Early medieval Italian Alps: reconstructing diet and mobility in the valleys

In Early Middle Ages (sixth\u2013eleventh centuries AD), South Tyrol (Italian Alps) played a key role for geographical and military reasons. Historical sources document that allochthonous groups (germani) entered the territory, and the material culture shows mutual cultural exchanges between autochthonous and germani. Besides the nature of the migration, the demographic and socio-cultural impacts on the local population are still unknown. Stable isotope analyses were performed to provide insights into dietary patterns, subsistence strategies, changes in socio-economic structures, and mobility, according to spatial (e.g. valleys, altitudes) and chronological (centuries) parameters. Bone collagen of 32 faunal and 91 human bone samples from nine sites, located at different altitudes, was extracted for stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope analyses. In total, 94% (30/32) of the faunal remains were of good quality, while the humans displayed 93% (85/91) of good quality samples for \u3b413C and \u3b415N and 44% (40/91) for \u3b434S stable isotopes. The isotopic results of the animals reflected a terrestrial-based diet. Statistical differences were observed within and among the humans of the different valleys. The \u3b413C values of individuals sampled from higher altitudes indicated a mainly C3 plant-based diet compared to areas at lower altitudes, where more positive \u3b413C values showed an intake of C4 plants. The \u3b415N values suggested a terrestrial-based diet with a greater consumption of animal proteins at higher altitudes. The data revealed higher variability in \u3b434S values in the Adige valley, with individuals probably migrating and/or changing dietary habits

Stable Isotope and Trace Element Studies on Gladiators and Contemporary Romans from Ephesus (Turkey, 2nd and 3rd Ct. AD) - Implications for Differences in Diet

The gladiator cemetery discovered in Ephesus (Turkey) in 1993 dates to the 2nd and 3rd century AD. The aim of this study is to reconstruct diverse diet, social stratification, and migration of the inhabitants of Roman Ephesus and the distinct group of gladiators. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope analysis were applied, and inorganic bone elements (strontium, calcium) were determined. In total, 53 individuals, including 22 gladiators, were analysed. All individuals consumed C3 plants like wheat and barley as staple food. A few individuals show indication of consumption of C4 plants. The δ13C values of one female from the gladiator cemetery and one gladiator differ from all other individuals. Their δ34S values indicate that they probably migrated from another geographical region or consumed different foods. The δ15N values are relatively low in comparison to other sites from Roman times. A probable cause for the depletion of 15N in Ephesus could be the frequent consumption of legumes. The Sr/Ca-ratios of the gladiators were significantly higher than the values of the contemporary Roman inhabitants. Since the Sr/Ca-ratio reflects the main Ca-supplier in the diet, the elevated values of the gladiators might suggest a frequent use of a plant ash beverage, as mentioned in ancient texts

Ancient genomes reveal social and genetic structure of Late Neolithic Switzerland

Genetic studies of Neolithic and Bronze Age skeletons from Europe have provided evidence for strong population genetic changes at the beginning and the end of the Neolithic period. To further understand the implications of these in Southern Central Europe, we analyze 96 ancient genomes from Switzerland, Southern Germany, and the Alsace region in France, covering the Middle/Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. Similar to previously described genetic changes in other parts of Europe from the early 3rd millennium BCE, we detect an arrival of ancestry related to Late Neolithic pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Switzerland as early as 2860-2460 calBCE. Our analyses suggest that this genetic turnover was a complex process lasting almost 1000 years and involved highly genetically structured populations in this region

Semantics-based information extraction for detecting economic events

As today's financial markets are sensitive to breaking news on economic events, accurate and timely automatic identification of events in news items is crucial. Unstructured news items originating from many heterogeneous sources have to be mined in order to extract knowledge useful for guiding decision making processes. Hence, we propose the Semantics-Based Pipeline for Economic Event Detection (SPEED), focusing on extracting financial events from news articles and annotating these with meta-data at a speed that enables real-time use. In our implementation, we use some components of an existing framework as well as new components, e.g., a high-performance Ontology Gazetteer, a Word Group Look-Up component, a Word Sense Disambiguator, and components for detecting economic events. Through their interaction with a domain-specific ontology, our novel, semantically enabled components constitute a feedback loop which fosters future reuse of acquired knowledge in the event detection process

A Linked Data Recommender System Using a Neighborhood-Based Graph Kernel

Abstract. The ultimate mission of a Recommender System (RS) is to help users discover items they might be interested in. In order to be really useful for the end-user, Content-based (CB) RSs need both to harvest as much information as possible about such items and to effectively han-dle it. The boom of Linked Open Data (LOD) datasets with their huge amount of semantically interrelated data is thus a great opportunity for boosting CB-RSs. In this paper we present a CB-RS that leverages LOD and profits from a neighborhood-based graph kernel. The proposed ker-nel is able to compute semantic item similarities by matching their local neighborhood graphs. Experimental evaluation on the MovieLens dataset shows that the proposed approach outperforms in terms of accuracy and novelty other competitive approaches.

Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes

The second plague pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis, devastated Europe and the nearby regions between the 14th and 18th centuries AD. Here we analyse human remains from ten European archaeological sites spanning this period and reconstruct 34 ancient Y. pestis genomes. Our data support an initial entry of the bacterium through eastern Europe, the absence of genetic diversity during the Black Death, and low within-outbreak diversity thereafter. Analysis of post-Black Death genomes shows the diversification of a Y. pestis lineage into multiple genetically distinct clades that may have given rise to more than one disease reservoir in, or close to, Europe. In addition, we show the loss of a genomic region that includes virulence-related genes in strains associated with late stages of the pandemic. The deletion was also identified in genomes connected with the first plague pandemic (541–750 AD), suggesting a comparable evolutionary trajectory of Y. pestis during both events

Animal keeping in Chalcolithic North-Central Anatolia:What can stable isotope analysis add?

Stable isotope analysis is an essential investigative technique, complementary to more traditional zooarchaeological approaches to elucidating animal keeping practices. Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope values of 132 domesticates (cattle, caprines and pigs) were evaluated to investigate one aspect of animal keeping, animal forage, at the Late Chalcolithic (mid-fourth millennium BC) site of Çamlıbel Tarlası, which is located in north-central Anatolia. The analyses indicated that all of the domesticates had diets based predominantly on C3 plants. Pig and caprine δ13C and δ15N values were found to be statistically indistinguishable. However, cattle exhibited distinctive stable isotope values and, therefore, differences in diet from both pigs and caprines at Çamlıbel Tarlası. This difference may relate to the distinct patterns of foraging behaviour exhibited by the domesticates. Alternatively, this diversity may result from the use of different grazing areas or from the foddering practices of the Çamlıbel Tarlası inhabitants