Biological continuity between the A- and C-groups in lower Nubia: Evidence from cranial non-metric traits

Data are presented on 45 cranial non-metric traits in skeletal samples of the Lower Nubian A-Group (ca. 3100–2500 BC) and C-Group (ca. 2000–1500 BC) cultural periods. Results, based on the mean measure of divergence statistic, reveal biological continuity, consistent with interpretations of in situ evolution as opposed to models of discontinuity resulting from gene flow. Any differences between the A-and C-Group cultural phases that may be evident in the archaeological record are therefore more likely the result of local cultural evolution, rather than the introduction of new ideas, customs, and materials through the migration of a new population into this area. The problem of small samples necessitates that our results be accepted cautiously.     

The use of large numbers of variables to measure the shape of a restricted area of bone

A series of 28 “depth” measurements, from a fixed plane to a bone surface (the frontal bone of the human skull), is presumed to contain information about shape. Data are presented for three groups of skulls and a few problematic single ones. A simple method for reducing the 28 measurements to a few shape contrasts is described. Reasons why the data are unsuitable for a canonical analysis are discussed and possible problems arising from the uncritical use of canonical analysis in general are pointed out. Some general comments are made as to the relative morphological affinities of the comparative groups selected, and especially the single more controversial specimens.     

The use of soil chemistry data to address post-mortem diagenesis in bone mineral

The soluble and exchangeable ions for a soil profile from the Roonka archaeological site. Lower Murray Basin, South Australia, are compared with the total elemental content of the soils. Since the chemical composition of post-mortem ionic substitution phases and secondary minerals in archaeological bone will depend on the availability of ions to the soil solution under field conditions, it is suggested that models addressing diagenesis in bone employ soluble and exchangeable ions rather than total elemental soil data.     

The use of different amber sources in Italy during the Bronze Age: new archaeometric data

The production of amber ornaments occurred in Italy during the Eneolithic (E)–Early Bronze Age (EBA), although very few beads from the Italian peninsula have been found and analysed. The number of data available for provenience study of Bronze Age ambers is larger, but still a precise picture of when and to what extent the local sources of amber were exploited is lacking. In the present work, 22 amber finds from six Sicilian sites have been studied and analysed by infrared spectroscopy, in particular with DRIFT (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformed) analyses. The amber samples are dated between the Eneolithic and the Final Bronze Age–Early Iron Age and are from the collections of the P. Orsi Museum, in Syracuse (Sicily). The data show that only simetite was used in South Italy in the Late Eneolithic (LE)–EBA. In the Bronze Age, the exploitation of simetite shows different intensity in different chronological phases. The results are discussed in comparison with the information available for coeval European ambers.     

Nature,space and distances in an imperial boundary network: The delimitation of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau boundary

This article discusses an episode of boundary delimitation/demarcation conducted between British and German imperial powers on the central African Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau in the late 1890s. I situate vignettes on the boundary's delimitation in 1897-98 within broader processes of imperial territorialisation to note that the boundary eventually produced on the plateau represented a fabrication resolving tensions between its ‘natural’ and textual sources. Specifically, I argue the boundary was produced to mediate between a diplomatic nature, written in metropolitan worlds by diplomats and cartographers, and a colonial nature, a zone of phenomenal experiences, inhuman encounters and ‘sensation’ (Wark, 2016). I emphasise the experience of technical practice to suggest that this itself represented a form of imperial power, capable of challenging or ‘deferring’ (Bhabha, 2012) metropolitan circuits of governance and knowledge production, not least by revealing the liveliness of the material world undergoing imperial territorialisation. Sensation produced the form of the writings and archives of survey-exploration: often confounded by problems of their data and surroundings, commissioners made the epistemological and subjective manoeuvrings through which they appeared to rise above their inert surroundings to master them. But this does not characterise the experience of fieldwork on the plateau, which was constituted by a panoply of technical situations wherein delineations between objects, observers and their material settings were indeterminable.     

