Listincu e arxidda

Indinur Andrea Ghiani, postando ieri questi links:

Dall-università all-ovile, andata e ritorno - Regione - La Nuova Sardegna

http://lanuovasardegna.gelocal.it/regione/2011/02/01/news/dal
http://www.sardegnaagricoltura.it/documenti/14_43_20090514194729.pdf

mi ha fatto tornare in mente un mio articolo:

OLIO DI LENTISCO

8 Ottobre 2009

L’olio di lentisco e il formaggio axridda

Sull’altopiano che domina la vallata del fiume Flumendosa c’è Escalaplano, un paese in cui resistono   tradizioni antiche grazie all’impegno del Gruppo Folk San Salvatore che, oltre ai balli e ai costumi tradizionali, si occupa anche di conservare e tramandare alcune eccellenza dell’enogastronomia locale.
L’olio di lentisco, ottenuto da un arbusto della macchia mediterranea, e il formaggio axridda, specialità caseario ricoperta d’argilla, sono due prodotti unici e a loro è dedicata l’omonima sagra di fine maggio.
Tradizioni e usanze che parlano di un’economia agropastorale ancora attiva in questo angolo di Sardegna.
Vittorio Cotza, il presidente del Gruppo Folk San Salvatore, intervistato per Comuni-Italiani.it

 

Una fase dell’estrazione dell’olio di lentisco

Può spiegare a chi non è della zona cos’è il lentisco e l’olio che se ne ricava?


Il lentisco è la pianta del Pistacia Lentiscus, tipicamente mediterranea, e nel nostro dialetto si chiama sa grezza. L’olio è un derivato dai semi della pianta raccolti nel periodo invernale, al momento della maturazione, quando da rossi diventano neri.
Per l’estrazione dell’olio ancora si utilizza un procedimento manuale e antichissimo: la lavorazione coi piedi delle bacche.

Quali sono le fasi di questa lavorazione?


Il procedimento ci è stato insegnato dagli anziani di Escalaplano.
Dopo la raccolta c’è la fase della pulitura e del lavaggio; poi si riscalda una certa quantità d’acqua in cui si immergono le bacche. Dopo averle lasciate a mollo, si mettono in alcuni sacchi di juta, per fare in modo che esca l’acqua in eccesso, dopodiché avviene la spremitura con i piedi. Il liquido finisce tutto in un recipiente dove l’olio, essendo più leggero, si separa dall’acqua.
Qui entrano in gioco le donne che, con il mestolo, tolgono la schiuma e fanno continui travasi, fino ad arrivare alla rifinitura ottenuta filtrando il tutto con panni di lino.
Perché l’olio di lentisco possa essere usato in gastronomia, deve essere portato a una certa temperatura,  operazione che nel nostro dialetto viene chiamata spumaddura. Questa è necessaria per far uscire la componente acida (”purgare” l’olio) che, trattandosi di un noto astringente, può dar fastidioso.

Oltre a questo, quali ne sono gli usi e le proprietà terapeutiche?


Anticamente era chiamato “l’olio dei poveri” dal momento che il lentisco era più facile da reperire per le persone meno abbienti, a differenza delle olive. Nella zona di Escalaplano le piante di olivo, infatti, sono arrivati solo nel Novecento, quando si è iniziato a praticare gli innesti. Prima c’era solo l’olivastro.
Questo prodotto è usato ancor oggi anche come medicinale, soprattutto per guarire le ferite degli animali, avendo proprietà disinfettanti. La nostra è una zona agropastorale e tale utilizzo discende dai pastori che lo usavano per curare il bestiame.
Nel campo gastronomico si usa per condire le minestre, le insalate e anche per preparare un buon sugo di pomodoro. Mia madre lo usava anche per friggere, particolarmente per cuocere le frittelle d’uovo salate. Inoltre, è un ingrediente speciale per aromatizzare un tipo di pane tradizionale, il su pistoccu.
Questo si ottiene tagliando a metà delle piccole pagnotte che, dopo averle private della mollica, si fanno cuocere per una seconda volta. Su pistoccu è un pane secco che non ha problemi di conservazione, tanto che era il pane dei pastori che, solitamente, stavano lontani da casa per molto tempo.

