J Archaeol Sci 29 (11)

Traditionally sites occupied by mobile groups, without clearly identifiable contexts or phases, have been excavated according to arbitrarily defined vertical spits. Recently, three-dimensional recording of artefact locations with survey equipment with a memory store, such as total stations, has become more common on these types of sites. However, the excavation methods and means of interpretation needed to link this type of three-dimensional resolution with stratigraphic levels has been lacking, particularly as ``true'' 3D programs are not widely available to deal with this type of information. In this paper, a possible method for recording and modelling stratigraphic relationships using typical ``almost 3D'' GIS programs is described.

Studies two skeletons from medieval Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, which show osteological lesions consistent with hypertrophic osteoarthropathy. The primary cause of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy is generally chronic pulmonary disease, usually either cancer or infection; in the pre-antibiotic era it was predominantly the latter. Biomolecular analyses indicate the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in one of the specimens, strongly indicating that pulmonary tuberculosis was the eliciting factor in this case. This is the first time that a primary cause for hypertrophic osteoarthropathy has been firmly identified in an ancient skeleton and illustrates the potential of a dual approach using both osteological and biomolecular techniques for enhancing our understanding of early disease. The other specimen proved negative for M. tuberculosis complex DNA, however the presence of infectious rib lesions allowed us to suggest that some non-tuberculous pulmonary infection was likely the primary cause of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in this case.

Presents a quantitative model, based on the finite element analysis (FEA) approach, developed for predicting the failure of vessels under almost any possible loading conditions, by taking into account their shape. The vessel is divided into a large number of virtual elements, on which the strains, under any type of loading, are calculated by the parametric solution of a large number of equations. The efficiency of the FEA approach is evaluated on ceramic pots manufactured for this purpose and their load at failure was found to be within 10-20% of the calculated value.