The 'folded flan' coinage of eastern Arabia: Some preliminary comments

In recent years a small number of peculiar coins has emerged from the southern shores of the Persian/Arabian Gulf imitating Athenian tetradrachms of the old style and sharing the oddity of being struck on a flan that had been folded before striking. This paper contains an overview of the pieces known so far and attempts to present some preliminary conclusions, while still awaiting a comprehensive study of this and related ancient coinages of the Arabian peninsula.     

Chert sources and distribution patterns in the stone age of West Finnmark,North Norway: A preliminary view

A preliminary analysis of chert sources and distribution patterns in west Finnmark is described. Three small quarries and a fourth possible source area are situated on the coast west of Alta. Petrographic and geochemical analyses lend tentative support to the proposition that chert from these coastal sources was distributed inland during the Late Stone Age and Early Metal Periods.     

Sewn Boats of Southeast Asia: the stitched‐plank and lashed‐lug tradition

This article updates research into the sewn‐boat traditions of Southeast Asia with recent finds that provide evidence of the transition from stitched planks with lashed‐lug frames to planks fastened with dowels and locked dowels alongside lashed‐lug frames. The differences between Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Indo‐Arabic boatbuilding are discussed and the meaning of anomalies, such as the Maldivian dhonis, examined. Considering the known history of trade and exchange throughout the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, the lack of hybridization between boatbuilding traditions is noted.     

Archaeological,Historical, and Ethnographic Approaches to the Study of Sewn Boats: past,present, and future

Sewn‐plank vessels have been a pervasive form of ship construction since antiquity. This paper provides an introductory overview of the current state of the field of sewn‐plank studies, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean. It describes the basic function of sewn‐plank techniques, and then discusses textual references and historical approaches to the topic. The relevant archaeological evidence is reviewed, and prior ethnographic work relating to the topic is outlined. It summarizes numerous experimental sewn‐plank reconstructions that have been undertaken and concludes with a discussion of the current directions of the field and suggestions for the future.     

Masonry Italian Code-Conforming Buildings. Part 1: Case Studies and Design Methods

ABSTRACT

Several architectural configurations of unreinforced masonry residential buildings are designed according to the different methods proposed in the Italian code: rules for the so-called simple masonry buildings, linear and nonlinear static analyses. Always complying with code requirements, for each building-site combination, the design was made, as much as possible, without an excessive margin of safety. The different design methods provided buildings with very different levels of safety, being linear static analysis largely overconservative with respect to the nonlinear static approach. These buildings were then analyzed in the companion paper.     

The Pleistocene Peopling of the North: Paleolithic Milestones and Thresholds Horizons in Northern Eurasia: Part I: Lower Paleolithic Antecedents

Human occupation of northern Eurasia high latitudes entailed coping with severe bioclimatic circumstances and Ice Age cycle fluctuations. Resolving this “adaptability paradox” required depending on cultural, rather than biological means. Paleolithic evidence indicates culture historical developments of considerable time depth, long-term adaptive stages, and thresholds in the “peopling of the North.” It began with Lower Paleolithic populations expanding into temperate and continental Eurasia, becoming fully actualized during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. The Middle Paleolithic formative stage constituted a human biogeographic realm overlapping significantly with the Mammoth-Steppe Biome faunal complex. Part I identifies issues, time perspectivism, culture, foraging adaptation, and human biogeography concepts. Lower Paleolithic occurrences, initial occupation episodes are surveyed and discussed.     

拉面经济:一枝红杏出墙来

在西北,在青海,在河湟地区,一碗拉面,平淡无奇。然而,在今天,一碗拉面,却拉出了许多话题,拉出了许多思考,也拉出了许许多多海东农民的致富之路。不能不说,这是一个奇迹。今天,你去旅游、出差,走遍大江南北,到天涯海角,到西域边陲,各大小城市,几乎都可以看到化隆、循化、民和、平安牛肉面馆的踪影。它们像西北高原的刺玫花,别致而顽强地绽放在城市一隅,散发着独特的芬芳。海东地区在全国开办的牛肉面馆8000家,从业人员近6万人,收入4亿元。仅化隆一县在全国各地开办的牛肉面馆5000多家,循化农民在北京、上海开办牛肉面馆1400家。上个世纪90年…     

The Archaeology of War: A North American Perspective

This article reviews recent archaeological research on warfare in prestate societies of native North America. This survey comprises six regions: Arctic/Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Southwest/Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Two lines of evidence, defensive settlement behavior and injuries in human skeletal remains, figure prominently in archaeological reconstructions of violence and warfare in these regions. Burning of sites and settlements also has been important for identifying the consequences of war and investigating more subtle aspects of strategy and directionality. Weaponry and iconography have to date provided important but more limited insights. Although considerable disparities exist between regions in the archaeological evidence for intra- and intergroup violence, all regions show a marked increase after A.D. 1000. These findings suggest that larger forces may have been responsible for escalating violence throughout North America at this time.