We have little information about Iulia Cornelia Salonina because of the scant attention she received from classical authors, among whom Aurelius Victor, Zonaras, and the Historia Augusta mention her. However, we know that she was the wife of Gallienus, who ruled between 253 and 268, and that is why we have her presence in numismatic and epigraphic sources. Considering the importance of coinage as a medium for the distribution of the imperial image, this study presents the main characteristics of the typology of the imperial coinage of Salonina. To carry it out, approximately 105,000 coins from the domus Licinia Augusta present in 121 coin hoards of the Roman Empire have been analysed, following the methodology of researchers such as Duncan-Jones, Noreña, and Rowan. The content is divided into an introduction; a section that collects the information that we can obtain of Salonina through literary sources and epigraphy, as well as the current literature in this regard; a main section that includes the study of its coinage; and finally, the conclusions. As a result, we determine that there are clear differences between the periods 253-259 and 260-268, where she was more associated with traditional divinities in the first case and with messages linked to the imperial family, her virtues, and the divinities in the second. Also, this analysis allows us to reconsider some of the statements made by Cesano, De Blois, Ferrari, or Geiger to advance our knowledge of the imperial representation of this Augusta.
M. Salman Shaukat, Yannik Käckenmeister, Sebastian Bader
et al.
Underwater 3D object detection remains one of the most challenging frontiers in computer vision, where traditional approaches struggle with the harsh acoustic environment and scarcity of training data. While deep learning has revolutionized terrestrial 3D detection, its application underwater faces a critical bottleneck: obtaining sufficient annotated sonar data is prohibitively expensive and logistically complex, often requiring specialized vessels, expert surveyors, and favorable weather conditions. This work addresses a fundamental question: Can we achieve reliable underwater 3D object detection without real-world training data? We tackle this challenge by developing and comparing two paradigms for training-free detection of artificial structures in multibeam echo-sounder point clouds. Our dual approach combines a physics-based sonar simulation pipeline that generates synthetic training data for state-of-the-art neural networks, with a robust model-based template matching system that leverages geometric priors of target objects. Evaluation on real bathymetry surveys from the Baltic Sea reveals surprising insights: while neural networks trained on synthetic data achieve 98% mean Average Precision (mAP) on simulated scenes, they drop to 40% mAP on real sonar data due to domain shift. Conversely, our template matching approach maintains 83% mAP on real data without requiring any training, demonstrating remarkable robustness to acoustic noise and environmental variations. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom about data-hungry deep learning in underwater domains and establish the first large-scale benchmark for training-free underwater 3D detection. This work opens new possibilities for autonomous underwater vehicle navigation, marine archaeology, and offshore infrastructure monitoring in data-scarce environments where traditional machine learning approaches fail.
J. Carbajo-Hijarrubia, R. Carrera, F. Anders
et al.
Open clusters offer crucial insights into stellar nucleosynthesis and the chemical evolution of the Galactic disc, as their ages and distances can be determined with higher accuracy compared to field stars. In this study, we investigate the outermost regions of the Milky Way disc using two previously unstudied open clusters -Auner 1 and Berkeley 102- located at Galactocentric distances of approximately 14 kpc in largely uncharted areas of the Galaxy. We obtained medium-resolution spectra (R > 18,700) using the MEGARA integral-field unit (IFU) spectrograph on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), targeting red giant member stars in both clusters. From these spectra, we derived radial velocities, stellar atmospheric parameters, and chemical abundances for six elements: Fe, Ca, Co, Ni, Ba, and Eu. Additionally, we provide updated estimates of the clusters' ages and distances. Both clusters are old (3.2 +- 0.7 Ga), distant (d ~ 8 kpc), and lie below the Galactic plane (Z Gal ~ -0.7 kpc), with moderate extinction (AV ~ 1.3 mag). We find that Auner 1 has a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -0.30 +- 0.09 and Berkeley 102 of [Fe/H] = -0.35 +- 0.06, consistent with other clusters at similar Galactocentric radii and indicating minimal azimuthal variation in metallicity. The [X/Fe] abundance ratios align with expected trends, although [Ca/Fe] is slightly higher in both clusters, and [Eu/Fe] is notably enhanced in Berkeley 102 ([Eu/Fe] = 0.64 +- 0.05). Our findings highlight the effectiveness of GTC/MEGARA in IFU mode for Galactic archaeology and emphasize the need for further medium-to-high resolution spectroscopic studies of remote open clusters to refine models of the outer Galactic disc's chemical evolution.
