Explore the vast range of titles available.

Earlier research considered northern inland Fennoscandia a vast, empty place, where the southern men went to hunt and perhaps trade for furs with the nomadic locals. Most of the precious archaeological finds were interpreted as being either from a burial or a cache made by such a southern visitor. If these precious finds were interpreted to have belonged to the locals, they were thought to be made from inferior materials. A total of 71 convex brooches and their find contexts from northeastern inland Fennoscandia (northern Sweden, northern Finland, and northwestern Russia) are analysed in this paper to determine whether their use and materials differ from those found in southern Fennoscandia. Most of the brooches have been discovered in northern Sweden, with large hoard contexts dominating the assemblage. The number of brooches gradually decreases towards the east and they are distributed relatively evenly among burials, settlement sites, and stray finds. The analysis indicates that no lower-quality convex brooches appear to have been produced specifically for trade in the north, as the analysed brooches seem similar to their southern counterparts. Almost none of the brooches were found in pairs, which suggests a different manner of use and dress compared to the southwestern fashion. Although the brooches travelled to these northern areas, the associated fashion and intended way of use did not. The northern inland communities adopted these decorative elements but adapted them to their own purposes. These prestigious brooches served in the north both as decorative and practical components of dress and as offerings fit for the gods.

Purpose of Review We are continuously exposed to dynamic mixtures of airborne contaminants that vary by location. Understanding the compositional diversity of these complex mixtures and the levels to which we are each exposed requires comprehensive exposure assessment. This comprehensive analysis is often lacking in population-based studies due to logistic and analytical challenges associated with traditional measurement approaches involving active air sampling and chemical-by-chemical analysis. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of wearable passive samplers as alternative tools to active samplers in environmental health research. The review highlights the advances and challenges in using wearable passive samplers for assessing personal exposure to organic chemicals and further presents a framework to enable quantitative measurements of exposure and expanded use of this monitoring approach to the population scale. Recent Findings Overall, wearable passive samplers are promising tools for assessing personal exposure to environmental contaminants, evident by the increased adoption and use of silicone-based devices in recent years. When combined with high throughput chemical analysis, these exposure assessment tools present opportunities for advancing our ability to assess personal exposures to complex mixtures. Most designs of wearable passive samplers used for assessing exposure to semi-volatile organic chemicals are currently uncalibrated, thus, are mostly used for qualitative research. The challenge with using wearable samplers for quantitative exposure assessment mostly lies with the inherent complexity in calibrating these wearable devices. Questions remain regarding how they perform under various conditions and the uncertainty of exposure estimates. As popularity of these samplers grows, it is critical to understand the uptake kinetics of chemicals and the different environmental and meteorological conditions that can introduce variability. Summary Wearable passive samplers enable evaluation of exposure to hundreds of chemicals. The review presents the state-of-the-art of technology for assessing personal exposure to environmental chemicals. As more studies calibrate wearable samplers, these tools present promise for quantitatively assessing exposure at both the individual and population levels.

Introduction. The article is devoted to characterizing the decorative features of the fibulabrooch discovered during the study of the mound in the northern surrounding areas of Cherkessk (territory of the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia) and stored in the collection of the Stavropol State Museum. The aim of the publication is to introduce the poorly known scientific material into scientific use. A full set of illustrations and accurate measurements will further avoid confusion with the description of the specific artifact (in existing publications there are no drawings; conclusions are based only on photos). Explanations relate to the history of the brooch and details of its decoration. Methods. The comparative typological method is used as a working one. It is based on the classification by material, processing method, form, ornamentation, as well as identifying and studying types of brooches with pendants. The comparative analysis of the decor of the brooch from the Stavropol museum and similar brooches with pendants found in the western part of the North Caucasus shows the variety of polychrome decoration production technologies in the region in the 3rd – 1st centuries BC: preserving the traditions of Bosporan jewelry art; distribution of the elements of Colchian toreutics. Analysis. The paper considers design features of brooches from the Stavropol museum and monuments of the Western Ciscaucasia: details of zoomorphic figurines; characteristics of caste design; wire inlay; form and features of enamel inserts; character of pendant weaving and features of the design of suspended discs. Results. In the production of hollow zoomorphic images of the 3rd – 1st century BC there were two lines of development: 1) simplified modeling of figurines modeled on the pattern of Colchian products of the 5th – 4th centuries BC (Psenafa and others); 2) continuation of the tradition of producing jewelry with enamel (brooch from the mound in the land of Rodina state farm). In the first case, the simplicity and negligence of execution evidence established local production of imitations of Colchian images. In the second case, elegance of images and refinement of execution emphasize the creation of brooches of Karachay-Cherkessia in one of the centers of Bosporus toreutics which was under the influence of Colchian jewelry.

