An analysis of Late Pre-Islamic copper-base artefacts from Ed Dur, U.A.E.

The article presents the analytical results of a study of copper-base artifacts from ed-Dur, a large site in the United Arab Emirates which was occupied principally during the 1^st century A.D. In addition to identifying a number of pieces with high lead content, the analyses have contributed to an understanding of brass and brass distribtion in the Roman Near East.     

西藏铸币史话(上)

雅鲁藏布江南部的雅隆河谷,公元7世纪初兴起了雅隆王朝（即吐蕃王朝）。公元629年西藏吐蕃政治家、军事家松赞干布统一了西藏,定都（逻娑luosuo）拉萨,建立了统一的奴隶制吐蕃王朝。并同唐朝建立起密切的关系。公元641年松赞干布迎娶大唐公主文成入藏和亲,使藏汉民族的关系以及西藏经济文化的发展,都产生了深远的影响。     

略论鸦片战争前后银贵钱贱的原因

清代自乾隆后期开始,银钱比价发生重要变化,始终处于银贵钱贱阶段。特别是鸦片战争前后,不少地区一两白银兑钱二千甚至更多,对民生、经济影响至巨,而对于其中的原因,建国以来多数学者把它归因于鸦片的大量输入导致的白银大量外流。我们认为,这种认识并不全面,导致鸦片战争前银贵钱贱的原因是多方面的,既有鸦片大量输入这个外部因素,也有清代货币体系本身的内部原因。     

Justinian's Coinage and Easter Reforms and the date of the Secret History

Abstract

The several Byzantine oneirocritic texts have been edited and more recently translated and commented upon, but a study to match Dodds' on Greek antiquity has still to appear.     

A Worth of their Own. On Gotland in the Baltic Sea,and its 12th-century Coinage

Abstract

In about AD 1140, the island of Gotland initiated what was to become one of the most influential coinages of the medieval Baltic Sea area. This was part of a strategy to meet the impact and pressure from the world outside in a period characterised by large-scale political and ideological changes. In this situation, old and new networks were important to maintain autonomy from those aiming for dominance over the island. The coins, with an independent weight standard and an iconography inspired by NW German and Frisian coins, were one way of attracting partners to the island's main harbour, where its inhabitants could maintain control and trading peace. Coins incorporate in them the dimensions of object, text and picture. A historical archaeology of coins needs not only focus on large-scale perspectives and formal power, but must also give weight to the archaeological context, the life biography of the coins and the social negotiations behind their production and use. Thus intention and reality, symbolism and social practice may be studied to find openings to the stories behind the objects. The different dimensions of the coins together with historical sources give away plenty of information on several levels: about the networks, ideological framework, artisanship and changing loyalties of this time and area.     

On the chronology of the South Arabian martyrdoms

In a persuasive article ( AAE 1: 1990: 110–128), F. de Blois has argued for A.D. 523 as the year of the South Arabian martyrdoms. There are a few errors in this otherwise sober and balanced article, which I have pointed out in this short communication in the hope that they will be eliminated in future discussions of this problem.     

A new Arabian stone tool assemblage and notes on the Aterian industry of North Africa

An unusual stone tool assemblage, reported for the first time in the Arabian Peninsula, occurs at the southwest edge of the Rub'al Khali desert. The assemblage is characterized by large, unifacially worked, prominently tanged points and scrapers. An age of between about 20,000 and 35,000 years B.P., when the Rub'al Khali was a well-watered grassland, is likely. Typological affinity with the Aterian stone tool industry of North Africa is suggested. Aterian toolmakers were a vigorous population of desert hunters, ranging over much of North Africa and the Sahara during a wet phase of the late Pleistocene. Pursuit of animals running in herds may have been a hunting strategy reflected in some of the Aterian and Arabian tools. Typology of the tanged tools and the palaeogeographic context in which they occur suggest certain specific functional usage.     

丸之内法庭丰田副武审判研究

在东京审判即将结束之际,驻日盟军总司令部法务局在东京丸之内的三菱大楼设立法庭审判丰田副武和田村浩。十个月后,丰田副武被无罪释放。作为前日本海军军令部总长,丰田副武是除东京审判的被告之外级别最高的战犯嫌疑人,在当时严厉追究日本军队高级指挥官责任的大背景下,丰田副武的无罪判决出乎大多数人的预料。从庭审过程来看,造成这一判决结果的原因,一方面是由于检方未能提供被告罪行的关键性证据,另一方面是因为辩护律师选择了有效的辩护策略:通过证明被告对部下或下属部队没有行政管理权,从而否认其应承担指挥官责任。当时冷战开始、美国对日政策发生变化的国际政治大背景,则是形成这一判决结果更为深层的原因。当然,丰田副武的无罪判决并不意味着他在所控罪行上的真正无罪。     

牡丹江市郊区熊场遗址清理简报

熊场遗址位于牡丹江市郊区三道乡二村南,1990年5月进行抢救性清理,发现一座房址,出土了一批手制陶器和磨制石器,特别是谷粒和麻布的出土,填补了黑龙江东部地区的空白,遗址年代上限不早于战国,下限至秦汉.     

光复初期关于台湾币制的争论和台币的发行

1945年台湾光复后,台湾省行政长官公署长官陈仪,与国民政府财政部部长兼中央银行总裁俞鸿钧,就台湾货币的发行权问题展开了一场激烈争论。陈仪主张台湾光复后,台湾货币应由台湾银行或由中央银行监督台湾银行发行,俞鸿钧则认为应由中央银行发行台湾地方货币。最后以行政院开会决议由中央银行监督台湾银行发行新台币而告终。那么,当时为什么会发生这场争论?     

New insights into Byzantine glass technology from loose mosaic tesserae from Hierapolis (Turkey): PIXE/PIGE and EPMA analyses

This study focuses on the Byzantine glass tesserae from Hierapolis (Phrygia, central Turkey). Fifty-seven samples of loose tesserae from two sites in the town (the theatre and the church of St. Philip) are analysed by particule-induced X-ray emission and particule-induced gamma ray emission and electron probe X-ray microanalysis to obtain the chemical composition and identify the colourants and opacifiers. The aims are to add new information to the scant knowledge of the Byzantine glassmaking technology, to constrain the chronology of the mosaics and to trace the supply routes of the tesserae. In the destruction layers of the theatre, tesserae produced following the Roman glassmaking technology (natron glass opacified by calcium and lead antimonate) were found. They were made using a Levantine 1 raw glass, generally attributed to the early Byzantine period (fifth to sixth c.). In the church, the samples attest a technological change from Roman tradition, and a complex pattern according to building history (two phases are attested, probably in the sixth and eighth to ninth c.), and a multiplicity of supply. Three glass types and some recipes not attested before in this chronological range for the production of tesserae are documented, such as the use of a local low-chlorine natron glass for the production of black and red tesserae, the blue colouring by a source of cobalt with zinc in a natron glass tessera and the opacification with tin oxide (both in a lead-free and in a high-lead natron glass), as well as with quartz.     

A Second Investigation into the Chemical Composition of the Roman Provincial (Procuratorial) Coinage of Judaea,AD 6–66*

An investigation of the chemical composition of the first Roman provincial coinage of Judaea, minted in ad 6–66, was conducted. A total of 103 copper‐alloy coins were analysed by ICP‐AES. It was determined that different copper alloys were used for the coinage, a leaded tin‐bronze and a pure tin‐bronze alloy. The investigation also showed that the copper alloy was made in four different formulae with regard to the alloying elements added to copper. Trace element profiles point to the existence of a shared pool of metal for Roman coins and metalwork.