Traditional Serbian religious art originated in Byzantine culture and conserved Byzantine element... more Traditional Serbian religious art originated in Byzantine culture and conserved Byzantine elements until modern times. However, since the end of the 17th century, many changes in traditional icon painting have been introduced. Previous studies focused on the changes in iconography and style, but very little attention was paid to the changes in painting materials and techniques. This research focuses on the blue pigments on icons from the first half of the 18th century. Eight icons with blue areas of a different hue were selected for the study. Due to its rarity in nature, price, and iconographical importance, the blue pigment was particularly praised by painters. Therefore, the choice of the blue pigment can be related to historical information to trace influences and the development of the painter’s practice. Imaging techniques, several portable, non-destructive analytical techniques, such as XRF and FTIR, followed by optical microscopy and SEM-EDX analysis of the samples were used...
Abstract Morphology and development of surface damage of alumina-based materials, resulting from ... more Abstract Morphology and development of surface damage of alumina-based materials, resulting from cavitation erosion is studied in this paper. Two series of samples were prepared: samples without fibers and those with the addition of 2 wt. % of ceramic fibers. The form of surface damage is considered to be the information carrier for the analysis of the resistance of materials to cavitation and the quality of this information is determined. The surface of the samples was monitored in defined time intervals in order to prepare the digitized image suitable for further analysis using image analysis software. The principal component analysis was applied to examine the appearance of certain morphological characteristics depending on the behavior of the material during cavitation erosion. It was concluded that the addition of ceramic fibers gained in importance after a long time of cavitation erosion, while during a starting period of time the difference in the morphology of the damage is not very observable.
According to the Serbian official soil classification system, Rendzina is a soil type with an A-A... more According to the Serbian official soil classification system, Rendzina is a soil type with an A-AC-C-R profile, developed on parent rock containing more than 20% of calcareous material (except soils with an A-R profile on hard pure limestone or dolomite). Previous investigations have shown that 29 Rendzina soil profiles from Serbia belong to the reference soil groups (RSGs) of Leptosols, Regosols and Phaeozems according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB 2015). The present study addresses the correlations among three WRB RSGs in terms of soil texture, mean weight diameter (MWD), total N content, and humus fractional composition using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The objective is to better understand the mutual relationship between the classification soil units used in Serbia and the international WRB system. The results show that PCA cannot unequivocally distinguish between these three RSGs. Leptosols and Regosols are highly incoherent groups while the group ...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2021
Radioactivity, whether natural or artificial, today constitutes a significant segment in the proc... more Radioactivity, whether natural or artificial, today constitutes a significant segment in the process of protecting human and animal health. Natural radioactivity is an integral part of our ecological system, so it has long been present in the food we eat. However, intensive industrial processes in some areas have disturbed the natural ecological balance and thus introduced into the environment natural radionuclides in quantities that can affect the quality of human life and the state of the environment. On the other hand, artificial radionuclides reach the environment only in the case of accident situations in nuclear facilities. In the nuclear era so far, two accidents, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011, affected the environment globally with the significant impact. Consequently, a system of monitoring radioactivity in the environment was introduced, which includes foodstuffs as well as animal feed. The paper describes the sources of radioactive contamination and the most cri...
Part of Cu post flotation tailings of Serbia ZiJin Bor Copper, Serbia, was reclaimed by restorati... more Part of Cu post flotation tailings of Serbia ZiJin Bor Copper, Serbia, was reclaimed by restoration of top soil with arable soils, and revegetation in 1991. Humic acids isolated from these Technosols were investigated to find out if their properties underwent any changes since reclamation. Two groups of control samples were used. Elemental composition (CHNS analysis) falls within the range of average soil humic acids. Humic acids belong to the type B pointing out to its lower humification degree (UV?Vis). Relative abundances of functional groups are ranged as follows: polysaccharide C ??aromatic C > carboxyl C > OH group > aliphatic C. Aromaticity indexes are low, 1.88? 3.25 (ATR-FTIR). Basic units at pH 10 are in the 11.7?26.8 nm range. Pronounced reaggregation (1462-?5218 nm) at pH 3 points out to less expressed humic acid sol stability, as well as to increase in aromatic condensation degree (dynamic light scattering). No significant changes have occurred in technosol hum...
