British Agriculture: Texts for the Zoo-Archaeologist

Abstract

This article provides a compendium of quotations from early British writers on agriculture which may be of interest to the zoo-archaeology of late Medieval and post-Medieval periods.     

The End of Socialism's Historical Theology and Its Rebirth in Fukuyama's Thesis

Abstract

I consider Robert Faulkner's “case for greatness” in relation to egalitarianism and the fear of greatness that egalitarianism may justifiably inspire. I question how the “greatness” that Faulkner defends may be fostered—and whether we really do want to foster it after all.     

Chemical Ecology of Plants and Insects Helping Crops to Help Themselves

Abstract

The breeding of crop plants from wild ancestors has often sacrificed their chemical defences against insects. However, such natural protection may now be exploited by new approaches, including molecular genetics as here described.     

Molluscan Shell Knives and Experimental Cut-Marks on Bones

Abstract

Experimentation demonstrates that the retouched edges of molluscan shells can be used effectively as butchery knives in the absence of lithic raw materials and leave striations on bone surfaces that may be indistinguishable from cut-marks made by stone knives. The potential of such non-lithic cutting tools suggests one new possible category of early artifact, and may explain the presence of cut-marks on fossil bones in paleoenvironments where stone artifacts were absent or rare.     

Research on Birth Control Technology

Abstract

Present contraceptive technology may not be adequate to allow family planning to be successfully practised on a world-wide scale. The limitations of current methods of fertility regulation and service systems are outlined. The development of better technology poses challenging problems. WHO's Special Programme of Research and Research Training in Human Reproduction represents an interdisciplinary and international approach to their solution.     

Introducing humanistic geography through fieldwork

Abstract

One challenge of teaching humanistic geography is to encourage students’ responses to landscapes in ways which may be different from their previous experience. Conventional wisdom about successful field teaching suggests that students should be prepared beforehand with the skills and techniques to be employed. The author questions how appropriate this is in humanistic geography and the article describes and evaluates an alternative approach using fieldwork as the introductory activity.     

Exotericism and the Untroubled Race for the Future

Abstract

The simple case against the philosophic practice of exoteric writing is that it takes too long. Especially short of time are those who would contribute to or even attempt to keep up with the advance of what used to be called natural philosophy. The assumption of progress in science has been purchased with the relentless specialization of its practitioners. In theory transparent to inquiry, in practice specialized, science may be not just anti-exoteric but esoteric.     

Moira Furnace

Abstract

Wales was, and to a lesser extent still is, an important industrial archaeological landscape. What has been preserved and what is left to be preserved may not give a total representation of the complexity and social implications of that period of history. This article seeks to assess what has been done and future requirements related to the main industries in Wales.     

Narratives and Their Contexts: A Critique of Greger Andersson with Respect to Narrative Autonomy

Greger Andersson's 2001 monograph represents a significant contribution to current thinking regarding the book of Judges because it contains what may be the first systematic critique of the synchronic approach that has dominated Judges studies in recent years. Unfortunately, the two main theses upon which Andersson based his critique, namely, that narratives are autonomous and that they are resistant to reworking, may not in themselves be sustainable. For not only are there counter-examples to dispute the claim that narratives are resistant to reworking, it also appears that Andersson has overreached in his attempt to impose an overly restrictive view of non-referentiality and narrative autonomy on all narratives.     

A Predictive Map of Compression- Sensitivity of the Dutch Archaeological Soil Archive

Abstract

Weak soils like unconsolidated clay and peat may deform and compress considerably by loading, for example, by sand bodies for roads and railways. Archaeological sites within such easily compressible soil layers may therefore be heavily affected by different kinds of construction works. The vulnerability of archaeological sites to compression is largely dependent on soil properties like lithology, grain-size, and previous loading history. This may therefore differ considerably. Predicting the compression sensitivity is of great value for planners, since they can estimate in which areas in situ protection of archaeological sites may be feasible and where it would require (costly) technical measures or plan adaptations.

As part of the Cultural Heritage Agency’s research programme on construction and archaeology, we prepared predictive maps of the compression sensitivity of the subsurface sediments in the Netherlands for 1 m depth intervals from 0 to 20 m depth.

The maps were constructed using a full 3-D model of the subsurface of the Netherlands.

In combination with the Indicative Map of Archaeological Values (IKAW) that is already available, these maps can be used to better estimate the technical measures needed and costs involved for in situ protection of archaeological sites in the planning phase of construction projects.     

