Some Napoleonic-style army camps from the period of the Dutch-Belgian separation (1830–1839) in the Southern Netherlands

This paper focuses on the period of the political separation of the Netherlands and Belgium (1830–1839). Both countries were in a state of war for almost a decade, which resulted in massive troop deployments along their borders and the militarisation of the landscape. The principal objects of study are the Dutch army camps at Rijen and Oirschot near the Belgian border, which to date have barely received any scholarly attention. Both camps were almost 2 km across and offered accommodation to up to 12,000 infantry soldiers. They will be studied from an archaeological-historical perspective, focusing on the spatial and social dimensions of the camps and their place in the wider landscape. The camps are representative of the final stage of pre-industrial warfare in Europe, which is characterised by a continuation of many eighteenth century and Napoleonic traditions.     

Skates and Prickers from the Circular Fortress of Oost-Souburg,The Netherlands (AD 900–975)

Abstract

During the excavation of the circular fortress of Oost-Souburg, the Netherlands, objects of bone and antler were found: combs, needles, spindles, three-pronged objects, bone skates and points. The finds are dated between AD 900 and 975. In this contribution the objects which belong to the winter season, the bone skates and the points, are discussed. The skates occur in various types and are made of a variety of bones. Certain types of skate were used without bindings, others were either designed to be fastened to the feet or possibly were tied only at the heels. The roughly-made points that were found may be the points of the prickers used to propel the skater forward on his skates.     

‘Cultivating the African’: Barclays DCO and the Decolonisation of Business Strategy in Kenya, 1950–78

While there is a great deal of recent research on the response of British business to decolonisation and a wide range of literature examining the alleged ‘neo-colonial’ relations between business and state in the post-colonial period, few studies of business attempt to straddle the awkward periodisation defined by the official hand-over of political responsibility. Barclays Bank DCO embarked on its decolonisation strategy in Kenya in anticipation of political and economic change and continued to follow that same strategy after the formal transfer of power from London to Nairobi. The article demonstrates the precise nexus of political and commercial reasons for Barclays’ approach in Kenya and outlines its successes and failures in responding to political and economic change in a newly emerging nation. In so doing, it emphasises that this particular British business, while not always in complete control of events on the ground, was more than a victim or beneficiary of circumstances about which it knew little and could do less. Rather, Barclays was an active participant in the process of decolonisation, reorganising and adapting its business model and employment structure to suit the times in Kenya.     

Transforming the Dutch Republic into the Kingdom of Holland: the Netherlands between Republicanism and Monarchy (1795–1815)1

In 1806 more than two centuries of the republican form of government in the Northern Netherlands came to an end. For a long time, historiography had it that the Dutch were indifferent to the end of the Republic and the establishment of the Kingdom of Holland. The transformation was, however, a much more dynamic process than has been portrayed. King Louis Bonaparte had the difficult task of acquainting a republican people with monarchy. Even though republicanism had lost much of its appeal by 1806, and the usefulness of democratic institutions was put into question, many Batavians nourished anti-monarchism. The Dutch state was one of many European client states that began to experience tensions between the gains of the revolution and the Napoleonic Realpolitik that was geared towards limiting popular sovereignty and expanding the French Empire. Louis Bonaparte, and later the Restoration monarchs, tried to reconcile popular sovereignty and monarchic authority by propagating the constitutional monarchy as the ideal juste milieu (middle way) between extremes.     

Politics of place: political representation and the culture of electioneering in the Netherlands,c.1848–1980s

Abstract

This article is a first attempt to explore how a politics of place has manifested itself in Dutch electoral culture since the middle of the nineteenth century. It aims to move beyond a narrow interpretation of a politics of place as an ‘old-fashioned’ feature of electoral politics to be associated with a distinct, long-gone era of political representation. Instead, this article shows how it was continuously negotiated. This gives us a better understanding of the changing nature of political representation in the Netherlands. Compared to Britain at the turn of the nineteenth century, local senses of community and their clash with ideology-based party politics were far less prominent. There was, however, on-going debate about the degree to which Parliament should reflect the various regions of the country, so that local party associations and voters could feel represented and address ‘their’ MP for issues pertaining to their locality. Moreover, after 1918 parties were concerned about the need to maintain political communication on the spot to counter lack of political involvement and feelings of alienation among the electorate. The article ends with a call for further reflection on the nature of clientelism in the Netherlands by exploring direct interaction between voters and their representatives.     