BackgroundPortable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pEDXRF) spectrometry analysis was applie... more BackgroundPortable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pEDXRF) spectrometry analysis was applied for the characterisation of archaeological ceramic findings from three Neolithic sites in Serbia. Two dimension reduction techniques, principal component analysis (PCA) and scattering matrices-based dimension reduction were used to examine the possible classification of those findings, and to extract the most discriminant features.ResultsA decision-making procedure is proposed, whose goal is to classify unknown ceramic findings based on their elemental compositions derived by pEDXRF spectrometry. As a major part of decision-making procedure, the possibilities of two dimension reduction methods were tested. Scattering matrices-based dimension reduction was found to be the more efficient method for the purpose. Linear classifiers designed based on the desired output allowed for 7 of 8 unknown samples from the test set to be correctly classified.ConclusionsBased on the results, the conclu...
The paper summarises the results achieved during the first 18 months of the project THE FLOW (Int... more The paper summarises the results achieved during the first 18 months of the project THE FLOW (Interactions-Transmission-Transformation: Long-distance connections in Copper and Bronze Age of the Central Balkans). The project team has visited 12 museums in the territory of Central Serbia and accumulated a total of 5,000 km of road trips. More than 400 pottery samples from 67 archaeological sites were collected for provenance analyses, thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence dating. Samples have also been collected from more than 150 bronze and 64 copper artifacts, as well as more than 25 samples from clay pits and ore deposits. A total of 30 samples from obsidian artifacts have been collected. Following the collection of samples, procurement procedures were conducted for AMS and TL/OSL dating, as well as calls for isotopic analyses of copper and tin provenance. Contracts for TL/OSL analyses have been signed with Instituto Universitario de Geología “Isidro Parga Pondal” from La Coruña (Spain), and for AMS analyses with Isotoptech Zrt. from Debrecen (Hungary), and Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA). Laboratory research within the project has so far brought many important results, among which are those on the origin of the raw materials for making the analysed ceramic vessels, as well as the pigments used for their decoration. Extremely significant data was obtained on the composition of the analysed items made of metal - weapons and jewellery, on the basis of which preliminary conclusions were made about the technology of their production, and them belonging to a certain region or workshop. The project initiated the creation of a network of scientific collaborations that can be continued through future joint projects and applications on international calls. The following project activities will be aimed towards the consolidation of already established methodological procedures as well as the interpretation of the awaited outcomes and their integration into explanatory models of complex processes in the societies in later prehistory.
The purpose of the article is to determine the cultural-chronological relations between the Early... more The purpose of the article is to determine the cultural-chronological relations between the Early Eneolithic sites in Timočka Krajina and the sites of the Bubanj-Salcuta-Krivodol complex in other regions of the central Balkans by using new absolute dates and the analysis of stylistic and typological elements of pottery finds from the Timočka Krajina, with a focus on the site of Kmpije in Bor.
The paper presents an extraordinary new find from the site of Velika Humska Čuka near Niš, in Sou... more The paper presents an extraordinary new find from the site of Velika Humska Čuka near Niš, in Southeastern Serbia. During the 2022 excavation campaign, a set of bronze jewelry was discovered, comprised of a pin, a band, ten salteleons, and ten circular pendants. Of particular importance are finds of circular pendants, which are known throughout the Bronze Age in the territory of Europe. Such pendants are traditionally connected with Central Europe and the Hügelgräber culture, therefore representing an uncommon find for the Central Balkans. The paper provides a stylistic and typological analysis of jewelry, complemented with physical and chemical analyses, and further discusses the scope and effects of interactions between Central Europe and Central Balkans during the Bronze Age.
... b, National Museum Belgrade, Trg Republike 1a, Belgrade, Serbia. c, University of Ljubljana, ... more ... b, National Museum Belgrade, Trg Republike 1a, Belgrade, Serbia. c, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, and Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, POBox 3000, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia. ...
Traditional Serbian religious art originated in Byzantine culture and conserved Byzantine element... more Traditional Serbian religious art originated in Byzantine culture and conserved Byzantine elements until modern times. However, since the end of the 17th century, many changes in traditional icon painting have been introduced. Previous studies focused on the changes in iconography and style, but very little attention was paid to the changes in painting materials and techniques. This research focuses on the blue pigments on icons from the first half of the 18th century. Eight icons with blue areas of a different hue were selected for the study. Due to its rarity in nature, price, and iconographical importance, the blue pigment was particularly praised by painters. Therefore, the choice of the blue pigment can be related to historical information to trace influences and the development of the painter’s practice. Imaging techniques, several portable, non-destructive analytical techniques, such as XRF and FTIR, followed by optical microscopy and SEM-EDX analysis of the samples were used...