Combining growth and level data: An estimation of the population of Belgian municipalities between 1880 and 1970

Economic historians that study long-term changes during the nineteenth and twentieth century are fundamentally restricted by the availability of qualitative data. As a result, researchers are forced to either impute missing data, or otherwise combine datasets in some way. In this article, we demonstrate the versatility of state-space models in addressing these problems. Not only do they enable us to compose large data series of high quality, they also provide a clear estimate of how reliable this data is, allowing any subsequent analyses to take this reliability into account. We illustrate the advantages of a state-space model using the population of Belgian municipalities as a case study. By combining growth and level data, we are able to compute yearly population statistics of over 2600 municipalities from 1880 to 1970.     

近代新式棉纺织企业工头制管理方式浅析

本文采用交易费用经济学分析框架,借助于民国时期棉纺织企业佣工的相关数据,解释了当时企业内部管理方式的演变.根据史实论断,当时企业内部的人员(企业所有者、管理者和工人)形成了一个社会网络,所有者和管理者(工头--所有者的代理人)可以认为是社会网络上的节点.当企业的规模较小时,这个社会网络可以节省工头管理工人的交易费用;然而,当企业规模越来越大时,由于网络内信息传递成本的提高,社会网络反而成为增加交易费用的原因.最终,企业所有人会倾向于采取新型管理方式,摆脱工头制度对企业发展的束缚.     

The use of wind direction data to predict pollution dispersal around the Port Kembla industrial area,New South Wales

Wind direction data were used to calculate the percentage time during which winds blew over the principal sources of air pollution at Port Kembla into each of the surrounding residential suburbs for each month of 1980. The percentage wind frequencies (PWFs) correlated well with measured concentrations of airborne metals in the suburbs and with measured rates of metal deposition in moss bags located in suburbs adjoining the air pollution sources. PWFs for all suburbs exhibited winter minima and spring-summer maxima, with the highest PWFs being calculated for suburbs south to south-west of the industrial area and the lowest for suburbs lying to the west. Where experimental data are not available, PWFs could provide an indication of air quality for land-use planning and zoning.     

The use and abuse of paradigms in the history of political thought

A paradigm is a methodological device which historians of political thought borrow from the history of science. The initial part of this article examines the views of three distinguished historians of political thought—Sheldon Wolin, Alan Ryan and John Pocock—who have borrowed paradigms. Wolin and Ryan are shown to have confused paradigms with weltanschauungen in such a way as to make the former less useful as methodological devices. Pocock, on the other hand, has been successful in his use of paradigms, though he does not sufficiently recognise their methodological limits. He also raises a conceptual problem. The latter part of this article examines the recent history of science in an attempt to clarify the use of paradigms and their limits.     

清代大高殿维修与使用的文献记载

大高殿建于明嘉靖二十一年(1542年),是明代皇室、宫官婢女演练道教科仪的场所,也是明清两代皇帝祈祷上天、求雨祈晴的地方。清朝统治者采取儒、道、释并用的政策,注重对大高殿的利用,尤其是雍正、乾隆、嘉庆、道光、光绪等朝,屡次对其进行修缮,以备皇帝亲诣拈香。本文对清代的常修、大修及八国联军对大高殿的破坏等档案史料进行梳理,并进一步阐释了清王朝对之的使用和管理。     

The mean zonal circulation in the meteor zone above Garchy (France) and Kiruna (Sweden)

The large set of data obtained from 6 years of observations by the Garchy meteor radar yields a picture of the mean zonal circulation in the 75–105 km range at 47°N. The annual wind pattern shows that the lower meteor heights (80–90 km) are characterized by strong vertical and seasonal changes and mark a region of transition between the mesospheric monsoonal circulation observed up to around 85 km and another type of circulation above 90 km characterized by a strong steady eastward circulation in the summer and a weak circulation during the rest of the year. These features were also observed over Kiruna (68°N) by another CNET meteor radar situated at this place for 1 yr. The annual wind component prevails in the meteor range and is nearly out of phase below and above the 85–90 km level. Comparisons made with the results from other stations show that these characteristics are probably planetary in character.