A study of the composition and microstructure of silver hoards from Tel Beth-Shean,Tel Dor,and Tel Miqne,Israel

The chemical composition and microstructure of objects excavated in three hoards from the end of the Late Bronze and Iron Age sites in Israel were studied using energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence analysis and optical metallography. The objects are industrial in origin (scrap or jewelry pieces) and include differently shaped ingots, mainly so-called hacksilber, in various sizes. The primary composition is Ag with typically several percent of Cu and Au and less than 1 % of Pb. The concentrations of these metals in each hoard differ significantly. The microstructure of the hacksilber ingots shows a typical dendritic as-cast structure and a surface cold work deformation, probably caused by chiseling the ingot piece off a larger cast bar. Relatively high concentrations of Au, as in the above samples, were observed previously in Egyptian ancient silver which differs from the ancient Greek silver that contains a significantly lower Au content.     

An Aegean Fire-Stand from Tel Nagila

Abstract

In this short paper we present a detailed study of a unique ceramic vessel fragment that was found in the excavations at Tel Nagila. The interpretation of this fragment as an Aegean fire-stand has implications for our understanding of the origin and development of Philistine material culture in Iron Age Philistia.     

以色列航空:飞向特拉维夫

第一印象:直飞特拉维夫1992年,以色列航空公司开通了自北京到特拉维夫的直飞航班; 3年后,从中国香港飞往特拉维夫的直飞航班也正式开通。同时,以色列航空公司还和中国国内多家航空公司签署了运价协议,由此以航公司可向中国乘客提供每日由中国直飞或中转前往以色列的航班。     

Interview with Mary Beth Norton

Born in Michigan in 1943, reared and educated in Indiana, Norton earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. She has written and edited many works that deal mainly with women and gender in the intellectual, political, and social life of North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Besides being the editor of the massive new American Historical Association Guide to Historical Literature and a co-author of the best-selling U.S. history text, A People & a Nation, Norton has held leading positions in the American Historical Association, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, International Federation for Research in Women's History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She taught for two years at the University of Connecticut before she joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1971. The recipient of many fellowships, honorary degrees, and prizes, she has been Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History since 1987. This interview was conducted in Norton's office on the Ithaca, New York campus in April 1997 by Roger Adelson.     

猴言猴语

<正>读者朋友们,久违了!又到了我们猴年,为了感谢大家的厚爱,我们猴氏家族给大家拜年了!按照中国人长幼有序、内外有别的传统习俗,我们先给姓侯的朋友拜年,我们虽然同音不同字,但终归是同音;然后给属猴儿的朋友们拜年,咱们虽然不同属也不同宗,却感觉是同类,因为是你们属(于)我们的;最后给爱猴儿的人拜年!说到爱猴儿人,其实中国人都爱猴儿。在这个世界上,人类和猴有着非同     

断奶，对幼猴和雌猴都是痛苦的过程

<正>川金丝猴的婴猴期一般为6～9个月,9个月后,体毛渐长,开始由灰变白,这时期的川金丝猴被称为幼猴,幼猴也仍以食乳为主,有时可在妈妈的指导下,添加一些嫩叶或是芽苞,有时也自行寻找一些小昆虫为食。川金丝猴的雌猴多为隔年胎,因此哺育期也多在一年以上。但也有个别雌猴产仔间隔为两年或三年的,只要母亲没有再产下弟弟或妹妹,幼猴就会不断追着母亲吃奶。有的个体都和母亲差不多大了,还要吃奶。为了更好地孕育下一胎,雌猴一般在怀孕     

从红山文化女神头像谈中国古代唇妆艺术的产生

唇妆,在古代又称点唇,今天的口红在古代则称唇脂,这在东汉刘熙《释名．释首饰》中便有记载,“唇脂,以丹作之,象唇赤也”。隋唐以后又有称“口脂”者,如韦庄《江城子》“朱唇动,先觉口脂香”。用唇脂涂唇在古代又称“点唇术”,可以增加口唇的鲜艳光泽,并给人以健康、年轻、充满活力的印象,所以自古以来点唇术便备受众多     

