Crafting is often assumed to have been a ‘dirty’ and hence low-status activity: elites managed the supply of materials or distribution of the products, lower-status workers undertook the hard graft. Here, the authors present an in situ stoneworking toolkit from El Perú-Waka’ in the central Maya lowlands of Guatemala. Recovered from a high-status neighbourhood, the tools indicate the involvement of elite crafters in the working of various types of stone and greenstone. The assemblage is discussed with reference to ontological understandings of raw materials in the Maya world and the importance of specialised and ritual knowledge. The results encourage greater consideration of the involvement of elites in craft production across Mesoamerica and beyond.

In the generalized quasilinear approximation (GQLA) (Marston et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 116, 2016, 214501), a threshold wavenumber ($k_0$) in the direction of translational symmetry segregates the total into large- ($l$) and small-scale ($h$) fields. While the governing equation for the large-scale field is fully nonlinear, that for the small scales is linearized with respect to the large-scale field. In addition, some nonlinear triad interactions are omitted in the GQLA. Herein, the GQLA is applied to two-dimensional planar Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC). A scale separation between the large-scale convection rolls and small-scale turbulent fluctuations is typical in RBC. The present work explores the efficacy of GQLA in capturing the scale-by-scale energy transfer processes in RBC. The initial condition for the GQLA simulations was either the statistically stationary state obtained in direct numerical simulation (DNS) or random fluctuations superimposed on the linear conductive temperature profile and $\boldsymbol {u}=0$. The GQLA simulations can capture the convection rolls for $k_0$ larger than or equal to the dominant wavenumber for thermal driving of the flow ($k_0 \ge k_{\hat {Q}}$). Additionally, the GQLA emulates the fully nonlinear dynamics for $k_0$ larger than or equal to the first harmonic of the convection-roll wavenumber ($k_0 \ge 2k_{roll}$). In the intermediate regime with $2k_{roll} > k_0 \ge k_{\hat {Q}}$, the dynamics captured in GQLA simulations is different from the DNS. In DNS, two primary energy transfer processes dominate: (i) the energy transfer to/from the convection rolls and (ii) the scale-by-scale inverse kinetic energy and forward thermal energy cascades mediated by the convection rolls. The fully nonlinear dynamics is emulated by GQLA when these energy transfer processes are faithfully reproduced. Utilizing the framework of altering the triad interactions in GQLA, an additional intrusive calculation, including target triad interactions, is performed here to study their influence. This intrusive calculation shows that the convection rolls are not captured in GQLA for $k_0 < k_{\hat {Q}}$ because of the exclusion of the $h \to l \to l$ and $l \to h \to h$ triad interactions in GQLA. The inclusion of these triad interactions in the intrusive calculation yields the convection rolls, and the reproduced dynamics is similar to that of the intermediate GQLA regime with $2k_{roll} > k_0 \ge k_{\hat {Q}}$.

This work experimentally investigates the flow structure around a rectangular cylinder with an aspect ratio of 2 under varying incidence angles to examine how acoustic perturbations modify and modulate the unsteady flow instabilities. In the absence of acoustic excitation, the angle of incidence is found to markedly influence the flow topology and the natural shedding pattern altering the vortex formation length and wake dynamics. With acoustic perturbations, it is observed that for incidence angles $\alpha = 0^{\circ }$ and $\alpha = 5^{\circ }$, the masked impinging leading-edge vortex (ILEV)/trailing-edge vortex shedding (TEVS) instability modes of $n= 1$ and $n= 2$ become evident when their frequencies coincide with the frequencies of the acoustic perturbations (i.e. resonant condition). Both trailing-edge and leading-edge vortices were found to be modulated by the acoustic pressure cycle. These instability modes, which are naturally present under non-resonant conditions for significantly higher aspect ratios, highlight the role of incidence angle and self-excited acoustic resonance in virtually augmenting the streamwise length of the cylinder, thereby facilitating the emergence and sustenance of the ILEV/TEVS shedding pattern.

Shear-induced self-diffusion is a fundamental mode of transport in granular flows. Yet its critical behaviour and dependence on the particle solid fraction are still unclear. Here, we rationalize these dependencies by performing two-dimensional pressure-imposed numerical simulations of dense non-Brownian frictional suspensions. Our results, combined with existing numerical data on inertial granular flows, show that the shear-induced diffusion coefficients of both systems can be captured by a single function of the distance to jamming. They further show that the grain diffusive behaviour is underpinned by a specific random walk process, having a constant elementary step length driven at a frequency that increases with the solid fraction. The proposed scaling laws pave the way for a better understanding of mixing processes in granular media.

Flying insects exhibit remarkable capabilities in coordinating their olfactory sensory system and flapping wings during odour plume-tracking flights. While observations have indicated that their flapping wing motion can ‘sniff’ up the incoming plumes for better odour sampling range, how flapping motion impacts the odour concentration field around the antennae is unknown. Here, we reconstruct the body and wing kinematics of a forwards-flying butterfly based on high-speed images. Using an in-house computational fluid dynamics solver, we simulate the unsteady flow field and odourant transport process by solving the Navier–Stokes and odourant advection-diffusion equations. Our results show that, during flapping flight, the interaction between wing leading-edge vortices and antenna vortices strengthens the circulation of antenna vortices by over two-fold compared with cases without flapping motion, leading to a significant increase in odour intensity fluctuation along the antennae. Specifically, the interaction between the wings and antennae amplifies odour intensity fluctuations on the antennae by up to 8.4 fold. This enhancement is critical in preventing odour fatigue during odour-tracking flights. Further analysis reveals that this interaction is influenced by the inter-antennal angle. Adjusting this angle allows insects to balance between resistance to odour fatigue and the breadth of odour sampling. Narrower inter-antennal angles enhance fatigue resistance, while wider angles extend the sampling range but reduce resistance. Additionally, our findings suggest that while the flexibility of the wings and the thorax's pitching motion in butterflies do influence odour fluctuation, their impact is relatively secondary to that of the wing–antenna interaction.