Abstract Morphology and development of surface damage of alumina-based materials, resulting from ... more Abstract Morphology and development of surface damage of alumina-based materials, resulting from cavitation erosion is studied in this paper. Two series of samples were prepared: samples without fibers and those with the addition of 2 wt. % of ceramic fibers. The form of surface damage is considered to be the information carrier for the analysis of the resistance of materials to cavitation and the quality of this information is determined. The surface of the samples was monitored in defined time intervals in order to prepare the digitized image suitable for further analysis using image analysis software. The principal component analysis was applied to examine the appearance of certain morphological characteristics depending on the behavior of the material during cavitation erosion. It was concluded that the addition of ceramic fibers gained in importance after a long time of cavitation erosion, while during a starting period of time the difference in the morphology of the damage is not very observable.
According to the Serbian official soil classification system, Rendzina is a soil type with an A-A... more According to the Serbian official soil classification system, Rendzina is a soil type with an A-AC-C-R profile, developed on parent rock containing more than 20% of calcareous material (except soils with an A-R profile on hard pure limestone or dolomite). Previous investigations have shown that 29 Rendzina soil profiles from Serbia belong to the reference soil groups (RSGs) of Leptosols, Regosols and Phaeozems according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB 2015). The present study addresses the correlations among three WRB RSGs in terms of soil texture, mean weight diameter (MWD), total N content, and humus fractional composition using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The objective is to better understand the mutual relationship between the classification soil units used in Serbia and the international WRB system. The results show that PCA cannot unequivocally distinguish between these three RSGs. Leptosols and Regosols are highly incoherent groups while the group ...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2021
Radioactivity, whether natural or artificial, today constitutes a significant segment in the proc... more Radioactivity, whether natural or artificial, today constitutes a significant segment in the process of protecting human and animal health. Natural radioactivity is an integral part of our ecological system, so it has long been present in the food we eat. However, intensive industrial processes in some areas have disturbed the natural ecological balance and thus introduced into the environment natural radionuclides in quantities that can affect the quality of human life and the state of the environment. On the other hand, artificial radionuclides reach the environment only in the case of accident situations in nuclear facilities. In the nuclear era so far, two accidents, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011, affected the environment globally with the significant impact. Consequently, a system of monitoring radioactivity in the environment was introduced, which includes foodstuffs as well as animal feed. The paper describes the sources of radioactive contamination and the most cri...
Part of Cu post flotation tailings of Serbia ZiJin Bor Copper, Serbia, was reclaimed by restorati... more Part of Cu post flotation tailings of Serbia ZiJin Bor Copper, Serbia, was reclaimed by restoration of top soil with arable soils, and revegetation in 1991. Humic acids isolated from these Technosols were investigated to find out if their properties underwent any changes since reclamation. Two groups of control samples were used. Elemental composition (CHNS analysis) falls within the range of average soil humic acids. Humic acids belong to the type B pointing out to its lower humification degree (UV?Vis). Relative abundances of functional groups are ranged as follows: polysaccharide C ??aromatic C > carboxyl C > OH group > aliphatic C. Aromaticity indexes are low, 1.88? 3.25 (ATR-FTIR). Basic units at pH 10 are in the 11.7?26.8 nm range. Pronounced reaggregation (1462-?5218 nm) at pH 3 points out to less expressed humic acid sol stability, as well as to increase in aromatic condensation degree (dynamic light scattering). No significant changes have occurred in technosol hum...
BackgroundPortable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pEDXRF) spectrometry analysis was applie... more BackgroundPortable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pEDXRF) spectrometry analysis was applied for the characterisation of archaeological ceramic findings from three Neolithic sites in Serbia. Two dimension reduction techniques, principal component analysis (PCA) and scattering matrices-based dimension reduction were used to examine the possible classification of those findings, and to extract the most discriminant features.ResultsA decision-making procedure is proposed, whose goal is to classify unknown ceramic findings based on their elemental compositions derived by pEDXRF spectrometry. As a major part of decision-making procedure, the possibilities of two dimension reduction methods were tested. Scattering matrices-based dimension reduction was found to be the more efficient method for the purpose. Linear classifiers designed based on the desired output allowed for 7 of 8 unknown samples from the test set to be correctly classified.ConclusionsBased on the results, the conclu...
