Locating the Harbour: Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim: a Roman and Islamic Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt

Recent maritime investigations at Quseir al-Qadim, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, have revealed the importance of this port in both the Roman and later Islamic periods. This paper outlines the key evidence for the location of the harbours, from survey, sedimentological analysis and selective excavation. The Roman harbour, occupied between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD, was located in a now-silted lagoon. Over 100 sedimentological cores indicated its siltation process. By the time the site was reoccupied in the 12th century AD, the harbour was reduced to a small bay at the entrance to the former lagoon.
© 2007 The Author     

罗马帝国沿海路向东方的探索

罗马帝国沿海路向东方的探索,在大多数情况下是以红海水道为基地展开的,而帝国的繁荣则是罗马人航行东方的物质基础。公元一世纪,罗马人已注意到了印度与中国的贸易交往;公元二世纪,罗马人的活动范围扩展到孟加拉湾东海岸地区和整个印支半岛,并从海陆两路到达中国,同中国建立起了直接的贸易关系。希腊一罗马世界对中国的知识亦随之大为发展;公元三世纪末以后,随着帝国的衰落,特别是七世纪中叶阿拉伯伊斯兰势力的兴起,罗马人乃至整个欧洲从海路向东方的探索被完全阻断。罗马人沿海路向东方的探索,对古代中西海上丝绸之路的开通发挥了不可磨灭的作用。     

Bird Remains from Two Sites on the Red Sea Coast and some Observations on Medullary Bone

This paper discusses the bird remains found in the Roman levels of the military fort of ‘Abu Sha’ ar and of the ancient harbour of Berenike. Food procurement was essentially based on wild resources at ‘Abu Sha’ ar and this is also reflected in the bird remains. Only 28 per cent of the bird bones at the low status site of ‘Abu Sha’ ar are from domestic fowl, whereas at the commercially important town of Berenike 92 per cent were. Medullary bone was present in 66 per cent of the 161 chicken remains at Berenike. The occurrence and formation of medullary bone in modern domestic fowl is discussed and possibilites from its study in the chicken remains from Berenike are presented.     

The domestic fowl and other birds from the Roman site of Mons Claudianus,Egypt

At the Roman quarry settlement of Mons Claudianus in the Eastern Desert of Egypt extreme aridity has preserved large amounts of organic matter. Amongst the faunal remains were several hundred bird bones, together with feathers and egg shell. The majority of the bird bones have been identified as domestic fowl Gallus gallus. Other species are rare: they include a few passage migrants and resident species. Finds of spurred tarsometatarsi and bones with medullary deposits indicate that both male and female domestic fowl are represented. It is likely that they were transported to the site from the Nile valley alive; some may have been kept at the settlement. Cut marks suggest that some at least were eaten, but the birds may have been used for different purposes, both secular and ritual. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

波里比阿论古典罗马共和国政制

本文重点探讨波里比阿的混合政体及其与罗马共和国政治生活实际的关系。首先讨论了波里比阿有关单纯政体产生、堕落和循环的理论,在此基础上,考察了他关于罗马共和政体乃混合政体、混合政体相对稳定的观念以及混合性质在罗马政体中的具体表现,并对波里比阿的理论与罗马共和国政治实际之间的关系进行了讨论,指出波里比阿理想化的论述与共和国的实际之间存在一定差距。本文指出,波里比阿已经意识到混合政体像单纯政体一样,注定会走向衰落,尽管速度相对缓慢。他有关斯奇庇奥美德的描述,正反衬了波里比阿时代罗马道德的普遍堕落。     

Roman Rigging Material from the Red Sea Port of Myos Hormos

Excavation of the Roman port of Myos Hormos on the Egyptian Red Sea coast has revealed both the extent of the Roman harbour and a significant corpus of maritime artefacts. These include a relatively large quantity of rigging material such as brail-rings and sailcloth dating from the late-1st century BC to the middle of the 3rd century AD. These finds are important for our understanding of ancient shipping in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean regions.
© 2007 The Author     

Massive storage in As Laias/O Castelo (Ourense,NW Spain) from the Late Bronze Age/Iron Age transition to the Roman period: a palaeoethnobotanical approach

The highest platforms of As Laias, a settlement located in northwest Iberia, were used for storage during the Iron Age and until the turn of the Era. In this time-span, the whole hilltop – the croa – was a walled enclosure mostly used for storage and due to recurrent fires affecting the settlement's terraces, abundant plant remains were preserved in overlying wattle and daub storage structures.     

