stable isotope compositions are major sources of dietary information. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data of bone collagen of 105 human and 50 animal individuals from the 5th millennium BC to the Sarmatian period, with a strong focus on the Bronze Age and its cultural units including Maykop, Yamnaya, Novotitorovskaya, North Caucasian, Catacomb, post-Catacomb and late Bronze Age groups. The samples comprise all inhumations with sufficient bone preservation from five burial mound sites and a flat grave cemetery as well as subsamples from three further sites. They represent the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the piedmont zone and Kuban steppe with humid steppe and forest vegetation to its north, and more arid regions in the Caspian steppe. The stable isotope compositions of the bone collagen of humans and animals varied across the study area and reflect regional diversity in environmental conditions and diets. The data agree with meat, milk, and/or dairy products from domesticated herbivores, especially from sheep and goats having contributed substantially to human diets, as it is common for a largely pastoral economy. This observation is also in correspondence with the faunal remains observed in the graves and offerings of animals in the mound shells. In addition, foodstuffs with elevated carbon and nitrogen isotope values, such as meat of unweaned animals, fish, or plants, also contributed to human diets, especially among communities living in the more arid landscapes. The regional distinction of the animal and human data with few outliers points to mobility radii that were largely concentrated within the environmental zones in which the respective sites are located. In general, dietary variation among the cultural entities as well as regarding age, sex and archaeologically indicated social status is only weakly reflected. There is, however, some indication for a dietary shift during the Early Bronze Age Maykop period

The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

5月16日，厦门大学人类学系、德国马普所、德国考古所、俄罗斯文化遗产联合会、奥地利维也纳大学人类学系、爱尔兰都柏林大学学院考古系、罗蒙诺索夫莫斯科国立大学考古系和人类学博物馆、俄罗斯国立东方艺术博物馆、俄罗斯联邦达吉斯坦考古与民族志研究所历史系、美国韦尔斯利学院人类学系、瑞士巴塞尔大学史前与考古科学研究所、德国国家遗产博物馆等36家单位的46位共同作者组成的国际合作团队在BioRxiv上预发表论文《The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus》，厦门大学人类学系王传超研究员为论文的第一作者和通讯作者，也是该国际团队中的唯一一位来自中国的合作者。【Abstract】Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian 'steppe ancestry' as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies likely linked to the dispersal of Indo-European languages. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting that - unlike today - the Caucasus acted as a bridge rather than an insurmountable barrier to human movement. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected Anatolian farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry.This work was funded by the Max Planck Society and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). C.C.W. was funded by Nanqiang Outstanding Young Talents Program of Xiamen University (X2123302) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. 该研究由德国马普学会、德国考古所、厦门大学南强青年拔尖人才支持计划资助