Ancient Counterparts Research Articles

Insights into archaeological and modern neotropical biomes: Examining diet and shape variation through white-tailed deer lower third molar

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmermann 1780) holds significant ecological importance across the Americas, both historically and in modern times. This species ranges from southern Canada to Brazil and exhibits polytypic characteristics, adapting well to diverse habitats including temperate, subtropical, semi-arid, rainforest, and savanna environments. In paleontology and archaeology, the comparison of dental characteristics between extant mammal species with known diets is commonly employed to infer the feeding behaviors of their ancient counterparts. This method assumes that extant and fossil species share similar dietary preferences, aiding in the identification of past environmental contexts. Consequently, we employed a multiproxy approach, combining the study of dental wear and 2D geometric morphometrics, to investigate potential relationships between molar shape, diet, and biomes among extant white-tailed deer populations across the Americas. Our analysis included a comparison with archaeological data from Panama. We sampled 274 extant lower second molar specimens for micro- and mesowear analysis, along with 105 lower third molar specimens from natural science museums for 2D geometric morphometric analysis. These were compared with a sample of 65 archaeological specimens from Panama. Our findings revealed distinct variations in the shape of lower m3 molars among extant white-tailed deer populations across different biomes, with notable differences observed in the archaeological samples as well. Micro- and mesowear analyses also indicated biome-related differences, suggesting a general browsing diet for white-tailed deer with nuanced variations across biomes. Mesowear analysis further suggested a dietary spectrum ranging from pure browsers to browser-mixed feeders. These findings offer valuable insights for the interpretation of fossil deer specimens recovered from archaeological sites.

Rapid sulfurization obscures carotenoid distributions in modern euxinic environments

Anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (green and purple sulfur bacteria) thrive in anoxic environments where light penetrates a sulfide-containing (euxinic) water column. Genomic data and photosynthetic bacterial carotenoid pigments should provide complementary information on the spatio-temporal dynamics of anoxygenic phototrophs in modern euxinic environments. In turn, these contemporary depositional settings often serve as analogues for ancient counterparts. However, in some modern environments, DNA-informed patterns of phototrophic sulfur bacteria occurrence do not match distributions of their carotenoid inventories. One possible explanation for these seemingly incompatible observations is that the rapid sulfurization of carotenoids and incorporation into macromolecules via multiple carbon–sulfur bonds prevents or confounds their detection by conventional means. Here, to evaluate this conundrum, we revisit some representative contemporary euxinic environments where anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria have mostly been detected based on genomic analyses. Although free intact carotenoids are sporadically detected in surface sediments, their distributions do not reveal a complete picture. Exogenously sourced fossil carotenoids (e.g., paleorenieratane) is an additional complication. Carotenoid inventories obtained by desulfurization with Raney nickel, on the other hand, stand in stark contrast to those present as free lipids. In particular, sulfur-linked carotenoids present in euxinic lake sediments provide a more complete picture of compositions of anoxygenic sulfur bacterial communities and account for discrepancies reported in previous studies. We observe a closer alignment between genomic data and patterns of sulfurized carotenoids and, importantly, our results highlight how sulfurization serves as a pathway for the rapid modification of highly functionalised lipids and their sequestration into the macromolecular component of sediment extracts.

The National Identity of Ancient and Modern Greeks

The issue of national identity in ancient Greece played an important role during periods of war due to the absence of a unifying political authority. Ancient Greece was organized along the lines of independent city-states with different political systems. However, in two wars, they were able to unite to combat a common enemy of Greece. In the Greek-Trojan War, the Greeks were the aggressors, and many Greek city-states responded to the call for joint action. In the Greek-Persian War, the Greeks defended their homeland. Once again, the Greek city-states, primarily Athens and Sparta, joined forces to repel the Persian invasion of mainland Greece. Homer, in his Iliad, and Herodotus, in his Histories, provide definitions of what Greek national identity was all about. By the time of the civil war, i.e., the Peloponnesian War, there appears to be a paradigm shift in what constitutes Greek national identity. The best definition within the context of this paradigm is given by Isocrates. This paper examines the national identity of Greeks as proposed mainly in the works of Homer, Herodotus, and Isocrates. It also explores the 19th-century controversy regarding whether modern Greeks have the same national identity as their ancient counterparts. Keywords: national identity, education, Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Isocrates, virtue, ancient Greeks, modern Greeks.

