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Publicatii proprii
Ancient Human Footprints in Ciur-Izbuc Cave, Romania
In 1965, Ciur-Izbuc Cave in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania was discovered to contain about 400 ancient human footprints. At that time, researchers interpreted the footprints to be those of a man, woman and child who entered the cave by an opening which is now blocked but which was usable in antiquity. The age of the prints (c. 10–15 ka BP) was based partly on their association with cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) footprints and bones, and the belief
Read moreStructural basis for the SOX-dependent genomic redistribution of OCT4 in stem cell differentiation
In pluripotent cells, OCT4 associates with SOX2 to maintain pluripotency or with SOX17 to induce primitive endoderm commitment. The OCT4-SOX2 and OCT4-SOX17 combinations bind mutually exclusive to two distinct composite DNA elements, known as the "canonical" and "compressed" motifs, respectively. The structural basis for the OCT4-SOX17 cooperativity is unknown. Whereas SOX17 has been engineered to replace SOX2 in the pluripotency circuitry, all generated
Read moreRational Choices in Field Archaeology
In the present article I attempt to apply advances in the study of instrumental and epistemic rationality to field archaeology in order to gain insights into the ways archaeologists reason. The cognitive processes, particularly processes of decision making, that enable archaeologists to conduct the excavation in the trench have not been adequately studied so far. I take my cues from two different bodies of theory. I first inquire into the potential
Read moreRecording the Excavations in Troy: 1855-2010
This article emerges out of a discussion within the team in Troy in response to recent developments in the practice and theory of recording archaeological excavations, as well as in the technology that makes them possible. Methodological awareness must be fostered by analytical concerns and its results offered for public scrutiny; any recording system is thus re-cast as the encapsulation of this methodological awareness. Before thoroughly modernizing
Read moreThe social construction of disability in prehistoric societies – what funerary archaeology can and cannot say
This article attempts to create a methodological framework for the investigation of a large sample of prehistoric cemeteries in order to evaluate a possible correlation between atypical burials and skeleton palaeopathology and the reconstruction of social attitudes towards individuals with impairments in prehistoric societies. Various statistics suggest that impairments affect 10-12% of the world population today, and this percentage must also have
Read moreHomer and Archaeology: Perspectives from the East Aegean – West Anatolian Interface
This article concerns the contribution Anatolian archaeology can make to Homeric studies. It consists of three parts. The first part presents the prerequisites for such a discussion, namely Troy's identification with Hisarlik (I.1), the date and historicity of Homer (I.2), and the relationship between Homer and Aegean archaeology (1.3), and between Homer and Near Eastern archaeology (1.4). It concludes with a description of the Anatolian influences
Read moreBird communities in traditional wood-pastures with changing management in Eastern Europe
Wood-pastures are fragile ecosystems because they were formed by, and depend on specific, low-intensity multifunctional management. Although their ecological and cultural significance is high, wood-pastures are rapidly deteriorating all over Europe, mainly due to changing land use. We still lack a basic understanding of the ecological value of wood-pastures, and in which features they differ from other landscape elements. In this paper we investigated
Read moreA holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to Southern Transylvania
Global change presents risks and opportunities for social-ecological systems worldwide. Key challenges for sustainability science are to identify plausible future changes in social-ecological systems, and find ways to reach socially and environmentally desirable conditions. In this context, regional-scale studies are important, but to date, many such studies have focused on a narrow set of issues or applied a narrow set of tools. Here, we present
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