• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-82
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• 2022

The Hebrew word for silk, meshi, is mentioned in the Bible only once and there is a possibility that the item to which it referred was made of local wild silk. Although Jewish historical sources from the Roman and Byzantine periods mention silk many times, only a few silk textiles have been discovered at a sited dated to the Byzantine period (4^th-7^th centuries CE). The word "silk" occurs in the New Testament, although only once. A turning point in the history of the Negev (Southern Israel) occurred around 400 CE when it underwent a period of prosperity related to the advent of Christianity and pilgrimage, which enabled the purchase of imported silk textiles. The Early Islamic period (7-8th centuries CE) yielded four (out of 310) silk textiles from Nahal 'Omer on the Spice Routes joining Petra, in the Edom Mountains of modern Jordan, and the mercantile outlets on the Mediterranean Sea, notably Gaza and El Arish. The most important silk textile assemblage in the Southern Levant was found near Jericho at Qarantal Cave 38 and dates to the medieval period (9th-13th centuries CE). Linen textiles decorated with silk tapestry originating in Egypt date back to the 10-11th centuries CE. Mulham textiles - silk warp with hidden cotton wefts - were discovered in the medieval fortress on Jazirat Fara'un (Coral Island) in the Red Sea, 14 kilometers south of Elat and today located in Egypt. Mulham is mentioned in literary sources of the ninth century in Iraq and Iran, whence it spread through the Islamic world. The article will present aspects of the origin, transmission, and exchange of these textiles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.29-39
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• 2022

This study investigates the behavior of a circular vertical shaft wall in the absence and presence of a groundwater table. The effects of wall deflection, backfill settlement, and earth pressure distribution around the circular vertical shaft caused by sequential excavations were quantified. The vertical shaft was numerically simulated for different excavation depths of the bearing layer (weathered soil, weathered rock, soft rock) and transient and steady-state flows in the absence of a groundwater table. The backfill settlements and influential area were much larger under transient flow conditions than in steady-state flow. On the contrary, the horizontal wall deflection was much larger in steady state than in the transient state. Moreover, less settlement was induced as the excavation depth increased from weathered soil to weathered rock to the soft rock layer. Finally, the horizontal stresses under steady- and transient-state flow conditions were found to exceed Rankine's earth pressure. This effect was stronger in the deeper rock layers than in the shallow soil layers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.599-614
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• 2022

One of the methods of stabilizing retaining walls, embankments, and deep excavations is the implementation of plate anchors (like the Geolock wall anchor systems). Back-to-back Mechanically Stabilized Earth (BBMSE) walls are common stabilized earth structures that can be used for bridge ramps. But so far, the analysis of the interactive behavior of two back-to-back anchored walls (BBAW) by double-plates anchors (constructed closely from each other and subjected to the limited-breadth vertical loading) including interference of their failure and sliding surfaces has not been the subject of comprehensive studies. Indeed, in this compound system, the interaction of sliding wedges of these two back-to-back walls considering the shear failure wedge of the foundation, significantly impresses on the foundation bearing capacity, adjacent walls displacements and deformations, and their stability. In this study, the effect of horizontal distance between two walls (W), breadth of loading plate (B), and position of vertical loading was investigated experimentally. In addition, the comparison of using single and equivalent double-plate anchors was evaluated. The loading plate bearing capacity and displacements, and deformations of BBAW were measured and the results are presented. To evaluate the shape, form, and how the critical failure surfaces of the soil behind the walls and beneath the foundation intersect with one another, the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique was applied. The experimental tests results showed that in this composite system (two adjacent-loaded BBAW) the effective distance of walls is about W = 2.5*H (H: height of walls) and the foundation effective breadth is about B = H, concerning foundation bearing capacity, walls horizontal displacements and their deformations. For more amounts of W and B, the foundation and walls can be designed and analyzed individually. Besides, in this compound system, the foundation bearing capacity is an exponential function of the System Geometry Variable (SGV) whereas walls displacements are a quadratic function of it. Finally, as an important achievement, doubling the plates of anchors can facilitate using concrete walls, which have limitations in tolerating curvature.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to introduce the new temporary earth retaining wall system using landslide stabilizing piles. This system is a self-supported retaining wall (SSR) without installing supports such as tiebacks, struts and rakers. The SSR is a kind of gravity structures consisting of twin parallel lines of piles driven below excavation level, tied together at head of soldier piles and landslide stabilizing piles by beams. In order to investigate applicability and safety of this system, a series of experimental model tests were carried out and the obtained results are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the measured data from seven different sites on which the SSR was used for excavation were collected and analyzed to investigate the characteristic behavior lateral wall movements associated with urban excavations in Korea. It is observed that lateral wall movements obtained from the experimental model is in good agreement with the general trend observed by in site measurements.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.21-28
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• 2010