FLUVIAL SEDIMENTOLOGY OF THE RIVER ETHIOPE SEDIMENTS, NIGER DELTA, SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Despite modern advances in the study of rivers globally, there remains a plethora of work to be done especially in the area of fluvial sedimentology of some present-day river systems. Previous studies on fluvial sedimentology of the sediments of the river Ethiope (in southern Nigeria) are meagre. Grain size analytical methods are indispensable to infer siliciclastic sediments' hydrodynamic conditions, transportation mode(s), and sedimentary environments. Twenty-eight samples (n=28) of the river Ethiope sediments were selected and studied using granulometric analyses (mechanical sieving and pebble morphometric methods). The granulometric analyses results revealed that the obtained sediments were comprised of 82.75% sand, 9.33% gravel, and 7.92% mud. A ternary diagram of sand-gravel-mud shows the sediments are mainly gravelly sand, with few indicating slightly gravelly sand, gravelly muddy sand, muddy sand, and sandy gravel. The grain size statistical analysis shows that the river Ethiope sediments consist of medium to coarse, poorly-sorted to moderately well-sorted, strongly coarse skewed to strongly fine skewed, and very platykurtic to extremely leptokurtic sands. The pebble morphometric analysis revealed that the pebbles range in shape from bladed (B) 22%, compact-bladed (CB) 17%, compact (C) 16%, compact-platy (CP) 16%, compact-elongated (CE) 12%, platy (P) 5%, to elongated (E) 5%. The integration of bivariate plots, ternary diagrams, and C-M patterns plotted for the sediments of the river Ethiope indicated a fluvial environment with sediments characterised by low to moderately high energy that transport sediments of different sizes and grades through saltation, traction, and suspension modes. This study also confirms that sediment transport modes such as saltation, traction, and suspension typify river environments. In general, the existing sedimentologic models derived from grain size analysis of sediments and pebble morphometric methods obtained from modern-day rivers can be applied to better understand transport modes, sedimentary processes, and palaeoenvironments of their ancient counterparts.

For the Most Part Serious?

Abstract Scholarship has drawn a contrast between modern uses of metalepsis (illogical transgressions of narrative levels), which are frequently assigned comic effects, and their ancient counterparts, which are deemed more serious. This article argues that in the case of authorial metalepsis, a way of expression presenting the narrator as bringing about the effects he describes, the comic potential was already discovered in antiquity. Case studies from Aristophanes, Plato, Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, and Lucian demonstrate how ancient authors use authorial metalepsis to evoke paradoxical scenes of interaction across different levels of representation that support a mocking presentation of other authors.

Spatiotemporal fluctuations of population structure in the Americas revealed by a meta-analysis of the first decade of archaeogenomes.

Since 2010, genome-wide data from hundreds of ancient Native Americans have contributed to the understanding of Americas' prehistory. However, these samples have never been studied as a single dataset, and distinct relationships among themselves and with present-day populations may have never come to light. Here, we reassess genomic diversity and population structure of 223 ancient Native Americans published between 2010 and 2019. The genomic data from ancient Americas was merged with a worldwide reference panel of 278 present-day genomes from the Simons Genome Diversity Project and then analyzed through ADMIXTURE, D-statistics, PCA, t-SNE, and UMAP. We find largely similar population structures in ancient and present-day Americas. However, the population structure of contemporary Native Americans, traced here to at least 10,000 years before present, is noticeably less diverse than their ancient counterparts, a possible outcome of the European contact. Additionally, in the past there were greater levels of population structure in North than in South America, except for ancient Brazil, which harbors comparatively high degrees of structure. Moreover, we find a component of genetic ancestry in the ancient dataset that is closely related to that of present-day Oceanic populations but does not correspond to the previously reported Australasian signal. Lastly, we report an expansion of the Ancient Beringian ancestry, previously reported for only one sample. Overall, our findings support a complex scenario for the settlement of the Americas, accommodating the occurrence of founder effects and the emergence of ancestral mixing events at the regional level.

Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us by Kim Haines-Eitzen

Reviewed by: Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us by Kim Haines-Eitzen Katie Kleinkopf Kim Haines-Eitzen Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022 Pp. 168. $19.95; £14.99. Listen. No, really. Stop for a moment and just listen. What do you hear? People talking? Birds chirping? What about the sound of your heartbeat or breath? Now, listen again and consider how your own soundscape informs your experience of and connection to the place in which you reside. This phenomenon dwells at the center of Kim Haines-Eitzen's remarkable and deeply personal book, Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us. Not a typical academic monograph (though one built on a considerable foundation of historical, scientific, and literary sources), Sonorous Desert perhaps more closely aligns with other recently published works on our present quest for quiet attention in a world dominated by incessant noise and increasingly invasive technology. In order to accomplish this task, Haines-Eitzen draws on both her personal and professional background to offer a meditation on the phenomenon of deep listening through the lens of ancient Christian monastics. Sound connects each chapter, bridging not only the deserts of the Middle East with the American Southwest, but also the early Christian landscape of desert ascetics with Haines-Eitzen's current life in a COVID-ravaged world. This book seeks to find the balance between humanity's yearning for silence and solitude with the inextricable pull and necessity of community, and it does so through the experience of sonic landscapes across time and space. Chapters progress with a story-like unfolding through Haines-Eitzen's own personal quest to record natural soundscapes as well as the lessons she learned along the way. Her own anecdotes and discoveries during her time in disparate deserts frame most chapters and drive her over-arching questions. The tales of the ancient ascetics, like those of Antony, the Desert Fathers, and the hermit Paul, act as mini-listening workshops, akin to the ornithological labs Haines-Eitzen herself attended. With these works (which may be deeply familiar to many scholars, though, perhaps, unknown to students, her primary audience), Haines-Eitzen teaches us how to listen. She draws our attention to the sonorous landscape of the desert both past and present, the onomatopoeia lost in English translations of ancient Greek words, and our own culturally constructed idea that we should separate "human" sounds from "natural" ones. The sonorous anecdotes from ascetic vitae and sayings ground each chapter in an aural landscape, convincingly arguing that soundscapes formed an active element of ascetic practice. In order to help her audience experience these places for themselves, the coda of each chapter contains its own QR code where we can listen to field recordings collected by Haines-Eitzen herself. Not only do these recordings allow us to hear what we have only previously imagined, but they enable us to close our eyes and feel the bridge across space and time—to experience not only the same [End Page 652] phenomena as Haines-Eitzen during the time of her recordings, but perhaps, as she would suggest, what ancient people experienced thousands of years ago. To use sound as a source requires a different methodology than scholars of the ancient world typically employ. As with a scientist collecting field samples, Haines-Eitzen asks us to be still, to feel, and to experience. To listen deeply with our whole bodies. Listening, as she explains, is far more than hearing. It is a vibration, both a presence and a stillness. How did it feel, she asks, to dwell in the desert, this place between earth and sky, God and demons, noise and silence, solitude and community? Ultimately, it is this paradox on which we are (as were early Christian monks) urged to ruminate. As much as we and our late ancient counterparts may have wanted to, it is impossible to escape fully into silence and solitude. Silence, Haines-Eitzen concludes, is a human construct—one created purely of imagination. Something sought and...

