Much Ado About Dugald: The Chequered Career of Dugald Stewart's Letter to Sir William Forbes on James Beattie's Essay on Truth

Summary

Although Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo's An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie has long served as an invaluable resource for those interested in Beattie's life and thought, there has been little scholarship on the genesis of Forbes's book. This article considers the role played by Dugald Stewart—as well as that of his friend, Archibald Alison—in the making of Forbes's Life of Beattie. It also examines the reasons for Forbes's decision not to print Stewart's letter in its entirety in the Life of Beattie and explores the letter's significance for understanding Stewart's philosophical development.     

Sovereignty,mercy, and natural law: King James VI/I and Jean Bodin

ABSTRACT

The affinities between Jean Bodin's and King James VI/I's political theories have been recognized, and the fact that James had owned Bodin's Six livres de la république has been recorded, but Bodin's specific influence on James has remained nebulous. This article examines the evidence for James's direct engagement with Bodin, by studying James's copy of the Six livres alongside James's political treatises. It provides substantial new archival evidence for Bodin's influence on James's political thought and, thereby, on Scottish and English theories of sovereignty.     

Creative Thinking and Emotion in Human Social Life: The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms

Abstract

There is debate whether The Merchant of Venice is an anti-Semitic play. However, in this debate there has been insufficient attention paid to Shylock's relationship with Tubal. In his criticisms of Shylock, Tubal represents the larger Jewish community. This criticism shows that, in Shakespeare's view, Jewish self-understanding of what it means to be a good Jew is incompatible with the character of Shylock.     

Life Beyond Judgment: Communication. Response to Section III of The Ways of Judgment by Oliver O'Donovan

Abstract

This article is a response to Section III of Oliver O'Donovan's The Ways of Judgment, addressing his account of the Church's "higher sociality" as the proper context for all theological reflection on politics. In particular, it explores the importance of the theme of communication, affirming many of O'Donovan's central instincts in this area though questioning his emphasis on the role of the individual believing heart as the privileged site of ecclesial transformation of the world.     

REVIEW

Abstract

Kh. Qumran was visited by western explorers during the nineteenth century, long before the famous discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls nearby. The observations of these visitors supplement the preliminary reports of Roland de Vaux, who excavated the site in the 1950s. Do their transliterations of the name of the site (e.g. 'Goumran') indicate that the present site-name is inaccurate? Probably not, because a sound something like English 'g' was used by Bedouin guides for Arabic qāf. However, the origin of the name 'Qumran' remains obscure. One solution would be to see it as the Aramaic (Syriac) word qumrā, meaning 'belt', an apt name for the wadi that runs beside the ruin.     

The Use of Historical Photography For Mapping Archaeological Sites

Abstract

Aerial photography has been employed by archaeologists since 1906. This study discusses the application of image processing of historical photographs as an aid to archaeological excavations at two California mission sites.

Research on the Mission Vieja de la Purisima site involved the mapping of the Old Mission complex, destroyed by an earthquake and mudslide in 1812. Optical means of multiple-image registration and scale change were employed. The second study involved the digital transformation of an historical photograph of Mission San Buenaventura from its oblique perspective into a “psuedo-vertical” format.

Information obtained in these studies is being used by archaeological researchers and has been found accurate and extremely useful. The preliminary mapping of the Mission Vieja de la Purisima has aided in the preservation of the area and played a major role in the mission's being designated as a California and National Historical site.     

Preserving Archaeological Remains In Situ: Three Case Studies in Trentino,Italy

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the restoration and conservation work which has been carried out in three archaeological areas in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The areas, which have been opened to the public for more than ten years, are the open-air archaeological site of Monte S. Martino, Roman Tridentum (an underground site under the historical city centre of Trento), and Fiavé (a pile dwelling site in a peat bog). These areas present very different environmental characteristics and have therefore required different interventions according to their speci?c situation.

In order to reduce maintenance and extraordinary costs, appropriate conservation of the archaeological remains is required. This consists of methodologies of conservation according to the characteristics of the environment; continuous monitoring systems and indirect preventive intervention; and annual maintenance planning.     

