Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Non-flint raw materials.
- This paper presents a macroscopic and mesoscopic characterisation of different non-flint raw materials identified amongst the archaeological material from Spy cave. Already available information for each raw material is discussed before introducing relevant new terminology. Finally, a litho-stratigraphic attribution is proposed alongside a discussion of the geological and geographical origin of each raw material. More detailed information was recorded for black, finely bedded silicites using Raman spectrometry, and for fluorites by measuring strontium isotopes or LA-ICP-MS of rare-earth elements. In both cases, these analytical approaches allowed mac - roscopically similar materials to be distinguished and their outcrops identified. The Orneau Valley has a relatively high lithological diversity (outcrops and fluvial deposits) from which a large part of the raw materials utilised at Spy derive. These materials were complemented by sources found in the Brabant Massif (Ottignies) and the area surrounding Landen.
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Oolithic ironstones from Spy cave.
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What do we know today about the Middle Palaeolithic of Spy?
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Typological, technological and functional analyses of Mousterian points.
- Spy cave provided the most important number of Mousterian points in Belgium. Most of them were found in the “second fauna-bearing level” (De Puydt & Lohest, 1887) and are stored at the Grand Curtius Museum in Liège (De Puydt collection). They revealed morphological particularities and a remarkable similarity that encouraged a more detailed techno-morpho-functional analysis. Their good state of preservation allowed us to observe macro-traces and sometimes microwear polishes
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Radiocarbon dating of human remains and associated archaeological material
- The Neandertal skeletal material from Spy cave has finally been directly dated by AMS 14C one hundred twenty-five years following their discovery. Fifteen human bones and teeth were dated in order to verify new morphological analyses and determine the age of the Spy Neandertals. Collagen from 14 faunal remains and three bone or ivory artefacts were also dated in order to establish a radiocarbon framework for the three “fauna-bearing levels” defined by the original excavators. Apart from several dates that are clearly too young due to contamination or diagenetic influences, our results show that the three oldest dates (ca. 36,000 uncal BP) for the two Neandertal adults are reliable given that the quality parameters are within the accepted confidence interval. We discuss the results of these new dates and their significance in light of the site's stratigraphy, the local Belgian context, and the wider European framework. Radiocarbon dating of Neolithic human skeletal material is also presented and discussed.
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The fossil mammals of Spy.
- The large faunal sample from Spy, a Belgian cave site famous for its Neandertal remains, is for the first time studied in detail. Some 11,600 bones were examined. A wide spectrum of Pleistocene species is present. Horse, cave hyena, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and reindeer are the primary taxa. Hyena scavenging activities are indicated by the gnawed mammoth and rhinoceros postcranial bones and cervid antlers. Bears used the cave as a hibernation den evidenced by remains of cubs, and of female and male adult bears. Indications of human manipulation (cut marks, ochre traces, worked bone/tooth) occur especially on remains from foxes, mammoth and deer. The age profile of the mammoth is dominated by calves. This selective mortality suggests that they were hunted by prehistoric people. AMS dates range from c. 44,400 BP to c. 25,700 BP. The Spy bone assemblage therefore accumulated through a series of agents over a long period of the Pleniglacial.
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Stable isotopes.
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Sex determination using the Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (DSP: Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste) tool in a virtual environment.
- The hip bone is one of the most reliable indicators of sex in the human body due to the fact it is the most dimorphic bone. Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (DSP: Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste) developed by Murail et al., in 2005, is a sex determination method based on a worldwide hip bone metrical database. Sex is determined by comparing specific measurements taken from each specimen using sliding callipers and computing the probability of specimens being female or male. In forensic science it is sometimes not possible to sex a body due to corpse decay or injury. Skeletalization and dissection of a body is a laborious process and desecrates the body. There were two aims to this study. The first aim was to examine the accuracy of the DSP method in comparison with a current visual sexing method on sex determination. A further aim was to see if it was possible to virtually utilise the DSP method on both the hip bone and the pelvic girdle in order to utilise this method for forensic sciences. For the first part of the study, forty-nine dry hip bones of unknown sex were obtained from the Body Donation Programme of the Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). A comparison was made between DSP analysis and visual sexing on dry bone by two researchers. CT scans of bones were then analysed to obtain three-dimensional (3D) virtual models and the method of DSP was analysed virtually by importing the models into a customised software programme called lhpFusionBox which was developed at ULB. The software enables DSP distances to be measured via virtually-palpated bony landmarks. There was found to be 100% agreement of sex between the manual and virtual DSP method. The second part of the study aimed to further validate the method by analysing thirty-nine supplementary pelvic girdles of known sex blind. There was found to be a 100% accuracy rate further demonstrating that the virtual DSP method is robust. Statistically significant differences were found in the identification of sex between researchers in the visual sexing method although both researchers identified the same sex in all cases in the manual and virtual DSP methods for both the hip bones and pelvic girdles.
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La nappe aquifère du calcaire carbonifère du Tournaisis
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Description de deux nouvelles coupes dans le Molinacien (V1-V2) des environs de Namur
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Les sondages d'étude des fondations du viaduc de Polleur
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A new approach to the evolution of the so-called surface peat in the western coastal plain of Belgium
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Geologische aspekten van de mogelijkheid tot de aanwending van geotermische energie in Noord-België
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Lithostratigraphie du Givétien inférieur à Remouchamps
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Le sondage de Douvrain
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First record on the distribution of entomopathogenic nematodes (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae) in Southern Benin
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Continental nematodes in Belgium: an updated list with special emphasis on compost nematodes
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Taxonomy of Stilbonematinae (Nematoda: Desmosdoridae): Description of two new and three known species and phylogenetic relationships within the family using DNA Cox1 locus
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Effectiveness of different Heterorhabditis isolates from Southern Benin for biocontrol of subterranean termite, Macrotermes bellicosus (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae) in laboratory trials
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Description of Xiphinema castilloi sp.n. (Dorylaimida: Longidoridae) from Iran with its phylogenetic study