Kaolinite deposition from moving suspensions: The roles of flocculation, salinity, suspended sediment concentration and flow velocity/bed shear

ABSTRACTUnderstanding how mud moves and deposits is essential for conceptualizing the dynamic nature of surface environments and their ancient counterparts. Experimental study has largely been pursued by civil engineers, using kaolinite as an active ingredient. Yet, applying their data to the physical comprehension of mudstone sedimentology is hampered by multiple flume configurations between labs, and data sets tailored to specific engineering needs. The need for a better grasp of underlying processes is acute, given recent flume studies that show that moving suspensions form large bedload floccules, migrating floccule ripples and bed accretion under currents capable of moving sand grains. To advance mudstone sedimentology, integrated study of suspended sediment concentration, salinity and bed shear stress on the deposition of floccules is crucial. Described here is a set of tightly controlled experiments that explored suspended sediment concentrations from 70 to 900 mg/l, freshwater, brackish and marine salinities, flow velocities in the 5 to 50 cm/s range (equivalent to 0.01 to 0.58 Pa bed shear), measured the size of in‐flow and bedload floccules, and the critical velocity of sedimentation that marks the onset of sustained bedload accumulation. The critical velocity of sedimentation of kaolinite clays is in the 26 to 28 cm/s flow velocity range (0.22 to 0.25 Pa), appears insensitive to a wide range of suspended sediment concentrations and salinities, and coincides with the formation of sand‐size bedload floccules. Further decrease of flow velocity/bed shear stress is accompanied by a steady increase in the size of bedload floccules. Large bedload floccules appear to form in the high‐shear basal part of the flow, a phenomenon requiring further investigation. Better understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate mud deposition from moving suspensions is critical for more realistic assessments of the depositional conditions of mud and mudstones, as well as for refining predictive models for the flux of fine‐grained sediments across the Earth's surface.

Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man Discussing Narratives of Domestic Abuse and Gaslighting through the Cassandra Myth

Renowned for its hard-hitting exploration of gaslighting and domestic abuse, Leigh Whannell’s 2020 film The Invisible Man has inevitably been linked to the #MeToo movement. Despite the film’s contemporary premise, however, its narrative of male violence and female silencing is fundamentally rooted within classical literature and can be seen as an appropriation of the Cassandra myth. This article will be reviewing the continued relevance of the Cassandra myth today and the impact of her appearance within the horror movie genre. It will identify how Cassandra’s narrative as a truth-speaker, who is met with disbelief, has been appropriated for both thematic and critical effect. It will also consider the gendered implication of truth-speakers in horror and the impact of representing a female Cassandra onscreen to critique gendered issues, such as female silencing, domestic abuse, and gaslighting. By applying the classical figure of Cassandra to Whannell’s The Invisible Man, this article will continue by highlighting the patriarchal mechanisms which have historically dictated the reliability of female truth-speaker, thus connecting modern truth-speakers to their ancient counterparts.

Mock Mockers: Cynicism, Suffering, Irish Modernism

Cynicism styles itself as the answer to the mental suffering produced by disillusionment, disappointment, and despair. It seeks to avoid them by exposing to ridicule naive idealism or treacherous hope. Modern cynics avoid the vulnerability produced by high ideals, just as their ancient counterparts eschewed dependence on all but the most essential of material needs. The philosophical tradition of the Cynics begins with the Ancients, including Diogenes and Lucian, but has found contemporary valence in the work of cultural theorists such as Peter Sloterdijk. This article uses theories of cynicism to analyze postcolonial disappointment in Irish modernism. It argues that in the “ambi-colonial” conditions of early-twentieth-century Ireland, the metropolitan surety of and suaveness of a cynical attitude is available but precarious. We therefore find a recursive cynicism that often turns upon itself, finding the self-distancing and critical sure-footedness of modern, urbane cynicism a stance that itself should be treated with cynical scepticism. The essay detects this recursive cynicism in a number of literary works of post-independence Ireland, concluding with an extended consideration of W. B. Yeats’s great poem of civilizational precarity, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen.”

Conserved bacterial genomes from two geographically isolated peritidal stromatolite formations shed light on potential functional guilds.

