Collection Of Artifacts Research Articles

Islamic copper-based metal artefacts from the Garb al-Andalus. A multidisciplinary approach on the Alcáçova of Mārtulah (Mértola, South of Portugal)

A multidisciplinary approach has been applied to investigate the production technology of a collection of copper-based artefacts found during archaeological excavation campaigns carried out in the Almohad neighbourhood of Mārtulah, the Islamic name of modern Mértola (South of Portugal). In stark contrast to other Islamic materials found in the same site such as common and finely decorated pottery, glass, and bone artefacts, metal objects have received less attention despite the high number of artefacts recovered.This study focuses on the chemical characterisation of 171 copper-based artefacts dating back to the 12th and the first half of the thirteenth centuries. The artefacts are daily use objects and consist of personal ornaments (earrings, rings, and casket ornaments), tools (spindles, spatulas, and oil lamp sticks) and artefacts with unknown functions. The analytical results by X-ray fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) provided information not only about technological issues but infer as well on the socio-economic implications of metal consumption in Islamic Mértola. Results revealed that metals were produced using a variety of Cu-based alloys, namely unalloyed copper, brasses (Cu + Zn), bronzes (Cu + Sn), and red brasses (Cu + Sn + Zn), with a variable concentration of Pb, without any apparent consistency, as a likely result of recurrent recycling and mixing scrap metals practices or use of mineral raw materials available locally.

The new museum of the Viking Age – Assessment of vibration from groundworks to avoid damage to artefacts

Construction activities such as blasting, pile driving, compaction, excavations, and construction traffic can cause damage to neighbouring buildings and structures. The situation is even more critical when the nearby buildings are museums with fragile collections. This case study presents vibration assessment work performed in connection with the planning of the construction activities for the planned Museum of the Viking Age on Bygdøy, outside of Oslo, Norway. The planned museum will be built as an extension of the existing Viking Ship Museum, where one of the world's foremost collections of artefacts from the Viking age is displayed. Although the existing museum will be closed during the construction period, objects that are considered too large or too fragile to be temporarily relocated will remain in the museum. Therefore, one of the main challenges during the construction of the new museum is to ensure that vibrations from the ground- and construction work do not damage the fragile objects in the existing museum. Strict vibration limits have been set based on the daily vibration values during normal operation of the museum. The vibration limits are given both as vibration peak limits and as vibration root mean square (RMS). Early calculations showed that especially the RMS limits will be difficult to meet. A “vibration budget” was established, which provides a systematic overview of the vibrations from different construction activities with the expected total time at different RMS levels and with the associated dominating frequency. Based on the results, the most critical construction activities are identified, and effects of mitigation measures are estimated. In addition, the results can form a basis for adjustments of the RMS limits for activities that are expected to last for only a short time. As the main vibration mitigation measure, a screen made of jet-grout columns is planned in the ground between the existing museum and the main construction area. FE-calculations show that the screen may reduce the vibration values by up to 80%. However, since not all activities are affected by the screen, the effect on the vibration budget is somewhat lower.

No, an oral presentation is not just something you prepare at home! Elementary teachers’ practices supporting preparation of oral presentations

In elementary school, oral presentations are among teachers’ favorite activities. From the pupil’s perspective, this activity can have a major impact, as the skills it calls for will prove useful later throughout his/her career and life. While instruction for the presentation generally happens in class, the same is not true for the preparatory work, which is mostly carried out at home with or without parental support, thus creating inequalities between students (Sénéchal, 2017). However, teacher support is essential to help elementary school students prepare their oral presentation.
 Our research question is: what kinds of support do teachers offer to students to help them prepare oral presentations? To answer this question, we interviewed 16 teachers from the French-speaking part of Belgium who ask their students to make oral presentations and who say they offer support before the presentation. Their declared practices show a wide variety of types of accompanying support. The practical implications of our study relate to progressive teaching of a complex task, rebalance between time devoted to oral and to written preparation, attention to the speaker and the audience, collection of artifacts, introduction of training modules for teachers, and best practices to be highlighted.

This School is Made for Students: Students' Perspectives on PBL.

Project-based learning (PBL) is an increasingly popular pedagogical method in K-12 settings. Students exposed to this approach have demonstrated higher academic performance than their peers who have not been exposed, as well as positive rates of self-efficacy and other non-academic skills. Using qualitative methods, including observation, artifact collection, interviews, and focus groups, this research explores biology students’ perceptions of their project-based learning experiences. In particular, we leverage a student focus group to understand how students perceive their learning experience. In this focus group, students perceive project-based learning as a positive influence on their agency, self-efficacy, and learning experience as a whole. Significantly, students’ accounts reveal how their positive perceptions of PBL correspond with purposefully designed elements of project-based learning. This article offers implications for teachers and educational leaders interested in how students perceive project-based learning and how they might integrate project-based learning into their classrooms.

