Commentary. The Diseases of Alexander the Great

The accompanying articles that speculate that Alexander the Great had a traumatic carotid dissection or congenital cervical scoliosis demonstrate the difficulties in retrospective diagnosis as a historical enterprise. The extant primary sources were written centuries after Alexander’s death and are ambiguous in their original languages, and even more so in translation. Thus we cannot be certain what illness Alexander actually had. Furthermore, anachronistic diagnosis removes Alexander from the medical context of this time, telling us little of historical significance about him. Such investigations also illustrate the more general limits that the absence of context imposes on the study of ancient history.     

Neutron activation analysis of stone from the Chadron Formation and a Clovis Site on the Great Plains

Cryptocrystalline silicates from the Chadron Formation were widely used by prehistoric human groups in the Great Plains of North America. There are two documented quarry areas: Flattop Butte in Colorado and the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Cryptocrystalline silicates from these sources are visually indistinguishable, making it difficult to determine the sources of artefacts found at archaeological sites. In this investigation, neutron activation analysis is used to distinguish the two sources. This technique also identifies lithic material from the Clovis-age Eckles site in Kansas as being from Flattop Butte.     

运河文化的运动规律及其启示

本通过对化定义的阐释,界定了运河化的理论内涵和表现形式,检讨了运河化兴衰枯荣的历史进程,揭示了运河化的运动规律及南水北调的重大意义。     

A bioarchaeological study of a Western Basin tradition cemetery on the Detroit River

Archaeological monitoring of construction in a Windsor city park on the Detroit River led to the discovery of an isolated cemetery containing the remains of eight individuals assigned to the Late Woodland Western Basin Tradition. At the request and consent of the contemporary First Nation community, tissue samples from five individuals were subjected to radiocarbon dating, mtDNA, and stable isotope analysis to confirm cultural affiliation and further understand the subsistence practices of these people. Radiocarbon dating placed the cemetery at the transition from the Younge phase (AD 900–1200) to the Springwells phase (AD 1200–1400). The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results provide an unexpected but fuller understanding of Late Woodland Western Basin Tradition subsistence. All individuals were as enriched in carbon as those found on Iroquoian horticulturalist sites to the east, suggesting a very high reliance on maize. Nitrogen isotope values indicate that the protein component of the diet was comprised largely of high trophic level food sources, likely fish. An in situ osteological analysis identified a high number of carious lesions in the visible teeth, also suggesting a diet high in carbohydrates. The mtDNA findings support the antiquity of the Western Basin presence in Northeast North America through genetic links with the Hind Site, an Archaic site in southern Ontario. These results underscore the importance of such studies for providing novel insight into the archaeological histories and lifeways of this distinct Late Woodland tradition. This study also emphazises the need to work with descendant communities to provide them with information on the past that reflects their distinct heritage in the lower Great Lakes region.     

A Stone at the Siege of Cyropolis and the Death of Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great was struck by a stone at the Siege of Cyropolis in 329 BC and was rendered temporarily blind and inaudible as a result. Although other authors have written extensively about the likely pathological effects of this injury, none have suggested carotid artery dissection as a possible cause. We present evidence that this should be considered as a differential diagnosis and how it might explain an unusual symptom seen at his deathbed in Babylon six years later.     

长城保护工程勘察设计工作回顾性分析

本文通过对2000年以来长城保护方案及有关批复意见的系统梳理,重点从勘测、勘察、设计定位与保护原则、工程技术手段及设计文本与图纸等方面对目前勘察设计中存在的共性问题进行了系统分析;同时,根据不同结构类型的长城,还对现存主要病害和技术措施进行了抽样分析.在此基础上,本文从保护规划体系、立项审核、保护维修工作原则、勘察设计要求及项目实施与管理等方面提出了建议.     

