‘The debatable territory where geology and archaeology meet’: reassessing the early archaeobotanical work of Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Roman Silchester

The first large-scale archaeobotanical study in Britain, conducted from 1899 to 1909 by Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Silchester, provided the first evidence for the introduction of Roman plant foods to Britain, yet the findings have thus far remained unverified. This paper presents a reassessment of these archaeobotanical remains, now stored as part of the Silchester Collection in Reading Museum. The documentary evidence for the Silchester study is summarised, before the results are presented for over a 1000 plant remains including an assessment of preservation, identification and modern contamination. The dataset includes both evidence for the presence of nationally rare plant foods, such as medlar, and several archaeophytes. The methodologies and original interpretations of Reid and Lyell's study are reassessed in light of current archaeobotanical knowledge. Spatial and contextual patterns in the distribution of plant foods and ornamental taxa are also explored. Finally, the legacy of the study for the development of archaeobotany in the 20th century is evaluated.     

Copper worlds: a historical archaeology of Abraham and Jakob Momma-Reenstierna and their industrial enterprise in the Torne River Valley,c. 1650–1680

This article analyses the industrial enterprise of the Dutch-born brothers Abraham and Jakob Momma-Reenstierna and their investments in Sápmi and the upper parts of the Torne River Valley, northern Sweden, during the second half of the seventeenth century. The aim is to explore the driving forces behind the industrial projects of the two brothers in a larger global and colonial context. With inspiration from recent critical studies on the simplifications, and Eurocentrism, in earlier understandings of the birth of modernity, we focus on the modernizing processes taking place in the upper part of the Torne River Valley as a meeting zone between local populations and landscapes and external capital. Metal extraction was booming in the seventeenth-century Sámi areas. Both the Danish-Norwegian and the Swedish Crowns invested heavily in the mining of silver, copper and iron. The scientific focus in archaeology and history has hitherto been very much on the state-governed projects, and limited interest has been directed towards the private enterprises. Moreover, there is also a need to study the roles of the local Finnish and Sámi populations, as well as the global connections, in these colonial industrial projects.     

Extending modern cartography to the ocean depths: military patronage,Cold War priorities,and the Heezen–Tharp mapping project, 1952–1959

The first comprehensive map of any ocean basin—covering the North Atlantic region—was created in the US in the 1950s. Compiled by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, researchers at Columbia University's Lamont Geological Observatory, the Heezen–Tharp physiographic map of 1957 was significant in several respects. It defined the large-scale physiological provinces of the seafloor, and highlighted its major physical features (including the Rift Valley of mid-oceanic ridge, which Tharp discovered). Military funding for oceanographic research in the early Cold War made possible extensive sea voyages that provided these Columbia researchers sea-floor depth profiles and other critical information; military secrecy persuaded Heezen and Tharp to adopt the physiographic approach when national security restrictions made new bathymetric maps ‘born classified’. But overlooked until now is that the Heezen–Tharp map also deeply depended on extensive support from Bell Labs, then laboring to install the first transatlantic telephone lines. Heezen's hope that the map would support the theory of the expanding earth over the resurrected theory of continental drift did not succeed. But the 1957 North Atlantic Physiographic Chart did reaffirm that representations of the seafloor, mediated by new technologies, fundamentally reflected changing motivations for studying the oceans.     

Printed Maps of the District and State of Maine, 1793–1860: An Illustrated and Comparative Study. By Edward V. Thompson

Mapamundi. The Catalan Atlas of the year 1375. Edited with commentary by Georges Grosjean. Dietikon‐Zurich : Urs Graf Verlag, 1978. Colour facsimile on 6 panels. Pp. 93.

Vesconte Maggiolo: Atlante nautico del 1512 (Der Seeatlas vom Jahre 1512). Edited with commentary by Georges Grosjean. Dietikon‐Zurich : Urs Graf Verlag, 1979. Colour facsimile. Pp. 88.

La géographie de la renaissance (1420–1620). By Numa Broc. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1980. (Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques: Mémoires de la Section de Géographie, no. 9). Pp. 252.

Wall‐maps of the 16th and 17th centuries. A series of full‐size facsimiles of wall‐maps published in the Low Countries. Edited by Günther Schilder. Amsterdam: Nico Israel, 1977‐. 1: The world map of 1624 by Willem Jansz. Blaeu and Jodocus Hondius (1977). Pp. 17, pl. A‐U. 2: The world map of 1669 by Jodocus Hondius the elder and Nicolaas Visscher (1978). Pp. 35, pl. 20.

The compleat plattmaker. Essays on chart, map, and globe making in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Edited by Norman]. W. Thrower. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Pp. 241.

County atlases of the British Isles 1579–1810. A bibliography compiled by ?R. A. Skelton. Folkestone: Dawson, 1978. Pp. viii+262.

Christopher Saxton and Tudor map‐making. By Sarah Tyacke and John Huddy. London: The British Library, 1980. Pp.64.

The A to Z of Elizabethan London. Compiled by Adrian Prockter and Robert Taylor. Introductory notes by John Fisher. Lympne: Harry Margary, in association with the Guildhall Library, London, 1979. Pp. 62.

Plan of the parish of St. Marylebone in the county of Middlesex, by Peter Potter, c. 1832. London: Westminster City Libraries in association with the St. Marylebone Society, 1979. Pp. 2, 6 sheets.

Yorkshire maps and map‐makers. By Arthur Raistrick. Clapham, North Yorkshire: Dalesman Books, 1979. Pp. 72.

Ireland from maps. Dublin: National Library of Ireland, 1980. Pp. 20, 16 sheets.

Abriss der Kartographie des Fürstentums Kalmbach‐Bayreuth. By Hans Vollet. Kulmbach: Stadtarchiv, 1977. Pp. 175. (Die Plassenburg. Schriften für Heimatforschung und Kulturpflege in Ostfranken, vol. 38).

Die Pläne von Berlin von den Anfängen bis 1950. By Paul Clauswitz and Lothar Zögner in collaboration with Elke Günther and Gudrun K. Zögner. Berlin: Verlag Richard Seitz, 1977. Pp. 241.

Romancero del topónimo fueguino. By Juan E. Belza. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Investigaciones historicas Tierra del Fuego, 1978. Pp. 239.

[Agrave] la découvert de la terre. Dix siécles de cartographie. Trèsors du Départment des Cartes et Plans (mai‐juillet 1979). Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1979. Pp. xvi + 122. Ill.