Politics and Public Policy

Abstract

Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others has been widely praised as the first German film to confront the horrors of the East German communist regime. But the film's politics may be ambiguous. As critical as it is of East Germany, it does not offer a ringing endorsement of West Germany. For example, the film's playwright-hero seems to have artistic problems in the West, just as he did in the East. The film's equivocal attitude toward communism is epitomized by its apparently positive view of the Marxist author Bertolt Brecht. This essay compares The Lives of Others with Brecht's play The Good Person of Szechwan in an effort to understand Donnersmarck's attitude toward his East German predecessor and what it means for his larger view of communism and its relation to art.     

An Early Eighteenth Century Scottish Saltwork: Arran,c.1710 – 1735

Abstract

Historians have paid little attention to Scotland's salt industry. The few physical traces of its existence have not been seriously examined and interpreted by industrial archaeologists. This article presents some new material about saltmaking on the west coast of Scotland but more importantly it argues that the site under review here, on Arran in the Firth of Clyde, represents the earliest known upstanding remains of the type of saltwork which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ranged along both shores of the river Forth, from where the bulk of Scotland's salt production came.     

Conservation of the sacred at Angkor Wat: further reflections on living heritage

Abstract

This article reflects on and complements the paper 'Conservation of a “living heritage site”: a contradiction in terms? A case study of Angkor World Heritage Site', published by Keiko Miura Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 7(1), (2005) 3–18. It develops further the notion of conserving sacred heritage in the light of a case study of Angkor Wat within the World Heritage site. Heritage management is always a balance between preserving different values – historic, aesthetic, use, spiritual, etc. Each of these categories of value has its own set of needs which are often not fully compatible with one another. Heritage management originally stemmed from the desire to protect the aesthetic and historic values of tangible heritage. Yet an over-emphasis on preserving these values alone is not tenable in a 'living heritage site'. At Angkor Wat it causes spiritual degradation and secularization. Highlighting instances in which this phenomenon has been apparent, this article suggests a way forward.     

The Dnieper Trade Route in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: A Note

Abstract

The reconsideration of Arthur J. Marder's evaluation of the date at which the admiralty recognized the threat to Britain from the Germany navy has implications for others of Marder's arguments that have been the subject of extensive revisionist critique. This article reexamines the revisionists's most important conclusion, namely that Marder misunderstood the origins of Admiral Sir John Fisher's revolutionary new warships, HMS Dreadnought and HMS Invincible. Despite the revisionists's criticism, not only do many of Marder's claims withstand close scrutiny but also some that have been largely ignored need to be given greater prominence.     

Estimation of the Original Number of Individuals from Paired Bone Counts Using Estimators of the Krantz Type

Abstract

In 1968, G. S. Krantz proposed a method for estimating the original number of animals deposited at an archaeological site when bone counts have been reduced, whether by attritional processes or by a failure to find all the bones. His formula involved using the number of unmatched left, unmatched right, and matched pairs of a class of paired bone. In this paper we investigate estimators derived using Krantz's assumptions from both theoretical and practical viewpoints and make a number of recommendations; for example, that Krantz's estimators are useful only in relatively large assemblages. The method is applied to fish bones obtained from three sites in New Zealand, and practical difficulties with the procedure are described.     

Preservation of the Stone Age site of Isimila,Tanzania

Abstract

The Stone Age Acheulean site of Isimila is one of the most important sites in Tanzania. Excavated in the late 1950s, it has been open to the public since 1958. This note reviews the problems of preserving in situ the open-air activity floors excavated at Isimila, and describes measures taken by the Tanzanian authorities to manage and protect the site.     

Thomas Traherne,Thomas Hobbes,and the Rhetoric of Realism

Abstract

Thomas Traherne has often been seen as a mystic detached from the turbulence of his period. Recent scholarship has attempted to place him more firmly in context. This article contributes to this trend in arguing that Traherne's late works, especially Commentaries of Heaven, were shaped by the pressure of responding to Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. Though Traherne makes only one direct reference to Hobbes, his idiosyncrasies in thought, argument, and mode of expression are all fundamentally influenced by the need to counter Hobbes's account of ethics, metaphysics, and language. Traherne is particularly concerned to assert and display an ardent realism against Hobbes's nominalism. In doing so, he creates a complicated play of rhetorical figures, especially abusio or catachresis, as embodying theological commitments. This both places Traherne more clearly against the background of the intellectual history of the period in which he lived, and demonstrates his particularity as a writer.     

Samson: The Only Nazarite in the Hebrew Bible and His Women!

