Between science and empire: the diplomatic struggle over Mesopotamian antiquities in Lisbon (1914–1926)

A powerful curiosity to discover the ancient world – reaching its peak in the nineteenth century – led to British, French, and German museums to enhance their collections with a great number of Mesopotamian antiquities. Most of these were the product of excavation work, which took years, followed by a shipping process fraught with hurdles and delays – much as when Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities were stranded in Portugal over the period 1914–26. In that case Portuguese officials seized the hoard of Babylonian and Assyrian items due to be sent to Germany at the beginning of the First World War by the German Oriental Society, which had carried out excavation works in Ottoman territories in the name of Kaiser II Wilhelm. The extensive British efforts and diplomatic exchanges aimed at bringing the pieces to London after the war, presents us with important clues regarding ownership disputes over antiquities, and the imperial struggle to acquire the cultural heritage of the near east. This study reveals that, under the existing legal framework, the items eventually taken to Berlin actually belonged to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, and analyzes the discourse of ‘scientific concern’ constructed by British diplomacy.     

The excavation of WWII RAF bomber,Halifax LV881-ZA-V

This article outlines the preliminary results of archaeological fieldwork at the crash site of RAF Halifax bomber LV881-ZA-V and explores some of the challenges presented by the excavation of this military wartime crash site. The aircraft and her crew were shot down by a German night fighter in the early hours of 31 March 1944 during the infamous Nuremberg Raid. Four of her crew were killed and the remaining three were taken prisoner and later took part in the ‘Long March’. All three survived the war. An international team comprised of staff and students from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the UK explored what remained of the crash site, located on a hill outside the village of Steinheim, north east of Frankfurt in the German Federal State of Hesse.     

What Happened in Neiden? On the Question of Reburial Ethics

The Neiden Case reburial from Finnmark, North Norway, marks the closure of a process initiated with a controversial excavation in 1915 when 94 skeletons were brought to University in Oslo. The skeletons formed part of a monumental work in physical anthropology by the Norwegian anatomist Karl Emil Schreiner concluding that the Sámi belonged to a somewhat infantile proto-Mongolian race. There is little doubt about unethical aspects of the excavation as well as the exceedingly dubious character of racial research on the Sámi prior to the Second World War. However, considering the handling of the case, opposing facts and opinions, lack of knowledge and other uncertainties, ethical implications seem far from obvious. With regard to the dead themselves the reburial may even be considered unethical. This paper emphasizes the complexity of the ethics of reburials with particular attention to the dead, their graves and belongings.     

湖北郧西县五斗种遗址发掘简报

郧西五斗种遗址发掘出土一批具楚文化特点的遗物以及陶窑等遗迹,还有动物骨骼、铁器等.简报介绍遗址发掘工作,对遗物文化特点进行简要分析,对遗址微地貌、动物骨骼与古环境、动物骨骼与遗址经济特点等也提出初步认识.     

Von der Vaterschaftsbestimmung zum Rassegutachten. Der erbbiologische Ähnlichkeitsvergleich als ‚österreichisch-deutsches Projekt’︁ 1926-1945

The anthropological paternity test basing on a comparative examination of resemblances between a presumptive father and the child was developed in a ‘joint venture’ by Austrian and German anthropologists. After the Nazi rise to power the test was more and more abused to clarify questions of ‘dubious Aryan descent’ whereas in Austria its original function was retained until Austria's annexation by the German Reich. Then Austrian anthropologists too rushed to offer their services to the National Socialist racial legislation. The author shows that accusations by German state officials of the Austrian anthropologist rendering to many expert opinions in favour of the Jewish population, a legend repeated after the war, cannot be upheld any longer.     

Taboo and sensitive heritage: labour camps,burials and the role of activism in the Channel Islands

In this article we propose the concept of taboo heritage as a way to describe a legacy of war so sensitive that it never undergoes heritage creation. Attempts at creation, such as heritage listing, renovation or excavation, are blocked by local authorities. We also examine the transition from taboo heritage to sensitive heritage, the next step along the ‘heritage continuum’, which we propose can only occur through the combined efforts of the passage of time, the role of activists and official authorisation. We take as our case study two of the British Channel Islands of Jersey and Alderney, occupied by German forces from 1940 to 1945. Labour camps were built in both islands, where the dead were also buried locally. We explore how the existing legacy of these events is still taboo heritage in Alderney, but has achieved partial progress in the transition to sensitive heritage in Jersey.     

