Beads

The aim of this study is to show that digital technology now lies at the heart of the evangelizing mission of the the Catholic Church. In view of the profound changes brought by the rise of digital communication technologies, the Vatican justifies this objective through a desire to reach believers in the remotest areas of the world. While at first glance this strategy gives the Catholic Church a modern image, the current research work brings it closer to the importance the Church attaches to global health interventions. Given the healthcare system failure in some African countries, this article which is based on Foucault's concerns about surveillance foresees a form of paternalism capable of fostering a mode of governance that subtly promotes the influence of individual behaviour.

This article examines stone beads from urn burials unearthed at Kunnukara in the Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. Eighty-eight stone beads of agate/carnelian and quartz (rock crystal) from this site, which are kept in the Archaeological Museum, Union Christian College, Aluva, are important for understanding the morphological and technological features of stone beads of the South Indian Megalithic culture, as the specimens exhibit diverse morphological types and unique drilling technologies. The evidence from this site, along with that from Niramakulam, suggests that further examination on stone beads from Megalithic contexts can provide invaluable information on the Megalithic society.

Measuring the geographical extent of interactions in prehistory through the proxy of material culture has long been a theme of archaeological research and various analytical and interpretational techniques have been proposed to this end. Distributions of both materials and products are used to hypothesise extent of movement, however the nuance of reasons for, and modes of, distribution is more difficult to define within the parameters of archaeological data. Existing narrative paradigms of long-term change often influence views of directionality of movement, a particularly clear case being the movement of early farming groups from Anatolia into Europe. Emphasis on this wider trend has led to the downplaying of ongoing short-term interactions at the regional and interregional scale that can shed light on both relationships between settlements and the scale of multi-directionality in communications. Highly portable beads offer an ideal medium through which to explore short-term multi-directional encounters of the prehistoric period via the traceability of both materials and forms through space and time. Here an example of Neolithic and Chalcolithic blue fluorapatite beads from Turkey is used to think about the impact of simple data collection on archaeological interpretations.

This paper examines osseous beads and pendants from the Aceramic Neolithic mound site of Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey). The major part of the excavated occupational sequence spans c. 8350-7350 cal BC, a period characterised by local differences in subsistence strategies prior to the emergence of agropastoral systems. At Aşıklı Höyük, gradual replacement of a variety of animals harvested for meat with caprines and stock keeping have been observed. Cultivation would be the prime explanation for the location of the site, which became larger and more densely occupied over time. Material culture provides evidence for technological and social behaviours changing at different rates and degrees. The osseous ornaments highlight deep-rooted habits and concepts as well as shifting attitudes toward personal adornment. Beads made from small mammal and bird bones and marine mollusc shells and deer canine imitations made from mammal bones were a constant choice. The major variations concern the spatial and temporal distributions of the tooth pendants and shell beads and the materials and skills used for imitation. We use here faunal and technological data to explore these distributions further.

Este libro se compone de 12 capítulos que tratan sobre diversos aspectos de la arqueología del curso inferior del Río Colorado (Pcia. de Buenos Aires), en la tran-sición pampeano-patagónica oriental. El objetivo central del mismo es sintetizar el conocimiento obtenido sobre los modos de vida, la trayectoria histórica y la organi-zación social de las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras que habitaron este sector de la cuenca durante los últimos ca. 6000 años AP. Las diversas líneas de trabajo abordadas a través de los distintos capítulos per-mitieron conocer aspectos ligados a diferentes temáticas como las condiciones pa-leoambientales y geomorfológicas, la cronología de las ocupaciones humanas, la subsistencia y procesos relacionados (e.g., diversificación e intensificación), la or-ganización de los sistemas tecnológicos líticos y la circulación de rocas a través del espacio, la tecnología cerámica, los sistemas de asentamiento y movilidad, las prác-ticas mortuorias y la salud de los grupos humanos, el arte mobiliar y los adornos personales. La información obtenida de estos tópicos permitió relacionar el área del curso inferior del Río Colorado con regiones vecinas y discutir procesos sociales en escalas mayores entre los que se encuentran las dinámicas poblacionales, las moda-lidades y naturaleza de las interacciones sociales (e.g., complementariedad social y regionalización), los sistemas de comunicación prehistóricos, la construcción de identidades y los cambios en la cosmovisión de las sociedades pasadas. La arqueología de grupos cazadores-recolectores de las regiones Pampeana y Norpatagónica ha crecido notablemente en los últimos años y los resultados y dis-cusiones presentados aquí son un aporte a tales investigaciones. La generación de conocimiento arqueológico para el curso inferior del Río Colorado no sólo ha llena-do vacíos preexistentes sino que ha aportado un marco contra el cual comparar los modelos construidos en las mencionadas regiones. Sin embargo, la síntesis alcanza-da aquí pretende ir más allá de un mero estado de la cuestión y contribuir al desa-rrollo posterior de la arqueología de estas regiones. En última instancia, este caso de estudio también aportó al conocimiento de la arqueología de grupos cazadores-recolectores de zonas áridas-semiáridas.

