甘肃玉门火烧沟四坝文化铜器的科学分析及相关问题

本文对甘肃玉门火烧沟遗址出土的67件铜器进行了科学分析,结果显示:其材质以红铜和锡青铜为主,有少量砷青铜、铅青铜、铅锡青铜等;成型工艺有铸造和锻造两种,前者略多;耳环多为锡青铜,热锻成型;而铜锥、铜斧等工具则多为红铜,制作以铸造为主。现有研究成果显示,河西走廊地区四坝文化铜器技术的发展早期阶段以红铜和青铜为主,砷铜或含砷青铜占有一定比例,晚期阶段以锡青铜为主。依据新的考古发现和年代框架,河西走廊地区早期冶金技术的出现和早期发展,显示了来自欧亚草原地区的影响,但不同时期文化交流路线以及影响的广度和深度并不相同。     

东下冯遗址冶铸遗存研究

本研究对东下冯遗址出土的17件第三期冶金遗物进行了金相和扫描电子显微镜-能谱分析。其中1件附渣冰铜块的检测表明该遗址的铜有独立于锡、铅料的来源。熔铜渣及铜块的分析表明第三期时已经使用锡青铜,同时还有铅青铜、铅锡青铜、砷铜等合金种类的应用。青铜合金通过向红铜中添加锡、铅物料(可能含砷)得到,与二里头等遗址类似。     

云南德钦永芝古墓葬出土铜铁器的初步分析

德钦县位于云南省西北部横断山脉地段,是北方青铜文化传入云南的重要地区。为研究滇西北地区青铜时代的金属技术,采用金相观察和化学成分分析方法,对德钦永芝战国末至西汉早期的古墓葬出土铜铁器进行了研究。分析的11件铜器中,发现其材质有红铜、Cu-Sn合金、Cu-As-Pb合金,以及含As的其它铜金属,合金类型有多样化的特点,但红铜占较大比例。Cu-As-Pb合金是云南第2次发现砷白铜,其冶炼技术的来源值得关注。铁器中出现了块炼渗碳钢,为一种低碳钢,这是滇西北地区首次科学分析的铁制品。铜器加工方式主要为热锻和热锻后冷加工,个别为铸后冷加工。该墓葬出土的铜剑、铜马杖头和弧背刀等都有明显的北方草原文化影响,说明这些技术可能与北方草原文化有关。本文首次用科学手段分析了滇西北迪庆地区的青铜器和铁器技术,对研究云南早期青铜文化金属器的制作工艺及其来源有一定意义。     

山东莱芜嬴城遗址炼铜渣初步研究

为了解山东地区早期冶金技术的发展情况,采用扫描电子显微镜分析等方法,对莱芜赢城冶炼遗址出土的3件炉渣进行了检测。结果表明其中2件为红铜还原渣,1件为砷铜熔炼渣。由此推测该遗址铜的还原可能存在两种工序,并且掌握了利用含砷矿物"点炼"铜液得到砷铜的技术。遗址所利用的铜可能来自于北江水铜矿,砷可能来自于鲁中山区,炉渣所属的时代应与遗址出土的商周青铜器年代相近。     

古代含砷麻江型铜鼓研究

为研究古代麻江型铜鼓的成分、工艺和矿料来源及麻江型铜鼓与遵义型铜鼓的发展源流关系,本研究采用扫描电镜能谱分析、金相显微镜分析和铅同位素比值分析等方法,对所取4面含砷麻江型铜鼓进行分析研究。结果表明其为Cu-Sn-As-Pb四元合金。同时结合文献研究可知,古代麻江型铜鼓中含砷的情况较为普遍,且含量较高。将该4面麻江型铜鼓与含砷遵义型铜鼓进行成分及铅同位素比值对比及地缘、矿产进行相关研究可知,含砷的两种类型铜鼓存在着一定的源流关系,并且含砷的两种类型铜鼓的矿料可能来源于云南文山地区与广西百色地区一带。     

古代砷铜研究综述

通过总结有关古代砷铜研究的献资料,回顾了人类使用砷铜的历史,汇集了学们对砷铜组织和性能的测试结果以及模拟古代实验条件冶炼砷铜的实验方法和结论,并简要介绍了我国近年来考古发现的早期砷铜器物,提出了我国砷铜技术来源的问题,以期引起中外考古学、冶金史专家的重视和讨论。     

“一枝独秀”之馆藏曲柄铜盉的科学分析与考古初探

利用扫描电镜-能谱仪(SEM-EDS)及金(矿)相显微镜等研究手段,对江西九江共青城市博物馆馆藏唯一一件曲柄铜盉进行金相组织观察和成分检测分析,并初步进行考古研究。结果表明:此曲柄铜盉的材质为铜-锡-铅(Cu-Sn-Pb)三元合金,制作工艺为铸造而成,其成熟的铜锡铅配比和加工方法佐证了商周青铜器的铸造技术。虽然曲柄铜盉的出土地为江西地区,但是通过形制初步判断其为群舒文化典型青铜盉,在一定程度上说明了吴、楚、越文化和群舒文化在先秦时期的融合情况。截至目前,此曲柄铜盉在江西地区尚属首次和唯一出现,填补了江西此类型青铜器研究的空白,对于揭示江西先秦青铜器冶金技术内涵及探讨江西与其周边地区的交流传播具有重要的价值意义。     

