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Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is one of the deadliest malignancy and treatment options are deplorably limited. Better strategies of prevention are urgently needed but knowledge on risk factors remains scarce. Recent data suggested that arsenic (As) may be involved in GBC carcinogenesis but the question remains debated. To date, there are no data on As measurement in GBC samples. This pilot study aimed to measure As concentrations in tissue samples from patients with GBC compared to non-cancerous gallbladder (NCGB). Included patients underwent cholecystectomy at Hospital Clinico Universidad de Chile, Santiago in Chile, a country with high As exposure, between 2001 and 2020. Tissue samples were preserved in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks. Selected samples were retrieved, processed and submitted to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine As concentrations. A total of 77 patients were included, including 35 GBC and 42 NCGB. The two groups were comparable, except for age (68 vs. 49 years, p 0.001). Measured in 11 GBC and 38 NCGB, total As was detected in 5 GBC (14%) compared to 0 NCGB samples (p 0.001). GBC group also showed higher median values of As compared to NCGB (p 0.001). This pilot study provided a proof-of-concept to measure As concentrations in gallbladder samples and showed higher level of As in GBC samples compared to NCGB, paving the way for future studies aiming to investigate the impact of As on GBC, which may contribute to the prevention of this deadly disease.

Fibre-type Cannabis sativa L. (hemp) represents a valuable resource in many different fields, including both the pharmaceutical and food ones. This plant contains non-psychoactive cannabinoids, a class of bioactive compounds biosynthesized in both female and male inflorescences. Among them, cannabidiol (CBD) is the most interesting compound from a medicinal point of view. Indeed, several scientific studies have proved its therapeutic potential in a large number of pathologies, in addition to its biological effects attributable to its antioxidant, neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties. The analysis of the amount of cannabinoids in food and food supplements represents a critical issue in the ambit of both the quality assurance and the dietary intake control of these biologically active compounds. In this ambit, a particular attention is necessary for apiary products, since they are widely consumed and they can be produced by bees starting from different floral sources. In the light of all the above, the aim of this study was to develop for the first time a new analytical method based on RP-HPLC with ESI-MS/MS detection for the determination of CBD and related cannabinoids in honey. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) extraction procedure with an un-buffered method was selected and optimised as the more suitable protocol. As regards detection, it was carried out by using a linear ion trap quadrupole (QTRAP) mass analyser, operated in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Hemp male inflorescences and pollen were analysed in parallel by means of HPLC-UV/DAD, since bees can transfer pollen into their hives and, consequently, into beehive products. The method developed and validated for the first time in this work was finally applied to the analysis of cannabinoids in honey samples, thus demonstrating to be a useful tool for both quality control and safety assurance.

In the Phoenician and Punic settlement of Pani Loriga, in Sardinia, a residential quarter has been discovered on top of the mound (area A) in the 2007-2011 excavations carried out by the Italian CNR. In a large room, more than 15 complete Punic amphoras have been unearthed. A preliminary typological study of these vessels will be presented here, with some additional reflections on their provenance and function.

The CNR excavation of the Area A of Pani Loriga is giving a big contribution to the comprehension of a particular period, the fifth century BC, still not well defined as the knowledge of his material culture. The excavation of a little portion of one of the residential areas of the site has documented, in fact, a unique archaeological context: two rooms, suddenly abandoned and, therefore, with a rich quantity of material in situ sealed by the collapse of walls and roofs. In addition to the information about building material construction techniques and architectural features of a domestic context of this period, works are shedding light on the knowledge of the pottery repertoire and function of this "invisible" century. Amphorae, double patera, baking tray, cooking pot and Attic pottery etc., were found associated in a sealed archaeological context and are, therefore, very important to better define the chronological range of production and use of peculiar morphological type attested in the region, often in funerary context or in secondary deposit.

Il contributo introduce la sezione dei convtributi dedicati all'Oriente, nel volume "Transformations and Crisis in the Mediterranean. "Identity" and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 5th-2nd centuries BCE". Vengono qui analizzati soprattutto i temi del contatto culturale e della cultura materiale come indicatore di contatti e come "soggetto" (anziché mero oggetto) nelle relazioni culturali.

