Excavations at 18 Castle Street (Albion Court), Aberdeen

Abstract

A small terrace of buildings in a lane behind the north side of Castle Street, Aberdeen (NJ945064) was surveyed prior to demolition. Subsequent excavation revealed that it had been constructed as a two-storied row in c. 1650–60. There was a substantial rebuilding c. 1750–60 with the addition of attics lit by dormer windows. Contemporary rebuilding was also taking place on the Castle Street frontages. In c. 1830 further rebuilding was carried out on the southern end of the terrace. By the middle of the 19th century the whole terrace was being rented for multi-tenancy occupation.     

Geographical and Historical Realities behind the Earliest Layer in the David Story

ABSTRACT

The article attempts to identify an early Judahite layer in the David narrative in 1-2 Samuel and dates the reality behind it to the period prior to Judah expansion into the southern Hebron Highlands and the Beer-sheba Valley in the second half of the 9th century BCE. This helps to clarify the territorial and historical situation in the south in the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE. The article delineates the southern extent of the early north Israelite highlands polity, whose hub was in the area of Gibeon-Gibeah, and the territories of the Philistine kingdom of Gath and the desert polity that emerged at that time in the Beer-sheba Valley. It also deals with the role of Sheshonq I in shaping the long-term territorio-political order in southern Canaan.     

Solomon and His Empire: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

The essay examines the plausibility of a “Double Monachy,” a large state, under a king Solomon in the 10th century with Jerusalem as its capital. First, all texts in the Old Testament are mentioned, and it is pointed out that no extrabiblical texts from the period mention such a state. In the next paragraph the archaeological finds from the period are examined whether they may allow the existence of such a state, and it is concluded that it is improbable. Also from historical knowledge of the period in the Levant as well as Solomon’s name it is concluded that there was not a large kingdom in Jerusalem under a king of that name.

In the rest of the essay I try, from the story in the Bible, to date the various elements of the story, and comparing them with other legendary kings (e.g. Sargon of Akkad) to find a suitable period when such a legend could be construed, I point to the second half of the 7th cent. BCE as the best possibility for the story’s date.     

Ceramic Seriation, Sites Chronology, and Old Oyo Factor in Northcentral Yorubaland, Nigeria

This study is an attempt to provide a chronological seriation of pottery from Igbomina in northcentral Yorubaland. The ceramic sequence is developed using multivariate statistical analysis. From the K-means cluster analysis, ceramic collections that are roughly contemporaneous were grouped together; next the collections were seriated with multidimensional scaling to reveal whether they form a pattern that may be chronologically significant. Evaluation of the results of the pottery analysis from the Igbomina sites was based on the chronological division of Old Oyo pottery as well as on radiocarbon dating of associated material from excavated sites in the region. Pottery types from Old Oyo became known in Igbomina probably as early as the thirteenth century AD, and continued to occur in some areas until the late eighteenth century. The presence of Oyo pottery in Igbomina has important implications for the understanding of Oyo's relations with the northern Yoruba group and the frontier position of Igbomina during the Old Oyo Empire.Cette étude cherche à fournir une sériation chronologique de la céramique provenant de Igbomina situé dans la partie centrale du nord de Yorubaland. La séquene de céramique a été élaborée en utilisant une analyse statistique multidimensionnelle. Les collections de céramique plus ou moins contemporaines ont été groupées en se servant de la moyenne du facteur K de la classification ascendante hiérarchique, elles ont ensuite été ordonnées au moyen d'une analyse des proximités pour voir si elles formaient un schéma chronologique significatif. L'évaluation des résultats de l'analyse céramique des sites Iglomina est fondée sur les divisions chronologiques de la céramique Oyo ancienne ainsi que sur des dates radiocarbones obtenues sur du matériel en association provenant de sites fouillés dans la région. Les types de céramique de l'Oyo ancien sont probablement arrivés à Igbomina dès le 13ème siècle et ont continué à apparaître dans certains endroits jusqu'à la fin du 18ème siècle. La présence de la céramique Oyo à Igbomina comporte des implications importantes pour nos connaissances sur les relations des Oyo avec les groupes Yoruba du nord et sur la position de la frontière de Igbomina pendant l'empire Oyo ancien.     