Stromatolites are complex microbial mats that form lithified layers. Fossilized stromatolites are the oldest evidence of cellular life on Earth, dating back over 3.4 billion years. Modern stromatolites are relatively rare but may provide clues about the function and evolution of their ancient counterparts. In this study, we focus on peritidal stromatolites occurring at Cape Recife and Schoenmakerskop on the southeastern South African coastline, the former being morphologically and structurally similar to fossilized phosphatic stromatolites formations. Using assembled shotgun metagenomic analysis, we obtained 183 genomic bins, of which the most dominant taxa were from the Cyanobacteria phylum. We identified functional gene sets in genomic bins conserved across two geographically isolated stromatolite formations, which included relatively high copy numbers of genes involved in the reduction of nitrates and phosphatic compounds. Additionally, we found little evidence of Archaeal species in these stromatolites, suggesting that they may not play an important role in peritidal stromatolite formations, as proposed for hypersaline formations.

Metabolic versatility in a modern lineage of cyanobacteria from terrestrial hot springs

The extent of oxygenated environments on the early Earth was much lower than today, and cyanobacteria were critical players in Earth's shift from widespread anoxia to oxygenated surface environments. Extant cyanobacteria that aggregate into cones, tufts and ridges are used to understand the long record of photosynthesis and microbe-mineral interactions during times when oxygen was much lower, i.e., the Archean and the Proterozoic. To better understand the metabolic versatility and physiological properties of these organisms, we examined publicly available genomes of cyanobacteria from modern terrestrial hydrothermal systems and a newly sequenced genome of a cyanobacterium isolated from conical and ridged microbialites that grow in occasionally sulfidic hydrothermal springs in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Phylogenomic analyses reveal that cyanobacteria from globally distributed terrestrial and shallow marine hydrothermal systems form a monophyletic clade within the Cyanobacteria phylum. Comparative genomics of this clade reveals the genetic capacity for oxygenic photosynthesis that uses photosystems I and II, and anoxygenic photosynthesis that uses a putative sulfide quinone reductase to oxidize sulfide and bypass photosystem II. Surprisingly large proportions of the newly sequenced genome from Yellowstone National Park are also dedicated to secondary metabolite production (15.1–15.6%), of which ∼6% can be attributed to antibiotic production and resistance genes. All this may be advantageous to benthic, mat-forming photosynthesizers that have to compete for light and nutrients in sporadically or permanently sulfidic environments, and may have also improved the tolerance of ancient counterparts of these cyanobacteria to sulfidic conditions in benthic communities that colonized the coastal margins in the Archean and the Proterozoic.

Late Quaternary sediments on the carbonate platform off western India: Analogues of ancient platform carbonates

The Late Quaternary carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks from the platform off western India were reviewed for their genesis and relationship with their ancient counter parts. Sub-marine cemented and vadose diagenetic limestones were recovered at different locations on the platform and, neomorphic limestones and caliche pisolites were recovered on the continental shelf south of the platform. Dolomites on the platform were primary and formed by microbial processes under hypersaline, sulphate-reducing conditions during the lowered sea levels. Aragonite ooids were formed from the mineralization of microbial filaments that enveloped their cortex portions. Phosphorites were found in organic-rich, aragonite muds on the continental slope adjacent to the platform and formed from the microbial mineralization of organic matter and replacement of carbonate by apatite during early diagenesis. Microbial processes thus played an important role in the formation of dolomites, ooids and phosphorites reported here and those in ancient deposits. Halimeda bioherms on the platform were grown luxuriantly from the nutrients brought by upwelling currents during the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene sea level transgression and are similar to the Holocene–Recent deposits in the Indo-Pacific region. Lime muds were bio-detrital and formed primarily from the disintegration of Halimeda bioherms and carbonate skeletal on the platform and then exported to the slope. They resemble fine-grained limestones abundantly reported in ancient platforms. Thus, the different carbonate components on the platform are genetically related to their ancient ones and serve as Late Quaternary analogues for the ancient platform carbonates.

