LÖWITH,LÖWITH'S HEIDEGGER,AND THE UNITY OF HISTORY

This article is about the problem of the unity of history as seen through the writings of Karl Löwith. By “unity of history” I understand the notion that all history constitutes one and only one range of kinds of objects and/or one field of knowledge. The article argues that the problem of the unity of history—though often neglected as a matter of mere argumentative infrastructure—is central to a number of wider problems, most prominently the possibility of a plural understanding of historicity and the possibility of ultimately avoiding a unified historical teleology. The article revisits Löwith's writings and proposes a variety of novel interpretations with the aim of evincing the centrality, and of exploring diverse aspects, of the problematic of the unity of history. This problematic is shown to have informed Löwith's work on the secularization thesis as well as his debate with Hans Blumenberg. The foundations of Löwith's discussion of the problem are pursued across his ambivalent critique and appropriation of Heidegger's model of an ontology of historicity as marked by inevitable internal conflict and thus disunity. The paper reconstructs the manner in which, after the Second World War, Löwith's philosophy of history sought to salvage basic traits of the Heideggerian model when it tried to establish the possibility of plural historicity from a notion of the natural cosmos. It is demonstrated that the motives for this salvage operation ultimately extended beyond the problem of Löwith's reception of Heidegger and concerned the possibility of continuing any debate on the philosophy of history.     

Hornell,Hasslöf and Boatbuilding Sequences

Hornell's publications on ‘native watercraft’ form a unique ‘library’ dealing with boatbuilding and boat use. His quest for the origins of water transport, on the other hand, was unsuccessful. In a clarification of the issues involved, Hasslöf criticized Hornell's use of the term ‘carvel’ and proposed ‘shell‐first’ and ‘skeleton‐first’ as best able to characterize boatbuilding traditions. Those terms subsequently gave way to ‘plank‐first’ and ‘frame‐first’. Certain north‐west European vessels, each built in both those sequences, were identified by Hasslöf as a link between ‘plank‐first’ and ‘frame‐first’. Such a transition would have been facilitated by the use of ‘framing‐first’, a building sequence used in north‐west Europe and in the eastern Mediterranean from the early 1st millennia AD.     

A WOMAN'S PLACE: SPACE,MEETING PLACES AND GENDER IN 16TH‐CENTURY NYA LÖDÖSE,SWEDEN

In this article, archaeological and archival data are used to discuss gender in 16^th‐century Nya Lödöse in western Sweeden with a focus on women. Four areas for social space are identified and analysed. The result shows that women seem to have had a somewhat higher degree of agency in Nya Lödöse compared with the surrounding countryside and smaller towns.     

A Case of Ancient Bladder Stones from Oluz Höyük,Amasya, Turkey

A biological object was recovered from the pelvic region of an adult woman coded to SK13 unearthed from Oluz Höyük in Amasya, Turkey. The skeleton was dated to the medieval period on the basis of the burial customs and the calibrated ¹⁴C dates. The find was identified as a bladder stone on morphological, radiographic and chemo‐analytical grounds with the help of X‐ray diffraction, polarised energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy, confocal Raman spectroscopy, and microscopic techniques. The mineralogical composition of urinary stone was found to be as calcium phosphate (apatite). Bladder stone disease is endemic in poor agricultural regions where the typical diet is mostly based on grain carbohydrate consumption with scarce intake of animal protein. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exceptional rates of dental caries in a scandinavian Early Iron Age population—A study of dental pathology at Alvastra, Östergötland,Sweden

The dental status of Early Iron Age agricultural populations in Sweden has not been extensively documented. The aim of this study was to record caries status in human remains from an Early Iron Age burial ground, Smörkullen, at Alvastra, Östergötland, Sweden. The study included 96 adults and 50 subadults and comprised 1794 permanent teeth in the adults and 468 permanent and 221 deciduous teeth in the subadults. The caries frequency was exceptionally high, afflicting most of the adults (92.6%): 46.2% of the teeth examined showed signs of caries disease. Most of the lesions were shallow. However, around 60% of the adult individuals had moderate and severe lesions, which probably had an immediate impact on health. Lesions were most common in the cervical region and this is probably related to dietary patterns where the starchy, sticky food tended to accumulate around the necks of the teeth. Children showed low caries frequency, whereas most juveniles (91.7%) were affected. Most of the teeth with alveolar bone loss showed no signs of cervical or root caries lesions. However, in cases of moderate and severe loss of alveolar bone, seen mostly in the older age group, the frequency of cervical and root lesions was higher. Few initial caries lesions were observed, indicating an aggressive pattern of disease in this population. The lack of gender‐related differences suggests that the diet was similar for both sexes, across all age groups. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A possible massacre at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük,Anatolia

Trauma is among the most important sources of data providing information related to systematic violence, battles and massacres among ancient populations. In this study, a mass grave from Titriş Höyük in the Southeast Anatolia was examined in terms of cranial traumas. Skeletal remains of minimum 19 individuals were placed on a plaster basin as a secondary interment. The frequency of cranial trauma was 81.3% among 16 available adult crania. The fact that the perimortem traumas were observed on both sex groups and the presence of two children and an infant on the basin suggest the possibility of these individuals being subjected to an attack or a massacre. It has been determined that the frequency of traumas in the common burials increased more than twofold from Early‐Mid EBA (6.7%) to Late EBA (14.3%). While all of the injuries observed in Early‐Mid EBA were in the form of healed depressed trauma, penetrated traumas were also encountered in Late EBA. The increased frequency of cranial trauma with unusual interment on a plaster basin indicated that a social stress might have taken place in Titriş Höyük. It is concluded that the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, the deterioration of the trade‐based economy and resource stress might have been possible factors that played a role in the excessive violence, or a massacre in Titriş Höyük. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.