Weathering Effects on the Engineering Properties of Sydney (Yellow Block) Sandstone when used as a Building Material

Sydney (Yellow Block) Sandstone is the primary building material used in many nineteenth century buildings in Sydney, Australia. As a natural material, it is subject to deterioration in the salty environment and in extreme cases will need to be removed and replaced. Two cornice pieces have been removed from State Heritage Registered, the Australian Museum due to evidence of visual decay patterns including surface degradation, slight sanding, granular disintegration, contour scaling and flaking, pitting, discoloration, soiling, alga growth and there are missing parts. Stone samples removed from within these building elements were tested for their engineering properties after over 100 years of natural exposure. It was found that the stone has become weaker, softer, less durable, and has an increased capacity to absorb water. The stone was found to be more susceptible to attack from sodium sulfate ingress as opposed to sodium chloride, which would have contributed to the weathering effects noted on the stone. The degree of exposure experienced by each building element was also found to be a factor in the loss of stone quality.     

Symbols of Cultural Identity: A Case Study from Tanzania

Cultural expressions and their contexts of use among two groups of Maconde form a basis for a discussion of cultural reproduction and the fluidity of ethnic boundaries. The material presented here is based on ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in Tanzania and Mozambique. Two groups, one based in Tanzania and the other in Mozambique, both identify themselves as one group, although they use and display material culture quite differently. The arguments in the paper are concerned with understanding the highly dynamic character of ethnicity in these East African societies and an attempt to look at shifting ethnic boundaries among the groups in the Rovuma Basin, in particular, over the last centuries. Here symbols of cultural identity have been manipulated and reintroduced into new contexts, as cultures change and groups adjust to their social environment.     

Were Olduvai Hominins making butchering tools or battering tools? Analysis of a recently excavated lithic assemblage from BK (Bed II,Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania)

A new interpretation of early stone-tool use by hominins at Olduvai depicts them as involved in battering activities (using pounding tools) rather than making cutting butchering tools as is commonly inferred in most other Plio-Pleistocene sites where lithics appear associated to faunal remains. The bulk of this interpretation is based on the recognition of the stigma of percussion activities in anvils and detached by-products. Renewed excavations at BK after more than half a century of the beginning of the digging at the site by M. Leakey have produced a new and unbiased lithic assemblage. The taphonomic study of the faunal assemblage has shown that BK is an anthropogenic site where carcass butchery practices were repeatedly performed over a vast amount of time. The present analysis of the lithic artefacts supports this interpretation by showing that the obtainment of flakes was the principal aim in stone knapping. We argue that a number of technical traits observed in the lithic collection of BK can be best interpreted as the result of bipolar loading rather than the by-products of battering activities. Since BK has provided the second largest collection of hominid-modified bones from Olduvai, it is concluded that detached pieces produced in the course of bipolar reduction might have played an active role in bone modification and that active rather than passive percussion behaviors might have been responsible for the formation of the lithic assemblage. The functionality of the Oldowan stone tools are discussed under the light of the new study.     

FUNCTION AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FLINT ARTIFACTS FROM PINCEVENT SECTION 36 LEVEL IV 40

Summary. A recently excavated Magdalenian habitation at Pincevent (Seine-et-Marne, France) provided flint material, which is the subject of a new functional analysis. The analysis is built upon and compared with previous work on the technology and functions of stone tools at Pincevent and other European sites. The new sample is very fresh and, therefore, unbiased by the effects of differential preservation. The artifacts, distributed around a hearth, show uses associated predominantly with hide, suggesting that the locality may be an 'extensive', or out-lying activity area, rather than a domestic living floor. A fuller interpretation will be possible after all of the archaeological results have been integrated.     

The oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artifacts

Early Stone Age assemblages called “Oldowan” and early “Developed Oldowan” are discussed, based on the results of a long-term study of Plio-Pleistocene sites at Koobi Fora, Kenya and an extensive experimental research program of replicating and using early stone artifact forms. Five major conclusions are drawn from this investigation: (1) many Oldowan core forms (“core-tools”) are probably simple by-products of flake manufacture rather than representations of stylistic norms; (2) flakes and retouched flakes - were essential tools in Oldowan technology, particularly for activities involving cutting; (3) this simple technology does not necessarily reflect the cognitive abilities of the early hominids that manufactured the stone artifacts; (4) there is evidence to show that Oldowan technology can be viewed as a simple curated one, in which raw material was intentionally carried from place to place for future use; (5) early hominid populations that made and used stone implements were not necessarily dependent upon them for their survival.     

唐贞顺皇后敬陵石椁

唐玄宗贞顺皇后敬陵位于陕西省西安市长安区大兆镇庞留村西。墓中石梓为面阔三间、进深两间的单檐殿顶建筑,内壁和外壁布满雕刻及彩绘。外壁以神话人物和花鸟画面为主,绕以花草纹、动物纹、云纹等;内壁以仕女画面为主,边框饰花卉纹:基座刻瑞兽形象。是月前所见体积最大、等级最高的石掉,为研究唐代丧葬制度和绘画史提供了重要的实物资料。     

道教性命双修的文化精神特质与汉代养生画像石刻

养生汉画像石是汉文化的重要组成部分,体达着“下根”之人对于道教义理的认识和选择。以往相关研究多流于图像内容的阐释,着力点在于将该类画像还原成文献,缺乏对图像形式背后所隐藏观念意味的关注,未曾从道教房中养生思想对汉画观念浸润的层面作深入考察。房中养生画像石刻是对特定历史时期道教养生观念的诠释和图解,它的出现,与汉代特殊的人文环境有着密切的联系。     

FLINT-WORKING IN THE METAL AGE

Summary. This paper considers the relationship between flint technology and the development of metalworking in Britain. The gradual adoption of metals is reflected by changes in the range of flint flakes being produced, the efficiency with which the raw material was worked and the number of implement types that continued to be made of stone. The main types to remain in use were those for which flint was a more suitable material than bronze. The intensity of flint-working as a whole may be one clue to the accessibility of metal in different areas.     

MEDIEVAL BRICK‐BUILDING IN THE CENTRAL ALPS*

Since Roman times, the Alpine area has been the scene of all movements in brick construction—certainly only in a few places, but always at a high technical and aesthetic level. This is all the more surprising as in the mountain areas sufficient stone material is available in a suitable quality for building. Obviously, brick materials displayed overwhelming advantages. Via the mediation of the Church and the secular managerial class, the latent capacity of brick technology was able to rapidly gain a foothold as ideas began to flow internationally. Every era has discovered particular advantages in the use of brick and has expressed them in its architecture.     

Conquest,ceramics, continuity and change. Beyond representational approaches to continuity and change in early medieval England: a case study from Anglo‐Norman Southampton

Studies of Anglo‐Norman material culture, and pottery in particular, have struggled to see how processes of change are reflected in the material record. In this paper I propose a new approach to the analysis of this material. By reconstructing how people interacted with objects, we can see how the agency to create Anglo‐Norman England was distributed through interactions between people and their surroundings. Furthermore, rather than being reflected in such interactions, continuity and change flowed through engagements with objects, generating unique meanings and experiences. This approach therefore challenges the existing ontology that underlies our understanding of the period and its political developments and ethnic identities.     

Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera Formation

The archaeological record of Oldowan hominins represents a diverse behavioral system. It has been suggested that exploitation of lithic resources by Oldowan hominins was simplistic and represented mostly use of local sources of stone. Here we investigate the raw material selection and transport behaviors of Oldowan hominins reflected in the stone artifact assemblages from the Kanjera South Formation, South Rachuonyo District, Kenya. Using geochemical methods (ED-XRF) artifacts are linked to primary and secondary source outcrops throughout southwestern Kenya. These data show that hominins selected raw materials for transport at frequencies that are significantly different from their availability on ancient landscapes. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the assemblage represents transport over relatively long distances (>10 km). Our study further suggests that in the early stages of stone tool use hominins used a wide variety of raw materials and selected these materials at some distance from their eventual discard locations. Early hominin behavior may have incorporated an understanding of raw material source distributions across a more extensive landscape than has been previously documented. This supports the growing perspective that Oldowan technology represents a more complex behavioral pattern than is usually associated with the beginnings of hominin tool use.     