Analysis of the Transformation of Herat Old City,Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

This study examines the ongoing transformation of Herat Old City (also referred to as the Old City), the former capital of the Timurid Empire on the Silk Roads, regarding the transformation of residential quarters. The data for this study is provided by a literature review, field surveys, and interviews with city officials and citizens. The study analyses the changes to residential quarters occurring in the Old City with a particular focus on their relation to a) the post-war reconstruction process, b) lack of management by the municipal government, and c) inadequate involvement of citizens/residents. The study shows how changes in private housing have occurred across the Old City. They began around 2004 and accelerated with the reconstruction process, which included projects funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). Redevelopment of traditional houses has been continuing in the Old City even after AKTC completed their mission in 2010.     

‘Beware of false prophets’: A Fragment of the Old Swedish Miracle Homily Book

ABSTRACT

The article comprises an introduction to and an edition and translation of an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This previously unpublished paper fragment is one of the missing parts of the Old Swedish Homily Book (known as Svensk järteckens postilla), dating from the second half of the fifteenth century and now housed at the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (Cod. Holm. A 111). The text in Hannaas 66 comprises a sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity based on Matthew 7. 15–16 and includes a miracle exemplum that illustrates the importance of acting justly and following the will of God.     

'.. Slaying oxen and Killing Sheep,Eating Flesh and Drinking Wine ..': Feasting in Late Bronze Age Hazor

Abstract

Communal feasts, events of ritual activity that involve shared food and drink consumption and display in religious and secular elite contexts, received considerable attention in anthropological and archaeological literature in recent years. In those studies, the focus was on the identification of feasting in the material record of ancient societies, and an attempt was made to decipher the complex social and political meanings inherent in such contexts. In this study, the aim is to identify and interpret traces of feasting activities in the context of Canaanite society of the 14th–13th century BCE. The site of Hazor, the largest Canaanite kingdom, serves as a case study for this discussion. Archaeological correlates of commensal feasts, uncovered in the extensive excavations of the site, are presented and discussed within the general picture of the Canaanite palatial system.     

The Kingdom of Geshur in History and Memory

ABSTRACT

The article re-examines the biblical, extra-biblical and archaeo-logical sources for the history of Geshur and the way it was memorialized in biblical texts. It demonstrates that archaeological research is the key to estab-lishing the location of the kingdom's capital, its territory, population, econo-my and commercial relations. The written sources complement and corrobo-rate the archaeological data. Evidently―contrary to the conclusions reached in a recently published article―we know quite a lot about this marginal Aramean kingdom.

Geshur was located on the northern border of the Kingdom of Israel, far away from Jerusalem; and yet late Judahite scribes, who operated hundreds of years after it disappeared from the political arena, still remembered that it was a separate entity, on par with Maacah, and different from all other neighbour-ing districts enumerated side by side with it. What was unclear to the scribes is the geographical reality in the far north. Hence, their geographical depic-tion of Geshur's (and Maacah's) location was inaccurate.     

Brush-Piling: Eighteenth Century Engineering in an American Wilderness

Abstract

Old Mill was one of a small group of early silk mills established in East Cheshire during the mid-18th century. It was notable for its size, and for the involvement of James Brindley in its construction. The mill was extended and a beam engine added c. 1830, but it was partially demolished in 1939. In 2003 the remaining structures were demolished, which provided the opportunity for a programme of building recording and excavation. James Brindley's role is examined in terms of the application of water power, and the context of the classical architecture and likely geological provenance of Old Mill is discussed.     

