The archaeological excavations carried out in Greece at Chalcis, the Athenian Agora and the Castle of Mytilene in Lesvos have resulted in the accumulation of a large collection of Medieval and... Show moreThe archaeological excavations carried out in Greece at Chalcis, the Athenian Agora and the Castle of Mytilene in Lesvos have resulted in the accumulation of a large collection of Medieval and Post-Medieval glazed pottery vessels and sherds that is unparalleled in the Aegean region and that is a perfect basis for archaeometrical research. This thesis’ objective is to analyse 245 ceramic samples from these three excavated sites in Greece with the most advanced technological methods applying an integrated analytical methodology that took into account compositional data of ceramic body, slip, glaze and pigments. This study attempts to investigate both the provenance as well as the glazed pottery techniques and their development through time. The chosen ceramic samples were examined using a number of archaeometrical techniques such as Optical Microscopy (OM), X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (pXRF, WDXRF), Petrographic analysis, X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-EDS) and Raman Spectroscopy. These archaeological sites distinguish from others in the (eastern) Mediterranean where glazed pottery manufacture has been confirmed. The glazed pottery assemblages in these cities clearly demonstrate a changing industry as they date from the Early Byzantine to the Early Modern periods. Show less
The Late Medieval and Early Modern periods in the Netherlands are marked by an upsurge in the production, use and repurposing of casks in cities. This is inextricably linked with the growing marine... Show moreThe Late Medieval and Early Modern periods in the Netherlands are marked by an upsurge in the production, use and repurposing of casks in cities. This is inextricably linked with the growing marine and riverine trade markets and the increase in artisan production. Casks have been found on shipwrecks, where they were used as containers for merchandise (primary purpose) and in urban areas, where they were repurposed as shafts for wells or cesspits (secondary purpose). As a result, the initial production phase of the lifecycle of casks often remained undetected. This study aims to generate an overview of the dendrochronological studies conducted in the past decades by Dutch dendrochronologists on casks from Dutch archaeological context, in which the felling year of the wood used to construct the casks can be dated from the 12th to 18th centuries, to gain insight into their production by coopers. The first objective is to better understand the diverse provenance areas detected in the coopers’ timber, after which the diachronic developments in the use of the timber from specific provenance areas can be addressed. The main objective is to assess whether it is possible to distinguish locally produced casks from casks used to import merchandise, which was successful in some cases. In addition to the dendrochronological and archaeological data, archival sources were used to contextualize and substantiate the analyses and interpretations. Show less
Laffoon, J.E.; Sonnemann, T.F.; Antczak, M.M.; Antczak, A. 2018
Archeological excavations of Amerindian sites on Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela, uncovered a wide range of evidence reflecting seasonal exploitation of local resources and... Show moreArcheological excavations of Amerindian sites on Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela, uncovered a wide range of evidence reflecting seasonal exploitation of local resources and multiple ritual depositions of large quantities of ceramic figurines, lithics, and faunal remains. Zooarchaeological analysis revealed the presence of modified and unmodified bones and teeth from numerous imported mammal species. Local geographic and environmental conditions preclude permanent establishment of terrestrial mammal populations and as such, there are no native mammalian taxa on the island itself or the surrounding oceanic archipelago. The presence of these faunal remains on Dos Mosquises can be attributed to the intentional movement of animal resources from the mainland to Los Roques by indigenous groups in the Late Ceramic Age (~AD 1200–1500). Despite attributions to a mainland source region, little else is known about the origins of these unique specimens. Here, we apply strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C) isotope analyses of tooth enamel from various archeologically recovered taxa including deer, peccary, tapir, ocelot, margay, opossum, fox, and weasel to investigate their geographic origins via comparisons with macro-regional models of precipitation δ18O and bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr. The 87Sr/86Sr results are highly variable both for the overall assemblage and between specimens within the same taxa, indicating origins from different geochemical environments of mainland South America. The combined archeological and isotopic evidence are consistent with origins within the late pre-colonial Valencioid Sphere of Interaction which encompassed the Lake Valencia Basin, surrounding regions, and several offshore island groups including Los Roques archipelago. Show less
