Secular variations in seawater chemistry as a control on the chemistry of basinal brines: test of the hypothesis

The hypothesis that basinal brines inherited their major ion chemistries and elevated salinities from evaporated paleoseawaters is tested by comparing the compositions of basinal brines in Silurian (Michigan basin, Illinois basin, Appalachian basin in eastern Ohio) and Jurassic/Cretaceous (Central Mississippi Salt Dome basin, Arkansas shelf, and south‐central Texas) host rocks, when the world oceans were ‘CaCl₂ seas’, with those from Permian and Pennsylvanian rocks (Palo Duro basin, Central Basin Platform, and Delaware basin, Texas and New Mexico) when the world oceans were ‘MgSO₄ seas’. Basinal brines examined are assumed to have originally formed from evaporation of the same seawaters that produced major evaporites. Sulfate, Mg and K levels in basinal brines are below the concentrations expected from evaporation of seawater of any type, which emphasizes the importance of diagenetic mineral–brine interactions in controlling basinal brine chemistry. There are no major differences in SO₄, Mg and K concentrations between basinal brines hosted by rocks originally formed during ages when the world oceans were MgSO₄ seas versus CaCl₂ seas. Basinal brines in Pennsylvanian–Permian rocks are compositionally distinct (relatively high Na and low Ca) from basinal brines in Silurian, Jurassic and Cretaceous host rocks, which may reflect original differences in seawater chemistry. Basinal brines enriched in Ca and depleted in Na relative to evaporated seawater of any type have traditionally been interpreted to form by albitization of plagioclase feldspar. A new explanation for Ca enrichment and Na depletion of basinal brines is the mixing of evaporated CaCl₂‐type seawater with more dilute water. Some basinal brines are similar in major ion composition to evaporated seawater of a particular age, for example basinal brines in the Cretaceous Edwards Group carbonates, Texas, where dolomitization is the only reaction required to convert evaporated Mesozoic CaCl₂ seawater into Edwards Group brine.     

Degradation of mud brick houses in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological model

A common assumption in Near Eastern tell archaeology is that the majority of sediments originate from degraded mud bricks. Little is known about the mechanism of mud brick wall degradation. Here we present a detailed macro- and microscopic ethnoarchaeological study of the degradation of a mud brick house and propose a comprehensive mechanism for tell formation processes in arid environments. The study took place in southern Israel by trenching a ca. 60 year old abandoned mud brick house, followed by extensive sediment sampling. Macroscopic observations showed that mud brick walls degrade by collapse of single bricks and/or collapse of intact wall parts, either inwards or outwards. In addition, infill sediments within the house and outside it, in close proximity to its walls, form alternating sedimentary layers of various colors and textures. The degraded mud brick material lost its distinctive macroscopic structure, which makes it impossible to accurately identify this material by field observations alone. Mineralogical and elemental analyses established the sources of the house infill sediments, namely mud bricks and wind blown sediments. Alternating layers mostly originate from mixing between degraded mud brick material and wind blown sediments. Micromorphological observations revealed microscopic mechanisms of mud brick degradation and include processes of mud slurry gravity flows, sediment coatings and infillings, wind abrasion of walls, small-scale puddling, and bioturbation. This study provides a working scheme for site formation of abandoned mud brick structures in arid environments. It provides a set of criteria by which it is possible to differentiate floors from post-abandonment sedimentary features and thus improves the reliability of activity area research.     

Never Judge A Gold Object by Its Surface Analysis: A Study of Surface Phenomena in a Selection of Gold Objects From the Staffordshire Hoard

With the introduction of commercially available handheld XRF analysers, there is a growing problem that the results, simply taken at face value, are regarded as representative of the bulk gold alloys of the objects analysed in museums and used for treasure analysis. It is well known that surface analysis is problematic, and the aim of this study was to test whether non‐destructive surface analysis could be useful in grouping the very large numbers of fragmentary pieces in the Anglo‐Saxon Staffordshire Hoard. Surface and subsurface analyses of 16 objects from the Hoard were carried out by X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis (SEM–EDX). The results indicate that there are significant but inconsistent levels of enrichment of the gold at the surface of many of these objects, due to the loss of both copper and silver. The significant loss of silver (up to 50% relative in some cases) suggests that some form of deliberately induced depletion gilding was carried out during manufacture to remove both silver and copper from the surface. In three cases, an increase in silver at the surface compared to the core metal was detected: this might tentatively be explained by redeposition from contact with silver objects during burial. These results have clear implications for the reliability and interpretation of surface analysis data of gold alloys from this period.     

Music in factories: a twentieth-century technique for control of the productive self

This paper discusses the historical use of music to produce more efficient, more committed, industrial workers. First emerging in academia early in the twentieth century, psychological interest in the industrial application of music had grown into a topic of popular interest and government investigation by the 1940s. Catalysed by the need for vast increases in production and the desire to cultivate ‘citizenship’ amongst industrial workers which the Second World War produced, consideration of how music could be employed as an affective soundtrack in factories—to raise employees' work rates, to increase their efficiency, to combat fatigue and boredom, to improve morale, to access and manipulate their emotions and loyalties—became a prominent area of psychological research. This paper examines that psychological research and its largest scale application in the BBC radio show Music While You Work, broadcast daily to millions of British factory workers from 1940 until 1967. The paper focuses particularly on conceptualizations of music's affective power and its utilization to exert ‘emotional control’ over spaces of work and the working self. This paper is centrally concerned with the practice of Music While You Work as a programme broadcasting specifically for factory spaces, and how this confronted the BBC's music policies for a national and domestic audience, impacting on the radical nature of the affective soundtrack to work which was produced.     