Warriors from the East. Skeletal evidence of warfare from a Lombard-Avar cemetery in Central Italy (Campochiaro,Molise, 6th–8th Century AD)

The early mediaeval cemetery of Campochiaro is located in Molise (Central Italy) and dates to the 6th–8th centuries AD. It consists of two inhumation areas: one at Morrione and the other at Vicenne. This site is important because of the contemporary presence of locals, Lombards and Avars of the steppes. Campochiaro was probably an outpost against the Byzantine army settled in southern Italy. Since no signs of a stable settlement or built-up area have been found, it seems the cemetery can be attributed to a semi-nomadic group. Many graves contained a man and his horse with the harness complex and typical Avar stirrups. The military nature of this settlement is shown by ostearchaeological evidence of warfare and violence on three skeletal individuals: n. 20, n. 102 and n. 108. Two of them exhibit lesions of the cranial vault probably produced by shock weapons in the fashion of the Byzantine armies: a spiked mace and a battle-axe. The cicatrisation of the wounds and the bony neo-formation suggest that the individuals survived these injuries for a long time. The third individual suffered from leprosy. He shows a long perpendicular cut in the left section of the frontal bone. The wound is clean and, because it is without traces of bony neo-formation, was probably a peri-mortem blow landed with a sharp weapon. The wound was not mortal, because it was very slight and probably produced only a slash. As ritual or magical practises and/or damage produced during the excavation or by the action of roots in the earth can be excluded, this individual was perhaps really a leper warrior who died in combat.     

Shedding light on the Cypriot rural landscape: Investigations of the Athienou Archaeological Project in the Malloura Valley,Cyprus, 2011–2013

Abstract

Since its inception in 1990, the Athienou Archaeological Project (AAP) has focused on diachronic patterns of rural land use within the Malloura Valley located along the edges of Cyprus’s fertile Mesaoria plain. Employing careful field methods of excavation and recording, members of AAP have sought to reconstruct ancient life in this understudied region by charting local responses to regional and pan-Mediterranean networks of exchange. The present contribution reports on the results of excavations (2011–2013) in the Geometric to Roman period rural sanctuary and of limited pedestrian survey (2013) in light of the project’s research goals, while highlighting AAP’s effective implementation of a mobile computing platform that streamlined field recording through an increased reliance on born-digital data. For a discussion of AAP’s mobile computing platform in the context of our fieldwork in Cyprus, please see our online supplementary article on the JFA website (http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1179/0093469015Z.000000000112).     

Developments in Rural Life on the Eastern African Coast,a.d. 700–1500

The eastern African coast is known for its Swahili “stonetowns.” Archaeological study of stonetowns has overshadowed that of Swahili rural life, and how it reformulated in the context of urban transformations after a.d. 1000. To help redress that imbalance, we focus here on village research carried out in a Swahili heartland—Pemba Island, Tanzania—in the context of two archaeological projects. We feature four settlements: later 1st millennium Kimimba village and its large, trading village neighbor, Tumbe; and 2nd millennium Kaliwa village, neighbor to Chwaka stonetown. Their archaeology, contextualized within a regional landscape, allows us to say new things about the changing nature of rural life on Pemba, and to make a case for the potential of village complexity elsewhere on the Swahili coast.     

Felipe Quinto,de austríaco a borbón,según sermones de la época (Nueva España, 1701–1747)

Este artículo se basa en dieciocho sermones predicados en Nueva España, cuyo tema central es la figura de Felipe de Anjou (Felipe V), primer representante de la dinastía borbónica en España. Desde que accedió; al trono por primera vez hasta su muerte, pasando por la Guerra de Sucesión, importantes eclesiásticos de las élites novohispanas pusieron la predicación al servicio de la propaganda borbónica, buscando propiciar adhesión en los fieles. Según conviniera acercar la figura del rey a la de monarcas anteriores o resaltar, en cambio, las características particulares de la nueva dinastía, los sermones que se conservan muestran cómo la retórica se ponía al servicio del poder imperante, modificando realidades e instalando visiones de mundo desde el púlpito.     

Kukulkanus,a new genus of buxtoniin brachiopod from the Artinskian–Kungurian (Early Permian) of Mexico

Torres-Martínez, M.A., Sour-Tovar, F. & Barragán, R., November 2017. Kukulkanus, a new genus of buxtoniin brachiopod from the Artinskian–Kungurian (Early Permian) of Mexico. Alcheringa 42, 268–276. ISSN 0311–5518.

Kukulkanus is the first genus of the tribe Buxtoniini recorded from rocks of the late Cisuralian (Artinskian–Kungurian). The Early Permian (Cisuralian) outcrops of the Santa Rosa Group, from southeastern Chiapas, are one of the most important marine Palaeozoic successions of Mexico. The Artinskian–Kungurian Paso Hondo Formation is the youngest unit in the succession and is dominated by massive limestone. Different marine invertebrates deposited in massive calcareous rocks characterize this formation. The buxtoniin Kukulkanus spinosus gen. et sp. nov. is reported from a single bed within the unit. The outcrops are located in southeastern Chiapas, very near the Guatemala–Mexico border. The lithological features and the preservation of fossils indicate that the fossil-bearing rocks were deposited in a low-energy open-waters paleoenvironment over the continental platform. Fusulinids, cephalopods and brachiopods previously described for the Paso Hondo Formation have been correlated with faunas of different coeval localities from Texas, New Mexico, Coahuila, Chiapas and Venezuela, regions that form part of the biotic Grandian Palaeo-Province.