Evolutionary history and palaeoecology of brown bear in North-East Siberia re-examined using ancient DNA and stable isotopes from skeletal remains

Over 60% of the modern distribution range of brown bears falls within Russia, yet palaeoecological data from the region remain scarce. Complete modern Russian brown bear mitogenomes are abundant in the published literature, yet examples of their ancient counterparts are absent. Similarly, there is only limited stable isotopic data of prehistoric brown bears from the region. We used ancient DNA and stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes retrieved from five Pleistocene Yakutian brown bears (one Middle Pleistocene and four Late Pleistocene), to elucidate the evolutionary history and palaeoecology of the species in the region. We were able to reconstruct the complete mitogenome of one of the Late Pleistocene specimens, but we were unable to assign it to any of the previously published brown bear mitogenome clades. A subsequent analysis of published mtDNA control region sequences, which included sequences of extinct clades from other geographic regions, assigned the ancient Yakutian bear to the extinct clade 3c; a clade previously identified from Late Quaternary specimens from Eastern Beringia and Northern Spain. Our analyses of stable isotopes showed relatively high δ15N values in the Pleistocene Yakutian brown bears, suggesting a more carnivorous diet than contemporary brown bears from Eastern Beringia.

Modern active microbialite-metazoan relationships in peritidal systems on the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa: Ecological significance and implication for the palaeontological record

Modern microbialites are useful partial analogues of their ancient counterparts and especially can provide clues on the conditions to which they were once exposed to. One of the conundrums which has been slow to solve is the role that grazing and burrowing metazoans had towards disrupting the Phanerozoic microbial mats that formed microbialites, especially those of the laminar variety, stromatolites. Here we use a modern occurrence where rare active microbialites along the southern African coastline are forming in direct association with a metazoan community. We show that these associations demonstrate clear evidence of burrows and trace marks from the metazoans, reflecting direct occupation of the microbialite matrix by some taxa. Importantly, these permanent burrows appear to form (mostly) without disruption to the microbialite consolidation, but rather are constructed along the same axis of that of the microbialite. Furthermore, stromatolitic layering is also observed in direct association with active metazoans. This provides further evidence for the refugia hypothesis which suggests that under certain conditions metazoans are not necessarily restrictive of microbialite integrity. This is explained by the selective forces acting against the destructive influence of metazoans because of the refugia benefits (oxygen, predation, exposure) that they accrue from this habitat. This calls for a reinterpretation of some palaeontological observations.

The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus by Patricia A. Rosenmeyer

