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Article Reference Magical practices? A non-normative Roman imperial cremation at Sagalassos.
Many thousands of burials have been excavated from across the Roman world, documenting a variety of funerary practices and rites. Individual burials, however, sometimes stand out for their atypical characteristics. The authors report the discovery of a cremation burial from ancient Sagalassos that differs from contemporaneous funerary deposits. In this specific context, the cremated human remains were not retrieved but buried in situ, surrounded by a scattering of intentionally bent nails, and carefully sealed beneath a raft of tiles and a layer of lime. For each of these practices, textual and archaeological parallels can be found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean world, collectively suggesting that magical beliefs were at work.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Article Reference Magura Cave, Bulgaria: A multidisciplinary study of Late Pleistocene human palaeoenvironment in the Balkans
Abstract Two trenches excavated at Magura Cave, north-west Bulgaria, have provided Late Pleistocene lithic artefacts as well as environmental evidence in the form of large and small mammals, herpetofauna and pollen recovered from Crocuta coprolites. One of the trenches also has a visible tephra layer which has been confirmed as representing the major Campanian Ignimbrite eruption and is accurately dated at the source area to 39,280 ± 55 yrs and radiocarbon determinations have added to chronological resolution at the site. The palaeoenvironment of the region during the Late Pleistocene is discussed in the context of hominin presence and shows a mosaic landscape in a region considered a crucial refugium for both plants and mammals, including hominins.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation into development cooperation—highlights from an ALTER-NET-EKLIPSE workshop
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2020
Article Reference Maintaining taxonomic accuracy in genetic databases: A duty for taxonomists— Reanalysis of the DNA sequences from Mercan et al. (2024) on the genus Potamothrix (Annelida, Clitellata) in Turkish lakes
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Major excursions in sulfur isotopes linked to permafrost change in Eurasia during the last 50,000 years.
We identify a major sulfur isotope excursion in Eurasian faunal bone collagen from the last 50,000 years, here termed the Late Pleniglacial Sulfur Excursion. Our analysis suggests this is linked to changing permafrost conditions, presenting the utility of faunal collagen δ34S as a proxy for permafrost dynamics, a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Our findings complicate the use of archaeological faunal sulfur isotopes for mobility and palaeodietary studies.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Octet Stream Making sense of variation in sclerochronological stable isotope profiles of mollusks and fish otoliths from the early Eocene southern North Sea Basin
Stable isotope sclerochemistry of biogenic carbonate is frequently used for the reconstruction of paleotemperature and seasonality. Yet, few studies have compared intra-and inter-taxon isotope variability and variation within a single depositional environment. We measured seasonal changes in δ18O and δ13C compositions in multiple specimens of two carditid bivalve species, a turritelline gastropod species, and two species of otoliths from demersal fish, from two early Eocene (latest Ypresian, 49.2 Ma) coquinas in the inner neritic Aalter Formation, located in the Belgian part of the southern North Sea Basin (paleolatitude ∼41°N). Results demonstrate considerable variation among taxa in the mean, amplitude, and skewness of δ18O and δ13C values from sequentially sampled growth series. We attribute this variation to factors including differences in seasonal growth over ontogeny, mixing of depositional settings by sediment transport, differences between sedentary and mobile organisms, and differences in longevity of the taxa in question. Growth cessation during winters in turritellines and fishes in particular lead to an incomplete representation of the seasonal cycle in their growth increments, in comparison to carditid bivalves. Ophidiid fish otolith isotope records appear to reflect environmental conditions over a wider range of habitats and environments, and we infer this is due to a combination of sedimentary transport, as these are small structures, and postmortem transport by free-swimming predatory fish. Our study highlights the potential variability encompassed by taxa in the shallow marine realm even when they are found in the same deposits. While this has significant implications for seasonality reconstructions based on conventional isotope profiles, we show that careful study of the ecology and ontogeny of multiple taxa and specimens within a death assemblage can reveal sources of variation and yield a close approximation of conditions in the setting of interest.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Malachite, an indicator of major Pliocene Cu remobilization in a karstic environment (Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo)
Located in Library / No RBINS Staff publications
Article Reference Male spiders control offspring sex ratio through greater production of female-determining sperm
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2018
Article Reference Man and environment in the territory of Sagalassos, a classical city in SW Turkey
Since 1990 archaeological research by the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) has been carried out at the ancient site of Sagalassos (Aǧlasun, Burdur province, Southwestern Turkey). At first, research focused on the excavation of the city and the study of the immediate vicinity which provided it with raw materials. The main objective was to obtain a clear picture of the history and development of the city. Since 1993 research has also incorporated a study of the territory of the Roman city, from prehistoric to modern times, in order to understand why the site was selected for settlement, why it developed into a middle-sized town, its economy and subsistence, how it affected and exploited the environment, its decline, and what changes have taken place in the district subsequently. The focus has now shifted towards obtaining a better understanding of the linkages between human and environment systems so that inter-relations between the two can be more readily understood. As a result, a number of environmental topics concerning the territory of the Roman city are presently being studied. This territory extended from Lake Burdur in the West to the Aksu canyon in the East, from the Aǧlasun Daǧlari in the North to Mt. Kestel in the South. Interdisciplinary research revealed that for the early Neolithic and the Roman period there was a slightly warmer climate, a richer vegetation and more fertile soils for agricultural practice.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Managing canopy cover to preserve forest microclimate and diverse macroarthropod communities in times of drought
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025