Since the early stage of the current pandemic, digital contact tracing (DCT) through mobile phone apps, called “Immuni”, has been introduced to complement manual contact tracing in Italy. Until 31 December 2021, Immuni identified 44,880 COVID-19 cases, which corresponds to less than 1% of total COVID-19 cases reported in Italy in the same period (5,886,411). Overall, Immuni generated 143,956 notifications. Although the initial download of the Immuni app represented an early interest in the new tool, Immuni has had little adoption across the Italian population, and the recent increase in its download is likely to be related to the mandatory Green Pass certification for conducting most daily activities that can be obtained via the application. Therefore, Immuni failed as a support tool for the contact tracing system. Other European experiences seem to show similar limitations in the use of DTC, leaving open questions about its effectiveness, although in theory, contact tracing could allow useful means of “proximity tracking”.

Alfonso Garovaglio (1820-1905), an Italian from Como, travelled to Syria and Mesopotamia between the autumn of 1886 and the spring of 1887, leaving an account of his journey in notebooks and in letters to his daughter Adele, later published in a volume in 1896. On March 7, 1887, he reached Mossul and finally visited the ruins of ancient Nineveh, a city well known from the Bible and already excavated by Layard. Contrary to his high expectations, Garovaglio’s actual encounter with that ancient and glorious biblical site was disappointing and bewildering: his mental picture, formed over years of passionate study and research, was one of a dream-like place, infused with cultural and religious values and symbols, The “real, physical, concrete” place, however, was completely different and it left the traveller feeling deprived of his dream and angry at the way Nineveh had been despoiled and exploited. The terms of this dichotomy between mental image and physical experience, through travel, will be discussed here, comparing Garovaglio’s impressions with those of other travellers to Nineveh.

The CNR's TCM project, in collaboration with Giuseppe Garbati, aims to: study "cultural identity", and examine the applicability of this concept to the Phoenician civilization in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean; also to investigate the processes of "interculturality", meeting, encountering and hybridization throughout the Mediterranean, from a pan-Mediterranean viewpoint. Moreover, since archeology usually "presumes" to throw light even on those dark corners of history where the light of written sources cannot penetrate, material culture is supposed to "talk" and thereby answer our questions about encounters and clashes between different ancient cultures and "identities". Therefore, in the search for interculturality processes, we can, for example, investigate material culture in order to recognize in a local repertoire the apparently "non-local" artefacts, and, more precisely, their "degree of foreignness". As objects always need to be set in their specific context of social action, so these specific contexts can be investigated especially at a local level and/or on a micro-regional scale. A "Mediterranean-centric" perspective, therefore, can arise from studies carried out on a regional scale. These theoretical perspectives, and their application to specific case studies, are central themes in the TCM project.

The objective of this contribution is to analyse the material documentation, testifying the development of commercial and cultural exchanges at the beginning of the First Millennium BC between the eastern and western regions of the Mediterranean and, in particular, between the region we call "Phoenicia" and Sardinia. We will discuss the case of amphoras as a material testimony to these interactions.

in SEMITICA, 61 (2019) I shall propose here some reflections on the allegation of a new collective memory in Phoenicia as a possible response to Achaemenid power. In fact, during the Persian period, in Phoenicia, material culture seems to reflect the attempt to react to Persian imperial power. Although cultural continuity is clearly perceptible in the ceramic tradition and in many other categories of Phoenician material culture, new iconographies and new architectural solutions spread. These refer (explicitly or implicitly) to the imperial Achaemenid world.

Studio della ceramica di derivazione egea e cipriota di Tell Afis (Siria), con attenzione alla discussione delle implicazioni culturali.

Studio sulla diffusione delle giare monoansate in Siria alla fine della Tarda età del Bronzo e sulla loro connessione anatolica, in M. D'Andrea et alii (eds), "Pearls of the Past. Studies on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honour of Frances Pinnock", Marru 8, Zaphon, Münster [ISBN 978-3-96327-058-1], 2019.

Article sur la contribution des jarres à l'étude du commerce phénicien en Orient à l'âge "obscur" (XIIe-Xe siècles av. J.-C.).

Saggio sui popoli del mare interpretati nel quadro dei mutamenti sociali ed economici della fine dell'età del Bronzo nel Mediterraneo orientale, dedicato a Gabriella Scandone Matthiae.