Reconstruction of the Rib Vaults of the Hypostyle Hall in the Maniace Castle of Siracusa After the 1693 Earthquake

Built in the first half of the 13th century on behalf of the Emperor Frederick II, the Maniace Castle of Siracusa focuses its enigma in the hypostyle hall (which was composed of 25 quadripartite rib vaults) and the design criteria adopted for its implementation. Recent research and a careful rereading of the documentary “restoration project” after the earthquake of 1693 have offered new tools to understand the construction techniques and building procedures for the entire organism. It has been possible to demonstrate that the different material (white limestone and volcanic stone) used for the vaults is, in fact, a product of reconstruction. The constructive node, which historiography has taken for granted, is now crucial—the documentary evidence of the restoration after the earthquake compared with the materials found in situ provide interpretive keys to decode genesis and procedures of the huge structure built five centuries before.     

How much did a Swedish Schoolhouse Cost to Build? Rewriting the history of 19th-century rural schoolhouses

How much did the 19^th-century rural schoolhouse cost to build? On the basis of a study of schoolhouse building in the Sundsvall region in the period 1842–1900, this article shows how the cost of school buildings increased over time, both overall and by schoolhouse, largely because of the marginalization of cheaper and simpler redevelopment projects, as well as the construction of a number of more expensive schoolhouses. Through the use of extensive source material, preserved from the building of 66 schoolhouses, a more detailed analysis of these developments has demonstrated differences in price levels between purchased schoolhouses, redevelopments of existing buildings and new building projects, and buildings intended for different types of schools. Insights are also given into labour and material costs. In addition to establishing basic facts about a main feature of the expanding system of mass education, this study thus makes a reinterpretation of the 19^th-century rural schoolhouse which emphasizes new patterns of development and fundamental distinctions, presenting schoolhouses as a social and economic issue, rather than an architectural or pedagogical concern. Instead of being described as rather simple buildings, in comparison with the major buildings in the cities, schoolhouses thus appear as a major item of expenditure for local government.     

从“研”到“砚”——论砚台形制的最初演变

砚是根据中国传统书写和绘画的特有需要产生的。它的历史可以追溯到新石器时代,前身是原始研磨器,而砚最初的汉字表示也并不是"砚"字,而是"研"字。古代文献以及出土砚墨实物材料都表明,从"研"到"砚"的过程正对应了东汉时期砚台形制的最初演变,这种演变与墨的形制改变有着直接联系。     

Experimentation in the Formation of Edge Damage: A New Approach to Lithic Analysis

Abstract

The paper describes a series of experiments recently carried out to test the formation of edge-damage on flaked stone tools which results from their being used in various tasks. Variables that were systematically tested include action, worked material, angle of the edge, and grip. The main criterion in distinguishing different patterns of damage was microflaking rather than abrasion in the form of striations and polish.

The results of these experiments may be applied to the identification of patterns of damage to the edges of prehistoric stone tools. The information gained from such microwear analysis may be used not only to provide details on the activities and settlement organization of prehistoric societies, but also to provide an important new dimension to lithic analysis in general. In lithic analysis, the main criteria of change have been the macromorphological features of the tools. It is our contention, however, that the additional information on the function of the tools, which is provided by microwear analysis, can contribute to the greater understanding of the processes of change in lithic assemblages and culture change as a whole.

The experimental program was designed to test the formation of edge-damage on implements manufactured in European chalk flint. It was to aid in the identification of wear patterns on lithic assemblages from the neolithic period in Central and Eastern Europe, a project in which the authors were involved. Its relevance, however, includes directly those assemblages of the post-Pleistocene period in temperate and Mediterranean Europe. The results of the experiments may also be useful, it is hoped, for lithic analysis in general, both in the Old and New World.     

