Determining the preservation rating of submerged archaeology in the post-glacial southern North Sea: a first-order geomorphological approach

Abstract

During most of the last glaciation, the southern North Sea floor was exposed and accessible to humans. Archaeological finds are concentrated around Brown Bank, Dogger Bank and the Norfolk Banks, but the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeological potential of these areas is poorly known. Management of submerged archaeological heritage requires knowledge about location (potential) and context, ascribing significance (value) and determining risk. Thus, the preservation potential of primary and secondary archaeological material around these three areas is considered a) in the context of the post-glacial evolution of the southern North Sea and b) regarding natural and anthropogenic processes. A detailed review is followed by original research material describing an approach to assessing preservation potential. In general, low-energy deposits associated with former intertidal, floodplain or lacustrine environments are likely to preserve primary archaeological material, including organic remains, whilst (high-energy) riverine environments are more likely to preserve inorganic secondary archaeological material. The main possible anthropogenic impacts on submerged archaeology result from beam trawling, which may disturb deposits at the seafloor, and aggregate dredging, which may remove secondary deposits. Trawling and aggregate dredging are increasingly contributing to knowledge, through reporting finds through established protocols, and through assisting in funding relevant to multi-disciplinary research.     

Fishing: Evidence for Seasonality and Processing of Fish for Preservation in the Northern Isles of Scotland During the Iron Age and Norse Times

Abstract

Evidence from fish remains recovered from two sites in the Northern Isles of Scotland is compared to modern data on fish ecology and ethnographic evidence to assess seasonality in terms of resource availability and its implications for economic activities.     

Dental microwear study of pigs from the classical site of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) as an aid for the reconstruction of husbandry practices in ancient times

Abstract

Microwear analysis of pig teeth from the classical site of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) is undertaken to obtain insight into pig management strategies in this region from the 1st to 7th centuries AD. Earlier research on modern pigs revealed significant differences in microwear patterns between stall-fed and free-ranging, rooting individuals. A comparison of the microwear data of the Sagalassos pig with those from archaeological and modern pigs with a known or presumed type of management shows that the microwear of the Sagalassos pigs is very different. It is suggested that the Sagalassos pigs had a very soft, non-abrasive diet, that in the first instance cannot be attributed to either management type. Therefore, the nature of the substrate on which the animals were foraging and its impact on microwear are considered and the microwear data are compared with the results of previous archaeozoological research carried out at the site. Further, diachronic changes in microwear patterns are investigated.     

Beyond the description of spatial pattern: the process of proletarianization as a factor in population migration in West Africa

This study is concerned with the factors affecting migration in Western Africa. The author suggests that the underlying factors influencing current migration patterns can be traced back to the experience of the region during the colonial era. The penetration of peripheral capitalism and the imposition of colonial administration are identified as the primary forces that led to the manipulation of migration by colonial authorities trying to induce or coerce people to move to areas where they could be useful to the peripheral capitalist system. The author suggests that this framework dominated migration patterns and overrode individual migration preferences.     

Recent research in the archaeology of architecture: Beyond the foundations

Although architectural remains have always been a principal focus of archaeological investigation, research on such remains, particularly small-scale structures, has taken on new importance because of the information they can offer on human behavior. This article provides a review of recent trends in the archaeology of architecture (mainly domestic in nature), including current work in household archaeology and spatial patterning analysis of architectural remains, and discusses the new models and methodologies being generated to interpret these remains. The main areas covered in this review include the New World, Mesoamerica in particular, Europe, and general focus on recent work in the Near East.     

They did not Live by Grass Alone: the Politics and Palaeoecology of Animal Fodder in the North Atlantic Region

Abstract

A five year research project was set up to monitor soil moisture and groundwater levels of an extensive buried, mainly alluviated landscape located at the interface between the lower Great Ouse valley and the fen-edge in western Cambridgeshire. The intention was to monitor changes in hydrology, soil structure and geochemical status before, during and after large scale gravel extraction. The results presented here concern the pre-extraction monitoring period over three years. The project has identified three major landscape zones – shallowly buried former dryland, several sets of relict palaeochannel systems which still remain waterlogged, and a marginal zone between these where the monitored parameters fluctuate on a seasonal basis. The moisture levels of the alluvial overburden, buried soils and infills of the palaeochannel systems appear to act independently of each other, controlled by a combination of rainfall, agricultural land management, height above sea level and depth of burial. It is predicted that the removal of 1–3m of overburden accompanied by water abstraction when gravel extraction commences will lead to changes in the moisture regime of the immediate area and therefore of any contained archaeological contexts and the superficial sediments in this river valley/fen-edge landscape.     

