Coupling Hydrotoponymy and GIS Cartography: A Case Study of Hydrohistorical Issues in Urban Groundwater Systems,Porto, NW Portugal

The aim of this multidisciplinary study is to retrospectively examine hydrohistorical issues, namely hydrogeographic, hydrotoponymical and hydrogeological features, in order to assess the evolution of the Porto urban groundwater system (NW Portugal). To achieve these goals, the comparison of two main field inventories in a large urban region was performed by (i) historical mapping of sources and groundwater data from scientific reports spanning the late 17th century to the early 20th; and (ii) hydrogeologic and hydrotoponymical field inventory performed under current conditions. These field inventories permitted the location of springs, dug wells, fountains, public washing places and underground water galleries, which collected groundwater to supply the population of Porto until the early 20th century. This study also allowed the development of a hydrotoponymical classification for urban areas and a field hydrotoponymical inventory data sheet. This research integrated several techniques based on historical hydrogeography, hydrogeology and urban geosciences. The results of the field inventories were combined into both a database and a Geographical Information System (GIS) platform. This unified methodology allowed a cross‐check and analysis of several levels of information, namely hydrotoponymy, hydroclimatology, hydrogeology, structural geology and geomorphology. This perspective led to an assessment of the evolution of the quality of water resources in large urban areas over time. In addition, the role of hydrotoponymical features is presented in order to support the hydrogeological conceptual model for large urbanised areas.     

A Speleothem Record of Early British and Roman Mining at Charterhouse,Mendip, England

The laser ablation ICP–MS transect of a speleothem from GB Cave, close to Charterhouse, Mendip Hills, UK, records Pb variations over the past 5 ka. The speleothem record correlates well with the known historical record of lead mining in the district, the principal features of which include: the Roman lead mining peak; the Dark Ages cessation; gradual, episodic revival up to the late 16th century peak; the 17th century collapse and subsequent recovery; and the final short‐lived burst at the end of the 19th century. This correlation supports the assumption that the pre‐Roman lead record also derives from local mining. Thus, this record is the first example of quantifying ancient human mining activity through trace element signature of a speleothem. This record also provides the first solid evidence of significant pre‐Roman mining activity in the Charterhouse region, and the first solid dating of that activity. This pre‐Roman mining can be divided into three main peaks dated to 1800–1500 bc , 1100–800 bc and 350–0 bc .     

近代日本对长江上游的踏察调查及影响

本文系统研究了近代日本对中国长江上游的踏察调查历程和影响,认为在清末的19世纪后半期,日本对长江上游的了解落后于西方国家,但从清末的20世纪初开始,日本对长江上游的踏察调查呈现后来居上的趋势。本文以山川早水《巴蜀》、东亚同文会《支那省别全志》、《支那开港场志》、上海日本商人协会《中部支那经济调查》、神田正雄《四川省综览》等主要踏察调查著述为研究中心,认为在20世纪30年代前的30年间,日本人对于长江上游的踏察调查不仅远远强于当时的西方列强,也在许多地方比我们自己对长江上游的调查研究更详明深入,值得我们反思。从抗日战争前半个世纪日本对长江上游的调查来看,与抗日战争间日本的长江上游的踏察资料整理一脉相承,体现了日本军国主义侵略中国潜在意识的发展脉络。透过近代日本人对长江上游的调查材料我们发现,这些调查绝大多数都是在日本国侵略中国而称雄亚洲背景下进行,了解中国而侵略中国的意识十分明显。透过近代日本对长江上游的调查研究可看出,当时日本比西方列强在对长江上游的影响方面更直接,对社会上层的影响更大,而西方传教士则对长江上游民间社会的影响更深入。从历史研究角度来看,这些踏察调查材料是我们今天研究近代长江上游历史地理和经济文化的重要文献,应该引起我们的足够重视。     

Peatland conservation in Buchan,north‐east Scotland: The historic context and contemporary issues

Scottish peatlands are now recognised as important habitats for conservation, and are increasingly protected by both national and international designations. This paper examines peatland conservation in north‐east Scotland, using recently published data to assess habitat quality, and relating this to longer‐term historical trends in attitudes towards peatlands, and their utilisation. The historical data indicates that peatland losses in northeast Scotland have been extensive, and occurred rapidly during the 18th and 19th centuries, when peatlands were regarded as fuel sources, or wastelands which could be converted to agricultural use. Threats have lessened in the second half of the 20th century, and many sites are now protected by conservation designations. However, historical attitudes towards peatlands often persist, and this can pose problems which must be addressed if conservation management is to be successful.     

