Losing—and Salvaging?—the Rural Landscape of Graeco-Roman Philadelphia

Between Biblical ‘Ammon’ and Early Umayyad ‘Amman’ lie a thousand years of Graeco-Roman Philadelphia. During this period the population of the classical city and its hinterland reached a peak not seen again until the 20^th century. During the Middle Ages, however, the population shrank dramatically, the city was abandoned, an island of crumbling grandeur, surrounded by an equally depopulated landscape—the skeleton of a once thriving network of roads, villages, farms, monasteries, and field-systems. Even after re-settlement began at Amman in the 1870s, population in city and hinterland was thin and scattered, the abundant ruins often well-preserved. Development throughout the Belqa—the extensive fertile hinterland of Amman, was evident but relatively slow for some 70 years. After 1948, the impact of successive waves of refugees on top of a region-wide population explosion, began to transform the landscape and devastate the archaeological record. The process is accelerating and spreading. Even in the city, many substantial buildings captured on 19^th century photographs have been lost to development; in the hinterland, the vital rural context of a great Classical city has been extensively overwhelmed. Nevertheless, much can yet be salvaged. Beginning with Seetzen in 1806, westerners began to explore ‘east of Jordan’. Many recorded their observations and some mapped, painted, drew, and increasingly photographed—including from the air. Collectively, the corpus of evidence is considerable, ranging from the observations of scores of early western visitors to the more recent archaeological surveys of the 1970s. Appropriately for present purposes, outstanding amongst such visitors and explicitly scientific and systematic were the PEF surveys of Warren in 1867 and Conder in 1881.     

Religion Civique, Religion Civile, Religion Séculière L’ombre d’un doute

Because of its conceptual plasiticity, the term civic religion is now widely used by historians, particularly historians of the Middle Ages. Yet, as this article suggests, historians would do well to interrogate the relationships (which can be hidden) that this term bears to similar concepts such as Greek Roman civic religion, Enlightenment civil religion or even the secular religion that emerged in the work of 20^th century thinkers.     

Dental Modifications in a Skeletal Sample of Enslaved Africans Found at Lagos (Portugal)

An archaeological intervention in Valle da Gafaria (Lagos, Portugal) allowed the excavation of a deposit of waste dating from the 15^th to 17^th centuries. Among discarded objects, an important amount of human skeletal remains was exhumed (N = 158 individuals). The archaeological and historical context, as well as the morphometric analysis of the skulls, led us to attribute them an African origin. While historical sources document the trade of slaves by the Portuguese since the 15^th century, so far no slave cemetery was excavated in Portugal. The study of their lives and deaths has been accomplished by historical documents. Therefore, this sample provides a unique opportunity to learn more about captive individuals who were brought to Portugal in the modern period. The present work focuses in the intentional dental modifications presented by several of these individuals. A total of 113 subjects have teeth that can be evaluated for the presence of intentional modifications. Of these, 55.8% individuals present dental modifications on their anterior dentition, 42.9% exhibiting modifications on both upper and lower teeth. The incisors were the most frequently modified teeth, followed by the canines. Both men and women as adults and sub‐adults have dental intentional modifications. In most individuals, dental modifications involved the removal of the mesial and distal angles, which is comparable with sub‐Saharan African practices. However, we cannot infer a more specific origin for these slaves only based on dental modification's type and pattern because several ethnic groups modify teeth in the same way. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中西革命观念

Revolution is an event that had taken place in many countries in the 20^th century. Revolution was not only imagined in Western historical writing as a radical change of social life, but also perceived as representing a return to the old form of social rule in the end. The Chinese ideas of revolution in the 20^th century evolved from the traditional idea that the change of dynasties was due to the change of mandate. The modern Chinese idea of revolution also incorporated the European idea that revolution would lead to a higher form of social development. The interpretation of the aim of Chinese revolution in the 20^th century China shows that Chinese theorists had a misunderstanding for a long time regarding revolution as representing an ultimate social state and not as a means to achieve political modernization. A theoretical rethinking of the concept after the Cultural Revolution has resulted in an advance in China's social evolution.      

