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.     

Multivariate comparison of ICP-OES and PIXE/PIGE analysis of east Asian storage jars

In this paper we compare the results of proton-induced X-ray and gamma-ray emission (PIXE/PIGE) and simultaneous inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) using a multivariate modeling approach. Paired samples from 17th century east Asian stoneware jars recovered from dated shipwrecks provide the test population. The comparison highlights similar elemental behaviors irrespective of technique but shows that the additional elements available through ICP-OES provide identification of subgroups not evident in the PIXE/PIGE dataset. This study concludes that high dimensional datasets, such as those provided by ICP-OES, are preferable for modeling compositional groups where the archaeological samples are of unknown compositional range. It also highlights the power of multivariate approaches in assessing the quality of data generated by different techniques.     

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。     

The Evolution of Pre‐Islamic South Arabian Coinage: A Metallurgical Analysis of Coins Excavated In Sumhuram (Khor‐Rori,Sultanate of Oman)

The present paper deals with compositional and microstructural features of 26 pre‐Islamic, South Arabian coins recently unearthed during archaeological excavations. Most of the investigated coins come from Sumhuram (Khor Rori, southern Oman), and were minted by the Hadramawt kingdom (fourth century bc to third century ad ); only a few of them belong to the Himyarite kingdom's coinage (first to fourth centuries ad ). In addition, some coins of both the Hadramawt and the Himyarite kingdoms found at Qani' (B'ir ‘Ali, Republic of Yemen) have been analysed for comparison. Our main focus was to provide new hints towards the comprehension of the chronological evolution in South Arabian coinage in terms of both metal composition and minting techniques. In addition, some melting crucibles found at Sumhuram have been examined in an attempt to make a comparison with the coins’ composition and to test the hypothesis that they were used for minting operations.     

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。     

The coinage of ancient Hadramawt The Pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum

The pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum come principally from Shabwa, the capital of the kingdom of Hadramawt. The collection consists of 76 coins, three of which could not be identified because of their poor condition. Sixty-seven silver and bronze Hadrami coins; five silver and bronze Himyarite and Sabaean coins; and one gold Roman coin comprise the collection. This material provides a general overview of the coinage of the ancient Hadramawt, permitting us to distinguish the issues of certain individual Hadrami rulers.     

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.     

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.     

The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal

The translocation of livestock into the Arabian Peninsula was underway by the sixth millennium BC. It remains unclear, however, whether nascent pastoralism in Arabia focused on specialised cattle herding, intensive caprine husbandry, or more extensive forms of sheep, goat and cattle management. Here, the role of Bos in Neolithic animal exploitation systems in the Arabian Peninsula is re-examined in the context of fisher-hunter-gatherer groups inhabiting the coasts of the Arabian Gulf, agro-pastoralist settlements located in the Jordanian highlands, and hunter-herder communities in adjacent Jordanian steppe (badia). By the late sixth millennium BC, cattle from southern Mesopotamia were imported to the Arabian littoral via Ubaid exchange networks but remained a relatively unimportant part of local hunter-gatherer-herder subsistence for at least a millennium. New zooarchaeological evidence indicating cattle herding in the Jordanian highlands by the late eighth millennium BC suggests a southern transmission route originating out of Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlements and the subsequent spread of cattle along the Sarawat mountains into the interior or down the relatively arid Red Sea coast via land or boat. Cattle eventually played a central role in the symbolic and ritual lives of herders in southern Arabia, but the use of the term ‘cattle pastoralism’ to describe early Neolithic subsistence systems in the region is premature.     

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.     

The Chronology of the Southeast Arabian Iron Age

Drawing on the results of the Australian Archaeological Expedition's excavation of Tell Abraq, a three-fold division of the southeast Arabian Iron Age is suggested. A re-analysis of ¹⁴C data in line with the latest agreed calibration curve together with an analysis of the foreign parallels of southeast Arabian Iron Age pottery permits the construction of a complete Iron Age sequence. The results argue for a lower chronology for the Iron II and III periods than has, up until now, been suggested.     

初版与再版邮票的质子激发X荧光鉴别法

报道用质子激发X荧光（PIXE）法分析我国初版与再版纪念邮票和特种邮票的实验结果。实验表明,初版和再版邮票所用印刷油墨颜料的化学元素的成分是不同的,因而PIXE方法可以用来实现初版和再版珍贵邮票的无损鉴定。这一方法也可以应用到对某些重要纸质文献或艺术品真伪的鉴定。     

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.