Ancient Type Research Articles

FCT finite difference forward simulation of the submarine viscoelastic seismic wavefield

The actual seafloor is the typical viscoelastic medium, covered with unconsolidated geological bodies like sand, gravel, sludge, and detritus on the surface. When the seismic wave is propagating therein, viscosity of the seafloor strata will cause seismic wave energy loss, amplitude attenuation and gradual frequency reduction at the wavelet center, and then the accurate subsurface information and high-resolution images cannot be obtained directly from the seismic data due to the reduced signal resolution and SNR. Considering seabed viscoelastic media properties, a model including quality factor, density, and other physical parameters, the flux corrected transport (FCT) algorithm is established to describe the target seafloor and solve the wave equation, in which, the finite difference numerical simulation method of FCT is used to suppress the numerical dispersion generated by differential calculation in coarse grid, improve the seismic wavefield simulation accuracy and computational efficiency. Based on the submarine ancient channel types and the basic characteristics of the real and typical marine geological phenomena, the seismic responses to the three types of submarine ancient channel models, which are straight, curved and braided, are calculated, with good results acquired.

Mo.Se.: Mosaic image segmentation based on deep cascading learning

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p class="VARAbstract">Mosaic is an ancient type of art used to create decorative images or patterns combining small components. A digital version of a mosaic can be useful for archaeologists, scholars and restorers who are interested in studying, comparing and preserving mosaics. Nowadays, archaeologists base their studies mainly on manual operation and visual observation that, although still fundamental, should be supported by an automatized procedure of information extraction. In this context, this research explains improvements which can change the manual and time-consuming procedure of mosaic tesserae drawing. More specifically, this paper analyses the advantages of using Mo.Se. (Mosaic Segmentation), an algorithm that exploits deep learning and image segmentation techniques; the methodology combines U-Net 3 Network with the Watershed algorithm. The final purpose is to define a workflow which establishes the steps to perform a robust segmentation and obtain a digital (vector) representation of a mosaic. The detailed approach is presented, and theoretical justifications are provided, building various connections with other models, thus making the workflow both theoretically valuable and practically scalable for medium or large datasets. The automatic segmentation process was tested with the high-resolution orthoimage of an ancient mosaic by following a close-range photogrammetry procedure. Our approach has been tested in the pavement of St. Stephen's Church in Umm ar-Rasas, a Jordan archaeological site, located 30 km southeast of the city of Madaba (Jordan). Experimental results show that this generalized framework yields good performances, obtaining higher accuracy compared with other state-of-the-art approaches. Mo.Se. has been validated using publicly available datasets as a benchmark, demonstrating that the combination of learning-based methods with procedural ones enhances segmentation performance in terms of overall accuracy, which is almost 10% higher. This study’s ambitious aim is to provide archaeologists with a tool which accelerates their work of automatically extracting ancient geometric mosaics.</p><p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p><ul><li><p>A Mo.Se. (Mosaic Segmentation) algorithm is described with the purpose to perform robust image segmentation to automatically detect tesserae in ancient mosaics.</p></li><li><p>This research aims to overcome manual and time-consuming procedure of tesserae segmentation by proposing an approach that uses deep learning and image processing techniques, obtaining a digital replica of a mosaic.</p></li><li><p>Extensive experiments show that the proposed framework outperforms state-of-the-art methods with higher accuracy, even compared with publicly available datasets.</p></li></ul></div></div></div>

Musical Interpretation of Direct Speech in Chants of the Two-Hundredth Feasts of the Mother of God: Greek-Slavonic Parallels on Manuscripts of the 10th–17th Centuries