Drawing architecture

Can we surpass the representational nature of architecture drawing to consider and discuss the agency of architectural drawing in process and result? Over the course of three years from 2019, a cohort of architect–drafters, architect–theoreticians and a curator are meeting every six months in a reflective exchange to discuss the production and exhibition of a collection of drawings and drawing-related artefacts. The varying cast of the bi-annual symposia are participants from the United States, Canada and Europe including Michael Webb, Perry Kulper, Laura Allen, Bryan Cantley, Nat Chard, Mark Dorrian, Arnaud Hendrickx, William Menking, Shaun Murray, Anthony Morey, Mark Smout, Neil Spiller, Natalija (Nada) Subotincic, Mark West, Michael Young and Riet Eeckhout. Surpassing the representational nature of architecture drawing, a group of architects and I consider and discuss the agency of architectural drawing in process and result. Drawing architecture implies materializing an architecture within the drawing, where it can be sought, found and experienced. This refers to an action in the present progressive, an action by the author in the process of bringing into the world through drawing – architectural research through drawing. The artefacts, as drawings, that we are looking at are an end in themselves and not a preparatory means to build an environment as in how drawings are used in architectural practices for buildings. These symposia aim to reveal and come closer to the individual agency of each practice within the drawn discipline of architecture, to establish a way in which we can show this agency in an Exhibition at Montreal Design Centre in August–December 2022. The bi-annual symposium days were structured by round-table conversations and discussions that take place based on drawings or drawing-related artefacts brought in by the participants. In ‘Drawing architecture’ Session 1 in New York, we had an in-depth introduction of each participant’s practice with Michael Webb, Perry Kulper, Bryan Cantley, Nat Chard, Arnaud Hendrickx, William Menking, Shaun Murray, Anthony Morey, Neil Spiller, Natalija (Nada) Subotincic, Mark West, Michael Young and Riet Eeckhout. Participants expanded on their bodies of work, tools and the nature of the drawing practice. For ‘Drawing architecture’ Session 2 in London, we sharpened the conversation between the participants by: (1) establishing an angle from which we talk through the artefact(s) (drawing or drawing practice-related artefact), each participant from the standpoint of their practice. Angle: Talking through the drawing or drawing practice-related artefact, can you expand on the agency of the drawing (practice) within the discipline of architecture? Questions that might be helpful: (a) How does the drawing work as a tool of investigation (technique of leveraging knowledge). (b) Where and what is the architecture within the resulting drawing/artefact? When is the architecture in the process? Is there architecture within the drawing? (2) By placing the drawing or artefact central during the symposium talk and organize a group conversation around it. It might be that you bring one or more current drawings/artefacts enabling you to expand on the specific drawing practice investigation. The artefact might be resolved or unresolved, finished, ongoing or just starting and in the thick of things. The presence of the drawing allows the group to come closer to and understand the agency of the artefact itself, supported by talking us through and unpacking the artefact.

Voyage of Ben Cao, Part II: Development of Chinese Medicinal Specimens in the British Museum

Voyage of Ben Cao, Part II: Development of Chinese Medicinal Specimens in the British Museum

Neolithic materials from the settlement and burial ground of Vasilievsky Kordon 27 on the Upper Don (research in 2020-2021)

The purpose of the paper is to publish ceramic and stone collections of artifacts from the Neolithic era from the multilayer settlement and burial ground Vasilievsky Kordon 27. The settlement is located on the right bank of the Voronezh River (Don Basin) within the Dobrovsky District of the Lipetsk Region. Excavations of 323 m have been explored in the settlement. Previously, a large amount of Eneolithic ceramics was discovered: the Srednestogovskaya and Volosovskaya cultures, and Ksizov-type utensils. For the first time in 2020, an economic object with only Early Neolithic materials was discovered at the site. We have received a collection of Early Neolithic pottery, which, undoubtedly, has similarities in various ways with the dishes of the Elshanskaya, Karamyshevskaya and Srednedonskaya early Neolithic cultures. Preliminarily, we are inclined to attribute this collection to the earliest stage in the formation of the Srednedonskaya culture in the first half of the 6th millennium BC. Most of the stone collection of the monument can be attributed to the Neolithic period: chopping tools, a fragment of an arrowheads, a stone shuttle. The final cultural and chronological attribution of the stone inventory is difficult in view of the fact that the excavations of 20202021 were laid on the outskirts of a multi-layered monument, which suffers most from the annual fire plowing.