E cosa ci racconta invece sul famoso formaggio axridda?


L’olio di lentisco è un ingrediente fondamentale per ottenere questo formaggio molto antico. Una volta pronto il formaggio fresco di pecora, per non farlo asciugare più di tanto, per proteggerlo dalle muffe e dagli acari, si unge con un po’ di olio di lentisco. Dopo viene ripulito e asciugato e, sulla superficie, applicata l’argilla. Con questo procedimento il formaggio non trasuda e i grassi sono trattenuti all’interno.
Dopo molte nostre ricerche, abbiamo scoperto che un formaggio simile si trova soltanto in un altro paese della Grecia.

Quando è nata la vostra associazione e perché?


Il Gruppo Folk San Salvatore è un’associazione culturale nata per recuperare alcune tradizioni locali. Anche quella dell’olio di lentisco era a rischio, essendo oggi in paese poche persone anziane che ancora lo fanno.
Ma, dal momento che le persone anziane sono sempre meno e l’utilizzo dell’olio d’oliva è più comodo e diffuso, le probabilità che questo prodotto scompaia sono molte alte. Noi abbiamo cercato di conservarlo e gli abbiamo dedicato una sagra. Lo scopo è quello di diffonderlo sempre più e promuovere iniziative imprenditoriali e artigianali. L’olio potrebbe, per esempio, esser commercializzato anche in cosmetica (creme, massaggi e shampoo sono già in produzione). Noi per il momento lo vendiamo solo per investire i soldi nelle attività culturali e sociali del paese.

In che periodo c’è la sagra?


La “Sagra del formaggio axridda, dell’olio di lentisco e dei prodotti tipici” si tiene l’ultima domenica di maggio. La facciamo da 14 anni, ma le ricerche sull’olio sono iniziate molto prima.
Prima di iniziare la produzione, infatti, abbiamo fatto degli studi sulle ricette originali e abbiamo cercato anche degli strumenti antichi. Per esempio per la lavorazione coi piedi si usava un tronco cavo di legno; uno di questi apparteneva a una signora che ha deciso di lasciarlo all’associazione. Questo tronco avrà più di cento anni e lo esponiamo al pubblico solo durante la sagra.

Riferimenti:
Gruppo Folk San Salvatore
Info email: gfolkescalaplano@tiscali.it

FONTE: Monia Melis (Blog Escalaplano. Interviste Associazioni) 

Supervulcano in Piemonte

Italian fossil supervolcano highlighted in new UNESCO Geopark

Piedmont territory in northwest Italy is designated geopark backed by 80 Alpine communities. Area is an important geological and cultural locale that promotes awareness of earth sciences and sustainable use of resources.

The 'Sesia Valley Grande geopark', a project of the Val Grande National Park and the association Supervolcano Sesia Valley, was officially approved by the World Conference on Geoparks: the protected area thus becomes part of the World Network of Geoparks UNESCO [Credit: La Stampa]

“It is a rare event that geology is a catalyst of public cooperation and celebration,” says geologist and volcano expert James E. Quick, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The new Sesia-Val Grande Geopark is an example of just that, says Quick, whose international team in 2009 discovered a fossil supervolcano that now sits at the heart of the new geopark. The discovery sparked worldwide scientific interest and a regional geotourism industry.

Recently designated a geopark by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Sesia-Val Grande Geopark encompasses more than 80 communities in the Italian Alps.

The communities joined forces more than two years ago to promote the park’s creation, which UNESCO made official in September. The geopark spans tens of thousands of acres and has at its center the massive, 282 million-year-old fossil supervolcano.

“Sesia Valley is unique,” said Quick. “The base of the Earth’s crust is turned up on edge, exposing the volcano’s plumbing — which normally extends deep into the Earth and out of sight. The uplift was created when Africa and Europe began colliding about 30 million years ago and the crust of Italy was turned on end. We call this fossil the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for supervolcanoes because the depth to which rocks are exposed will aid scientific understanding of one of nature’s most massive and violent events and help us to link the geologic and geophysical data.”

