Digging Holes in Popular Culture: Archaeology and Science Fiction Miles Russell (ed.) with a Prgace by Douglas Adams

Abstract

The heritage management policy in the UK is to delegate management and protection of scheduled ancient monuments to quasi-autonomous heritage agencies. These agencies are an improvement on what preceded them: the dry, conservative and underfunded Ministry of Works. However, by analysing the way in which Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments manages the castles in North Wales one can see that the current system has many inherent failings. Underfunding, a lack of commitment to education and preservation and the artificial division of responsibility along modern pseudo-national boundaries are evidence that the current policy has run its course and now needs to be re-thought. Furthermore, there must be more effort made to present a more inclusive heritage by accepting that the heritage sites in Wales exist within a multicultural Britain and a world of shared human experience. Emerging as a model for future heritage management is Denbigh Castle in North Wales. The site was abandoned in 1998 after Cadw decreed that it did not generate enough income. Subsequently rescued by the local council, it is now thriving. Denbigh stands as an example of how a heritage site can be integrated with the local community that has lived in its shadow for hundreds of years.     

The Protestant Garden Tomb in Jerusalem,Englishwomen, and a Land Transaction in Late Ottoman Palestine

Abstract

In 1894 the Garden Tomb Association concluded the purchase of a small property outside of the Old City of Jerusalem. The site in question was known as 'Skull Hill' or 'Gordon's Calvary' and was reputed to be the real site of the burial place of Jesus. This case study of a land transaction in Ottoman Jerusalem reveals several important themes from the period. The purchase by foreigners of sites in Palestine was a circuitous process that sometimes involved the intervention of foreign consuls and it sheds light on the Ottoman land laws. The Garden Tomb, a unique property, was part of a larger process of the development of new holy places in Palestine by Europeans. Lastly, the association that purchased the site was primarily funded, initiated and run by notable English women, illustrating their increasing involvement in 19th century religious and activist movements.     

Deutsch als Weltsprache? Franz Thierfelder, the Deutsche Akademie in Munich and the Promotion of the German Language Abroad, 1923-1945

The Deutsche Akademie (DA) in Munich was founded in the contextof a general upsurge in cultural diplomacy in Germany afterthe First World War and it was the precursor of today's GoetheInstitute. After a difficult start, by the early 1930s the DAhad become the leading institution in the promotion of the Germanlanguage abroad. The emergence of the DA's language policy wasclosely intertwined with the general development of German culturaldiplomacy, which was largely financed by the AuswärtigesAmt but executed by private associations. It was also influencedby the discussions in the 1920s about the role of language inshaping German national identity, by contemporary developmentsin German linguistics and language teaching, and by the discourseof the socalled ‘conservative revolution’. FranzThierfelder, secretary-general of the DA, managed to forge thesedevelopments into a coherent argument as to why Germany shouldintensify its language policy, centre it around the DA, anddirect it mainly towards the Balkan countries. The languagepolicy of the DA remained largely undisturbed by the Nazi seizureof power until the outbreak of war, even though the emphasiswas now on race rather than language as the determining factorin German national identity. The reason for this was, firstly,that the cultural diplomacy of the Auswärtiges Amt andits private institutions such as the DA continued to be dominatedfor some time by non-Nazis and, secondly, that Germany's culturaldiplomacy was dictated more by the constraints and dynamicsof international politics and by economic necessities than byideology. It was only after the outbreak of war that the expansionof the DA's language programme became closely linked to theracially motivated ‘new order’ for a Europe underNazi rule.     

