Dünya Giizeli: Cavafy's folkloric Odalisque

Abstract

Cavafy's overlooked poem ‘Dünya Güzeli’ reflects the seminal influence of folklore on the early writings of the poet, an influence which significantly shaped the contours of the Cavafy canon. The poem is a sophisticated attempt to synthesize the flourishing discourse of λαoγρα??α with the fashionable literary and painterly trends of Orientalism. It thus warrants a fuller appreciation as a complex text that documents Cavafy's emerging craft and anticipates his poetic hybridisation of East and West which finds its fullest expression in Cavafy's Orientalising Hellenism.     

On the Temptations of Sovereignty: The Task of Catholic Social Teaching and the Challenge of UK Asylum Seeking

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the main tenets of Catholic social teaching as they relate to the politics of asylum in a UK context. Addressing the multilayered and complex crisis of confidence and asylum seekers with regard the moral performance of the UK system, this article proposes that the significance of CST's contribution to public discourse has been heightened by three key shifts in state practice. While the constructive contours of this teaching are explored, to be of service to forced migrants CST itself requires a deeper understanding of and engagement with the political cultures that shape practices of democratic exclusion. To this end the conclusion proposes two areas for further dialogue between CST and asylum experience.     

Microclimate analysis of deteriorated wall paintings: With restitution of original decoration through imaging

Abstract

The restoration of deteriorated wall paintings in an underground environment requires at the outset a complex analytical approach designed to clarify the deterioration processes. These can be identified and prioritized using continuous microclimatic monitoring with multichannel analytical loggers, providing abundant data on climatology, airflow and hydrogeology in real or semireal time. The investigator can therefore have an almost instantaneous idea of the evolving microclimatic conditions of the monument, identifying among other variables the condensation or evaporation phases of the walls and the rising or sinking of the underground water table when the monument ‘has its feet in the water’, as in the case described here of St Emilion (France). In addition, electronic image capture in situ can be used to decode and restitute very damaged paintings that have become difficult to read, with a view to their being eventually presented to the public.     

Confronting Political Religion with Divine Religion: Christian Strategies of Re-Evangelization in the 1930s

Abstract

Western Christianity is currently engaged in a debate on religious pluralism, postmodernity and re-evangelization. This paper argues that the contours of this debate were already visible between the two world wars when Nazism (the ‘new Mohammedism’ as some Christian observers termed it) tried to take over the place Christianity was vacating. The defeat of this ‘political religion’ does not mean the victory of Christianity.     

The Medieval Village at Garrow Tor,Bodmin Moor,Cornwall

SUMMARY

The site chosen for excavation in the medieval village at Garrow proved to be a platform-house, a variant of the long-house, a widespread form of peasant dwelling. Both types provided for the shelter of man and his beasts under one roof; in its early form, as here, it consisted of a living-room and byre separated by a passage connecting with an entrance in each long side. The platform-house was suited to meet the hard conditions of life in a hilly country of heavy rainfall. It was built on an oblong platform constructed with its long axis at right angles to the contours of the hillside. Thus the house gained considerable protection from wind and rain.

Two outstanding features were the hearth with fireback centrally placed on the floor in the upper room and the manger which was in situ in the byre. Near the house was a small barn. The two buildings stood in a small enclosure. Pottery found in the house and barn and in the fields connected with the settlement showed that there was occupation from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Inhabited farmhouses of this type can still be seen in Cornwall.¹     

River landscapes: The origin and development of the printed river map in the Netherlands, 1725–1795

Abstract

River management in the province of Holland in the eighteenth century was co‐ordinated by a Hydraulic Department which worked closely with local, regional and other provincial authorities to maintain river beds and channels. To perform its function efficiently, all the Hydraulic Department's main river maps followed general precepts laid down as early as 1725 by the surveyor Nicolaas Cruquius (1678–1754). The basic principle was to create clear maps with uniform scale and design which contained only the topographical information relevant to the work of the department. Experiments with depth contours were made, and profiles and diagrams were included in order to portray as accurately as possible the invisible natural processes which influenced the river landscape. The cartographical model thus established was followed consistently throughout the eighteenth century.     

Alcohol,Madness and a Glimmer of Anthrax: Disease among the Felt Hatters in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

In the 1800s, felt hatters used skills, tools and materials that were little changed for almost three hundred years. What change there was often resulted in further hazard in the workplace. Air in workshops was laden with animal fibre; dangerous chemicals were increasingly common. The trade was notorious for drunkenness on and off the job and was, latterly, supposedly defined by madness. Government was little concerned. As with all industry, manufactory owners controlled the loose workplace arrangements, while their home workers were left to fend for themselves. The discipline of occupational health was still far from finding its feet. Contemporary evidence is centred on individual observation and a deal of medical fumbling; numbers are in short supply. Yet, alongside debates on wealth, what other condition than health better defines contentment? This article examines the degree to which the lives of these craftsmen of the nineteenth century may have been damaged by their work.     

