A Comparative Study of the Early High‐Fired Ceramic Shards from Dongtiaoxi,Zhejiang (China)

There is a generally accepted view that there is an obvious distinction between proto‐porcelain and stamped stoneware. However, some early shards unearthed from the Dongtiaoxi region (northern Zhejiang) inspire people to rediscuss the relationship between them, because it is difficult to identify them as proto‐porcelain or stamped stoneware. In this work, we have collected samples from three of the earliest kiln sites (Piaoshan, Beijiashan and Nanshan) in the Dongtiaoxi region. We have analysed the chemical composition, firing temperature and phase composition of the samples. Comparing samples from the three kiln sites, we find that, from Piaoshan and Beijiashan to Nanshan, there has been progression in the manufacturing technology. The Shang proto‐porcelain and the stamped stoneware from Nanshan have similar raw materials, firing temperatures and body phase compositions—and they have obviously different decorative appearances, such as glazing or stamping. For ceramics from Piaoshan and Beijiashan, there is no clear distinction between glazed and unglazed samples. We believe that in the Dongtiaoxi region, the difference in the decoration between proto‐porcelain and stoneware became obvious up to the time of the Nanshan production but that, subsequently, two different paths for the development of high‐fired ceramics began to diverge.     

《四库全书考证》的成书及主要内容

黄签是指选取《四库》书原有的校签中较合适的,用黄纸誊抄清楚,粘于进呈本相应校改之处的眉端,专供进呈御览之用的校签。一般来说,《四库》书经纂修、分校、覆校等校办后,粘贴校签,然后经由总纂、总校、总裁等审核,酌定、认可其中的一些校签,并从中选取一些写成黄签。可以说,黄签是校签的精选。《四库全书考证》即是汇编、加工上述黄签而成的。其所收的考订,既包括讹、衍、阙、倒置等一般问题的校正,也包括史实、观点等的校正。尽管相对于所有《四库》书的所有考订而言,《四库全书考证》所收很有限,但其文献价值应该得到充分的肯定。     

The Compositional study of ceramic samples from tombs dating to the Zhou Dynasty at Xiaoshan,Zhejiang Province (China)

Xiaoshan in Zhejiang Province was an important ceramic production area in ancient China. During recent years, local archaeologists have found a number of mound tombs dating to the Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period. Many shards of stamped stoneware and proto‐porcelain have been unearthed from these tombs. In this paper, we report how we collected ceramic shards from tombs and samples from local ancient kilns as reference materials in order to clarify their relationship. We have used the energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence technique to analyse the chemical composition of the ceramic samples. The results indicate that some of the tomb artefacts may be imported from other production areas. We infer that the other tomb samples were produced at local kilns, but due to production process–related compositional differences, there are small differences in chemical composition between different categories of samples.     

ACCESSING PAST BELIEFS AND PRACTICES: THE CASE OF LEMNIAN EARTH*

Lemnian Earth, a medicine in the shape of a stamped clay tablet (sphragis) from Lemnos, northeastern Greece, was much valued in antiquity and in the post‐medieval period as an antidote to poison and a treatment for other ailments. Although it was among the first archaeological materials to be subjected to chemical analysis (in 1807), there is still no clear understanding as to what made Lemnian Earth an effective medicine. We argue that Lemnian Earth, the artefact, was not the same as Lemnian Earth, the raw material. We suggest a composition for the artefact by scrutinizing the documentary evidence for its properties and by considering the geochemical processes that led to the formation of the raw material and the ritual relating to its extraction. The study of the latter highlights the need for archaeological materials scientists to recognize ritual as a possible manifestation of physical and chemical processes carried out within the framework of past beliefs and practices.     

Woodland period ceramic provenance and the exchange of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped vessels in the southeastern United States

Results of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of Middle and Late Woodland pottery (n = 313) and clay (n = 22) samples from northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia are presented. Assemblages in this region include Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery that preserves unique evidence of social interactions through the inimitable qualities of designs stamped into vessel surfaces. Archaeologists have proffered various hypotheses to explain movement of ceramic vessels or the carved wooden paddles used in the manufacture of these vessels. This study tests these hypotheses and indicates that nonlocal vessels, particularly complicated stamped ones, were deposited almost exclusively in mortuary contexts, a pattern that requires new explanations for the role of pottery in social interactions. These data are being integrated with a larger project that aims to reveal the social processes that were tied to the manufacture, use, and distribution of pottery.     

