Most of the cities in the fertile Jezreel, Beth-Shean, and the adjacent valleys, which flourished in the Iron I, were destroyed in the beginning of the Iron IIA. Some were then rebuilt along very different lines. At the same time, in contrast to the large-scale village abandonment occurring throughout the land, some farming villages continued and were even established. What happened to the cities and what connection might there be to the continued existence of the villages? It appears that the expanding highland polity conquered the region and destroyed most cities – the only exceptions being cities that collaborated with them – transferring some of the inhabitants of these destroyed cities, before rebuilding some of them, often along different lines. This newly conquered area was important economically not only because of the roads that crossed it, but also because of its agricultural potential. Thus the new polity maintained many villages there, even transferring population from the conquered cities to these villages.

Nehruvian developmentalism reigned supreme in newly independent India in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was against this backdrop that the Soviet-inspired Communist Party came to power in Kerala in 1957, a year after state formation, creating history as the first democratically elected communist government1 in the world. It epitomized a smooth transition to power for the communists, based on the premise of peaceful coexistence as legitimized by Khrushchev in post-Stalinist USSR. While Nehru found inspiration in the Soviet principles of socialism, E.M. Sankaran Namboodirippad, the first communist chief minister of Kerala, in turn, admitted to having borrowed Marxism from Nehru, along with which he would also have been persuaded to open up the newly formed Kerala to state-driven developmentalism. The industrial road was thus extended from Delhi to Kerala with the left government facilitating the entry of Indian capital, the Birlas, to the state by establishing the Gwalior Rayons Silk Manufacturing (Wvg.) Company Ltd, Mavoor, on the outskirts of Kozhikode, which soon became a hub of industrial activity with the company setting up a rayon factory that attracted a huge mass of industrial workers. With hundreds of thousands of jobs on offer, the factory provided fresh employment opportunities for the families in the region; however, the initial euphoria gave way to protests when the pollution of the Chaliyar River by factory effluents became evident, virtually destroying the livelihoods of large numbers of families and rendering the water unusable, eventually forcing the Birlas to leave the state. Although the company did shut down its factory, it left in its wake devastated bamboo forests and a state economy that had suffered heavy losses by supporting the business venture; their departure was thus welcomed by the public even though it meant the loss of livelihood for a huge number of workers.

Mapping Resources: Agreements after Agreements

Surveying and mapping were key instruments of colonialism that remained in use in state-driven development projects in collaboration with big capital, as in the case of bamboo resource mapping and indigenous livelihood in Nilambur-Waynad facilitating the territorial enclosure of resources for the Indian big bourgeoisie in Mavoor. The communist government appointed Sivarajan, the then assistant conservator of forests, to survey the availability of bamboo resources and also assist the state in establishing resource territorial borders for the proposed rayon pulp factory (see Sivarajan 1959).

The evidence from Transjordan reveals a pattern: Most areas in the Transjordan experienced a wave of abandonment at around the middle of the tenth century BCE, whereas some regions flourished. The common denominator of the former is that it includes territories associated with Ammon and Moab, whereas the latter pattern is typical of regions that the Bible describes as Israelite. It appears that as Israel expanded, some groups opposed it and were defeated, suffering the consequences. Other groups, perhaps of similar backgrounds, joined Israel and adopted its identity (e.g., in the Gilead); subsequently, they flourished. Israelite expansion can therefore explain the changing pattern in Transjordan, even if not all the areas that suffered abandonment were actually conquered by Israel. It is likely that Israelite aggression resulted in a wave of abandonment beyond the area of actual Israelite control.

The chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the baptismal spaces at Henchir el Koucha (Tunisia), Myrtilis Iulia (now Mértola), and Milreu/Estói (Portugal), examining how each site incorporates pre-Christian elements into Christian contexts. At Henchir el Koucha, iconography associated with the Roman circus is ingeniously blended into a Christian framework. In the case of Myrtilis Iulia, the chapter explores a building with both palatial and baptismal features and makes suggestions about what might have motivated the representation of the mythological hero Bellerophon in baptistery. Milreu stands out for inserting a baptismal space within a pre-existing Roman monument, allowing the site’s mosaic frieze showing a marine thiasus scene to symbolize the salvific water of baptism. In each case, the incorporation of Roman elements wasn’t merely pragmatic but represented a conscious choice to articulate a multifaceted Christian identity that acknowledged and even celebrated its Roman cultural heritage. The chapter argues that these nuanced choices offer a flexible and inclusive model of Christian identity.

Although the fundamental idea of having cells focalised to be ’seen’ one by one by a detection system remains unchanged, flow cytometry technologies evolve. This chapter provides an overview of recent progress in this evolution. From a technical point of view, cameras can provide images of each of these cells together with their fluorescent properties, or the whole spectrum of emitted light can be collected. Markers coupled to heavy metals allow to detect each cell immunophenotype by mass spectrometry. On the analysis side, artificial intelligence and machine learning are developing for unsupervised analysis, saving time before a much better supervision of small populations.

This chapter is an introduction to flow cytometry aimed at newcomers in the field but also intended as a refresher for seasoned flow cytometrists confronted with unexpected data related to physical interferences, compensation problems, autofluorescence or aiming at harmonising instruments. It also provides counsel on panel building, sample handling and data display, fundamental points to consider in setting up new protocols.