Sampling seeds

Problems of sampling carbonized plant material are discussed. Firstly, the problem of actually selecting a sample in the laboratory is considered, and some experiments which investigate various procedures are described. Secondly, the statistical aspects of determining optimal sample sizes are considered. Formulae are given for calculating optimal sample sizes and confidence intervals. Upper bounds, which are independent of the total population size, are provided for the sample size required to achieve any desired accuracy.     

Incremental Sampling in Artifact Analysis

Abstract

Material remains recovered from archaeological excavations are often sent to a number of specialists for analysis. A procedure is introduced that serves as an aid in assuring sampling consistency across all specialist analyses. This procedure also allows researchers to incorporate both randomly and judgmentally selected sampling units in some analyses.     

Sampling and analysis of geothermal fluids

Sampling of geothermal fluids presents some problems not encountered when sampling surface and nonthermal ground waters. Specific collection techniques are required to obtain representative samples because of the elevated temperature and boiling of these fluids, the effect of exposing them to the atmosphere and cooling of the samples. Sample treatment during collection depends on the analytical method to be used. When sampling wet‐steam wells, both the liquid and the vapour fractions should be collected at the same fluid separation pressure. When sampling fumarole steam, maximum information is obtained if the total discharge is collected into a single container without separating the gas and the steam condensate fractions. Silica polymerization affects the solution pH. The only way to obtain reliable pH measurement of a water sample supersaturated with respect to amorphous silica is to measure it on site, before the onset of polymerization. This paper provides an outline of the geothermal sampling techniques and analytical methods currently in use in Iceland. Sampling of hot‐water and wet‐steam wells is described, as is sampling of hot springs, fumaroles and gas bubbling through hot‐spring waters. Detailed procedures are given for the analysis of total carbonate carbon and total sulphide sulphur in geothermal water and steam condensate samples.     

Model Specification in Stationary Random Fields

The problems of model specification in one- and two-dimensional stationary random fields are considered, with particular reference to the class of spatial autoregressions. The role of the autocorrelation function is discussed and it is shown to have a valuable exploratory use, especially in identifying directional bias in random fields. It is recommended that this analysis be supplemented by a likelihood-ratio test, which permits more precise tests of hypotheses about the form of the underlying model.     

蝴蝶沟漫记

云南大理下关的蝴蝶泉,在海内外颇有知名度。那里,每到仲夏时节,成千上万只色彩斑谰的蝴蝶,在一泓泉水上翩翩起舞,穿梭往来。有时,还可看到“飞蝶千万,连须钩足,自树巅倒悬而下,及于泉面,缤纷络绎,五色焕然。”这是多么令人梦牵魂绕的所在呵!其实很多人还不知道,在遥远的新疆,也有条蝴蝶沟。其地域之广,山水之秀,草木之茂,蝴蝶之多,比蝴蝶泉有过之而无不及。前不久,作者和几名探险爱好者,就领略了阿尔泰山蝴蝶沟的奇观!     

Multi-Scale and Nested-Intensity Sampling Techniques for Archaeological Survey

Abstract

This paper discusses sampling techniques for archaeological survey that are directed toward evaluating the properties of surface artifact distributions. The sampling techniques we experimented with consist of a multi-scale sampling plot developed in plant ecology and the use of a nested-intensity survey design. We present results from the initial application of these methods. The sampling technique we borrowed from plant ecology is the Modified-Whittaker multiscale sampling plot, which gathers observations at the spatial scales of 1 sq m, 10 sq m, 100 sq m, and 1000 sq m. Nested-intensity surveys gather observations on the same sample units at multiple resolutions. We compare the results of a closely-spaced walking survey, a crawling survey, and a test excavation to a depth of 10 cm. These techniques were applied to ten 20 × 50 m survey plots distributed over an area of 418 ha near the Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed in NW Nebraska. These approaches can significantly improve the accuracy of survey data. Our results show that high-resolution coverage techniques overlook more material than archaeologists have suspected. The combined approaches of multi-scale and nested-intensity sampling provide new tools to improve our ability to investigate the properties of surface records.     

Memory and History: Liturgical Time and Historical Time

This article investigates the differential structure and representation of time in memory and history. It examines two moments in Jewish historical thought—in the Middle Ages, and in works written within and after the Holocaust—and demonstrates the fundamentally liturgical nature of Jewish historical memory in selected texts from these two periods. Following the groundbreaking work of Yerushalmi, it seeks to demonstrate that for Jews, historical experience is incorporated into the cyclical reenactment of paradigmatic events in Jewish sacred ritual. Recent or contemporary experiences acquire meaning only insofar as they can be subsumed within Biblical categories of events and their interpretation bequeathed to the community through the medium of Scripture, that is to say, only insofar as they can be transfigured, ritually and liturgically, into repetitions and reenactments of ancient happening. In such liturgical commemoration, the past exists only by means of recitation; the fundamental goal of such recitation is to make it live again in the present, to fuse past and present, chanter and hearer, into a single collective entity. History, in the sense that we understand it to consist of unique events unfolding within irreversible linear time, is absorbed into cyclical, liturgical memory.
This article argues that the question of Jewish history—both medieval and post-Holocaust—poses in a compelling fashion the question of the relationship between memory and history more generally, and serves to contest the current tendency in academic historiography to collapse history into memory. It claims that to the extent that memory "resurrects,""re-cycles," and makes the past "reappear" and live again in the present, it cannot perform historically, since it refuses to keep the past in the past, to draw the line, as it were, that is constitutive of the modern enterprise of historiography.     