Building materials from Thamusida (Rabat,Morocco): a diachronic local production from the Roman to the Islamic period

A total of 67 bricks and tiles found in different archaeological contexts during excavations at Thamusida have been investigated here. The first analysed set consists of 27 bricks found in the area of an Islamic ceramic workshop, which was active at Thamusida from the 8th century onwards. The second set of 40 bricks and tiles was found mostly in situ. They date to the Roman occupation of the site (1st-3rd century AD). Thirteen of them bear different types of stamps. In addition, two types of clay (7 samples) from the surrounding area were analysed as reference for the materials used in the local ceramic production. The samples were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. The results allowed reconstructing two local productions of building materials: one during Roman and one during Islamic times, both using local grey tirs (without any manipulation or temper additions) as raw materials. Imports were further identified, tracing both short- and medium-range trade connections. Banasa could be addressed as a likely production site of bricks stamped QAP and APP, while the bay of Tangiers should be indicated as a likely provenance of bricks stamped C∞ and HADRIAVG.     

“A Set of Very Fair Cups and Saucers”: Stamped Ceramics as an Example of Inuit Incorporation

During the nineteenth century, the Labrador Inuit were incorporated into the global economic system primarily through contact with Moravian missionaries. Although they never abandoned traditional food procurement strategies, some Inuit became wage laborers for missions, and others participated in a market economy based on their procurement of marine mammals, fish, and furbearers. Excavations conducted at the Inuit village site of Nain attest to the increased consumption of European products throughout the nineteenth century. We describe one recovered artifact type, stamped earthenware, in detail and discuss how these artifacts provide insight into global economic processes.     

EARLY BRONZE AGE METAL TRADE IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN. NEW COMPOSITIONAL AND LEAD ISOTOPE EVIDENCE FROM CYPRUS

Summary.   This paper presents the results of chemical and lead isotope analyses of 17 Early and Middle Bronze Age artefacts from Cyprus. These suggest that a number of objects are of non-Cypriot copper and lead to the identification of several as imports, a new explanation for some artefact types as ingots and a discussion of the nature of deposits at the key Cypriot site of Vasilia. This in turn allows a reconsideration of the role of Cyprus in an Aegean/eastern Mediterranean metals trade in the early years of the second half of the third millennium BC and of the development of metalworking on the island.     

MORE EARLY HELLADIC SEALINGS FROM GERAKI IN LACONIA,GREECE

In 2002, excavations conducted by the University of Amsterdam at the acropolis site of Geraki (Laconia) revealed a storage room attached to the EH II defensive wall, apparently a casemate built into that wall. Along with pottery and abundant destruction debris were many fragments of clay sealings, some stamped with seal impressions. Sealings had already been discovered at Geraki in 1997 (OJA 18.4, 1999 = Geraki I). Together with the new sealings, Geraki becomes second only to Lerna in terms of the quantity of published sphragistic material from the EH II Aegean. This report considers their significance in terms both of recent finds in the Aegean islands and western Anatolia and their implications for exchange relations across the Aegean. Two appendices describe the formation of the contexts of the new sealings, and a further 12 sealings found elsewhere on the site, suggesting still other areas with sealing activity on the acropolis.     

Chemical modification of pyroclastic rock by hot water: an experimental investigation of mass transport at the fluid–solid interface

Hydrothermal water–(pyroclastic) rock interactions were examined using flow-through experiments to deduce the effect of mass transport phenomena on the reaction process. A series of experiments were conducted over the temperature range 75–250°C, with a constant temperature for each experiment, and at saturated vapour pressure, to estimate the apparent rate constants as a function of temperature.
Based on the chemistry of analysed solutions, the water–rock interaction in the experiments was controlled by diffusion from the reaction surface and by the existence of a surface layer at the rock–fluid interface, which regulated the chemical reaction rate. The reaction progress depended to a high degree on flow velocity and temperature conditions, with element abundances in the fluid significantly affected by these factors. Mass transport coefficients for diffusion from the rock surface to the bulk solution have been estimated. Ca is selectively depleted under lower temperature conditions ( T  < 150°C), whereas Na is greatly depleted under higher temperature conditions ( T  > 150°C), and K reaction rates are increased when flow velocity increases. Using these conditions, specific alkali and alkali earth cations were selectively leached from mineral surfaces. The 'surface layer' comprised a 0.5–1.8 mm boundary film on the solution side (the thickness of this layer has no dependence on chemical character) and a reaction layer. The reaction layer was composed of a Si, Al-rich cation-leached layer, whose thickness was dependent on temperature, flow velocity and reaction length. The reaction layer varied in thickness from about 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻⁷ mm under high temperature/low fluid velocity and low temperature/high fluid velocity conditions, respectively.     

