In Situ Preservation of Wetland Heritage: Hydrological and Chemical Change in the Burial Environment of the Somerset Levels,UK

Abstract

In situ preservation is a core strategy for the conservation and management of waterlogged remains at wetland sites. Inorganic and organic remains can, however, quickly become degraded, or lost entirely, as a result of chemical or hydrological changes. Monitoring is therefore crucial in identifying baseline data for a site, the extent of spatial and or temporal variability, and in evaluating the potential impacts of these variables on current and future in situ preservation potential.

Since August 2009, monthly monitoring has taken place at the internationally important Iron Age site of Glastonbury Lake Village in the Somerset Levels, UK. A spatial, stratigraphic, and analytical approach to the analysis of sediment horizons and monitoring of groundwater chemistry, redox potential, water table depth and soil moisture (using TDR) was used to characterize the site.

Significant spatial and temporal variability has been identified, with results from water-table monitoring and some initial chemical analysis from Glastonbury presented here. It appears that during dry periods parts of this site are at risk from desiccation. Analysis of the chemical data, in addition to integrating the results from the other parameters, is ongoing, with the aim of clarifying the risk to the entire site.     

Knowledge capture and transfer in rock art studies: Results of a questionnaire on rock art decay in Britain

Abstract

Several thousand prehistoric rock art sites are known in Britain, yet the degree of preservation of these engravings remains a poorly researched and undervalued aspect of the historic environment. Our lack of knowledge has severe implications for how we interpret the rock art sites and how we conserve and manage them. The ongoing ‘Fading Rock Art Landscapes’ project aims to address this gap in our knowledge by gathering information on the rate and nature of decay in prehistoric engravings. As part of the project, a questionnaire was distributed to a number of individuals who, for up to thirty years, have been visiting and recording rock art and who have a detailed knowledge of the sites, how they have changed over time and the types of threat to which they are exposed. In particular, the questionnaire aimed to capture individuals' perceptions of how three groups of agents (physical/chemical, animal, human) influenced the degradation of the engravings. The synthesized results reveal common perceptions of a duality in the rate and nature of decay, with a slow background level of erosion caused by physical and chemical agents, over which is superimposed a rapid, variable degradation from the impact of humans and animals.     

Living with Heritage: The Potentials of and Pressures on the Heritage Landscape of Gwollu,Upper West Region,Ghana

Abstract

The impact of development has been identified as one of the most pressing concerns in heritage management in Africa. At the same time, heritage has also been recognized as having the potential to bring tourists, and thus growth, to local economies. Communities that wish to benefit from the latter have to balance developmental pressures against the preservation of heritage, and various sectors of the community may view these priorities differently. In this paper, I discuss some of the potentials of, and pressures on, the heritage landscape of Gwollu, a town in Ghana's Upper West Region. I use Gwollu's brickmakers as a case study to illustrate the small-scale everyday development that can have a lasting impact on a town's heritage resources, and how internal divisions within communities may affect the heritage tourism process.     

Challenges and Controversies in the Protection of Archaeological Resources

Abstract

I think the following paper by S. Alan Skinner is important in two ways. First, it shows how, in the United States, if an archeological contractor wishes to take issue with an agency's procurement policies, he or she can use standard federal government protestation procedures to do so. Most of us are unfamiliar with these procedures, and Skinner's paper provides a valuable primer for those who may have to use them in the future. Second, I. think Skinner's paper is important for its demonstration of a distinction between procurement problems that can be effectively addressed through case-by-case protestation and those that cannot. Note that in Skinner's case, the Comptroller General did not comment on the archeologists' concern about curation capabilities and, perhaps even more significantly, did not deal with the agency's policy of awarding contracts based largely on cost, without solicitation or evaluation of research proposals. I doubt if the Comptroller's failure to fully consider these matters resulted from any deficiency in the case presented by Skinner and his colleagues. These issues are never likely to be considered by the Comptroller, I believe, because they are professional in nature, and it is not the Comptroller's business to settle professional disputes.

