Languages of Stateness in South Lebanon's Palestinian Gatherings: The PLO's Popular Committees as Twilight Institutions

Public authority beyond the state has often been seen as isolated from the state and/or constituting a threat to the state. Recent scholarship, however, has started to conceptualize ‘state’ and ‘non‐state’ forms of public authority as closely connected and interdependent. This article contributes to this theoretical shift by means of a qualitative case study of public authority in Palestinian refugee camps in South Lebanon. Lebanon's Palestinian camps are routinely characterized as ‘states‐within‐the‐state’, undermining the sovereignty of the Lebanese state. Yet, as this article demonstrates, both a generic state idea and the specific Lebanese state system constitute crucial benchmarks for the Popular Committees that govern informal Palestinian settlements. The article therefore conceptualizes the Popular Committees as ‘twilight institutions’ and explores the ‘languages of stateness’ that they adopt both communicatively, vis‐à‐vis Palestinian competitors, and coordinatively, vis‐à‐vis Lebanese counterparts. This reveals that the Popular Committees emulate the Lebanese state institutions they come into contact with, to bolster their own authority. They do this partly to be viable interlocutors for Lebanese state institutions; this suggests that the Popular Committees’ non‐state authority might validate rather than challenge state authority in Lebanon, and that state and non‐state authority can be mutually constitutive.     

Earthquake‐related temperature changes in two neighboring hot springs at Xiangcheng,China

Pre‐earthquake and postearthquake temperature changes were documented in two hot springs at Xiangcheng. Pre‐earthquake changes were documented in spring I, 13 days before and 106 km away from the M_s 5.8 Zhongdian earthquake. The 11‐year cutoff spring spouted again, and the spouted water was 24°C hotter than the former escaping gas. Postearthquake changes were documented in spring II following the 2008 M_w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, approximately 425 km away from the epicenter. Temperature in spring II showed a step‐like increase with a magnitude of 4°C induced by the earthquake. Spring I which is 0.3 m apart from spring II did not show a sudden change following the earthquake. However, temperatures in the two springs were identical after the Wenchuan earthquake. It indicates that the earthquake generated new hydraulic connectivity between springs I and II, and the heat transport between the two springs accounts for the postearthquake temperature changes.     

Circulation,modernity, and urban space in 1960s Beirut

In this essay, I explore the role of circulation in Beirut’s urban space and society in the early 1960s. Drawing primarily from the Lebanese francophone newspaper L’Orient, I show how the rise of automobility in postcolonial Beirut brought with it the imposition of certain kinds of moral and civic geographies that prescribed how citizens should use and move through the city. I argue that the newspaper’s narratives about matters of infrastructure and traffic law abidance reveal concerns with not just how people moved through the city, but with the everyday configuration of a rational, modern, biopolitical order.     

Destroying Nahr el-Bared: Sovereignty and urbicide in the space of exception

During the summer of 2007, Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon was the scene of a fierce battle between the Lebanese Armed Forces and a militant Islamist group called Fateh al-Islam. When Palestinian evacuees returned after the conflict, they found Nahr el-Bared utterly destroyed, houses smashed first by shells and bombs, then by vandalism and arson, possessions stolen and broken, offensive graffiti daubed on walls. I argue in this paper that the battle of Nahr el-Bared, and particularly the month of looting and arson that followed the battle, was a case of urbicide in a space of exception. The seemingly unrestricted destruction of homes, the theft of possessions and arson, went beyond any possible military necessity and became the deliberate and systematic erasure of the camp. This urbicide was made more possible by the very nature of the political spaces of the camp, which are in Lebanon but not of Lebanon, in which Lebanese sovereignty and law are not fully enforced, in which a whole range of non-Lebanese actors exercise political power outside the control of the Lebanese state. In these spaces of exception in which the rule of law is suspended, the looting, arson and vandalism took place without sanction. Palestinian homes and lives had become sacred in the sense that they could be destroyed without sanction, without recourse to legal redress, because there was no law.     