Direct speech in liturgical hymns is one of the essential features of Byzantine and Slavic hymnography, which interprets the subjects of the Old and New Testaments. The hymns in honor of the twelve feasts of the Mother of God contain the direct speech of the Archangel Gabriel, King David, the Apostle Peter, and the worshipers in the temple. A standard, but not the only, way of correlation between text and music in these fragments is melismatic formulas, so called fita. The main objective of the article is to identify ways of musical interpretation of direct speech in the Greek-Slavic traditions of Church singing and musical writing by analysing the location of the fitas in the composition. Copies of 9 stichera from Greek, Old Russian and Kiev manuscripts of the 10–17th centuries were compared. Neumatic shape and five-line deciphering were taken into account. As a result of the analysis, techniques of musical decoration of direct speech and Gospel / Psalter quotation are shown. In hymnographical composition, direct speech demonstrates a changing of the point of view. The beginning of direct speech and / or the previous line with the words “to say”, “to cry”, “to sing”, etc., have fita in the tune. Fita is a cantilena tune put into recitative musical line; therefore, it changes the point of view from a narrative to emotional type of music utterance. Fita accompanying direct speech is an adequate musical tool. Fitas are often used with additional techniques such as modal changing or mutation. The use of fitas underscores text structure; it is the oldest technique of Byzantine origin that was adopted by Slavs. In the 15–16th centuries, a new type of composition appeared musical formulas highlight the theological meaning of a hymnographic text. This new technique was combined with the ancient type, and sometimes replaced it.

Народное деревянное зодчество ольхонского побережья озера Байкал

The purpose of the work is to study the features and typology of monuments of traditional folk wooden architecture in settlements on the shores of Lake Baikal, located in the western part of the lake on Olkhon Island. The study of the folk wooden architectural heritage in the coastal settlements was carried out in preparation for the development of the “Standard for the planning and development of the Baikal settlements”. Based on collected historical descriptions and materials of two historical and architectural surveys by specialists of the Irkutsk State Technical University at the end of the 20th century, an overview of the main characteristics and features of the traditional dwellings of Russian peasants and Buryat families who led a semi-nomadic lifestyle has been made. As a result of the work, the most ancient space-planning types of Russian folk dwellings in settlements on the Olkhon coast of Lake Baikal were identified. The descriptions of the three most common types of traditional Russian dwellings in this area were made –klet houses, link-up houses, and five-walled houses. Information about the rapid change in the traditional Buryat dwelling is presented: the transition from felt yurts to wooden yurts, and then to a winter Buryat dwelling of the Russian type. The importance of summer migrations and, accordingly, summer settlements –letniks– in the organization of pasture cattle breeding, land use, and preservation of the semi-nomadic way of life of the Buryats was revealed. It is concluded that the main types of folk dwellings in the settlements of the Olkhon coast changed during the 18th-19th centuries. The development of the forms of the Buryat folk dwelling proceeded most intensively. The evolution of the forms of traditional dwelling of both Russian peasants and Buryat families in the settlements of the Olkhonsky coast of Lake Baikal was part of the general process of the development of traditional folk dwellings throughout the Upper Angara region, including the Balagan steppe and the traditional settlements of the Upper Lena.

Geographies, Institutions, and Agencies: Ceramic and Socio-Economic Regions and Regionality in (Late) Hellenistic-Late Roman Boeotia, Central Greece (c. 150 BC-AD 700)

It almost goes without saying that explorations of ancient economies developed significantly when one takes the studies by Michael Rostovtzeff and Moses Finley as points of departure. Just as any work, their landmark studies are obviously a product of a certain time. Yet, especially in recent decades, it becomes more and more clear that we can hardly talk about ‘the’ or ‘one’ ancient (type of) economy, since variation and change, rather than homogeneity and stability, characterise the ever-growing archaeological datasets on the basis of which we can try to reconstruct ancient socio-economic systems and practice. Based on the quantity and quality of the currently available archaeological, epigraphic, and historical data, we cannot talk about a unified Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, Central Greek, or Boeotian economy.

Joint analysis of seismic and well log data applied for prediction of oil presence in Maykop deposits in Naftalan area

<abstract> <p>The paper is devoted to joint application of 3D seismic survey and well logging techniques to study oil and gas presence in Maykop deposits in Naftalan oil field. The field is located in Naftalan-Northern Naftalan area of Ganja oil and gas province, Azerbaijan. The paper brings data about Naftalan field, the ancient brachianticline type of field in Azerbaijan. The paper also considers the history of study of the field by use of geological and geophysical techniques. Despite the studies cover the area since 1873, the oil and gas presence in Maykop has not been studied sufficiently due to sparse network of wells and insufficient amount of core samples. To avoid this gap the results of previous studies have been revised. Joint interpretation of well logging data acquired from 22 wells and data of 3D seismic survey covering the area has been done. On the basis of oil-saturation cube, we have designed the map (the area between the top and the foot of I horizon of Maykop) and 3D model of target interval. It has been defined that uneven distribution of oil saturation and poor oil recovery depends also on sedimentation environment, characterized by rapid subsidence of the basin and increasing amount of clay in the process of sedimentation. Our studies revealed that the average value of oil saturation varies as 0.5–0.6 and increases towards the North-East of the study area. In the final stage of the study we have presented the oil saturation cube and the map drawn on the basis of this cube.</p> </abstract>

