Climbing the Giara: A quantitative reassessment of movement and visibility in the Nuragic landscape of the Gesturi plateau (South-Central Sardinia, Italy).

The built landscape of Nuragic Sardinia is an exceptional case for geostatistical analysis, allowing for a discussion of long-held assumptions and ideas. The function of nuraghi (ca. 1700-1100 BCE), the most prominent settled monument of the Sardinian Bronze Age, has been addressed via a multiplicity of landscape approaches, mainly relying on intuitive assessments of their spatial properties: nuraghi were assumed as means of territorial control.

Long-lasting ergot lipids as new biomarkers for assessing the presence of cereals and cereal products in archaeological vessels.

Cereals were very important in ancient diets, however evidence from archaeological sites of the vessels used for processing or storing cereals is comparatively rare. Micro-organisms, as well as chemical-physical effects can easily degrade cereals during the burial period. This can lead to a complete cereal decay and to serious difficulties in estimating the intensity of use of the cereals by ancient populations.