Technological Styles Research Articles

Agronomics Harvest Endorsement for Fecundity Using Machine Learning and Data Science

Agronomy yield in India is still low in comparison to other countries in the world. In India, the major problems we’re facing in agronomy are unreliable downfall, lack of irrigation installations, soil corrosion, styles of civilization, defective civilization of crops and reduction in net sown area. With these problems, we’re facing difficulty in fecundity. As the population in India is larger and the fruitfulness is lower, we aren’t able to reach the target of supplying food for the people. As the IT world is grows, they want to help the growers by using their Intelligence. We’ve to use our ultramodern technological styles in the agronomy as per our demand to estimate growth by using Machine learning methods. A well-informed decision can directly affect their gains. The use of Random Forest algorithm helps growers understand information about the crop. Keywords: Agronomics, Endorsement of Harvest, Ultramodern technology, Machine Learning, Random Forest.

The sociotechnical dynamics of blue carbon management: Testing typologies of ideographs, innovation, and co-impacts for marine carbon removal

Efforts to halt the precipitous decline of marine ecosystems are taking on additional importance in relation to discussions of climate change and carbon removal. Out of all biological carbon captured in the world, more than half is stored by marine living organisms, and the oceans represent the largest long-term sink for carbon. Blue carbon, the preservation and enhancement of marine and coastal ecosystems for carbon removal, is treated as a potentially cost-effective way to capture and store carbon, generate community co-benefits, and implement conservation and climate agendas. However, blue carbon ecosystems are among the most unproven climate intervention options, in part given their status as highly threatened systems which moreover have critical connections to planetary health and food security. Based on extensive place-based field research and document analysis, this study examines three blue carbon innovations: coral reef preservation in Australia, seagrass restoration in the United Kingdom, and macroalgae (seaweed) cultivation and deep ocean storage in the United States. Empirically, it utilizes an extensive, original dataset of expert interviews (N=46), site visits (N=38) and document analysis undertaken over late 2022 and 2023. Conceptually, it advances our understanding of typologies related to narratives and ideographs, innovation and technological styles, and community co-impacts. It thus offers comparative case study work across three locations and blue carbon approaches with original mixed-methods data aimed at novel theoretical triangulation across three typological frameworks.

:Technological Styles in the Jebel Gharbi Lithic Industries of the Late Pleistocene (North-Western Libya)

:<i>Technological Styles in the Jebel Gharbi Lithic Industries of the Late Pleistocene (North-Western Libya)</i>

Constellations of practice in copper ingots from Zambia and northern Zimbabwe, cal. AD 500–1700

ABSTRACT Rectangular, fishtail and croisette copper ingots have been found in many locations in Central and southern Africa where excavated samples date to between the fifth and eighteenth centuries cal. AD. For more than fifty years, scholars have debated whether these ingots were all made in the Central African Copperbelt, where there are many finds of matching moulds, or if moulds found in Zimbabwe show that copies were produced locally. Lead isotopic and chemical analyses have recently confirmed that the Copperbelt supplied copper ingots to both southern Congo-Kinshasa and the Zimbabwe Plateau between the ninth and eighteenth centuries, but that one HXR ingot can tentatively be sourced to the Magondi Belt copper deposits in northern Zimbabwe. We expand this discussion here by linking ingot chemistry and isotopic provenance with distribution patterns and ingot morphologies. The combined evidence suggests that groups making Luangwa Tradition pottery were responsible for transporting HIH and HXR ingots, and the technological styles for making them, far to the south of the Copperbelt. These croisette ingots link constellations of practice in the Copperbelt and Zimbabwe, possibly through the movement of specialised traders and metalworkers. We identify some of the individuals buried at Ingombe Ilede and Chumnungwa as possible examples of these specialists.

Tuff, Flint, and Hazelnuts: Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Occupation at Netherhall Road, Maryport, Cumbria

Evidence for Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic occupation at Maryport, Cumbria, was discovered during the excavation of Roman occupation features by CFA Archaeology Ltd. A varied lithic assemblage was recovered including worked flint (55%) and tuff (43%), with the rest consisting of a small amount of chert, chalcedony, and rhyolite. Early occupation, probably dating to the Final Palaeolithic Federmesser-Gruppen, is demonstrated through different technological styles among the lithic assemblage. Three phases of activity were identified from cut features and there was a significant amount of charred hazelnut shell, which gave radiocarbon dates centring around 8200 cal BCE. This site provides the first clear evidence that tuff was exploited directly from sources in the Central Lake District, possibly as early as the Final Palaeolithic. The occupation evidence also demonstrates intensive processing of hazelnuts centring around 8200 cal BCE and lasting for 150–558 years. The dates and occupation span are almost identical to those derived from the Mesolithic structure at Cass ny Hawin 2 on the Isle of Man.

