CORRECTIONS FOR DRILL-BIT CONTAMINATION IN SAMPLING ANCIENT POTTERY FOR NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS

The routine measurement of tungsten concentrations in pottery sampled with tungsten-carbide drill bits has enabled the measured concentrations of cobalt, tantalum, and lutetium to be corrected for drill-bit contamination. The corrected data, for cobalt at least, are sufficiently accurate that they regain their value as chemical indicators of pottery provenance.     

QUANTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LIPID IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SAMPLING POTSHERDS FOR ORGANIC RESIDUE ANALYSIS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF VESSEL USE

Organic residue analysis has been performed on 62 reconstructed vessels from a single archaeological site (Rounds, Northamptonshire, U.K.). In order to establish regions of lipid accumulation within a vessel, sherds were sampled from different parts of a vessel, for example base, body and rim, and submitted to lipid extraction procedures. The techniques of high-temperature gas chromatography (GC) and GC/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were then used to analyse the sherd lipid extracts. The quantitative results obtained show differential accumulation and preservation of lipid in various parts of the same vessel. This latter observation has serious implications for the sampling of potsherds for organic residue analysis. Furthermore, the amount of absorbed lipid varies quite considerably between vessel types. On this basis, a new method is proposed for classifying vessel use by comparing the concentration of lipid present in different parts of individual vessels.     

RETENTION OF PHOSPHATE IN BURIED CERAMICS: AN ELECTRON MICROBEAM APPROACH

Elevated concentrations of P₂O₅ of 2–12 wt% absolute were observed in the matrices of a small group of ceramics with the electron microprobe. P₂O₅, CaO and FeO^t are enriched towards the surfaces in some cases and elemental correlations suggest precipitation of a crystalline calcium phosphate with a stoichiometry close to CaO · P₂O₅. Scanning electron microscopy with X-ray mapping showed P₂O₅ to be dispersed in the ceramic matrix on a very fine scale, while X-ray diffraction detected no crystalline phosphate. Parallels are drawn with the precipitation of phosphate in the surfaces of weathered glass. It is concluded that the amorphous phases produced on firing behave as chemically active substrates which facilitate the adsorption or precipitation of very fine grained calcium phosphate from the burial environment.     

THE ENVIRONMENTAL STABILITY OF ANCIENT CERAMICS

A series of corrosion experiments was carried out using identical samples of a ceramic of known composition, structure and density which were subjected to a variety of simulated soil solutions. The action of the solutions was monitored by measuring their pH as a function of time at 25 °C and 90 °C. Under all conditions the pH stabilized rapidly. Microscopic and electron microscopic studies showed the presence of reaction/alteration products that would account for the observed pH changes. The findings indicate that ancient ceramics that exhibit no physical deterioration will have below their surface a composition corresponding to the composition of the sherd at the time of its burial.     

AN APOLOGIA FOR ARTHUR LOVEJOY'S LONG-RANGE APPROACH TO THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

Arthur Lovejoy's long-range approach to the history of ideas is little appreciated and largely abandoned. The list of Lovejoy's supposed sins is long. His critics have charged that, among other things, he treated ideas as timeless entities with essences that are independent of individual thinkers, separate from specific texts, isolated from immediate contexts, and insulated from intellectual change. This article defends Lovejoy against such attacks and argues that his approach is still viable and valuable.     

历史文化街区声景语义的主观评价研究——基于人文地理学的视角

声景即声音景观,是人文地理景观的核心要素之一,它既塑造了特定区域的文化地理特征,也是地方感知的重要依托,声景主观感知评价对声景的创设和改善具有重要意义。本文以六个历史文化街区的实地声景为例,选取九组语义对,利用语义细分法进行声景主观评价实验,初步分析了客观声学参数与主观语义评价的定量关系。在对普通学生与本土人群对比分析的基础上,指出应关注对本土受众意义重大,反映本土地理、人文的声音及其发生场所和行为习惯,以期为历史区域的建设提供新的思路,也是从声景角度进行人文地理的探索。     

