OVER THE WATER AND ACROSS THE DESERT – TRANS-SAHARAN CONTACTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE 6TH AND 5TH CENTURY BC

After presenting the picture of Africa in Mediterranean minds of antiquity,this paper seeks by ways of a combined interpretation of the periplus of Hanno and Herodotus’logos on the Nasamones to investigate Carthaginian and Greek knowledge about the trans-Saharan routes und contacts of the 6th and 5th century BC.Further comparison with recent archaeological discoveries from the Iron Age in Senegal,the Niger Bend and Lake Chad illustrate that these sites were the destination of travellers from the North and that universal geographical theses concerning the course of the river Nile provided fundamental patterns of explanation and orientation for ancient explorers.Finally,it is considered why any further explorations both of the Inner African hinterland and the western seaway around the African continent were suspended in Antiquity.     

THE “RUSSIAN LAND” AND THE FORMATION OF THE TERRITORY OF THE ANCIENT RUSSIAN STATE

The author retraces, on the basis of extensive written sources, the formation of the territory of the ancient Russian “independent semi-states” on the vast expanse of the Eastern European Plain. His conclusions, which show that the problem of the study of the formation of state territory is not at all the same as the study of ethnic territory, particularly colonization, confirm that the territory of the ancient Russian state was formed not with the appearance in Kiev of Oleg and Igor but as a result of a long internal process that commenced long before that event and continued for centuries after. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.)     

THE SUPERB CRAFTSMANSHIP OF TIBETAN SILVER AND GOLDSMITHS——ON THE GOLD AND SILVERWARE OF TUBO

Inhis groundbreaking work The Golden Peaches of Samarkand of Tang Exotics,American scholar Edward H.Schafer extolled Tibetan silver and goldsmiths;it appears that Tibet must also be given an important place among the nations whose craftsmen contributed     

MIGRATION AND THE WELL-BEING OF THE ‘LEFT BEHIND’ IN ASIA

This paper serves as an introduction to the three substantive papers in this themed section on the impact of migration on the well-being of the ‘left behind’ in Asia. In the light of recent migration trends such as the ‘feminization’ of migration and ‘brain-drain’ of health workers in the region, the paper provides a brief review of the existing scholarly literature on the vulnerability of different groups of the 'left behind’, particularly women, children and the elderly. It argues that a multi-dimensional approach is needed, taking into consideration not only the economic impact of remittances but also factors such as social networks and gender effects.     

NAḤAL ZERED IN THE BIBLE AND THE BARAITA DE-TEḤUMIN

Abstract

As a result of a mistaken interpretation of the Madaba map, biblical Na?al Zered is often identified in the scholarship as Wādi al-?sā, which marks the boundary between Moab and Edom southeast of the Dead Sea. In reality, the brook of Zered does not appear on the Madaba map and the sole documentary evidence available for its identification is the Bible, which situates Na?al Zered near Na?al Arnon. The author proposes Wādi Nkheile, which spills into the Arnon from the southeast, as the most likely candidate for the biblical Zered. This identification perhaps also sheds light on the conflicting biblical sources regarding the question of whether or not the Moabites allowed the Israelites to pass through their territory en route to Canaan. In the postbiblical era Na?al Zered appears in the boundaries baraita (baraita de-te?umin) as part of the eastern border of the land of Israel and the article demonstrates that the identification of Na?al Zered as Wādi Nkheile is consistent with the geographical logic of the baraita.     

COMMUNITY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOCIAL ORDER ON THE CANADIAN FRONTIER IN THE 1840s AND 1850s: AN ENGLISH IMMIGRANT’S ACCOUNT

Abstract

This article draws on the letters of a young immigrant doctor, Francis Codd, who arrived in British Canada in the I84os. Many of the one million migrants, mainly of British and Irish origin, who arrived in Canada in the mid-I9th century, benefited from the availability of land and absence of social barriers to mobility. This enabled them to think and feel like citizens of the new country,in a way denied them at home. Francis Codd’s account throws light on the part played by the appreciation of nature and ‘wilderness’ in this process, as well as describing the beginnings of a new civil society and the development of ‘community’ institutions. However, at the same time as a ‘Canadian’ identity was being constructed for the white settler population, that of the indigenous population was accorded little recognition or respect.