All this is not to suggest that archeologists should not challenge agencies that fail to ensure proper curation or that select archeological contractors primarily on the basis of bid. Such policies should be challenged at all possible levels, and the fact that our challenges are not always (or even often) effective will not detract from the documentary record of professional objection that will thus be constructed. Such a documentary record will be vital if really effective action—probably through the Congress—is ever to take place.

What I do suggest is that, by documenting the failure of the Comptroller General to reach the issues of broadest importance to archeologists in his case, Skinner has outlined a challenge to the authorities responsible for managing the federal historic preservation system. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Secretary of the Interior are explicitly charged with consultation with other federal agencies to ensure that their policies effectively contribute to the preservation of historic places and archeological data. Contracting policies that result in low-quality research or impermanent preservation of data and collections are legitimate targets for the historic preservation authorities, and should be vigorously attacked. Actions like the one taken by Skinner and his colleagues will help the federal authorities to launch and sustain such an attack.     

Resistance and radical democracy: freedom,power and institutions

ABSTRACT

In this article, I argue that resistance and radical democracy can be used to the good of representative democracy. I submit that resistance is about the popular power – the freedom as power – to create better institutions. I argue that the conflict and resistance that is at the core of radical democracy enables freedom and democracy and resists domination best if it is institutionalized. This counterintuitive claim is substantiated by an argument for freedom as power through representation and how the power to resist is linked to at least four domains of freedom. This builds on the work of Machiavelli, Marx and Foucault, amongst others, and insights drawn from resistance struggles across the globe. I end by proposing institutional changes to representative democracy that, I suggest, would allow us to conceive of democracy as both a form of government and a constantly destabilizing transgressive practice.     

Quantification and Visualization of In Situ Degradation at the World Heritage Site Bryggen in Bergen,Norway

Abstract

Environmental monitoring at the World Heritage Site of Bryggen in Bergen, Norway, has shown damaging settling rates caused by degradation of underlying archaeological deposits. Measurements of piezometric head, oxygen, and soil moisture content, as well as chemical analyses of water and soil samples are key elements of the environmental monitoring.

Groundwater monitoring and geochemical analyses reveal a complex and dynamic flow through the natural and anthropogenic stratigraphy. The preservation conditions within the organic archaeological deposits are strongly correlated with oxygen and soil moisture content, that are controlled by the groundwater flow conditions at the site. To quantify decay rates, it is thus essential to understand the wider hydrogeological context of the site. This paper presents recent advancements in quantifying decay rates in the saturated zone at Bryggen. The paper also shows that 3D geo-archaeological modelling can contribute to preservation management by visually combining results of geological, archaeological, geochemical, and hydrological investigations. This opens up for improved multidisciplinary understanding of preservation potential, thereby contributing to an improved protection of archaeological deposits in situ.     

Relevance of soil biology and fertility research to archaeological preservation by reburial

Abstract

This paper discusses how soil biological information can help to improve understanding of, and possibly inform decisions about, preservation of organic archaeological remains by reburial. A brief summary of the properties of the soil biological community is followed by an outline of results from recent biological investigations following the recovery of archaeologically relevant materials that had been buried for thirty-three years in one of the experimental earthworks in England UK. Examples from the soil biology and fertility literature are discussed to illustrate the effects of fluctuations in soil wetness and aeration, and of nitrogen availability on decomposition. Finally, the impact of soil handling and physical disruption on biological processes in soil are discussed, as they influence whether soil functions can be restored at a reburial site once the archaeological resources have been ‘protected’ beneath.     

The policy of non-discrimination and the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the effectiveness of the policy of non-discrimination towards minorities in the preservation of minority cultural heritage, constructing a case study within Albania. After defining the key terms used, this paper examines the legal framework of non-discrimination towards minorities in its historical development and looks into the state of preservation of minority cultural heritage on the ground throughout the 2010s combining extensive field-work with interviews with key representatives of ethnic minorities in Albania. The poor state of preservation of minority cultural heritage is mostly attributed to under-financing and the insufficient policy of non-discrimination. As I demonstrate, in the case of minorities with a kin-state in the region, most notably Greece, as well as the heritage claimed by neighbouring states, primarily Turkey, the policy of non-discrimination and the practice of under-financing paves the way for external involvement in the protection of cultural heritage, in pursuit of international political agendas. The paper concludes that more needs to be done for the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania.     