The fossil supervolcano was discovered by Quick’s scientific team, which included scientists from Italy’s University of Trieste. The supervolcano has an unprecedented 15 miles of volcano plumbing exposed from the surface to the source of the magma deep within the Earth. Previously, the discovery record for exposed plumbing was about three miles, said Quick.

Located in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy, the geopark also includes Val Grande National Park, the largest wilderness area in Italy. Sesia Valley and Val Grande are important historical and cultural locales.

Only a handful of locations worldwide are chosen annually for UNESCO’s coveted geopark designation, which supports national geological heritage initiatives.

Geoparks promote awareness of the earth sciences, including natural hazards and sustainable use of resources. Worldwide, there are now 100 geoparks. Sesia-Val Grande is Italy’s ninth.

Sesia-Val Grande area is popular for diverse geology, culture, ecosystems

Community cooperation is new to this part of the Alps, where villages have valued their independence for centuries and residents in adjacent valleys may speak distinct dialects. In the wake of the supervolcano discovery, the communities in Val Sesia and Val Grande joined in an unprecedented partnership to promote tourism, education and a collective identity, then applied to UNESCO for admission to the Global Geopark Network.

The  'Sesia Valley Grande geopark' features hiking trails, areas of geological significance and pristine forests visited each year by scholars and researchers from universities around the world [Credit: La Stampa]

Delineated by two neighboring Alpine valleys in northwest Italy, the territory of the geopark is a well-established tourist region that is popular for its wine, cheese, quarried marble, cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, hiking, skiing, rafting, biking and climbing.

The area is about half the size of Rhode Island and has 153,000 residents. Its four environmentally diverse ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and diverse microhabitats, progressing from lowland agricultural prairies to expansive forests to Alpine peaks, the highest of which is 15,203-foot Monte Rosa in one of Europe’s largest ski resorts.

Supervolcano was cataclysmic eruption, set off catastrophic global cooling events

The Sesia Valley supervolcano is a vast rocky expanse, in some places visible in plain sight and in others hidden by forests or under young sedimentary deposits. The supervolcano extends over a third of the Sesia-Val Grande geopark’s territory, said Quick, who previously served as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The supervolcano was active for about 6 million years, beginning about 288 million years ago, Quick said. Its volcanic activity culminated 282 million years ago with an eruption that left an enormous crater measuring more than eight miles in diameter. The cataclysmic eruption released gas from molten rock or “magma,” raining down particles and gases measuring more than 186 cubic miles in volume, Quick has estimated. His team reported the discovery in the scientific journal “Geology” in a 2009 article.

Throughout Earth’s geologic time, supervolcanoes have spread lava and ash vast distances. Scientists believe the fallout may have set off catastrophic global cooling events at different periods in the Earth’s past.

“We want to use this discovery. It can help us understand the fundamental processes that influence eruptions: Where are magmas stored prior to these giant eruptions? From what depth do the eruptions emanate?” Quick said.

Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas, he said. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock moving through the Earth’s crust and explosive volcanism.

“It might lead to a better interpretation of monitoring data and improved prediction of eruptions,” said Quick, who is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

Source: Southern Methodist University [November 25, 2013]

INQUINAMENTO E PEGGIORAMENTO ATMOSFERICO

Pollution causes larger, deeper and longer lasting storm clouds

A new study reveals how pollution causes thunderstorms to leave behind larger, deeper, longer lasting clouds. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 26, the results solve a long-standing debate and reveal how pollution plays into climate warming. The work can also provide a gauge for the accuracy of weather and climate models.

Pollution decreases the size of cloud and ice particles and increases their lifespans,
making clouds grow bigger [Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]

Researchers had thought that pollution causes larger and longer-lasting storm clouds by making thunderheads draftier through a process known as convection. But atmospheric scientist Jiwen Fan and her colleagues show that pollution instead makes clouds linger by decreasing the size and increasing the lifespan of cloud and ice particles. The difference affects how scientists represent clouds in climate models.

"This study reconciles what we see in real life to what computer models show us," said Fan of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Observations consistently show taller and bigger anvil-shaped clouds in storm systems with pollution, but the models don't always show stronger convection. Now we know why."