西部大开发与民族区域自治制度

西部大开发,是党中央、国务院在新世纪之初所作出的重大战略部署。十年来,我国西部大开发战略的实施有力地促进了西部地区特别是西部民族地区的经济社会发展。而作为处理我国民族问题基本制度的民族区域自治制度,也为西部大开发战略的顺利实施以及促进西部民族地区的发展提供了坚强的制度保障。     

Gregory the Great, the Rule of Benedict and Roman liturgy: the evolution of a legend

This paper relates the evolution of Gregory the Great’s reputation as creator of the Roman liturgy to the slow process by which the Rule of Benedict acquired authority within monasticism in the seventh and eighth centuries. It argues that Gregory composed the Dialogues to promote ascetic values within the Church, but that this work did not begin to circulate in Spain and then Gaul until the 630s, precisely when Gregory’s known interest in liturgical reform is first attested in Rome. The letters of Pope Vitalian (657-72) provide hitherto unnoticed testimony to the theft of Benedict’s relics by monks of Fleury c.660, marking a new stage in the evolution of monastic culture in Gaul. The paper also argues that the Ordo Romanus XIX is not a Frankish composition from the second half of the eighth century (as Andrieu claimed), but provides important evidence for the Rule being observed at St Peter’s, Rome, in the late seventh century. While Gregory was interested in liturgical reform, he never enforced any particular observance on the broader church, just as he never imposed any particular rule. By the time of Charlemagne, however, Gregory had been transformed into an ideal figure imposing uniformity of liturgical observance, as well as mandating the Rule of Benedict within monasticism. Yet the church of the Lateran, mother church of the city of Rome, continued to maintain its own liturgy and ancient form of chant, which it claimed had been composed by Pope Vitalian, even in the thirteenth century.     

野牛的灭绝与大平原印第安人的命运

野牛是美国西部大平原地区最重要的一种动物,曾对人类的生活产生过直接的影响,更与印第安人的生存息息相关。在内战后的西部开拓中,白人移居对野牛进行了野蛮的屠杀,致使野牛灭绝。与此同时,白人拓居在美国政府的支持下推行种族灭绝政策,导致失去生活所依的印第安人陷入了严重的生存危机。这种残暴和不义之举是无可挽回的历史失误。反思这段历史今天仍具重要意义。     

毛泽东晚年对"三大主义"的认识偏差与"文化大革命"的发动

极力主张在中国消灭资本主义、避免资本主义复辟以及反对和防止修正主义并力求实现"一大二公三纯"的社会主义,是毛泽东晚年基于对社会主义、资本主义、修正主义"三大主义"严重认识偏差所致力追求的目标,而这些认识的偏差和这个目标的追求,正是他发动"文化大革命"的重要原因之一.研究这个问题,对于我们今天搞清什么是社会主义、资本主义和修正主义,具有重要的理论和现实意义.     

陕西战国秦长城调查与研究

长期以来学术界所指的战国秦昭王长城,其实是战国秦、统一秦和西汉前期等三个时代前后相继,经过沿用、修缮、新建等各种形式建造后所存留下的长城;文献中屡见的汉"故塞"长城是西汉在战国秦长城的基础上加以利用新建而成的;战国秦长城的结构和体系不是我们习见的明长城模式,呈现出早期长城体系不完备的共同特征。究明布纹筒瓦的渊源及在秦地的传播过程,是判断长城时代属性的主要依据。     

明代延绥镇长城的修筑及其地理意义

本文对明代延绥镇长城的"二边"和"大边"的修筑时间、地点、修筑者等问题进行了系统研究,指出"二边"长城为余子俊督修,时间为成化九年(1473年)三、四月至次年的三、四月之间;"大边"长城则为文贵主持修建,时间在弘治十七年(1504年)九月至正德二年(1507年)四月之间。"二边"长度为2013里(明里)195步,约合1183.4公里;"大边"长度为1087里(明里),约合639.2公里。延绥镇长城的修筑过程与明代西北边防方略的发展过程密切关联,也间接反映了边地卫所土地屯垦的变化,对研究历史时期陕北长城沿线环境变迁具有重要意义。     