Nationalism or ‘Tribalism’: The Evolution of Cape Afrikaner Ethnic Consciousness in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract. This article seeks to explore the evolution of the ethnic consciousness of the Afrikaners in the Cape Colony at an initial and crucial stage. The colonial Cape Afrikaners are treated as a core community, distinguished from Afrikaner communities in other states in South Africa. It is argued that their collective consciousness was shaped primarily by their core colonial experience rather than by their ethnocultural commonality with the other diaspora Afrikaner communities. Having been socialised into the British colonial state, they have evolved a collective consciousness premised on neither ethnic self-determination nor ethnic exclusiveness. Correspondingly, their political outlook incorporated both British imperialism and Cape white multi-culturalism. They were mobilised ethnically to secure their share in the spoils of the British colonial state rather than to attain ethno-nationalist goals.     

Throwing Behaviour and the Mass Distribution of Geological Hand Samples,Hand Grenades and Olduvian Manuports

This research examines the efficiency of impact energy delivered by a thrown rock and the relationship between the mechanics of throwing and how rocks are chosen. This choice tends to lead to a Poisson distribution of mass with different means for men and women. These values are reflected in the mass of hand samples selected by geologists, in the throwing stones made in the last century by the Nuie Islanders, in the sport of handball and in the design of hand grenades. When the mass distributions of manuports from Olduvai and Koobi Fora are examined two very different mass distributions can be seen: one indicating a probable selection by larger creatures of almost modern human size, the other by creatures that were far smaller. Observations of Olduvian cobble tools indicate that their mass distribution is similar to the manuports hoarded by the larger hominids. A simple engineering model links the mass distribution of selected rocks to body size and it is suggested that this technique can be used to reveal sexual differences in cobble tool making and any differences in body size during the development of the Olduvian industry or at distinct geographical sites. Perhaps the most intriguing use of this technique, however, is in the examination of the mass and form of stone deposits laid down before stone tools were manufactured. A specific clustering would indicate, within a certain degree of statistical probability, the deliberate selection and hoarding by a hominid species that used the systematic hurling of rocks as a behavioural strategy. In this case, stone tools would represent an improvement on an object of the same mass and material that had been part of an earlier culture.     

Experimental use and quantitative performance analysis of triangular flakes (Levallois points) used as arrowheads

The invention and widespread use of projectile weaponry is a characteristic presumed to exist only with Homo sapiens. However, as finds of wooden material during the early development of projectile weapons are extremely rare, this remains a contentious topic. Recent work has proposed a series of ballistically-significant morphological characteristics of stone points that yield information about their potential use. Here we report on initial experimental approaches to quantifying the performance of relatively simple stone points as arrow armatures. Two experimental trials were performed using a series of 51 Levallois points. The first, against a uniform density target, was designed to give an overall indication of performance. The second, against a simulated animal carcass, demonstrated the durability of these points. The results of this study suggest that small Levallois points could have functioned as arrowheads, albeit ones likely to break after limited use. They also suggest that these points’ penetrating power is strongly controlled by their morphometric characteristics, most notably their perimeter. This latter finding refines a method for assessing hypothetical Paleolithic stone points on the basis of tip cross-sectional area previously proposed by others.     

元代景教石刻的复制工艺

石刻文物的复制工艺较为复杂,尤其是石刻大器,从制作模具到翻制器物均无成规可循。此次复制元代景教石刻,经过多次实验,从材料的选择、配方及工艺流程都取得了新的经验。     

CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF STUCCOS FROM A MEXICAN COLONIAL BUILDING: EL MUSEO DEL CALENDARIO OF QUERETARO*

Restoration requires the use of appropriate characterization methods and suitable new material preparation processes permit the reproduction of the original material to be as similar as possible in order to be an appropriate application method. The combination of these factors will facilitate a good restoration process. Different stuccos were taken from El Museo del Calendario, a building located in Querétaro, Mexico which was built in the 16th century. All the stucco samples were studied using the characterization process which is proposed in this article. The characterization method consisted of the use of analytical techniques, such as X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscopy. This characterization method made reproduction of the original material possible. The new material combined with new application techniques developed in situ will result in a high‐quality restoration process.