Also, pollution can decrease the daily temperature range via such clouds: High clouds left after a thunderstorm spread out across the sky and look like anvils. These clouds cool the Earth during the day with their shadows but trap heat like a blanket at night. Pollution can cause clouds from late afternoon thunderstorms to last long into the night rather than dissipate, causing warmer nights.

Secret Life of Clouds

Models that predict weather and climate don't reconstruct the lives of clouds well, especially storm clouds. Usually these models replace storm clouds with simple equations that fail to capture the whole picture.

Because of the poor reconstructions, researchers have been faced with a dilemma: Pollution causes the anvil-shaped clouds to linger longer than they would in clean skies -- but why?

Possible reasons revolve around tiny natural and human-made particles called aerosols that serve as seeds for cloud droplets to form around. A polluted sky has many more aerosols than a clean sky -- think haze and smog -- and that means less water for each seed. Pollution makes more cloud droplets, but each droplet is smaller.

More and smaller droplets change things for the clouds. Researchers have long thought that smaller droplets start a chain reaction that leads to bigger, longer-lasting clouds: Instead of raining down, the lighter droplets carry their water higher, where they freeze. The freezing squeezes out the heat the droplets carry with them and causes the thunder cloud to become draftier. The stronger convection lifts more water droplets, building up the cloud.

But researchers don't always see stronger convection every time they see larger and longer-lasting clouds in polluted environments, indicating a piece of the puzzle was missing.

To solve this dilemma, Fan and colleagues decided to compare real-life summer storm clouds to a computer model that zooms deep into simulated clouds. The model included physical properties of the cloud particles as well as the ability to see convection, if it gets stronger or weaker. Most models run in days or weeks, but the simulations in this study took up to six months.

"Modeling the details of cloud microphysical properties is very computationally intensive, so models don't usually include them," said Fan.

Convection Vexation

The researchers started with cloud data from three locations that differ in how polluted, humid and windy they typically are: the tropics in the western Pacific, southeastern China and the Great Plains in Oklahoma. The data had been collected through DOE's ARM Climate Research Facility.

With support from DOE's Regional and Global Climate Model program, the research ran simulations on PNNL's hometown supercomputer Olympus. Their simulations of a month of storms ended up looking very similar to the actual observed clouds, validating that the models re-created the storm clouds well.

The team found that in all cases, pollution increased the size, thickness and duration of the anvil-shaped clouds. However, only two locations -- the tropics and China -- showed stronger convection. The opposite happened in Oklahoma -- pollution made for weaker convection.

This inconsistency suggested that stronger convection isn't the reason. Taking a closer look at the properties of water droplets and ice crystals within clouds, the team found that pollution resulted in smaller droplets and ice crystals, regardless of location.

In addition, the team found that in clean skies, the heavier ice particles fall faster out of the anvil-shaped clouds, causing the clouds to dissipate. However, the ice crystals in polluted skies were smaller and too light to fall out of the clouds, leading to the larger, longer-lasting clouds.

Lastly, the team estimated how much warming or cooling the storm clouds contributed. Overall, the polluted clouds cooled the day and warmed the night, decreasing the daily temperature range.

Most models don't simulate convection well, take into account the microphysical processes of storm clouds, nor address how pollution interacts with those processes. Accounting for pollution effects on storm clouds in this way could affect the ultimate amount of warming predicted for the Earth in the next few decades. Accurately representing clouds in climate models is key to improving the accuracy of predicted changes to the climate.

Source: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory [November 26, 2013]

Dolina Carsica, presso STONEHENGE

La scoperta è di quelle promettenti: è stata trovata una dolina carsica presso Stonehenge. Lo studio non è che all'inizio: si può solo ipotizzare che cosa vi si troverà. Il sito potrebbe fornire novità assolute sulla vita del 4.000 a.C.: non solo dell'uomo, ma anche di piante ed animali. 

Neolithic sink hole uncovered near Stonehenge

An archaeology team led by an academic from London's Kingston University has delved back into a Neolithic site at Damerham, Hampshire, and uncovered a sink hole of material that may hold vital information about the plant species that thrived there 6,000 years ago.

