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XI/2/2020
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Editorial IANSA 2/2020
The Second Issue of the Jubilee Volume: Responsive Webpage as a Birthday Gift
Ondřej Mlejnek
As we noted in the last issue, our journal has already crossed
the threshold of its frst decade. It is therefore an appropriate
opportunity to look back and evaluate the last ten years of
the IANSA journal. It is also the right time for a celebration.
However, because of the Covid19 restrictions, members of
the IANSA Editorial and Advisory Boards could not meet
personally and our last meeting had to take place online.
Nevertheless, we have decided to give IANSA a birthday
gift: a new version of a completely responsive web page
(Figure 1). During the next year we will also try to improve
our editorial system to make it more intuitive and easier for
manipulation. The biggest advantage of the responsive web
page is the easy browsing and searching for information. The
web page will automatically adapt to the resolution of each
particular device being used (whether it’s a computer with
wide screen, lap-top, tablet or a cell phone).
In this issue, you will fnd three papers written by the
IANSA Editorial and Advisory Board members and their
teams for the occasion of the IANSA’s tenth anniversary,
which did not ft in the last issue. Another three interesting
papers and a book review received in the last year have been
added to make this issue complete.
In the frst paper of this issue, Vladislav Noskevich and
Natalia Fedorova present the results of the geophysical
investigation of the Bronze Age settlement of Andreevskoye
in the Southern Urals in Russia. Micro-magnetic and ground
penetrating radar surveys have provided new information
on the structure of the settlement fortifcation, its houses, as
well as the wells discovered inside houses. The settlement
consists of multiple layers and is characterized by a complex
confguration formed by three rectangular systems of
defensive structures. These results provide archaeologists
with reliable data useful for possible future excavations.
The second submission written by Zora Bielichová,
Mária Hajnalová, Petra Kmeťová and Peter Barta presents
the results of animal and plant macro-remains analyses
from two cremation graves excavated in Devín-Záhrady in
Slovakia. These graves belong to the Kalenderberg Group of
the Hallstatt Culture dated back to the Early Iron Age. The
results of these analyses have proved that animals constituted
an important part of funerary ritual activities. Pigs, fsh, red
deer, cattle, sheep and goats were all exploited at Devín-
Záhrady. Plant macro-remains were much less common and
were not associated with the burials.
The third article written by Sergiy Gorbanenko summarizes
the fnds of prehistoric and early historic common cocklebur
(
Xanthium strumarium
) macro-remains from the area of
current Ukraine. The frst presented fnd of charred micro-
remains comes from the early Medieval hillfort of Bilsk. Two
more fnds from Scythian sites are represented by imprints
on clay products. The last fnd of charred cocklebur macro-
remains comes from the Ancient Rus Manzhelia hillfort.
These fndings present an important source of information
for restoring the history of the appearance of the cocklebur
in Europe.
Another paper written by Peter Milo
et al.
presents the
results of the geophysical prospection of the Staré zámky
hillfort near Brno-Líšeň in the Czech Republic. Electrical
resistivity tomography, georadar survey and large-scale
magnetic prospection were all carried out here. The surveys
resulted in the fnding of numerous settlement features,
an Early Medieval cemetery, and fortifcations of various
types. The results of previous archaeological excavations
have helped with the interpretation of the geophysical
data. Together, these results have provided an important
insight into the history of the complex fortifed settlement
of Staré zámky, although some questions which cannot
be answered by geophysical research alone still remain
unanswered.
The thematic reviews section in this issue is represented by
a paper written by the Chair of the IANSA Advisory Board,
Roderick B. Salisbury. In this article, the author provides
an overview of archaeological soil chemistry in Central
Europe followed by an assessment of future developments
in archaeological soil chemistry, molecular biogeochemistry,
and the signifcance of geoarchaeology in multi-disciplinary
research.
The Book Review and the Backstory sections form
the last part of this issue. Benjamin Štular has reviewed
the monograph written by Jiří Macháček, Petr Milo
et al.
Volume XI ● Issue 2/2020 ● Pages 135–136
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IANSA 2020 ● XI/2 ● 135–136
Ondřej Mlejnek: The Second Issue of the Jubilee Volume: Responsive Webpage as a Birthday Gift
136
titled “The Early Medieval Burial Mound Cemetery of
Bernhardsthal” (the original is in German). According to him,
this book is a demonstration of the good practice of prompt
publishing of research results and it can be recommended
to all colleagues interested in the Early Medieval Period
in Central Europe. In the Backstory section, Sabrina Save
and Joseph Kovacik informally describe the founding of the
Amélie and Terrascope facilities, a process which was full of
hardships, but which has fnally led to two successful French
geoarchaeological commercial laboratories. Whereas the
older
Amélie
lab is focused on providing paleoenvironmental
and archaeometric services to archaeologists with the use of
a pXRF device, the
Terrascope
is a facility focused on the
production of micromorphological thin sections.
Although this IANSA issue is somewhat thinner than
the last one, we hope that its contents will still attract your
attention, as it again contains a series of interesting articles
presenting new ideas and interesting fndings.
Figure 1.
A print screen of the new version of the IANSA journal responsive webpage.