As the oldest mature writing system, Oracle Bone Script (OBS) has long posed significant challenges for archaeological decipherment due to its rarity, abstractness, and pictographic diversity. Current deep learning-based methods have made exciting progress on the OBS decipherment task, but existing approaches often ignore the intricate connections between glyphs and the semantics of OBS. This results in limited generalization and interpretability, especially when addressing zero-shot settings and undeciphered OBS. To this end, we propose an interpretable OBS decipherment method based on Large Vision-Language Models, which synergistically combines radical analysis and pictograph-semantic understanding to bridge the gap between glyphs and meanings of OBS. Specifically, we propose a progressive training strategy that guides the model from radical recognition and analysis to pictographic analysis and mutual analysis, thus enabling reasoning from glyph to meaning. We also design a Radical-Pictographic Dual Matching mechanism informed by the analysis results, significantly enhancing the model's zero-shot decipherment performance. To facilitate model training, we propose the Pictographic Decipherment OBS Dataset, which comprises 47,157 Chinese characters annotated with OBS images and pictographic analysis texts. Experimental results on public benchmarks demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art Top-10 accuracy and superior zero-shot decipherment capabilities. More importantly, our model delivers logical analysis processes, possibly providing archaeologically valuable reference results for undeciphered OBS, and thus has potential applications in digital humanities and historical research. The dataset and code will be released in https://github.com/PKXX1943/PD-OBS.
Where in the present-day Milky Way should we search for the remnants of its earliest stars? We address this question using the DORCHA (Gaelic for Dark; DUR-uh-khuh) suite: a set of 25 high-resolution, dark-matter-only cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogue (MWA) haloes evolved to $z=0$. Of these, 15 are isolated and the rest are in pairs, similar to the MW and M31. By identifying and tagging the most bound material in high-redshift ($z\geq5$) progenitor haloes -- those likely to host early star formation -- we track the present-day phase-space distribution of this ancient component. We find that this material is highly centrally concentrated at $z=0$, with 90 -- 100 per cent residing within $r \lesssim 15\,h^{-1}\,\mathrm{kpc}$. It exhibits steep density profiles ($ρ\propto\,r^{-4}$), low velocity dispersions ($σ_r / σ_{\rm max} \lesssim 0.6$), and radially biased orbits ($β\gtrsim 0.5$ for $r \gtrsim 0.1\,R_{200}$), consistent with a relaxed, centrally embedded population. These results hold across haloes with diverse formation histories and environments, suggesting that the dynamical signature of early progenitors is robust to later mergers and interactions. Our findings imply that the fossil record of the first generations of stars -- including Population III and extremely metal-poor stars -- should be sought in the innermost regions of the Milky Way, where they retain distinctive kinematic imprints. While these stellar populations may overlap, we caution that low metallicity does not uniquely identify ancient stars, nor vice versa. The DORCHA suite thus provides a physically motivated baseline for interpreting observations from Galactic Archaeology surveys targeting the bulge and inner halo.
Radiocarbon dating poses a challenge in many archaeological contexts due to the limited precision of conventional calibration methods. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to fine-dating that is based on the repeated application of OxCal's R_Simulate function. By constructing extensive reference tables and aggregating measures of central tendency (means and medians), uncalibrated 14C measurements are directly mapped to calendar dates. The method is validated through comprehensive simulations and comparisons with dendrochronologically dated tree rings. Despite challenges in segments of the calibration curve with low gradients, the approach demonstrates that a significant improvement in dating precision is achievable. Limitations and potential avenues for further methodological optimisation are discussed.