Manchester Railway Warehouses— A Short Note

Abstract

In 1840, Francis Wishaw described three warehouse ranges at Liverpool Road, Manchester, estimating the floor area to be some 5 acres and the capacity 4 million cubic feet. By means of turntables, wagons were conveyed, loaded and unloaded within the warehouses. Flaps in the floors and openings in the yard side facilitated the quick dispatch of business. The internal structure of these early railway buildings followed canal practice but by the 1860s the jack-arched, iron-framed structure had been adapted from the cotton factory. Goods handling at first was by gravity hoist, platforms and mobile or fixed steam cranes. Subsequently, the use of hydraulic power was a significant improvement. This paper describes the railway warehouses of Manchester.     

The Green Economy Research Centre – positioning geographical research in Aberdeen to address the challenges of green economy transitions

ABSTRACT

The necessity to address climate change has resulted in a widespread debate about the need for a transition to a ‘greener’ economy. How such an economy emerges, by what drivers and at what scale is a significant source of speculation amongst the geographical research community. In the context of longstanding contributions to environmental geography from scholars working at Aberdeen University, this paper outlines a novel research agenda for the Green Economy Research Centre (GERC). The contours of the green economy are examined in the context of economic sectors of food production, tourism, energy and the blue economy. Cross-cutting themes of green transitions, governance, people and place and ecosystem services inform our academic contribution to this evolving and controversial societal issue.     

Kazantzakis and the Cinema

Abstract

Alexis Zorbas unwittingly displays a knowledge of the cinema when he says to the Boss, <inline-graphic href="splitsection8_in1.tif"/><inline-graphic href="splitsection8_in2.tif"/><inline-graphic href="splitsection8_in3.tif"/>. [‘Anything we couldn't say with our mouths we said with our feet, our hands, our belly or with wild cries'.] Kazantzakis himself once said the same thing in a different way: ‘To succeed in transforming the abstract concepts into simple, clear images is my great aspiration’. These words – written to his future wife Eleni Samios and referring to the cinema's influence on The Odyssey – are the starting point for the rest of Kazantzakis' more complex theories on film, the distillation of the lessons he learned from motion pictures and later applied to his writing. But before continuing, we can create a helpful context for the author's concern with film by supplying some historical background.     

Effectiveness of FRCM Reinforcement Applied to Masonry Walls Subject to Axial Force and Out-Of-Plane Loads Evaluated by Experimental and Numerical Studies

ABSTRACT

An experimental campaign and a numerical analysis devoted to the investigation of the out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) are presented here. The main goal of this study is to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the strengthening system, by discussing failure modes and capacity of strengthened masonry walls, in order to assess their behavior under out-of-plane horizontal actions, such as, for example, seismic actions. A purposely designed experimental set-up, able to separately and independently apply an axial force and out-of-plane horizontal actions on masonry walls, was used. Experimental results are discussed and compared with the outcomes of nonlinear analyses performed on simplified finite element models of the walls. A proper evaluation of the flexural capacity of FRCM strengthened walls is the first step of the ongoing process of drawing reliable code guidelines leading to a safe design of strengthened masonry structures.     

SITE AMPLIFICATION FACTOR IN ANCHORAGE,ALASKA BASED ON LONG PERIOD MICROTREMORS

Long period microtremors with periods ranging from 0.5 to 10 seconds were measured in the Anchorage metropolitan area. Two horizontal components of motion were recorded at 81 sites uniformly distributed throughout the basin with spatial resolution of about 2 km. Recording at each site was done for 300 seconds with a sampling rate of 20 Hz. Repeated measurements were performed at a bedrock reference site simultaneously with the measurements in the field. The measurements were completed in six days. In addition, multiple recordings were obtained concurrently at the reference bedrock site and a sediment site. Based on these measurements the Fourier spectra were calculated for each of the site. Ground motion amplification is determined in terms of spectral ratio of horizontal spectral amplitudes at a sediment site and the reference bedrock site. Mean spectral ratio contours were evaluated for different period bands. The results show that for period band 3 to 5 seconds the spectral ratio contours agree well with the ground failure susceptiblity map of Anchorage.     

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.     

Technological Continuity,Technological 'Survival': the Use of Horizontal Mills in Western Ireland,c. 1632–1940

Abstract

This article discusses the continued use of the early medieval horizontal waterwheel form, well into the post-medieval period in the Atlantic Provinces of the British Isles. It argues that archaeological and documentary evidence demonstrates that the horizontal mills of western Ireland represent the continued use of this technology from the early medieval period in to modern times. Similarly, it argues that the traditional horizontal mills of Scotland and its western islands can, on linguistic grounds, be linked into the same enduring tradition. The continued use of this technology in these societies appears to be as much a product of social context and choice, as it was a technological 'survival' in a 'marginalised' area.     