Large‐scale chemical stratification of fluids in the crust: hydraulic and chemical data from the geothermal research site Urach,Germany

The Urach 3 research borehole in SW Germany has been drilled through a sedimentary cover sequence and reached gneisses of the Variscan crystalline basement at 1604 m below surface. An additional 2840 m has been drilled through fractured basement rocks. The borehole has been used for hydraulic tests in the context of a ‘hot dry rock’ (HDR) project. The sedimentary cover ranges from the Carboniferous to the Middle Jurassic (Dogger) in age and comprises mostly clastic sediments in the Paleozoic and limestone and shale in the Mesozoic. Water composition data from 10 different depths include samples from all major lithological units. The total dissolved solids (TDS) increases from the surface to about 650 m where it reaches 4.1 g l^?1 in Triassic limestone. In lower Triassic sandstones, TDS increases very sharply to 28.5 g l^?1 and the water is saturated with pure CO₂ gas. With increasing depth, TDS does not change much in the clastic sediments of the Permian and Carboniferous. The crystalline basement is marked by a very sharp increase in TDS to 55.5 g l^?1 at about 1770 m depth. TDS increases within the basement to more than 78.5 g l^?1 at about 3500 m depth. The data suggest that there is limited vertical chemical communication over long periods of time. The CO₂ gas cap in the lower Triassic sandstones requires a gastight cover. The chemical stratification of the fluids relates to the permeability structure of the crust at the Urach site and fits well with hydraulic and thermal data from the site.     

THE ORIENTATION OF ROMAN CAMPS AND FORTS

Summary.   The angles of orientation of 67 Roman camps were determined from their published plans. There was a marked tendency for them to be aligned close to the cardinal points but they were offset from those points by only 28 of a possible 45 angles and of these six occurred in 29 camps, probably because they were set out by making right-angled triangles whose non-hypotenuse sides were in whole number ratios. Twenty-seven forts on the British frontier walls were similarly orientated by only 12 angles, one of which occurred six times. The apparent accuracy of the layouts suggested that the directions of the meridian and latitude were first carefully determined. The use of a limited number of offset angles was probably due to a religious regard for celestial geometry.     

Les puits nabatéens de Mad in āli (Arabie Saoudite)

Close to the monumental graves, numerous ancient wells, some of which reach a depth of 18 m, were found in the Nabatean site of Mad     in     āli     . Their fascinating study was begun by the author, a well-known speleologist. It required a geomorphological and hydrological approach of the site which established the groundwater level and piezometric contours. Furthermore, research was conducted on the palaeoclimates and present-day pluviometry, which has concluded that the fall in the groundwater level since antiquity is mainly the result of modern exploitation. Since 1975 the high-yielding submerged pumps have provided intensive irrigation to the important agriculture of el Hijr, close to the Nabatean site. The wells, their construction, their shape and ancient mechanism are described in this paper.     

THE STAMPED AMPHORA HANDLES FROM TEL JEZREEL

Abstract

The eighteen stamped amphora handles found at Tel Jezreel include sixteen of the Rhodian class, one of the Knidian class, and one unclassified. They are valuable as evidence for the Hellenistic occupation at the site. Their half-century span roughly corresponds to the profile of the 310 stamps from nearby Tel I??abbah (Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis), and suggests a similar chronological terminus related to the campaign of John Hyrcanus I through the region.     