Spatialities and the feeling of doing

Recent discussions of non-representational theory and expressive/sensuous embodied practice have provided new orientations for rethinking how people live and feel, and inform notions of spatialities and lay geographies. These arguments I develop in this paper through a consideration of an ethnography of recreational caravanning in the UK. I consider how spatialities may be developed in practice in relation to a refiguring of contexts and embodied semiotics.     

The Meaning and Purpose of Interdisciplinary Studies As Applied to Development Economics

Abstract

There are three distinct reasons for interdisciplinary work in development studies. First, specialists in different disciplines may work together on a specific practical planning problem. Second, assumptions, concepts or method evolved in one discipline may yield fruitful results when applied to the problem previously treated by another. Third, the concepts, model and paradigms may have to be recast so as to encompass variable previously separated in distinct disciplines because of tbe demand of the social reality of a different culture. This is illustrated with the concept ‘capital'. There is a conservative and a radical version. In the former, new wine can be poured into old bottle; in the latter, wholly new concepts and models must be constructed.     

A chicken on every pot: curious avian ceramic vessels on the Gulf Coast

ABSTRACT

In a recent examination of bird effigy vessels from the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, one remarkable species identified appears to be Gallus gallus domesticus, or the chicken. Examples of small ceramic rooster heads sporting dramatic, single combs and short beaks may be indirect evidence of contact between native coastal peoples and Spanish explorers in the early decades of the AD 1500s. The particular socio-cultural conditions that would have made possible the introduction of these decidedly non-native birds into the repertoire of Native American potters in the protohistoric era are explored.     

A STAMPED IMPRESSION ON THE RIM OF A MB II STORAGE JAR

Abstract

The scarab impression on the rim of a Middle Bronze II storage jar is the first of its kind to be discovered in Israel. The pattern on the impression appears on scarabs of the period. The unusual location of the impression may point to a special content of the jar, or alternatively to the owner of this pot. Once the context of the storage jar rim is studied, it may shed some light on the possible association of this jar with the scarab impression on its rim.     

Space Manufacturing,Satellite Power and Human Exploration

Abstract

Satellite power stations manufactured from non terrestrial materials may alleviate the global energy crisis as early as the 1990s. Costs may be competitive with coal and nuclear power and could provide an environmentally acceptable, inexhaustible and continuous supply of electricity anywhere on Earth. Habitats for the workforce employed in space manufacturing would offer a choice of gravities for living and recreation. Recent progress in this field and the interdisciplinary aspects of planning such a program are reviewed.     

Objects for Peaceful Disordering: Indigenous Designs and Practices of Protest

Abstract

This paper identifies a number of theoretical approaches to devices known as 'lockons': sundry objects found in builders' merchants, and some people's bodies—ie peace activists pursuing non-violent direct action. This paper raises the possibility that the transforming power of designing may be enhanced if it is acknowledged that it is most powerful when it takes place in full articulation with practices.     

Complexity and diversity: domestic material culture and French immigrant identity in early modern London

Abstract

The French immigrants of early modern London are recorded as having been a clearly recognizable community with similarities in language, religion, occupation and material culture. However, analysis of the excavated and documentary evidence of their domestic artefacts reveals few differences when compared with their English counterparts. Although isolated artefacts may reasonably be linked to an immigrant identity, the majority of refugees do not appear to have commonly expressed their group identity through their domestic material culture in historically identifiable ways. This may indicate that the nature of French immigrant identity was more complex and varied than contemporary accounts imply.     

Residential versus civic use in the Pueblo II-III period: A case study from the Harlan Great Kiva site in the Goodman Point area of southwestern Colorado

Abstract

Sites recorded during survey that were occupied or used for long periods of time often present problems in determining when particular activities may have occurred, and what types of activities correspond to which periods of use. The Harlan Great Kiva site, in southwestern Colorado, provides an opportunity to examine sequential residential and civic use of one ancestral Pueblo period site over a period of 250 to 300 years. Pottery recovered during test excavations suggests that it may be possible to recognize changing types of use from surface remains recorded during survey. This analysis may prove useful for survey-level studies of long-lived sites with recognizable civic architecture at the surface.     

Russian Nationalist Orthodox Theology: A New Trend in the Political Life of Russia

Abstract

Presently nationalist circles seem to promulgate a synthesis of Russian Orthodox Christianity with Marxism and ultra-patriotism. Russian nationalist Orthodox theology teaches that Jesus Christ was Russian or Slavic; it leans toward violence and is apt to quickly change the target oppressor who is broadly defined as anyone who is non-Russian or non-Orthodox. Russian nationalist Orthodox theology may be used at the Presidential Elections 2008 to boost an ultra-nationalist candidate.