The Fine Incense of Virginity: a late twelfth century wall painting of the Annunciation at the Monastery of the Syrians,Egypt

Abstract

A richly symbolical wallpainting of the Annunciation was brought to light in 1991 in the western conch of the church of the Virgin at the desert Monastery of the Syrians at Scetis (Wadi al-Natriin) in Egypt (figs. 1–5). The interpretation put forward here is that the scene celebrates the Mother of God as the epitome of perfect womanhood at the moment of Christ's conception with her key role reinforced by explicit symbolism of her virginity. This is stated visually, through the liturgical symbolism of the burning censer at her feet, and verbally through the ‘container’ imagery proclaimed on the scrolls of the accompanying prophets: Isaiah, Moses, Ezekiel and Daniel. A detailed townscape represents the town of Nazareth, both the Virgin's own birthplace and the site of the Annunciation.     

Upwardly Mobile Footnotes: German References in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde 1

Images should be released from the monopoly of art history and integrated into the study of history itself. For culture, in the strict sense of the term, is an essential aspect of political history, especially in a state as centralised as 18th- and 19th-century France. This is the context in which visual images of Napoleon should be explored. Under the Directory, he began shrewdly to exploit paintings and engravings in his first campaign to win over public opinion, rapidly achieving renown by putting a face to his name. The development and profusion of images under the Consulate and Empire reveal the way, or ways, in which Napoleon sought to present himself to contemporaries and posterity. They also illustrate his main objectives: the strengthening of his power and the consolidation of his dynasty. The number and variety of these images suggest that he was acutely aware of his lack of legitimacy. Napoleon himself realised just how much he resembled a 'colossus with feet of clay'. In order to base this colossus on firmer foundations he set to work all the means at his disposal, not least painting and sculpture.     

The Sacred Economy of Ancient “Israel”

Abstract

Taking up the challenge to develop a new study of the economic patterns in the ancient Near East, including what passes for ancient “Israel’ (the Persian province of Yehud), this article proposes a model of the “sacred economy.” A study in economic history, it seeks to map out the broad contours of this sacred economy in light of the neglected but crucial economically–informed scholarship from the Soviet Union on the ancient Near East. The article identifies the key nodes of the sacred economy as the village–commune, the temple–city complex, the formation of the despotic state, the tensions between labour and class, and mediations between empire and village commune. It traces the development of the State to the tensions between the village commune and the city–temple complex. It also argues that the key features of this sacred economy may be described as regimes of allocation and regimes of extraction. The unique combination of these regimes and the tensions between them make up the sacred economy. The underlying logic of the regimes of allocation was to provide a rationale for the allocation of productive units such as land and fertility by means of kinship, the war machine, patron–client relations and the judiciary. All of this was posed in the language of the sacred, for the deity is the ultimate arbiter of allocation. By contrast, the regimes of extraction undermine the allocatory economic logic by means of a pattern of exploitation in terms of tribute and trade. This article insists upon the necessary centrality of economic analysis in any historiography of the Ancient Near East.     

1968 and its other worlds: Global events and (anti-)state dynamics in France,Mozambique and Vanuatu

ABSTRACT

This article de-centres the moment, event and impact of 1968 and expands it temporally and spatially. Taking a longue durée approach charting a trajectory from the 1960s into the 1980s, we analyse statist and anti-statist dynamics through a comparison of the May 1968 Paris riots with the Nagriamel movement in Vanuatu and the phenomenon of Naparama in Mozambique. Such a horizontal triangulation and spatio-temporal expansion is undertaken to contribute to a more global understanding of what we term ‘the 1968 event’ entails. However, this comparative analysis also underlines how its impact should be measured as, first, an experimentation with and attack on political reality, second, how the intricate connections between Euro-American and other worlds were integral to its articulation and, third, how paradoxically 1968 and its response spawned the rise of an authoritarian form of nation-state – eclipsing the openings in the firmament of the political, social and the real afforded by the original event.     

The Tell Abu Duwari Project, 1988–1990

Abstract

The second (1988–1989) and third (1990) seasons of excavation and survey at the 2nd-millennium B.C. urban site of Tell Abu Duwari (ancient Mashkan-shapir), Iraq, have yielded important new evidence on the organization of ancient Mesopotamian cities. A combination of aerial and surface survey has provided a broad overview of the differing functional areas, and of the role played by canals, streets, and walls to divide the city. Excavations consisted of both small soundings and one broad horizontal exposure. The soundings were designed to test the relationship between surface traces and the remains beneath the ground, and the larger excavation generated an artifactual, faunal, and floral inventory from an administrative district which will be compared with similar collections excavated in other parts of the city in future seasons.