Protecting a ‘Homeric landscape’: The making of the Butrint National Park,Albania

Abstract

This paper will present research on the vulnerability mapping of coastal archaeological sites currently being undertaken in Northern Ireland. The ultimate aim of this research is improve current predictions of where archaeological sites and landscapes will be at risk in the future from coastal erosion. The initial stage of this approach uses a suite of oblique aerial photographs to construct a baseline of eroding locations and coastal geomorphology. The erosion baseline can then be integrated with existing historic environment records to obtain a coarse first-pass archaeological vulnerability assessment. Subsequent stages can then use this assessment to prioritize future mitigation such as field surveys or monitoring exercises, or conduct further refinements of vulnerability classifications by incorporating information on site type and positioning on a local scale.     

Interpreting World War II Intelligence Data for Cultural Heritage Studies

Abstract

Archaeological and cultural resource management analyses of sites of conflict of the recent past regularly draw on archival intelligence sources, in particular on aerial imagery. Like any other data source, they have their limitations. Using a case study, the World War II battlefield of Kiska in the Aleutians, this paper outlines the processes that generated these intelligence resources, as well as the factors that influenced their survival to the present day. Understanding these processes is necessary when using such sources to understand the development of cultural landscapes as well as specific sites.     

LiDAR-aided reconnaissance and reconstruction of lost landscapes: An example of freshwater shell mounds (ca. 7500–500 cal b.p.) in northeastern Florida

Abstract

LiDAR datasets, from which high-resolution topographic maps can be generated, are becoming commonplace in archaeological analyses. Like any remote sensing technique, LiDAR records only a limited range of phenomena and the data are a snapshot of ground conditions at the time of collection. The temporally specific nature of LiDAR is problematic at sites with postdepositional destruction. This paper presents a method for identifying and recovering lost landscapes by combining LiDAR, archival aerial photographs, historical observations, and fieldwork. This method was developed to reconstruct the topography of ancient shell mounds constructed by hunter-gatherers on the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida (ca. 7500–500 cal b.p.) and altered by modern land use. The reconstructions demonstrate the influence of ancient communities on modern landscapes and can be used as a basis for further analyses of hunter-gatherer land use, social interaction, and cosmology.     

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Survey with Commercial-Grade Instruments: A Case Study from the Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey,Iraq

Low-altitude photography in archaeology is now common practice at the scale of excavations; however, landscape-scale applications are a relatively new endeavor with promising analytical potential. From 2014–2016, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a mounted camera was used to document sites recorded as part of the Eastern ?abur Archaeological Survey (E?AS), an archaeological reconnaissance project in western Dohuk Province, Iraqi Kurdistan. The E?AS team documented over 70 archaeological sites with the UAV, from single-phase artifact scatters, to archaeological remains with standing architecture, to tells that cover more than 30 hectares. Representative examples from this survey are presented here to outline the project workflow and primary output data layers, including digital orthomosaics and digital elevation models. The quality and utility of results are then assessed in relationship to available satellite-based data. Methods for analysis and interpretation are then considered to demonstrate applications in landscape archaeology. An A) orthomosaic and B) shaded relief model with surface collection area (in red) of site EHAS-C045 created from photographs taken from a UAV.     

Developing Geographers through Photography: Enlarging Concepts

This paper explores how photographs can be used to teach urban social geography to second- and third-year university students. In it the author describes her work acquainting students with the skill of ‘directed observation’. She argues that teaching geography through photography is not merely asking students to take pictures but rather, the process of looking with intention. Capturing what is seen on film encourages students to engage with geography by seeing how ideas ground themselves on the landscape. This work also challenges how geographers think about what they require of students and calls into question normative classroom practices. Most importantly, it adds to our understanding of concepts that are central to geographic analyses and heightens our awareness of how well students understand. Photographs provide an opportunity to hear multiple voices in multiple ways. The author suggests that the methodological and pedagogical contributions of photographs have been overlooked in geography.     

基于游客自愿拍摄法（VSEP）的旅游审美研究方法探索

旅游活动是一项审美实践活动。旅游者旅游审美偏好的影响因素是什么？西方学界强调以照片为基础的景观偏好（landscape preference）研究,中国学界重视经验性思考,但至今未有共识性结论。数码相机的普及使通过考察大众游客的摄影动机与行为来研究其审美行为成为可能。本文以游客受雇拍摄法（VEP）为基础,提出了＂游客自愿拍摄法＂（VSEP）;通过探测九寨沟、张家界、嵩山3个知名旅游地大众旅游者摄影动机与影响因素,研究检验了以往以照片为基础的景观偏好影响因素部分结论,探索了＂游客自愿拍摄法＂（VSEP）在研究旅游审美方面的可行性,并在此基础上有新的研究发现。     

A mother's gift? Astrology and the pyxis of al-Mughīra

ABSTRACT

This article re-examines the most celebrated, and most controversial, of the Cordoban ivories, the al-Mughīra pyxis, from a perspective of gender and kinship relations within the court hierarchy. It proposes an alternative patron for this object, namely al-Mughīra's mother al-Mushtaq, a consort of the Cordoban Umayyad caliph ?Abd al-Rahmān III (r. 929–61) in the latter years of his life, and a patron of architecture. The article suggests astronomical and astrological possibilities for interpreting the pyxis’ unusual iconography, which arise from considering al-Mushtaq as a potential patron of the al-Mughīra pyxis. Key to the argument is the notion that women in the Cordoban court were ‘makers’ of art and architecture, in that they could and did exercise authority through artistic patronage.     

