Pigs, presses and pastoralism: farming in the fifth to sixth centuries AD

The fifth to sixth centuries were a time of significant change in rural settlement, land use, production levels and productive technology in many regions. Archaeological and related discoveries suggest that in western Europe, specialized market- and state-oriented production gave way to mixed animal husbandry and diversified farming more suited to local terrains. This was accompanied by a widespread transformation of rural settlement. In contrast, the eastern Mediterranean experienced rural settlement expansion, intensification of land use, increased market-oriented agricultural production, and a significant change in oil and wine press technology. These changes seem to reflect the socio-political context in both east and west during this pivotal period.     

A social analysis of irrigation in Al-Andalus: Nazari Granada (13th-15th centuries)

This paper concerns the outer urban area of the town of Granada in the Nasrid period (13th–15th centuries). Most agricultural land was irrigated because of the characteristic drought of the Mediterranean climate, and also because of the needs of certain crops which had been brought by the Arabs from monsoon climates. Water distribution followed patterns that were not only hydrographical and topographical but also social. In this way, social structure was reflected in land irrigation, and even its evolution can be seen in the way in which this distribution changes. It evolved from a family criterion to a topographic one, and finally to the buying and selling of allotted times independent of the land itself. Furthermore, the example of one of the acequias in this irrigated land shows that the allotted times coincided with the Islamic prayer schedule, so that the Moslem call to prayer served also to divide the day for the peasant workers.     

The maritime landscape of Kilwa Kisiwani and its region,Tanzania, 11th to 15th century AD

East African coastal archaeological research has traditionally concentrated on the stone towns. In contrast, this study adopts a maritime cultural landscape approach by examining one of those towns, Kilwa, in its wider setting towards the peak of its economic success. Using archaeological evidence derived from coastal and inter-tidal survey and excavation, it identifies the environmental advantages of Kilwa′s estuarine location and resources that are exploited by a series of settlements providing marine produce and construction materials. The maritime approaches to the town also provide the context for a cultural display of religious allegiance and power through the symbolism of conspicuously sited mosques and a more perplexing series of causeways. Knowledge of the wider integrated coastal environment is seen as key to understanding the culture and economy of the region.     

Semantics of learned quackery in the 17th and 18th centuries

In the 17th and 18th century republic of letters the problem of scientific fraud was met with a discourse of charlatanism. Departing from Johann Burchhard Menckes famous treatise on the Charlatanry of the learned the following essay traces how the accusations of academic and scientific misconduct put in terms of 'charlatanry' primarily helped to produce the new species of the erudite 'charlatan'. Facing a growing complexity of scientific culture this new frame of meaning, structured by numerous examples of scientific misconduct offered a new way of orientation in the world of learning. But besides its cognitive impacts the discourse of charlatanry allowed to create symbolic boundaries, which determined decisions upon the affiliation or non affiliation to the new forming scientific community by separating honourable from dishonourable scientific personae. Speaking of charlatanry therefore always implied a social distinction as much as a scientific. The discourses on charlatanry also mirror differentiations within the scientific field. At first dominated by a critique built on courteous or bourgeois values, the scientific field later on developed its own criteria of appraisal like authorship, originality, transparency etc. Attracting the attention of a further growing public sphere, the explicit verbalisation of claims not relating to the value system of a republic of letters primarily concerned with the production and distribution of knowledge finally led up to a more implicit moral economy of science. A change that at a large scale level can be described both as an internalisation of the values of scientific conduct and differentiation between justiciable and unjusticiable transgressions of the norms set up by the scientific community.     

东晋南北朝古道经研究简述及分析

东晋南北朝道经属于重要的“古道经”系统,对道教史研究具有重要意义。本文对近五十年来西方、日本及国内的东晋南北朝古道经研究作了一个简略的综述,重点探讨了此类研究所采取的方法及其指导意义,并在此基础上进行了简单的总结。     

Mitochondrial DNA studies of the Pazyryk people (4th to 3rd centuries BC) from northwestern Mongolia

The discovery and excavations in 2006 by joint Russian–German–Mongolian expeditions of the Pazyryk culture burial sites (4th to 3rd centuries BC, Early Iron Age, the Scythian period) in the Altai mountains of northwestern Mongolia near the Russia border provided new material for studying various aspects of these ancient peoples lives, including human, animal and plant remains. Ice accumulation in the graves preserved the human remains, allowing biological analysis of the samples. We conducted a genetic study based on mitochondrial DNA from remains of three Pazyryk culture representatives to investigate the possible genetic relationships of this Siberian Scythian group with populations of adjacent territories. These data support possible genetic contacts between populations of Altai and other Eurasia regions in the Early Iron Age, and are in good agreement with corresponding archaeological and anthropological data. However, a large-scale study of the Pazyryk population gene pool structure must be performed to further confirm these findings.     

