Enclosing difference and disruption: assemblage,heterotopia and the cruise ship

The cruise ship is as much a process as an object. Indeed, while the ship appears stable in its material and affective form, this state is maintained only through the interventions of a vast array of human and non-human agencies. The cascading affects flowing from these interactions allow for alternative sociomaterial orders to be established through the suspension and splintering of fixed notions of time and space. This paper brings the theories of heterotopia and assemblage together, through a speculative realist ontology, to explore these temporal and spatial discontinuities, and the way they can create a sense of enclosure amongst passengers on-board. This theoretical approach is utilized to examine articulations of the cruise ship in the self-solicited blog entries of passengers that demonstrate both the mutable and emergent qualities of the ship and the way in which its seeming enclosure is subject to constant disruption. Rather than a static reading of the ship as a heterotopic ‘other space’, we propose that these spatial configurations are vulnerable to entropic forces and unruly agencies that frame the cruise ship as an emerging, rather than realized object, affording it the potential to enact alternative sociomaterial orders.     

Structure,control, and the evolution of power

Richard Newbold Adams. Energy and Structure: A Theory of Social Power. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. 1975. xviii + 353 pp. Figures, tables, references, and index. $15.00 cloth, $4.95 paper.     

Historical Archaeology and the Slave Ship

This introduction explores the relationship between maritime archaeology and the historical archaeology of the African Diaspora, and discusses the structure and content of this special issue of IJHA, which marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade in 2007.     

On entrepreneur ship,region and the constitution of scale and scope economies

This paper proposes a framework of analysis in which: (1) the constitution of new sources of economies of scale or scope is supported by systemic entrepreneurship; (2) the realization of such economies by incremental entrepreneurship takes the form of external economies, or alternatively of internal economies, together with the prevalence of different combinations of organizations, technologies and regional characters; and (3) the manifestation in the form of external economies is sustained by market rules and focused public intervention, which complement the working of markets, and which can be embedded in regional (or local) relations. Further and more specific conclusions will be referred to in the case of external economies within production systems which are assuming or are reproducing the techno‐organizational characters of flexible specialization. The standard case of the industrial district with final markets largely characterized by differentiated and variable markets falls within such application.     

The Newport Medieval Ship,Wales, United Kingdom

The Newport Ship is the most substantial late medieval vessel excavated and recovered in Britain in recent years. It was abandoned after extensive salvage, possibly following attempts at repairs to the hull. More than 23 m of the clinker‐built ship were recovered, along with significant artefact and environmental assemblages. Finds point to strong Iberian connections during the active life of the ship, which arrived in Newport in the Severn Estuary, after the spring of AD 1468. The dismantling and recovery of the ship has enabled detailed recording using innovative 3D digital techniques and approaches to hypothetical reconstruction. Publication includes a digital archive hosted by the Archaeological Data Service, a substantial report and this article.     

天演、进化、进步的内涵及其关系研究述评

<天演论>是中国近代史上一部划时代的著作,一百多年来,人们对它的研究长盛不衰,涉及问题殊多,现就严复译述<天演论>的概念问题进行梳理,包括研究状况、不同观点以及笔者的简评.关于天演、进化、进步之间的关系存在着两种对立的观点:一是对等说,二是非对等说.文中从天演与进化、进化与进步、天演内涵、严复态度四个方面进行了梳理,认为对等说较普遍认同,而非对等说更接近真理,从科学的观点讲,应该严格加以区分,并对具体问题进行具体分析,做到实事求是.     

Iberian Dendrochronology and the Newport Medieval Ship

At the time of the discovery of the Newport medieval ship, it proved impossible to date the timbers used in its original construction through dendrochronology. Associated British timbers and artefacts provided dating to the mid 15th century, with the latter pointing to strong Iberian connections. The development of regional oak ring‐width chronologies in the Basque Country, and their extension back in time to overlap with the ring‐width mean developed for the Newport Ship, has allowed absolute dating and provenance of timbers used in its original construction. Further research is required to clarify the geographical source of the timbers and to develop a high‐resolution network of tree‐ring data for the region.     

Preliminary Analysis of the Hull of the Roman Ship from Grado, Gorizia, Italy

The hull of the Roman wreck at Grado has been partially preserved under the cargo of amphoras. The right side presents a rare evidence of a section of the waterway. The ship has been assembled by mortise-and-tenon technique following a shell-first conception. All the frames, except one, are of pine while planking is either of pine and elm. Some strakes, of larix , are a repair made by patch-tenons; a wale shows an other kind of repair. Various signs left by the shipwright are on the hull. In the stern area, a box of wooden elements had to protect a 'hydraulic system'.
© 2006 The Authors     

The Karschau Ship, Schleswig-Holstein: Dendrochronological Results and Timber Provenance

The felling of the oak trees used to build the Karschau ship took place in or around the AD 1140s. The tree-ring curves from the oak planks from the Karschau Ship match best with site-means from Odense, a medieval town on the island of Funen, Denmark. New research being carried out by the author is allowing the determination of the provenance of ancient oak to a more local level. Through this dendrochronological research, it is now possible to differentiate between small regions of timber sources for shipbuilding, allowing a more nuanced interpretation.
© 2006 The Author     

A Viking Ship Graffito from Kilclief,County Down,Ireland

Deep ploughing near Kilclief, County Down, near the site of an early monastery, disturbed a large quantity of buried stones. One of these displayed a Viking‐type ship with a furled sail. Decorative artwork on the stone suggests an 11th‐century date. The ship displays close similarities to Viking ship graffiti in Viking Dublin and in the Scandinavian homelands. This article describes the decorated stone and suggests that it represents an Irish ship constructed in the Viking style. Documentary sources indicate that ships were being granted by an Irish over‐king to a local king of this area at this time.