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for industry in order to characterise the "orange peel effect" on painted car bodywork, these methods, known as multiscale tribological analysis, have been adapted for the study of microtopographic features on archaeological artefacts. They seek to identify every single operation performed on the surface of these objects. This process has revealed that the bracelet was made using highly MERMAIDS BLAMED FOR DAM DELAYS IN ZIMBABWE ssential work on planned reservoirs in Zimbabwe has stopped because mermaids have been hounding workers away, according to the country's Water Resources Minister. Samuel Sipepa Nkomo told a Zimbabwean parliamentary committee that terrified workers are refusing to return to the sites, near the towns of Gokwe and Mutare. “All the officers | have sent have vowed not to go back there," Minister Nkomo was reported as saying in Zimbabwe's state-approved Herald newspaper. The senior politician said that mermaids were also present in other reservoirs. "We even hired whites, thinking that our boys did not want to work, but they also returned, saying they would not return to work there again," he added. The two long-overdue reservoirs are considered essential if Zimbabwe is to provide adequate water to its population and to boost its agricultural production. From 2000, President Robert Mugabe expropriated some 4,000 white- owned farms and gave them to politically connected blacks. Agricultural production this year is orecast to be at its second lowest evel since Zimbabwe achieved independence from Britain in 1980. The belief in mermaids and other mythical creatures is widespread in he country, where many people combine a Christian faith with raditional beliefs. Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister gnatius Chombo_ said the government wants to give the population the water it needs, but cannot do so until the rituals are performed and necessary repairs can be carried out. (Source: Daily Mail, UK, 6 February 2012, http://tinyurl.com/8xcsaer) OLDEST OBSIDIAN BRACELET REVEALS HIGHLY SKILLED CRAFTSMANSHIP esearchers from the Institut have been adapted for the study of Reérancais d'Etudes Anatoliennes microtopographic features on in Istanbul and the Laboratoire de archaeological artefacts. They seek Tribologie et de Dynamiques des_ to identify every single operation Systémes (LTDS) have analysed the performed on the surface of these oldest obsidian bracelet ever Objects. identified, discovered in the 1990s __ This process has revealed that the at the site of Asikli Héyiik in Turkey, bracelet was made using highly Using high-tech methods developed by LTDS to study the bracelet's surface and_ its microtopographic features, the researchers have revealed the astounding technical expertise of craftsmen in the eighth millennium BC. Their skills were highly sophisticated for this period in late prehistory, and on a par with today's polishing techniques. This work is published in the December 2011 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science and sheds new light on Neolithic societies, which remain highly mysterious. Dated to 7500 BC, the obsidian bracelet is unique. It is the earliest evidence of obsidian working, which Digital reconstruction of the bracelet only reached its peak in the seventh proposed by Mohamed Ben Tkaya (LTDS). and sixth millennia BC with the Credit: Obsidian Use Project Archives production of all kinds of a , ornamental objects, including specialised manufacturing mirrors and vessels. It has a techniques. The analyses carried out complex shape with a remarkable show that the bracelet is almost central annular ridge, and is 10cm in Perfectly regular. The symmetry of diameter and 3.3 cm wide. the central annular ridge is Discovered in 1995 at the extremely precise, to the nearest exceptional site of Asikli Héyiik and degree and nearest hundred displayed ever since at the Aksaray micrometres. This suggests that the Archaeological Museum, the ring rtisans of the time used models to was studied in 2009 after Mihriban Control its shape when it was being Ozbasaran, a professor at the Made. _ University of Istanbul's Department The surface finish of the bracelet of Prehistory, resumed excavations. (which is very regular, resembling a Laurence Astruc, a CNRS Mirror) required the use of complex researcher, and colleagues analysed Polishing techniques capable of the bracelet using extremely obtaining a nanometre-scale surface powerful computer technologies uality worthy of today's telescope developed by LTDS researchers lenses. Hassan Zahouani (ENISE) and (Source: CNRS press release, 6 December Roberto Vargiolu (ECL). Developed — 20n, http://tinyurl.com/cvq77ns) specialised manufacturing techniques. The analyses carried out show that the bracelet is almost perfectly regular. The symmetry of the central annular ridge is extremely precise, to the nearest degree and nearest hundred micrometres. This suggests that the artisans of the time used models to control its shape when it was being made. The surface finish of the bracelet (which is very regular, resembling a mirror) required the use of complex polishing techniques capable of obtaining a nanometre-scale surface quality worthy of today's telescope lenses. (Source: CNRS press release, 6 December 2on1, http://tinyurl.com/cvq77ns) 66 * NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com