Relazione intermedia di progetto (campagna 2017), Missione archeologica CNR presso Pani Loriga (Santadi, SU), AREA C - "Casematte"

Diplomazia2 is framed within the program "Science for Diplomacy: Multi-disciplinary Training Program", and it is the result of closer and more mature collaboration between the Directorate General for Cooperation on Development of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Italian Agency for Cooperation on Development (AICS) and the National Research Council (CNR). The implementation of joint projects such as DIPLOMAzia2 highlights the effectiveness of the diplomacy-science partnership as the driving force behind the achievement of relevant goals jointly pursued by the international community.

Breve sintesi della lezione "Archaeology and history of the Ancient Near East: the Iron age"

Disamina delle reazioni e delle risposte da parte occidentale (opinione pubblica e ruolo dei ricercatori) alle distruzioni e ai saccheggi del patrimonio culturale del Vicino Oriente

Presentazione del progetto TCM

Relazione intermedia di progetto (campagna 2016), Missione archeologica CNR presso Pani Loriga (Santadi, SU), AREA C - "Casematte"

Scavi nell'area A di Pani Loriga (Sardegna): l'abitato punico.

Article in "Maritime Transport Containers in the Bronze-Iron Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean" (edited by Stella Demesticha and Bernard Knapp), PB 183. Uppsala: Åströms förlag, 2016 (ISBN 9789170812118). The so-called Canaanite jar is widely viewed as the first known example of an amphora with morphological features suggesting its use in maritime trade. The term 'Canaanite jar', however, represents quite a broad category, and is thus at risk of being overused. It is more useful to distinguish between different morphological types of amphora pertaining to the extended family of 'Canaanite' storage and transport jars. For example, the Late Bronze Age (LBA) angular-shouldered type was widely adopted along the entire length of the Levantine coast and even as far away as Mycenaean Greece. Yet this kind of container is not attested in inland Levantine regions (e.g. inner Syria, central Anatolia), where other types of storage and transport containers were in use during the LBA. Importantly, this specific type of jar went out of production at the end of the LBA. In contrast, another LBA 'Canaanite' jar type, widespread in coastal Syria and at some Cypriot sites, especially during the thirteenth century BC (a 'northern' Levantine type characterised by a slight carination on the shoulder and a more rounded belly) continued to be produced and used in the early Iron Age. The precise reasons why the angular-shouldered type went out of use whilst the 'bellied' northern type remained in use during the Iron Age have yet to be fully investigated. One possible interpretation is that the former type corresponds to trade mechanisms that were only typical of the LBA, while the latter type may be representative of a different kind of maritime network that persisted over the transition between the LBA and the Early Iron Age.

Transformations and Crisis in the Mediterranean. 'Identity' and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 8th-5th centuries BCE

The aim of the current paper is to throw additional light on the presence of different "identities" within the social framework of the northern coastal Levant at the beginning of the Early Iron Age. To this end, I analyze the foreign or "strange" features (i.e., those that are unfamiliar vis-à-vis the local tradition) found in the material culture (especially ceramics), contrasting them with truly local elements. This type of contrast (foreign versus local) in the material culture has been interpreted as possibly indicating a "dichotomy" in the coastal Early Iron Age societies. Foreign objects (and/or artefacts bearing foreign attributes) are sometimes understood as markers of the presence of "outsiders" or newcomers, often identified with the so-called Sea Peoples or other peoples coming from abroad. The broad ongoing debate regarding the presence of the Sea Peoples in the Levant represents a fascinating case-study that can contribute to advancing our understanding of identity. However, in the present work I attempt to go beyond this conventional debate via an analysis of attributes of the material culture (with a particular focus on certain types and styles of ceramics, including Aegean-style pottery, Handmade Burnished Ware, and different types of storage-jar), creating a "scale of values" for these objects that ranges from fully local to fully non-local. All the intermediate points along this scale of values fall within the sphere of "hybridity". Rather than suggesting a dichotomy in the society of the Early Iron Age, this form of analysis encourages the adoption of a new outlook : first, it is virtually impossible to identify "purely" foreign or "purely" local elements ; consequently, we may only read the "identities" of the peoples behind the objects by posing questions about their degree of hybridity and about the workings of the practice of "code-sharing", which arises not only within the linguistic sphere, but also in the material culture.

