中国古代钱币诗话

古钱币系列是中国历史经济现象的载体,亦是承载时代进程的脉络与脚印。其见证了不同时期因政权更替的兴盛与衰败。在华夏古代文学宝库里,有关货币的诗话占有独特的重要地位。     

Magnetic properties of ancient coins

The almost ubiquitous presence of small amounts of iron in ancient coins gives them remanent magnetic properties which can be measured easily on commercial magnetometers. The stability of the remanence suggests that ancient coins might retain information about the geomagnetic field at the time and location of manufacture and so be valuable in setting up archaeomagnetic dating curves. However, measurements show that the remanence directions tend to be too scattered for this purpose, although it is quite possible to distinguish magnetically the obverse and reverse faces of struck coins.Saturation remanence studies of coins and coin analogues indicate that the main carrier of the remanence in struck coins is precipitated fine-grained iron (rather than the oxides of iron) which is produced during the minting process. The intensity of the remanence generated depends upon the thermo-mechanical history of the flan prior to striking, which suggests that the magnetic properties of such coins are not simply related to the provenance of the ores used.     

Ships and parts of ships on ancient coins. I

Ships and parts of ships on ancient coins. I, ARIE L. BEN-ELI (ed.)
Sir Francis Drake, GEORGE MALCOLM THOMSON
The social structure of crews of British dry cargo merchant ships PETER H. FRICKE
Clay pipes for the archaeologist ADRIAN OSWALD
Field archaeology in Britain, JOHN M. COLES
Estuaries: a physical introduction, K. R. DYER     

The coinage of ancient Hadramawt The Pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum

The pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum come principally from Shabwa, the capital of the kingdom of Hadramawt. The collection consists of 76 coins, three of which could not be identified because of their poor condition. Sixty-seven silver and bronze Hadrami coins; five silver and bronze Himyarite and Sabaean coins; and one gold Roman coin comprise the collection. This material provides a general overview of the coinage of the ancient Hadramawt, permitting us to distinguish the issues of certain individual Hadrami rulers.     

Sir Charles Grandison,Natural Law and the Fictionalised English Gentleman

This article enquires into the relation between enlightened humanist conceptions of natural law and the period novel's fictionalization of the English gentleman in the context of its marriage plot. Marriage played a key role in enlightened theorisations of natural law precisely as an institution capable of grounding familial and civil life in an emerging concept of human nature. Yet public debate about the state's role in the regulation of marriage in mid-eighteenth-century England demonstrates that natural law lent itself to very different models of sovereignty and governance. The antinomies that characterized natural law's circulation in the English context are uniquely fictionalized in Samuel Richardson's last novel, Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54), a lengthy parallel narrative of failed courtship and matrimonial felicity that draws upon Pufendorf's model of natural law, yet is only partly implicated in its secular humanism. The novel's eponymous gentleman hero – a ‘Man of Religion and Virtue’ – exemplifies a mix of Anglican piety, civic virtue and disinterested sympathy that is sanctioned by natural law and sealed by the English marriage plot.     

Warts and the kings of Parthia: an ancient representation of hereditary Neurofibromatosis depicted in coins

Parthian coins depict a nodule on the face of many of their kings over succeeding generations. Loosely described as a wart in the literature, the nature of these lesions has been the subject of speculation. The accepted view is that they were unlikely to be simply a cosmetic or symbolic feature. Evidence suggests that they may represent the cutaneous tumors of Neurofibromatosis. The hereditary nature and physical appearance of these round nodules are consistent with this diagnosis. Although final proof may be lacking, these prominent facial features are worthy of discussion even though the matter may not be settled with certainty.     

从嫁妆制度的变化看古罗马社会妇女的经济地位

古罗马实行的是嫁妆婚姻."女儿出嫁给予嫁妆"从一种习俗变成法律的硬性规定;嫁妆的数额经历了由少到多的变化;妻子对嫁妆的权利则经历着从无到有的演变.这是一个逐渐对妇女有利的发展过程,也是罗马财产让渡的一个发展过程,它对于妇女而言不仅仅是获取陪嫁物,更重要的是通过嫁妆参与了社会财产的分配.罗马妇女通过嫁妆制度参与社会财产分配与让渡,在罗马社会发展进程中起到重要作用,从而显示出自己独特的经济地位.     

