Determination of the parameters of the Guildhall amphitheatre ellipse in London

The paper presents an algorithm for computing the parameters of an ellipse that fits, in a least-squares sense, the surveyed remains of Roman amphitheatre arena walls. The algorithm is validated using ideal data and the near complete remains of the amphitheatre at Sarmizegetusa in Romania. The technique is then applied to the partial remains of the amphitheatre at the Guildhall in the City of London, in the UK, which cover only the Eastern end of the monument. The underlying mathematical model and method of solution is presented. The method was developed with a view to determining firstly whether or not an ellipse is a feasible model for the actual constructed curve geometry, and secondly, where the Western end of the Guildhall amphitheatre might be located. One single ellipse was found to fit the Guildhall remains, with measurement residuals at the level of 30 mm in the eastings and 26 mm in the northings. The ellipse had a semi-major axis of 28.345 m and a semi-minor axis of 22.775 m. The issues of alternative geometries and the practicalities of their use in construction are considered.     

Late Saxon Textiles from the City of London

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS in the City of London have produced an important collection of late 9th- to early 12th-century textiles manufactured from wool, goat hair, silk and flax. The production processes associated with the different types of cloth are here described, together with details of weaving techniques and dyeing practices. Changes in the types of cloth used in the nth century are related to the introduction of new technology and the decline in use of the warp-weighted loom. Evidence is examined for the local manufacture of cloth and for the import of foreign silks. Lastly, attention is drawn to the similarity of the London textiles to those found in other regions of northern Europe.     

The City of London in the Asian crisis

This paper seeks to understand the Asian crisis through theeyes of the City of London. Relying upon material provided byThe Financial Times (FT), we construct an index of pessimismto chart the dominant City of London interpretation of the pathof the crisis. This index is set against data on the actualperformance of the Hong Kong, and Tokyo, London, and New Yorkstock markets over the same period. We have the luxury of retrospectivelyreconstructing the actual path of the crisis whereas the FT(and global financial markets) had to respond to specific eventsin a chain of apparent cumulative events. Our goal is to explainthe construction of the dominant pessimistic interpretationof the path of the crisis, placing the City of London in thecontext of global markets (in time, between Tokyo and New York).In the penultimate section of the paper we report on an interviewwith Riley, the FT columnist, about the results of our analysis,emphasizing the apparent homogeneity of information and opinionin the City of London as opposed to New York. The conclusionfocuses upon the implications of this argument for the studyof discontinuities between global markets, and the future offinancial centres.     

Buildings in the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666

International Journal of Historical Archaeology - This paper describes features of secular buildings, mostly houses, shops, and warehouses, standing in the City of London in the late seventeenth...     

徐堡城址的性质问题

徐堡城址是豫西北地区一座龙山文化城址,大体上相当于我国历史上的唐虞时代.关于它的性质,迄今学术界尚未进行深入探讨.根据当时黄河改道洪水四溢的历史背景,加上城址北垣又被沁河冲毁,我们认为它同大禹治水有关,很可能是禹在覃怀治理洪水时的重要城邑,也是覃怀地区黄河文明的中心.     

左南城故址小议

民和回族土族自治县满坪镇东一里许的集场村有座城隍庙,又名瑞昙寺,依台地而建,气势雄伟。据传,此地为西晋左南县县衙所在地,隍庙古建筑曾毁于清同治年间。隍庙东侧的一处地方现在仍叫做“衙门前”。     

关于番禺城起源的讨论

一、问题的提出 于番禺城(今广州)的始建年代,有不同看法。今天还健在的学者就有两种意见。一是麦英豪研究员的始建于秦汉①。其证据是“大概从番禺到今日之广州,城区中心一直未变,只是日渐扩展”。而“在广州市区内至今还未发现早于秦汉时期的遗迹与遗物”。本来根据考古发现研究历史,大家都明白的一条常识是有了发现可说其有,没有发现未可说其无。     

Fragments of the Modern City: Material Culture and the Rhythms of Everyday Life in Victorian London

This essay analyses the influence of Charles Baudelaire's and Théophile Gautier's fetishist poetics on the early works of Algernon Charles Swinburne. If the crucial role played by the Victorian poet as a cultural ‘passeur’ between France and England has often been highlighted in recent criticism, his aesthetic delight in certain forms of sexual deviance such as podophilia has rarely been explored in relation to the verse of his French mentors. Swinburne, Gautier, and Baudelaire may have indeed shared this erotic fascination with feet: this is a fascination that was partly grounded in these poets' common interest in antique literary models, in particular in Sappho's poetry. Rather than extolling the Hellenic ‘sweetness and light’ which some of his contemporaries set so high, Swinburne indulged in dangerously eroticised Dionysian aesthetics which were perceived as both ‘too Hellenic’ and ‘too French’. I argue that the fetishism of the poetic foot may be read as one of the keys to the Victorian poet's subversive shift away from the serenity often associated with Victorian neoclassicism in favour of a Dionysian energy that anticipates Friedrich Nietzsche's works.     

柳条边伊通边门

柳条边是清廷设置的重要人文景观,如今已成为鲜为人知的东北绿色长城。柳条边伊通边门及边台台丁的生活调查;可见柳条边封禁政策之一斑。乾隆诗否定了柳条边的设置,但柳条边不失满族及清文化研究的重要课题。