Ancient DNA,a Neolithic legging from the Swiss Alps and the early history of goat

Ancient DNA from a Neolithic legging (1st half of the 3rd millennium BC) found at Lenk, Schnidejoch (2750 m a.sl.) in the Swiss Alps has demonstrated, that modern distribution of genetic variation does not reflect past spatio-temporal signatures. The legging was made from the skin of a domestic goat (Capra hircus), belonging to the caprine haplogroup B1, which is marginal in Europe today, but represents a third highly diverse goat haplogroup entering Europe already in the Neolithic. Population expansion of lineage B therefore happened more than 4500 years ago, but their members were at some point almost completely replaced by goats of today's common A and C haplogroups.     

Investigating foetal and perinatal mortality in prehistoric skeletal samples: a case study from a 3000-year-old Pacific Island cemetery site

The Teouma skeletal sample from Vanuatu represents one of the few truly colonising populations in the Pacific Islands. Therefore, investigating the factors that may have affected foetal/infant mortality in this population is potentially important for understanding the success of settlement in this region of the world. We investigate whether stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen in conjunction with skeletal ageing techniques, can aid in identifying whether the subadults from Teouma died before or after birth in an attempt to understand the potential threats to foetal and infant survival. Multiple skeletal ageing methods using diaphyseal lengths were used to age the young subadults (n = 7). Using regression-based skeletal ageing methods, four of the individuals were aged at around full-term gestation (37–42 weeks gestation), while the remaining three individuals died preterm. The isotope analyses did not assist in identifying the individuals that survived post-birth because none of the subadults displayed the 2–3‰ trophic increase in δ¹⁵N values expected for a breastfed infant, probably as a result of their young age. However, all of the foetal/perinatal individuals exhibited higher δ¹⁵N values in their bone collagen compared with the adult females of the sample, with two of the individuals demonstrating unusually high δ¹⁵N values. The δ¹³C values of the foetuses/perinates did not exhibit the same variation. We explore a number of possible explanations for this elevation of perinatal/foetal δ¹⁵N values and tentatively suggest that this is a result of in utero stress as a consequence of chronic maternal ill-health. The osteological and palaeodemographic evidence supports the assertion that females, foetuses and perinates were susceptible to environmental stress within this colonising population, resulting in early death of the perinatal individuals in addition to early terminations of pregnancy or premature birth possibly caused by infectious and/or metabolic diseases.     

浅议"文革"史研究中文献法与口述法的综合运用

文献法与口述法的结合运用,能够更大程度地赋予普通民众阐释自身历史的权力,推进宏观论证与微观调研、量化研究与质性分析的同步进行,不仅有助于挖掘新史料,还能够拓宽研究视野、提供新的研究方法。对“文革”史研究具有突破性的意义。     

Study on Damage Assessment of Earthen Sites of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province Based on Fuzzy-AHP and AHP-TOPSIS

ABSTRACT

As a world-renowned heritage site, the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province, is an example of an earthen site that is seriously threatened by a series of deterioration. Its damage assessment is the precondition for further protection planning and implementation, but related research was found to be scant. To fill this gap, we explore to study its damage assessment by applying Fuzzy-AHP and AHP-TOPSIS to determine the damage assessment levels for 18 earthen sites selected from Qinghai Province, combined with their occurrence environment, engineering properties of rammed earth, deterioration characteristics, and building technologies. After obtaining and comparing results, the AHP-TOPSIS is indicated to be much closer to the real damage conditions. Therefore, this method is proved to be more suitable for the damage assessment of earthen sites in Qinghai Province. This study also holds the potential application of the AHP-TOPSIS in the damage assessment for other earthen sites in Northwest China.     