Мир древнего человека был глубоко символичен и пропитан правилами, отход от которых грозил голодом, болезнями или потерей жизни. Одну из значимых ролей в идентификации отводилась цвету. Особое место в этом цветовом кодексе занимал синий цвет. Вполне возможно, что бусы синего цвета произво-
дились в античных центрах стеклоделия именно для нужд кочевого (сарматского) населения и они, вероятно, были частью погребального костюма и символизировали переход от жизни к смерти – священные воды или небеса, которые встретят умершего в ином мире.

Ключевые слова. Сарматская культура, сарматские погребения Нижнего Поволжья, бусы, символика цвета, типология.

Abstract. The world of ancient man was deeply symbolical, and regulated by strict rules, so any deviation led to punishment. In those rules, colors played a great role. Blue color had a unique place in this kind of codex. It is possible that antique glassblowing centers manufactured for special needs of the Sarmatians people. Perhaps they were a part of burial dressing to symbolize the transition from life to death – to sacred waters or Heaven.

Key words. Sarmatian culture, beads, color symbolism, typology.

An analysis of the Bronze Age beads from Tell F6 at Failaka Island, Kuwait, excavated from 2008-2012. The bead material were recovered from  excavation layers between the Bronze Age "Palace" and Temple dating to settlement phases between 2100-ca. 1350 BC.

New data on faience production technologies in central Europe come from an analysis of 12 faience beads from an Early Bronze Age cemetery in Poland. The beads were tested with the EPMA method. Altogether 65 measurements were made. In terms of morphology, the artifacts are all the same, but they differ in microstructure and chemical composition. For some a mixed alkali flux was used, for others soda‐rich plant ashes. Even so, all of the beads seem to have been made from local raw materials in central Europe (soda‐rich plant ashes could have come from plants growing near one of the mainland salt sources, which are frequent, for example, in south‐eastern Poland).

The discovery of 16 Conus apex beads from the Early Bronze Age II site of Tel Bareqet in central Israel, prompted research concerning this type of personal ornament. Theses ornaments were made of Indo-Pacific Conus shells, and they were discovered in numerous third millennium BCE sites in the Levant, the Sinai Desert, as well as in Mesopotamia, suggesting long-range contacts. The existence of a workshop of such artifacts in Oman might point to their actual origin. Ethnographic analogies, coupled with the size and distribution of these artifacts, suggest that these were prestige items.

This work reports the synthesis of novel antibacterial magnetic-/pH-sensitive hydrogel beads based on ionotropic-gelation of alginate biopolymer. Using pomegranate peels extract, green-Ag nanoparticles were synthesized inside a mixture of alginate and Fe3O4, via in situ method. The alginate beads were investigated by VSM, TEM, XRD, and FE-SEM techniques. The introducing Ag and Fe3O4 nanoparticles in hydrogel beads caused a reduction in the swelling capacity of hydrogel beads. Besides, a pH-dependent swelling behavior was observed for hydrogel beads with a maximum swelling capacity at pH = 7.4. Diclofenac sodium (DS) as a model drug was loaded in hydrogel beads and its release showed a pH-dependent behavior. Drug release studies exhibited significant behaviors on the subject of physiological simulated pHs with a high release rate at pH = 7.4. The alginate beads have shown a prolonged and successive controlled drug release nearly 83% at pH = 7.4 and time 200 min. In addition to the pH, the release of DS from magnetic beads was affected by the external-magnetic-fields. Also, the Ag-incorporated alginate beads showed strong antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli. These results indicated that the hydrogel beads have potentially applicable in drug delivery systems.