Tree-ring chronologies for the 6th to 16th centuries for oaks of southern and eastern England

The background to the problem of providing useful oak chronologies for the variable environmental conditions that apply in southern and eastern England is outlined. The reference chronologies published here embrace three new principles. Firstly, the samples, nearly 300, on which they are based are almost entirely of boards or planks that are of radial section (from oaks aged on average about 250 years) that form part of panel paintings or chests. Secondly, to take account of the differences in the growth pattern with the vigour of growth, separate chronologies for sequences of different ring-width have been formed. Thirdly, on account of the difficulties in extending, with the samples available, an English chronology by the method of overlapping, eight separate chronologies, each about 300 years long, have been created. Matching has been based on German methods, i.e. computer comparisons (with more than one reference chronology) supported by visual comparison of charts. Agreement values in about half a million positions were calculated.These reference chronologies, expressed as ring-widths, are suitable for application to oaks that have grown within a region of considerable size that covers both sides of the North Sea. For panels used as a support for paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, they have dated 85% of 130 English (London area) ones and about the same percentage of 25 Flemish ones. Rather earlier, sequences for oak boards used in places as far apart as York, Norwich, Oxford and Winchester have been matched. In the 10th to 12th centuries, the ring-width chronology derived for the London area shows good agreement with those for the hilly regions of Germany and that for Schleswig, as well as dating floor planks from Viking houses in York. A floating chronology, 322 years long, dataed to the 6th to 9th centuries by several radiocarbon analyses, has been formed from long sequences of rings from timbers excavated at Old Windsor and Portchester: this has matched material from Southampton and is linked with a mean curve for the well at North Elmham (Norfolk) and the strakes of the Graveney ship.     

8—10世纪丝绸之路中段呼罗珊大道考述

8—10世纪是阿拔斯王朝繁荣的时期,其东部行省大呼罗珊省在地理范围上达到最大,经济文化繁荣,因而该时期也是呼罗珊大道最繁荣的时期。然而,呼罗珊大道一直以来都作为一个模糊的概念被广泛使用,故本文利用该时期的文字文献以及考古出土的文物明确了呼罗珊大道这一概念:从巴格达到大呼罗珊省并贯穿大呼罗珊省全境的道路,因大呼罗珊省的范围变化致使该大道具有历史性和空间性;详细考证了呼罗珊大道的路线:西起帝国中心巴格达,沿线经过哈马丹、赖伊、尼沙普尔、木鹿、布哈拉、撒马尔罕、扎敏,最后止于穆斯林控制疆域的边界——上努舍疆;分析了呼罗珊大道对于唐朝和阿拔斯王朝以及大道沿线各地区之间物产流通及文化交流的重要作用。     

Reimagining the City of Fire and Iron: A landscape archaeology of the Angkor-Period Industrial Complex of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay,Cambodia (ca. 9th to 13th centuries A.D.)

In the archaeological literature regional centers often receive far less attention than capital regions and the medieval Khmer Empire (ca. 9th to 15th centuries a.d.) is a classic case in point. At its height, the Khmer Empire stretched across much of mainland Southeast Asia, and it remains the most extensive dominion in the history of the region. To date, however, relatively little archaeological work has been completed outside of the capital of Angkor, and we have a limited understanding of the broader dynamics of the Empire. In this paper we begin to address this lacuna at the remote monumental complex of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, the largest of all the Angkor-period regional centers. We describe the use of remote sensing and ground survey methods to produce the first comprehensive archaeological map of the site. The map data are used to evaluate conventional interpretations of the site as a major industrial complex, urban center and military outpost. The findings have implications for our understanding of early urbanism, industrial production and imperial expansion in the region.     

Dutch pantiles in the county of Norfolk: architecture and international trade in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

A series of clay tobacco pipes made in the Virginia colony in the 17th century were adorned with rouletted stars. In considering the many possible readings of their iconography, this study explores the social use of the celestial landscape, arguing that stars and constellations represented familiar features in a landscape otherwise alien to Chesapeake immigrants. They were therefore among the points of convergence which served to provide a foundation for dialogue across ethnic boundaries. Algonquian, European, and West African star lore are considered to the extent that available evidence allows, in recognition that a diversity of authors contributed to the pipes' lavish embellishment.     

管窥9—10世纪我国陶瓷贸易的域外中转港现象——以东南亚地区为焦点

9-10世纪时,我国海上对外贸易进入了第一个高峰时期,标志之一就是瓷器的大规模外销。其路线大致可分为两条:一条自东海、黄海至高丽、日本等国,另一条自南海至东南亚、印度及阿拉伯地区等处。关于后者,东南亚地区是一个重要的节点。当时在东南亚地区是否存在中国瓷器外销的中转港,学界众说纷纭。从爪哇海发现的黑石号、印坦和井里汶三条沉船出发,通过梳理相关文献及考古材料,可以认为9世纪前中期在东南亚可能并不存在中转港;9世纪末,在黄巢攻掠广州之后,中转港才得以逐渐形成,其地点很可能是文献记载的"箇罗国"。     

泾、浜发展与吴淞江流域的圩田水利(9-15世纪)

自宋代的塘浦系统开始瓦解以来,吴淞江流域的泾浜体系开始发展。泾浜水系和以后溇的出现,基本上人为形成的。在不断的历史发展中,泾浜体系形成具有干枝结构的网状水系,这种结构非常稳定地存在了近500年。这种结构下的圩田水利模式一般是小圩模式。在冈身感潮地区,泾浜体系比较密集,且末端水系有弯曲化现象;在低地地区,为了排水的方便,河道的干枝体系较为顺直。在这种体系下,治水必须与治田相结合。到后期,随着圩田治理的深化,进一步出现了称为溇的末端水系。     

A possible case of hyperparathyroidism in a burial of 15–17th century AD date from Wharram Percy,England

The subject of this paper is the partial skeleton of an adult female, dating to ad 1420–1640, excavated from the church at the deserted village of Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, UK. Lesions are described which are probably indicative of hyperparathyroidism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.