Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.     

Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Classification, Function, and Behavior

This is the second of the two papers that review the literature of archaeological lithic analysis over the last decade. This paper concentrates on aspects of stone tool research that are not directly related to the production or procurement of the tools themselves. It is divided into classification, functional analyses, behavioral processes, and approaches to the subject currently popular among analysts. As with the previous paper, an attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as is reasonable, though availability of sources has resulted in an emphasis on North American literature.     

Scandinavia and the Huns: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Migration Era

The aim of this paper is to discuss the early Migration period as a particular period of ‘short term history’ and its formative impact on the Scandinavian longue durée in the first millenium. During this particular period of time, the object world of Scandinavia demonstrates radical changes in symbolic representation, followed by long term continuity and social/mental resistance to change. It is argued that the Huns, as a historical fact, were present in Scandinavia in the early fifth century. Their impact was to generate an ‘episodic transition’ that opened up a whole new set of social, religious and political strategies, in Scandinavia in particular as well as in Barbarian Europe in general, and gave rise to a new Germanic identity in the aftermath of the Roman Empire.     

A Russian Before and After the Revolution: P. P. Efimenko,a Pioneer of Levantine Prehistoric Research

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a reappraisal of the Levantine prehistoric chronological sequence constructed by Pyotr Petrovich Efimenko (1884–1969). As a young Russian prehistorian, Efimenko visited Palestine in 1913, collected material from several sites and, in 1915, published a synthesis in which he compared the prehistory of Europe with that of the Near East. This was part of his comprehensive monograph on the Prehistory of Eurasia which was also based on his work at the sites of Mezin and Kostenki and the Palaeolithic of Russia. The current paper also attempts to evaluate the career of Efimenko particularly in light of the unfamiliarity of his work among prehistorians working in the southern Levant.     

On the Age of Serpent Mound: A Reply to Romain and Colleagues

Radiocarbon dates reported by Romain and colleagues (2017) suggesting that Serpent Mound (33AD1) is an Adena effigy mound are problematic because they cannot be linked reliably to cultural activities associated with the original construction of the effigy mound. Additional arguments offered by Romain and colleagues (2017) in support of an Early Woodland age for Serpent Mound also are unconvincing. A Late Prehistoric age for Serpent Mound is supported by the radiocarbon dates reported previously, new radiocarbon dates, the relative abundance of serpent imagery in the Fort Ancient culture and the contemporaneous Mississippian Tradition, the virtual absence of serpent imagery in the Adena culture, and the fact that, whereas effigy-mound building is otherwise unknown in the Early Woodland period, it is well documented, if rare, for the Fort Ancient culture and in the not-so-terribly-far-away upper Midwest it is so common that it defines the broadly contemporaneous Effigy Mound culture.     

Petrographic and Geochemical Investigations on the Pottery Production from Arslantepe–Malatya (Eastern Anatolia) from the Fourth to the Second Millennium BCE: Technological Continuity,Innovation and Cultural Change

The petrographic and geochemical analyses of 130 Late Chalcolithic 3 (LC3, 3800 bce ) to Early Bronze Age IIIB (EBAIIIB, 2000 bce ) ceramics from Arslantepe and the Malatya Plain in the Eastern Anatolian Upper Euphrates have identified critical differences in raw material procurement and paste preparation, reflecting typological, chronological and cultural changes. Based on these differences, distinct modes of production that correspond to phases reflecting significant social, economic and political changes were recognized. In particular, the interruption of the centralization process and the establishment of mobile groups during EBAI (3000–2900 bce ) were accompanied by the exploitation of new sources.     

From Fierce to Adorable: Representations of Polar Bears in the Popular Imagination

From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, technology in the form of aircraft, high-powered rifles, and tranquilizers changed the relationship between humans and polar bears. Whereas the polar bear had been conceptualized as a fierce beast in early-modern expeditionary literature, in the second half of the twentieth century the bear was depicted as vulnerable due to overhunting and in need of scientific study, a process that in itself portrayed the helplessness of the animal when confronted with postwar technologies. Popular American and Canadian periodicals conveyed this shift in the bear’s image. This article examines the polar bear’s image as depicted by the media and argues that the use of certain technologies by sport hunters, wildlife biologists, and conservationists enabled a domination of the bear that altered the animal’s placement within the popular imagination.     

From nuclear physics to semiconductor manufacturing: the making of ion implantation

This article examines the emergence of ion implantation as a major semiconductor manufacturing process from the early 1960s through the late 1970s. Ion implantation techniques originated in nuclear physics research and were first employed to make solar cells for military satellites at the Ion Physics Corporation (IPC). This work at IPC inspired a research group at Sprague Electric to use ion implantation techniques to make transistors. Sprague's process development work, and its key finding that ion implantation enabled the control of critical transistor characteristics, were both exploited by Mostek, a semiconductor start‐up funded by Sprague. Mostek's engineers incorporated ion implantation into their manufacturing process to produce a string of integrated circuits that other firms could not make. Mostek's market success encouraged semiconductor firms to embrace ion implantation in the early and mid 1970s. By the end of the decade, ion implantation was used in the manufacture of virtually all advanced integrated circuits. This article improves our understanding of the development and adoption of semiconductor, and more generally high technology, manufacturing processes. It also advances our knowledge of the ways in which new technologies developed in the Cold War context made their way into the manufacturing economy.     

从创造到普及:吴晗先生的学术贡献

在新史学思想主导下,吴晗致力于一种社会的、民众的新明史研究,重新选择传统政治史的问题和研究路径,开创了以明史为中心、元明清一线贯通的研究模式。吴晗最具创造性的研究主要体现在明代政治、军事、社会史方面。他不仅在这些方面开拓出对于明史研究的展开有着重要意义的新课题,而且对这些新课题进行了具有深度的研究,得到了后来学者的广泛认同。20世纪50年代,吴晗由学者变为社会教育家,全身心投入到历史普及,形成了一套关于历史通俗化和历史普及的理论和方法,成为普及历史知识的积极倡导者,为史学和社会结合树立了良好的典范。     

A Dynamic Systems Framework for Studying Technological Change: Application to the Emergence of the Potter's Wheel in the Southern Levant

The dynamic systems framework may be considered an alternative to traditional approaches that study technological change. The benefits of this framework are simultaneously methodological and metaphorical. Methodologically, the framework provides a coherent analytic process for studying empirical data to explain the complexity of technological change. Metaphorically, the framework appeals to local-scale interactive mechanisms to account for the origins of change. Applicability of the dynamic systems framework for studying technological change is illustrated with an archaeological case study: the emergence of the potter's wheel in southern Levant during the 4th millennium BC.     

A tale of regional transformation: From political community to security regions the politics of security and regionalism in West Africa

This article draws attention to the intersection between the politics of regionalism and the politics of security by investigating the recent reorganisation of the West African space. It shows how international actors’ reinvestment in West Africa is driven by their security priorities, and how these actions, in particular those of the European Union, are deconstructing West Africa into smaller security regions such as the Sahel. This transformation is legitimised through a regional imaginary depicting the Sahel as a fuzzy region constituted by fluctuating boundaries of networks of organised crime and terrorism. This imaginary strongly contrasts with an earlier one that conceived of West Africa as a regional political community. The tensions between these two imaginaries raises important questions about how these perceptions emerged, which agencies and interests have driven them, and what consequences this has for the re-allocation of political authority and sovereignty practices in West Africa. Hence, drawing on International Political Sociology, Critical Geopolitics and Political Geography, this article symmetrically engages with the simultaneous processes of spatialisation of security and securitisation of space to understand the production and transformation of security regionalism in West Africa.     

From Universalism to Nationalism: Italian Freemasonry and the Great War

Abstract

During the period from 1914 to 1915, prior to Italy’s entry into the First World War, Freemasonry was a powerful force in Italian public life with a strong presence in every part of the nation and in the most vital organs of the State (parliament, public administration, the armed forces). Between them, the Grand Orient and the Grand Lodge of Italy counted 25,000 members and more than 500 lodges. Freemasons played a critical role in the campaign to mobilize Italian public opinion and political parties in support of Italy’s intervention in the war as an ally of France and Great Britain. To do so, they abandoned the movement’s traditional cosmopolitan and pacifist stances and adopted instead the objectives of the nationalists, a shift that would be consolidated during the war. Nonetheless, from 1917 onwards Italian Freemasons joined their counterparts in other European countries to press for the creation of a League of Nations to promote a new post-war universal order premised on the peaceful coexistence of independent and democratic nations. In examining the initiatives taken by Italian Freemasons in this period, this article focuses on the principles that inspired them, the language they adopted and the forms of communication and mobilization they used.     

制度背后的技术、环境与政治:以清代柴塘岁修专项银设立为中心

清代两浙大规模从柴塘改建为石塘开始于乾隆第五次南巡。乾隆希望通过河工、海塘来成就不朽功勋,谕令在并不需要改建的柴塘中伺机改建石塘,强调以柴塘作坦水且不必岁修,这违背了石塘需要间接护岸工程的技术要求。乾隆深知如果新建石塘仍建设与维护间接护岸工程,将无疑说明其决策失误。当臣工谈到新修石塘需修筑坦水或者岁修作为石塘外护的柴塘,他的反应是: 反复声称柴塘作为石塘外护不需岁修,把决策失误责任推卸给相关臣工,隐晦或者露骨暗示钦差大员把责任推卸给相关人员。即使皇帝极力维护自己决策正确,但客观技术要求终使他批准了柴塘岁修专项银制度,也从侧面说明了其决策不当。整个过程充分说明,在涉及古代大型公共水利工程的制度问题时,技术与环境因素往往要让位于政治,在制度、技术、环境和政治因素的复杂交织中,历史的复杂性得以凸显。     

由“周孔”而“孔孟”:儒家话语体系建构中的“圣人之道”

在中国学术思想史上,"孔孟"取"周孔"而代之,"周孔之道"演化为"孔孟之道",是儒家基于特定历史语境建构话语体系的产物。随着周、孔形象渐趋圣化,汉唐时人多以周、孔并举,包含政治教化与人伦道德两方面内涵的"周孔之道"得以生成。继韩愈"道统论"之后,宋儒建构"性与天道"理论和道统谱系,"孔孟之道"逐渐成为儒学的代名词。统治者藉由教育、祭祀等参与此过程,也彰显出道统与治统的复杂关联。     

从环境的历史到环境史——关于环境史研究的一种认识

By and large, there are three kinds of research on environment: the history of environment as a field of natural history studies, the history of environment as within the scope of history of society studies, and environmental history as the study of the relationship between human and nature. The methodological perspective of the relationship between humanity and environmental distinguishes the third from the previous two. From this perspective, when we probe the mutual effects between human and nature, we will stress on their interactions. The new era and the realities of contemporary society foster the rise of environmental history, which has not only theoretical values but also practical significance. Translated from Xueshu Yanjiu 学术研究 (Academic Research), 2006, (9):12–22     

生存意识与历史记忆——从小说《生存》到电影《鬼子来了》

中国当代文学在其发展流变中,为抗日战争这段历史的书写提供了另一种可能。本文以尤凤伟的中篇小说《生存》和它的改编剧本,以及姜文据此再度创作和拍摄的电影《鬼子来了》为考察对象,回避其从小说、剧本到电影的流变过程中在文艺样式与拍摄技巧上的特色,而着重从创作主体建立在国族想象上的启蒙立场与文本中阶级意识的隐现上,探讨当前抗战文艺中的历史记忆与现实诉求。     

我国文化遗产保护科技成果转化对策研究——基于文化遗产保护科技成果供求分析

进入"十二五"后,文物保护领域面临着新的发展形势。其中,科学和技术成果转化问题受到了高度关注,成为当前文化遗产保护领域的一大热点问题。目前,由于我国文化遗产保护科技成果转化的特殊性和相关领域科技事业发展的阶段性,文化遗产保护科技供给与需求脱节,科技成果转化率不高。针对这种状况,国家应建立激励评价体制,促进文博系统内外的合作,保证科技成果的有效供给和有效需求。