Decomposed granite soil is the most common type of soils. The measurement of the stress-strain-strength behavior of anisotropic decomposed granite soils is very important for the deformation and stability analysis of slopes, retaining walls, excavations. A series of unsaturated-drained triaxial compression tests were performed to know unsaturated strength properties. The sample had three different angles of the axial (major principal) direction to the sedimentation plane (compaction plane): 0, 45 and 90 degrees. The compression strain of specimens subjected to an isotropic compression was strongly influenced by the sedimentation angle. In addition, the time dependence was independent of the sedimentation angle in relation to the deformation behavior during the secondary compression process. The effect of the sedimentation angle on the triaxial compression strength and deformation was clearly shown with low confining stress. The effect of the sedimentation angle on the compressive strength and deformation was more evident in saturated specimens. A new method of predicting the shear strength of unsaturated decomposed granite soils, considering compaction angles, was proposed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2023

By conducting three-dimensional simulation with consideration of small-strain characteristics of soil stiffness, the effects of excavation geometry and tunnel cover to diameter ratio on deformation mechanisms of an existing tunnel located either at a side of basement or directly underneath the basement were systematically studied. Field measurements were used to verify the numerical model and model parameters. For basement excavated at a side of an existing tunnel, the maximum settlement and horizontal displacement of the tunnel are always observed at the tunnel springline closer to basement and tunnel crown, respectively, regardless of basement geometry. By increasing basement length and width by five times, the maximum movements of tunnel located at the side of basement and directly underneath the basement increase by 450% and 186%, respectively. Obviously, tunnel movements are more sensitive to basement length rather than basement width. For basement excavated at a side of an existing tunnel, tunnel movements at basement centerline become stable when basement length reaches 10 H_e (i.e., final excavation depth). Moreover, tunnel heaves due to overlying basement excavation become stable when the normalized basement length (L/H_e) is larger than 8.0. As tunnel cover to diameter ratio varies from 2.5 to 3.0, the maximum heave and tensile strain of tunnel due to overlying basement excavation decrease by up to 41.0% and 44.5%, respectively. If basement length is less than 8 H_e, the assumption of plane strain condition of basement-tunnel interaction grossly overestimates tunnel movements, and ignores tensile strain of tunnel along its longitudinal direction. Thus, three-dimensional numerical analyses are required to obtain a reasonable estimation of tunnel responses due to adjacent and overlying basement excavations in clay.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.639-655
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a growing demand for underground space, leading to the utilization of earth retaining walls for deep excavations. Earth retaining walls are structures that are susceptible to displacement, and their measurement and management are carried out in accordance with the standards established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. However, managing displacement through measurement can be considered similar to post-processing. Therefore, in this study, we not only predicted the horizontal displacement of a retaining wall with ground anchors installed using machine learning, but also analyzed the impact of the prediction model based on data scaling and data splitting methods while learning measurement data using machine learning. Custom splitting was the most suitable method for learning and outputting measurement data. Data scaling demonstrated excellent performance, with an error within 1 and an R-squared value of 0.77 when the anchor tensile force and water pressure were standardized. Additionally, it predicted a negative displacement compared to a model that without scaling.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.527-543
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• 2024

