Tag Archives: vessels

Archaeologists Discover Fragrant Oil Residues in Ancient Phoenician Vessels

Posted on by
Reply

Archaeologists have performed the inaugural systematic, interdisciplinary examination of the structure, methods, and contents of 51 “Phoenician Oil Bottles” discovered on Motia Island, located off the western coast of Sicily, Italy. Their findings imply that these bottles were likely produced and filled in aromatic Phoenicia during the 8th to 6th centuries BCE and distributed throughout the Western Mediterranean.

A selection of ‘Phoenician Oil Bottles’ (750/740-550/530 BC) from Motia, Italy. Image credit: A. Orsingher.

The Phoenicians utilized aromatic substances in diverse manners. Often burned alongside ceramic, metal, or stone supports, these substances enhanced both indoor and outdoor environments, indicating the performance of various ritual practices.

Commonly depicted in Phoenician iconography are stereotypical images of smoke rising from fragrant burners before sacred figures and symbols.

Moreover, the ornamental or floral designs of the incense indicate a clear connection between scent and the function of the vessel.

Among the Phoenician ceramics linked to fragrant substances, a category of small, simple vessels known as “Phoenician oil bottles” is particularly noteworthy.

While not part of standard production, these jugs, dating from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, typically feature narrow openings with thick, outwardly-rolled rims, a short, bulging neck that tapers, a single vertical handle, and spherical to oval bodies with either rounded or pointed bases.

Excluding notably large examples from the Teatrocomico of Cadiz, Phoenician oil bottles usually have a height of 11.5-14 cm with a maximum diameter of 8.5-10 cm until the mid-8th century BCE.

After this period, the height decreased to around 9.5 cm, the body shrank to approximately 6.5 cm, and handle sizes diminished, making them difficult to grasp.

These simple, slow-fired jugs have been unearthed from various settings across the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, including graves, households, sanctified areas, pottery workshops, and shipwrecks, indicating their widespread use.

The small island in western Sicily, Italy, currently produces the highest quantity of these vessels.

“Their extensive distribution throughout the Mediterranean implies that these containers served multiple purposes,” states Dr. Adriano Orsinger, a researcher at CompCances University in Madrid and the Institute of Biblical Archaeology.

In a recent study, Dr. Orsingher and his team analyzed ceramic compositions to trace the origins of the “Phoenician oil bottles.”

Subsequent evaluations of organic residues within the vessels provided insights into their original contents and purposes.

The findings indicate that these bottles were produced in southern Phoenicia, specifically between present-day Beirut and the Carmel region.

Organic residues were found in eight of the 51 vessels, showing traces of plant-based lipids and pine and mastic resins, strong indicators of light oil formulations.

“Our research confirms that these ceramic vessels were employed to transport aromatic oils,” asserts Dr. Sylvia Amikorn, a researcher at the University of Tübingen.

“These oils were not mere commodities. They acted as cultural connectors and embodiments of identity during the Phoenician migration in the Mediterranean,” Dr. Orsingher remarked.

“By carrying familiar scents, they served as tools for memory, enhancing shared practices and olfactory experiences among dispersed communities.”

The Iron Age Mediterranean was characterized by intense mobility, trade, and cultural interconnections.

Phoenicians, celebrated as seafarers, traders, artisans, and settlers, played a pivotal role in this connectivity, establishing communities far from their Levantine homelands.

Central to Phoenician cultural practices was the production and utilization of aromatic substances, for both local consumption and export.

This study urges a reevaluation of historical transitions, trade, and cultural attributions experienced in the ancient world.

“Ancient mobility should be reconsidered not only as the movement of people and goods but as a cycle of sensory, olfactory, and memory traditions,” Dr. Orsingher emphasized.

“The significance of fragrance is intertwined with identity, making its role in migration, reconciliation, and cultural exchange often underestimated, yet crucial.”

“Our findings highlight the potential of interdisciplinary science to uncover the intangible aspects of antiquity,” Dr. Amikorn remarked.

“Investigating the contents and uses of these vessels offers a unique perspective on how scents connected life, landscapes, and identity in the ancient Mediterranean,” Dr. Ouger added.

“Innovative research methodologies continue to yield unexpected insights into the past,” proclaimed Carla Paulman, a professor at the University of Tübingen.

