On the Identification of Ænon

Abstract

Combined archaeological data from the Central Jordan Valley indicates that small agricultural villages and a few public buildings occupied the area during the first half of the 10^th century BC, all grouped along well-organised irrigation systems. A regional conflagration ended the occupation around 950 BC, after which most of the Central Jordan Valley was deserted for approximately one century. This occupational gap coincided with a period of decreased precipitation. During this arid phase the area was visited by mobile groups who used the summits of the settlement mounds for animal holding and sparse industrial activities. According to the topographical list of Shoshenq I, there were at least four settlements in the Central Jordan Valley: Adamah, Succoth, Penuel and Mahanaim. These places were apparently important enough in c. 925 BC for the Egyptians to neutralise them. But where are the remains of these settlements? This study deals with the intriguing disjunction between archaeological and textual evidence.     

On “Economic Types of Rural Settlement”

Topographic maps are found not to be a reliable guide to rural settlement patterns associated with definite types of economic types. In the case of Eastern Siberia, the rural settlement map of V.S. Valov, discussed in the preceding paper, does not correctly reflect the specialization and distribution of economic activity. The discrepancy is explained in part by the incomplete information on ethnic groups and portable dwellings on topographic sheets. However, apparent conflicts between settlement patterns on topographic maps and the actual type of economic activity can serve as a useful guide to correcting or reconstructing settlement patterns to bring them more in line with the particular type of economy.     

On the stability of the ozone layer at Tromsø

Long-term measurements of the thickness of the ozone layer in Tromsø since 1935 show that the annual mean value can vary by as much as 18%. However, no decreasing trend of the ozone content and no correlation with the increasing amount of chlorine and halogen compounds of the atmosphere are found in the Scandinavian sector of the Arctic.     

On the Centrality of Dionysus in Nietzsche’s Philosophy

Despite the widespread influence of Nietzsche’s iconoclastic works on twentieth-century intellectual and literary culture, there has been a surprising lack of academic focus on the parallels between his philosophical trajectory and the anthropological literature on the mysterious god Dionysus. The striking correlations between ancient Dionysian worship with Nietzsche’s oeuvre revalorise the celebration of ecstasy. In Twilight of the Idols, he states that the Dionysian is “beyond pity and terror, to realize in oneself the eternal joy of becoming.” By elucidating some of the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic god, this article aims to re-establish the central importance of Dionysus in Nietzsche’s work, and to suggest that if we are to understand Nietzsche at all, we must first undertake an anthropological reading of Dionysus.     

On the Use of the Term ‘Non-Anglo Archaeologists’

Many universities in India teach in both English and Hindi to separate classes—the students have an option to choose their language of instruction. Thus the claim of non-Anglo archaeologists as being co-opted raises the double question of being co-opted by whom and for what purpose? If it is the case that there are co-opted third and fourth world archaeologists, then who is to blame and how may this situation be rectified. I feel every-one has the answer to this question and nothing more needs be said about it. My sympathies rest with the co-opted.     

Ancoient Roads On the Roof of the World In History

Giventheharshenvironmentatanelevationofover4,OOOmeters,especiallycoldandoxygenscarcitv,theOinrhai-TibetPlateauhassinceancienttimebeenvirtuallyinaccessible.Itisinsuchanenvironment,however,thatitsinhabitantshavecreatedabrilliantcivilization.Outofneedforsocialandeconomicdevelopment,itwasalsothepeopletherewhosoughtclosetieswithChina'shinterland.ThisexplainswhytheycanbepartoftheChinesenationtoday.ArchaeologistssaytheyhavefoundartifactsintheTibetPlateaushowingthetiesthatexistedbetweenTibetandth…     

On the ＂Middle Way＂ of the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has, in recent years, been telling the world he has stopped seeking ＂Tibetan independence＂ and turned towards a ＂middle way＂. By this, he says, he means ＂high-level autonomy＂ or ＂real autonomy＂ in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas within the framework of the Chinese Constitution. Only by doing so, he has argued, can Tibet best protect its unique traditional culture, religion and eco-environment, and can the unification and unity of China be maintained. （On March 10, 1959, the reactionary upper class in Tibet staged a counter-revolutionary armed rebellion. When it was suppressed,     

On Trial—Social Relations of Map Production in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Britain

ABSTRACT

This article examines the social relations of map production in mid-nineteenth-century Britain with reference to moments when maps and their makers were ‘on trial’—legally in court in Edinburgh in 1853 and by public opinion in London in 1854 following a lecture. The principal protagonists include Alexander Keith Johnston of the map firm W. & A. K. Johnston, the German cartographer August Petermann, the mapseller Trelawney Saunders and John Bartholomew junior of the Bartholomew map firm. The article draws upon Thomas Gieryn’s idea of the ‘truth spot’ and on Matthew Edney’s call for studies in processual map history.     

Pepperoni or Broccoli? On the Cutting Wedge of Feminist Environmentalism

Feminist environmentalism has become a significant intellectual and social policy force across fields as diverse as public health, political economy, philosophy, science, and ecology. Feminist environmental theory and activism together are challenging and redefining foundational principles, from animal rights to the environmental economy of illness and well-being, from global political economy to the role of Big Science as the primary arbiter of the state of the environment. Animal rights is one of the most intellectually challenging and innovative areas of intellectual activity and social activism, and within feminist environmentalism is one of the most radical subfields. This paper provides an overview of activity in this subfield, starting from the observation that feminist environmental scholarship and grassroots activism on animal rights pivot around three concerns: elucidating the commonalities in structures of oppressions across gender, race, class, and species; developing feminist-informed theories of the basis for allocating "rights" to animals; and exposing the gendered assumptions and perceptions that underlie human relationships to nonhuman animals. At the same time, the serious contemplation of animal rights makes a considerable contribution to destabilizing identity categories and adds new dimensions to theorizing the mutability of identity.     

On the Text of Ovid,Met. 13.692–696

The structure and meaning of the passage are analysed, and its variants and textual proposals discussed. A way of understanding the text as transmitted is presented.     

The greatest treason? On the subtle temptations of preventive war

Over the last decade or so, growing attention has been paid to notions of preventive war. The most notorious case is the approach adopted by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks, but there has been a much wider debate. This article traces the lineaments of that debate, and the advocacy of a legitimate doctrine of preventive war, by those who are normally seen—rightly—as defenders of the rule of law and the just war tradition. This article argues that such attempts to justify some notions of preventive war are profoundly problematic and the attempt to make them fit within the rubric of the just war tradition is doomed to failure and potentially very damaging for the coherence of the tradition as an approach to the restraint of war.     

What Happened in Neiden? On the Question of Reburial Ethics

The Neiden Case reburial from Finnmark, North Norway, marks the closure of a process initiated with a controversial excavation in 1915 when 94 skeletons were brought to University in Oslo. The skeletons formed part of a monumental work in physical anthropology by the Norwegian anatomist Karl Emil Schreiner concluding that the Sámi belonged to a somewhat infantile proto-Mongolian race. There is little doubt about unethical aspects of the excavation as well as the exceedingly dubious character of racial research on the Sámi prior to the Second World War. However, considering the handling of the case, opposing facts and opinions, lack of knowledge and other uncertainties, ethical implications seem far from obvious. With regard to the dead themselves the reburial may even be considered unethical. This paper emphasizes the complexity of the ethics of reburials with particular attention to the dead, their graves and belongings.