An attempt to push back frontiers – digital near-ultraviolet aerial archaeology

Even though the sun has its peak emission of electromagnetic (EM) radiation in the visible waveband, it still produces a substantial amount of ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths (10–400 nm). However, the largest portion of this emitted energy is blocked by the ozone layer of the atmosphere, only allowing the near-ultraviolet or NUV (comprising the spectral band between 315 nm and 400 nm) to reach the earth's surface. Additionally, sensors acquiring this part of the UV wavelengths must be operated from low altitudes to minimize the effects of strong Rayleigh scattering to which the NUV radiation is subjected. Consequently, this waveband of the EM spectrum is rarely employed in aerial photography and its reflected portion only acquired in very specific applications.     

On the correlation between the formation of the “Maowusu Desert” and land use in Liuhu sub-prefecture in the Tang dynasty

The historical changes of the “Maowusu Desert” can be divided into three phases: the late Tang dynasty phase, the Song-Yuan-Ming dynasty phase, and the late Ming dynasty to the present phase. Different parts of the desert were formed in different times, with the northwestern part being the earliest to form. As all evidence shows, the Maowusu Desert in its early stage is believed to have taken shape largely around the ancient site of the You state during the years of Tianbao in the Tang dynasty, which is nowadays the eastern half of the Etuoke banner and Prior-Etuoke banner. The formation of the initial Maowusu Desert is not attributed to the so-called over-cultivation from farming but to the long-time exceedingly quartered husbandry starting from the 4th year of the Zhenguan to the years of Tianbao in the Tang dynasty, which resulted in the destruction of the ecology of the natural grassland. __________ Translated from: Shaanxi Shifan Daxue Xuebao 陕西师范大学学报 (Shaanxi Normal University Journal), No.3, 2004     

地方、地方性与城中村改造的社会文化考察——以猎德村为例

本研究尝试从地方性角度出发,分析城中村地方性的形成机制和体现方式,利用历史演进的分析方法考察城中村改造前后地方性解构与重构现状。从地方等核心概念出发,探讨地方性的社会建构体系及特征,并认为地方性从景观、文本、符号及感知四个维度进行持续的社会建构。结合广州猎德村整体改造为案例发现地方性的建构与时空元素紧密相关,镶嵌在地方的发展过程,并处于动态的变化之中。本文从理论上构建中国城市化中地方性研究框架;现实上为更深入理解城中村改造与地方性的关系,为更好地推进城市更新质量提供一定的参考。     

张家港东山村遗址发掘的主要收获

太湖流域的新石器时代考古以注主要集中于太湖流域腹地,沿江地区工作则相对较少。东山村遗址的发掘,对于深入了解沿江地区的文化内涵、太湖区与宁镇区史前文化的关系都有极其重要的意义。     

How to picture race?

The purpose of the Swedish State Institute for Race Biology, SIRB, was to survey the Swedish people according to its race criteria. In this research process photographs were used to document and portray the different races living in Sweden. This article examines how the photographs were used in this process: What pictorial rhetoric did they use and what did the photographs bring to the research process? The result shows that SIRB did not succeeded in developing consistent methods of portraying race. The style and formula of the portraits varied; sometimes environmental aspects came in to focus, sometimes bodily aspects. These methodological shortcomings must be attributed not only to the fact that the institution was working with a new and immature scientific medium – photography – but also that it operated inside an immature scientific discipline. The race scientific community had no joint theories and methods to work with, and did not know how to affiliate with other disciplines – such as anthropology, focusing on environmental factors, or medicine, focusing on bodily aspects. But the lack of methodological consistency was not just a shortcoming; it could also be used to bias the material in a way that served the ideas of eugenics.     

Painting and Photography in Foreigners' Construction of an Image of Qing Dynasty Law

In recent years,with the spread of the internet and the booming auction markets,combined with our new age of so-called "picture-reading," paintings and photographs concerning Qingjustice have overwhelmed our view.Scholars and nonscholars are attracted by them,and believe them to be showing real historical scenes.Pictures seemingly facilitate our grasp of the world more than mere facts do,but they actually demand readers' careful discrimination.The author of the present article has discovered that the initial British construction of a discourse about the cruelty of China's criminal punishments was related to this topic having been exposed by Chinese themselves.The seemingly real images or pictures have an unknown back story,and even contain a serious distortion of the truth.Such imagistic constructions by foreigners in fact directly or indirectly served the establishment and maintenance of foreign extraterritoriality in China.The living images recorded by foreigners' cameras not only constructed Western impressions of China and Chinese people as distant,thus strengthening contemporary Westerners' mental images of Chinese culture,but still urge us Chinese today to interpret the past in the light of such images.An icon of a blood-thirsty Qing legal system constructed through painting and photographic procedures became an objective fact,a collective consciousness that penetrated people's hearts and eventually led to modifications of those Qing laws.The mental construction of an icon influenced actual institutional movement.     

古村落游客感知价值概念模型与实证研究——以张谷英村为例

古村落旅游是一种特殊的乡村旅游、文化生态旅游。识别古村落游客感知价值的内在维度、探明古村落游客感知价值的来源,可以为古村落旅游发展提供理论支持。本文构建了古村落游客感知价值概念模型,并以张谷英古村落为例进行了实证研究。研究初步探明了古村落游客感知价值的来源,并且发现,古村落游客感知价值的内在维度呈三层次贡献分异,认知维显性化,情感维隐性化。