The article is devoted to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Aida Grigoryevna Petrenko, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Republic of Tatarstan, the largest specialist in the field of archaeozoology of the Volga-Ural region. The authors consider the scientific contribution of the scientist to the development of archaezoological research. For 45 years, A.G. Petrenko's activities took place together with archaeologists, first within the walls of the Kazan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan. A.G. Petrenko analyzed osteological materials from sites of the Bronze Age, Early Iron and Early Middle Ages. Then she expanded the scope of her scientific interests and began to study the economic activities of the population of the cities of Volga Bulgaria and medieval Kazan, as well as the ritual role of animals according to archaeozoological finds in ancient and medieval burial grounds of the Middle Volga region and the Urals, she paid special attention to the remains of a horse in the burials of nomads. Professor V.I. Tsalkin, the largest representative of archaeological zoology and paleontology, played an important role in the scientific formation of A.G. Petrenko. In 1967, A.G. Petrenko defended her PhD thesis "On the history of domestic animals among the ancient population of the Volga–Kama region (according to the osteological material of archaeological sites)", and in 1985 – her doctoral dissertation "Morphology of bones of the skeleton of farm animals in connection with the development of animal husbandry in the Middle Volga region and the Urals for the period from V thousand to the middle II thousand BC". A.G. Petrenko has published more than a hundred scientific papers, she is the author of six monographs and a handbook. Aida Grigorievna's scientific works received international recognition, in 1990 she was elected a member of the International Committee of Archaeozoologists (IGAZ). A.G. Petrenko was the initiator and inspirer of the serial publication "Archaeology and Natural Sciences of Tatarstan".
Melissa K. Ness, J. Trevor Mendel, Sven Buder
et al.
The element abundances of local group galaxies connect enrichment mechanisms to galactic properties and serve to contextualise the Milky Way's abundance distributions. Individual stellar spectra in nearby galaxies can be extracted from Integral Field Unit (IFU) data, and provide a means to take an abundance census of the local group. We introduce a program that leverages $R=1800$, $\mathrm{SNR}=15$, IFU resolved spectra from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE). We deploy the data-driven modelling approach for labelling stellar spectra with stellar parameters and abundances, of The Cannon, on resolved stars in NGC 6822. We construct our model for The Cannon using $\approx$19,000 Milky Way LAMOST spectra with APOGEE labels. We report six inferred abundance labels (denoted $\ell_\mathrm{X}$), for 192 NGC 6822 disk stars, precise to $\approx$$0.15$ dex. We validate our generated spectral models provide a good fit the data, including at individual atomic line features. We infer mean abundances of $\ell_\mathrm{[Fe/H]} = -0.90 \pm 0.03$, $\ell_\mathrm{[Mg/Fe]} = -0.01 \pm 0.01$, $\ell_\mathrm{[Mn/Fe]} = -0.22 \pm 0.02$, $\ell_\mathrm{[Al/Fe]} = -0.33 \pm 0.03$, $\ell_\mathrm{[C/Fe]} =-0.43 \pm 0.03$, $\ell_\mathrm{[N/Fe]} =0.18 \pm 0.03$. These abundance labels are similar to dwarf galaxies observed by APOGEE, and the lower enhancements for NGC 6822 compared to the Milky Way are consistent with expectations. This approach supports a new era in extra-galactic archaeology of characterising the local group enrichment diversity using low-resolution, low-SNR IFU resolved spectra.