An archaeology team led by a Kingston University academic has delved back into a Neolithic site at Damerham, Hampshire, and uncovered a sink hole of material that may hold vital information about the plant species thriving there 6,000 years ago [Credit: Kingston University]

Dr Helen Wickstead said the find was completely unexpected and had initially confused the team digging on the farmland. This is the sixth year of the project at Damerham, located about 15 miles from the iconic British monument Stonehenge, with four areas of a temple complex excavated during the summer. The surprise came in the largest of the openings, approximately 40 metres long, where careful extractions revealed a layer of uncharacteristic orange sand and clay. Typically the archaeological survey would involve mapping and cataloguing such finds as bone, pottery and tool-making waste fragments.

"The site at Damerham is on chalk land, so we don't often find materials like this that capture and preserve the plant remains -- pollen or phytoliths -- from a specific time period," Dr Wickstead explained. "The sink hole contained orange sand with a yellow and grey clay and we are very hopeful that, within this material, there will be evidence of plant life that will help us continue to piece together the puzzle of human habitation on this significant site."

It was evident that prehistoric people living in the area had also come across the sink hole and excavated the material during their own construction work, Dr Wickstead said. A pile of matching waste material was also seen at one of the other mounds. "We didn't expect to find this and suspect it would have surprised the original architects of the site too," she said. "Moments of unexpected discovery could have had cultural significance for prehistoric people. The henge itself was a focus for rituals, life and death, so questions about the impact such a discovery would have had on their activity will be interesting to consider."

The prehistoric temple complex at Damerham is unusual because of the number of structures that are focused in one area, Dr Wickstead added. "The diversity of burial architecture here is intriguing," she said. "What is special about this place that meant generation after generation returned to the site to live, hunt, build and commemorate life?"

Various scientific techniques, including geophysical imaging which uses electrical currents to test the density of materials below the surface, were employed during the project. Kingston University MA Heritage student Jack Bartley joined Dr Wickstead on site to take part in the field walking survey.

"Once the field was clear of crops, we were able to walk across sections in search of items that will have been turned over by the plough," Jack explained. "This is important because it helps researchers understand how people used the land by examining what they left behind. We've been using GPS satellite technology to measure the search zones systematically. It's been great to be out in the field experiencing a real archaeological dig, especially since my dissertation is examining communities of interest, such as those involved in archaeology," the 24 year old from Surbiton added.

Evidence of archaeological remains at Damerham was first detected in 2003 when English Heritage's senior aerial survey investigator Martyn Barber spotted crop marks in a photograph. The different colours visible in the crops indicated that there were historical earthworks just beneath the soil and Dr Wickstead teamed up with Mr Barber to begin the long process of trying to find out more about the site.

"During the six years since we first opened the site, we've not only involved the local community but also brought together expertise from a range of specialists from geochemical analysts to artists, to make sure we make the most of the opportunity while we can," Dr Wickstead explained. "Doing the dig is only a tiny portion of the work required to document these important sites, but it is the more urgent part because erosion by farming and other environmental factors will gradually diminish what's there."

Dr Wickstead, who is based in Kingston University's Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, suspects the Damerham site holds many more secrets about human life in the Neolithic period. Although excavations are expensive and rely on funding from a variety of organisations, she hopes her team has demonstrated how important it is to stage similar projects in the future.

"The clues to earlier human life are all around us in the landscape and I would love to return and undertake a larger-scale dig at Damerham," Dr Wickstead said. "For now, the team will be examining and compiling the data already gathered and, as well as analysing the soil samples, plotting the artefacts and mapping the earthworks, we may also be able to undertake some gene sequencing on the bone fragments we found. All of this will help tell us more about how the people of this period lived and died in Damerham more than 6,000 years ago."

Source: Kingston University [November 27, 2013]

PALEOCLIMATOLOGIA

Paleoclimatology – revisiting a tiny prehistoric witness

New insights into the growth dynamics of minuscule marine organisms could help put the study of Earth’s climate, both present and prehistoric, on a more solid footing.

Foraminifera [Credit: Web]

For hundreds of millions of years, the tiny shells of single-celled marine organisms called foraminifera have been accumulating on the ocean floor. Their shells contain clues about the composition of the seawater they lived in. In a recent cooperation between EPFL and the Alfred Wegener Institute, researchers lay out a new explanation for how these organisms take up the elements they use to grow their shells, offering climatologists a better understanding into a common tool to study the Earth’s climate history. Their results were published in the journal Biogeosciences in late October, andhighlighted in the November 22 issue of Science.

Scientists often rely on secondary evidence, from ice or sediment cores, to reconstruct the prehistoric climate. Studying sediment cores containing foraminifera, scientists have reconstructed temperature timelines and analyzed the planet’s ice cover based on the composition of the shells. But as coauthor Anders Meibom explains, because they are the result of complex biological processes, foraminifer from sediment cores cannot be interpreted easily using data from inorganically formed minerals.

Not just passive transport

Foraminifera build their shells by using calcium, carbon, and oxygen that they find in seawater. Until now, scientists thought that the microorganisms used tiny “carrier bubbles,” or vacuoles, to transport seawater into them. There, calcium carbonate would precipitate from the water, forming the shell.

Scientists have long been baffled by the low magnesium concentrations in the shells. Seawater has five times more magnesium than calcium, so if minerals only entered the shells through vacuoles, they would contain large amounts of magnesium – unless it was somehow removed from the organism. Researchers have proposed a number of ways that the magnesium could be removed; yet none of them have ever been proven.

Molecular pumps that select for calcium

Instead of being taken up in vacuoles, the authors of this recent paper hold that most of the calcium is let in through transmembrane transport, which selects for calcium, but block magnesium. The fact that the shells nevertheless contain small amounts of magnesium means that both mechanisms could act in tandem, with non-selective vacuole transport accounting for the traces of magnesium found in the shells.

Based on the magnesium-calcium ratio in the surrounding seawater, the researchers developed a model to predict the magnesium-calcium ratio in the foraminifera shells. “We tested our predictions against three different experiments where foraminifera were grown in an aquarium, and the fit was almost perfect,” says Anders Meibom. According to lead author Gernot Nehrke from the Alfred Wegener Institute, their model is the first to predict the composition of the foraminifera shells without having to resort to unconfirmed theories of magnesium removal.

Beyond ice fields

“Foraminifera can provide all sorts of information on the climate, but until now, they have been treated as a black box. With this research we are beginning to understand, at a sub-cellular level, how these organisms develop, giving us a better idea about both the accuracy and the limits of sediment core measurements to reconstruct the climate of the past,” says Meibom.

Source: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne [November 25, 2013]

CASA di 10.000 anni fa

10,000 year old house unearthed in Israel

An extensive archaeological excavation of the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to widening Highway 38, which is being underwritten by the Netivei Israel Company, is producing amazing finds that provide a broad picture covering thousands of years of development of human society

A Chalcolithic period building and the standing stone (mazzevā) positioned
at the end of it [Credit:: Assaf Peretz/Israel Antiquities Authority]

Among the rare finds uncovered in the excavation: evidence of a 6,000 year old cultic temple and the first 10,000 year old building to be discovered in the Judean Shephelah and a nearby cluster of rare axes

An extensive archaeological excavation of the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to widening Highway 38, which is being underwritten by the Netivei Israel Company, is producing amazing finds that provide a broad picture covering thousands of years of development of human society. Settlement remains were unearthed at the site, the earliest of which dates to the beginning of the eighth millennium BCE and latest to the end of the fourth millennium BCE.

This standing stone (mazzevā), which is worked on all of its sides, is believed to be evidence
 of cultic activity [Credit: Zinobi Moskowitz/Israel Antiquities Authority]

The finds revealed at the site range from the period when man first started to domesticate plants and animals, instead of searching for them in the wild, until the period when we see the beginnings of proper urban planning.

The oldest artifacts that were exposed at the site are ascribed to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (10,000 YBP). According to Dr. Amir Golani, Dr. Ya‘akov Vardi, Benyamin Storchan and Dr. Ron Be’eri, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is the first time that such an ancient structure has been discovered in the Judean Shephelah. The building, almost all of which was found, underwent a number of construction and repair phases that allude to its importance. It should be emphasized that whoever built the house did something that was totally innovative because up until this period man migrated from place to place in search of food. Here we have evidence of man’s transition to permanent dwellings and that in fact is the beginning of the domestication of animals and plants; instead of searching out wild sheep, ancient man started raising them near the house”.

