Discrimination of Ceramic Types Using Digital Image Processing by Means of Morphological Filters

Digital processing of images can be used to analyse ceramic pastes, contributing in this way to the discrimination of ceramic types. The method involves several stages of analysis: digitization of images of ceramic pastes, pre‐processing of the images, particle segmentation, calculation, quantification and classification of the particle sizes. This procedure uses interactive algorithms of segmentation of images and grain size analysis derived from mathematical morphology theory. To prove the efficiency of the method, we processed digital images of polished thin sections of ceramic samples of Cypriot wares from the Late Bronze Age (1550–1450 bc ) and their Egyptian reproductions. Such groups have been previously analysed by optical microscopy, XRD, XRF, ICP–MS and EPMA. The results of the analysis were able to discriminate between these two different wares.     

The Cunning Means of Domination

This discussion started on the WAC listserv when I objected on 8 April 2007 to a short message sent by Claire Smith on the previous day. She had been announcing that her colleague “Heather Burke and [are] putting together a list of important non-Anglo archaeologists” and was asking whether “anyone has any recommendations” for that list and, if so, whether they would email her off list. I objected strongly. This paper explains why. In doing so I am describing the degree of complexity language use has acquired in the contemporary world with old linguistic maps quickly become obsolete. To insist that English is simply the lingua franca of academic discourse is to ignore that complexity. The wide use of English as an academic lingua franca means in practice that there are very strong asymmetries not only in individual archaeologists’ abilities to express themselves competently and confidently in that language but also in what is considered appropriate or possible to express. For a language is not simply a random code with which anything might be said to anybody. Language, and the conventions that govern how a given language is to be applied, influences to a large extent even what is a sensible thing to say in a given context. Language use in archaeology is not about translating the same archaeology into different languages but about translating between different archaeologies and associated cultural practices including languages. The only sensible way forward is for WAC to promote among its members the learning of more languages—which is something the vast majority of “non-Anglo” archaeologists already knows and accepts as a fact of life. We do not need lists of “non-Anglo” archaeologists that are considered worth reading about in English, but more archaeologists being able to appreciate the work of colleagues in its original language. In conclusion I urge exclusively Anglophone archaeologists to please stop finding excuses for learning foreign languages.     

The Definition of Ancient Manured Zones by Means of Extensive Sherd-Sampling Techniques

Abstract

Thin carpets of worn and abraded sherds frequently occur over many square kilometers of ground around archaeological sites in the Middle East. Sherd scatters around three sites in Iran, Oman, and Syria are described. It is suggested that the artifacts arrive as a result of transport of compost or manure incorporating urban refuse from the city to the nearby fields. The sherd scatters occupy a zone of between 3 and 6 km. radius around the sites, and this belt, it is suggested, corresponds to the inner zone of intensive cultivation. The data presented give some empirical support to concepts of site-catchment analysis and also suggest that the use of manure in agriculture can be traced back to at least the 3rd millennium B.C.     

Studying healing practices by geographical region

Parsons, Claire D., ed. Healing Practices in the South Pacific. The Institute for Polynesian Studies. Distributed by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1985. xiv + 250 pp. including references, index and maps. $22.50 cloth.

du Toit, Brian M., and Ismail H. Abdalla, eds. African Healing Strategies. New York: Trado‐Medic Books, 1985. x + 279 pp. including chapter references, and illustrations. $39.95 cloth, $20.00 paperback.     

周原现代地貌考察和历史景观复原

周人由豳地徙至岐山 ,当时应是湿润—半湿润气候。周人将定居处选择在岐山南麓的山前冲积扇地带 ,而不是如新石器时代先民那样选择在诸沟汇合处的黄土塬上 ,表明有将这里建成政治中心的意图。夏商周三代的崛起 ,都与其不断追求生境优化直接相关 ,这对于探讨中国文明起源的动因具有重要意义。     

The Possibility of Shamanism: A Genealogy of Anthropological Appropriations

This piece adopts a genealogical approach to the emergence of “neo-Shamanism” as a “spiritual” practice. It argues that the work of Freud and Durkheim collapsed the dichotomy between “primitive” and “civilized” which characterized nineteenth-century evolutionist anthropology. Neither Freud nor Durkheim embraced the consequences of this collapse, and while Bataille attempted to do so, his application of “Shamanism” to modern self-governance was constrained by the terms of the Freudian/Durkheimian framework. Jung did embrace this collapse, positing a universal equivalence between religious forms and psychological processes, and this epistemic shift permitted his interlocutors, Levi-Strauss and Eliade, to inaugurate the discursive frameworks which made “neo-Shamanism” thinkable as an ethical practice for contemporary Westerners. Analyses which suggest that “neo-Shamanisms” are rediscoveries of a primal “spirituality” write from within this framework, neglecting the contingency of historical change, the creativity of anthropological appropriations and the politics of knowledge.     