El presente trabajo es un análisis desde una perspectiva de género de la evolución del concepto de pax asociado al dios Jano en la Roma antigua. Se pone el foco en aquellos elementos asociados a lo masculino y femenino en el lenguaje de pax romano, y en su evolución y resignificación. Durante la época romana las puertas de Jano simbolizaron las relaciones externas de la ciudad de Roma, abriéndose cuando había guerra y cerrándose cuando había paz externa. Este ritual del cierre de las puertas se revitalizó durante el principado de Augusto, lo que se plasmó en la literatura e iconografía augustea, asociándolo además a la idea de pax y saeculum aureum. El concepto de pax hasta entonces había aludido a la sumisión del otro a lo largo de la República; fue durante la crisis de la misma cuando se usó como promesa política que implícitamente significaba el final de los enfrentamientos, externos e internos, y el bienestar subyacente. El auge de la pax se produjo durante el Principado de Augusto, quien se presentó como garante de ese principio. En este contexto la pax adquirió nuevas connotaciones, asimilándose a Eirene, diosa de la paz en el mundo griego. Por tanto, el concepto de pax asociado a Jano, deidad que había simbolizado la guerra y la paz externa en época republicana, se helenizó y feminizó al representarse incluso en forma de mujer. Este trabajo pretende contribuir a la comprensión de cómo los conceptos de paz fueron reformulados y redefinidos durante la crisis de la República y empleados como parte de la propaganda de la Pax Augusta. Para ello se han analizado tanto fuentes numismáticas e iconográficas como textos escritos.
V. Avila-Reese, H. Ibarra-Medel, I. Lacerna
et al.
Using spatially-resolved fossil record analysis on a large sample of 'red and dead' elliptical galaxies (classical ellipticals, CLEs) from the MaNGA/SDSS-IV DR15 survey, we reconstruct the archaeological evolution of their radial gradients in mass-to-luminosity ratio ($M/L$), $g-r$ color, and specific star formation (SF) rate. We also calculate other metrics that quantify the inside-out SF quenching and external mass growth processes. The $M/L$ gradients, $\nablaΥ_{\star}$, are approximately flat at high look-back times ($t_{\rm lb}$), but then they become negative and steeper until an epoch, when this trend reverses. These trends are shifted to later epochs the less massive the galaxies are. Color gradients follow qualitatively similar trends. We find that these trends are mainly driven by strong inside-out quenching, without significant outer growth or structural changes overall. Our results suggest a scenario where the main progenitors of local CLE galaxies evolved quasi-passively after an early dissipative phase, but underwent radial photometric changes due to the inside-out quenching that led to the systematic decrease of $\nablaΥ_{\star}$ and to an increase of the light-weighted radius. The late reversing of $\nablaΥ_{\star}$, $t_{\rm lb}\approx2-4$ Gyr, roughly coincides with the global quenching of the CLE galaxies. We have pushed archaeological inferences to the limit, but thanks to the large number of objects and an understanding of how the caveats and assumptions affect our results, we conclude that they offer an average description of evolutionary behaviors of CLE progenitors that is valid at least qualitatively.
The spread of the Bell Beaker phenomenon across Europe is still strongly debated today. Small-scale technological studies investigating its integration in local contexts remain rare, even though these are crucial to observing disruptions in traditions. In this article, we studied the ceramic technology of Final Neolithic, Bell Beaker period, and Early Bronze Age settlements of the Upper Rhône valley in Switzerland (3300–1600 BCE). We reconstructed and compared their pottery traditions to those from the contemporaneous megalithic necropolis of Sion ‘Petit-Chasseur’, a major funerary and ritual site located in the centre of the valley. Our findings showed that the Bell Beaker period saw an abundance of simultaneous technical changes, mirroring disruptions identified by other fields, and confirmed that this cultural phenomenon did not blend seamlessly with the local context. More importantly, they revealed the role played by human mobility, with the arrival of potters shortly after 2500 BCE.
Juan Pinedo Reyes, Helena Jiménez Vialás, José Javier Martínez García
et al.