Hodonymy of Chengdu and Yekaterinburg: a Comparative Aspect

The nominative types and models of the hodonyms of Chengdu and Yekaterinburg is compared in the article, the task of finding universals in the hodonymy is set. There are three main types of hodonyms: descriptive, memorial, and conventionally symbolic. Comparative analysis has shown that the descriptive type can be recognized as universal, since it most fully reflects the main function of the hodonyms: an indication of the location of the object and its characteristics. The authors note that this is the most ancient type for the spontaneously forming hodonymicon of any city. It has been proved that in Yekaterinburg in the Soviet era, descriptive hodonyms are supplanted by memorial ones, these are, first of all, names — dedications to memorable dates and milestones in national history, to specific persons associated with the history of the country and the city. It has been established that descriptive names remain the most widespread in Chengdu, and conventionally symbolic type hodonyms are also popular, among which names, including traditional symbols of Chinese culture, good wishes, as well as abstract concepts expressing various positive qualities predominate. It is emphasized in the article that the hodonyms of the memorial and conditionally symbolic type in Chengdu and Yekaterinburg are fundamentally different, being a reflection of the history and culture of their countries

The structure and mechanism of the bacterial type II secretion system.

The type II secretion system (T2SS) is a multi-protein complex used by many bacteria to move substrates across their cell membrane. Substrates released into the environment serve as local and long-range effectors that promote nutrient acquisition, biofilm formation, and pathogenicity. In both animals and plants, the T2SS is increasingly recognized as a key driver of virulence. The T2SS spans the bacterial cell envelope and extrudes substrates through an outer membrane secretin channel using a pseudopilus. An inner membrane assembly platform and a cytoplasmic motor controls pseudopilus assembly. This microreview focuses on the structure and mechanism of the T2SS. Advances in cryo-electron microscopy are enabling increasingly elaborate sub-complexes to be resolved. However, key questions remain regarding the mechanism of pseudopilus extension and retraction, and how this is coupled with the choreography of the substrate moving through the secretion system. The T2SS is part of an ancient type IV filament superfamily that may have been present within the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). Overall, mechanistic principles that underlie T2SS function have implication for other closely related systems such as the type IV and tight adherence pilus systems.

Computational studies of membrane pore formation induced by Pin2

Understanding, at the molecular level, the effect of AMPs on biological membranes is of crucial importance given the increasing number of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Being part of an ancient type of innate immunity system, AMPs have emerged as a potential solution for which bacteria have not developed resistance. Traditional antibiotics specifically act on biosynthetic pathways, while AMPs may directly destabilize the lipid membrane, but it is unclear how AMPs affect the membrane’s stability. We performed multiscale molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structural features leading to membrane pores formation on zwitterionic and anionic membranes by the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) Pandinin 2 (Pin2). Some experimental reports propose that Pin2 could form barrel-stave pores, while others suggest that it could form toroidal pores. Since there is no conclusive evidence of which type of pore is formed by Pin2 on bilayers, performing molecular dynamics simulations on these systems could shed some light on whether or not or what type of pore Pin2 forms on model membranes. Our results are focused on a detailed description of the pore formation by Pin2 in POPC and POPE:POPG membranes., which strongly suggest that Pin2 forms a toroidal pore and not a barrel-shaped pore; this type of pore also affects the membrane properties. In the process, a phospholipid remodeling in the POPE:POPG membrane takes place. Moreover, the pores formed by Pin2 indicate that they are selective for the chlorine ion. There are no previous ion selectivity reports for other AMPs with similar physicochemical properties, such as melittin and magainin. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Geometric nonlinear analysis of thin elastic paraboloid of revolution shaped shells with radial waves

From the old ancient types of roof and dome construction, various forms of shells have been discovered which attract special attention. A shell is a structure composed of sheet material so that the curvature plays an important role in the structural behaviour, realizing its spatial form. There are different types of shells, namely thick and thin shells. G. Brankov, S.N. Krivoshapko, V.N. Ivanov, and V.A. Romanova made interesting researches of shells in the form of umbrella and umbrella-type surfaces. The term nonlinear refers to a given structure undergoing a change in stiffness in its loaded state. There are basically three different types of nonlinearities: geometric, physical and contact (boundary condition nonlinearity). For further analysis of the stress-strain state, a paraboloid with an inner radius of 4 m and an outer radius of 20 m and the number of waves equal to 6 was considered. The test shell is made of reinforced concrete. The minimum load parameter at which the shell loses stability indicates a more than three times the margin.

