On the “Roman Miliaries” Found in Britain

Riveted bone strips have been described variously as ‘riveted mounts’ or the components of combs. They are examined here and interpreted as connecting plates from horn composite combs. This comb type came into use during the ninth century and quickly became the most common form of the Late Saxon period, continuing in use until the twelfth century. It is essentially an Anglo-Saxon comb form but examples have been found also in Dublin and across numerous sites in northern France. Connecting plates, made of antler or bone, occur in three basic shapes. Horn composite comb waste assemblages from Norwich, Thetford and Winchester suggest that by the late eleventh century commodity-based manufacture had superseded earlier forms of material-centred production.     

On the Identification of Ænon

Abstract

Combined archaeological data from the Central Jordan Valley indicates that small agricultural villages and a few public buildings occupied the area during the first half of the 10^th century BC, all grouped along well-organised irrigation systems. A regional conflagration ended the occupation around 950 BC, after which most of the Central Jordan Valley was deserted for approximately one century. This occupational gap coincided with a period of decreased precipitation. During this arid phase the area was visited by mobile groups who used the summits of the settlement mounds for animal holding and sparse industrial activities. According to the topographical list of Shoshenq I, there were at least four settlements in the Central Jordan Valley: Adamah, Succoth, Penuel and Mahanaim. These places were apparently important enough in c. 925 BC for the Egyptians to neutralise them. But where are the remains of these settlements? This study deals with the intriguing disjunction between archaeological and textual evidence.     

Did Women Have a Transformation of the Roman World?

Despite intense and interdisciplinary interest in the transition from antiquity to the middle ages, work on women and gender generally remains marginal to the dominant paradigms for understanding political and social change in the period from c. 300 to c. 800 ce . This article critiques these interpretations from a gendered perspective and also reviews recent work on women and gender in late antiquity, Byzantium and the early medieval Europe. By outlining similarities and contrasts between women's lives in early medieval western and Byzantine cultures, it emphasises the diversity of women's experience. Suggestions about how to envisage a fully gendered history of this period conclude with a call for radically new approaches to the study of the transformation of the Roman world.     

Notice of the Proceedings at the Monthly Meetings of the Archæological Institute

The English glass industry adopted coal as a fuel at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the consequent reduction in costs enabling sales and production to increase. From a minor forest industry, glass manufacture became an important part of the coalfield economy, with innovative furnace structures forming striking features in the eighteenth-century urban landscape. Recent archaeological investigation has shown that glass-works have left significant survivals on subsequently redeveloped sites, in the form of underground flues and furnace bases, and residues from processes.     

On the Spacing of Time: On “The Tide of History”

The author discusses aspects of how time appears and is used by the individual and by society. In focus is what the author calls the ideological time scale as it appears in Western society. The concept of the ideological time scale implies systems of strong, ideological signals transferred through time in the human mind from one generation to another. One such signal is the age-old concept of the hero and the symbolism projected around this concept. The paper ends with an admonition to scholars to be aware of and study the kinds of messages transferred through time by this signal system. These messages carry important information about the ways in which society directs itself in the time continuum.     

On the ＂Middle Way＂ of the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has, in recent years, been telling the world he has stopped seeking ＂Tibetan independence＂ and turned towards a ＂middle way＂. By this, he says, he means ＂high-level autonomy＂ or ＂real autonomy＂ in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas within the framework of the Chinese Constitution. Only by doing so, he has argued, can Tibet best protect its unique traditional culture, religion and eco-environment, and can the unification and unity of China be maintained. （On March 10, 1959, the reactionary upper class in Tibet staged a counter-revolutionary armed rebellion. When it was suppressed,     

On the stability of the ozone layer at Tromsø

Long-term measurements of the thickness of the ozone layer in Tromsø since 1935 show that the annual mean value can vary by as much as 18%. However, no decreasing trend of the ozone content and no correlation with the increasing amount of chlorine and halogen compounds of the atmosphere are found in the Scandinavian sector of the Arctic.