What is in a Name? ‘Akko - Ptolemais - ‘Akka - Acre

La actual ciudad de Akko in Israel, ha tenido muchos nombres a lo largo de los siglos de su prolongado asentamiento. El nombre de Acre, con el que se le conoce en el mundo Occidental, es el residuo del nombre de San Juan de Acre que le dieron sus habitantes cruzados en el s. XII de la era Cristiana. Sin embargo, el nombre de ‘Akko y sus derivados, tienen una larga historia. Bajo tal nombre, aparece ya en las fuentes escritas de comienzos el II Milenio a.C., cuando e produjo la primera urbanización del lugar. Se mantuvo como ‘Akko, ‘Ake, etc…a lo largo de los siglos posteriors, a pesar de los inentos de varios dirigentes de cambiarelo. El asentamiento se trasladó, a causa de los cambios en la línea de costa y del río Na’aman o Belos, desde el antiguo Tel Akko a la bahía, en la que se estableció un puerto artificial,reconstruido y renovado reiteradamente durante más de 2000 años. El primer nombre conocido del sitio original del asentamiento, el tell, data de época de los cruzados. Este sufrió una alteración de su nombre, reflejo de la transformación de la historia de Akko, en la que la intervención occidental (europea9, jugó un papel decisivo.The modern city of ‘Akko in Israel has borne many names over the centuries of its extended settlement. The name Acre, as it is known in the Western World, is the remnant of the name, St. Jean d’Acre, given to it by its Crusader settlers in the 12th century CE. However, the name ‘Akko and its derivatives has a long history. It appeared as such already in written sources at the beginning of the 2nd Millennium BCE when the first urbanization of the site took place. It remained as ‘Akko, ‘Ake, etc… throughout the subsequent centuries, despite attempts by its varied rulers to change it. The settlement shifted, following the changes of the coastline and the Na’aman (Belos) River, from the ancient Tel Akko, to the bay, where an artificial harbor was established, re-constructed and repeatedly renovated during the 2000 or more years. The first known name of the original site of the settlement, the tell, is dated to the Crusader period. It experienced alteration of name, echoing the transformation of ‘Akko’s history, in which the Western (European) intervention played a major role

Geoarchaeology of Magdala harbour and Tel Akko (Israel)

With the support of the MISTRALS-ENVIMED-GEOSISRAEL program and A*MIDEX GEOMED project, we have been able to reconstruct the palaeo-environmental evolution of two ancient harbours in Israel. Harbour geoarchaeology was mainly developed in Israel by the late Avner Raban, founding member of the RIMS multidisciplinary research unit in 1972 at Haifa University. Since these pionneering years, a series of geoarchaeological projects have focused on different ancient harbours, mainly at Caesarea, Dor, and Atlit. Paradoxically, landscape evolution of the major harbour sites of Magdala and Tel Akko have been neglected until two comprehensive multidisciplinary archaeological projects were recently started. Recent excavations undertaken in the ancient city of Magdala, located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, have unearthed a harbour structure extending for more than 100 m, dating from the late Hellenistic (167-63 BC) to the middle Roman (70-270 AD) periods, with well-preserved quays and mooring stones. An integrated (geomorphological, sedimentological, micropalaeontological and archaeological) study of the sedimentary succession buried beneath the ancient harbour area reveals the harbour’s main evolutionary stages, shedding new light on the natural versus anthropogenic controls on sedimentation. Three sedimentary sequences reflect the recent palaeoenvironmental evolution of Magdala. These include: 1) a pre-harbour foundation sequence; 2) a harbour sequence from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC to the first half of the 1st century AD. The substantial increase of ostracod species (Pseudocandona albicans) preferring calm waters and fine-grained facies point to the establishment of a protected, shallow and organic-rich setting. The increase in sodium and potassium concentrations is accompanied by the sudden appearance of Heterocypris salina, a brackish-tolerant species, and by the dominance of noded valves of Cyprideis torosa ; and 3) a harbour abandonment sequence dated ca. 270-350 years AD. Archaeological excavations at Tel Akko, east of the present city, revealed imported artifacts and evidence for maritime trade from the Middle Bronze Age (2200–1500 years BC) onwards. The findings strongly indicated that a harbour had been developed on this site even though its exact location and associated facilities were still to be determined. Sedimentological and paleontological analyses together with 14C dating of cores provide new palaeo-environmental information allowing for the reconstruction of shoreline changes over the last 4000 years. Firstly, we propose that the southern face of the tell constituted the harbor environment,with lagoonal-marine characteristics until ca. 2800 years BP; and that the site was protected by a natural rocky breakwater and a spit which were eventually silted up and transformed into a continental marsh. This environment might have been used as a harbour by inhabitants before the archaic period. Secondly, it seems that the west side of the tell was lined by a sandy coast that had prograded offering an open anchorage until the Persian period. These results must be cross-validated by future archaeological excavations aimed at more accurately locating the ancient harbour structures. 2013, Kaniewski D., Van Campo E., Morhange C., Guiot J., Zviely D., Shaked I., Otto T., Artzy M., Early urban impact on Mediterranean coastal environments, Nature Scientific Reports, 3. 2013, Sarti G., Rossi V., Amorosi A., De Luca S., Lena A., Morhange C., Ribolini A., Sammartino I., Bertoni D., Zanchetta G., Magdala harbour sedimentation (sea of Galilee, Israel), from natural to anthropogenic control, Quaternary International, 303, pp. 120-131. 2014, Anthony E. J., Marriner N., Morhange C., Human influence and the changing geomorphology of Mediterranean deltas and coasts over the last 6000 years: from progradation to destruction phase? Earth Science Reviews, 139, pp. 336–361. 2014, Kaniewski D., Van Campo E., Morhange C., Guiot J., Zviely D., Le Burel S., Otto T., Artzy M., Vulnerability of ecosystems facing long-term changes along the Mediterranean coast of Israel, PLoS ONE, 9, 7. 2014, Marriner N., Morhange C., Kaniewski D., Carayon N., Ancient harbour infrastructure in the Levant: tracking the birth and rise of new forms of anthropogenic pressure, Nature Scientific Reports, 4, 5554. 2014, Morhange C., Salamon A., Bony G., Flaux C., Galili E., Goiran J.-P., Zviely D., Geoarchaeology of tsunamis and the revival of neo-catastrophism in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Rome "La Sapienza" Studies on the Archaeology of Palestine & Transjordan (ROSAPAT 11), Overcoming catastrophes, pp. 31-51. 2015, Morhange C., Marriner N., Carayon N., The geoarchaeology of ancient Mediterranean harbours, in French geoarchaeology in the 21st century, G. Arnaud-Fassetta and N. Carcaud eds., CNRS editions, Alpha, Paris, pp. 281-289. 2015, Rossi V., Sammartino I., Amorosi A., Sarti G., De Luca S., Lena A., Morhange C., New insights into the palaeoenvironmental evolution of Magdala ancient harbour (Sea of Galilee, Israel) from ostracod assemblages, geochemistry and sedimentology, Journal of Archaeological Science, 54, pp. 356-373