Obituary Notice

Abstract

St Vitus’s Cathedral, founded in 1344, is a prime example of 14th-century cathedral Gothic, a product of the cooperation between the ingenious architect Peter Parler and his patron, Emperor Charles IV. The unusual layout consisted of a pair of choirs set side by side in the eastern section of the cathedral, an arrangement inspired by the earlier Romanesque double-choir basilica. One was dedicated to St Vitus and was used by the canons, the other to the Virgin Mary and operated by the mansionars. The royal and imperial necropolis was placed in the latter of the two choirs, with Charles IV’s tomb-chest protected by a sculptured canopy and surrounded by the cenotaphs of deceased family members and later kings and queens. The form of two choirs is probably the result of an extensive rearrangement of the earlier project completed in the 1350s, when initial plans to locate the royal burial ground in the canons’ choir were abandoned. The main choir contained a tabernacle of remarkable design, dating from c. 1365. There may originally have been plans for a third choir to be built around the tomb of St Adalbert located in the middle of the nave, the work on which was initiated in 1392.     

Civilizing the “Uncivilized”: The Fight against Tuberculosis in Northern Norway at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The anti-tuberculosis campaign conducted in Finnmark, north Norway, between 1914 and the Second World War was informed by shifting scientific, social and ethnic notions pertaining to the disease itself, the region of Finnmark, and its population. This article focuses on how the Sámi were represented by the medical establishment, how that image of the Sámi influenced the form and the content of the fight against the disease, and how the anti-tuberculosis campaign was connected to the state minority policy of the period. The understanding of tuberculosis and the ways of combating it underwent several changes during the period, particularly during the economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s. The initial emphasis on the role of culture, more specifically ethnicity and language, was gradually replaced by a more medicalized focus in the fight against the disease. As the notion of tuberculosis as a disease of civilization was replaced by an understanding of the disease as an infectious one, on a par with other infectious diseases, the earlier strategy of civilizing the “uncivilized” Sámi in order to protect them from tuberculosis was replaced by a more epidemiological approach in tuberculosis prevention.     

Archaeology of the Border Fort Achiras,Córdoba (1832–1869)

During the nineteenth century, the existence of a southern border in the Córdoba province resulted from a complex situation where an expanding national state was inserted into a global economic system and into an environment occupied by various Indian groups. This situation created a mixed society on the borderlands. The military line was defended by forts, with one of them being the Achiras Fort (1832–1869). The fort was situated at the end of the mountain range of Comechingones. This paper considers the archaeological investigation of this fort. The most important and consistent part of the archaeological record is the Command. The Command was formed by two rooms. This work also presents the results of the excavations into the fort and describes the archaeological remains found. Finally, a general model for archaeology in the South Córdoba Border is presented.     

‘Barons’ Wars,under Other Names’: Feudalism,Royalism and the American Founding

SUMMARY

The Machiavellian Moment was largely responsible for establishing what remains the dominant understanding of American Revolutionary ideology. Patriots, on this account, were radical whigs; their great preoccupation was a terror of crown power and executive corruption. This essay proposes to test the whig reading of patriot political thought in a manner suggested by Professor Pocock's pioneering first book, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law. The whig tradition, as he taught us, located in the remote Saxon past an ‘ancient constitution’ of liberty, in which elected monarchs merely executed laws approved by their free subjects in a primeval parliament. This republican idyll, whigs believed, was then tragically interrupted by the Norman Conquest of 1066, which introduced feudal tenures and monarchical tyranny. Did patriot theorists accept this narrative? The answer, I shall argue, is strikingly mixed. By the early 1770s, appeals to the ‘ancient constitution’ had become less common in patriot writing. And by the end of the 1770s, many patriots had absorbed a completely different understanding of the feudal past—one pioneered by Royalist historians of the seventeenth century and then adapted by Scottish historians of the eighteenth. This shift reflects a broader transformation in patriot political and constitutional theory.     