孟姜女故事的稳定性与自由度

我们把所有具备“为死去的丈夫而哭倒长城”这一“标志性事件”的孟姜女故事称作“孟姜女同题故事”。对同题故事的所有母题进行合并同类项,我们就可以归纳出9个故事“节点”。故事的节点网络构成了一个自足的逻辑体系,某个节点被篡改后,必然会发生连锁反应,可能引起故事逻辑结构的全盘崩溃,或者导致原有故事主题的全面消解,因此,节点就成了同题故事中最稳定的因素。而只要故事家不篡改故事的节点,任何相容母题的进入,都不会影响到同题故事逻辑结构的变化。无论是在节点之上,还是节点之间,都存在巨大的想象空间,可以让故事家们充分地驰骋自己的文学想象,随人所愿地增添新的故事母题。要之,在故事的传承与变异过程中,传承的稳定依赖于节点的稳定,变异的随意是指节点之外的随意。     

漫话牛经纪

近代农村集市实行包税制,县政府或委托商会对某集或某行市的税收额公开招标,竞标者中标后发给牙帖,由此中标者取得了应标集或行市的征税权,称为官牙。官牙是有一定经济实力和社会影响的人,否则不会中标。官牙雇佣他人协助征税,被雇佣者称为私牙。     

漫话东乡羊肉

上世纪90年代初,随着一阵强劲的西北风,一时间东乡手抓羊肉馆占领了甘肃临夏市场“,东乡手抓羊肉”的香味,飘溢在临夏的大街小巷,其速度之快,来势之猛,使许多人为之瞠目。这股风四处扩散,“东乡手抓羊肉”风糜兰州及周邻各县,青海、宁夏各地也常常见“到东乡手抓羊肉”的牌子。     

Feature Discovery and the Sampling Requirements of Archaeological Evaluations

Abstract

Features are important deposits whose density and distribution pose acute sampling problems for archaeological investigations. Excavation is inherently a sampling process, but the ability of excavation samples to meet two important criteria—discovery of features and precise estimation of their frequency—rarely is assessed and often is doubtful. Combining archaeological data on feature density and distribution from Midwestern U.S. sites with appropriate statistical theory, this paper shows that conventional sample standards often are inadequate to meet the criteria. This failure has grave implications for the preservation and management of archaeological sites.     

Sampling Design and Inferential Bias in Archaeological Soil Chemistry

The ways and extent to which sampling design influences data collection and archaeological inference is a constant concern for archaeologists. Yet, spatial analyses based on anthrosol chemistry have been less willing to concede this problem and to explore potential solutions. This article reviews the recent literature on soil sampling for spatial studies and then uses an example from prehispanic Honduras to examine how both quantitative and qualitative interpretations of soil chemical patterns can shift when sampling design changes. The results of this study suggest that the principal challenges to selecting an appropriate sampling design are in determining the sample size and density, as well as recognizing and adequately dealing with variation in the soil properties being measured. These findings provide cautionary tales for spatial studies aimed at using soil chemical data to infer activity patterns in the archaeological record.     

Heterogeneity of Attribute Sampling Error in Spatial Data Sets

This paper considers the standard error of the estimate of the mean of a spatially correlated variable in the case where data are obtained by a process of random sampling. Two distinct mean estimation problems are identified: estimating the area mean and estimating the population mean. Methods are described for obtaining standard error estimates in the two cases and, within the limits of publicly available information, the methods are implemented on average household income data at the census tract scale for Syracuse, New York. The purpose of the paper is to draw attention to issues of data precision in relation to sampled geographic information on averages and in particular to consider the problems of estimating standard errors using such data. The paper also examines the extent to which standard errors vary between census tracts.     

Time to Say Goodbye

Tim Hortons’ first donut store was established in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964; other stores were added over time as the chain gradually diffused across Canada to become the country’s largest quick-service restaurant chain with more than 2,400 restaurants. In achieving this dominant status it adopted one of the strategies of any successful restaurant chain; utilizing a uniform architectural style to emphasize to customers the consistency in its menu and operations. This article examines the processes underlying the development of the Tim Hortons brand and the diffusion of its restaurants into the US, specifically the appearance of their restaurants in the Great Lakes borderlands. The study found a consistent architectural style in Ontario but several different styles in Michigan and New York. It is suggested that this lack of consistency in brand identification in its US restaurants is a contributory factor to their lack of profitability and smaller sales.     

Time and human geography

A review and discussion of Tommy Carlstein, Don Parkes and Nigel Thrift (eds). Making Sense of Time (Arnold, 1978, $29.80), Human Activity and Time Geography (Arnold, 1978, $52.40), and Time and Regional Dynamics (Arnold, 1978, S29 80).