A Re-Appraisal of the Archaeological Findings at Tel Hashash: On the Archaeology of the Yarqon Estuary from Classical Times to Late Antiquity

Abstract

Tel Hashash is located within the boundaries of modern Tel Aviv. Surveys and excavations carried out in the site by the late J. Kaplan and H. Ritter-Kaplan during the 1960s and 1980s revealed remains and finds dated mainly to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The present paper includes the presentation and analysis of these yet unpublished remains, and a revision of the excavators' conclusions about the function and history of the site in classical times and Late Antiquity, in light of the archaeology and history of the lower Yarqon river and the central coastal plain.     

老夫少妻的柔情蜜意

<正>玉皇庙村的"猴哥哥"(西北大学同学们对护林员的昵称)们都争相向我们介绍这里的川金丝猴。哪只猴子和哪只猴子是兄弟,哪一家中共侍一夫的两只雌猴是母女,哪一家的雌猴是姐妹或是表姐妹。全雄家庭中,谁是谁的儿子,谁是谁的父亲……第二天,"猴哥哥"周师傅带我去看一对老夫妻。周师傅说:"说它们是老夫妻也不确切,应该是老夫少妻。但这对老夫少妻非常有意思,可以用‘感情深厚’来形容     

Identifying Threshing Floors in the Archaeological Record: A Test Case at Iron Age Tel Megiddo,Israel

Abstract

The identification of activity areas in archaeological sites is an important part of archaeological research contributing to the reconstruction of past ways of life. The threshing floor is an activity area that relates to subsistence practices in agricultural societies, yet identifying threshing floors in the archaeological record is difficult. We present a geoarchaeological study conducted at an Iron Age layered feature unearthed in 1998 at Tel Megiddo, Israel, in which we tested a previous assumption that it represents the remains of a threshing floor. Using micromorphology, mineralogy, elemental analysis, phytoliths, and dung spherulites, we show that the materials comprising the bulk of the layers in the Megiddo feature include large amounts of wood ash and the inorganic remains of livestock dung. Based on these results, coupled with ethnographic data on threshing floors and observations on the macroscopic traits of the feature under consideration, we conclude that the layered feature at Megiddo does not represent a threshing floor but a single-household trash heap. We suggest that the interpretation of similar features at other archaeological sites as threshing floors be reevaluated.     

对"猴子与乌龟"故事的分类对比研究

"猴子与乌龟"的故事在中国西北、东北、东南地区均有发现.如:1、福建的<海母丞相>、2、吉林的<猴子和乌龟>、山西的<树梢猴心>、山东的<哪有闲心挂树稍>、蒙古族的<乌龟与猴子>;3、上海的<乌龟与梅花鹿>;4、藏族的<猴子与乌龟>、<猴子和青蛙>、<乌龟和猴子>;5、陕西安康的<猴子和鳖打老庚>、6、朝鲜族的<兔子与乌龟>,7、日本的<猴子的鲜肝>等,都是"猴子与乌龟"故事的异文.     

Phytolith-rich layers from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel Dor (Israel): mode of formation and archaeological significance

The presence of many phytolith-rich layers in late Bronze and Iron Age deposits at Tel Dor, Israel, are indicative of specific locations where plants were concentrated. Detailed studies of six of these phytolith-rich layers and associated sediments from Tel Dor show that the phytoliths were derived mainly from wild and domestic grasses. The most common domestic grass was the cereal Triticum aestivum (bread wheat). Three of these layers have a microlaminated microstructure, associated dung spherulites and phosphate nodules; characteristics that all point to the phytolith-rich layers having formed from dung in animal enclosures. In two of the layers, the microlaminated structure is absent while dung spherulites and phosphate nodules are present, suggesting that these too originate from dung that was not deposited in an enclosure. The sixth layer is microlaminated but does not contain spherulites. We thus cannot suggest a parsimonious explanation of its observed properties. Concentrations of burnt phytoliths are present in three locations, implying that dung was either burnt in situ or the ashes from burnt dung were redeposited. The transformation of dung accumulations into phytolith-rich layers involves a loss of organic material and hence a significant reduction in sediment volume, which is clearly apparent in the stratigraphy of some of the locations examined. The volume reduction can be observed in the macrostratigraphy and has important implications with regard to macrostratigraphic interpretation. The presence of abundant phytolith-rich layers on the tell has significant implications for the concept of ‘urbanism’ during these periods.     

An integrated approach to reconstructing primary activities from pit deposits: iron smithing and other activities at Tel Dor under Neo-Assyrian domination

Secondary pit deposits in historical occupations of Near Eastern mounds are usually regarded as uninteresting and are seldom analyzed. We used an integrated approach to study all the artifacts as well as the sediments in a pit at Tel Dor, on Israel's Carmel coast, dating to the 7th c. BCE – a period when the site served as an Assyrian administrative center. This pit was unusually large, had a peculiar ceramic assemblage, and many macroscopic metallurgical wastes. A detailed excavation and analysis revealed that the pit served intermittently as a waste disposal site for an iron smithy and for pottery that was presumably involved in maritime trading. On two occasions the area was also used for animal penning. Despite the obvious importance of the iron industry to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, actual workshops are rare in its archaeological record. Hence the new information regarding an Iron Age iron smithy in the southern Levant contributes to the study of this industry, and also to the history of Dor in this period.     

Identifying a Roman Casting Pit at Tel Dor,Israel: Integrating Field and Laboratory Research

Abstract

The functional identification of industrial features is difficult when few characteristic artifacts are preserved. We studied a Roman-period pyrotechnological feature at Tel Dor, Israel, where the only possibly diagnostic ceramic artifacts were found in fill between the walls and above the floor, rendering their association with the feature itself uncertain. The ceramic artifacts included coarse slabs and fragments of utilitarian vessels, some vitrified with adhering bronze droplets or slag-like residues. Analysis of the sediments within and around the industrial feature, using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer on-site, revealed high concentrations of copper and lead, indicating metallurgical activity. Lead isotope analyses showed that the slag-like residue adhering to a ceramic fragment had the same isotopic values as the sediments, implying that the fragment was associated with the activities carried out in the feature. Microscopic and chemical analyses of the slag-like residue demonstrated that it was produced from melting leaded bronze. Some of the ceramic fragments contained elongated impressions on their inner surfaces, similar to those of casting molds found at other sites. We propose that the feature was used as a casting pit for bronze objects.     

Policy Merchandising and Social Assistance in Africa: Don't Call Dog Monkey for Me

The title of this article draws on a Yorùbá aphorism that roughly translates into ‘don't sell me a dummy’. The dark side of social policy, the theme of this Debate, has a distinct character in the African context. The transformation of the African public policy landscape, shaped by the ‘counter-revolution’ in development thinking, has taken a new form with the donor ‘policy merchandising’ of cash transfer schemes. The stratified and segregated social policy on offer contrasts with the historical experience of ‘donor’ countries themselves. The policy instrument advanced is cast as ‘a silent revolution in development’, embodying the idea of development shifting from structural transformation to poverty alleviation. What is promoted is an impoverished version of development. Within the discourse of ‘working with the grain of African politics’, the politics of social assistance policy merchandising starts with a notion of politics as clientelist. It then deploys the instrumentality of clientelism — within an imperial deployment of power — in the manufacture of civil society and policy coalition, to ensure the local adoption of a policy instrument that the extra-territorial donor actors offer. This modality of public policy formulation contrasts sharply with the historical experience of public policy making in the ‘donor’ countries themselves. The result is the subversion of the consolidation of democracy in the African client states.