Strontium Isotopes in the Investigation of Early Glass Production: Byzantine and Early Islamic Glass from the Near East*

⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios have been determined for glasses from four production sites, dated to between the sixth and the 11th centuries, in the Eastern Mediterranean region. On the basis of elemental analyses, the glasses at each location are believed to have been melted from different raw materials. Two glass groups, from Bet Eli‘ezer and Bet She‘an, in Israel, are believed to have been based upon mixtures of Levantine coastal sands and natron, and have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios close to 0.7090, plus high elemental strontium, confirming a high concentration of modern marine shell (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ~ 0.7092) in the raw materials. The isotopic compositions of these two groups of glasses differ slightly, however, probably reflecting a varying ratio of limestone to shell because the sands that were utilized were from different coastal locations. Natron‐based glasses from a workshop at Tel el Ashmunein, Middle Egypt, have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of 0.70794–0.70798, and low elemental strontium, consistent with the use of limestone or limestone‐rich sand in the batch. High‐magnesia glasses based on plant ash, from Banias, Israel, have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of 0.70772–0.70780, probably reflecting the isotopic composition of the soils that were parental to the plants that were ashed to make the glass. Strontium and its isotopes offer an approach to identifying both the raw materials and the origins of ancient glasses, and are a potentially powerful tool in their interpretation.     

Beyond identifying elites: Feasting as a means to understand early Middle Formative society on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

Feasts provide a public forum where social statuses can be affirmed or challenged among pre-state societies. Documenting feasting behavior thus provides insight into the construction of prehistoric political power. This paper presents expected material patterns of feasting by focusing on intra-site variability in food preparation, presentation, and consumption. Expectations are evaluated by comparing ceramic, ground stone, obsidian, and faunal data recovered from Conchas phase (900–800 BCE) elite and village midden deposits at Cuauhtémoc in the Soconusco region of southern Mexico. I argue that elite feasting at Cuauhtémoc created political cohesion between elite and non-elite segments of society during the Conchas phase as a new polity emerged that was more socially stratified and politically hierarchical than anything previously known in the region.     

Beyond the sacred language: on the liberal evolution of Hebrew in Jewish nationality

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to shed light on the evolution of the Jewish national language and to discuss the ways in which the cultural trends in Zionism constantly left room for the creative imagination of its adherents, and functioned in such a way as to erode its sacred dimension, thereby promoting a discourse focusing on the individual. My claim is that the Hebrew language case study may reflect the importance not only of national revisionist accounts for our understanding of the Zionist movement, but also the need for an approach that saves a place for truly creative aspects of civic engagement, and recognises the Israeli nation as one asserting, besides its ethnic ties also patriotic nexuses. Special attention will be given to the phenomenon of Hebrew poetry written by women in the 1920s as a platform from which to examine the unique meaning and evolution of language within the Jewish national movement.     

Crossman and Beyond: House of Commons Select Committees in the 1960s

Assessments of the work and impact of house of commons investigatory select committees during the 1960s usually centre on the success or otherwise of the new ‘specialist’ committees established in the second half of the decade. This article uses both quantitative and qualitative evidence to give a more rounded picture, including both new and existing committees. It concludes that 1960s select committees were more popular, active and influential than has previously been appreciated. It also argues that there has been an overvaluation of the role of the Labour cabinet minister, Richard Crossman, in promoting and establishing these committees, and that support for committee work on both front benches and back benches was rather more widespread and substantial than has been assumed. In particular, the article contends that Harold Wilson's role in advancing the work of select committees has been underestimated.     