Transfer of population as a solution to international disputes: population exchanges between Greece and Turkey as a model for plans to solve the Jewish-Arab dispute in Palestine during the 1930s

The author explores the reasons for the failure of a plan for population exchanges that took place between Jews and Arabs in Palestine in the 1930s. Special focus is given to the success of previous exchanges between Greece and Turkey that took place during the 1920s and why this model failed in Palestine. The author concludes that "the Zionist plans which assumed that one could encourage voluntary transfer by creating attractive economic conditions in the target areas, did not take into account the factors of nationalism, ties to place of residence, religion, etc. These factors carried no less weight than the economic factor and they could effectively prevent any voluntary transfer of the Arab population."     

It's safe: food as a way of expression for children in Warsaw

ABSTRACT

The role of food in family relations is often discussed with a focus on discipline and control. This paper shows how food can also be used to create children’s safe spaces, defined as the social conditions that allow relatively independent expression of opinions, emotions and practices. Based on ethnographic research conducted with families in Warsaw in 2012–2013, I discuss different ways in which food is used to create and express such safe spaces. Firstly, I look at how children use food to create their own, personal and hidden safe space, in opposition to parental rule. Secondly, I analyse how food is used to build a safe space between adults and children. I argue that within often antagonistic family food relations there is in fact a space for children’s expression. Thirdly, I discuss the role of food in creating safe spaces for children during the research process. This paper takes a relational approach to the concept of safe space, and considers what kind of social relations and processes enable children’s autonomous expression with the means of food.     

Consumption of Chinese goods in southwestern Europe: a multi-relational database and the vicarious consumption theory as alternative model to the industrious revolution (eighteenth century)

This article discusses the application of new technologies, software coding and computer analysis in the social sciences and humanities, mainly in the field of economic history. In the last two decades, the use of new computer technologies among historians to develop theories and solve questions has fostered a vibrant historiographical debate. However, these new digital tools have largely been used as an end in themselves, rather than as a means to develop hypotheses and answer questions. This has prevented researchers from fully exploiting such technologies in their field. In this article, I discuss how I designed a new multi-relational database using the “Access” package and SQL language to test the “industrious revolution” hypothesis and present the “vicarious consumption” theory as an alternative model for analyzing the eighteenth-century circulation of Chinese goods in the Western Mediterranean region. It presents the cross-referencing method I used to analyze the historical information I collected, mainly from probate inventories and trade records. This method makes it possible to navigate through the data in a way that goes beyond the traditional use of “excel” tables.     

Geochemical discrimination of basaltic sources as a tool for provenance analyses of bifacial tools in the southern Levant: first results from the Jezreel Valley,Israel

The determination of groundstone tool sources bears the potential to examine aspects like raw material selection and preference, mobility, trade and exchange patterns, control over resources and long term use of raw material sources. The discovery of the Neolithic/Chalcolithic basanite bifacial quarry of Giv'at Kipod in the Jezreel Valley, Israel, provides the opportunity of raw material centred provenance studies of bifacials in the southern Levant. The basis for reliable provenance analyses is a clear geochemical characterization of the extraction site and its discrimination from other potential sources. To achieve this, the Miocene magmatic rocks of the Jezreel Valley were sampled and analysed by XRF and La-ICP-MS. The geochemical evaluation, combined with cluster analyses, resulted in a clear discrimination of the Giv'at Kipod lava from other basaltic sources in the area. Based on the geochemical field data, a Giv'at Kipod provenance for six bifacial tools found in three archaeological sites dated to the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic periods was established. The results suggest that the quarry was in use for several millennia. This pilot study demonstrates that for provenance analyses lava outcrops in the southern Levant can be geochemically discriminated from each other on a very small spatial scale, on the basis of a detailed field sampling and the application of multivariate methods.     

"That Food of the Memory which Gives the Clue to Profitable Research": Oral history as a source for local, regional, and family history in the nineteenth and early twentieth century

Numerous local, regional and family historians in the nineteenthand early twentieth century collected oral narrations and conductedinterviews as a form to document information that otherwisemight have never been preserved. Family historians, in particular,not only practiced interviewing relatives for family histories,but also encouraged the practice in how-to-do manuals amongtheir peers. While advocating the practice, family historiansalso reflected about the value of "traditionary evidence" collectedthrough interviews and other means. These reflections by familyhistorians mirrored the discussions about the value of traditionsand memories as historical sources among several professionalhistorians at the time. These reflections were shaped by a modernizedunderstanding of tradition, which combined a reverential approachto the authoritarian element of tradition with a critical approachquestioning the validity of tradition. In this context, oralhistory was both a tool to negotiate the value of traditionand a mirror to the contemporary understanding of tradition.