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The aim of this paper is to shed light on the interpretation of human remains and funerary rituals recently uncovered in the Archaic Necropolis of Motya. During the 20th century about 350 graves were brought to light by earlier explorations, showing that – apart from rare exceptions – adult cremation was the most common rite performed in archaic times (ca. 730-550 BC). This picture can be now changed in the light of the results of our recent fieldwork (seasons 2013-2017), showing that a large quantity of graves strikingly house remains of sub-adult individuals (i.e. foetuses, perinatals and children). While a few of them are cremated, the numerous inhumations recovered show clear patterns of short-life expectancy and precarious health conditions on the island, as frequently highlighted by an early age of death as well as by deficiency pathologies and their effects on human bones. El objetivo de este estudio es presentar nuevos datos sobre la interpretación de los rituales funerarios recientemente descubiertos en la Necrópolis Arcaica de Motya. Las primeras exploraciones realizadas durante el siglo XX sacaron a la luz en torno a 350 tumbas que demostraron que, salvo raras excepciones, la cremación de adultos era el rito más común en tiempos arcaicos (ca. 730-550 a. C.). Los resultados de nuestro reciente trabajo de campo (temporadas 2013-2017), muestran sorprendentemente que una gran cantidad de tumbas son restos de individuos subadultos (perinatales e infantiles). A pesar de que en algunas de las tumbas se encontraron restos de cremaciones, la mayoría de las tumbas excavadas pertenecían a enterramientos que muestran claramente una esperanza de vida corta y unas condiciones de salud precarias en la isla frecuentemente materializado en muertes a edad temprana, así como por los problemas patológicos y sus efectos en los huesos humanos.

The aim of this paper is to examine the fresh evidences retrieved in the early cemetery or "archaic necropolis" of the island of Motya, one of the main Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean.

In June 2013 the University of Palermo excavations on Motya were resumed. The main goal of the new project is to investigate the north-east quarter of the Phoenician settlement and its urban development since the time of its foundation. Two main areas of excavation were opened. In the early cemetery sixteen cremation burials of the archaic period were uncovered. The most striking discoveries, never attested before, were a tomb containing Hellenistic offerings, and the occurrence of archaic infant cremations. The second excavation was conducted east of Zone K in Building J, which is characterized by its use of a fine ‘pier and rubble’ construction technique. Two rooms have been partially cleared: one with a pillared doorway and a plastered mud-brick bench, the other containing a stone vat in the centre. A thick destruction layer, containing among other things bronze arrow-heads, is clear evidence of the siege and fall of Motya in 397 BC.

This volume presents the long history of Syria through a jouney of the most important and recently-excavated archaeological sites. The sites cover over 1.8 million years and all regions in Syria; 110 academics have contributed information on 103 excavations for this volume. Based on these contributions the volume offers a detailed summary of the history of Syria, a history as important as any in terms of the development of human society. It is hoped that this knowledge will offer not only an increased understanding of the country but also act as a deterrent to the destruction of Syrian cultural heritage and facilitate the protection of Syrian sites.

The image analysis of soil thin sections is a very useful technique in studying the natural complexity of soil organic matter (SOM) and SEM-EDS technique can be further applied in mapping the distribution of the SOM forms on the basis of their chemical composition. On soil thin sections, bleaching with NaClO has been used to distinguish organic forms, and in the disturbed fine-earth fraction it is now a well established oxidative method used to isolate chemically stable SOM without affecting inorganic soil constituents. To investigate the relationship between microscale distribution of SOM and its stability in undisturbed soil samples, we combined optical and SEM-EDS analysis to the NaClO oxidation of soil thin sections. Moreover, to gain a better understanding on the distribution of different forms of SOM, we also took into account the soil pore system. The study involved five soils from Harwood Forest in Northumberland (UK) differently affected by water (two Gleysols and three Stagnosols), which is expected to influence SOM transformation in different ways. The image analysis indicated differences both in pore system and in SOM between the two soil types. In fact, unimodal distribution of pores was more evident for soil profiles showing stagnic properties, with one 10-50 μm modal pore class; while in the gleyic soils bimodality was detected, with an additional modal class around 200-500 μm. In both soils plant organs at different stage of decomposition and amorphous organic compounds were found, but in Stagnosols amorphous organic matter reddish in color was more frequent. The SEM-EDS elemental analysis confirmed that the reddish compounds were Fe-rich (mean Fe content 2.7%) and their distribution was related to the presence of pores smaller than 50 μm (r=0.90; p

The paper discusses material for a course in Structural Mechanics addressed to second-Year Civil Engineering students. The response of beams on a Winkler foundation characterized by discontinuities in both the displacements (deflections and/or slopes) and forces (internal forces and/or loads) is studied. In particular, a simplified formulation for the solution of the discontinuous differential equation governing this problem is given. In some cases, the formulation is able to give the exact solution in a closed form. This is made possible through the use of the generalized functions, such as the well-known Unit Step Function and the Dirac delta function. The cases of discontinuities due to both loads and constraints are treated. The method of presentation of this material is by lecture. The time required to cover the arguments is 2 to 3 hours with 1 to 2 hours of revision. The lecture must be given after the classical beam theory has been covered. The new formulation presented in this paper will demonstrate that some particular aspects of mathematician analysis many he used to advantage to simplify an important problem in structural mechanics.