Island Networks and Missionary Methods: Locating Charles E. Fox and Frederick G. Bowie in the History of Pacific Archaeology

ABSTRACT

‘Missionary’ and ‘archaeology’ may appear incongruous partners within contemporary archaeological practice, but archival, museum and oral sources reveal historical connections. This paper explores two missionaries, active in the western Pacific from 1896 to 1973. Reverends Charles Elliot Fox (Melanesian Mission, Solomon Islands) and Frederick Gatherer Bowie (Free Church of Scotland Mission, Vanuatu) both conducted studies related to the prehistory and migration of Pacific people. Both produced material assemblages, as well as textual and visual documents, and formed ideas influenced by their own networks and self identities. The paper examines their data collection methods and relationships with others, considering particularly how their relationships with Pacific Islanders and with psychologist and ethnologist W.H.R. Rivers influenced the missionary research process. By understanding these aspects of their work, Fox and Bowie can be placed within a broader genealogy of Anglophone missionary archaeology dating back to the late 18th century.     

Commerce and morality in eighteenth-century Italy

This paper would like to discuss some aspects of current trends in studies on eighteenth-century Eastern Europe. In the first part it addresses recent approaches devoted to the reconstruction of the conceptualization of Eastern Europe at the time of the Enlightenment, which have often been inspired by the work of Edward Said and Martin Bernal. These include Larry Woolf's Inventing Eastern Europe (1994). Michael Confino has provided a detailed critique of Woolf's approach. It can be argued that Woolf is in fact projecting Cold War divisions back into the eighteenth century.

The article argues in favour of a less “Orientalising” approach to the history of Eastern Europe, by proving an alternative overview of the historical dimensions of the eastern (and northern) regions of Europe in the eighteenth century. Eastern Europe was inextricably connected to its western European neighbours. Without Eastern Europe, European history is incomplete and incomprehensible.

In the third part the article argues that the interpretative framework of the “first crisis of the Old Regime”, which Franco Venturi outlined in his Settecento riformatore in the 19870s and 1980s represented a subtle rejection of the East/West dichotomy, and in fact foreshadowed the eventual reunification of Europe after the end of the Cold War.     

Assessment of material characteristics of ancient concretes,Grande Aula,Markets of Trajan,Rome

The Grande Aula, or Great Hall, of the Markets of Trajan (AD 96 to 115) is an intact example of the domed, concrete architecture of imperial Rome. Petrographic, x-ray diffraction, chemical, and SEM analyses demonstrate that wall mortars contain Pozzolane Rosse volcanic ash aggregate (harenae fossiciae) and strätlingite, a complex calcium aluminate cement hydrate (C₂ ASH₈) that gives modern cements good durability and compressive strength. Specific gravity tests and a new petrographic method for assessing bulk densities indicate unit weights of about 1750 kg/m³ for the wall mortars and 1430–1640 kg/m³ for the pumice bearing, vaulted ceiling mortars. Innovative point load source tests record the tensile strengths (f_t) of the aggregate and interfacial elements of the conglomeratic concrete fabric. These suggest f_t of about 2.7 MPa for brick, 1.2 MPa for Tufo Lionato tuff, and 0.9 MPa for Tufo Giallo della Via Tiberina tuff coarse aggregate (caementa), based on a tentative, approximate correlation with splitting (Brazilian) tests. The pozzolanic mortar and interfacial zones have lower f_t in the range of 0.8 MPa to 0.5 MPa. The relatively low mortar strength and its somewhat tenuous adhesion to the coarse aggregate suggests that the caementa may have arrested the propagation of tensile microcracks that formed in the mortar, thereby increasing the composite tensile strength of the concrete. Roman builders selected the complex aggregate mixes to optimize the performance of the wall and vault concretes.     

The history of the book and publishing in eighteenth-century Italy

Based on published and untapped sources, the article sets out to explore the cultural and material conditions of the book trade in Italy during the eighteenth century. Special concern is given to the import of French printed works and pamphlets as a means to diffuse the Enlightenment south of the Alps. The text does not address problems of authorial status, but provides a general assessment of the literary market and its impact on the reading habits of the elites. Critical and bibliographical information is also provided about the renewal of interest for the history of the book and reading in Italy since the 1980s.     

Anatomists and entrepreneurs in early eighteenth-century London

Anatomical demonstration in the eighteenth century took place in many formats. In this essay I discuss public anatomical demonstration as performed by entrepreneurial anatomists in London between 1700 and 1740. These anatomists offered courses, advertised in newspapers, to anyone who was willing to pay. In contrast to courses offered in official settings to prospective physicians and surgeons, these courses emphasized natural philosophy and natural theology rather than practical knowledge. Entrepreneurial lecturers also aimed to entertain. In this article I examine the lectures of James Douglas, William Cheselden, and Frank Nicholls, each of whom differed significantly from the others in style and content but were all anatomical entrepreneurs. All of them, moreover, employed not only human cadavers but also living and dead animals in their lessons. I examine the content of the lectures and the motivations of the lecturers' audiences. I also argue that the prevailing historiographical representation of eighteenth-century science as "polite" requires considerable revision to accommodate as impolite an activity as public anatomy.