15 000 let přítomnosti časně mladopaleolitických lovců v Pustém žlebu – artefakty z jeskyně Pod Hradem a jejich datace, Moravský kras, Česká republika

Archaeological evidence shows that Paleolithic hunters occasionally used the difficult-to-access Pod Hradem Cave for short-term visits. The small collection of artefacts spanning a c. 15,000-year period were made from a range of different raw materials collected from known sources in the surrounding regions up to 120 km away. In this paper, we interpret the sum of the archaeological evidence associated with artefacts from Pod Hradem Cave against an updated chronology, and report a previously unpublished stone artefact. Combined, this information suggests variable cave use throughout the site history. During the Early-Upper Paleolithic this likely involved visits by small, mobile bands using Pod Hradem Cave as a short stop over while passing through the Pustý Žleb valley.

Seeking a Lost Collection at Museums Victoria: George Thomas Rice’s ‘Museum of Island Curios’

ABSTRACT In 1880, the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a collection of Pacific artefacts from the estate of George Thomas Rice, a curiosity dealer in Sydney. The collection eventually entered Melbourne Museum where, despite the previous existence of detailed catalogues and correspondence, it remains unprovenanced and largely undocumented. This article investigates the history of the Rice collection and attempts to relocate it at Museums Victoria today. Although the collection remains untraceable, its history offers valuable insights into the scientific and ideological factors behind the early collecting of Pacific material by Australian museums and the active networks that existed between public museums, commercial curiosity shops and international exhibitions in 19th-century Australia. Finally, the article argues that Rice’s collection is emblematic of the broader problem of absence faced by museums, with the poor documentation proving an impediment to the Museum’s current attempts to engage in community-centred and decolonial practice.

“We Shall Be Telling our own Stories”: Bernie Grant, the Africa Reparations Movement, and the Restitution of the Benin Bronzes

Au cours des années 1990, le député du parti travailliste Bernie Grant et l’Africa Reparations Movement (ARM-UK) ont mis en débat le sort d’une collection d’artefacts conservés dans les musées britanniques et qui avaient été pillés au Royaume de Benin en 1897 par les forces britanniques. Cette collection a constitué un prisme à travers lequel penser l’articulation entre le droit à disposer du patrimoine culturel, la construction des identités nationales et les revendications mémorielles. Cet article retrace les efforts de Grant et de ses collègues travaillant avec l’ARM-UK pour mettre en lumière les formes de pouvoir culturel et politique que les bronzes de Benin ont véhiculées dans un contexte postcolonial. En contestant la propriété de ces objets, les partis se sont emparés de la signification des bronzes pour afficher leurs engagements idéologiques, politiques et moraux. Aux côtés d’activistes politiques transnationaux, Grant et ses collègues ont plaidé pour le rapatriement des bronzes et généré un nouveau discours sur le caractère néocolonial des relations entre la Grande-Bretagne et le Nigeria.

Miaodigounization and Erlitounization: the formation and evolution of the Hua-Xia ethnic group and Hua-Xia tradition from the perspective of archaeology

What is Hua-Xia? How and when did the Hua-Xia ethnic group and Hua-Xia tradition come into being? As the spatial and temporal framework, the connotative features and the genealogy of the archaeological culture become increasingly clear, we can identify two important periods of prehistoric archaeological cultures that may have played key roles in the formation of the Hua-Xia ethnic group and its cultural identity. First is the Yangshao Culture (especially its Miaodigou Era), which was formed at the middle Neolithic age. During this period, agriculture was established as the main economic base, resulting in massive population growth, as well as rapid expansion of painted pottery, unique artifact collections and other highly consistent material culture, from the Central Plains of China to the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River and beyond. Based on recent genetic, linguistic and other multidisciplinary research, it can be roughly confirmed that this culture is the archaeological manifestation of the emergence and formation of the Sino-Tibetan language family with a large population and a vast territory, so it is of fundamental significance for the formation of the Hua-Xia tradition in terms of ethnicity, language and culture. Second is the Erlitou Culture, which rose in the heart of the Central Plains of China after the Longshan Era, and stood out again in the Yangshao homeland in the competition among the regional cultural traditions of the early Chinese interaction circle after the collapse of the Yangshao Culture. Absorbing all the advanced cultural factors known at that time, it became the mainstream cultural tradition and great civilization tradition, including the political tradition, the ideological tradition, the lineage system and the unity and coherence in writing. The Erlitou Culture provided world views, values, even the instrumental systems and political institutions for the continuation of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties to identify and follow, which roughly corresponded to the rise of the Xia dynasty as depicted in the literature. Thus, if Miaodigounization, with its great integration and expansion feature, was acclaimed as the foundation of the Hua-Xia tradition, Erlitounization enabled the establishment of Hua-Xia mainstream tradition.