试论古代中国的砷铜发现及传播问题

近年来,在我国的甘青、新疆哈密和内蒙古赤峰等地区发现了大量的砷铜。砷铜是人类使用的第一种铜合金制品,冶金史上有着重要的地位。我国的这三个地区发现砷铜,为我们研究中国砷铜的起源、传播等问题开辟了新的视野。     

吉林乾安后鸣字区遗址出土辽金时期金属遗物初探

本文对乾安县辽金春捺钵遗址群后鸣字区遗址内的33件金属器样品进行系统冶金考古科学检测,包括"铁匠铺"中出土的"包铜铁"、铜块、铁块和土台上采集的金属残件等遗物。同时结合疑似加工地点的具体发掘情况,讨论了金相、扫描电镜和能谱分析数据,以期揭示该遗址金属遗物的成分特点和制作工艺,为研究该地区辽金时期冶金技术的发展状况及揭示辽金春捺钵活动文化内涵提供必要的数据支撑。     

昌宁出土铜镯的工艺及合金成分分析

铜镯是"西南夷"地区青铜时代最为常见的青铜器种类之一,考古发现数量众多,造型和纹饰因地而异。这种装饰品对于研究青铜时代西南先民的青铜艺术、技术等具有重要的价值。之前关于西南夷青铜器的研究,更多集中于铜鼓、铜兵器等主要铜器类型,而专门对铜镯展开的专题研究较少,因此目前对云南各地域铜镯的合金成分与制作技术特征缺乏整体性认识。与此同时,由于铜镯是一类常见的装饰品,对其进行研究可更直接地反映不同文化人群对金属资源的掌控、青铜技术的选择等考古学问题。根据文献记载,云南西部保山昌宁一带是西南夷中哀牢的主要分布区,近年来对该地展开的考古发掘工作为研究哀牢青铜文化提供了科学的实物资料。为了探讨昌宁地区哀牢青铜文化铜镯的合金成分及制作工艺特点,深化对云南不同地区出土铜镯技术特征的认识,本研究利用金相显微镜和扫描电镜能谱仪对昌宁出土的6件铜镯进行了成分分析和金相观察。结果显示,此批铜镯全部为锡青铜,含有少量的砷、硫、锑等杂质元素;其制作工艺多样,铸造、热锻和热锻后冷加工等多种方法并用。在此基础上,收集云南其他地区出土铜镯的科技分析数据,并结合类型学展开对比分析,把握各地铜镯制作技术的差异和联系。结果表明,云南各地出土铜镯,均以锡青铜为主,制作工艺上铸锻并重,这反映了西南夷青铜技术体系的一个重要特征。但进一步观察发现,铜镯的合金配比和加工方式又表现出明显的当地特色,如哀牢铜镯的平均含锡量最高且十分稳定,而滇、昆明夷铜镯的锡含量范围非常离散。各西南夷族群所采用的铜镯制作方法的同与异,究其原因,可能和铜镯造型、族群对资源的掌控能力、人的审美喜好等方面有关。本研究的创新性在于从铜镯这一被较少关注的青铜器类出发,结合成分、金相与类型学分析,综合以往研究对云南各地域出土铜镯工艺技术的共性及区别展开讨论。总之,铜镯作为云南地区常见的人体装饰品,不仅展现了不同区域少数民族对铜镯这一器型采用的合金配比与青铜制作工艺,而且从非实用器的角度反映了西南夷对资源的利用与掌控、审美思想等方面的信息。     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

Hospital Drama: Visual Theatres of the Medical Rendezvous from Asylum to Hospital with Reference to Specific Works by Anna Furse

Abstract

This paper is informed by Furse’s practice as a theatre maker in two fields of output that are connected by two factors: first, the presence of the woman patient — hysteric/subfertile respectively — within the clinical gaze; second, the significance of the womb to each pathology. In the treatment of each (explored in Furse’s theatre), lens based technologies play their part, whilst the cultural and medical can be seen to have overlapped to produce specific meaning with regard to Her body and its spectacularity. The article presents an overview of some of the key issues in precisely how the woman’s body becomes spectacular within this prosthetic medical gaze and how the medical — and theatrically designed spaces to represent these — become meaningful and potent proxemics that in turn inform medical/ theatrical spectatorship. Overarching nineteenth-century protocols at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (where Furse’s Augustine (Big Hysteria) is set) to contemporary imaging technologies used in the treatment of subfertility with Assisted Reproduction Technologies (the topic of her Art of A.R.T. projects), it examines the way in which photography develops through cinema to X-Ray, ultrasound and then 3D/4D ultrasound to ‘capture’ the woman’s body in ways by which she becomes muted and exposed. These occular technologies that extend the gaze, first to an exterior subject and then, eventually, traversing the flesh without knife, lend specific performativity to the ‘patient’ women, within the context of hysterias and reproductive impairments respectively. Finally, issues of suspension of disbelief are addressed. The spectator’s faith in the screen-based image of Her spectacular body is interrupted in Furse’s work, which is also keenly interested in the effect of such imagery on the woman’s sense of Self. The historical and cultural leaps in this article argue that there is indeed a trajectory through the history of medical imaging since the first application of photography to anatomy to the more advanced scoping technologies of medical imaging today, and that in each era, the production of these images remain fraught with cultural implications.     

The Death of Alexander the Great – A Spinal Twist of Fate

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. Physical depictions of this historical figure reveal the likelihood of a cervical scoliotic deformity. This is substantiated with the medical history and is correlated with his untimely death. For the first time, it is concluded that Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome.