Camels in the northern provinces of the Roman Empire

This paper describes the camel bones discovered in two Late Roman contexts from Arlon (Belgium). The morphological and metrical analyses identify the animal as a dromedary.     

Persia and the Greeks: Failure of an Empire

GEORGE CAWKWELL. The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 316. $195.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Arthur M. Eckstein     

Early Opacifiers In The Glaze Industry Of First Millennium bc Persia: Persepolis And Tepe Rabat

This study characterizes the opacifiers and colouring agents used in the glazed bricks of Persepolis (mid‐first millennium bc ) and the Mannean site of Tepe Rabat in north‐western Iran (eighth to seventh centuries bc ). Various analytical studies show that lead antimonate and brizziite (NaSbO₃) were used as the yellow and white opacifiers in the glazes of Persepolis and Tepe Rabat. Brizziite is shown to be incorporated in the white, green and turquoise glazes, and is also associated with lead antimonate and CaSb₂O₆ in some yellow and white opacifiers. The simultaneous formation of these opacifiers in one glaze might have been accidental. A possible connection between the Achaemenid glaze industry and the Mannean glaze production at Tepe Rabat is discussed.     

Long distance trinket trade: Early Bronze Age obsidian from the Negev

The discovery of three small obsidian flakes at the Camel Site in the central Negev, Israel, constitutes the first discovery of obsidian in Early Bronze Age contexts in the Negev and Sinai. Obsidian hydration analysis and X-ray microprobe analysis confirm the association of the artifacts with the site and the period, and indicate origins in Eastern Anatolia, in significant contrast to the exclusively Central Anatolian source of Southern PPNB obsidian. The structure of the obsidian trade system in the Early Bronze Age seems to contrast significantly with its Neolithic predecessor, and may be related to a system of pastoral nomadic exchange.     

试论波斯对伯罗奔尼撒战争的介入

公元前431年爆发的伯罗奔尼撒战争既是一场希腊世界的内战,同时也是雅典与波斯之间侵略与反侵略的战争。远在东方的波斯在公元前412年与斯巴达结盟,介入战争。波斯介入战争的根本原因是其想重新占领在希波战争中失去的小亚细亚西海岸的希腊城邦,向雅典复仇。希波战争后波斯与雅典之间长期的"冷战",斯巴达主动向波斯抛出"橄榄枝"寻求结盟,以及雅典远征西西里的惨败,最终促使波斯与斯巴达结盟。战争期间,波斯主要通过小亚细亚的总督对斯巴达进行军事和财政援助。波斯的介入不仅帮助斯巴达战胜雅典,赢得战争的胜利,而且还直接引发了公元前411年的雅典贵族寡头政变,开波斯干涉希腊城邦内部事务的先河。     

The diffusion of the Cid cult: a survey and a little-known document

Whereas in eleventh- and twelfth-century western Europe Christianity had taken firm root, monarchy had developed and legislation by royal and ecclesiastical authorities was a normal practice, in Iceland culture remained, for a long period, practically uninfluenced by Roman and canon law. In the present article early Icelandic laws, representatives of this culture, will be described, their formulation and application investigated, and the developments among the establishment of a central authority at the end of the thirteenth century discussed.     

The diffusion of the Cid cult: a survey and a little-known document

Tomb-cults (with which are to be associated family traditions, genealogical matters, and a variety of other aspects) of epic heroes are important for a number of reasons, among these being the fact they may tell us something about the origin and nature of the poems themselves. These questions have been well investigated for France but are still little studied in and for Spain. Both historical and pseudo-historical or legendary traditions are involved, the latter predominating both in quantity and interest. After an introductory discussion, a survey is undertaken of the cult of the Cid, protagonist of the Poema de mio Cid (1207?) and national hero of Spain. The aim is not to give a full account of all aspects, but to cover the less well-known of these in detail and to provide bibliographical indications about aspects that are already adequately explored. Genealogical matters are examined first, then the monasteries, churches and towns in which the cult was present. The ‘little-known document’ is the forged will of a Navarrese prince, which was a key text in the cult at the monastery of Santa Maria la Real de Nájera and at San Pedro de Cardeña.     