Home thoughts of abroad: Ohthere’s Voyage in its Anglo‐Saxon context

The Old English text known as Ohthere’s Voyage is regarded as a key source for Norwegian history. Consequently, the context of its composition and inclusion in the Old English Orosius has often been overlooked. This article demonstrates that the text cannot be separated from the processes that shaped it during its early transmission. Continental geographical traditions of the peoples of the north governed the preconceptions of Ohthere’s audience. Furthermore, the individual who included the account in the Orosius edited the latter text to anticipate it and tailored the sailor’s account to support the West Saxon ideological underpinnings of its new context.     

Stobi: A City of Ancient Macedonia

Abstract

A joint American-Yugoslav staff has been engaged since 1970 in archaeological research, excavation, and conservation at Stobi, an ancient city located at the juncture of the Vardar and Crna rivers, ca. 150 km. north of Thessaloniki in Yugoslavian Macedonia. The Stobi Project has been an interdisciplinary undertaking concerned with problems both of the natural and the man-made environments of the people who lived at Stobi and in the vicinity from the 3rd century B.C. to the late 6th century A.C. The report that follows includes an outline of the results of the excavations in 1975 and of conservation work in 1975 and 1976. There is also an account of the 1976 study season, with some commentary on the special studies that have recently been completed or are in progress, and a discussion of plans for future research at Stobi.     

Excavations at Potovens,near Wakefield

Abstract

The excavation of pottery and clay pipe kilns at Potovens has indicated the essentially local character of the wares produced and the limited nature of their market. From the late 15th century until the third quarter of the 18th-century potteries were being worked on the margins of the common land north of Wakefield, and documentary evidence provides the names of the potters and details of their activities.     

A Door of Hope Re‐opened: The Fifth Monarchy,King Charles and King Jesus

A Door of Hope was the manifesto of the Fifth Monarchists’ desperate uprising in London in January 1661, a few months after the Restoration of Charles II. While the rising itself is well known, its manifesto has never been examined in detail. Probably based on a sermon to Venner's congregation, it displays a defiant conviction that the Restoration could be understood as part of God's providential plan, the next step towards the imminent kingdom of Christ on earth. But it also reaches out to a much wider constituency, all the supporters of the “Good Old Cause,” offering a programme that might appeal to many radicals. And the author draws on secular, republican discourse to buttress his apocalyptic claims, revealing close links between even the most extreme Fifth Monarchists and wider currents of interregnum radicalism.     

Eduard Nielsen's Oral Tradition Sixty Years After

ABSTRACT

When Eduard Nielsen’s Oral Tradition appeared in 1954 the author’s main motivation for writing it was frustration with what was felt to be serious shortcomings in current methods of Old Testament research. Influ-enced by “Scandinavian” scholarship (above all Pedersen, Nyberg, and Engnell), Nielsen wishes to replace historical critical approaches with more adequate, updated methods. In particular, he wants to integrate insights into the oral processes that lead to the creation of the literature of the Hebrew Bi-ble into his exegetical techniques. For comparative purposes, Nielsen utilizes texts from ancient cultures where orality was predominant. He discusses above all Greek, Mesopotamian, and Old Norse sources. In view of the huge interest in orality and memory in academia today it is obvious that Nielsen was far ahead of his time. It is more than regrettable that so little attention has been paid to this pioneering work.     

Fighting the Risorgimento: foreign volunteers in southern Italy (1860–63)

Abstract

Between 1860 and 1863 hundreds of men from all over Europe volunteered for service in the wars of southern ‘brigands’ on behalf of the exiled King Francis II of Naples. In an attempt to correct the often biased interpretation of this involvement (that was attributed simply to a thirst for adventure, romanticism or even psychological disorder) that coloured the accounts by Italian patriots, this essay suggests the need for fresh consideration. It develops three lines of inquiry that focus respectively on the strong impact of Italian Unification on conservative and Catholic opinion and the ways in which these sources portrayed the struggles of the southern insurgents, the clumsy efforts made by the Neapolitan government-in-exile to recruit volunteers and organize armed expeditions against the former kingdom, and the so-called ‘white international’ in which the warriors of the counter-revolution were depicted as combatants in conflicts that were both civil wars and at the same time episodes in a much longer international ideological struggle. In this context, the significance of foreign involvement in defence of the Neapolitan Bourbons takes on a significance that goes far beyond its poor military outcome.     