The paper summarises the results achieved during the first 18 months of the project THE FLOW (Int... more The paper summarises the results achieved during the first 18 months of the project THE FLOW (Interactions-Transmission-Transformation: Long-distance connections in Copper and Bronze Age of the Central Balkans). The project team has visited 12 museums in the territory of Central Serbia and accumulated a total of 5,000 km of road trips. More than 400 pottery samples from 67 archaeological sites were collected for provenance analyses, thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence dating. Samples have also been collected from more than 150 bronze and 64 copper artifacts, as well as more than 25 samples from clay pits and ore deposits. A total of 30 samples from obsidian artifacts have been collected. Following the collection of samples, procurement procedures were conducted for AMS and TL/OSL dating, as well as calls for isotopic analyses of copper and tin provenance. Contracts for TL/OSL analyses have been signed with Instituto Universitario de Geología “Isidro Parga Pondal” from La Coruña (Spain), and for AMS analyses with Isotoptech Zrt. from Debrecen (Hungary), and Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA). Laboratory research within the project has so far brought many important results, among which are those on the origin of the raw materials for making the analysed ceramic vessels, as well as the pigments used for their decoration. Extremely significant data was obtained on the composition of the analysed items made of metal - weapons and jewellery, on the basis of which preliminary conclusions were made about the technology of their production, and them belonging to a certain region or workshop. The project initiated the creation of a network of scientific collaborations that can be continued through future joint projects and applications on international calls. The following project activities will be aimed towards the consolidation of already established methodological procedures as well as the interpretation of the awaited outcomes and their integration into explanatory models of complex processes in the societies in later prehistory.
The purpose of the article is to determine the cultural-chronological relations between the Early... more The purpose of the article is to determine the cultural-chronological relations between the Early Eneolithic sites in Timočka Krajina and the sites of the Bubanj-Salcuta-Krivodol complex in other regions of the central Balkans by using new absolute dates and the analysis of stylistic and typological elements of pottery finds from the Timočka Krajina, with a focus on the site of Kmpije in Bor.
The paper presents an extraordinary new find from the site of Velika Humska Čuka near Niš, in Sou... more The paper presents an extraordinary new find from the site of Velika Humska Čuka near Niš, in Southeastern Serbia. During the 2022 excavation campaign, a set of bronze jewelry was discovered, comprised of a pin, a band, ten salteleons, and ten circular pendants. Of particular importance are finds of circular pendants, which are known throughout the Bronze Age in the territory of Europe. Such pendants are traditionally connected with Central Europe and the Hügelgräber culture, therefore representing an uncommon find for the Central Balkans. The paper provides a stylistic and typological analysis of jewelry, complemented with physical and chemical analyses, and further discusses the scope and effects of interactions between Central Europe and Central Balkans during the Bronze Age.
... b, National Museum Belgrade, Trg Republike 1a, Belgrade, Serbia. c, University of Ljubljana, ... more ... b, National Museum Belgrade, Trg Republike 1a, Belgrade, Serbia. c, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, and Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, POBox 3000, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia. ...
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Papers by Maja Gajic Kvascev
Laboratory research within the project has so far brought many important results, among which are those on the origin of the raw materials for making the analysed ceramic vessels, as well as the pigments used for their decoration. Extremely significant data was obtained on the composition of the analysed items made of metal - weapons and jewellery, on the basis of which preliminary conclusions were made about the technology of their production, and them belonging to a certain region or workshop.
The project initiated the creation of a network of scientific collaborations that can be continued through future joint projects and applications on international calls. The following project activities will be aimed towards the consolidation of already established methodological procedures as well as the interpretation of the awaited outcomes and their integration into explanatory models of complex processes in the societies in later prehistory.
Laboratory research within the project has so far brought many important results, among which are those on the origin of the raw materials for making the analysed ceramic vessels, as well as the pigments used for their decoration. Extremely significant data was obtained on the composition of the analysed items made of metal - weapons and jewellery, on the basis of which preliminary conclusions were made about the technology of their production, and them belonging to a certain region or workshop.
The project initiated the creation of a network of scientific collaborations that can be continued through future joint projects and applications on international calls. The following project activities will be aimed towards the consolidation of already established methodological procedures as well as the interpretation of the awaited outcomes and their integration into explanatory models of complex processes in the societies in later prehistory.