Initial Upper Paleolithic bone technology and personal ornaments at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria)

The expansion of Homo sapiens and our interaction with local environments, including the replacement or absorption of local populations, is a key component in understanding the evolution of our species. Of special interest are artifacts made from hard animal tissues from layers at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) that have been attributed to the Initial Upper Paleolithic. The Initial Upper Paleolithic is characterized by Levallois-like blade technologies that can co-occur with bone tools and ornaments and likely represents the dispersal of H. sapiens into several regions throughout Eurasia starting by 45 ka or possibly earlier. Osseous artifacts from the Initial Upper Paleolithic are important components of this record and have the potential to contribute to our understanding of group interactions and population movements. Here, we present a zooarchaeological, technological, and functional analysis of the diverse and sizable osseous artifact collection from Bacho Kiro Cave. Animal raw material sources are consistent with taxa found within the faunal assemblage including cervids, large bovids, and cave bears. A variety of bone tool morphologies, both formal and informal, indicate a diverse technological approach for conducting various on-site activities, many of which were focused on the processing of animal skins, likely for cold weather clothing. Technological flexibility is also evident in the manufacture of personal ornaments, which were made primarily from carnivore teeth, especially cave bear, though herbivore teeth and small beads are also represented. The osseous artifacts from Bacho Kiro Cave provide a series of insights into the bone technology and indirectly on the social aspects of these humans in southeast Europe, and when placed within the broader Initial Upper Paleolithic context, both regional and shared behaviors are evidently indicating widespread innovation and complexity. This is especially significant given the location and chronology of the site in the context of H. sapiens dispersals.

Whitfield’s gun shop: contents of a 19th-century gunsmith’s shop

SUMMARY On 7 November 1864, George Whitfield, Australia’s most prominent gunsmith, was shot and killed in front of his King Street shop in Sydney by his competitor, Patrick McGlinn. Whitfield’s goods-in-trade were auctioned off and the remaining contents of the gun shop were discarded down an abandoned stone-lined well at the back of the property, which was excavated in 2010. The gun parts, ammunition and tools recovered from the well present a picture of a gunsmith’s workshop in colonial New South Wales. This artefact collection represents one of the first archaeological investigations of the gunsmithing trade in Australia.

Physical activity opportunities for secondary school students: International best practices for whole-of-school physical activity programs

The World Health Organization ([WHO], 2018 ) encourages schools to engage with a multi-component, whole-of-school approach to physical activity promotion. However, little evidence exists describing the practices of schools that successfully promote a physically active school culture. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the best practices of “active” secondary schools. Three schools, each in a different country (i.e. the United States, Finland, and Ireland), were identified as sites for investigation based on the presence of nationally established whole-of-school physical activity initiatives. Data were collected in one secondary school in each country and were generated from several sources including semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, field notes, three days of on-site observation, and artifact collection. Inductive analysis using open and axial coding was conducted ( Corbin and Strauss, 2008 ). Three common themes related to best practices were evident at each site: an established school-based leader, support from the school community, and many available physical activity opportunities. Successful school-based physical activity promotion is possible if there is a motivated physical activity champion and if their promotion efforts are supported. These schools created multiple physical activity opportunities for students and have developed a strong physical activity culture.

Rediscovered Mesolithic Rock Art Collection from Kamyana Mohyla Complex in Eastern Ukraine

Abstract The unique rock art complex of Kamyana Mohyla in South-Eastern Ukraine is known due to its numerous cave art engraved elements and settlements, which show how important is this site in the general picture of European prehistory as regards the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods of the region. However, the assemblages from this site include also a collection of portable rock art artifacts called “churingas.” Important elements of this assemblage are thought to belong to the Mesolithic. These specimens illustrate different aspects of the artist’s worldview and are capable of revealing a lot of additional data on the technological and cultural aspects of their creation. However, their study is complicate because of a very abstract imaging, lack of systematic approach to the artifact classification and absence of a well-defined stratigraphic context from which they have been recovered. Likely, current state of archaeological record and modern technologies introduces the new opportunity to rediscover, reconsider and reshape this collection.

Digital Forensic Investigation of Healthcare Data in Cloud Computing Environment.

Cloud computing is widely used in various sectors such as finance, health care, and education. Factors such as cost optimization, interoperability, data analysis, and data ownership functionalities are attracting healthcare industry to use cloud services. Security and forensic concerns are associated in cloud environments as sensitive healthcare data can attract the outside attacker and inside malicious events. Storage is the most used service in cloud computing environments. Data stored in iCloud (Apple Inc. Cloud Service Provider) is accessible via a Web browser, cloud client application, or mobile application. Apple Inc. provides iCloud service to synchronize data from MacBook, iPhone, iPad, etc. Core applications such as Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Notes, Reminders, and Keynote are synced with iCloud. Various operations can be performed on cloud data, including editing, deleting, uploading, and downloading data, as well as synchronizing data between devices. These operations generate log files and directories that are essential from an investigative perspective. This paper presents a taxonomy of iCloud forensic tools that provides a searchable catalog for forensic practitioners to identify the tools that meet their technical requirements. A case study involving healthcare data storage on iCloud service demonstrates that artifacts related to environmental information, browser activities (history, cookies, cache), synchronization activities, log files, directories, data content, and iCloud user activities are stored on a MacBook system. A GUI-based dashboard is developed to support iCloud forensics, specifically the collection of artifacts from a MacBook system.

Early adolescents’ physical activity and nutrition beliefs and behaviours

ABSTRACT Obesity in early adolescents is a public health concern and presents a risk for poor health outcomes later in life. Early adolescents’ beliefs and behaviours of physical activity and healthy eating are not well understood. The purpose of this ethnographic inquiry was to explore the physical activity and healthy eating beliefs and behaviours of early adolescents (n = 15) who attended a community organization in an urban cluster in the Southeastern USA. Data from semi-structured interviews, participant observations and artefact collection were analysed using constant comparative analysis. We learned that five main influences on the early adolescents’ healthy eating and physical activity included recognizing benefits of physical activity and healthy eating, family influences, connecting with the community, peer influences, and developing a sense of self. Findings highlight community influences on early adolescents’ physical activity and healthy eating beliefs and behaviours that should be taken into account when developing health promotion strategies.

Analysis of Pioneering Computable Biomedical Knowledge Repositories and their Emerging Governance Structures

Abstract A growing interest in producing and sharing computable biomedical knowledge artifacts (CBKs) is increasing the demand for repositories that validate, catalog, and provide shared access to CBKs. However, there is a lack of evidence on how best to manage and sustain CBK repositories. In this paper, we present the results of interviews with several pioneering CBK repository owners. These interviews were informed by the Trusted Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC) framework. Insights gained from these interviews suggest that the organizations operating CBK repositories are somewhat new, that their initial approaches to repository governance are informal, and that achieving economic sustainability for their CBK repositories is a major challenge. To enable a learning health system to make better use of its data intelligence, future approaches to CBK repository management will require enhanced governance and closer adherence to best practice frameworks to meet the needs of myriad biomedical science and health communities. More effort is needed to find sustainable funding models for accessible CBK artifact collections.

Captain Cook, Mrs Taylor and a Mi’kmaw quillwork box: An uncorroborated inscription, an unwarranted assertion and an imagined collection

Abstract In 1963 a small box bearing an inscription stating that it had been ‘brought from Otaheite by Captn. Cook and presented by him to Mrs. Taylor Circus Bath’ was donated to the National Maritime Museum in London. That the box is actually an example of Mi’kmaw work from Nova Scotia has led previous scholars to claim that the famous navigator James Cook (1728–1779) made a collection of artefacts while he was on Royal Navy duty in Atlantic Canada in the years 1758 to 1767. An exploration of the evidence leads to two conclusions: that there is nothing to corroborate the inscription’s claim that Cook presented the box to Mrs Taylor; and that the related assertion that Cook made a collection in Atlantic Canada should be set aside.

What lessons can university education learn from outside the ivory tower: insights from engineering alumni

ABSTRACT Alumni can offer authentic perceptions of how university education is relevant to career requirements with direct educational experiences and frontline work experiences. This study captures the experiences of alumni in the engineering field to illuminate the multi-faceted distinctions between the higher education and employment systems. Based on semi-structured interviews and artefact collection, the findings reveal that the university system focuses more on fragmented and theoretical knowledge in course goals, using classical textbooks as the main means of instruction, while the workplace system emphasises the whole picture and application competence, using cutting-edge instruments and project-based approaches to enhance employees’ abilities. Students at universities are less incentivised to work hard and collaborate with each other than employees at companies due to different incentive rules and different community milieu. The workplace system also has a better division of labour than universities in cultivating talents. Practical implications are discussed regarding aspects of higher education reform.