Rethinking the dynamics of woody vegetation in Uruguayan campos, 1800–2000

Simplistic interpretations of the impact of newcomers on South American ecosystems retain currency in the environmental history of the subcontinent. European settlement is almost invariably seen to produce a continuous and linear destruction of the environment. On the basis of several crisis narratives contained in historical documents, it is widely accepted that there was a severe decrease in the extent of woody vegetal formations in the Río de la Plata area during the 19th and 20th centuries. To test this perception, and to develop a more accurate and more complex analysis of the environmental consequences of European occupation, this article focuses on Uruguayan territory from c. 1800 to 2000. Changes in the shape and extent of forest lands in this broad area were assessed by comparing 251 land-survey charts, drawn between 1830 and 1860, with modern-day forest maps. Changes in shrubland abundance were assessed by comparing current distributions with those inferred from the accounts of five travellers who passed through this territory in the first half of the 19th century. Over 200 years, there is no evidence of major changes in forest distribution, extent or shape, and shrublands appear to be much more abundant today than in the early 19th century. These observations, although based on limited data, contradict the most common interpretation of regional environmental evolution. They confirm other claims that the idea of forest destruction in the early 19th century was created and manipulated by actors involved in land conflicts. Close examination of such socially-constructed crisis narratives, through the use of new archives, leads to a better understanding of recent changes in the South American environment.     

Urbanization and mortality decline

We investigate the relationship between mortality decline and urbanization, which has hitherto been proposed by demographers but has yet to be tested rigorously in a global context. Using cross‐national panel data, we find evidence of a robust negative correlation between crude death rates and urbanization. The use of instrumental variables suggest that this relationship is causal, while historical data from the early 20th century suggest that this relationship holds in earlier periods as well. Finally, we find robust evidence that mortality decline is correlated with urbanization through the creation of new cities rather than promoting urban growth in already‐extant cities.     

关于19世纪中国史学历史意义的思考

19世纪中国史学在中国史学发展史上具有划时代意义．它不仅标志着传统史学的终结,亦同时标志着近代史学的开端,是中国史学新陈代谢的交会点和转折点,并为20世纪初新史学的形成与发展奠定了基础,指明了方向。在社会思想领域,19世纪中国史学还起到了重大的思想启蒙作用,对19世纪中国社会的历史进程产生了巨大而持久的影响。     

Social change and sexual mores: a comparison between pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana

This article compares pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana—two settings separated by time and space but sharing a sharp rise in non‐nuptial births. The comparison seeks to create a synergetic analytical effect by combining firsthand, experience‐near field data from Botswana with solid historical analyses of bastardy in Europe. This radical comparison provides a perspective that highlights the importance of treating “culture” not as a residual category, but as an integral part of everything social. This implies that there is a need not only for a proper sociocultural contextualization of localities, but also for an analysis of extra‐local power structures as fundamentally cultural, reflecting not only bureaucratic and political concerns but also values and existential perspectives.     

Tahiti: the ripples of a myth on the shores of the imagination

Influenced by Henri Lefebvre's ideas about the production of space as a continually evolving dialogic process, I trace the long post‐contact history of “Tahiti” as an entangled place where the production and product are continually intertwined. I examine more than two hundred years of historical twists and turns that result in a dialogic process of place making. Tahiti is generated when the imaginary place collides with the material existence, each reflecting and recasting the other. This intertwined history includes 18th‐century French imperialist philosophies and voyages of exploration; 19th‐century colonial intervention, romantic novels and Gauguin's colourful canvases; and 20th‐century French chocolates, Hollywood movies, French nuclear testing, postcards and more.     

The Achill Yawl: vernacular boats in historical context on Achill Island,Ireland

Achill yawls, originally introduced to Ireland as ships' boats aboard Norwegian merchantmen, developed into distinct working vessels along Achill Island's shores during the 19th century. These boats were subsequently modified for recreational racing in the mid‐20th century. Despite changes to their design, they are often nostalgically viewed as traditional symbols of an Achill islander identity, though their popularity may have been prompted by late‐19th‐century British legislation. The authors take an ethnographic approach in interpreting Achill yawls over time, contextualizing their social functions through an exploration of primary historical and photographic archives, extant vessels, and interviews with Achill islanders. © 2010 The Authors     