Modeling the impact of white-plague coral disease in climate change scenarios

Coral reefs are in global decline, with coral diseases increasing both in prevalence and in space, a situation that is expected only to worsen as future thermal stressors increase. Through intense surveillance, we have collected a unique and highly resolved dataset from the coral reef of Eilat (Israel, Red Sea), that documents the spatiotemporal dynamics of a White Plague Disease (WPD) outbreak over the course of a full season. Based on modern statistical methodologies, we develop a novel spatial epidemiological model that uses a maximum-likelihood procedure to fit the data and assess the transmission pattern of WPD. We link the model to sea surface temperature (SST) and test the possible effect of increasing temperatures on disease dynamics. Our results reveal that the likelihood of a susceptible coral to become infected is governed both by SST and by its spatial location relative to nearby infected corals. The model shows that the magnitude of WPD epidemics strongly depends on demographic circumstances; under one extreme, when recruitment is free-space regulated and coral density remains relatively constant, even an increase of only 0.5 degrees C in SST can cause epidemics to double in magnitude. In reality, however, the spatial nature of transmission can effectively protect the community, restricting the magnitude of annual epidemics. This is because the probability of susceptible corals to become infected is negatively associated with coral density. Based on our findings, we expect that infectious diseases having a significant spatial component, such as Red-Sea WPD, will never lead to a complete destruction of the coral community under increased thermal stress

True-scale biomimetic multi-generation airway platforms of the human bronchial epithelium for in vitro cytotoxicity screening

Lung exposure to inhaled particulate matter may injure the epithelial tissue and lead to a loss of function in affected regions via inflammation for example. Screening for the critical contaminate concentrations may provide essential information towards damage assessment and epithelial healing. To date, most approaches have typically relied on traditional in vitro well plate assays or alternatively in vivo animal experiments. Yet, such methods manifest some outstanding disadvantages such as the inability to capture physiological flow and aerosol deposition characteristics as well as significant differences in anatomy, immune system and inflammatory responses compared to humans. The advent of organ-on-chip platforms has shown promising results to reconcile many such drawbacks. In an attempt to provide an attractive in vitro gateway to monitor airway health, we discuss here a novel biomimetic platform which emulates the bronchial epithelium of a human upper airway, allowing to study organ-level characteristics in a homeostatic cellular microenvironment. This device reconstitutes a multi-generation pulmonary epithelial airway environment, capturing realistic respiratory transport phenomena and critical cellular barrier functions at an air-liquid interface (ALI), in analogy to the bronchial lumen. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate its feasibility for in vitro based assays by exposing the device to cytotoxic aerosolized particles under respiratory flow conditions. Subsequently, we investigate the cytotoxic effects of these particles including cellular viability, cytokine and mucus secretion as a function of local particle deposition patterns. Ultimately, our bronchial airway models are intended to provide off-the-shelf in vitro kits geared for the end-user interested in a wide range of broader biological assays that may be attractive for cytotoxicity and drug screening. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract