Proposal of smart guide system for cultural heritage of archaeological sites using IoT-focusing on Hoeamsa Temple site in Yangju, Korea.

Due to the nature of the cultural heritage guide of the archaeological site, it is necessary to effectively and quickly deliver a significant amount of information. In this paper, we propose a smart guide system for guiding the cultural heritage of outdoor archaeological sites. IoT has been greatly expanded in archaeological sites, but most of them are for checking and preserving the current status of cultural heritage. Therefore, research results were limited to the field. Therefore, in this paper, the smart guide system was reviewed as part of the expansion application of IoT technology in the field of cultural heritage. To this end, for example, the value of cultural heritage sites in Yangju, Korea was analyzed, the status of cultural heritage guidance in the historical site was reviewed, and a smart guide system using IoT was proposed. Through this, it is expected to be applied to the cultural heritage guidance system at the world's archaeological sites.

On the Prospects of In Situ Conservation of Medicinal- and Aromatic-Plant Genetic Resources at Ancient-Hillfort Sites: A Case Study from Lithuania.

Twenty-three ancient-hillfort sites were investigated to evaluate the potential for the in situ conservation of medicinal- and aromatic-plant populations. An evaluation of the site's suitability was carried out by employing three major groups of criteria: species-specific, site-specific, and threat assessment. The species-specific criteria included the total species number, target species number, the cover-abundance of the target species estimated by mean Braun-Blanquet score, and, as an additional criterion, the number and cover-abundance of crop wild relatives. The site-specific criteria included site evaluation with respect to climatic region, the area size of a site, the habitat type, and the site's protection status. The threat assessment was focused on anthropogenic activities, such as recreational, agricultural, and others. The total number of vascular plant species inventoried was 264, including 82 species of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP). There was a strong and highly significant correlation between the total and the MAP species numbers (rs = 0.77, p < 0.001), and the two most species-rich sites, Zuklijai and Pamiske, contained the highest total and MAP species numbers. The investigated hillfort sites covered the populations of 49 species, or about 33% of the priority species list, with 5 or more populations. The most frequent species, Hypericum perforatum, occurred at 21 sites. The twenty-three hillfort sites represent three of the four climatic regions and six of the ten climatic subregions of Lithuania. Although these hillfort sites are quite small (1.24 ± 0.75 ha on average, without buffer zone), they are scattered across the country and are state-protected as archaeological objects, which makes them suitable for the in situ conservation of MAP genetic resources. In addition, seven hillfort sites (30.4% of the investigated ones) belong to the European network of special areas of conservation of habitats (Natura 2000), thus increasing their international importance. The threat assessment showed that anthropogenic activities (recreational, agricultural, etc.) are among the major factors affecting target-species populations.

Study on heavy metals' influence on buried cultural relics in soil of an archaeological site.

The protection of cultural relics in a chariot pit in the ancient ruins has become an important issue. In order to study the spatial distribution, speciation of heavy metals in soil at a cemetery where an ancient chariot was buried and the influence heavy metals have had on the cultural relics. Heavy metals in soil samples surrounding the cultural relic were analyzed via atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) using a wet digestion method combined with a three-step sequential extraction procedure. Results for seven heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Fe, Mn and Sn) and the speciation of six heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Fe and Mn) indicated that their contents exceeded local soil background values, indicating that the soil around the site had been contaminated to a certain degree. Analysis of their speciation showed that Mn mainly existed in the form of a reducible fraction in the soil, while the other elements were mainly in the form of a residual fraction. Correlation analysis showed that, except for the HOAc soluble fraction, a significant positive correlation existed between the content of the different forms and their total amounts. Heavy metals present in the soil surrounding the ancient relic predominantly influence the relic due to their related chemical reactions. In particular, copper and iron have a significant influence on corrosion of the cultural relics in this chariot pit.

Impact of wildfire on granite outcrops in archaeological sites surrounded by different types of vegetation.

The lack of scientific information about the effects of wildfire on prehistoric structures and rock art, such as dolmens and petroglyphs, impedes the development of conservation guidelines. In this study, the impact of a recent wildfire (late 2017) on granite outcrops in the San Salvador de Coruxo archaeological site (Vigo, SW Galicia) was evaluated. Samples of the same type of granite were obtained from three sites characterised by different types of vegetation (natural scrub, native deciduous oak and non-native pine-eucalypt forest) in order to determine how the vegetation influences the fire-caused damage to the rock. Three subsamples were taken from each of the granite samples at depths of 1 cm-3 cm to study how fire affects the rock at depth. In all sites, the temperature reached at the granite surface was below 380 °C. No mineralogical changes due to fire exposure were detected, and no physical changes that could be attributed to the effect of the fire on the fissure system of the granite were identified. However, aesthetic colour changes due to the deposition of organic and charred matter, which even penetrated the fissures, were detected. The existence of lignin-derived compounds, lipids and carbohydrates in the samples from the oakwood site indicates greater resistance to fire effects in this type of vegetation than in the other two types. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that oakwoods could act as protective belts around archaeological sites by reducing the wildfire severity, because of their greater resistance to being burnt, and that they could buffer the damaging effects of fire in natural areas where parietal art is found.

Application of artificially intelligent systems for the identification of discrete fossiliferous levels.

The separation of discrete fossiliferous levels within an archaeological or paleontological site with no clear stratigraphic horizons has historically been carried out using qualitative approaches, relying on two-dimensional transversal and longitudinal projection planes. Analyses of this type, however, can often be conditioned by subjectivity based on the perspective of the analyst. This study presents a novel use of Machine Learning algorithms for pattern recognition techniques in the automated separation and identification of fossiliferous levels. This approach can be divided into three main steps including: (1) unsupervised Machine Learning for density based clustering (2) expert-in-the-loop Collaborative Intelligence Learning for the integration of geological data followed by (3) supervised learning for the final fine-tuning of fossiliferous level models. For evaluation of these techniques, this method was tested in two Late Miocene sites of the Batallones Butte paleontological complex (Madrid, Spain). Here we show Machine Learning analyses to be a valuable tool for the processing of spatial data in an efficient and quantitative manner, successfully identifying the presence of discrete fossiliferous levels in both Batallones-3 and Batallones-10. Three discrete fossiliferous levels have been identified in Batallones-3, whereas another three have been differentiated in Batallones-10.

Long-Term Effectiveness, under a Mountain Environment, of a Novel Conservation Nanomaterial Applied on Limestone from a Roman Archaeological Site.

A novel alkoxysilane-based product was applied on limestone samples from a Roman archaeological site. The study consisted of an initial phase to evaluate site environmental conditions in order to choose the most suitable product type to be applied. The decay that was produced in the site is mainly caused by natural action, with water being the main vehicle for the decay agents. Thus, the effectiveness of an innovative product with hydrophobic/consolidant properties and two commercial products (consolidant and hydrophobic agent) were evaluated on limestone from Acinipo site, under laboratory conditions. Next, the long-term effectiveness of the three products under study was evaluated by the exposure of limestone samples in the archaeological site for a period of three years. Since the recognized incompatibility between alkoxysilanes and pure carbonate stones, the interaction between the products and the limestones was widely investigated. The results that were obtained allow for it to be concluded that the innovative product presents adequate compatibility and adherence to the limestone under study, producing a long-term effective, homogeneous, and continuous coating with a depth of penetration of up to 10 mm. However, the commercial products produced discontinuous aggregates on the limestone surface, did not penetrate into its porous structure and it did not produce long-lasting effects.

Distribution and Characterization of the Vitis vinifera L. subsp sylvestris in Southern Tuscany.

BACKGROUND: The Eurasian grapevine is the most widespread fruit crop in the world. Numerous studies have focused on clarifying the events of domestication and the geographical areas in which they occurred. OBJECTIVES: In order to add upon information on the process of grapevine domestication, the distribution and genetic diversity of a small, wild population localized in Poggio Ghiaccio Forte, an archaeological site in Maremma (Southern Tuscany), were assessed. In a preliminary survey the wild forms of Vitis vinifera L. were identified based on morphological traits. METHOD: Fourty-two accessions of Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris were collected near the Albegna river and its secondary conduits. As a control, four non-vinifera grapevines (Vitis berlandieri, Vitis riparia Fabre, rupestris Constantia, rupestris H. Goethe) and ten varieties of Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa characterizing the Tuscan grapevine germplasm (Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, Aleatico, Ansonica, Canaiolo Nero, Trebbiano Toscano, Barsaglina, Malvasia Lunga, Moscato Bianco, Abrusco) were added to the wild population. All fifty-six vines were treated as one population and tested by 10 SSR-based genotyping. RESULTS: According to SSR analysis, the wild population seems to be characterized by a systematic reduction of observed compared to expected heterozygosity due to the tendency of inbreeding and genetic trait fixation. There are a lot of registered patents about different applications involving Vitis vinifera mostly relating to disease resistance, grapevine fitness and novel combinations of antioxidants useful in therapeutic, foodstuff and cosmetic fields.

Fasciola hepatica eggs in paleofaeces of the Persian onager Equus hemionus onager, a donkey from Chehrabad archaeological site, dating back to the Sassanid Empire (224-651 AD), in ancient Iran.

Fascioliasis is a highly pathogenic zoonotic disease caused by the liver trematodes Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. Within the multidisciplinary initiative against this disease, there is the aim of understanding how this disease reached a worldwide distribution, with important veterinary and medical repercussions, by elucidating the spreading steps followed by the two fasciolids from their paleobiogeograhical origins. Fasciola eggs were detected in paleofaeces of a donkey, probably the present-day endangered Persian onager Equus hemionus onager, found in the Chehrabad salt mine archaeological site, Zanjan province, northwestern Iran. The biological remains dated back to the Sassanid period, 224-651 AD. Egg characteristics allowed for their specific ascription to F. hepatica. The interest of this finding relies on the fact of being the first archaeological finding of Fasciola in Asia and the Near East. Moreover, it allows to reach many conclusions about historical, epidemiological and spreading aspects of the disease. The finding in Chehrabad indicates that, at that time, this fasciolid had already spread through the Zagros mountains eastward from the Fertile Crescent. In that region and in ancient Egypt, livestock domestication played a crucial role in facilitating the disease spread during the postdomestication period. Donkeys appear at present to be usually infected by fasciolids in countries of the Fertile Crescent - Ancient Egypt region or neighbouring that region, with prevalences from low to very high. The high pathogenicity and mortality induced by Fasciola in these equines should be considered as an additional potential factor among the causes of the extinctions of E. h. hemippus in Syria, E. h. hydruntinus in the Anatolia-Balkans area, E. h. onager in the Caucasus and maybe also its decline in Iran. Indeed, Eurasiatic wild asses were present in the region and neighbourhood of the Fertile Crescent when the domestication of the livestock reservoirs of Fasciola began.

Zoonotic parasites associated with felines from the Patagonian Holocene

Feline coprolites were examined for parasites with the aim of studying ancient infections that occurred in the Patagonian region during the Holocene period. Eggs compatible to Trichuris sp., Calodium sp., Eucoleus sp., Nematodirus sp., Oesophagostomum sp. (Nematoda), Monoecocestus sp. (Cestoda) and Eimeria macusaniensis (Coccidia) were recovered from faecal samples. The results obtained from the analysis provide evidence of consumption by felids of the viscera of both rodents and camelids. This knowledge allows for improved explanations as to the distribution of parasitism and its significance to the health of humans and animals inhabiting the area under study during the Middle Holocene.