View of the 10,000-year-old house unearthed near the town of Eshtaol, Judean
Shephelah [Credit: Dr Ya’akov Vardi/Israel Antiquities Authority]

A cluster of nine flint and limestone axes that were discovered lying side by side was found near this prehistoric building. “It is apparent that the axes, some of which were used as tools and some as cultic objects, were highly valued by their owners. Just as today we are unable to get along without a cellular telephone and a computer, they too attributed great importance to their tools. Based on how it was arranged at the time of its discovery it seems that the cluster of axes was abandoned by its owner for some unknown reason”.

In the archaeological excavation conducted at Eshta’ol an important and rare find from the end of the Chalcolithic period (second half of the fifth millennium BCE) was discovered in the adjacent area. During the course of the excavation six thousand year old buildings were exposed and a stone column (called a standing stone or mazzeva) was discovered alongside one of them. The standing stone is 1.30 meters high and weighs several hundred kilos. According to the excavation directors, “The standing stone was smoothed and worked on all six of its sides, and was erected with one of its sides facing east. This unique find alludes to the presence of a cultic temple at the site”. The archaeologists said, “In the past numerous manifestations have been found of the cultic practice that existed in the Chalcolithic period; however, from the research we know of only a few temples at ‘En Gedi and at Teleilat Ghassul in Transjordan”.

An aerial view of the large excavation along Highway 38 [Credit: Sky View
Company/Israel Antiquities Authority]

“We uncovered a multitude of unique finds during the excavation”, says Dr. Amir Golani, one of the excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “The large excavation affords us a broad picture of the progression and development of the society in the settlement throughout the ages. Thus we can clearly see that in the Early Bronze Age, 5,000 years ago, the rural society made the transition to an urban society. We can see distinctly a settlement that gradually became planned, which included alleys and buildings that were extremely impressive from the standpoint of their size and the manner of their construction. We can clearly trace the urban planning and see the guiding hand of the settlement’s leadership that chose to regulate the construction in the crowded regions in the center of the settlement and allowed less planning along its periphery. It is fascinating to see how in such an ancient period a planned settlement was established in which there is orderly construction, and trace the development of the society which became increasingly hierarchical”.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Netivei Israel Company will open the excavation to the visiting public this coming Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Source: Israel Antiquities Authority [November 25, 2013]

poèsia

Tratto paripari cosiccomé da 'ROSEBUD' di Rina Brundu:

Nel giorno della decadenza: «Canto di Alfano – Al fu senatore Silvio»

by REDAZIONEROSEBUD • 27 NOVEMBER 2013

Metro: (ABAB, ABAB, PDL, NCD).

Un dì, s’io non andrò sempre perdendo
di voto in voto, me vedrai seduto
su ‘l tuo scranno, o Silvio mio, godendo
il posto da’ tuoi perfidi falchi ceduto.

Il Bondi or col suo dì Dudù traendo
parla di me col tuo seggio muto,
ma io deluso a voi il dito tendo
e sol da lunge la Biancofiore saluto.

Sento le avverse toghe, e le secrete
cure che al viver tuo furon tempesta,
e chiedo anch’io al tuo posto quïete.

Questo di tanta speme oggi mi resta!
Italiche genti, almen a lutto vestite
le colonne della patria in festa.

————-

Featured image, ritratto di Ugo Foscolo, 1813

I Neanderthal erano cannibali?

Cannibal Neanderthals in northern Spain ate neighbours

Una ricerca recentemente presentata a Londra alla Royal Society dimostrerebbe che almeno una comunità di Neanderthal, i cui resti siono stati reperiti in Spagna, era composta da cannibali che macellavano i propri simili. 

 Scientists have discovered the remains of a group of Neanderthals in northern Spain who were butchered and eaten by a group of local cannibals, according to research presented at the Royal Society in London.

A researcher at work in El Sidrón Cave
[Credit: CSIC Comunicación]

Una quantità di ossa - che erano evidentemente state spezzate ed aperte usando strumenti è stata studiata ed analizzata accuratamente nel corso degli ultimi 13  anni.

