Plants in Late Medieval festivals and customs in written and pictorial sources from southern central Europe

Abstract

This paper derives from research carried out on plant representations in Late Medieval religious art in southern central Europe. The uses of plants in most important Late Medieval religious festivals and customs in southern central Europe are described. Plants with festive connotations are identified and shown in their cultural contexts. The main goal of this research was to show how visual evidence, interpreted with the help of historical sources, could contribute to archaeobotanical research on Late Medieval plants and their use in festive occasions in the region in the later Middle Ages.     

Charcoal analysis of industrial fuelwood from medieval and early modern iron-working sites in Bilsdale and Rievaulx,North Yorkshire,UK: evidence for species selection and woodland management

Abstract

This paper presents the results of species diversity and dendrological analyses of archaeological charcoal excavated from medieval and early modern iron production sites in Bilsdale, and at Rievaulx in the neighbouring valley of Ryedale, North Yorkshire, UK. Standard methods of quantification are used to assess species diversity, sampling sufficiency and taxa presence. The assessment of dendrological features provides additional evidence for growth trends and cutting cycles analogous with cyclical woodland management, as well as environmental and growing conditions. Analysis of archaeological charcoal from four medieval bloomery furnace sites in Bilsdale, and from the site of the hammersmithy and blast furnace at the early modern iron works at Rievaulx, provide comparable data-sets which indicate a change in cutting practise and dominant species selection for industrial fuelwood occurred between the 12th- and mid-16th centuries AD. Results show that dominant species presence changed from an admixture of predominantly birch (Betula sp.) and hazel (Corylus avellana) sourced from small calibre branchwood and stemwood used in the medieval bloomery furnaces, to a dominant oak (Quercus sp.) presence from standard sources used at the Rievaulx iron works by the mid-16th century. Whilst it is uncertain whether this change in dominant species composition and the source of industrial fuelwood is related to changes in local availability, or the result of the technological transition to blast furnace processing which occurred at this time, estate records reveal a woodland management campaign was instigated to supply and maintain fuelwood supplies to the iron works at Rievaulx which coincides with the introduction of Tudor arboricultural legislation in the 1540s.     

近代欧洲早期农业革命考察

在17、18世纪之际的“农业革命”发生之前,欧洲农业生产就已出现了许多关键性的技术进步,可把16、17世纪的这种进步称为“早期农业革命”,而14、15世纪则可视为早期农业革命的准备阶段。通过对中世纪欧洲农业的低技术起点,14、15世纪的农业技术进步,16、17世纪的早期农业革命等三方面的考察,我们发现欧洲农业技术进步中的连续性特点远超过其突变性。     

Narrating Difference and Defining the Nation in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century 'Western' Europe

This article examines the influence of Orientalist representations of Eastern Europe on definitions and theories of the nation, and their impact on normative interpretations of the nature of nations and national identity in Western Europe. It focuses on the history of the development of these normative interpretations in the decades leading up to and including the First World War. During this period European progressives--whether intellectuals, social scientists or politicians--residing in Britain and France, definitively 'Western European' states, were keen to discuss the future application of the principle of nationality, its necessity and its obstacles. With the outbreak of war in 1914, such progressive interest in the status of nations and national identities helped shape the anticipated democratic 'new world order' and the mental map of Eastern and Western Europe. I argue that their attempts to explain and represent the nature and significance of nationhood and national identity iterated Orientalist versions of Eastern Europe, and, at the same time, their definitions and theorisations of nations were replete with anomalies that defy any simply categorisation of the nature of Western Europe or the status of its nations.