Peri mortem cranial injuries from a medieval grave in Saint Peter's Cathedral,Bologna, Italy

In 1999, renovation work in the 16^th century crypt in Saint Peter's Cathedral, Bologna (Italy), uncovered a capuchin‐type grave probably from the Early Middle Ages, containing commingled bones belonging to several individuals. A study of the osteoarchaeological material by the Laboratory of Bioarchaeology and Forensic Osteology of the University of Bologna identified two skulls of young males, both presenting signs of direct traumatic lesions produced peri mortem: one on the frontal, the other on the left parietal. The aim of the present study was to examine the lesions in relation to possible aetiological factors. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Noble Traders: the Islamic Tradition of “Spiritual Chivalry” (futuwwa) in Bosnian Trade‐guilds (16th−19th centuries)

Abstract: Originally linked to the military associations of the Middle Ages, the Islamic tradition of futuwwa was with time inherited by artisanship associations. The Anatolian Akh?s of the 14^th century represent an important link in the evolution of the futuwwa tradition, and it was thanks to them that this tradition survived well into the Ottoman era, this time within the framework of the more centralized, professional trade‐guilds. Together with other Ottoman institutions, administrative, military and economic, Ottoman crafts and their trade‐guilds appeared in Bosnia soon after the final fall of the country to the Ottomans in 1463. Sources which provide information on the organization and activities of Bosnian guilds also give a picture of their religious character and, related to it, the presence of futuwwa tradition within them. The most important of these sources are those that originate from the guilds themselves, the guild defters and their statutes, which are often called fütüvetnames. A number of documents of this kind found in Bosnia illustrate a strong presence of different futuwwa traditions within Bosnian guilds from their establishment well into the 19^th century, while some also provide valuable information on the futuwwa tradition in Ottoman guilds in general.     

A case of dyschondrosteosis in an Anglo‐Saxon skeleton

Osteological examination of a 9^th–11^th century skeleton from Black Gate Cemetery, Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, reveals Madelung's deformity of both forearms and shortened stature due to reduced tibial length. These are indicative of dyschondrosteosis, a genetically transmitted mild form of mesomelia. This case adds to a small but growing presence of this condition in pre‐modern societies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two millennia of male stature development and population health and wealth in the Low Countries

This paper offers a review of shifts in average male stature and their relationship with health and wealth in the Low Countries from AD 50 to 1997. Twenty‐one population samples were studied to cover the full time span. To make data compatible, so‐called ‘virtual statures’ were used, i.e. the statures which adult males were supposed to have had at the end of their growth period, before they started shrinking by ageing. Original data were extracted from ‘in situ measured statures’, ‘calculated statures’ and ‘corrected cadaveric statures’. If possible, maximum femoral lengths were also collected from the same population samples to check whether trends in stature development were in agreement with raw skeletal data. A long phase of stature decrease from ca. 176 cm to 166 cm, a so‐called ‘negative secular trend’, was noticed from the Roman Period up to and including the first half of the 19th century. This was followed by a sharp and still ongoing increase in stature to 184 cm, a typical ‘positive secular trend’, from the second half of the 19th century to the present time. General shifts in stature and ‘outliers’ illustrative for the process are viewed in the context of socio‐economic, demographic, health and nutritional factors. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

“Hungry for Knowledge”: Towards a Meso‐History of the Environmental Sciences

In recent years, cultural studies and cultural theory have experienced a new wave of ecological thought. Despite the engagement with the Anthropocene the history of ecology and the environmental sciences has remained somewhat of a puzzle. This goes especially for the 20^th century, a period when the sciences of the environment came to matter on a broader scale. Why do we actually know so little about the environmental sciences in the 20^th century? And what could a history of the environmental sciences in that period look like? This article answers these questions with two interrelated arguments. First, by reflecting on different approaches to write the history of ecology since the 1970s, it uncovers crucial entanglements between the history of science and ecological thought that created blind spots regarding the environmental sciences in the 20^th century. Second, it argues for a shift in scales of analysis—towards meso‐scales. With a more regional approach historians can engage with the often‐neglected aspects of the political and economic history of the environmental sciences in the 20th century and thereby also reveal their fundamental infrastructural dimension. Because at its core, the article claims, the environmental sciences were and are essentially infrastructural sciences.     