“This study demonstrates that even elusive evidence like ancient scents can be accessed through interdisciplinary approaches, opening new avenues into the ancient sensory and cultural realm.”

Survey results were published in Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

____

A. Orsingher et al. 2025. Home scent: Motia’s Phoenician oil bottle. J Archaeol Method Theory 32, 59; doi:10.1007/s10816-025-09719-3

Source: www.sci.news

New agreement mandates vessels to lower emissions or face penalties

Posted on by
Reply

Amidst the chaos over global trade, countries around the world have reached a modest, yet surprising, modest agreement to reduce the climate pollution that arises from shipping goods from around the world.

It reached in London under the auspices of the United Nations Agency, the United Nations maritime organisation, so all ships passing goods across the ocean must either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or pay a fee.

The target is not what many people wanted. Still, it is the first time that global industries have faced the prices of climate pollution, no matter where they operate. Revenues are primarily used to help the industry clean up the fuel. Some of them can also go to developing countries, which are most vulnerable to climate risks. The agreement comes into effect in 2028 and approval by the country’s representative will be withheld at the next agency meeting in October.

Given the widespread support for Friday’s term, the organisation head has expressed his desire to be hired in October.

This contract was even more remarkable in international cooperation, as it reached even after the US. I was drawn from the lecture At the beginning of the week. No other countries followed.

“The United States is one country, and one country cannot derail the entire process,” said Faig Abbasov, Maritime Director of Transport and Environment, a European advocacy group that promoted the cleaning of the maritime industry. The contract is “the first binding decision that forces transport companies to be decarbonized and switched to alternative fuels.”

The contract applies to all ships, regardless of who’s flag, including ships registered in the United States. It remained unclear how Washington would respond to the fee agreement or how it would respond.

State Department officials only said the United States had not participated in the negotiations.

Ships run primarily on heavy fuel oil, sometimes called bunker fuel, and more than 80% of the world’s goods travel by ship. The industry accounts for around 3% of global greenhouse emissions, comparable to aviation emissions.

The agreement reached on Friday is far less ambitious than originally proposed by a group of island nations who proposed a universal assessment of emissions.

After two years of negotiation, the proposal sets up a complex two-tier fee system. Sets the carbon strength target. This is like a clean fuel standard for cars and trucks. Ships using traditional transport oil will have to pay a higher fee (producing $380 equivalent to metric tons of carbon dioxide), while vessels using less carbon-intensive fuel mix will have to pay a lower fee ($100 for all metric tons above the fuel standard threshold).

The organization estimates it will raise between $11 billion and $13 billion a year.

“That’s a positive outcome,” said Arsenio Dominguez, executive director of the organization. “This is a long journey. This doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a lot of concern, especially from developing countries.”

Thresholds become more severe over time. The industry can switch to biofuels to meet the standards. That is a controversial approach because biofuels are made from crops and growing more crops to make fuel can contribute to deforestation.

The new transport fuel standards aim to promote the development of alternative fuels that include hydrogen.

There have been objections from many quarters. Developing countries with maritime fleets said they would be unfairly punished because they have an old fleet. Countries like Saudi Arabia, which ships large quantities of oil, and China, which exports everything from plastic to electric cars around the world, have balked suggestions to set higher prices, according to people familiar with negotiations.

“They have given up on the proposal of a reliable source of income for us who are desperately needing finances to help with the impact on the climate,” said Ralf Lebenbanu, Minister of Climate in Vanuatu in a statement after the vote.

Eventually, countries that voted in favor of the compromise agreement included China and the European Union. Saudi Arabia and Russia voted against it.

The United States has withdrawn from consultations entirely.

The global shipping industry agreed in 2023 to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by around 2050. Last year, we tracked that commitment with a more concrete plan and took the first step towards establishing carbon prices across the industry.

The forecasts from the International Shipping Office, an industry group, found that prices have negligible effects. “We recognize that this may not be the agreement every section of the industry wanted, and we are concerned that this may not be far enough ahead of itself in providing the certainty that is needed.” “But that’s a framework we can build.”

Claire Brown Reports of contributions.