Beyond restoration: problems of imperial power in the 1870 famine relief efforts in Zhili

Based on a close examination of the 1870 government famine relief efforts in Zhili, this study reassesses some significant changes in Qing state power in the nineteenth century. Most previous research has sought to explain receding state power as a response to mounting pressures from an activist society. The famine relief efforts of 1870 demonstrate a less well‐known but equally important aspect of the problem. While social pressures had undoubtedly worn away at the 200‐year‐old state machine, they also stimulated responses from it. While local activism had indeed taken over the levers that had slipped from the imperial government's hands, the challenges it presented jump‐started the state machine, tightened its screws and set it on the path to restoration. In 1870, Imperial Commissioner Li Xingrui, under orders from his superior, Governor‐General Zeng Guofan, executed a textbook operation of famine relief in Zhili. Challenges arose as wealthy locals wrestled with Li for control of the relief operation; government officials, too, sought private gain. Nevertheless, the commissioner and his superior conscientiously followed the Qing statutes, warded off these various challenges and completed the relief work. The display of state power during the operation was impressive, and was sweetened by a bureaucratic culture that condoned semi‐legitimate personal gain in public affairs. The pairing of “stick and carrot” redirected the challenges to the operation from wealthy locals into a channel unique to China: an activist elite who sought to fulfill their ambitions by working within the existing system rather than by breaking away from it. Thus, Qing state power not only proved reasonably resilient in times of crisis, but also offered some hope for the successful building of a modern state.     

Relegating Nazism to the Past: Expressions of German Guilt in 1945 and Beyond

This article builds on a research thesis that confronting moralfeelings is essential to an understanding of the catastrophicpolitical success of Nazism in Germany and the way Germany developedafter its defeat in 1945. This research into a ‘moralhistory’ of Nazi Germany and its postwar echoes is carriedout through an interdisciplinary approach that, in essence,combines historical with philosophical analysis. In the immediatepostwar period, Germany continued to be stamped by discussionscentred on moral guilt arising from its Nazi past and from theHolocaust in particular. The article analyses the differentways this guilt was discussed in 1945 and how these discussionsechoed what can be described as a form of Nazi morality. Thearticle uses three main sources to explore these issues: first,the writings and interrogations with the Nazi lawyer and Governor-Generalof Nazi-occupied Poland, Hans Frank; second, the memoirs ofHitler's secretary Traudl Junge; and third, the essay The Questionof German Guilt by Karl Jaspers.     

Beyond the One-World Frame of Fiction: The Breakdown of Reality in Hushang Golshiri's Stories

The debate over political commitment in Iran was never limited to adjudicating content: it was frequently a debate over form as well. In the realm of fiction, this debate fixated on realism, the nature of mimesis, and the autonomy of art and the literary text. Within a few short years after forming the iconoclastic journal Jong-e Esfahan in 1965 with a group of likeminded colleagues, the writer Hushang Golshiri had become the preeminent modernist fiction writer in Iran. His critical essays represented a passionate defense of aesthetic autonomy at a time when realism and, particularly, socialist and “engaged” literature were powerful shibboleths in the Tehran literary scene. This paper begins with a look at Golshiri's critical interventions in this debate and then moves on to show how the short stories he produced in the Jong era were an even more integral part of his response to the mimesis question. By reading his stories with a methodology drawn from “possible worlds” theories of narratology, Todorov's fantastic, and Golshiri's own theories, we see how these works break down the “one-world” frame of reality that realism takes for granted, and require the reader to grapple with multiple, often contradictory, possible realities in its stead.     

Re-thinking Solidarity as a Principle of Catholic Social Teaching: Going Beyond Gaudium et spes and the Social Encyclicals of John Paul II

Abstract

The tradition of official Catholic Social Teaching, which emerged within the context of the European social question, has since expanded to incorporate developmental issues of the Two-Thirds World. This is shown in the social encyclicals of Pope John XXIII, but more significantly in the Vatican II Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et spes, and the social documents of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. In these writings, the principle of solidarity is a significant feature—both for discussions of the European social question, and in engaging with the problems of poverty and underdevelopment in the Two-Thirds World. This paper accepts that the principle of solidarity occupies a central position in Catholic social thought. It argues, however, that the ever-increasing poverty, exploitation and despair in the Two-Thirds World challenges our ethical and theological conceptualizations of solidarity. This paper intends to examine the use of the solidarity principle both in Gaudium et spes and in the social encyclicals of John Paul II. It will also raise the question whether their formulations and insights are adequate in confronting the ever-expanding challenges of international poverty and underdevelopment.     