The Militia Ordinance of 1642 and the 14th‐Century Great Statute of Praemunire

This article opens with a review of the important scholarship concerning the conflict over prerogative between the crown and parliament from mid 1641 through the winter of 1642. The resulting impasse was over which of these institutions would control the militia. This article argues that the Militia Ordinance committee was committed to ‘the legal process’ in developing its directive of March 1642. The balance of the study reviews the medieval Statute of Praemunire, its subsequent development, and how that law would have provided an essential basis for the parliament to assume control of the militia. The article concludes that the Long Parliament acted legally with the Great Statute of Praemunire as a reference point for the adoption of the Militia Ordinance. This conclusion rests on five evidentiary considerations: (i) surviving texts of Commons’ private diarists; (ii) the probable role of John Selden in the Militia Ordinance committee deliberations; (iii) the September 1642 publication of John Marsh's An Argument Or, Debate In Law of the Great Question Concerning the Militias; (iv) proposition five of the Nineteen Propositions; and (v) language parallels between the 1393 Great Statute and the Militia Ordinance itself.     

Molecular and morphological analyses of avian eggshell excavated from a late thirteenth century earth oven

Using ancient DNA (aDNA) extracted from eggshell of the extinct moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) we determined the species composition and number of eggs found in a late thirteenth century earth oven feature at Wairau Bar (South Island, New Zealand) – one of New Zealand’s most significant archaeological sites. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA signatures confirmed this oven feature contained fragments of at least 31 moa eggs, representing three moa genera: Emeus; Euryapteryx; Dinornis. We demonstrate through the genetic identification of 127 moa eggshell fragments that thickness is an unreliable character for species assignment. We also present a protocol for assessing the preservation likelihood of DNA in burnt eggshell. This is useful because eggshell fragments found in archaeological contexts have often been thermally modified, and heat significantly increases DNA fragmentation. Eggshell is widely used in radiocarbon dating and stable isotope research, this study showcases how aDNA can also add to our knowledge of eggshell in both archaeological and palaeoecological contexts.     

公元前五世纪雅典法令铭文十篇译注

本文所选铭文系雅典在公元前5世纪中叶颁布的部分法令,集中反映出作为盟主之邦的雅典在政治、经济及司法等诸多方面对盟邦主权的肆意践踏,是解读该时期雅典历史的重要原始资料。国外古典学界对古希腊传世铭文的释读与研究极为重视,其中较权威的选本为R·梅格斯与D·刘易斯整理的《希腊历史铭文选》,亦是本文所依据的文本。     

Shell-gathering from mangroves and the seasonality of the Southeast Asian Monsoon using high-resolution stable isotopic analysis of the tropical estuarine bivalve (Geloina erosa) from the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak: methods and reconnaissance of molluscs of early Holocene and modern times

This paper describes a reconnaissance, high-resolution, study of stable isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) from modern shells of the estuarine bivalve Geloina erosa, and those dated to the early Holocene that were harvested by people from mangroves near the Great Cave of Niah on the north coast of Borneo. This reconnaissance study provides high-resolution palaeoclimatic-palaeohydrological information concerning early human activity in the region and the past character of the Southeast Asian Monsoon. Laser ablation continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LA-CF-IRMS) on modern shells of Geloina erosa revealed ‘saw-tooth’ stable isotopic profiles that bear a close resemblance to peaks and troughs of trends in recent local rainfall, including the 1998 El Niño drought, highlighting the potential of Geloina erosa for reconstructing seasonality of the Southeast Asian Palaeomonsoon. LA-CF-IRMS analysis of prehistoric shells of Geloina erosa held in the Harrisson Archives of the Sarawak Museum revealed cyclical shifts in δ¹⁸O with similar amplitudes of variation as found in modern shells of Geloina erosa. As at the present day, this probably reflects the changing seasonality of the monsoon rains with shifts to negative δ¹⁸O values during periods of high runoff. Lighter mean δ¹⁸O values of the prehistoric shells, however, may indicate a greater annual surplus of rainfall and possibly consistent with the early Holocene strengthening of the summer monsoon at that time. The similarity of the last growth increment δ¹⁸O of the prehistoric shells to their mean δ¹⁸O profile values suggests that gathering took place during times of moderate runoff.