Abstract

Since the publication of Eißfeldt's study in 1935, it has been doubted by some scholars that a Hebrew god named Moloch or Molekh has ever existed. Recently, however, two studies have been published, one by George Heider (1985) and the other by John Day (1989), in which the existence of the god Molekh is defended once again. Especially Day's arguments seem convincing. Nevertheless, considering the Carthaginian archaeological evidence (in 1991 gathered by Shelby Brown), and also considering the ideological bias of the biblical passages concerned, the existence of a separate god of human sacrifice in Israel remains uncertain. By a new analysis of the biblical passages, arguments are given that the god Molekh is an invention from the Persian period in an attempt to conceal that Judahite worship of YHWH in the eighth and seventh century B.C.E. also included child sacrifice.     

“Voy a empeñar la Edad de Oro”: Historia,música y política en la crisis española (2011–2016)

ABSTRACT

Spain's current economic and social crisis has involved a profound reappraisal of the country's history, institutions, and official narratives, especially after the emergence of the 15M or indignados movement in 2011. A crucial example of this shift has been the widespread criticism of Spain's “Transition to Democracy” or Transición, widely considered Spain's “foundational” narrative. In this article, a series of examples from the musical field—including essays, songs, and public uses of music—are studied and contextualized in order to analyze different interpretations and critiques of the Transición developed by artists, intellectuals, and politicians who took part in the 15M or have been influenced by its “climate” (Fernández Savater). In these examples, two complementary trends are identified: on the one hand, an intention to reclaim part of the Transición's collective mood through its musical symbols; on the other, a rejection of its political legacy, as expressed in criticisms of its musical canon.     

Samuel Pepys’s Navy Preserved In Situ?

Abstract

This paper will focus on the wreck of the Stirling Castle, which was one of four ships of the line to perish on the Goodwin Sands during the Great Storm of 27 November 1703. The Goodwin Sands lies off the south-east coast of Kent between Dover and Ramsgate. These sands are famously known as the ‘Ship Swallower’. This paper will discuss what has been learnt from the site’s investigations, the heritage management issues of preservation in situ, and offer a strategy for the future management of the site.     

Royal Scottish Geographical Society April 1948

ABSTRACT

Land use in Scotland's countryside is currently an issue of major public concern, largely because of a sea-change in agricultural policy which seemslikely to lead to the withdrawal of some land from agricultural use. In addition, there has been concern about the scale of upland afforestation, about land availability for housebuilding, and about claims on land for conservation and for rural development. This article provides an overview of these current landuse issues in Scotland.     

The site Hein 33: Typological and chronological problems of the New Stone Age of Southern Norway

In this issue of Norwegian Archaeological Review the article Hein 33 ‐ En steinalderboplass på Hardangervidda. Fors?k på kronologisk og kulturell analyse by Svein Indrelid (1973) has been chosen for discussion. The research into the Norwegian Stone Age has always been dependent on the results obtained by studies of the South Scandinavian material. Indrelid's main goal has been to free himself from this dependence when trying to establish local southwest Norwegian chronology. This new approach has given important results also for the understanding of the South Scandinavian Stone Age.

Comments by Egil Bakka, Carl Cullberg, Arne B. Johansen, and Egil Mikkelsen are followed by a reply from Svein Indrelid.     

Jacob Vernet and ‘The Religious Enlightenment’: ‘Rational Calvinism’, the Pastors of Geneva and the French philosophes

Summary

In this article I react to dismissive remarks made about my Jacob Vernet, Geneva and the philosophes (1994) in a recent book by David Sorkin, The Religious Enlightenment (2008). Vernet, a distinguished Genevan pastor and theologian, who fell foul of d'Alembert, Voltaire and Rousseau, is one of six figures studied by Sorkin, who claims that the religious dimension of the Enlightenment has been much underestimated and that the philosophes were considerably less significant than has usually been thought. Reacting to the accusation that my treatment of Vernet's theology was superficial and unreliable, I reconsider the latter's major theological works (including his Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne, Instruction chrétienne, and Pièces fugitives sur l'eucharistie) in an attempt to validate my previous interpretation, and illustrate that Vernet refused to acknowledge ideas that he had actually published. The second part of the article draws more general conclusions, pointing out spectacular errors in Sorkin's depiction of eighteenth-century Geneva and arguing that he has a clear agenda, which, in my opinion, is wrong-headed, easy to refute and—above all—often based on gratuitous accusations and statements lacking any evidence.