国内女性游客旅游消费行为实证研究 --以重庆旅游目的地为例

随着女性在社会生活中的地位越来越高,女性出游人数逐年上升,本文作者通过实地调查来渝的国内女性游客,尝试对女性旅游者的消费特点做出分析。本文对女性旅游者的人口学特征(年龄、职业、月收入、文化程度)和行为特征(旅游目的、信息来源、旅游方式)进行分析,从而得出女性旅游者出游行为的一般规律,并在此基础上从旅游产品开发、服务设施完善及促销方面探讨了女性旅游市场的开发对策。     

社区参与生态旅游的内在动因分析——以滇西北哈木谷社区为例

社区居民作为生态旅游开发中的相关利益群体之一,他们参与生态旅游开发、经营的内在动因直接影响到生态旅游开发的质量和生态旅游社区的持续发展。本文作者通过在滇西北哈木谷社区的实地调查,研究社区居民参与生态旅游发展的需求,进而分析社区参与生态旅游的内在动因,以期为生态旅游社区的发展规划提供决策上的参考。     

Constructing National Identity: The Image of the Medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Lithuanian Art from the 1920s to the 1990s

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the ways in which the image of the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania, intended to awaken the national pride and contribute to the building of the national identity, was constructed by artistic means in the Republic of Lithuania during the 1920s and 1930s. It contains a brief discussion on the genesis of the image of the Grand Duchy, including the selection of appropriate historical heroes and events, and the main aspects of their interpretation. The article analyses some of the most striking and influential examples of the image of medieval Lithuania, such as the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the death of Grand Duke Vytautas the Great in 1930 and art works created for that purpose, the decoration of public buildings (for example, the Museum of War and the Officers’ Club in Kaunas, and Lithuania’s pavilion in the New York World Fair of 1939). It also looks briefly at the dissemination of the image of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in popular culture. The article also touches on isolated efforts by a number of intellectuals to warn of the dangers inherent in the extreme glorification of the past. The image of the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania, created in interwar Lithuania, was preserved during the period of Soviet occupation. After the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990, this image had a significant influence on the mentality and culture of Lithuanian society at the turn of the millennium. In this respect the situation in Lithuania could be treated as a case study, for a similar relation to the past can be encountered in other European post-Communist countries faced with the problem of creating a new identity.     

网络话题作为定性数据来源的研究方法探讨——以旅游动机研究为例

本文对利用网络话题获取定性数据的方法、对网络话题的分类、网络话题搜集方法的使用方式和适用范围等进行了探讨。网络话题方法根据研究者参与程度的不同,可分为完全不参与型、一般参与型与强势参与型三种类型,适用于取得多样的、深刻的观点内容。本文的实证研究部分,以网络话题为样本,分析了我国旅游者的旅游动机表达。研究发现：旅游者多数从心理和情感需求角度来叙述旅游动机以及旅游对旅游者个人的影响;我国旅游者的旅游动机主要源于学习、探索、消除心理压力的需要。从网友的话题中还发现：旅游和旅行促进了某些旅游者对家与家乡的热爱,即通过外出旅游,认知了“家”的价值与意义。     

Discontinuing Traditions: Using Historically Informed Ethnoarchaeology in the Study of Evros Ceramics

Ethnoarchaeological studies of pottery primarily focus on the ethnographic present, often disregarding the role of history in the production of material culture. This paper integrates information from historical sources and ethnographic interviews to better understand stylistic ceramic change. Beginning in the 1920s, undecorated pots largely replaced decorated pottery in the region of Evros, Greece. I argue that historically informed ethnoarchaeology provides the key to documenting and understanding the concomitant changes in the social context of pottery production and consumption and the distribution of material culture.     

"德先生"和"赛先生"之外的关怀——从"穆姑娘"的提出看新文化运动时期道德革命的走向

Today, Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science are always invoked in the discussion of the May Fourth New Culture Movement. However, Miss Moral, who was also introduced in the later stages of the movement, is much less known. It would clearly be of interest to study the way in which “moral” became a catchword but then faded away and was forgotten. The emphasis on solidarity and patriotism, stimulated by foreign encroachment that had existed since the late Qing Dynasty, began to shift to an ethical revolution centering on individual liberation. However, after the rise of the May Fourth Movement, public attention was attracted by collectivism and nationalism again, while the appeal for individuality and ethical revolution was decayed gradually. The introduction of Miss Moral had a direct relationship with the trend of ethical revolution in the later stages of the New Culture Movement. Translated from Lishi Yanjiu 历史研究 (Historical Research), 2006, (1): 79–95