Belhajjame, K.; Zhao, J.; Garijo, D.; Gamble, M.; Hettne, K.; Palma, R.; ... ; Goble, C. 2015
Scientific workflows are a popular mechanism for specifying and automating data-driven in silico experiments. A significant aspect of their value lies in their potential to be reused. Once shared,... Show moreScientific workflows are a popular mechanism for specifying and automating data-driven in silico experiments. A significant aspect of their value lies in their potential to be reused. Once shared, workflows become useful building blocks that can be combined or modified for developing new experiments. However, previous studies have shown that storing workflow specifications alone is not sufficient to ensure that they can be successfully reused, without being able to understand what the workflows aim to achieve or to re-enact them. To gain an understanding of the workflow, and how it may be used and repurposed for their needs, scientists require access to additional resources such as annotations describing the workflow, datasets used and produced by the workflow, and provenance traces recording workflow executions.In this article, we present a novel approach to the preservation of scientific workflows through the application of research objects-aggregations of data and metadata that enrich the workflow specifications. Our approach is realised as a suite of ontologies that support the creation of workflow-centric research objects. Their design was guided by requirements elicited from previous empirical analyses of workflow decay and repair. The ontologies developed make use of and extend existing well known ontologies, namely the Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE) vocabulary, the Annotation Ontology (AO) and the W3C PROV ontology (PROVO). We illustrate the application of the ontologies for building Workflow Research Objects with a case-study that investigates Huntington's disease, performed in collaboration with a team from the Leiden University Medial Centre (HG-LUMC). Finally we present a number of tools developed for creating and managing workflow-centric research objects. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Show less
Mina, E.; Thompson, M.; Kaliyaperumal, R.; Zhao, J.; Horst, E. van der; Tatum, Z.; ... ; Roos, M. 2015
Data from high throughput experiments often produce far more results than can ever appear in the main text or tables of a single research article. In these cases, the majority of new associations... Show moreData from high throughput experiments often produce far more results than can ever appear in the main text or tables of a single research article. In these cases, the majority of new associations are often archived either as supplemental information in an arbitrary format or in publisher-independent databases that can be difficult to find. These data are not only lost from scientific discourse, but are also elusive to automated search, retrieval and processing. Here, we use the nanopublication model to make scientific assertions that were concluded from a workflow analysis of Huntington's Disease data machine-readable, interoperable, and citable. We followed the nanopublication guidelines to semantically model our assertions as well as their provenance metadata and authorship. We demonstrate interoperability by linking nanopublication provenance to the Research Object model. These results indicate that nanopublications can provide an incentive for researchers to expose data that is interoperable and machine-readable for future use and preservation for which they can get credits for their effort. Nanopublications can have a leading role into hypotheses generation offering opportunities to produce large-scale data integration. Show less
Mina, E.; Thompson, M.; Kaliyaperumal, R.; Zhao, J.; Horst, E. van der; Tatum, Z.; ... ; Roos, M. 2015
The primary objective of the investigation of the handmade pottery from Oss-Ussen was the composition of a detailed type-chronology of the locally produced pottery, preferably applicable to a... Show moreThe primary objective of the investigation of the handmade pottery from Oss-Ussen was the composition of a detailed type-chronology of the locally produced pottery, preferably applicable to a wider area than the Maaskant region. On basis of pottery assemblages from pits, wells etc. fourteen pottery phases have been defined (A2-N). They cover almost a millennium, starting around the beginning of the Early Iron Age (800 BC). For sixteen variables, mainly concerning morphology and decoration, developments in type-frequencies are presented in diagrams. The secondary analysis of the technological characteristics of this local ware did not reveal any significant differences between fine and coarse ware, considering both clay texture and temper. Another secondary study has been devoted to a rather large group of non-local handmade pottery, coming from the western coastal zone, in most cases probably containing seasalt (briquetage vessels). Its provenance has been established by combining diatom analyses and morphological characteristics. Moreover, shifts in supply routes are indicated on basis of chemical analyses (XRF). These may partly explain the changes in morphological types found in settlement sites in the hinterland. Show less