In the implementation of most civil structures, especially underground, deep excavations with a vertical slope are required. Using flexible retaining walls is applied as one of the ways to stabilize vertical holes. Therefore, it is necessary to know the parameters affecting the performance of such walls in reducing their horizontal movement. In this research, by building a suitable laboratory model, the parameters of the amount of flexibility, the embedment depth of the wall, the type and number of tieback in the wall were investigated for 42 static laboratory models. The purpose of this research is to study the flexible retaining wall with helical tieback compared to simple tieback at different heights, which shows the best performance in terms of reducing horizontal displacement in proportion to increasing or decreasing flexibility. On the other hand, one of the parameters affecting the flexibility of the wall, which is its bending stiffness, was extracted by numerical software outputs and studied on the results such as relative flexibility, stiffness, safety and numerical stability of the wall.The results of this study show that among the parameters, in the first place, the effect of the type of tieback is inhibited and in the second place, the ratio of thickness to wall height is known as the most important parameter. the best performance for walls with the helical tiebacks in reducing their horizontal displacement can be economically, flexibly and stability assigned to a wall that tiebacks is in the range of H2/t to H4/t and its flexibility ratio is 2/3.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.56-68
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• 2009

Ongoing and extensive urbanisation, which is frequently accompanied with careless construction works, may threaten important archaeological structures that are still buried in the urban areas. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) methods are most promising alternatives for resolving buried archaeological structures in urban territories. In this work, three case studies are presented, each of which involves an integrated geophysical survey employing the surface three-dimensional (3D) ERT and GPR techniques, in order to archaeologically characterise the investigated areas. The test field sites are located at the historical centres of two of the most populated cities of the island of Crete, in Greece. The ERT and GPR data were collected along a dense network of parallel profiles. The subsurface resistivity structure was reconstructed by processing the apparent resistivity data with a 3D inversion algorithm. The GPR sections were processed with a systematic way, applying specific filters to the data in order to enhance their information content. Finally, horizontal depth slices representing the 3D variation of the physical properties were created. The GPR and ERT images significantly contributed in reconstructing the complex subsurface properties in these urban areas. Strong GPR reflections and highresistivity anomalies were correlated with possible archaeological structures. Subsequent excavations in specific places at both sites verified the geophysical results. The specific case studies demonstrated the applicability of ERT and GPR techniques during the design and construction stages of urban infrastructure works, indicating areas of archaeological significance and guiding archaeological excavations before construction work.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.224-239
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• 2016

This article aims to review the major problems of the present Korean management system of archaeology and to seek desirable suggestions in order to pursue the sustainable harmony between the recovery of academic excavations and economic development. In order to continue the sustainable harmony between preserving the values of archaeological resources as limited pure public goods and economic development, the present system of developer's payment for archaeology must be replaced by the introduction of the development fee for archaeology. The excavation of archaeological resources have been done according to the market principle, that is, the lower price principle. But the principle has produced a lot of serious problems in the Korean management system of archaeology, which must result in the market failure. So the governmental intervention is urgently required. By introducing the development fee, the archaeological field units and the developers can avoid direct contact. Instead, the Heritage Management Office will operate the excavation fund raised by the development fee for archaeology in order to avoid low-price contracts, degrading excavation quality, and other related residents' complaints and social conflicts in advance. In addition, the budget for purchasing the preserved excavation sites, which are the source of the landowners' enormous complaints, must be allocated to the Heritage Management Office by the Ministry of Planning and Finance. More budget for small-sized excavations must be allocated as well in order to solve many residents' complaints. These budget increase will be the fundamentals to decrease the residents' big complaints and social conflicts in relation with the archaeological management, which will be a challenge of the Korean government. Along with the governmental efforts, the archaeological field units must do their all-out efforts to overcome many problems in excavation including low-price contracts. Finally, the wage system and working status system must be revised. Excellent young excavators must be recruited appropriately and continue to work in a safe psychological condition, which are the basis to guarantee high-quality excavation.