I problemi di definizione della cronologia dell'inizio dell'età del Ferro nel Levante hanno assunto negli ultimi anni una rinnovata centralità. Negli studi recenti emerge l'interesse verso l'elaborazione di griglie cronologiche affidabili e coerenti. Il presente contributo si prefigge di analizzare i problemi di metodo legati all'elaborazione della cronologia della prima età del Ferro nel Levante.

I due ampi saggi di Tatiana Pedrazzi e Ida Oggiano che compongono il presente volume affrontano il tema delle relazioni tra impero persiano e mondo fenicio in un'ottica originale, che permette di superare la diffusa antinomia Oriente-Occidente per proporre una visione al tempo stesso simmetrica e complementare di tali relazioni. I due contributi pongono il mondo delle città fenicie d'Oriente al centro di una rete assai ampia di rapporti politici, religiosi e culturali, nei quali esse si ritrovano oggetto di un modo di "gestione" dei territori non dissimile da quello applicato in altre aree dell'impero. Gli stessi vincoli che legano i sovrani persiani, i governatori da essi designati e le dinastie locali riprendono uno schema ben consolidato e documentato in varie regioni. L'interesse persiano per la produzione agricola rappresenta un ulteriore tassello di un quadro che questo volume definisce con grande evidenza e precisione. Un tema che lega saldamente le due parti dell'opera è quello della vita religiosa, in cui da un lato si mette in luce l'ampio spazio concesso ai culti locali nelle zone dell'impero e dall'altro si individua proprio nei santuari fenici dedicati alle divinità gua¬ritrici un luogo privilegiato di incontro tra esperienze e tradizioni appartenenti a culture differenti. L'allargamento della prospettiva al mondo mediterraneo, nel lavoro di Ida Oggiano, fornisce un costante riferimento sia alla situazione complessiva dell'impero achemenide, sia a quella delle città fenicie in esso inserite, con riferimenti all'attività economica, all'organizzazione urbanistica e di nuovo alla vita religiosa. Il richiamo, nel titolo del volume, alla funzione di "ponte" tra la Persia e il Mediterraneo centro-occidentale svolta dalla Fenicia trova una chiara legittimazione. Evitando di ricomporre un'artificiosa unità tra le tre entità a confronto, ma dando rilievo ai molti "fili rossi" che le uniscono, le autrici raggiungono l'obiettivo di delineare un quadro prezioso per la conoscenza delle vicende storiche e culturali dell'area mediterranea tra il VI e il IV secolo a.C.

The beginning of the Iron Age in the Levant was characterized by several remarkable changes as well as by cultural continuity. Among the significant changes, which took place in the material culture, was the disappearance of a new local "monochrome" pottery, morphologically and stylistically linked to Aegean and Cypriot models.

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato al British Museum, nella collezione dei capolavori del Vicino Oriente antico: il rilievo con sfinge alata da Persepoli (Iran)

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: mushkhush in mattoni smaltati da Babilonia

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: rilievo assiro con scudiero da Khorsabad

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato al British Museum, nella collezione dei capolavori del Vicino Oriente antico: l'arciere persiano da Susa (Iran)

introduzione al British Museum

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: leonessa in terracotta proveniente da Aqar Quf (Iraq)

scheda, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: leone in mattoni smaltati da Babilonia

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: testa maschile cassita

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: supporto in avorio con cariatidi da Nimrud

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento storico-culturale di un'opera d'arte vicino-orientale conservata al British Museum di Londra: la statua del re Idrimi di Alalakh (Turchia)

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: pannello in mattoni smaltati

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: decorazione del tempietto di Karaindash

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento storico-culturale di un'opera d'arte vicino-orientale conservata al British Museum di Londra: la statua del re assiro Assurbanipal II

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: placchetta in avorio con donna alla finestra, da Nimrud (Iraq)

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato al British Museum, nella collezione dei capolavori del Vicino Oriente antico: il rilievo assiro della campagna militare contro gli Arabi

Presentazione, descrizione e inquadramento culturale di un manufatto conservato all'Iraq Museum di Baghdad: genio alato assiro da Khorsabad