IDLE LAND IN GRENADA: A REVIEW OF ITS CAUSES AND THE PRG'S APPROACH TO REDUCING THE PROBLEM

A chronic feature of Caribbean agriculture is the extent to which potential arable land lies idle. Some of this region's densely populated islands have more than one-third of their farmland in such a condition. Yet their populations have relied increasingly upon imported food for sustenance. During the 1970s this paradoxical situation was exemplified by Grenada, where possibly as much as 45 per cent of its farmland lay abandoned and imported food accounted for one-third of the national import bill. This paper first surveys the underlying factors accounting for idle land in this nation and then outlines the programs pursued by the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) to reduce waste of this basic resource and, thereby, to effect a more stable economy.
Dans la scène agraire caraibe on trouve constamment des terres dormantes qui pourraient ětre cultivées. Quelques les, des plus fortement peuplées de la région, ont plus du tiers de leurs terres ambles dans une telle condition. Toutefois, leurs habitants se fient de plus en plus sur la nourriture importée pour se soutenir. Cette situation paradoxale s'illustre par la Grenade, des années soixante-dix, où jusqu'a 45 pour-cent du terroir aurait été abandonné, en méme que la nourriture importée se payait du tiers du budget disponible pour défrayer toutes les importations requises dans ľle. Cette communication souligne ďabord les facteurs qui ont Créé cette situation en Grenade, et présente ensuite les grandes lignes des programmes adoptés, par le gouvernement révolutionnaire du peuple, pour couiger cette situation et pour diriger ľle vers une économie plus stable qu'au paravant.     

DRAMATIC ELEMENTS IN POLYBIUS' GENERAL HISTORY: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON THE MODEL OF THE CONNECTIVITY OF THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

The Histories composed by Polybius is the only extant historical work from the ancient world which directly criticizes the historical tradition "tragic history." Modern researchers generally agree that the reflections and criticism of Polybius on tragic history is one predominant feature of his "objective history." Nevertheless, in the structure of general history in The Histories, Polybius himself also uses certain dramatic elements, such as stage props, selection of historical materials, fictional asides and the tragic theme of tyche, to rationalize Romans' dramatic conquest of the whole Mediterranean within fifty-three years. Polybius' failure to exclude dramatic elements from The Histories reflects the limitation of the historiographic thoughts of Greek historians as well as the complex relationship between literature and history in the Hellenistic cultural context.At present, Global, Entangled and Transcultural History are commonly used key words in modern history, and also ancient history has partly taken over their ideas and concepts. With the present bibliographical survey of recent literature on the topic with regard to antiquity, the chances and challenges of conducting research under this perspective are examined.     

GIS辅助城市用地结构分析与用地调整的应用初探

面对复杂的城市问题,单一学科的理论和方法往往束手无策,交叉学科的研究是近年来城市问题研究的主要趋势之一,特别是随着GIS的发展,借助GIS及相关学科的研究方法和手段进行城市现状分析和预测将是城市学领域发展的重要方向之一。本文以湖北省崇阳县白霓镇为例,借用经济学供需基本概蓬和分析方法,结合社会学的调查研究方法,利用系统工程方法和GIS技术,在深入调查的基础上,开创性地提出城市用地供需度的概念,并从它们与区位之间关系的角度出发分析用地结构,探讨了GIS在城市用地结构分析与辅助用地调整方面的应用,旨在抛砖引玉,引起同行们对新技术条件下传统研究方法革新的重视。     

THE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF TIN IN SOME ANCIENT METALS AND THE RECYCLING PROBLEM IN METAL PROVENANCING

A recent suggestion that some ancient metallurgical processes might give rise to large changes (> 0.5%) in the isotopic composition of tin gave hope that it might be possible to identify ancient bronze samples which had undergone recycling and mixing processes. This paper describes a method for the analysis of the isotopic composition of tin by thermal ionization mass spectrometry and applies it to analyse a number of ancient bronzes and tin metal objects from the Bronze Age Mediterranean. No observable isotopic fractionation of tin was found above $0.1% in the ratio¹²² Sn/¹¹⁶. Consequently, either recycling of bronze in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean was not so common as supposed, or the isotopic composition of tin is not fractionated by anthropogenic metallurgical processes to the extent predicted by the Bradford group.     

INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT METALS*

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a relatively new analytical technique, growing in popularity, that offers many advantages over previously available instrumentation for the measurement of both the elemental and isotopic composition of metallic antiquities. The application of this method of analysis to archaeological metalwork is discussed and the technique compared with other methods of analysis commonly used in archaeometallurgy. Particular attention is drawn to the potential pitfalls and difficulties associated with ICP-MS and the need for extremely careful sample preparation and instrument operation.