Recent archaeological excavations at Kh. Shumeila, located in the Judaean Shephelah, uncovered remains of a villa rustica (rural estate). The villa, dated to the Late Roman period, consisted of a domestic wing with an industrial area dedicated to the production of terracotta oil lamps. The lamp workshop at Kh. Shumeila produced an array of Beit Nattif type lamps that are a hallmark of the Late Roman material culture of Judaea. This article presents a single enamelled shoe-shaped brooch found during excavations. Brooch wearing was a common practice throughout the entire Roman Empire. In contrast to simple pins that were worn for functionality, elaborate decorated brooches made of expensive materials served as important status symbols. Shoe brooches are a unique elaborate type of brooch, commonly found in the northwestern provenances of the Roman Empire. The Kh. Shumeila shoe brooch is the only one to have been discovered far outside the normal distribution in the eastern provenances. The brooch may have reached Judaea as part of a garrisoned Roman soldier’s non-combat outfit or may have belonged to a settled veteran who wore it as a symbol of status.

In this study, we address the communication technologies individuals within romantic relationships are using to communicate with one another, the frequency of use, and the association between the use of these technologies and couple's positive and negative communication.Participants consisted of individuals involved in a serious, committed, heterosexual relationship. The Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire instrument was used to assess a variety of relationship variables. The majority of individuals within the study frequently used cell phones and text messaging to communicate with their partner, with ' ' expressing affection ' ' being the most common reason for contact. Younger individuals reported using all forms of media (except for e-mail) more frequently than older participants. Relationship satisfaction did not predict specific use of media but predicted several reasons for media use. Additional analyses revealed that text messaging had the strongest association with individuals ' positive and negative communication within their relationships. Specifically, text messaging to express affection, broach potentially confrontational subjects, and to hurt partners were associated with individuals' view of positive and negative communication within their relationship. Implications of the results are discussed.

This article concerns the characterization of Roman artifacts so that they can play a greater role in gendered approaches to Roman sites—sites that constitute lived spaces but lack actual references to sexed bodies. It commences with a brief discussion on gendered approaches in the two main strands of Roman archaeology—classical and provincial. Within the differing frameworks of the wider disciplines of classics and archaeology, both strands focus on contexts with sexed bodies—burials, figurative representation, and inscriptions. The discussion serves as a background for more integrated and more interrogative approaches to relationships between Roman artifacts and gendered practices, approaches that aim to develop interpretative tools for investigating social practice in contexts where no representational or biologically sexed bodies are evident. Three types of artifacts—brooches, glass bottles, and needles—are used to demonstrate how differing degrees of gender associations of artifacts and artifact assemblages can provide insights into gender relationships in settlement contexts. These insights in turn contribute to better understandings of gendered sociospatial practices across the Roman world.

The museum collection in Varshets shelters several artefacts, which are the focus of the current paper. The selection of items under examination comprises artefacts, datable to the Late Iron Age (3rd–1st century BC/ LT C-D) or to the Roman period (1st– early 2nd century AD). The materials kept in the Varshets museum collection are divided into two major groups related to the local culture and the Early Roman Empire. The native objects are almost entirely typical for the so-called Padea–Spahii group. Most certainly, they came from a destroyed necropolis which consisted of at least three graves. The Early Roman group can safely be linked to the Imperial army of 1st century AD. The appearance of such finds near the mountain can be explained by control of the mountain passes or exploitation of the rich silver deposits. However, the lack of information concerning the exact findspots of the items discussed here makes all interpretations a risky endeavor.

This paper develops an argument for the agency of objects, looking at the effects objects have on people. Groups of related objects, such as pots or metal ornaments, create stylistic universes which affect producers and users of new objects, bound by the canons of style. For an object to be socially powerful in a recognized manner, the form of the object lays down certain rules of use which influence the sensory and emotional impacts of the object. Formal properties of artifacts are influenced by the genealogy of the object class, including historical continuities and changes, and also its perceived source. The forms of objects, the historical trajectories of the class of objects and their perceived sources combine to have social effects on people, shaping people as socially effective entities. Britain's incorporation into the Roman Empire between 150 BC and AD 200 provides an excellent case study through which to look at the changing corpora of objects, which had continuities and changes in form, a set of subtle attributions of sources and a complex range of social effects.

Roman military bases were once regarded as strictly male domains with the only women living there being the senior officers’ wives. This view was challenged by studies that used material culture to identify women in Roman forts and interpret the roles they played. The best of this work considers both the multiple identities expressed through objects and the complexities of depositional and recovery processes. The article presented here fits into this recent development, as it investigates the presence of women in the Augustan military base and the Flavio-Trajanic fortress on the Hunerberg in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, by examining the spatial distribution of brooches (fibulae) associated with women. The distribution of female brooches is compared to that of military (male) brooches in order to highlight and interpret any significant patterns. While numbers are small, the quality of the contextual information allows for the examination of depositional and recovery practices. The paper also raises wider questions about the possibility of ‘gendering’ brooches.