Early Holocene land snail exploitation in northern spain: the case of La Fragua cave

Abstract

The question of the anthropic or natural origin of land snail deposits within the archaeological record is the subject of debate all over the world. In the Cantabrian region of northern Spain land snail middens are routinely identified in the early Holocene archaeological record. La Fragua Cave (Cantabria, Spain), which contains an early Holocene layer dated to 9600±140 BP (10,932±196 cal BP), offers the opportunity to address this debate through the examination of Cepaea nemoralis (Linnaeus) land snails recovered in direct association with mammal bones, charcoal, lithic artefacts and other materials. It is therefore believed that their presence at the site is clearly anthropic in origin. In addition, the exploitation patterns indicate an occasional collection and consumption of land snails, which confirms the complementary character of these resources in the diet of hunter-gatherers in Cantabrian Spain during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.     

Lessons from Australia: Persia Campbell and the International Afterlives of Federation-Era Welfarism

This article uses the career of Australian-born economist and United Nations lobbyist Persia Campbell (1898–1974) to track the influence of Federation-era Australian welfarism into the postwar international sphere. I argue that Campbell, a pioneer of American consumer economics and an influential commentator on international development, derived her lifelong preoccupation with consumer welfare and living standards from a youthful immersion in Australian economic thought. Although she lived abroad from 1929, her worldview was indelibly shaped by this early training. Campbell’s example therefore points to the international afterlives of Australia’s foundational welfarism, and offers an Australian corrective to a development historiography dominated by the United States.     

Persia through the Lens: Poetics and Politics of Architectural Photographs in Pahlavi Iran

Having been introduced to the scholarly community and the general public through a variety of photographic presentations during the inter-war period, monuments in Iran, particularly those of pre-modern Islamic periods, became key buildings to be seized upon as the ultimate embodiment of Persian beauty. The lasting image of Persian Islamic architecture that was articulated through photographs continues not only to set an important benchmark for the understanding of the aesthetic and political matrix of the early twentieth century but also to provoke a methodological question as to the future of Persian architectural studies.     

The Unstable People of a Tumultuous Land: Persia Through the Eyes and Feet of Hajji Baba of Isfahan

For the English interested in Persia in the nineteenth century, James Morier's Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isfahan was a crucial text, as it also was for Iranians who read its groundbreaking Persian translation almost half a century later. The text provided a persuasive understanding of Persia that has endured in the western imagination. This paper begins with the framing narrative and shows how the frame story sets the stage for a convincing literary portrait of Persia and Persians. Then it analyzes the image of Persia constructed in this book through the characterization of Hajji Baba as representative of Persians, and the geopolitical portrayal of the country that emerges from the account of his travels.     

Rule of Law: A Comparison between Ancient Persia and Ancient Greece

The ancient Persian empires are denoted as despotic, practicing arbitrary rule while Greece, Persia's archrival during the sixth to fourth century BC, exercised rule of law. This paper uses a contract theory framework to analyze some of the geographical and environmental underpinnings of the existence of rule of law in the city-states of ancient Greece and its absence in Persia. I discuss the role of geographical conditions of land (open plains versus mountains), population pressure, proximity to the sea and form of trade (overland versus overseas) as factors conducive to rule of law in the city-states of ancient Greece and to despotism in ancient Persia. Specifically, the role of trade via land in Persia prior to the fifth century BC is compared to the role of sea trade (alongside with piracy) in ancient Greece. I argue that in ancient Persia monarchs could tax or expropriate much of the gains from overland trade, preventing the accumulation of an independent form of wealth by merchants. In Greece, sea trade alongside the practice of piracy led to gains from trade that could not be easily expropriated by the monarchs and acted as a balancing force vis-à-vis the power of the monarchs, creating a basis for rule of law in the Greek city-states.     

Cultures in co-operation and conflict: Indians in the fur trade on the northern Great Plains, 1807–1840

The fur trade on the northern Great Plains from 1807 to 1840 may be viewed as an alliance between two sets of cultures each with a demand for the other's products. The Indian's rôle in this fur trade was crucial: he produced the robes and furs, provisioned the traders and greatly influenced the pattern of trading post locations. The fur trade functioned successfully only by adjusting its system of operations to the existing patterns of Indian occupance and by working within those limits to encourage the production of robes and furs. Properly conducted, the fur trade fitted well with the Indian's way of life. Nevertheless, in the process of this culture contact the relationship between the trader and the Indian soured, and the trader became an agent in the destruction of Indian populations and the modification of Indian cultures.