Spatialities and the feeling of doing

Recent discussions of non-representational theory and expressive/sensuous embodied practice have provided new orientations for rethinking how people live and feel, and inform notions of spatialities and lay geographies. These arguments I develop in this paper through a consideration of an ethnography of recreational caravanning in the UK. I consider how spatialities may be developed in practice in relation to a refiguring of contexts and embodied semiotics.     

Inscribing nature: Archaeological metaphors and the formation of new sciences

Abstract

Ghanaian authorities restored Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle as memorials to the transatlantic slave trade in order to draw African Americans to Ghana. While this was a positive development for a travel industry that rarely caters to diaspora African needs, the Ghanaian initiative has evoked strong criticisms from concerned African Americans who feel that the restoration has erased the monuments' associated images of slavery and has removed the desired experiential effect. I focus on the complex interplay of these concerns, African Americans' previous attempts to preserve some of these monuments and the history of structural changes to the monuments. These complex issues require several layers of analysis. I situate my discussion within the debate of whether there is any such thing as original monuments and whether there is a necessary correlation between monuments per se and the experience of historical reality. For African Americans, such a strong relationship can be established. The preservation of these monuments, of global significance, calls for an international dialogue based on respect, tolerance and sensitivity.     

Take me up,I want to go: Captivity,disorientation and affect in the neurosphere

ABSTRACT

Captivity narratives have been a core American genre for centuries. This paper suggests that some American captivity narratives are opening into emergent attempts to articulate social feeling at a moment of precarity. I treat captivity here not just as a narrative, genre or trope but also as an affect. I explore how neurodivergent young people evoke disorientation and captivity on Tumblr as an expression of identity. I show how the bloggers share a feeling with UFO abduction narratives in creating an atmosphere of difference.     

Physical and Geochemical Characteristics of Soils from Angel Mounds State Historic Site,Indiana, including a Case Study of Sherds from Unit A

Abstract

Using physical and chemical characteristics of soil to evaluate archaeological artifacts and their preservation potential along with associated features is well established. The soil characteristics and geochemistry of the Angel Mounds site (12Vg1) indicate the soil geochemistry is very homogenous and composed of loams and silt loams with a range of pH values from 4.69 to 6.17, mean value of 5.40 ± 0.47. The slightly acidic nature of the soil favors the preservation of pollen and soil diatoms, with minor corrosion potential for the bone, shell, and sherd artifacts. A comparison of the geochemistry of the soils from Unit A and site-wide sampling to sherds from Unit A suggests that elevated phosphorus (P) in the sherds is either the result of the addition of a P-rich temper material or from the sourcing of nonlocal clay-rich sediment, and not from use-derived residue or from the soils themselves.     

A passage from India: Geographies and experiences of repatriation, 1858-1939

This paper examines both the imagined and material geographies of return experienced by the imperial elite as they returned from India. Focusing on Cheltenham and Bedford, I explore how the 'aristocratic' lifestyles of earlier repatriates became increasingly difficult to sustain over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although imaginatively constructed notions of return continued to imply that an upper middle-class standard of living remained attainable for those returning 'home', the majority found that they had to settle in (lower) middle-class suburban locations. In considering such changes I am also able to examine the ways in which geographies and experiences of return were influenced by a specifically imperial identity over a period of imperial decline.     

Issues in Urban Industrial Conservation: The Nottingham Lace Market

Abstract

The preservation of industrial buildings of historic interest is of prime importance to the industrial archaeologist. Yet many of these buildings are to be found within the heart of the great manufacturing cities. How are they to be conserved alongside the built environments within which they were originally set? This article takes the Nottingham Lace Market, which contains some of the finest examples of nineteenth century industrial buildings, and addresses itself to the question of how various public agencies have attempted to make the area economically viable in order to facilitate conservation and preservation work.     

