RADON ESCAPE FROM POTTERY: EFFECT OF WETNESS

Radon and subsequent members of the uranium-238 decay chain are responsible for an appreciable fraction of the radiation dosage received by pottery. Consequently in thermoluminescent dating calculations it is necessary to make an estimate of the degree to which this gas was escaping during burial. Direct measurement of the radon accumulated from pottery fragments indicates that wet conditions do not drastically inhibit the escape of radon, contrary to what has usually been assumed in thermoluminescent dating up till now.     

阿尔萨斯 逃往纯真年代

我是一个匆忙的都市人 我享受着繁华 失去了健康和宁静 我哈欠连天,没有胃口,脾气暴躁,没精打采 还有轻微的妄想症 突然间,我想逃,远离这一切…… ——彼得·梅尔 最后,彼得·梅尔逃到普罗旺斯,劈柴喂马、返璞归真去了。不是每个人都能像他一样逃得彻底。但我们确实急需找个地方,与嘈杂、污染、速度、资讯和现代化暂时隔绝。 如果你不想与大量游客争夺普罗旺斯有限的薰衣草田,那么尽可以去试试法国东部的阿尔萨斯：小镇、鲜花、莱茵河、葡萄园……你突然发觉,生活其实单纯如阳光下的一片树叶或者一道溪流,清新而透明。所以,当年大诗人歌德是飞奔着前往那里的。 要是有可能,就尽量待久些,直到相信自己储备了足够的气力,以致能够重回都市、忍受一切为止。     

THE BADBURY-SHAPWICK HOARD AND THE DATE OF THE MAIDEN CASTLE COINS FROM SIR MORTIMER WHEELER'S 1934–1937 EXCAVATIONS

Summary. Fifteen Celtic coins found during Sir Mortimer Wheeler's excavations have never been dated with precision. A hoard of similar coins, found in the vicinity of Badbury Rings hillfort gives us a yardstick for their chronology.     

LIPIDS FROM SAMPLES OF SKIN FROM SEVEN DUTCH BOG BODIES: PRELIMINARY REPORT

A combination of micro-analytical techniques including thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC). and combined gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCIMS) have been employed to study the lipid compositions of samples of skin from seven Dutch bog bodies. TLC showed that, while phospholipids have been degraded, other acyl lipids, for example triacylglycerols and steryl esters, may remain intact. GC and GC/MS analyses, following treatment of the total lipid extracts with acidified methanol, showed the presence of abundant fatty carboxylic acids and sterols. Molecular analysis by GC/MS allowed distinctions to be drawn between components originating from the bog body and the surrounding peat. Additionally, substances derived from microbial alteration of endogenous skin lipids and from the lipids of the micro-organisms themselves can be distinguished.     

WONDER: FROM POETICS TO POLITICS

Marnie Hughes-Warrington's book, History as Wonder: Beginning with Historiography, invites readers to reconsider the power of wonder as a critical concept whose theoretical implications go far beyond its evident ability to inspire historical research. Wonder is supposedly a neutral weapon for historians, one that is limited to promoting incessant curiosity about the past. Attempting to move from a poetic and aesthetic vision of wonder to a consideration of the concept's ethical and political uses, Hughes-Warrington claims that “historians since Herodotus have engaged with or responded to the efforts of thinkers who attempt to make general sense of the world, metaphysicians” (xii). In what follows, I challenge Hughes-Warrington's approach by emphasizing and exploring the epistemological questions History as Wonder raises about who holds the power to establish a conventional sense of the world and to what extent historical research may offer general explanations of the world without succumbing to precritical assumptions or metahistorical reductionisms.     

QINGHAI-TIBET RAILWAY:FROM DREAM TO REALITY

On July 1,2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will go into service on a trial basis, taking people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu to Lhasa and back.