A Sign of the Times: Scandinavian Town Directories as Sources for Urban Historical Geography

The position of town and trade directories as sources for the reconstruction of former urban geographies of Scandinavia is discussed. Scandinavian directories have a long history which, in the case of major urban centres, can be traced back to the eighteenth century. They contain valuable information with respect to the social, economic, political and demographic organization of modern Scandinavian urban environments through extensive listings of names and addresses. Despite the wealth of information contained therein, directories remain an underused and unresearched data source due mainly to their perceived incompatibility with the themes pursued by research in urban historical geography and the diversity of alternative high quality sources available. Admittedly, the use of directories is not without problems and an assessment of the accuracy, availability and reliability of directory information is presented in this paper. Nevertheless, to dismiss directories represents a serious oversight: the continued history, rapid rate of update and spatial ubiquity of publication across the region after the onset of industrialization make directories a powerful source for comparative urban historical geography research in Scandinavia. Moreover, directories are highly versatile data sources and represent powerful artefacts of modernity insofar as they function as mirrors of cultural change and consumption.     

Coastal connections,local fishing,and sustainable egg harvesting: patterns of Viking Age inland wild resource use in Mývatn district,Northern Iceland

Abstract

The 'Landscapes of Settlement Project' has carried out archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Lake Mývatn region of N. Iceland since 1996. Animal bone collections dating from the late 9th century to the early 13th century AD have been recovered from five sites in different ecological zones around the lake, and three of these sites provide multiple phases datable through radiocarbon, artefacts, and volcanic tephra. Modern systematic biological and geological investigations in the Mývatn district date to the 19th century and a detailed picture of the recent ecology can be combined with both archaeological and historical evidence for long term resource exploitation by humans in this inland region. Analysis of bird bones and bird eggshell suggests that the locally managed sustainable harvest of migratory waterfowl eggs carried out over the last 150 years extends back to the 9th century. These inland archaeofauna also include significant numbers of marine fish and sea birds, marine mollusca, and a few seal and porpoise bones. Marine fish remains recovered indicate specialised transport of partial skeletons missing most cranial and some thoracic vertebrae, suggesting that a cured fish product was being regularly brought to inland farms during the early years of the settlement. Inter-regional exchange and a pre-Hanseatic artisanal fish trade prior to AD 1000 suggests the importance of preserved marine fish in early Scandinavian economies, and may shed light on the source of the 11th century 'fish event horizon' recently documented in southern Britain.     

Eine handgreifliche Geschichtslüge. Wie Martin Luther zum Gegner des copernicanischen Weltsystems gemacht wurde.

Martin Luther has been severely criticized for an offhand remark about Copernicus. In the most frequently cited version of this statement, Luther is alledged to have branded Copernicus as a fool who will turn the whole science of astronomy upside down. This disparaging judgment on Luther prevails in many publications by respected historians of science of the 20th century, although since the early thirties, it has been convincingly demonstrated that the famous citation from Luther's table talk is next to worthless as an historical source, that Luther never referred to Copernicus or to the heliocentric world system in all of his voluminous writings, and that there is no indication that Luther ever suppressed the Copernican viewpoint. His attitude towards Copernicus was indifference or ignorance, but not hostility. In this paper, it is shown that the story of Luther's anti‐Copernicanism emerged in the second half of the 19th century. It was invented by Franz Beckmann and Franz Hipler, two Prussian Catholic historians who were engaged in the conflict between the German government under Bismarck and the Catholic Church (Kulturkampf), and it was disseminated by influential German and American historians like Leopold Prowe, Ernst Zinner, and Andrew D. White. In the second half of the 20th century, many historians of science relied on the authority of these authors, rather than studying the sources or the secondary literature in which it has been proved that Luther's anti‐Copernicanism is an outright falsification of history.     