Global Gay and Soviet Queen: Polish Transformation and Discourses of Homosexual Gender Variance

The paper discusses the ways in which gender variance of gay, male-bodied persons was positioned within the East/West divide after 1989. The critical media reading is based on gay press columns from the 1990s. While in Polish culture, as in the West, homosexuality was traditionally linked to gender variance, in the 1990s the new gay identity was established as gender-normative — a task much facilitated by the fact that in Poland the development of gay identity was preceded by a medicalized and heteronormative concept of transsexuality. The study shows that gay imagery was highly influenced by the ‘global gay’ capitalist ideal and the ‘chasing the West’ narrative of progress and liberation. After 1989, homosexual gender variance became a taboo that was only discussed in the gay erotic press in satirical columns in which the term ciota was used (queen, auntie). In the columns, cioty were ridiculed and degraded, but also positioned as more authentic and noble. Their femininity was framed in the misogynist discourse of flawed, uncontrollable physiology and emotional instability, which corresponds with the second meaning of the word ‘ciota’ in Polish — menstruation. Ultimately, the change from the Soviet queen to the respectable Western gay was legitimized by the use of nostalgic rhetoric and the fact that ciota was equated with the fallen communist regime and ‘gay’ with blooming capitalism.     

Corondó: palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and palaeoethnobotanical considerations in a probable locus of early plant cultivation (south-eastern Brazil)

Abstract

The site of Corondó, situated in Campos Novos, in the São Pedro D'Aldeia municipe (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil), was dated between c. 4000 and 3000 years BP. The high prevalence of dental caries in its population suggests that it might have been a locus of plant cultivation, a hypothesis supported by the presence of diverse plant remains and by the high frequency of grinding artefacts at this site. Anthracological analysis aimed to identify the environment of the site. The charcoal spectrum suggests that it was situated in a restinga forest, near to the Atlantic forest and with the presence of mangrove and open restinga in the environment. Firewood supply was probably obtained by the random gathering of dead wood. The combination of anthracological results with data provided by archaeological and bioanthropological research indicated that the population which constructed this site (1) had a relatively stable sociocultural system; (2) carried out a range of individual activities that remained constant throughout the occupation period; (3) lived in a relatively stable environment.     

Settlement and environmental history of a multilayered settlement mound in Niederröblingen (central Germany) – a multi-proxy approach

A multi-disciplinary palaeoecological approach on a sequence of dated archaeosediments was accomplished. The sediments derive from a multilayered prehistoric settlement mound in central Germany, representing the remnants of a prehistoric village. Based on the analysis of biological remains and geochemical/physical analysis of the settlement layers its environment was reconstructed. There is a trend to increasing anthropogenic activities and impact on the environment represented through a rise of indicators for productive surplus from the Early Neolithic (5300–4900 BC) until the Roman Times (400 AD). During the Early Neolithic, shifting flat settlements were situated in a locally opened landscape. The immediate surrounding of the floodplain was used by the settlers for their economic requirements (e.g. wood from the riparian forest). After a hiatus of ca. 1900 years, a multilayered settlement mount rose from Late Neolithic Times (3000 BC) to Roman Times. Since the Middle Bronze Age (approximately 1500 BC) the riparian forest was obviously replaced by agricultural fields and meadows and henceforward the hinterland used by the settlers probably grew in size. The continuing demand of wood was maintained by the acquisition of more distant sources. The onset of house constructions substituting wood by loam (wattle and daub) might be a possible societal response to this shortfall. This is reflected in the growing thickness and composition of the settlement layers, as well as in the archaeological record (e.g. tumbled wattle and daub house walls). The rising of the groundwater table and the start of severe floods of the adjacent river Helme during pre-Roman Iron Age (approx. 800–100 BC) might reflect a geomorphological response to the increased land use intensity at a regional scale.     

Survey of the Outline of an Early Roman Marching-camp in Germany by Rammner's Current Line Pertubation Method

The outline of the first discovered early Roman Marching-camp north of the Limes in Germany (Dorlar, State of Hessen) was determined by electrical resistivity sounding. The camp was inhabited sometime between 11 and 15 and used as base to conquer Dünsberg, a keltic-germanic oppidum. Rammner's Current Line Pertubation Method (CLP) detected soil disturbances caused by ancient Roman construction. The CLP-Method was used to measure the perturbation of a current due to inhomogeneities in the ground. Data processing made it possible to determine the outline of the Roman marching-camp with an accuracy of ±0·15 m. The electrical soundings were confirmed by selected excavations.     

Illegal mining at Chumnungwa Ruins,Zimbabwe,1995–1997: Some aspects of community attitudes towards heritage protection

Abstract

Chumnungwa, a zimbabwe site in south-western Zimbabwe, was vandalised between 1995 and 1997 by a mining co-operative which opened a quarry supposedly for the extraction of precious minerals. The co-operative was led by a veteran of Zimbabwe's liberation war, 1965–1980, who claimed ownership of the site as an estate bequeathed to him by deceased ancestors in recognition of his role in Zimbabwe's struggle for independence. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) condemned the project as a violation of the integrity of a protected archaeological site. Legal action was not possible because this matter was considered to be politically sensitive since it involved a war veteran who purported to be initiating a community based business project. NMMZ's position was further weakened by legislation which may accord mining projects priority over the protection of monuments and relics. A combination of tactful diplomacy and threats of prosecution (not carried out) were used to persuade the war veteran to close the destructive project. Ultimately no legal action was taken and the site was rehabilitated by back-filling the mining holes.     

Canada: How Many Glaciations?

Editor's note: The first President's Symposium was held during the cag annual meeting at the University of Winnipeg in 1983. The idea was to air some broad and invigorating topic to which invited specialists from across the country could contribute under presidential direction. The inaugural topic selected by the president, Professor D.C. Ford, was ‘Canada: how many glaciations?’ The specialist contributors certainly learned a great deal, and the symposium was well received by the general membership whom the specialists wished to interest. This article consists of a summary of the presentations made by the various contributors and a concluding polemic.     

The Excavations at Tel 'Eton (2006–2009): A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Tel 'Eton, commonly identified with biblical 'Eglon, is a large site in the trough valley in the southeastern Shephelah. Since the summer of 2006, Bar-Ilan University has been carrying out a large-scale exploration project at the site and its surroundings. The excavations were preceded by a detailed mapping of the site, which was subsequently divided into 39 sub-units. This was followed by survey and shovel tests in each of those units, and by full-scale excavations in four excavation areas. It appears that the site was first settled in the Early Bronze Age, and again in the Middle Bronze Age to the late Iron Age (8^th century BCE). Following a settlement gap in the 7^th–5^th centuries BCE, the site was resettled for a short period in the late Persian or early Hellenistic period. Among the major finds is a thick Assyrian destruction layer (8^th century BCE), which sealed many houses with their content, including many pottery vessels, metal artifacts, and botanical material (some still within the vessels), and many additional finds. The present article summarizes the results of the explorations of the site in 2006–2009.     

Excavations on the Titelberg,Luxembourg

Abstract

The center of the hillfort “Titelberg,” near Petange in extreme SW Luxembourg, was investigated in 1972-74 by the University of Missouri at Columbia and the Luxembourg Musées de l'État. The American excavations have revealed a side street which, when considered with evidence unearthed by the Luxembourgers, indicates an insula system for the hillfort in Gallo-Roman times. Habitation lasted until the 4th century A.C., but this part of the site was most heavily used in the time of Augustus, when a coin-flan casting operation was conducted in a provincial Roman-style building. Underneath this building were found 14 successive floor levels in at least two different Celtic-style structures also housing coin-casting operations. Calibrated and adjusted radiocarbon dates support an archaeological dating to ca. 300 B.C. in La Tène Ic or II for the earlier of the latter structures. The late Iron Age hillfort was preceded by two separate Neolithic occupations.     

British Diplomacy,Propaganda, and War Strategy and the Hungarian-Romanian Dispute over Transylvania in 1939–40

Abstract

Between 1914 and 1935, the cities of Vienna and Pressburg/Bratislava were linked by an electric railway known as the Pressburgerbahn. More than just a line of transportation, the railway became intertwined with the complex politics of identity in Pressburg. The Pressburgerbahn presented nationalists in the Habsburg Empire with a dilemma: it had the potential to contribute to the unification of the nation, but at the same time was transnational by definition. This paradox generated a heated controversy about the Pressburgerbahn between Magyar nationalists and the predominantly German-speaking Pressburg bourgeoisie. Using biologized rhetoric, Hungarian politicians and journalists portrayed their nation as a body politic that was disfigured by having a railway ‘vein’ cross the border into Austria, in particular from such a peripheral location as Pressburg. By contrast, the discourse of the German-speaking bourgeoisie was firmly anchored in an imperial, supra-ethnic landscape. This controversy was replayed following the incorporation of the renamed city of Bratislava into Czechoslovakia in 1919: the Prague-based Ministry of Railways employed the rhetoric of the railway as an integrating structure within the body politic, while the eventual closure of the Pressburgerbahn in 1935 was closely connected to the belated nationalization of Bratislava. The railway to Vienna thus became a symbol of the liminal status of the town as a whole, in terms of nation, geography, politics and culture.     

UNOFFICIAL COINAGE IN THE THIRD CENTURY ad IN THE GALLO‐ROMAN WORLD: CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL ANALYSES FOR DETERMINING THE LOCALIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP*

The third century ad was a complex period of crisis in the Roman world. In this paper, official and unofficial antoniniani, and double sestercii and sestercii, were analysed by fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) to determine the alloys used by the craftsmen for producing forgeries. Moreover, at Châteaubleau, archaeologists discovered antoniniani and bronze forgeries from Postumus. Similar materials have been found in other hoards. They are believed to have been produced by a workshop called ‘atelier II’ by numismatists. The question was whether it is possible to differentiate the Châteaubleau production from the atelier II production.     

The spatial coherence of Schumann activity in the polar cap

The spatial coherence of the first two Schumann resonant modes has been studied at two locations in the polar cap separated by 1100 km. Measurements were made at Assistance Bay and Mould Bay, which have geomagnetic latitudes of 83° and 79°, respectively, and satellite time-keeping was employed to accurately synchronise the field stations. The coherence was found to be high, typically 95% for the first Schumann mode, and was unaffected by changes in K_p, a storm sudden commencement or a solar flare event. Polarization rotations were observed between the two stations, which could most likely be attributed to the coastline effect. The results are consistent with a stable propagation of Schumann activity from mid to high latitudes that is relatively unaffected by changes in the polar cap ionosphere.     

The historical significance of President Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963

President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963 was the first by a serving American President. Using materials from archives in London, Dublin, and Boston, this article re-assesses the motives behind Kennedy's decision to visit Ireland and concludes that it was largely a personal journey. However, the trip was not without wider historical and political significance and was surrounded by controversy. The visit was unpopular in the United States, proved a security nightmare, and provoked much discussion amongst the political leadership in Belfast, Dublin and London over Kennedy's attitude to partition. The visit marked a major development in the history of Irish-American relations as it eased tensions over Ireland's neutrality, marked a shift towards White House activism in Irish affairs, boosted Irish tourism, and fostered increased trading and cultural links between the two countries.     

The face of the poet Dante Alighieri reconstructed by virtual modelling and forensic anthropology techniques

This paper describes the multi-disciplinary approach to reconstruct the face of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). Since Dante's sepulchre will be opened in 2021, the reconstructive process is based on morphological and metric data collected on the poet's cranium during the formal identification of his remains in 1921 by the anthropologist Fabio Frassetto, as well as on the resulting plaster model. Starting from this plaster model and a morphologically compatible reference mandible, since the original mandible was never found, a 3D digital model of the complete skull was obtained by reverse engineering and virtual modelling techniques. The most important aspect in this work was the method of virtual modelling proposed for the ex novo generation of the mandible. The physical model of the skull (cranium + mandible) was then produced by means of a rapid prototyping system. This model was finally used to recreate Dante's face via traditional facial reconstruction techniques currently used in forensic anthropology.