Genome-wide analyses reveal footprints of divergent selection and popping-related traits in CIMMYT's maize inbred lines.

Popcorn (Zea mays L. var. Everta) is the most ancient type of cultivated maize. However, there is little known about the genetics of popping-related traits based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology. Here, we characterized the phenotypic variation for seven popping-related traits in maize kernels among 526 CIMMYT inbred lines (CMLs). In total, 155 083 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were identified by a GBS approach. Several trait-associated loci were detected by genome-wide association study for color, popping expansion volume, shape, pericarp, flotation index, floury/vitreous, and protein content, explaining a majority of the observed phenotypic variance, and these were validated by a diverse panel comprising 764 tropical landrace accessions. Sixty two of the identified loci were recognized to have undergone selection. On average, there was a 55.27% frequency for alleles that promote popping in CMLs. Our work not only pinpoints previously unknown loci for popping-related traits, but also reveals that many of these loci have undergone selection. Beyond establishing a new benchmark for the genetics of popcorn, our study provides a foundation for gene discovery and breeding. It also presents evidence to investigate the role of a gradual loss of popping ability as a by-product of diversification of culinary uses throughout the evolution of teosinte-to-modern maize.

Waterpipe Smoking among Herat University Students: Prevalence, Attitudes, and Associated Factors.

BackgroundWaterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) is an ancient type of smoking that has become a global phenomenon. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of waterpipe smoking and its relation to socio-demographic characteristics in Herat University students in western Afghanistan.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, a structured self-administered questionnaire containing 53 items in 3 subscales was distributed between July and December 2018, to examine the use of waterpipe among Herat University students. Data were evaluated in SPSS. Chi-square test was used to observe differences between categorical variables. All important variables were separately evaluated for men and women in logistic regression models. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.FindingsThe prevalence of ever waterpipe use in male and female students was 54.1% and 81.8%, respectively. Parents’ higher education and family economic status were associated with higher rates of ever waterpipe use in both sexes. On the other hand, marital status and parents’ employment were not associated with waterpipe use. Ever waterpipe use was associated with having smoking friends or family members in both sexes. Male and female waterpipe users believed that cigarette smoke had more nicotine than waterpipe. While more male waterpipe users believed that cigarette was more addictive than waterpipe, more female users believed otherwise.ConclusionThe prevalence of ever waterpipe use is higher in male students at Herat University. Having a smoking friend and family member positively influences waterpipe use among both sexes. Most users believed that waterpipe smoking was less hazardous than cigarette smoking.

Триады в тексте «Истории Усун Дебескерту-хана»

Introduction. Long before the creation of a national writing system, the Oirats (Kalmyks) had developed a unique oral poetic tradition. By the late 17th century, there appeared a large number of translated poetic works distinguished by genre and artistic diversity. Oirat scholars would insistently turn to the rich oral poetic heritage. And triads were one such most ancient type of aphoristic poetry, their genre characteristics still remaining a matter of debate: some classify them as riddles, others as proverbs — but it is universally accepted that triads hold a special place in the oral poetic tradition. Triads were used not only by medieval authors but have also been turned to by modern Kalmyk writers. Goals. The article introduces into scientific discourse a text of the Oirat version of The Story of Usun Debeskertu Khan which contains triads and quatrains; analyzes didactic contents of the literary triads and compares them to oral (folk) ones. Materials and Methods. The work primarily employs the comparative analysis method. Despite triads have been published in a number of folklore collections (along with proverbs and riddles), their contents have never been investigated in the context of written monuments. Results. The wide use of triads in ancient oral poetic traditions of Mongolic peoples is evidenced by works of researchers from Mongolia, Russia, and China. So, it has been revealed that triads are not identical to riddles, constituting a separate Mongolic poetic genre and having been explicitly used in didactic written monuments as a special form of homilies. Conclusions. The Story of Usun Debeskertu Khan is a didactic composition containing triads and quatrains, the latter — judging from their contents and functions attributed — being essentially edifying (moralistic), which thus makes it possible to finally distinguish them from riddles as such.