Source: www.nytimes.com

3D Printed Ice Blood Vessels Could Enhance the Quality of Artificial Organs

Posted on by
Reply

3D printed blood vessel ice template

Philip LeDuc and others/Carnegie Mellon University

Complex artificial organs can be created by 3D printing molds of veins, arteries, and capillaries in ice, casting them in organic materials, and melting the ice to form delicate, hollow networks. This leaves space for the complex vascular grafts required for the development of laboratory-cultured internal organs.

Researchers have been working for decades to develop artificial organs to meet the high global demand for transplants such as hearts, kidneys and livers. However, creating the vascular network necessary to keep them alive remains a challenge.

Existing technology can grow artificial skin and ears, but the meat and organ materials disappear when they are more than 200 micrometers away from blood vessels. Philippe Leduc at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

“It's about twice the width of a hair. Once you get through that, and you can't access nutrients anymore, your cells start dying,” he says. Therefore, new processes will be needed to produce internal organs cheaply and quickly.

LeDuc and his colleagues experimented with printing blood vessels with meltable wax, which requires fairly high temperatures and can leave behind residue. “One day, out of the blue, a student of mine said, 'What if we tried using water, the most biologically compatible substance in the world?'” he says. “And I'm like, 'Oh, yeah.' It still makes me laugh. It's that simple.”

They developed a technique that uses a 3D printer to create a mold of the inside of an organ's blood vessels in ice. In the test, they embedded them in a gelatin material that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light before the ice melts away.

The researchers used a platform cooled to -35°C and a printer nozzle that ejected hundreds of drops of water per second, allowing them to print structures as small as 50 micrometers in diameter.

LeDuc says the process is conceptually simple, but requires complete coordination. If the droplet is ejected too quickly, the droplet will not solidify quickly enough to create the desired shape, but if it prints too slowly, it will just form a clump.

The system is also affected by weather and humidity, so researchers are looking into using artificial intelligence to adjust the printer to different conditions.

They also used a version of water in which all the hydrogen was replaced with deuterium, a stable isotope of the element. This so-called heavy water has a high freezing point and helps create a smooth structure by avoiding unwanted crystallization. Deuterium is not radioactive, unlike some isotopes, and tests have shown it to be safe for creating artificial organs, LeDuc said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Majority of large fishing vessels are not identified as ‘black vessels’ through tracking

Posted on by
Reply

The vast majority of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked. Three-quarters of the world's large fishing vessels and one-quarter of transport and energy vessels are “dark vessels” that do not share their location publicly. The discovery comes from analyzing satellite imagery using artificial intelligence, an approach that could help better track human activities that impact the ocean.

“We had this idea that we were missing a large part of the activity that was happening in the ocean, but we didn't know how much we were missing,” he says. Fernando Paolo At Global Fishing Watch, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC. “And it turned out to be so much more than we had imagined.”

Paolo et al. used satellite images taken between 2017 and 2021 covering coastal areas where large-scale fishing and other industrial activities occur most often, revealing objects regardless of clouds or darkness. (including radar images that can be used). The researchers trained several AIs to detect and classify boats and marine structures in this dataset.

Researchers compared the ship's global map with a database of ships that publicly broadcast their locations and found that the vast majority did not have automatic identification systems turned on. Such identification is not always required, but if it is not used, it may indicate illegal fishing or other activity.

An AI learned to distinguish fishing boats from other types of boats based on their movement patterns and location. It found that 42 to 49 percent of approximately 63,000 ships fell into this category.

Other AI has identified 28,000 offshore structures related to wind power and oil production, with rapidly growing swarms of offshore wind turbines outnumbering oil infrastructure such as oil rigs. Although such activities other than offshore development and fishing boats are expanding, fishing activity is almost “at its limit,” he said. david kurzma At Global Fishing Watch.

“We have to plan for all non-fishing activities because we are encroaching on fishing grounds,” Krusma said. “The ocean is becoming increasingly crowded, so we need to consider how everything fits together.”

Publicly available satellite images do not have the resolution to detect small fishing boats less than 20 meters in length. Konstantin Kremer with microsoft Esther Rolfe at Harvard University Nature Articles commenting on research. But they said such efforts could improve monitoring of human activity near protected areas and unregulated parts of the ocean.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com