On the Additions to the Collection of National Antiquities in the British Museum

The evidence for prehistoric occupation in the area of the modern City of London is re-assessed. Two myths surrounding the city's prehistory are examined: a literary myth of a glorious Trojan past and a modern archaeological myth of the absence of prehistory. Having drawn a ‘traditional’ distribution map of prehistoric artefacts, the authors attempted to improve its reliability by quantifying the impact of Roman groundworks on the surviving prehistoric deposits. Topographic models of the area in prehistory and in the Roman period were drawn, and the methodology of the interpolation is discussed. The relative value of in situ, residual and stray finds are considered in the light of this new information. While there is good evidence for Late Bronze Age occupation in the City, the evidence for Neolithic activity is considered to be heavily skewed by Roman activity. The data are used to suggest areas of the City where there is particularly good potential for the survival of prehistoric deposits. The City provides a case study for analysing prehistoric material in a ‘difficult’, deeply stratified, urban context more associated with Roman and medieval archaeology.     

The Antiquities Market: News and Commentary on the Illicit Traffic in Antiquities

Abstract

Wind God Foils Smuggler's Breeze through Customs

Laura Scanlan's article describing the seizure at U.S. Customs and the eventual return to Mexico of several important Precolumbian artifacts is reprinted here with permission from Customs Today, 17:2 (1982) 2–3. Both the story itself and the act of reprinting emphasize the growing cooperation between archaeologists and the U.S. Customs Bureau in cases involving antiquities. Karen Bruhns and Connie Fenchel (see below) have been an effective team in pursuing cases involving antiquities smuggling in the San Francisco area. In the Bernstein case (see below “A Lawyer Looks at U.S. Antiquities Laws”) archaeologists also provided professional evaluations and consultation to customs officials. Both the Mexican case described here by Scanlan and the Bernstein case were initiated through improper customs declarations, which were recognized by alert customs inspectors familiar with the value of antiquities and the significance of the illicit trade.

These cases suggest a way for many archaeologists who have said they would like to help curb the illicit trade but did not know how to do so. There are customs offices in most large U.S. cities. They are the places where antiquities enter this country. Special Agent Fenchel pointed out, during her presentation at the Legislative Session of the AIA in San Francisco, that most antiquities cases in this country have begun with an improper customs declaration. If this is so, the effectiveness of existing law governing the antiquities trade depends largely on the ability of customs inspectors to recognize antiquities and to evaluate their accompanying declarations. Even when/if the UNESCO Convention is implemented, its enforcement will be largely in the hands of customs inspectors. Thus, professional archaeologists could make a substantive contribution toward curbing import of illicit antiquities by introducing themselves at their local customs office and offering to make available their professional advice on cases involving antiquities. Local archaeological societies might consider offering seminars for their local customs inspectors on ancient art and archaeology and the pertinent laws and market values, to help increase the ability of customs inspectors to recognize antiquities in the course of their work. Just knowing that there is expert help available locally to identify and evaluate antiquities, or to find another expert who might be able to do so, could make local customs inspectors more sensitive to the issues involved and more likely to catch violations.     

钟离国历史与文化的考古学观察

近年来有关钟离国的考古发现证实了春秋时期钟离国的存在,从中可解析出大量相关历史文化信息,弥补了文献的不足。从钟离国遗迹、遗物出发,结合文献材料,说明春秋钟离国可能为楚之封邑,在金文中可考世系仅有五代。钟离国埋葬方式另辟蹊径,殉葬风俗根深蒂固,用土颜色意味深远,文化上深受阴阳五行观影响。其文化表明该支钟离国族可能源自东夷地区。     

The agrarian history of Byzantium,from the origins to the twelfth century. The sources and problems

The relationship between conquerors and conquered in the Latin Empire of Constantinople has traditionally been understood as a relentlessly hostile one, particularly on the religious level. Whatever its merits, the dominance of this view has sometimes resulted in the gross misinterpretation of important pieces of evidence. This article examines two unusual liturgical texts that were treated by their discoverers as products of a Latin campaign of liturgical proselytism. The texts themselves are bilingual presentations of the Western rite of mass, with Greek and Latin text presented in an interlinear format. Most unusually, the Latin text is written in Greek characters. This article makes the case, due to internal evidence as well as the broader context of ecclesiastical relations in the Latin Empire, that these texts were created by Greek clerics rather than by Latin authorities, and that their purpose was entirely different from that imagined by their discoverers.     

博物馆实践与博物馆理论的关系——以博物馆展览为视角

博物馆学是一门后设学科,世界各地的博物馆都是用藏品来呈现人类与其环境所发生事物的真实场所,所以它是在产生功能之后才建立起模式与理论。中国博物馆机构的建立虽然是输入的“舶来品”,但是也有着相同的对收藏对象的运作、管理与使用之目的,所以在呈现给公众观赏的展览上,如何达成文化遗产讯息的传承,用观众对展览主题的认知、态度与需求...     

The Indian nation and selective amnesia: representing conflicts and violence in Indian history textbooks

‘Unity is always obtained by means of brutality’ wrote Ernest Renan. Following this idea, this article investigates how social conflicts and violence are included or muted in national history. This is done by comparing the successive series of history textbooks used in India in the postindependence period. The historical narratives contained in the textbooks were influenced by different conceptions of the Indian nation, and these variations allow us to observe and better understand what is remembered or forgotten in the national narrative. We will see that conflicts and violence are referred to when they involve the nation against its ‘other’ but depictions of conflicts within the nation as it is imagined are avoided. Thus, certain violent episodes of the past find a place in the national historical narrative, yet violence in itself is never described.     

The nation as seen from below: Rome in 1870

When Rome joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, its symbolic importance played a large part in its role as the new capital of the nation-state. That very symbolic weight, though, left but a small space for the Romans themselves, particularly the lower classes. While recent scholarship on Italian nation-building has explored the cultural project underlying its political developments, it still remains to be understood how the lower classes first experienced and responded to their incorporation into the nation. Courted by the new nation-state, its clerical opposition and its radical opposition alike, their Risorgimento was different from that of the Romantic tropes informing the new national politics.     

Forced into exile: The untold journeys of Myanmar's CDM teachers

This article delves into the experiences of Myanmar schoolteachers who have fled to Mae Sot, Thailand, as refugees after participating in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) against the military junta's February 2021 coup. The CDM is unique for its large scale and prolonged duration, as well as for its leadership by civil servants, with teachers and educators from the Ministry of Education constituting the majority of protesters. The study analyses the impact of the challenges faced by these teachers, including job loss and legal repercussions, on their understanding of civil disobedience and their commitment to resistance. Through in-depth interviews with 10 CDM schoolteacher refugees in March 2022, the author provides a firsthand account of the experiences and motivations of these individuals.     

Contributions to the agrarian history of Eastern Arabia II. The cultivars

Following on from an earlier study of agricultural implements and cultivation techniques in eastern Arabia, this paper presents the palaeobotanical and ethnohistoric evidence available on early cultivars in the region from the late 4th millennium B.C. through the pre-modern era. The introduction of new crops is discussed and, where possible, the evidence is marshalled which pertains to the origins of those new introductions and the dates of their arrival in the Gulf region.     

重庆国友博物馆收藏的东汉佛像摇钱树

四川三台县出土一件东汉佛像摇钱树,保存完好,其上铸佛像、方士、朱雀、蟾蜍、龙和璧等图像,其中一树枝中有延年二字,是迄今发现的摇钱树上罕见的铭文,对研究摇钱树的内涵和功能,具有重要意义。