Interpreting the immature chicken bones from the Romano-British ritual complex on West Hill,Uley

The prehistoric to post-Roman site of West Hill, Uley in southwestern Britain was excavated between 1976 and 1979, and yielded a quarter of a million animal bones. Part of the site was a ritual complex, and this in particular produced a considerable amount of domestic fowl. A major problem has been to evaluate the immature domestic fowl bones and determine whether all ages are represented. This presents problems because the varieties of fowl represented are unknown. Therefore, can the osteometric data be seen as homogeneous? In fact the distribution of adult measurements suggests that one variety was mainly represented, that a wide range of ages of fowl were sacrificed, and that the selection of birds was probably not entirely random. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Presumed Hydraulic Apparatus for the Transport of Live Fish,Found on the Roman Wreck at Grado,Italy

The Roman wreck found off Grado, not far from the city of Aquileia in the north Adriatic Sea, was recovered in 1999. The ship carried various kinds of amphoras with processed fish. A lead pipe, inserted in the hull near the keel, is curious evidence which the authors try to explain. The pipe could be connected to a piston‐pump to suck water. A theoretical reconstruction demonstrates how this apparatus could work and that it could be used to feed a tank to allow trading in live fish over a long distance. © 2011 The Authors     

甲骨卜辞“疋”地考

甲骨卜辞中有个地名"疋"。通过甲骨文材料、传世文献资料、出土器物综合分析,"疋"的地望在陕西省汉中盆地中东部的城固、洋县一带,其核心区域在湑水河下游两岸的平原地带。"城洋铜器群"可能是古"疋国"的文化遗物。     

Comment on ‘A Bayesian approach to ageing perinatal skeletal material from archaeological sites: implications for the evidence for infanticide in Roman Britain’ by R.L. Gowland and A.T. Chamberlain

In 1993, I published a paper noting that the age distribution of perinatal infants for some Romano-British sites did not conform to a natural mortality pattern but rather showed a pronounced peak at a gestational age corresponding approximately to a full term infant. I interpreted this as suggestive of infanticide, given that the deed is generally carried out immediately after birth. Gowland and Chamberlain have recently published in this journal (J. Archaeol. Sci. 29 (2002) 677) a reconsideration of the problem of Roman infanticide in which they suggest that the peak I observed in the Romano-British perinatal age at death distribution may have been an artefact of the particular ageing technique I used, and they hence call into question the evidence for Roman infanticide. In this comment I argue that their work is seriously flawed and, using a re-analysis of my 1993 data, I demonstrate that the perinatal peak I observed in the Romano-British age distribution is a robust result that supports an interpretation of infanticide.     

Two Ancient Wooden Anchors from Ein Gedi, on the Dead Sea, Israel

Two ancient wooden anchors with ropes, dating to different periods, were found on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The one-armed anchor was dated by 14C to the Late Iron Age—Persian Period, and the second anchor to the Roman Period. The saline water of the Dead Sea preserved the wood and ropes, but corroded almost all the metal parts. A thin black crust of lead and a green crust of copper are the only remains of the collar of the Roman anchor. The finds were made from local tree species and were probably made locally: the one-armed anchor from Acacia, the Roman one from Christ-thorn, and both ropes of date-palm.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

论康熙朝北京内城旗人的外迁及其影响

本文以康熙三十四年（1695年）北京内城一部分旗人由于生计问题移居城外各教场周边地区这一事件为切入点,深入探讨此次事件的历史意义和影响,阐明北京＂城外八旗＂作为一个范围从九门外驻防营房到教场地区营房的整体的形成过程,分析由此形成的清代中期北京城八旗分布不同于以往＂内外城旗民分居＂旧格局的三层新格局,即内城核心八旗驻防区...     