Reviewed by: The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus by Patricia A. Rosenmeyer Carolyn Higbie Patricia A. Rosenmeyer. The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xx, 265. $85.00. ISBN 978-0-19-062631-0. Rosenmeyer focuses on the statue in Egyptian Thebes identified as the colossus of Memnon and surveys ancient visitors' reactions to it, in particular the call that it often made to its mother Eos (Dawn) in the morning. Her book falls into three sections. Chapters 1-3 give background, and discuss the identities of the visitors and inscriptions that they leave on the colossus. Chapters 4-5 focus on two subsets of the inscriptions: those that reflect the Homeric Memnon and those linked to Sappho. In chapter 6 reactions of German and English Romantic poets to Memnon and to the statue known as Ozymandias are surveyed. The book concludes with three appendices: diagrams of the inscriptions on the colossus; the text and translation of the inscriptions; and an index of the relevant names. Bibliography and an index follow. Chapter 1 opens with Richard Pococke's description of the two colossi at Thebes, then quotes the earliest and latest datable ancient inscriptions on Memnon—by Servius Clemens, who wrote in Latin c. 20 ce, and Falernus, who composed elegiac couplets in Greek c. 205 ce. Within this 200-year span, 108 inscriptions recorded visits of over 90 visitors—centurions, prefects, strategoi; prefects' wives, women in Hadrian's circle (including his wife); sophists and poets. The nature of these visits to the colossus is the subject of chapter 2, in which Rosenmeyer joins the debate about travel to sanctuaries in the Roman empire: was it primarily religious, for sightseeing, or scholarly? After she summarizes the scholarship, she examines the language that the inscribers use to record their reactions to hearing Memnon's cry. She concludes that their motivations [End Page 113] are "mixed: those of both a tourist and a worshipper, both an intellectual curiosity-seeker and someone eager to hear the voice of the divine" (75). Chapter 3 studies two rhetorical devices found in the inscriptions: apostrophe and prosopopeia. Both reflect visitors' desire to present their experience of hearing the noise made by the colossus as a conversation. Sometimes they hear Memnon's cry to his mother, then they address the statue. Sometimes they tell Memnon that they have come to hear him call to Eos, although it has required repeated visits. In chapter 4 Rosenmeyer summarizes much of the recent interest in the afterlife of the Troy tale and shows how many of these inscriptions fit the patterns that others have recently analyzed. Although visitors to the colossus accepted the identification as Memnon, they don't seem to have done anything new in their poetry—they use Homeric language, sometimes compose in dactylic hexameter, and demonstrate their knowledge of Memnon's fate. Chapter 5, on poetesses, particularly Balbilla, and their poems that reflect Sappho, has a similar starting point, Greek and Roman interest in an earlier poet. Because there has been much less work done on ancient fascination with Sappho, Rosenmeyer has more of her own to contribute. She distinguishes between responses to Sappho as a poetess and Sappho as a lesbian, and after examining what could be identified as archaizing and/or Aeolic about Balbilla's verses, concludes that the latter wishes to be regarded as a poet in the tradition of Sappho. Chapter 6 begins with the silencing of Memnon, then examines a selection of Romantic poetry devoted to the colossus, linked to the classical inscriptions through their use of prosopopeia. Rosenmeyer describes the rediscovery of the statue and provides glimpses of western European reactions of poets who did not—unlike their ancient counterparts—visit Thebes: Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, Tennyson, Klingemann, Mayrhofer. Shelley's Ozymandias concludes the modern survey. Rosenmeyer shows us another manifestation of ancient fascination with the Homeric past and demonstrates how broadly across society and time that interest spread. Her quick glance at the nineteenth century reveals more recent uses of the Homeric world. I would have enjoyed more discussion about the seemingly unquestioned...

Conceptual metonymies and metaphors behindSHUI(WATER) andHUO(FIRE) in ancient and modern Chinese

AbstractThis paper investigates the conceptual metonymies and metaphors behindSHUI(水, water) andHUO(火, fire), two of the Five Elements (五行,wu-xing) in traditional Chinese thought, as recorded in ancient and modern Chinese. Our analysis shows that: (1)SHUIin ancient Chinese is built around the conceptual metonymiesSHUIFOR FEATURES OF WATER,SHUIFOR BODY LIQUID andSHUIFOR BODIES OF WATER and the conceptual metaphors THOSE WITH FEATURES OF WATER ARESHUIand THOSE WITH FEATURES OFSHUI XINGARESHUI. (2)HUOin ancient Chinese is built around the metonymiesHUOFOR FEATURES OF FIRE andHUOFOR THE POWER/DESTRUCTION OF FIRE and the metaphors THOSE WITH FEATURES OF FIRE AREHUOand THOSE WITH FEATURES OFHUO XINGAREHUO. (3)SHUIandHUOin modern Chinese show an overall similarity with their ancient counterparts, the main differences being that the metaphor THOSE WITH FEATURES OFSHUI XINGARESHUIis absent from modern Chinese and that the metaphor THOSE WITH FEATURES OFHUO XINGAREHUOhas a much narrower coverage in modern Chinese. We discuss what this kind of selective inheritance suggests about the development of Chinese people’s conceptualization of the world.