小山词中追忆手法的运用

本文的着眼点在于对晏几道词中“追忆”手法运用的探讨。从小山词中大量的“追忆”内容入手,分析了追忆内容的分类和追忆中多种手法的运用,以及其艺术特点和艺术效果,最后论述了晏几道钟情于“追忆”的原因所在,即他与现实生活的隔膜及由此形成的孤傲性格和狭窄的生活限制,肯定了“追忆”手法在小晏词中的重要地位和作用。     

哈哈汤卡 美国白云岩喀斯特的典范

正奥索卡山区坐落于美国中部,为阿巴拉契亚山脉和落基山脉间最大的山区,也是美国知名的白云岩喀斯特地区,尤以流量大、数量多、密度高的喀斯特泉著称。如果把中纬度的奥索卡山地比作一顶喀斯特王冠,哈哈汤卡则是王冠上一颗璀璨的明珠:大型喀斯特泉、天生桥、峡谷、落水洞、溶洞等……都集中分布于不到30公顷的弹丸之地内。地下溶洞中栖息着美国联邦濒危物种灰蝠和印第安纳蝠;地上则有独特的唁斯特疏林,仍保留着欧洲移民到达美洲前的历史植被景观。哈哈汤卡如今正在接受"美国国家自然地标"称号审定,这一称号由内政部授予全美范围内包含生物和/或地质突出范例的自然区域。     

一部鲜为人知的日本入宋僧巡礼记——戒觉《渡宋记》解题并校录

古代来华日本人的汉文日记中,包含许多珍贵的中国史料,这已是史学界众所周知的事实.如圆仁的《入唐求法巡礼行记》,享誉"东方三大游记"之一.白化文先生评述:"它在了解中唐时代我国的地理人情、风俗制度、社会经济与人民生活,以及政治、宗教等方面,提供了一个外国人所知所见的第一手宝贵史料."①     

符山堂刻本《音学五书》版本问题考释

一、符山堂本《五书》版本特点及其差异 符山堂本《音学五书》(下简称《五书》),由当时著名刻书家张弨校刻.顾衍生《元谱》:"(康熙六年)开雕《音学五书》于淮上,张力臣弨父子任校写之役."①     

关于枚乘《梁王兔园赋》的校理、作者诸问题

一、前人对《梁王兔园赋》的评价与原文残存状况 《文心雕龙·诠赋》云:"观夫荀结隐语,事义自瓌;宋发夸谈,实始淫丽;枚乘《兔园》,举要以会新;相如《上林》,繁类以成艳;贾谊《鹏鸟》,致辨于情理……"在荀况《隐语》(见《荀子·赋篇》)及宋玉赋之后,即提到枚乘的《兔园赋》,其评价在司马相如《上林赋》之上,也比对贾谊《鹏鸟赋》的评价更侧重于艺术表现.     

利用齿冠测量值判断古人骨是否血亲的新方法

为了科学鉴别同性合葬墓中死者是否血亲、异性合葬墓中死者是否夫妇,日本体质人类学家和考古学家合作利用牙齿具有较高遗传性、恒齿形态不变、成人和儿童可以直接比较的特点,发明了通过比较死者之间齿冠测量值Q型系数来判断他们是否血亲的方法,这个方法被证明可以有效地判断古人骨是否血亲。列举的实例演示了如何把齿冠测量值与考古背景资料结合起来分析古人骨是否血亲及其关系的具体做法。     

Analysis of Dynamic Spatial Interaction Models by Means of Optimal Control

This paper deals with the design of general classes of dynamic spatial interaction models. On the basis of a general (well-behaved) multiperiod objective function and of a dynamic model representing the evolution of a spatial interaction system, an optimal control model is constructed. Particular attention is given to the equilibrium and stability conditions. It turns out that it is possible to identify steady-state solutions for a dynamic spatial interaction model. Furthermore, it can also be demonstrated that the entropy model is a specific case of this spatial interaction system. A simple illustration for urban dynamics is given as well.