Automated SEM Mineralogy and Archaeological Ceramics: Applications in Formative Period Pottery From the Atacama Desert

The analysis of archaeological ceramics has rapidly evolved over the last decades by the application of new analytical techniques. An emerging analytical proposal to fully characterise archaeological ceramics using automated SEM mineralogy is presented. A case study is provided of sets of ceramics from the San Pedro de Atacama oases in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Ceramic fragments of different typologies (i.e., Los Morros, Loa Café Alisado and San Pedro Negro Pulido) found in the Ghatchi archaeological sites are analysed. Our results include automated mineralogical maps, which are used to define the components that form the ceramic pastes, i.e., clay matrix and non-plastic inclusions, as well as grain size and mineral abundance information. We show that the pastes that define the studied ceramic types are more complex than previously suggested. The overall composition for these pastes corresponds to clay mineral-rich matrices containing non-plastic inclusions, such as mineral grains, crushed ceramic fragments, and sedimentary to igneous rock fragments, that may vary in composition, size, and abundance among the studied ceramic types. This mineralogical information allows us to discuss possible sources of raw materials by comparing these paste components with geological information. Here we interpret Los Morros and Loa Café Alisado as foreign ceramic types to Ghatchi, whereas the San Pedro Negro Pulido fragments found in this site agree well with the pottery paste recipe typically recognised in the San Pedro de Atacama oases. The petrographic-approach employed here supports the automated SEM mineralogy as a valid option for archaeometric studies of ceramic pastes since includes precise quantitative data formulated from the chemical composition of each component of the paste, which may provide valuable evidence into raw materials and technological styles.

A field study of ceramics bearing pan-Black Sea decorative motifs from Sinop, Turkey, using pXRF

Though established in the 7th century BCE as an Ionian colony, Sinop (classical Sinope) served as a hub of maritime activity since at least the Early Bronze Age (3rd-2nd millennium BCE). Located in a protected natural harbor on the southern Black Sea coast, Sinop has throughout its history been better integrated into spheres of interaction with the larger Black Sea world rather than the Anatolian interior. Recent excavations at the Sinop Kale site uncovered a stylistically diverse assemblage of handmade ceramics which raises questions about interregional interaction around the Black Sea during the pre-Greek colonial period that may be addressed through ceramic sourcing methods. This paper presents a compositional analysis of handmade ceramics from Sinop bearing a rope-like pan-Black Sea decorative technique using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) that answers specific questions of production and interaction at the site. In particular, it seeks to distinguish between non-local production and non-local technological styles produced locally, employing pXRF as a field technique. Results demonstrated that despite the visible diversity of the assemblage, handmade ceramics were primarily produced locally, as communities with distinct ceramic traditions moved through the Sinop Kale site.

A Search for Continuity in the Transmission of Technological Styles in Navajo Weaving Traditions

This research investigates the role of a community of practice and its importance to the transmission of learned technological styles as reflected in Navajo textiles. How is traditional weaving knowledge manifested in technological style attributes and how do designs remain preserved By analyzing textiles produced by six Navajo weaving families, I investigate the different technological styles associated with Navajo textile production, as well as the learning networks that govern both the intergenerational and non-intergenerational transmission of weaving knowledge within families. I expand on the importance of understanding how technological styles can potentially act as identification markers in cultural material and argue that if technological variation is present, there are specific stylistic attributes rooted in Navajo culture that can identify a textile as Navajo. Together the results of this study provide insights into the traditional learning practices and social networks that preserve technical knowledge and keep Navajo weaving traditions alive.

‘No one remains living in the past’: the dynamics of pottery technological styles in southwestern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT This article examines the pottery technological styles of the Oromo, the Yem and the Dawro ethnolinguistic groups in southwestern Ethiopia. It provides a comparative examination of the technological choices each group makes at different stages of pottery production, which, in turn, produce and reproduce their group identities. In southwestern Ethiopia, pottery-making lies within the domain of women, with social restrictions prohibiting male involvement. Potters are marginalised and transmit pottery-making knowledge and skills through learning networks, mainly between immediate family members. Each pottery-making community practises distinct technological traditions and styles, but all communities are now acquiring new technological skills in response to developing socio-economic dynamics. Examination of the incorporation of new elements into pottery-making due to both socio-economic changes at the local level and global phenomena may provide clues about the changing dynamics of the craft in the recent and more distant past.