Late 17th-century stoneware waste from the Tower Harratz Pottery,Bristol

Abstract

Large-scale redevelopment has taken place over the last seven years in the area now known as Temple Quay which lies between Temple Way and the Floating Harbour in Bristol (Fig. 1). Bristol and Region Archaeological Services have carried out excavations, evaluations and watching briefs on the various phases of this redevelopment. These have mainly been concerned with the Portwall, a defensive structure built during the mid 13th century, which ran from north to south through the development area. In 1994 the archaeological work included the total excavation of the medieval Tower Harratz (sometimes known as Tower Harris) and a Civil War gun battery or redoubt built infront of the tower. This note deals with the discovery of a group of late 17th-century stoneware waste during the archaeological work at Tower Harratz and its association with a pottery known from documents to have been established there in about 1695.     

September 11: A Christian Fundamentalist Interpretation

Abstract

This article analyses sermons preached by Free Presbyterian ministers in the United States following the World Trade Centre tragedy and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It explores how these religious fundamentalists made sense of the event theologically. While terrorists carried out the attack, ultimately God was believed to have been responsible. It was considered God's way of punishing the American nation for its sin. Ministers' use of the Old Testament and God's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel is both the theological and historical backdrop to their explanation of September 11. Concentration on the Old Testament and fundamentalists' exegetical approach means that politics and religion are tightly intertwined. Emphasis on the militaristic portions of the Old Testament also helps justify the war in Iraq. Although Free Presbyterian doctrine is based on institutional separatism and believers' withdrawal from "the world" the sermons connect parishioners to their wider society through a shared sense of patriotic loyalty and national loss.     

Ruling the Land of the Yellow Lama: Religion,Muli, and geopolitics in the 17th century Sino-Tibetan borderland

Abstract

The author scrutinizes the history of Muli (木里) as a semiautonomous political entity in the 17th century southern Sino-Tibetan borderland. By tracing Muli’s improvization in the face of multiple powerful regimes such as the Naxi kingdom, the Geluk Tibetans, the Khoshut Mongols, and the Chinese dynasties, the author explores how an indigenous notion of power took shape in the wake of geopolitical turbulence. Before 1580, Muli was a colony of the Naxi kingdom and dominated by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. After 1640, it became a stronghold of the Tibetan Buddhist Geluk school and was deeply involved in the power struggles between the Geluk and Kakyu schools as well as the Tibetans and Mongols. Despite of acknowledging multiple sovereigns, Muli rulers utilized various tactics to hold on to power and prioritize local interest. The nuanced, yet creative, strategies Muli people adopted showcases the significant role border regimes played and their agency in shaping the power dynamics in pre-modern Eastern Asian borderlands.     

Remarks on an Enamelled Tablet,Preserved in the Museum at Mans,and Supposed to Represent the Effigy of Geoffrey Plantagenet

Abstract

One of the most intriguing problems in the study of Gothic architecture in the Latin East concerns the network of interrelationships between the major architectural centres in the eastern Mediterranean, especially the Crusader states of the Levant, the kingdom of Cyprus and Hospitaller Rhodes. Although scholars have been aware of the artistic links between these areas for decades, the Cyprus-Rhodes connection remains to this day largely unexplored, despite the obvious interest it presents for the development of ecclesiastical architecture in the region. This article examines the architecture of the Carmelite church in Famagusta and its formal affinities with Rhodes cathedral, in order to identify the conditions and modes of transmission of architectural designs from Cyprus to Rhodes in the second quarter of the 14th century. It will also attempt to demonstrate that the same basic design had been employed for two buildings of radically different status and function, in a reflection of the circumstances, financial or ideological, surrounding their creation.