GRANARIES AND GARRISONS IN ROMAN FORTS

Summary.   A statistical investigation into the relationship between granary floor area and garrison in Roman forts suggested that for a year's corn an auxiliary infantry cohort was typically allotted 2,500 sq. feet of granary area, or 5 sq. feet each for 500 men. Cavalry fort granaries were insufficient for a year's corn but each cavalryman probably had 7.5 sq. feet of granary area which gave 3,600 sq. feet for 480 men. Information from Polybius suggested that legionary and auxiliary infantrymen had 16 cu. feet of corn per year, an auxiliary cavalryman 152 cu. feet and the legionary cavalryman 216 cu. feet. This paradigm facilitated the issue of corn by the modius and the granary model allowed ten modii per sq. foot of floor area so that the input for an infantryman was 50  modii per year. This allowed for a 4 per cent loss during storage so 48  modii per man could be withdrawn. But granary areas varied and some forts appear to have been depots for others. A simple algorithm is given to list the possible options for known granaries in terms of the numbers of men and duration of supply. With two floors, the Chester granaries would hold a year's corn for a legionary establishment, while the wooden granaries at Inchtuthil would have held a year's corn for some 6,800 infantry on one floor. The Severan base at South Shields could have held a year's corn for about 11,000 infantry.     

The New Mexico-Centered Hispano Homeland

Like mexicano for Mexican, Hispano is a gender-neutral term that has been used increasingly since the 1960s as a substitute for the more cumbersome Spanish American. In their New Mexico-centered homeland, Hispanos adjusted to the natural environment, stamped it with their culture, and from both the natural environment and the cultural landscape created a sense of place or a homeland identity. The word in Spanish that comes closest to capturing the Hispanos' concept of their homeland is patria, which means fatherland.     

A NEW METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE PROVENANCE OF WHITE MARBLES BY CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF INCLUSION FLUIDS: THE MARBLES OF THE MAUSOLEUM OF BELEVI/TURKEY*

A new method is presented in this paper to pinpoint the origin of white marbles using the chemical analysis of fluids occurring as micro-inclusions in calcitic or dolomitic marbles. Beside the conventional methods usually applied for this purpose, the analyses of significant anions and cations in fluids extracted from white marbles were used to characterize different types of marbles. Using this new approach it is possible to distinguish different groups of marbles which cannot be separated isotopically. A case study was performed on the mausoleum of Belevi, close to Ephesus in Turkey, and the quarries in the area of the mausoleum. The marbles used for the architecture of the mausoleum cannot be distinguished isotopically but were split into two groups when using fluid inclusion analysis. The corresponding quarry for the high-quality marble (cella walls, columns etc.) turned out to be the Kentli Çiftliği quarry, which also supplied the marbles for the classical Artemision. According to the chemical and fluid data it can be shown, however, that neither the adjacent famous antique quarry of Belevi nor the underground mine of Kusini, some 5 km away from the mausoleum, are the sources for the marbles used for the construction or decoration of the mausoleum.     

改革开放以来中国社会福利制度的嬗变

过去的30多年,有着鲜明计划经济烙印的社会福利制度随着经济转轨经历了从初始的起步探索,到后来逐渐转型和步入正轨的艰辛的改革历程。职工福利分解、社会福利社会化推进、社区服务普及、农村社会福利重构、适度普惠型福利探索等凝结为改革成果,初步形成了新型社会福利体系,但这些改革在社会福利的目标模式上是初级的、不全面的和不平衡的。面对变化的国情,处理好发展与公平的关系,构建适度普惠型社会福利制度,是中国社会福利的目标选择。     

EARLY ANGLO-SAXON POTTERY OF THE ‘ILLINGTON-LACKFORD’ TYPE1

Summary. Early Anglo-Saxon pottery of sixth-century date of a distinctive type has been described as the Illington-Lackford type, named after two cemeteries in which large quantities have been recovered in Norfolk and Suffolk respectively. As well as their use as cremation urns, large, but fragmentary, quantities have also also been recovered from the excavated settlement at West Stow. Analytical techniques are applied, especially to the stamped decoration, in an attempt to define more closely the mode and pattern of production.     

A CERAMIC TOOL FOR THE GLASS-BLOWER

Summary.   The existence of a local glass workshop is known at Sagalassos through archaeological and chemical analysis. In test soundings in the monumental city, an enigmatic ceramic cane was found attached to a chunk of green glass. This remarkable object is thought to be a pontil rod, more specifically a mandril. This study illustrates the use of ceramic tools in the glass craft as a readily available and cheap solution to the technical problems a glass-worker encountered.