Developments in Polish Scholarship on German History, 1945-2000: Introduction to the Special Issue

This introduction points out major developments in Polish scholarshipon German history between the end of the war and the presentday. The fraught relationship between Polish and German scholarswas not merely a result of the destruction of the war yearsbut older nationalist traditions of history-writing, which needto be taken into account as well as the status of partitionedPoland between 1795 and 1918.     

New evidence of prehistoric arrow wounds in the Iberian Peninsula

Recent excavations carried out in the Iberian Peninsula have revealed some skeletons with arrow wounds at sites dating from the neolithic to the Bronze Age. The discovery of burials in which the human remains have not been moved and the methodical nature of the excavation have made an in situ examination possible, and have confirmed this evidence as testimony of violent action, of which there are many other examples all over Europe. Four cases of silex arrowheads found in different human bones from the excavation of the hypogeum of Longar (Navarra, Spain), carried out between 1991 and 1993, are described.     

新疆于田县流水墓地26号墓出土人骨的古病理学和人类学初步研究

前言古病理学作为一个新的研究领域,主要是对考古发掘出土的人骨进行自然科学范畴的医学检查,因此这一科学领域涉及到医学、人类学和考古学。古病理学研究的对象通常为出土的古代人骨,也有很少量的干尸,甚至还有在沼泽中保存的尸体。因为考     

Beyond Comfort: German and English Military Chaplains and the Memory of the Great War, 1919–1929

How did German and English military chaplains commemorate the Great War? The established historiography broadly interprets war commemoration in the post‐war period in two ways. One approach presents commemoration as a ritual of healing that soothed the bereft. The other emphasizes the political function of commemoration, interpreting it as a way of reshaping the war in collective memory to legitimize the status quo — by venerating sacrifices made for the nation, it put the nation beyond question to strengthen allegiance to the established order. Both interpretations treat the language of war commemoration as one of consolation and comfort. Military chaplains, however, espoused a more ambitious mission. For them, the purpose of war commemoration was to inculcate dissatisfaction, guilt, and discomfort. This was because they remembered the war as a contest of ideas embodied in the clash of nations, a contest that was still unsettled. Their purpose was therefore the antithesis to consolation and conventional patriotism: to mobilize the living to honour their “blood debt” to the dead through the language of agitation. They themselves had participated in a war regarded by the churches as a campaign of regeneration through blood, in which sacrifice and suffering would revitalize their nations by bringing them to repentance, piety, and social cohesion. Because they were implicated personally in that incomplete crusade, they were especially anxious to realize the mission and complete the sacrifices of the dead. Anglican ex‐chaplains predominantly implored their congregations to ensure a permanent peace that had been purchased by blood, whereas German Protestants invoked a resurrected Volk reclaiming its status as a chosen people. Each articulated a politics of remembrance, one formed on the vision of a war to end all wars, the other on a vision of a war to resurrect the Reich as the Kingdom of God. While the political content of their memories was different, they shared an attitude to the function of remembrance, as a ritual to mobilize and arouse rather than console. Both groups preached that the peace was a continuation of an unfinished moral and spiritual struggle. Furthermore, while always honouring the dead, they stressed that the worth of their sacrifices was no longer guaranteed but contingent upon the conduct of living and future generations. Despite the divergences that emerged from their different confessional and national traditions, and from their respective circumstances, they shared a common moral language.     

Pushed into Pragmatism: British Approaches to Science in Post-War Occupied Germany

One of the most important dilemmas facing the British authorities when they occupied their zone of Germany at the end of the Second World War was what to do with German science. The contributions made by scientists and engineers to the Nazi war machine, in fields such as rocketry and submarines, meant that German science was both revered and feared, and was therefore closely linked to concerns about a post-war military resurgence in Germany. This article aims to chart the changing approaches which the British occupation officials adopted towards German science in this period. While the initial intention was to prevent Germany from ever waging war again, through demilitarisation, denazification and dismantling, the focus changed as British enmity shifted from a former adversary, Germany, to a former ally, the Soviet Union. Policy reflected this shift as technology transfer and the reconstruction of domestic German science won greater favour. This article aims to show that, in the face of growing hostility from the USSR and in the deeply suspicious climate of the early Cold War, Britain was forced to abandon its moral mission towards German science and adopt a far more pragmatic strategy instead.     

