Revisiting the snake burials of the Late Dilmun building complex on Bahrain

The well-known snake burials from the Late Dilmun building complex at Qalat al-Bahrain are discussed in the context of pre-Islamic Arabian, Mesopotamian, Elamite, Avestan, and Vedic Indian evidence. Ancient attitudes towards snakes are reviewed with the aim of confirming or eliminating one or more of these traditions as the likeliest cultural context for the snake sacrifices of Bahrain.     

King Pedro IV of Aragon, royal propaganda and the tradition of royal speechwriting

In the medieval Crown of Aragon it was customary for the corts to begin with a proposicio or opening speech made by the king. These Aragonese royal speeches were not merely confined to a brief summary of the political situation or a series of points to be considered but were elaborately constructed political sermons, in which affairs of state were portrayed in terms of Christian morality and nationalist pride, with the aid of exempla drawn from the Bible and other religious and classical works. An example is the speech made by Pedro IV ‘the Ceremonious’ of Aragon against the rebellion of the Judge of Arborea in Sardinia. A copy of this speech survives written in the king's own hand which raises the interesting question of whether the kings of Aragon were themselves responsible for the ideas expressed in these speeches and for composing them or whether their efforts were confined to reading out propaganda which was primarily the creation of royal officials.     

Four "Iron Age" stamp seals from Qarn bint Sa'ud (Abu Dhabi Emirate – U A.E.)

In this brief contribution, attention is drawn to four stamp seals which were picked up in the late 1980's from the sand dunes covering the so-called and still unexcavated "Iron Age settlement" of Qarn bint Sa'ud in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.     

Peoceedings of the royal Scottish geogeaphical society

Europe.

The Place‐Names of Argyll. By H. Cameron Gillies, M.D. With a Preface from the Duke of Argyll. London: David Nutt.

General.

Geology: Earth History. By Thomas C. Chamberlin and Rollin D. Salisbury. Vols. II. and III. London: John Muriay, 1906.

Les Tremblements de Terre—Géographie Seismologique. By F. de Montessus de Ballore. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1906.

Some Facts about the Weather. By William Mariott. London: Edward Stanford, 1906. Price 6d.

A Historical Geography of the British Colonies. By C. P. Lucas. Vol. I. The Mediterranean and Eastern Colonies. Second Edition. Eevised and brought up to date by R. S. Stubbs, B.A. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Price 5s.     

古玺复姓统计及相关比较

古玺是研究先秦姓氏的重要资料之一。根据对古玺复姓的考辨与统计,可以得到大约125种复姓．这个数量远少于汉印复姓,本对其中的原因作了初步比较与说明。     

清末印花税的筹议与实施

印花税系晚清时期由西方国家传入中国的一大税种,在财政困绌、赔款筹措和洋务新政等因素的促动下,朝野人士多有论介,间或付诸实施,也因民间反对甚力,不免虎头蛇尾,成效未具.1906年鸦片禁政推行后,鸦片税厘开始缩减,为了抵补洋土药税收,度支部匆忙之间筹划研究,短时间内制定了印花税实施的有关章程,希图依靠该税筹措经费,达到抵补鸦片税的目的.无奈清末中央与地方财政关系复杂,民间反对甚烈,印花税不得不日渐式微,成效不大.     

Proceedings of the royal Scottish geographical society

Itinerant merchants have been an integral part of world trade since at least the time of the earliest Silk Route from China to the West. Today a group of traders from Nepal maintain this tradition. Today their travel is by economy jet and inexpensive train. The countries involved are primarily thos6 with historic ties to the mercenary Ghurka forces under the British. The traders are well organized and limited to a few‐families, primarily from the Pokhara Valley in Nepal. Their goods begin with products from Nepal and Tibet, but they also move goods gathered along their route. They represent a charming anomaly in the modern world, a touch of the old Asia.     

Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and Germanic oral tradition

The object of this study is to examine the possibility that, although the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies are in their extant from products of ecclesiastical scholarship, the keeping of royal genealogies in early England was not an innovation brought about by Christian literacy, but was rather a native, originally pre-Christian institution which the church adopted. The discussion is divided into two parts. The first argues that the genealogical lists derive at least in part from the sort of historical record which the Anglo-Saxons, in common with other early Germanic peoples, maintained in the form of orally transmitted narrative traditions. The second tries to show that these traditions were cultivated by a court poet known to the Anglo-Saxons as the scop. The conclusion is that the extant royal genealogies are ultimately dependent on orally transmitted royal dynastic histories the keeping of which was an established part of native, originally pre-Christian traditional culture in England.