Household air pollution from cooking and heating and its impacts on blood pressure in residents living in rural cave dwellings in Loess Plateau of China.

Cave dwelling is an ancient and unique type of residence in the Loess Plateau of Northern China, where the economics are less-developed. The majority of the local dwellers rely on traditional solid fuels for cooking and heating, which can emit large amounts of particles into both indoor and outdoor environments. In this study, we measured the real-time household concentrations of PM2.5 and explored the association between personal daily PM2.5 exposure and blood pressure (BP). Cooking and heating activities with different energies made a great variation in the household PM2.5 air pollution, and residents using biomass had the highest personal PM2.5 exposure. Temperature and relative humidity are both significantly linear correlated with household PM2.5 air pollution. Besides, systolic blood pressure (SBP) was demonstrated to be positively associated with personal PM2.5 exposure: with each 10-μg/m3 incremental PM2.5 concentration when controlling all the other factors, SBP will increase by 0.36mmHg (95% confident interval (CI) 0.05-0.0.77mmHg). If solid fuels could be replaced with clean energies, personal PM2.5 exposure and SBP would reduce by more than 21% and 3.7%, respectively, calling for efficient intervention programs to mitigate household air pollution of cave dwellings and protect health of those residents.

Multikulturalisme dan Politik Identitas: Catatan Reflektif atas Gagasan Politik Will Kymlicka

Keberagaman merupakan fakta sosiologis bangsa Indonesia yang tidak dapat disangkal. Keberagaman merupakan bawaan asali dari bangsa Indonesia, bahkan jauh sebelum negara-bangsa Indonesia terbentuk. Artinya, secara tradisional, sesungguhnya bangsa Indonesia telah terbiasa dengan keberagaman. Namun dalam konteks negara-bangsa Indonesia modern, keberagaman memiliki makna dan tuntutan sosio-politik yang jauh berbeda dari keberagaman yang dikenal oleh para puak pendiri bangsa Indonesia. Dalam konteks tersebut, artikel ini akan mendiskusikan gagasan politik multikulturalisme yang diusulkan Will Kymlicka. Dengan menggunakan studi pustaka artikel ini membicarakan beberapa pandangan tentang multikulturalisme, serta poin utama dan kerangka umum gagasan politik multikulturalisme Kymlicka serta posisinya dalam diskursus tentang demokrasi dan masyarakat plural. Dari analisis literatur tersebut, kami berpendapat bahwa setidaknya ada dua dilema yang dihadapi oleh teori-teori multikulturalisme dalam memandang kebudayaan dan perbedaan budaya. Pertama, pemahaman esensialis terhadap kebudayaan yang mengandaikan bahwa kebudayaan sebagai entitas yang fixed, tidak berubah, dan berdiri sendiri. Kedua kuatnya klaim universitas nilai dalam berbagai pemahaman mengenai multikulturalisme merupakan sebuah tantangan tersendiri, sekaligus mengindikasikan jalan panjang yang masih harus ditempuh dalam merumuskan teori untuk mengatasi problem perbedaan budaya atas dasar prinsip-prinsip liberalisme.

Learning to Describe: A New Approach to Computer Vision Based Ancient Coin Analysis

In recent years, a range of problems under the broad umbrella of computer vision based analysis of ancient coins have been attracting an increasing amount of attention. Notwithstanding this research effort, the results achieved by the state of the art in published literature remain poor and far from sufficiently well performing for any practical purpose. In the present paper we present a series of contributions which we believe will benefit the interested community. We explain that the approach of visual matching of coins, universally adopted in existing published papers on the topic, is not of practical interest because the number of ancient coin types exceeds by far the number of those types which have been imaged, be it in digital form (e.g., online) or otherwise (traditional film, in print, etc.). Rather, we argue that the focus should be on understanding the semantic content of coins. Hence, we describe a novel approach—to first extract semantic concepts from real-world multimodal input and associate them with their corresponding coin images, and then to train a convolutional neural network to learn the appearance of these concepts. On a real-world data set, we demonstrate highly promising results, correctly identifying a range of visual elements on unseen coins with up to 84% accuracy.