Same island, different diet: Cultural evolution of food practice on Öland, Sweden, from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period

The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in north-west Europe has been described as rapid and uniform, entailing a swift shift from the use of marine and other wild resources to domesticated terrestrial resources. Here, we approach the when, what and how of this transition on a regional level, using empirical data from Öland, an island in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish east coast, and also monitor changes that occurred after the shift. Radiocarbon dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bones and teeth from 123 human individuals, along with faunal isotope data from 27 species, applying to nine sites on Öland and covering a time span from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period, demonstrate a great diversity in food practices, mainly governed by culture and independent of climatic changes. There was a marked dietary shift during the second half of the third millennium from a mixed marine diet to the use of exclusively terrestrial resources, interpreted as marking the large-scale introduction of farming. Contrary to previous claims, this took place at the end of the Neolithic and not at the onset. Our data also show that culturally induced dietary transitions occurred continuously throughout prehistory. The availability of high-resolution data on various levels, from intra-individual to inter-population, makes stable isotope analysis a powerful tool for studying the evolution of food practices.     

《与同年诸翰林论文书》作者辨误

黄宗羲编选《明文海》、《明文授读》时,误将明代嘉靖至万历时期徐显卿所作的《与同年诸翰林论文书》一文置于成化至正德时期的徐祯卿名下,后来许多研究者便据此认为徐祯卿的诗文理论"充满悖论",并试图为他这种根本不存在的所谓"悖论"强行解释,这是不可能成立的。     

说花园庄东地甲骨卜辞的“丁”——附:释“速”

最近公布的殷墟花园庄东地甲骨卜辞中,多次出现一位当时还活着的、称为“丁”的人物,从卜辞内容可以看出其地位甚高。本文主要通过指出这批卜辞中与历组一类占卜同事的一组卜辞,肯定了“丁”就是当时的商王武丁。以“丁”称呼时王武丁,究竟应该如何解释尚待进一步研究。同时,也可以进一步推定这批卜辞的时代,当为武丁晚期而非整理者认为的“武丁前期”。此外,这批卜辞中多次出现的一个整理者隶定作“”的字,应释为“速”,意为“召”、“召请”。旧有殷墟卜辞中一个或释读为“眚”、“软”、“喘”等的字,应释为“” ,读为咳嗽之“嗽”。     

试论殷墟花园庄东地卜辞的行款

殷墟花园庄东地卜辞的行款表面上看较为复杂,但实际上仍遵循着一定的规律。这种规律表现为:卜辞基本守兆,在卜兆上方由内向外契刻,至兆干后再沿兆干外侧下行。由于卜辞字数不同,有的未至兆干即止,有的刻至兆干下方后再内行或外行。此外,相关卜兆的数量与排列方式、卜甲上卜辞条数的多寡、卜甲上可供刻字的空间等因素也会影响到卜辞的行款。了解、掌握花园庄东地卜辞行款与卜兆之间的密切关系,将有助于进一步认识王卜辞与其它非王卜辞的行款规律,对深入探讨商代后期的占卜制度也有裨益。     

南京政府行政督察专员制度的法制考察

南京政府行政督察专员制度,是近代中国社会转型过程中的重要的地方政府转型与制度改革。就专员的资格与任期、职权与辖区、组织与经费等方面考察,专员制的法制功能是显而易见的。然专员制度的法律设计与实际状况之间无疑存在着一定的偏离状态,但这种偏离没有影响到该制度的基本运作,因而专员制度的法制状态应是正常的或基本正常的。专员制度是中国地方政府制度历史长河中发展演变的重要一环,也是中国地方政府从传统体制向现代体制过渡的重要一步。而且．专员制度的变革,也凸现了民国时期社会转型的历史画卷。     

战国秦汉时期长江中游地区气候状况研究

本文根据历史文献、考古材料和钻孔孢粉资料等,对战国秦汉时期长江中游地区的气候状况进行了初步的探讨。结果表明:战国初期,该地气候温暖湿润;战国中后期至西汉武帝后期,气温下降,气候温凉,极端寒冷事件不断出现;约从公元前100年始,气温明显回升,至公元初年前后,长江中游地区复为温暖湿润的气候环境;公元之初的新莽政权时期,气候经历了由暖而寒的历史转变,降温过程大致持续到东汉明帝时期;之后至东汉中后期,气候暖湿,尤其是冬季气温相对较高;东汉后期,气候再度出现了幅度不大的波动,标志着魏晋南北朝时期大降温的开始。此间气候虽屡有起伏,但总体而言,战国秦汉时期长江中游地区的气候仍以暖湿为主,气温略高于今,或与现今差别不大。在干湿状况方面,具有干湿相间的特点。