The joke is on us: Irony and community in a Beirut scrapyard

The Lebanese scrap metal industry – one of the country's largest exports – relies heavily upon marginalized young boys displaced from their homes in Syria. These underage waste pickers are not supposed to be working, and yet work is the only legitimate reason for their presence in Lebanon. Workers engage in different types of trip as they journey across Beirut, discreetly rummaging through rubbish. These trips allow them to cover up play under the guise of work while fostering a community of complicity that functions according to age hierarchies, rites of passage and codes of conduct.     

Inside Hezbollah: The al‐Mahdi Scouts,Education, and Resistance

This article analyzes the al‐Mahdi Scouts, a Lebanese scout group affiliated with Hezbollah. After introducing Hezbollah's social services in Lebanon, the al‐Mahdi Scouts' multifaceted identity and main activities are illustrated. The role in Lebanese society is investigated, along with its cooperation with other scout groups in Lebanon, which takes place mostly within the framework of the Lebanese Scout Federation. I also highlight two controversial issues that emerged in the research. First, it is shown how blurred the distinction is between education and indoctrination. Second, the accusations of terrorism are considered, with two possible approaches identified. The first one looks at Hezbollah as a homogeneous organization, while the second one distinguishes between its military, political, and social wings. While the first approach can legitimately accuse the al‐Mahdi Scouts of terrorism, I argue that the second one is more appropriate because it judges them for their own actions. We cannot just look at this group as Hezbollah's recruitment tool, because its role is more complex and significant. This group provides a portion of Lebanese youth with skills to improve their future and succeed in life, even if it does so by propagating Hezbollah's ideals and beliefs.     

Hydrothermal palaeofluid circulation in the fracture network of the Baksa Gneiss Complex of SW Pannonian Basin,Hungary

A well‐developed fracture‐filling network is filled by dominantly Ca‐Al‐silicate minerals that can be found in the polymetamorphic rock body of the Baksa Gneiss Complex (SW Hungary). Detailed investigation of this vein network revealed a characteristic diopside→epidote→sphalerite→albite ± kfeldspar→chlorite1 ± prehnite ± adularia→chlorite2→chlorite3→pyrite→calcite1→calcite2→calcite3 fracture‐filling mineral succession. Thermobarometric calculations (two feldspar: 230–336°C; chlorites: approximately 130–300°C) indicate low‐temperature vein formation conditions. The relative succession of chlorites in the mineral sequence combined with the calculated formation temperatures reveals a cooling trend during precipitation of the different chlorite phases (T_chlorite1: 260 ± 32°C →T_chlorite2: 222 ± 20°C →T_chlorite3: 154 ± 13°C). This cooling trend can be supported by the microthermometry data of primary fluid inclusions in diopside (T_h: 276–362°C) and epidote (T_h: 181–359°C) phases. The identical chemical character (0.2–1.5 eq. wt% NaCl) of these inclusions mean that vein mineralization occurred in a same fluid environment. The high trace element content (e.g. As, Cu, Zn, Mn) and Co/Ni ratio approximately 1–5 of pyrite grains support the postmagmatic hydrothermal origin of the veins. The vein microstructure and identical fluid composition indicate that vein mineralization occurred in an interconnected fracture system where crystals grew in fluid filled cracks. Vein system formed at approximately <200 MPa pressure conditions during cooling from approximately 480°C to around 150°C. The rather different fluid characteristics (T_h: 75–124°C; 17.5–22.6 eq. wt% CaCl₂) of primary inclusions of calcite1 combining with the special δ¹⁸O signature of fluid from which this mineral phase precipitated refer to hydrological connection between the crystalline basement and the sedimentary cover.     

Secret Intelligence and Anti-Nazi Resistance: The Mysterious Exile of Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus

The U.S. decision to send 14,000 marines to Lebanon during the civil war of 1958 exasperated Lebanese peoples. The American military intervention, as a result, contributed to a cultural process in which many Lebanese began to imagine the United States as an “imperial” force, inheriting the legacy of Empire in the Middle East and stepping into the shoes of former European imperial powers, Britain and France. While admiring U.S. values and cultures, Lebanese anti-colonialists, nationalists, and pan-Arabists expressed their antipathy vis-à-vis the “imperial” nature of Washington's involvement in their internal affairs. Others, primarily content with and invested in the socio-political status quo, stood by and exalted the American presence in their country.

