An Early Christian Cemetery and Chapel on Ardwall Isle,Kirkcudbright

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to describe a particular stage of modification of existing hall-houses effected during the period of about 1480–1660, as found in a number of houses mostly situated in SE. England. The main area is thus delineated because most of the research for this study was undertaken there. It is extremely probable that the structural changes here discussed were accepted practice in a much wider area, and that evidence supporting this will be forthcoming.     

略论“隐喻解经法”对早期基督教史学思想的建构

西方古典史学至公元一世纪时已渐趋困顿,新兴的基督教史学则为其召唤了一位拯救者——上帝。而早期基督教的隐喻解经法,正是促成此举的一个关键因素。一、它让古典史学中作者的自我主体,转换为上帝的神意载体,使上帝降临于历史撰述者自身;二、它更促使上帝成为史学撰述的客体与目的,令历史由对人事的再现,转向为对神意的显现。这一过程由斐洛肇创,经保罗、德尔图良、奥利金等转构,最终完成于攸西比乌斯。借助于隐喻解经法,基督教于是建构起了一种全新的史学理论结构。     

Early Christian Grave Monuments and Ecclesiastical Developments in 11th-Century Sweden

THE EMERGENCE of churchyards is one of the most significant transformations of the landscape during the conversion to Christianity. This article examines changes in burial and commemorative practices during the 11th century, based on early Christian grave monuments. These are the first examples of churchyard memorials in central Sweden, yet at the same time they also form an integral part of the late Viking-Age runestone tradition. This article presents an analysis of their temporal, regional and contextual backgrounds, tracing developments in the early ecclesiastical landscape. It is concluded that different regional designs of rune-carved funerary monuments are related to substantial differences in the Christianisation process, reflecting variation in early ecclesiastical organisation and providing insight into how the conversion process was related to social and political structures.     

Early Christian Representations of the Economy: Evidence from New Testament Texts

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of economic issues that permeate certain aspects of the New Testament narrative world. After critically discussing the proper methodological patterns, the essay explores the possibility of reconstructing the socio-economic world in which these narratives emerged and evolved. We then proceed to assess the economic norms embedded in a rich diversity of New Testament texts, and we analyse how these religious discourses affected the economic attitudes of their respective audiences. To avoid overgeneralization, we properly differentiate the distinctive responses to the problem of economic necessity, in conformity to the particular social setting. We in turn suggest an alternative reading of some economic aspects of these texts; in so doing, we employ theories that advance a new understanding of the ancient economy. Finally, findings are summarized and further propositions are formulated.     

明末清初江南艺术市场与艺术交易人

明末清初,江南地区商业经济的繁荣,催生出艺术市场的繁荣,徽商收藏家和书画交易人的活动空前活跃。一时间,苏州、嘉兴、杭州等地成为江南地区艺术品集散的重要地区。尤其徽州地区,由于经济实力的增长,至明末及清初形成了较为成熟的艺术市场。艺术市场的繁盛,自然催生出了一批徽商收藏家,也由此诞生了一批书画交易人。江南地区的有些书画交易人同时也是北方鉴藏家的眼目,这样也使得南北艺术品交流逐渐频繁起来。     

中国南北朝时期菩萨像胸饰之研究

纵观佛教美术的历史,许多佩戴着美丽饰物的菩萨像就会进入你的眼帘,观赏们在大饱眼福的同时,还会被它那华丽、庄严的氛围所感染,敬畏之情也会油然而生。     

Philosophy as an Art of Dying

This essay proposes a close look at the tradition of martyr-philosophers in the Western world (Socrates, Hypatia, Giordano Bruno, Edith Stein, Jan Pato?ka) and advances the claim that the death of these people has a distinct philosophical significance. For various reasons, these philosophers place themselves in limit-situations where they cannot use words anymore to express themselves, but have to turn their own flesh into a radical means of expression. Their dying thus becomes an extension of their work, and the image of their violent deaths comes to be regarded as an inseparable part of their heritage. First, I discuss Socrates as the founder of the tradition of “philosophical deaths” in the West; his gradual “taming” of death in Plato's Apology is discussed in some detail. I then introduce a modern case of “Socratic death,” that of Jan Pato?ka (1907–77). Finally, I map out the cultural and social mechanisms, as well as some of the phenomenological preconditions, presupposed by the notion of “philosophy as an art of dying.”     

Restoration considered as a Destructive Art

A disparity exists between the numbers of males and females buried in Romano-British cemeteries, as compared with those of the late pre-Roman Iron Age: this is interpreted as reflecting the influence of Romanisation and the practice of female infanticide. In the late fourth and early fifth centuries A.D. the practice was in the process of being curtailed with the expansion of Christianity in Britain. The balance between the sexes was restored after the end of the Roman occupation.     

Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)

Archaeological samples of human and faunal remains dating from the Viking (9–11th century AD) and Early Christian (11–12th century AD) periods of Gotland, Sweden were assayed through stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to investigate whether changes in subsistence occurred between these periods, particularly regarding the importance of seafood. The study was concerned with how the dietary regime of the Baltic trading port and farming settlement at Ridanäs, Gotland was affected by the widespread environmental and sociocultural transformations that characterized the end of the Viking Age. More generally, the research considers how changes in both food procurement and preference may account for observed differences in the dietary regimes of individuals from the Viking Age and the Early Christian period.     

Early Socialism as Intellectual History

Summary

This article examines approaches to early socialism from an intellectual history viewpoint, focussing on British Owenite socialism. It assesses the author's own research in the field over the past thirty-five years in an effort to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches he initially adopted to the field. It attempts to balance insights associated with the so-called “Cambridge School” with those gained in particular from the standpoints of the history of religion and the history of emotions, and a theory of group identity which can in part be associated with the history of utopianism     

论西亚早期神话与神兽艺术

丝绸之路上的很多艺术造型图案可以上溯至新石器时代的种种造型,也和西亚两河流域诸古老文明有关。本文以西亚早期神兽艺术为主要研究对象,以文化内涵和艺术造型为视角,对西亚早期神兽艺术进行阐述。