Potting practices and social integration in the southern Andes during the late intermediate period: The case of Yavi-Chicha pottery

In this article, we examine the role of pottery production in social and community integration processes during the Late Intermediate period (ca. CE 1000–1450). We explore this relationship through a case study of Yavi-Chicha ceramics from the aggregated community of Chipihuayco, Bolivia, in the Chicha region. Through a combined approach based on macroscopic and petrographic analyses, we reconstruct the chaînes opératoires and determine technological styles in the production of both smoothed and polished/decorated vessels. The results are discussed in relation to different approaches to the idea of community and group identity within the context of corporate political strategies and decentralized institutions during the Late Intermediate period. This community-level analysis demonstrates that potters or groups of potters who aggregated at Chipihuayco shared substantial technological choices and at the same time followed their own ways of producing ceramics—expressed in fundamental technological variability. We conclude that potters and the people who participated in the chaînes opératoires were involved in a broader dynamic process of interaction and continuous negotiation through their engagement in production practices, leading to community and social integration. Further, group and community affiliation was also continually redefined through consumption practices in the context of political commensalism.

Innovation, imitation, and identity: Mayeon Black ware and social complexity in Southwestern Korea

Mayeon Black ware (MYB ware) was produced in southwestern Korea from the late third to mid-fifth centuries CE, and played an important role as a prestige good in the emerging Baekje state. This study analyzes 500 examples of MYB ware from Baekje and contemporaneous Mahan societies, demonstrating that these ceramics were produced using a variety of technological styles and were available to people from multiple social classes. The majority of MYB ware consumption took place at the Baekje political center at Pungnap-toseong, largely taking the form of serving vessels used in feasting rituals. Despite this association between MYB ware and Baekje elites, vessels with similar technological styles to those at Pungnap-toseong appear in agricultural villages within a roughly 25 km radius of the site, suggesting not only a dispersed pattern of production but also a lack of social proscriptions against the use of these wares by non-elites. Baekje elites also gifted MYB wares to prominent people at the margins of Baekje territorial control, prompting imitations by local potters. The Mahan origins of MYB ware technology are apparent in independent developments outside Baekje territory, reinforcing the conclusion that neither the production of MYB or the construction of its meaning was exclusive to Baekje elites. The Baekje state expanded its borders throughout the period of MYB ware use, but the findings of this study underline that MYB ware's presence at a site cannot be used as a direct indicator of Baekje territorial control.

Pyrometamorphic process of ceramic composite materials in pottery production in the Bronze/Iron Age of the Northern Caucasus (Russia)

Pyrotechnology for the prehistoric pottery has been an important subject for the study of ancient production technology and technological styles. However, heterogeneous characteristics in chemical and mineralogical compositions and massive amounts of ceramic sherds at most archaeological sites make it difficult to identify production technologies. In this study, SEM-EDS/WDS, XRD and transmittance and reflectance FT-IR techniques were employed step by step, in order to overcome these limitations. The serial combination of each method covers a macro-, meso- and micro-scale and it enabled us to identify the relationship between firing temperature, reducing or oxidizing atmosphere and thermally induced mobility of Ca and Fe. Numerous ceramic pottery sherds from two archaeological sites in the North Caucasus, Ransyrt 1 (Middle-Late Bronze Age) and Kabardinka 2 (Late Bronze/Early Iron Age) were investigated and compared to the ceramics found at Levinsadovka and Saf’janovo around the Sea of Azov, Russia (Late/Final Bronze Age) for this purpose. Morphological changes by sintering and transformation of indicator minerals such as calcite, hematite, spinel, gehlenite, quartz and cis/trans-vacant 1M illite provide temperature thresholds at 675, 700, 750, 950, 1050, 1100, 1300 °C. With the laboratory based FT-IR, vibrational changes in shape, wavenumber and intensity corresponding to Si-O stretching bands yield an order and classification of the ceramics with regard to firing conditions between the samples as well as the unraveling of temperature profiles within a single sample in a 100 µm scale. With this approach, the number of archaeological ceramics could be classified according to the pyrometamorphic transformation of heterogeneous ceramic composite materials. Combined with the archaeological contexts of each site, these results will contribute to the reconstruction of local technological styles.

Denisova et les traditions paléolithiques en Asie Centrale

In the very heart of Central Asia and far from any African influence, the Denisova cave has played the role of either a sediment gap or for numerous human successive occupations, from 280 to 20 thousands years. We can follow an autonomous regional evolution that takes part in continental cultural systems. At the lower levels, thick and short flakes are dated between 280 and 250 thousands years. A long historical follows from 180 to 40 thousands years with high quality blade Levallois technology. These assemblages belong to regional technical exchanges networks, and to exportations of cultural traits, linked to intense activities on the spot. At the end, between 40 and 20 thousands years, we found innovations both in technologies and in symbols (bone tools and pendants), apparently without external influences. We have not observed any relation between technological styles and the human biological variations (“modern”, Neanderthal or Denisoviens).

Exploring operational chains and technological styles in the production of domestic polished wares from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Research on San Pedro's local wares (Late Formative and Middle periods) has tended to favor stylistic analysis of pottery from mortuary contexts to construct chronological sequences. Little is known about systems of production of domestic wares, or about their social implications. This study uses complementary macroscopic, petrographic, and elemental data to contribute to the understanding of the production and technological patterns of ceramics in the domestic context of Coyo Aldea (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) through the study of polished vessels. The results show highly homogeneous pastes, contrasting with the variability of surface colors of three wares. In addition, the results indicate that all types of polished wares were locally manufactured following a shared ceramic technological style, reflected in paste homogeneity. This study contributes to a better understanding of the means of production as we provide new data on raw material uses and technological styles as part of the operational sequence of production.

Technological Shift and Consequences for Pottery Practices in South-Western Nigeria

Art and crafts including pottery from early times have played significant roles that are characterized by striking clarity, distinctness or truth to life. Nigerian traditional pottery has flourished as a viable occupation, especially among Nigerian women. Pottery were produced to satisfy domestic, ceremonial, religious and ritual purposes as evidenced in Nok, Gwari, Osun, Ekiti and Akoko Edo areas. It is observed that the traditional pottery industry suffered a major setback due to technological advancement and styles of production. The industry is now on the verge of decline in many places due to competition from mass-produced goods, of metal, plastic or glass serving the same purposes as pottery. Regardless of this, there has not been any significant scholarly research in technology advancement and implication for pottery. The aim of the study is an analysis of technological advancement and implication for pottery in South-Western Nigeria. Six States, namely Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun States were focused on. The methodology of the study was tailored to suit the diverse fields that are involved in pottery. The research population of this study was classified in three categories: Traditional potters in the study areas which consists of all potters in the trade, Pottery Enterprises and Tertiary Institutions offering ceramics courses in the study areas. Purposive sampling technique was used because of its suitability in terms of coverage and scope of the research population. Digital camera was used to record photographs of pottery wares and oral interviews were conducted. The techniques, theme, materials and functions were analyzed, collated and examined. Findings showed that two techniques of pot production were identified, the direct and in-direct methods. The challenge of technological advancement makes pottery profession struggle to keep pace with the changing trends in development. Technology introduced many convenient technique of production such as casting for mass production which was not found in traditional pottery. It is recommended that pottery centres be provided as platform for training and practicing. Galleries should also be built for the display of pottery wares and also enhance market outlet. The findings will ensure a wider participation of potters and continual existence of craft. Findings will also encourage the Government as well as public organization to patronize traditional pottery by using them for beautification of public places and souvenir for guest and also make loans accessible to practitioners for the procurement of modern equipment.

Forthcoming Kondratieff wave, Cybernetic Revolution, and global ageing

In the present article we analyze the relationships between K-waves and major technological breakthroughs in history and offer forecasts about features of the sixth Kondratieff wave. We use for our analysis the basic ideas of long cycles' theory and related theories (theories of the leading sector, technological styles etc.) as well as the ideas of our own theory of production principles and production revolutions. The latest of production revolution is the Cybernetic Revolution that, from our point of view, started in the 1950s. We assume that in the 2030s and 2040s the sixth K-wave will merge with the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution (which we call a phase of self-regulating systems). This period will be characterized by the breakthrough in medical technologies which will be capable to combine many other technologies into a single system of MANBRIC-technologies (medico-additive-nano-bio-roboto-info-cognitive technologies). The article also presents a forecast of the process of global ageing and argues why the technological breakthrough will occur in health care sector and connected spheres.