Absolute chronology of fluvial events in the Upper Dnieper River system and its palaeogeographic implications

A set of 121 radiocarbon and OSL dates has been compiled from the Upper Dnieper River and tributary valleys, Western European Russia. Each date was attributed according to geomorphic/sedimentological events and classes of fluvial activity. Summed probability density functions for each class were used to establish phases of increasing and reducing fluvial activity. The oldest detected reduction of fluvial activity was probably due to glacial damming at LGM. Within the Holocene three palaeohydrological epochs of millennial-scale were found: (1) high activity at 12,000–8,000 cal BP marked by large river palaeochannels; (2) low activity at 8,000–3,000 cal BP marked by formation of zonal-type soils on -floodplains; short episodes of high floods occurred between 6,500—4,400 cal BP; (3) contrasting hydrological oscillations since 3,000 cal BP with periods of high floods between 3,000–2,300 (2,000) and 900–100 cal BP separated by long interval of low floods 2,300 (2,000)-900 cal BP when floodplains were not inundated — zonal-type soils were developing and permanent settlements existed on floodplains. In the last millennium, four centennial-scale intervals were found: high flooding intervals are mid-11–mid-15^th century and mid-17–mid-20^th century. Intervals of flood activity similar to the present-day were: mid-15–mid-17^th century and since mid-19^th century till present. In the context of palaeohydrological changes, discussed are selected palaeogeographic issues such as: position of the glacial boundary at LGM, role of changing amounts of river runoff in the Black Sea level changes, floodplain occupation by Early Medieval population.     

Women's,gender and feminist studies in Portugal: researchers’ resilience vs institutional resistance

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies in Portugal, focusing on gender and feminist geographies. Although there is a solid, diversified and mature corpus of feminist reflection in the Portuguese academia, there is a lack of institutional recognition with very few Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies formally organized in curricula or academic degrees. There have been, and still are, many resistances to a formal recognition of Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies as a scientific domain and Portugal is lagging behind in this area. The first and only scientific research centre entirely dedicated to Gender Studies was only created in 2012. The long period of dictatorship that Portugal endured for over 40?years in the past century, has had a major influence in the Portuguese society, preventing social movements, as the second wave feminism, to foster social change in the academia. The current debates at the present time in Portugal concern the widespread use of the concept of gender without an effective epistemological and methodological paradigm shift, and some researchers question the erasure of the word ‘women’ that is being almost always replaced by the word ‘gender’. In this area of study, the intersections of activism and academia in Portugal are noteworthy, and there is a positive contamination that comes through the contact with the feminist empowering movements. The Portuguese researchers’ resilience has proven to overcome the lack of support, both institutional and financial, making it possible to advance Women's, Gender and Feminist Studies.     

The consilience of historical and isotopic approaches in reconstructing the medieval Mediterranean diet

During the Middle Ages, the economies of Europe, the religious directives involving dietary requirements, and the general human subsistence base were transformed. These complicated and intertwined issues are starkly revealed in an isotopic study of two inland Italian human populations that are separated by approximately 850 years in time. Stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopic values observed in human dentin and bone collagen from the sites of early medieval Castro dei Volsci and late medieval Rome are consistent with diets that differed substantially. As the North Atlantic opened to fishing and food preservations methods improved, Mediterranean peoples increased their fish consumption dramatically, and in doing so, met the religious directives of the Catholic Church. By analyzing both teeth and bone collagen within individuals, long-term feeding behaviors are documented, and the utility of last erupted teeth collagen as sources of adult dietary information is established. This study offers the first physical evidence of this new economic reality linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean economies at the end of the Middle Ages.     