Using Lebanon as a case study, this paper examines popular perceptions of and experiences with U.S. global power during the 1958 crisis. As a result, it goes beyond traditional interstate relations and combines top-down and bottom-up approaches in order to illuminate power negotiations between a global superpower, the United States, and the Arab masses of Lebanon. In this spirit, the voices and actions of national and local leaders, as well as everyday men and women are integrated into the global story of U.S. involvement in the Middle East.     

OBTAINING PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATES OF DISPLACEMENT ON A LANDSLIDE DURING FUTURE EARTHQUAKES

The assessment of earthquake triggered landslide hazard may be undertaken using both deterministic and probabilistic techniques. Probabilistic methods have been developed because much of the data can be considered as random variables where parameters such as the angle of internal friction and moisture content do not have a single fixed value but may assume any number of values across a range. This random variability can be modelled by a probability density function (PDF) which describes the relative likeli-hood that a random variable will assume a particular value. Instead of using just the average or expected value of an input parameter, the complete range of possible values can be used to estimate a range of possible outcomes. Thus the probability of a slope being unstable can be obtained rather than a single indicator of stability. Such proba-bilistic analyses allow for the incorporation of the likely variability of each parameter and therefore allow a more intimate assessment of slope stability to be derived. Utilising empirical relationships for calculating earthquake ground motions and associated slope displacement, an investigation was undertaken to identify the contribution that modern simulation techniques could make to the assessment of earthquake-triggered landslides. To achieve this, geotechnical and earthquake data obtained from a deep-seated landslide triggered during the M _w 7.0 Loma Prieta earthquake was used. By incorporating the variability of the geotechnical parameters and the uncertainty in earthquake location the model derived the probabilities associated with increasing amounts of slope displacement during future probable earthquakes. Analysis was undertaken for four of the principal fault segments in the San Francisco Bay area. These estimates were then combined with the occurrence probabilities of the earthquakes to provide temporal estimates of dis-placement for a 30 year period. Results indicated that a M _w 7.0 earthquake located on the Peninsula Segment of the San Andreas fault was most hazardous with a 11% chance of minor slope displacement (≥0.10 m) and a 6% chance of moderate slope displacement (≥0.30 m) within the next 30 years.     

Queering Beirut,the ‘Paris of the Middle East’: fractal Orientalism and essentialized masculinities in contemporary gay travelogues

In this article, I analyse discourses that have been circulating in a number of Euro-American journalistic articles, gay travelogues and an international gay tour guide since 2005, which present Beirut as a new gay tourist destination. Since representations in gay travelogues often trade in imagined ‘sexual utopias’, promise encounters and the ‘discovery’ of unfamiliar and ‘exotic’ settings with other non-heterosexual men, I explore how both Beirut and the Lebanese are represented and made intelligible. I argue that even though these representations depart from a binary distinction between East/West and Self/Other, they are still premised on Orientalist depictions of both place and people. However, these depictions are complex as they rely on and produce what I call ‘fractal Orientalism’, or ‘Orientalisms within the Orient’, and essentialized, yet relational, understandings of both ‘tourists’ and ‘locals’. Hybridity and liminality become central, whereby Beirut is presented as safe but dangerous, and glamorous but war-torn, and the non-heterosexual Lebanese are racialized and represented as sexually available (in private) but discreet (in public). These representations rely heavily on linear narratives of progress, where progress is assessed in terms of ‘tolerant’ attitudes towards homosexuality, the presence of a Western-constituted ‘gay identity’, gay-friendly spaces and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer organizations. Finally, I argue that these depictions, despite attempting to make Beirut and non-heterosexual Lebanese men intelligible, produce monolithic and essentialist understandings of both, which fail to take into account the complexities and intersections of gender, race, class and sexualities.     

