Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Surface scanning of anthropological specimens: nominal-actual comparison with low cost laser scanner and high end fringe light projection surface scanning systems.
- We tested three surface scanning Systems: the low cost NextEngine laser scanner, the white light Fringe Projection Breuckmann Smartscan and the white light Fringe Projection Steinbichler COMET V 4M. We evaluate the potential of such Systems for digitalizing original anthropological specimens and compare it with a "nominal" 3D model derived from mCT or CT data. Our results show that surface scanning of teeth is generally problematic even for high end systems. Even though studies of the occlusal surface are possible with high end systems, high resolution mCT still has to be considered the best choice for scientific studies dealing with details of the occlusal surface. However, for general digitalization purposes and recording of dimensions even the NextEngine system is suitable. In our tests, Breuckmann Smartscan produced the best models with the lowest deviation compared to the nominal mCTmodel. The Steinbichler is the fastest system but the quality of the resulting models is slightly lower. NextEngine produces a clearly lower quality than the tested high end systems but if one considers the different price margins of the systems, the proportionally good data provided by NextEngine is remarkable. In the case of bones with a simple geometric structure, this low cost scanner can compete easily with 3D models derived from medical CT for gross morphometric studies.
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Chronostratigraphic context of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Recent data from Belgium
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Acquisition de la collection de Spy de François Beaufays (dit « l’horloger ») par l’Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique
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Des Néandertaliens dans la troisième caverne de Goyet.
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Les Néandertaliens mosans
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Le réexamen des collections de Spy.
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Experiences with low and high cost 3D surface scanner.
- The increasing importance of virtual techniques in archaeology and anthropology puts the question of adequate hardware and software applications for a digitalization of collections for museums and institutions into the focus. Especially the market for mobile 3D scanning developed rapidly during the last years and provides a range of different models suitable for scientific purposes today. As the requirements for archaeological and anthropological applications are very high and differentiated - due to the, in some cases very complex surface morphologies of the objects and the different textures from shiny obsidian to porous bone - the decision for a scanner model is often complicated. The Neanderthal Museum and the Royal Belgian Institute of Sciences have been testing six different surface scanner from four companies during the last months concerning their suitability for archaeological and anthropological objects. Quality of the 3D models was rated by the visibility and exactness of standard attributes used for classification of the object type in archaeology or anthropology. Results are presented here. Generally, all types of archaeological and anthropological objects can be digitalized with surface scanner. If a high end or a low budget model should be used depends on the texture of the object and the intended purpose.
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Wood charcoal and seeds as indicators for animal husbandry in a wetland site during the late mesolithic-early neolithic transition period (Swifterbant culture, ca. 4600-4000 B.C.) in NW Belgium
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Isotopic reconstruction of human diet and animal husbandry practices during the classical-Hellenistic, Imperial and Byzantine periods at Sagalassos, Turkey
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Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis of freshwater, brackish and marine fish from Belgian archaeological sites (1st and 2nd millennium AD)
- Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were measured in 157 fish bone collagen samples from 15 different archaeological sites in Belgium which ranged in ages from the 3rd to the 18th c. AD. Due to diagenetic contamination of the burial environment, only 63 specimens produced results with suitable C:N ratios (2.9-3.6). The selected bones encompass a wide spectrum of freshwater, brackish, and marine taxa (N = 18), and this is reflected in the d13C results (-28.2‰ to -12.9‰). The freshwater fish have d13C values that range from -28.2‰ to -20.2‰, while the marine fish cluster between -15.4‰ to -13.0‰. Eel, a catadromous species (mostly living in freshwater but migrating into the sea to spawn), plots between -24.1‰ to -17.7‰, and the anadromous fish (living in marine environments but migrating into freshwater to spawn) show a mix of freshwater and marine isotopic signatures. The d15N results also have a large range (7.2‰ to 16.7‰) indicating that these fish were feeding at many different trophic levels in these diverse aquatic environments. The aim of this research is the isotopic characterization of archaeological fish species (ecology, trophic level, migration patterns) and to determine intra-species variation within and between fish populations differing in time and location. Due to the previous lack of archaeological fish isotope data from Northern Europe and Belgium in particular, these results serve as an important ecological backdrop for the future isotopic reconstruction of the diet of human populations dating from the historical period (1st and 2nd millennium AD), where there is zooarchaeological and historical evidence for an increased consumption of marine fish.
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Palaeolithic big game hunting at HP766 in Wadi Umm Rahau, Northern Sudan
- Abstract. HP766, discovered by the Gdansk Archaeological Museum Expedition in the region immediately upstream the Merowe Dam in North Sudan and now under water, is one of the few palaeolithic sites with animal bone remains in the country. The archaeological deposits, the large size of the site, the lithics and the radiocarbon dates indicate occupation of a silt terrace of the Nile in late MSA and LSA times. Large and very large mammals predominate markedly among the recovered bone remains and it would seem that the palaeolithic hunters focused on such game. They could corner these animals on the site which is partially surrounded by high bed rock outcrops. Moreover swampy conditions after the retreat of the annual Nile flood may have rendered less mobile the prey animals. According to this scenario, HP 766 may testify to the ecological skills and generational memory of archaic modern man in Sudan.
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New archaeozoological evidence for the introduction of the guinea pig to Europe
- The remains are described of a guinea pig dated to the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th c. AD. The animal was discovered at a site in Mons, Belgium, and is the first European archaeozoological find dated with certainty on the basis of both the archaeological context and a radiocarbon dating of its bone. This find confirms that the guinea pig was introduced to Europe soon after the conquest of South America. The morphological and metrical analyses performed on the skeletal remains are in agreement with the iconographic and literary sources indicating the domestic status of the animals imported to Europe. While a previous discovery in England suggested that the guinea pig was a prestigious animal, the present study argues that it was accessible to several classes of the population which may be related to the rapid spread of this prolific animal after its introduction in Europe.
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Bird feathers for ceremonial use in Hellenistic times at Tell Beydar, Syria?
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Fish remains from a latrine in Colonia Ulpia Traiana
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Identification of a 19th century sturgeon from North-East Friesland
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Gent...Steengoed!
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‘Leffinge - Oude Werf’: the first archaeozoological collection from a terp settlement in coastal Flanders
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Counting sheep in the elite cemetery
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Een paleo-ecologische en paleo-economische reconstructie van de site Zilum (NA 97/37) in Noordoost Nigeria (600-400 BC), gebaseerd op dierlijke resten
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Reconstructie van visserij in het verleden aan de hand van visresten uit archeologische opgravingen in België: laatmiddeleeuws Mechelen