Miguel A. Torres-Martínez [miguelatm@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico. Francisco Sour-Tovar [fcosour@ciencias.unam.mx] Museo de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Av. Universidad No. 3000, Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico. Ricardo Barragán [ricardor@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico.     

Route persistence. Modelling and quantifying historical route-network stability from the Roman period to early-modern times (AD 100–1600): a case study from the Netherlands

Research on route-network stability is rare. In time, due to cultural and/or natural causes, settlement locations and route orientation shift. The nature of these spatial changes sheds light on the complex interaction between settlements and surrounding natural landscape conditions. This study investigates the stability of route networks in the Netherlands during the past two millennia by determining their persistence through time. Environmental, archaeological and historical data are used to reconstruct and compare route networks. By using network friction, archaeological data on settlement patterns and route networks in combination with historical data (e.g. old maps), we were able to model route-network persistence (not necessarily continuity) from the Roman to early medieval periods (AD 100–800) and from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Times (AD 800–1600). Results show that around 67.6% of the modelled early-medieval routes in the Netherlands are persistent with routes in the Roman period. Covering a much larger surface area of the Netherlands, 24.5% of the early-modern routes show a clear persistence with their early-medieval counterparts. Besides the differences in surface area, this downfall can largely be explained by cultural dynamics, with 71.4% of the early-modern route network following modelled movement corridors already in existence during the Early Middle Ages.     

Accurate identification of the pastry contained in a ceramic pot excavated from Jurou Li's grave from the Jin dynasty (1115–1234 ce) in Xi'an,Shaanxi, China

In order to identify accurately the circular object contained in the ceramic pot excavated from Jurou Li's grave of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234 ce ) in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, mass spectrometry was applied to determine the amino acid sequences of the residual proteins extracted from the sample, after preliminary starch grain analysis. The sequences were searched against a standard protein sequence database. The proteins extracted were identified as originating from domesticated barley (Hordeum vulgare), soybean (Glycine max), and fermentative microorganisms (Kluyveromyces lactis, Lipomyces starkeyi, Wickerhamomyces ciferrii, Nadsonia fulvescens and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii). These findings indicate that the extremely degraded object in the ceramic pot was made from barley by fermentation with the addition of soy sauce, providing direct evidence of culinary culture in the Jin dynasty.     

Accident Investigations: a comparative perspective on societal safety in Norway and Sweden, 1970–2010

The topic for the article is the growing awareness of risk and safety in Norway and Sweden during the last decades of the 20th century, and how the two Scandinavian states have organized investigations of accidents. In many western states accident investigations have moved from sector specific boards to permanent multi-modal commissions. This has also been the case in the two Scandinavian states. But this comparative study reveals different paths and varying speed towards a ‘safety culture’. The Swedish Accident Investigation Board was established in 1990, while its Norwegian opposite partner was established in 2008. Common for the two countries is that reorganization of investigation boards has taken place as political actions after major accidents, rather than as a consequence of risk assessments.     

Cycling towards the nation:the use of the bicycle in Germany and the Netherlands, 1880–1940

This article explores the role of commodities in the construction of identities by examining the use of the bicycle in the Netherlands in comparison with and contrast to Germany. It argues that cyclists in Germany and the Netherlands used the bicycle to construct and display a certain identity and to express certain views of themselves as well as of the society in which they lived. The popularity of the bicycle in Dutch society can thus be explained by its particular meaning in that society. The vehicle became an important object in Dutch national identification, whereas in Germany, despite its widespread use especially among the working class, the bicycle was viewed as outdated and inferior technology by the 1920s.     

Archaeological Investigations at Yunkaray (Cuzco,Peru): Reconstructing the Rise and Fall of an Early Inca Rival (A.D. 1050–1450)

In the highland Andes during the centuries leading to Inca imperial expansion (ca. a.d. 1400–1530s), the people of the Cuzco Basin established alliances and rivalries with diverse neighbors living across the Cuzco region. Among the most powerful of those groups was a polity centered at Yunkaray (occupied ca. a.d. 1050–1450) on the Maras Plain just northwest of the burgeoning city of Cuzco. Recent settlement survey and excavations in and around Yunkaray have identified the site as the principal settlement of the Ayarmaca group, which remained outside the sphere of Inca cultural influence despite its proximity to Cuzco. The distinctive nature of Yunkaray’s interaction with the Incas is examined here through household excavations, which indicate that the large village was occupied by a population presenting modest status distinctions and relying on locally derived sources of social identity.     

Beating swords into croziers: warrior bishops in the kingdom of Castile,c.1158–1214

This paper examines the prevalence of armsbearing bishops in the kingdom of Castile during the reign of Alfonso VIII (r.1158–1214). It suggests that recent work by scholars whose research focuses on regions such as England, France and the Holy Roman Empire needs to be contextualised within a much broader survey of the phenomenon. To achieve that goal, this paper examines the evidence of armsbearing bishops in the frontier kingdom of Castile, and demonstrates the ways in which the frameworks established by some scholars need to be adjusted to fit the larger medieval reality experienced across Latin Christendom.