Organic–inorganic rock–fluid interactions in stylolitic micro‐environments of carbonate rocks: a FIB‐TEM study combined with a hydrogeochemical modelling approach

Stylolites and the interfaces to the host limestone have been investigated by means of a multidisciplinary analytical approach (thin section microscopy, FIB‐TEM, organic geochemistry and petrography). Carbonate dissolution assuming different boundary conditions was simulated by applying a generic hydrogeochemical modelling approach. It is the conceptual approach to characterize and quantify traceable organic–inorganic interactions in stylolites dependent on organic matter type and its thermal maturity, and to follow stylolite formation in carbonates as result of organic matter reactivity rather than pressure solution as a main control. The investigated stylolite samples are of Upper Permian (Lopingian, Zechstein), Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk) and Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age and always contain marine organic matter. The thermal maturity of the organic matter ranges from the pre‐oil generation zone (0.4–0.5% R_r) to the stage of dry gas generation (>1.3% R_r). The results of the generic hydrogeochemical modelling indicate a sharp increase of calcite dissolution and the beginning of stylolite formation at approximately 40°C, which is equivalent to a depth of less than 800 m under hydrostatic conditions considering a geothermal gradient of 30°C and a surface mean temperature of 20°C. This temperature corresponds to the pre‐oil window when kerogens release an aqueous fluid enriched in carbon dioxide and organic acids. This aqueous fluid may change the existing pore water pH or alkalinity and causes dissolution of carbonate, feldspar and quartz, and clay mineral precipitation along the stylolite. Dissolution of limestone and dolostone leads to reprecipitation of calcite or dolomite opposite of the dissolution side, which indicates only localized mass redistribution. All these integrated hydrogeochemical processes are coupled to the generation of water during organic matter maturation. In all of the calculated hydrogeochemical scenarios, H₂O is a reaction product and its formation supports the suggested hypothesis.     

FINITE FAULT MODELLING OF NEAR-FIELD ROCK MOTIONS IN THE NEW MADRID SEISMIC ZONE

Due to lack of strong motion records, point-source and finite-fault models have been used to simulate far-field motions at Memphis and St. Louis Cities from earthquake events in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. However, near-field rock motions and their associated uncertainties have never been studied within this zone. The objectives of this study are to develop a simple procedure to account for the uncertainty effect of earthquake source parameters, to analyze the sensitivity of near-field rock motions to input source parameters, and finally, to generate rock motions at two sites located within 11 km from the southwestern segment (strike-fault) and a third site bove the Reelfoot Rift (reverse fault) using a well-validated finite-fault simulation program; FINSIM. An equal-weight logic tree was developed to ensure that the assumed uncertainties are within physical, geological, and seismological constraints. For each site, 100 acceleration time histories with various combinations of parameter uncertainties were respectively simulated for an earthquake of M _w 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0 from each of the two faults. Their average spectral accelerations were in good agreement with those derived from the attenuation relation-ships representative to the Central and Eastern United States. Numerical simulations indicated that spectral accelerations are sensitive to the slip velocity, depth to top of fault, fault strike, slip distribution, and hypocentre location along the strike.     

On not being Dubai: infrastructures of urban cultural policy in Istanbul & Beirut

ABSTRACT

This paper compares how Istanbul and Beirut both attempt to underline their cultural and developmental uniqueness today in contrast to a metonymic menace – Dubai, standing in for spectacular yet supposedly cultureless Gulf cities. Even amid their own speculative construction frenzies that threaten local heritage, Turkish and Lebanese city-shapers assert theirs are ‘real’ cities because they have ‘civilization’ and ‘history.’ By addressing their own efforts to build, defend, or oppose physical infrastructures related to local urban culture, Istanbullus and Beirutis rely on and reassert strategic, phatic discourses that frequently reference Gulf cities as counterpoint. Analysis focuses on how each city crafts a distinctive urban profile via civilizational appeals to historic senses of culture, inflecting infrastructural developments related to bridging (Istanbul) and bordering (Beirut). Historical truisms are deployed with marked flexibility to showcase these cities as ‘not Dubai.’ This study offers lessons on the particular worlding of Middle Eastern cities and the role of discourses in the material-symbolic infrastructure of implicit urban cultural policy.     