Prevalence rates of spondylolysis in British skeletal populations

As an activity‐related pathological lesion, spondylolysis and its prevalence rates are indicative of relative diachronic activity levels in different populations. In this paper we document the prevalence of spondylolytic defects in a series of time‐successive populations with special reference to the recording methods employed, and compare the findings with modern clinical studies. We identify epidemiological trends in expression of the condition through 1500 years in a series of skeletonised human remains from England. This includes a 5th–6th‐century settlement, a 15th‐century mass grave, a 14th to 17th‐century rural parish, a medieval Dominican friary, a medieval leper hospital and an 18th to 19th‐century crypt collection. These skeletal populations sample human groups experiencing considerable social change from an agrarian, non‐centralised early medieval period through the development of the medieval state to the earliest phases of industrialisation in England. A detailed study of all lumbar vertebrae in one of the assemblages highlights discrepancies between clinical prevalence rates for spondylolysis established through radiography, and those resulting from direct osteological analysis of the lumbar region of the vertebral column. Current prevalence rates cited in the osteological as well as the clinical literature are greatly dependent upon the recording methods employed, and the effects of several methods for osteological remains are considered in this treatment. For the populations reported on here, prevalence rates vary from considerably less than 1% to as much as 12%, depending on the method selected. A standardised recording method for spondylolytic lesions is suggested to facilitate accurate prevalence reporting and comparison of activity levels between different populations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bishops and Professionalization in Sweden,c. 1780–1880

This article investigates the concept of professionalization in terms of the bishops' role in the 19th-century Church of Sweden. Previous research has generally claimed that from the late 18th century until the mid-19th century, before the abolition of the Diet of Estates, the Swedish bishops amounted to secularized, conservative state officials who lacked the ability to effect religious reform. In this article, however, it will be argued that in the early 19th century, several decades earlier than previously assumed, the Swedish episcopate had begun to undergo a slow transformation that is best described as professionalization. It is posited that the bishops, inspired by Evangelical revival and Romanticism, became increasingly specialized in religion and theology in their education, thinking and practice. The episcopal profile also changed as the middle classes gained more influence from the early 19th century onwards, and this, in turn, prompted a higher standard of role performance.     

清末新式知识分子的文化心态及现代启示

19世纪末20世纪初,在中国形成了具有新的知识结构与价值取向的知识分子群体,他们对中国文化进行了许多有益的探索。然而,在晚清时期,由于诸多社会矛盾相互交织,社会改造任务紧迫,因而新式知识分子群体形成了矛盾、急躁和激进的文化心态,并成为一种根深蒂固的传统,对现实社会产生了不可估量的影响。     

19世纪末和20世纪初美国“新式中产阶级”形成时期的文官群体

在19世纪末和20世纪初的美国新式中产阶级形成时期,作为其中的一个重要白领阶层,文官群体的优势日渐显露。其一,由于文官职业和收入的稳定,使其成为美国中产阶级中颇具稳定性的职业群体;其二,由于文官掌握一定的权力,使其成为美国中产阶级中颇具政治影响力的职业群体;其三,由于文官兼有政府雇员和利益集团的双重身份,使其成为美国中产阶级中颇具社会地位的职业群体;其四,由于文官对权本位的追求,使其成为美国中产阶级中颇具独特文化价值观的职业群体。不仅如此,文官群体所具有的这些优势,又使其在第二次世界大战后逐渐演变成为美国中产阶级的主体。     

Mechanical Performance of Historical Wrought Iron Rods

Historical masonry buildings are often reinforced with ferrous tie rods. Before the late 18th century, such rods were hot formed by using wrought iron deriving from either the bloomery or the finery process; thereafter, the puddling process was introduced and gradually became prevalent. Several such tie rods are still in service in cultural‐heritage buildings; their analysis can shed light on historical production processes and building techniques, and knowledge of their mechanical performance can be valuable for architectural conservation purposes. Four steel tie rods, which were retrieved from a 17th century masonry building in Turin, Italy, and are dated to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, are examined here, by means of chemical and microstructural analyses, tensile tests and fractographic examinations, and both the material fabrication procedure and its mechanical performance are discussed.     

墨西哥人移民美国的历程

墨西哥移民在美国移民史上占有重要的地位,是当今美国最大的移民群体。作为一种历史现象,墨西哥人向美国较大规模的移民开始于20世纪初前后,概而观之,除20世纪30年代因大萧条而短暂中断外,墨西哥移民一直呈现出持续的高水平特征。墨西哥人移民美国的历程大致可以划分为四个阶段,与之对应的是四次移民浪潮：第一次浪潮从19世纪末20世纪初到1929年美国经济大萧条;第二次移民浪潮从1942年美墨双方签署《布拉塞洛计划55301964年该计划终结;第三次浪潮从1965年移民法颁布到20世纪80年代中期,此间大量墨西哥无证件移民流入美国;第四次浪潮从《1986年移民改革与控制法》颁布至今。墨西哥人移民美国源于一系列历史、地理、经济和社会因素,根植于美墨两国总体社会经济背景之下。