 A cache of bones which had clearly been cracked open using tools has been analysed in a painstaking study over the past 13 years.

Le ossa furono dapprima scoperte presso il fondo del sistema di grotte di El Sidron, nel 1994: sin trattava di ossa che si erano preservate pressocché intatte per 51.000 anni, e sono state finalmente tutte analizzate con metodi di medicina forenze moderna.

First discovered deep inside the El Sidron cave system in 1994, the bones had been preserved for 51,000 years and have now been analysed using modern-day CSI forensic techniques.

Da quanto riportato anche dal Sunday Times, Il dottor Carles Lalueza-Fox dell'Istituto di Biologia Evolutiva di Barcellona avrebbe dichiarato alla Royal Society che il gruppo di Neanderthal macellati avrebbe incluso anche tre bimbi di età compresa tra i 2 ai 9 anni, tre adolescenti e sei adulti.

According to reports in the Sunday Times, Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona told the Society the slaughtered group included three children aged from two to nine, three teenagers and six adults.

Sembra che siano stati uccisi e mangiati, con ossa e crani apertti per esporre l'interno: midollo, cervello, lingua.

“They appear to have been killed and eaten, with their bones and skulls split open to extract the marrow, tongue and brains,” he said.

Tutto il recuperato era stato macellato: dev'essere stato un lauto banchetto.

“All had been butchered. It must have been a big feast.”

Il dottor Lalueza-Fox sostiene che più probabilmente il mucchio di ossa dev'essere sprofondato attraverso una caditoia da un riparo roccioso fino al piccolo ricettacolo in fondo al sistema di grotte, dove infine è stato triovato in buono stato.

Dr Lalueza-Fox said the bone pile likely washed through a sinkhole from a rocky shelter above, eventually settling in the small alcove of the cave system where they were found.

Neanderthal foot bones in a block of cemented sand and clay from the
El Sidrón cave in Spain [Credit: PNAS/Rosas et al'

Per questo motivo, si sono conservate in condizioni differenti da quelle di qualsiasi altro resto neanderthaliano, dimostrandosi una splendida istantanea di un singolo scontro mortale tra due gruppi locali.

This meant they were kept in a condition unlike almost any other Neanderthal remains, and proved a perfect snapshot of a single, deadly clash, likely between two local gangs.

Gli strumenti trovati nel sito del macello provengono da una distanza di alcuni chilometri, ciò che sembra suggerire che gli aggressori fossero anche vicini confinanti delle stesse vittime.

The tools found at the site of the slaughter came from a few kilometres away, Dr Lalueza-Fox said, suggesting their fellow early human attackers were probably also their neighbours.

Infine, gli studiosi hanno provato ad ipotizzare un motivo causale dell'aggrssione: uno anche piuttosto semplice.

Finally, scientists proposed a theory for the motive behind the attack – and a simple one at that.

A differenza dei primi U.A.M. (uomini anatomicamente moderni), che in periodi di scarsità di cibo tendevano a riunirsi in gruppi più grandi ed efficienti, i Neanderthal al contrario tendevano a dividersi in bande ristrette di 10-12 individui.

Unlike the earliest anatomically modern humans, who coped with periods of food shortage by joining forces in large, efficient groups, Neanderthals tended to gather in small family gangs of around 10-12.

Quando la situazione si faceva più difficile - in inverno - essi dovevano ricorrere a misure estreme.

When times were tough in winter, this meant they had to resort to extreme measures.

Il dottor Lalueza-Fox sospetta che il gruppo cui appartenevano le ossa studiate sia stato ucciso in inverno, durante un'estrema scarsità di cibo. Non c'è alcuna evidenza di fuoco, per cui probabilmente furono sbranati crudi, immediatamente, ed ogni più minuscoloo pezzo di carne fu asportato. anche questo fatto, oltre al crollo, rende ragione del buono stato di conservazione dei resti, che furono così sottratti ai processi della decomposizione naturale.

Dr Lalueza-Fox said: “I would guess they were killed in winter when food was short. There is no evidence of any fire so they were eaten raw immediately and every bit of meat was consumed. They even cut around the mandibles of the jaw to extract the tongues.”

Author: Adam Withnall | Source: The Independent [November 24, 2013]