Distribución del diseño de las cabezas mascariformes en las representaciones rupestres del centro oeste argentino y del norte chico chileno: estilo, identidad y paisaje = Distribution of mask-like forms design in rock art of centre west of Argentina and

Se llevo a cabo un analisis sobre las representaciones rupestres del sitio Tunduqueral emplazado en el Valle de Uspallata, N.O de la Provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, ubicado en el periodo agroalfarero temprano-medio (siglos IV y X d.C). Basandonos en la relacion entre arte y paisaje y en los conceptos teoricos sobre estilos tecnologicos buscamos comprender la materialidad de lo ritual a traves del analisis comparativo de las cabezas mascariformes del Cerro Tunduqueral con las representaciones de sitios de San Juan: Los Colorados de Barreal, Quebrada de Aguas Blancas, Villa Dominguito en Sierra Pie de Palo y Quebrada La Chilca, y los hallados en el Norte Chico de Chile: Valle El Encanto (Ovalle), Llano - Pabellon de San Agustin (Valle del rio Hurtado Superior) y Rio Grande (Cuenca del rio Limari). Consideramos que la recurrencia de los disenos a ambos lados de la cordillera de los Andes estaria mostrando ciertos vinculos (lazos comunitarios, de parentesco o vecindad) entre los grupos que ocuparon esta macrorregion, que persistieron y fueron recreados, pero que con el tiempo cobraron significaciones diferentes al ser incorporados a contextos politicos, economicos e ideologicos disimiles del original. Esto nos hablaria de una estrategia de comunicacion visual entre puntos distantes a traves de codigos simbolicos comunes. Rock art analysis had made of Tunduqueral site locate in Uspallata’s valley, NW of Mendoza, Argentina, during farmland-pottery early-late period (4th and 10th centuries AC). Based on the relationship between art, landscape and theoretical concepts of technological styles we expect to understand the ritual material by the comparative analysis of mask-like forms in Tunduqueral’ hill with the San Juan representations: Los Colorados de Barreal, Quebrada de Aguas Blancas, Villa Dominguito in Sierra Pie de Palo y Quebrada La Chilca, and Small North of Chile: Valle El Encanto (Ovalle), Llano–Pabellon de San Agustin (Valle del rio Hurtado Superior) y Rio Grande (Cuenca del rio Limari). We consider the designs recurrence of both Andes places have been showing linkers (ties community, kinship and neighbourhood) between the groups whose took up the macroregion had persisted and had recreated, but over time they had different significations and incorporated in different politic, economic and ideological contexts. This similarity would speak about the strategy visual communication between fairways points by symbols codes community.

Transition to greener pulp: regulation, industry responses and path dependency

Although the dioxin alarm broke at the same time in Sweden and the US in the mid-1980s, Swedish pulp and paper (P&P) firms led the way towards the new market for low-chlorine and chlorine-free P&P products. This study explores the transition in the Swedish P&P industry and contrasts the Swedish case to the US experience. We highlight the importance of already established technological paths to deal with pollution, paths which were strongly formed by the different national environmental policies since the 1970s. Thus while US P&P firms were technologically locked-in when the dioxin alarm broke, the strategy of Swedish P&P firms to proactively collaborate in environmental research and development (R&D) together with a national policy that favoured process integrated abatement technology, helped Swedish firms take technological leadership. This article particularly stresses the implications of technological path-dependency and different national regulatory styles in understanding the evolution of different modes of corporate environmental strategies.

For Whom the Bells Fall: Metals from the Cenote Sagrado, Chichén Itzá

Bells of copper and copper alloys and gold–copper alloys were deposited in events at the Cenote Sagrado at Chichén Itzá, Mexico during the site's primary occupation (ad 750–1050) and in later centuries. Housed in three museums in the United States and Mexico, bells (n = 38) were evaluated for traces of fabrication and alteration using Vis–UV–IR optical microscopy. Bulk compositions were determined through p‐ED‐XRF. Phases and compositional variation by depth were characterized through XRD and RBS. The technological styles of bell groups were ascribed to communities of metallurgical practice, from West and Central Mexico to Costa Rica and Panama.

Experimental and traceological approach for a technical interpretation of ceramic polished surfaces

Ceramic surface treatments resulting in polished surfaces are frequent during all the Neolithic period and show a significant variability. Although many studies contribute towards a better understanding of some aspects of these treatments, none of them provide a genuine technical and traceological reconstitution method in archaeology. This paper outlines a set of specific experiments designed to test the influence of five main factors on the traces formation process (tool, movement and active part of the tool, paste water content, hydration process and superimposition of the various treatments).The results of the traceological analysis show that: (a) four main techniques can be highlighted through this approach; (b) the variability of the traces occurring during the applied treatments was linked to several processes and methods; (c) archaeological pottery examinations show the potential role of surface treatments in defining “technological styles” and differentiating groups and settlements from one another. As a result, these experiments entail a methodological innovation to archaeology, yielding a broader perspective into prehistoric technologies.