Universitäre Freiräume im Spätmittelalter als Wegbereiter neuzeitlicher Naturwissenschaft

University freedom in late Middle Ages as a way to modern natural history: The question regarding the relation between faith and natural history in late Middle Ages was answered in different ways. In the way of thinking shaped by Augustinian philosophy there existed, in early Middle Ages, a close connection between natural science and religious belief. In the second half of the 13th century attempts were made at dividing natural science from supernatural sphere. In late Middle Ages it was endeavoured not only to liberate natural history from the domination of theology and metaphysics but also to achieve the autonomous treatment of nature. These endeavours became fully accomplished by Nicolaus Copernicus.     

Portugal dos Pequenitos as an urban laboratory for rehearsing national identity

Portugal dos Pequenitos (literally, ‘Portugal for the Little Ones’), a theme park built in Portugal as part of the Centenarian Commemorations of the Portuguese Nation of 1940, has been considered one of the most controversial pieces of Portuguese architecture in the 20th century. Designed between 1937 and 1962 by Architect Cassiano Branco, at the initiative of Bissaya Barreto, it features reproductions of uniquely typical Portuguese architecture built to a child's scale. It includes buildings from mainland Portugal, from the Azores and Madeira islands and from the colonial territories in Africa and Asia. The main aims of this paper are twofold: firstly, to frame Cassiano Branco's architecture in its specific context, in terms of historical contingencies and architectural controversies during the Estado Novo (New State) Portuguese dictatorship (1933–1974), and secondly, to assess the importance of Portugal dos Pequenitos as a laboratory for rehearsing an idyllic urban environment, applying hypothetical principles of national identity.     

Médecine et Discours sur L’Homme dans la Première Modernité

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, medical knowledge was anthropological in so much as it produced a discourse on man whose ambition and legitimacy needed no justification. Underwritten by the belief that the body was an object of science, the epistemic horizons of a doctrina de homine emerged from the interaction of medical practice, particularly anatomy, with philosophy and theology in a specific framework - the reorganization of knowledge in Europe over the “long 16^th century”.     

Palaeobiology of the Medieval Population of Albano (Rome,Italy): A Combined Morphological and Biomolecular Approach

Recent years have seen increased interest in skeletal populations from the Imperial Roman Age in Italy, but much less is known about diet and standards of living in the subsequent medieval period. To fill this gap, we conducted a morphological analysis of human remains from Albano, an Italian town near Rome, as well as a stable isotope analysis of bone collagen to reconstruct diet. The sample was recovered from a Medieval cemetery (1040–1220 cal. yr. BP) located in the gardens of the historical Palazzo Doria Pamphili in Albano. A minimum number of 40 individuals (31 adults and 9 sub‐adults) were examined using standard methods. Though the general health status of the population was good, signs of cribra orbitalia and diffuse enthesopathies were noted during the morphological examination. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of the bone collagen from 24 adult humans and three faunal bones indicate that the diet of the population may be described as predominantly terrestrial and C₃‐plant based although the data for some of the individuals suggest a modest consumption of C₄‐(millet) based or aquatic proteins. No evidence of significant dietary differences between the sexes was found. The comparison of the isotope data from Albano with those from populations recovered in the same region is consistent with a shift from a terrestrial, possibly plant foods‐dominated subsistence in the Early Middle Ages to a diet with a higher contribution from animal proteins, both terrestrial and aquatic, in the Later Middle Ages. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“The Roman Giant”: Overgrowth Syndrome in Skeletal Remains from the Imperial Age

A very tall skeleton was found during archaeological excavations in the territory of Fidenae, an administrative centre of the Roman territorial organization, situated along the Via Salaria about 7 km north of Rome (Italy). The individual was a young male, dated back to the Imperial Age (3^rd century AD), presenting a very tall but normally proportioned stature, estimated around 202 cm. The long bones showed incomplete epiphyseal union; therefore, the stature would probably have been taller, if he had lived longer. In this work, the metric data are compared with those from the Roman Imperial Age population, and differential diagnosis is discussed. The skeletal evidence is characteristic of a form of gigantism, a rare growth disease that may be linked to different syndromes. The most common etiology is associated with a dysfunction of the pituitary gland, which causes overproduction of the growth hormone (hGH) during childhood. This endocrine disorder stimulates cartilaginous activity at the growth plate, delaying epiphyseal fusion and resulting in increased bone length. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.