Mapping the Variation of Visual Character Styles in the Pawukon Illustration

The heritage of old Indonesian manuscript artefacts is evidence of the development of literary and written culture. However, accessing these manuscripts is no longer comfortable because there are more storage and documentation abroad than at home. At present, expanding access to further study, there have been efforts to digitize several manuscripts. One of the manuscripts contained the cultural values ​​of ancient Javanese people is the pawukon script that equipped with illustrations. The purpose of writing this article is to exam the character style of pawukon visualization. This article intends to elaborate illustrations and visual elements that visualize the contents of the text in the manuscript. The conclusion shows that the illustrations in the ancient pawukon manuscript present several types of character styles. Each character and style is the result of the influence of cultural changes that developed during this period.

Heterologous Expression and Characterization of Ancient Orphaned Type II Polyketide Synthase Enzymes

Type II polyketides are polyaromatic bacterial secondary metabolites which have seen great success in the clinic. Doxorubicin and tetracycline are two such FDA‐approved drugs which showcase the potential anticancer and antibiotic properties of type II polyketides. These molecules are produced via enzymatic assembly lines (polyketide synthases; PKSs) encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Further study of diverse type II PKSs can allow for a greater understanding into how enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway interact to form structurally complex and pharmacologically relevant molecules. Our research focuses on the in vitro characterization of key enzymes in the type II PKSs encoded by ancient and orphaned biosynthetic gene clusters. We have been able to heterologously express several of these key enzymes from various previously‐unstudied bacterial strains. We have also characterized and confirmed the expression of these enzymes via various analytical techniques including gel electrophoresis, sedimentation velocity analytical ultracentrifugation, and fast protein liquid chromatography. These methods of characterization will allow for novel insights into the in vitro structure of these type II PKS enzymes. By harnessing the powerful biosynthetic capability of type II PKSs and studying how these enzymes interact with their native partners, we can develop tools to attain new chemical diversity through chemical engineering approaches.Support or Funding InformationThis research is funded by the National Science Foundation Career Grant #1652424, awarded to LKC. Conference support has also been provided from the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center.

Narcea\u2014an unknown, ancient cultivated rose variety from northern Spain

The present work reports the discovery and the complete characterisation of an ancient cultivated rose variety found growing in a private garden in the southwest of the Principality of Asturias (northern Spain). The variety is here given the name Narcea. The majority of roses currently cultivated belong to the so-called group of ‘Modern Roses’, all of which were obtained after 1867 via artificial crosses and improvement programmes. All are destined for ornamental use. Until the 19th century, the great majority of the many ancient cultivated roses in Europe were used in perfumery and cosmetics, or had medicinal uses. Rosa damascena and Rosa centifollia are still grown and used by the French and Bulgarian perfume industries. The Asturian Massif of the Cantabrian Mountain Range provides a natural habitat for some 75% of the wild members of the genus Rosa, but until now there was no evidence that this area was home to ancient cultivated roses. A complete botanical description is here provided for a discovered ancient rose. It is also characterised according to a series of sequence tagged microsatellite sites, and its agronomic features are reported. In addition, a histological description (optical and scanning electronic microscope studies) of the petals is offered, along with an analysis of the volatile compounds present in these organs as determined by solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. The results reveal the uniqueness of this ancient type of rose and suggest it may be of interest to the perfume industry.

Learning to Describe: A New Approach to Computer Vision Based Ancient Coin Analysis

In recent years, a range of problems under the broad umbrella of computer vision based analysis of ancient coins have been attracting an increasing amount of attention. Notwithstanding this research effort, the results achieved by the state of the art in published literature remain poor and far from sufficiently well performing for any practical purpose. In the present paper we present a series of contributions which we believe will benefit the interested community. We explain that the approach of visual matching of coins, universally adopted in existing published papers on the topic, is not of practical interest because the number of ancient coin types exceeds by far the number of those types which have been imaged, be it in digital form (e.g., online) or otherwise (traditional film, in print, etc.). Rather, we argue that the focus should be on understanding the semantic content of coins. Hence, we describe a novel approach—to first extract semantic concepts from real-world multimodal input and associate them with their corresponding coin images, and then to train a convolutional neural network to learn the appearance of these concepts. On a real-world data set, we demonstrate highly promising results, correctly identifying a range of visual elements on unseen coins with up to 84% accuracy.