河南灵宝市晓坞遗址仰韶文化遗存的试掘

2007年,河南省文物考古研究所调查并试掘了河南灵宝市晓坞遗址,清理出两座仰韶文化早期墓葬。两墓均为长方形竖穴土坑墓,多人二次葬。其中M1内残存79具个体,M2残存17具个体。三门峡地区很少发现仰韶文化的二次葬墓,晓坞遗址墓葬是该地区首次发现的仰韶文化早期的二次葬,具有重要学术价值。     

British Conservative Opinion and the Problem of Germany after the First World War

This work examines British conservative attitudes towards the Weimar Republic through the lens of several specific issues from the armistice up to the Ruhr Crisis of 1923. The author argues that a curious feature of British conservative opinion following the First World War was the consistent hostility British conservatives demonstrated towards the new German democratic state. To be sure, Great Britain had just fought a long and costly war against Germany, and there had been little time for the passions generated by the war to cool. Still, from the early days of the political changes in October and November of 1918, the German government was firmly committed to democratic principles. This was a development that the British nation claimed to favour, but the war left many British conservatives ill disposed to consider that the ‘inner change’ in Germany might be genuine or that a stable German democracy was possible. During its formative years, the Weimar Republic faced enormous challenges that would have tested any nation. Yet, even as political and economic conditions within Germany undermined prospects for democracy to succeed in that country, many British conservatives declined to take these developments seriously. Indeed, the attitudes of British conservatives substantially added to the difficulties the German government faced in dealing with the problems of the post-war world.     

All the way? The evolution of German military power

German strategic decision‐makers have to reconsider their approach to the use of force. In Afghanistan, the Bundeswehr is faced with the challenge of a growing insurgency. This situation requires a willingness to provide combat forces for the NATO‐led International Security Assistance Force. Hence, the conviction in German domestic politics that the Bundeswehr should only be employed for the purposes of stabilization and reconstruction is increasingly challenged by a changing operational reality in Afghanistan, and allies’ reluctance to continue to accept German policy. In essence, the issue is about German participation in counterinsurgency operations. To continue current policy undermines Germany's military credibility among allied partners and restrains Germany's ability to utilize fully military power as an instrument of policy. This article argues that while military force in recent years has become an integral part of German foreign policy to pursue national interests, political decision‐makers in Berlin and the broader German public will still have to come to terms with the reality of a new security environment in Afghanistan. For the German government the ‘small war’ in northern Afghanistan is a very politically exhausting undertaking. Both politically and militarily Germany seems ill‐prepared to sustain such an operation. Its political and strategic culture still promotes an aversion to involvement in war‐fighting. In addition, the government and the Bundeswehr lack vital strategy‐making capabilities. Still, there are indicators that the changing operational reality in Afghanistan might lead to a significant evolution of the German approach to the use of force.     

Leather straps with avian tarsometatarsi from the medieval Russia: Jesses or amulets?

The paper examines leather straps associated with avian bones from archaeological excavations in Medieval Russia. These leather straps, found attached to the tarsometatarsi of hunting birds, such as gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, goshawk and sparrowhawk, constitute components of falconry equipment. A leather strap, secured on the tarsometatarsus of a buzzard, indicates the use of this bird as a decoy during the training of hunting birds. The same is true for the crane and little owl. The loss of other bones of the avian skeletons during the excavation process often leads to the erroneous interpretation of the leather straps with avian tarsometatarsi as amulets.     

大连长兴岛西礓坡墓地发掘简报

2010年5月,大连市文物考古研究所会同瓦房店市博物馆对西礓坡墓地进行了抢救性发掘,共清理墓葬5座,其中砖室墓1座、石板墓4座,周围有多座石板墓已被完全破坏。墓葬随葬品较少,以陶器为主,有白陶瓮、陶房、陶鼎、釜、罐、盆、耳杯,以及玻璃耳珰等。此外有的墓葬还发现有动物骨骼。年代在东汉末至魏晋时期。     

Mediterranean heritage: ancient marvel,modern millstone

ABSTRACT. The wealth, variety and seaborne accessibility of Mediterranean societies since late prehistory have made the region's cultural heritage the world's most widely acclaimed. But since the fall of the Roman Empire the Mediterranean has been increasingly disadvantaged, its history compromised, its legacy beleaguered. Two millennia of invasion and rapine, religious vendetta, foreign conquest, imperial dominion and colonial subjugation have left Mediterranean peoples with fewer resources and weaker infrastructures than those of transalpine and transatlantic nation‐states. The consequences for the care and control of Mediterranean heritage are parlous. That heritage is both the region's self‐defining pride and its economic mainstay, yet a crippling burden to protect and maintain, let alone to interpret and celebrate. It is everywhere beset by natural and human attrition. Weathering and erosion, illicit excavation and pillage, tomb robbery and the international antiquities market exact tolls that legal codes and police forces are all but impotent to stem. Recent social and political trends suggest potential remedies for some of these dilemmas.