Prognosis and Postgnosis in Biblical Prophecy

ABSTRACTThe Prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible are more than documents containing pronouncements from the prophets after whom the texts are named. They include not only prophecies, but also interpretations of these prophecies’ historical consequences, a quality that makes the Bible’s prophetic literature stand out from its ancient Near Eastern counterparts. This interpretive dynamic is indispensable for understanding the reception of these prophecies in the texts from Qumran and in the New Testament.

Carbonate-rich dendrolitic cones: insights into a modern analog for incipient microbialite formation, Little Hot Creek, Long Valley Caldera, California

Ancient putative microbial structures that appear in the rock record commonly serve as evidence of early life on Earth, but the details of their formation remain unclear. The study of modern microbial mat structures can help inform the properties of their ancient counterparts, but modern mineralizing mat systems with morphological similarity to ancient structures are rare. Here, we characterize partially lithified microbial mats containing cm-scale dendrolitic coniform structures from a geothermal pool (“Cone Pool”) at Little Hot Creek, California, that if fully lithified, would resemble ancient dendrolitic structures known from the rock record. Light and electron microscopy revealed that the cm-scale ‘dendrolitic cones’ were comprised of intertwined microbial filaments and grains of calcium carbonate. The degree of mineralization (carbonate content) increased with depth in the dendrolitic cones. Sequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries revealed that the dendrolitic cone tips were enriched in OTUs most closely related to the genera Phormidium, Leptolyngbya, and Leptospira, whereas mats at the base and adjacent to the dendrolitic cones were enriched in Synechococcus. We hypothesize that the consumption of nutrients during autotrophic and heterotrophic growth may promote movement of microbes along diffusive nutrient gradients, and thus microbialite growth. Hour-glass shaped filamentous structures present in the dendrolitic cones may have formed around photosynthetically-produced oxygen bubbles—suggesting that mineralization occurs rapidly and on timescales of the lifetime of a bubble. The dendrolitic-conical structures in Cone Pool constitute a modern analog of incipient microbialite formation by filamentous microbiota that are morphologically distinct from any structure described previously. Thus, we provide a new model system to address how microbial mats may be preserved over geological timescales.

THE MUSEUM OF WOODEN INDUSTRY IN THE PARK ‘KYIVAN RUS’

The article is devoted to the created in the Park «Kievan Rus» Museum ofWooden Architecture. The reader can get acquainted with this unique phenomenonin the modern museum world as a project restoring ancient Kyiv («city of Vladimir») in 1: 1 scale.Modern experience supply objective information and historical reconstructions(individual subjects, objects, and even entire urban locations) includeproviding opportunities to experience the atmosphere and the specificsof Kievan Rus in all its fullness. The perfect opportunity to achieve this is areproduction of the image of the medieval city, but not on the monitors andmodels, but as in the original. Experience of the solution to the problem is amuseum complex in the open air - «Park Kievan Rus». Today we can confidentlyassert that the ambitious project of PKR to reproduce the ancientcapital grew to a powerful research center, which deals with a wide range ofproblems associated with medieval history, archaeology, and museology.The author presents the basic features of the museum complex areas - reconstructionand construction of fortifications and sacral buildings, housingand commercial complexes, street network planning and other constants medievalcity.One of the scientific and educational activities PKR is the creation ofmuseums on its territory. One of these new museums - the Museum of WoodenArchitecture. The museum is unique because it exhibits archaeological artifacts, reconstructed models of ancient structures housing, replicas of ancienttools of the carpenter.According to archeological data, the main types of woodworking toolsand their range took constant shape in the X - XI and remained unchangeduntil the XVIII century. The exhibition features tools that can be consideredreplicas of ancient counterparts, their identity is proven by archaeologicalartifacts. The basis of the comparative analysis underlying the developmentof V. Kharlamov. Among the exhibited things can be identified replica tesla,boats, planes, drills, saws, hammers and others.Archaeological studies in recent years finally convince us wide distributionin Old Kiev namely carcass type residential buildings. Therefore, thirdmainline presents the reconstruction ofsome ancient frame, frame layout design method vrubky «v oblo», layoutwindows and roof of the home.