Political Theology,Religious Diversity and the Nature of Democratic Citizenship

ABSTRACT

Driving this essay is a question central to political theology; that is, how can I keep faith with my distinctive commitments while also forming a common life with neighbors who have a different vision of life to me? My response has four parts. First, I develop a normative definition of politics within which to situate an account of citizenship and the political implications of deep religious plurality in a shared polity. Second, I examine how citizenship is not just a legal status that entails certain rights and duties, but also denotes an identity, a performance of politics, and a shared rationality. Third, I identify the dominant ways in which citizenship is understood in the contemporary context, namely, through either a nationalist or cosmopolitan framework, contrasting these with a consociational conception of citizenship. And lastly, I lay out how a consociational framework provides a more generative basis for conceptualizing religious diversity.     

Borders and belongings in Nordic feminisms and beyond

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with feminist grassroots groups and women’s organizations in a Nordic context, this article aims to explore how feminist enactments shape multiple layers of spatiality and belonging. I analyse autoethnographic reflections from two feminist events, both taking place in Malmö in June 2014. Rather than understanding Nordic feminisms as a stable object, I follow in this article the initiative of decolonial scholars to analyze how feminist communities are shaped by affects, enactments and inhabitations which both ‘speak back’ to located conditions and transgress beyond them. I use phenomenology in my engagement with the material and employ a palimpsestic reading mode to trace the multi-layered constructions of spatiality and belonging in feminist performances, identifications and affiliations. As affective value shaped the effects of surfaces or borders of bodies and spaces, theorizations on affect helped me to grasp how complex forms of belonging became entwined with particular performances of geography and history.     

Geography and psychoanalysis: Tensions and possibilities

I am concerned in this paper with the diversity of psychoanalysis, a feature of the discipline which we can connect with diasporas and the re-working of ideas in different locales. I try to demonstrate how experience and environment have contributed to the development of psychoanalysis. Key to the production of knowledge are the journeys of theorists, practitioners and ideas. Following Liz Bondi, I stress the importance of acknowledging the connection between experience, theory and practice in our own work. I suggest that geographers can follow those psychoanalysts who have moved from the clinic to broader political projects but that they should engage with recent critical research in psychoanalysis if a dialogue is to develop.     

Latinos in the USA: Changing socio-economic patterns

This paper aims to provide an overview of socio-economic inequality experienced by Latinas and Latinos, suggesting that the increase in numbers and their dispersal throughout the country disrupts the traditional black–white paradigm used in race relations theory. Instead, I argue that the particular historical and geographical experiences of Latinas/os portend complex changes within labour markets and neighbourhoods and across families, ultimately challenging how we think about race relations in the USA.     

Coalport Bridge: A Study in Historical Interpretation

Abstract

Industrial archaeologists frequently demand the preservation of monuments. Such preservation can be justified on the grounds that a monument has an educational function, or sometimes that it has potential for excavation. It is the purpose of this article to suggest that a surviving monument continually poses questions about its own past, and about wider historical issues, and to show how the understanding of one particular monument, the Coalport Bridge, has increased over the last twelve years, not just because new documentary sources have come to light, but because it has been possible to use the evidence of the structure itself to test the authenticity of other sources.     

The Politics of Nature at the Former Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to develop a new approach in Holocaust studies, namely an environmental history of the Holocaust. A case study of the former concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau demonstrates the extent of the entanglement of the politics of memory and the politics of nature, or political ecology, to use Bruno Latour’s term. I suggest that memorials should be treated as an environment, and thus explored as an assemblage of human and nonhuman (f)actors. Analysing both the official preservation strategies adopted by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum as well as artistic projects (including ?ukasz Surowiec’s Berlin-Birkenau), I consider commemorative practices’ environmental impact. My investigation thus primarily focuses on the role of the figure of the tree-as-witness in preservation work and in the use of powerful herbicides (namely Roundup) in preserving traces of the camp. This study could open the way to further comparative studies of ecocide and genocide.