Presentamos en este texto los primeros resultados de las prospecciones subacuáticas acometidas en el entorno de la Isla de Adentro (Mazarrón, Murcia) entre 2015 y 2020. La metodología aplicada ha tenido en cuenta el doble carácter –de investigación y docencia– del proyecto y ha consistido en prospecciones intensivas dirigidas y sondeos en puntos de marcado interés. Las seis campañas desarrolladas hasta ahora confirman un uso intensivo del lugar en la época correspondiente a los conocidos barcos de Mazarrón, finales del siglo VII a.C., pero además muestran indicios claros de una presencia fenicia anterior y de esta área como embarcadero. Todo ello subraya la importancia de este enclave de la costa murciana en el sistema colonial fenicio, donde el Sureste va dibujándose poco a poco como un área esencial a medio camino entre el Estrecho –especialmente la zona de Málaga– e Ibiza.
Prehistoric archaeology, Auxiliary sciences of history
En este estudio se plantea la posible relación del sello LLS, presente en un pivote de ánfora layetana de la forma Dressel 2 hallado en Caldes de Malavella, con la familia de Lucius Licinius Sura, notable personaje consular del siglo II d. C., y que proponemos aquí que pueda corresponder a un antepasado suyo relacionado con la producción de vino layetano o tarraconense.
High-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way have entered the Big Data regime and have opened avenues for solving outstanding questions in Galactic archaeology. However, exploiting their full potential is limited by complex systematics, whose characterization has not received much attention in modern spectroscopic analyses. In this work, we present a novel method to disentangle the component of spectral data space intrinsic to the stars from that due to systematics. Using functional principal component analysis on a sample of $18,933$ giant spectra from APOGEE, we find that the intrinsic structure above the level of observational uncertainties requires ${\approx}$10 functional principal components (FPCs). Our FPCs can reduce the dimensionality of spectra, remove systematics, and impute masked wavelengths, thereby enabling accurate studies of stellar populations. To demonstrate the applicability of our FPCs, we use them to infer stellar parameters and abundances of 28 giants in the open cluster M67. We employ Sequential Neural Likelihood, a simulation-based Bayesian inference method that learns likelihood functions using neural density estimators, to incorporate non-Gaussian effects in spectral likelihoods. By hierarchically combining the inferred abundances, we limit the spread of the following elements in M67: $\mathrm{Fe} \lesssim 0.02$ dex; $\mathrm{C} \lesssim 0.03$ dex; $\mathrm{O}, \mathrm{Mg}, \mathrm{Si}, \mathrm{Ni} \lesssim 0.04$ dex; $\mathrm{Ca} \lesssim 0.05$ dex; $\mathrm{N}, \mathrm{Al} \lesssim 0.07$ dex (at 68% confidence). Our constraints suggest a lack of self-pollution by core-collapse supernovae in M67, which has promising implications for the future of chemical tagging to understand the star formation history and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way.
Tajwar Abrar Aleef, Ingrid T. Spadinger, Michael D. Peacock
et al.
Treatment planning in low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB) aims to produce arrangement of implantable radioactive seeds that deliver a minimum prescribed dose to the prostate whilst minimizing toxicity to healthy tissues. There can be multiple seed arrangements that satisfy this dosimetric criterion, not all deemed 'acceptable' for implant from a physician's perspective. This leads to plans that are subjective to the physician's/centre's preference, planning style, and expertise. We propose a method that aims to reduce this variability by training a model to learn from a large pool of successful retrospective LDR-PB data (961 patients) and create consistent plans that mimic the high-quality manual plans. Our model is based on conditional generative adversarial networks that use a novel loss function for penalizing the model on spatial constraints of the seeds. An optional optimizer based on a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm can be used to further fine-tune the plans if necessary (determined by the treating physician). Performance analysis was conducted on 150 test cases demonstrating comparable results to that of the manual prehistorical plans. On average, the clinical target volume covering 100% of the prescribed dose was 98.9% for our method compared to 99.4% for manual plans. Moreover, using our model, the planning time was significantly reduced to an average of 2.5 mins/plan with SA, and less than 3 seconds without SA. Compared to this, manual planning at our centre takes around 20 mins/plan.
Milky Way dwarf satellites are unique objects that encode the early structure formation and therefore represent a window into the high redshift Universe. So far, their study was conducted using electromagnetic waves only. The future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has the potential to reveal Milky Way satellites in gravitational waves emitted by double white dwarf (DWD) binaries. We investigate gravitational wave (GW) signals detectable by LISA as a possible tool for the identification and characterisation of the Milky Way satellites. We use the binary population synthesis technique to model the population of DWDs in dwarf satellites and we assess the impact on the number of LISA detections when making changes to the total stellar mass, distance, star formation history and metallicity of satellites. We calibrate predictions for the known Milky Way satellites on their observed properties. We find that DWDs emitting at frequencies $\gtrsim 3\,$mHz can be detected in Milky Way satellites at large galactocentric distances. The number of these high frequency DWDs per satellite primarily depends on its mass, distance, age and star formation history, and only mildly depends on the other assumptions regarding their evolution such as metallicity. We find that dwarf galaxies with $M_\star>10^6\,$M$_{\odot}$ can host detectable LISA sources with a number of detections that scales linearly with the satellite's mass. We forecast that out of the known satellites, Sagittarius, Fornax, Sculptor and the Magellanic Clouds can be detected with LISA. As an all-sky survey that does not suffer from contamination and dust extinction, LISA will provide observations of the Milky Way and dwarf satellites galaxies valuable for Galactic archaeology and near-field cosmology.
Simone Parisotto, Alessandro Launaro, Ninetta Leone
et al.
In this paper we introduce the ROman COmmonware POTtery (ROCOPOT) database, which comprises of more than 2000 black and white imaging profiles of pottery shapes extracted from 11 Roman catalogues and related to different excavation sites. The partiality and the handcrafted variance of the shape fragments within this new database make their unsupervised clustering a very challenging problem: profile similarities are thus explored via the hierarchical clustering of non-linear features learned in the latent representation space of a stacked sparse autoencoder (SSAE) network, unveiling new profile matches. Results are commented both from a mathematical and archaeological perspective so as to unlock new research directions in the respective communities.
Ryan J. Rabett, Alexander J. E. Pryor, David J. Simpson
et al.
We present a multi-proxy study of environmental conditions during and after the recessional phases of pro-glacial Lake Algonquin in the vicinity of the North Bay outlet, Great Lakes Basin. Data presented comes from a new sedimentary profile obtained from the Balsam Creek kettle lake c. 34 km north-east of the city of North Bay. This site lies close to the north-east margin of the maximum extent of the post-Algonquin lake sequence, which drained through the Ottawa-Mattawa valley system. Our data are presented against a Bayesian age-depth model, supporting and extending regional understanding of vegetation succession in this part of north-east Ontario. The core profile provides a minimum age for the formation of the glacial outwash delta in which the kettle is set, as well as tentative timing for the Payette (post-Algonquin) lake phase. We highlight two discrete intervals during the Early Holocene, with modelled mean ages of: 8475–8040 cal. BP (332–316 cm) and 7645 cal. BP (286 cm), when climatic aridity affected the growth of vegetation within the kettle vicinity. Association with volcanic activity is posited. Cryptotephra dating to 7660–7430 cal. BP (mean age: 7580 cal. BP) is chronologically and geochemically assigned to the Mazama climactic eruption, while an earlier ash accumulation 8710–7865 cal. BP is tentatively sourced to an unknown eruption also in the Cascades region of Oregon. Outside of these periods, the Balsam Creek sequence shows considerable habitat stability and a character akin to that seen at more southerly latitudes. On this evidence we propose that access to reliable resources within kettle features could have aided the initial colonisation of northern Ontario’s environmentally dynamic early post-glacial landscape.