The Father's Success and the Son's Failure: Explaining the Growth of Lebanon's Resistance to Syria's Invisible Occupation

In the 15‐year period since the Syrian military entry into Lebanon on June 1, 1976, allegedly to put an end to the civil war that broke out there a year earlier, Syria firmly solidified its control of the country, as evidenced by the signing of the “Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination between Syria and Lebanon,” on May 22, 1991, which granted Syria a special status. Yet, 14 years later, on April 24, 2005, the Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon. This article seeks to explain this relatively rapid decline in Syria's standing in Lebanon by examining the strategies of the two Syrian rulers who indirectly controlled this country during those years. It examines what was right in Hafiz al‐Asad's strategy in Lebanon, and what did not work in Bashar's policy. In 2000, the year of Hafiz al‐Asad's death, Syria's status in Lebanon seemed unshakable: 1) Lebanon's president (Emile Lahoud) acted as Damascus's puppet; 2) Hezbollah, the Shi‘a militia Hezbollah largely accepted Syria's authority while it simultaneously tightened its control over southern Lebanon and also began gaining popularity in the rest of the country; and 3) finally the politics of the noble families, which had characterized Lebanon since its establishment, began to gradually give way to a politics where a political figure is measured by the level of his connections to the country's power base in Damascus. Yet, merely five years later, Syria was under immense pressure to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. This suggests that we must look at the difference between the strategies of Hafiz al‐Asad and his son Bashar for controlling Lebanon to better understand the rapid deterioration in Syria's standing in the country. We argue that the difference in the degree of anti‐Syrian pressures from Lebanon's society and political elements between the two tenures is largely rooted in the different strategies that the two Syrian presidents adopted for informally ruling Lebanon. We identify three main areas where Bashar al‐Asad made mistakes due to his failure to continue his father's methods. First, Bashar put all his cards on Hezbollah, thus antagonizing all the other groups which resented that Shi‘a dominance. Second, in stark contrast to his father, Bashar distanced himself from the regular management of Lebanon's ethnic politics. Hafiz al‐Asad made sure that all the leaders of the different ethnic groups would visit Damascus and update him on their inter‐ethnic conflicts, and then he would be the one who would either arbitrate between them or, for expediency reasons, exacerbate these feuds. Once the ethnic leaders had to manage without Damascus, they learned to get along, making him far less indispensable for the running of the country. Finally, Bashar, unlike his father, did not make a real effort to gain international and regional legitimacy (or at least de‐facto acceptance) for Syria's continued control over Lebanon. Most conspicuously, while Hafiz participated in the First Gulf War against Iraq, his son supported Sunni rebels who fought against the United States‐led coalition forces there. This foreign acquiescence was significant since the Lebanese felt they had a backing when they demanded Syria's withdrawal in 2005. These different strategic approaches of the two rulers meant that the father's policies wisely laid the ground for some of the most controversial measures which were needed as part of any attempt to monopolize control over another country, such as Lebanon (assassinating popular but too independent‐minded Lebanese presidents/prime ministers or extending tenures of loyalist ones), whereas the son's policies myopically failed to do so properly. Indeed, the article will show that while both the father and the son took these same controversial measures, the responses of the Lebanese were completely different. Admittedly, some historical developments increased the Lebanese propensity to rise up against Syria, and these meant that Bashar did in fact face a harder task than his father in maintaining Syria's informal occupation. The Israeli withdrawal from its so‐called “security zone” in south Lebanon meant that one justification for the Syrian presence was gone. More importantly, the risk of renewed eruption of the civil war (which in turn had meant for many years a greater willingness by the locals to tolerate the Syrian presence which prevented the war's resumption) declined significantly due to a variety of processes that could not have been halted even with better “management” of the interethnic strife from Damascus (i.e., making sure that the ethnic groups remained in deep conflict with each other). Nevertheless, as we will show, Bashar's mistakes played a crucial role in bringing the rival ethnic groups together by making Damascus their joint enemy.     

Taphonomic Analysis of Micromammal Remains from Striped Owl (Pseudoscops clamator) Pellets in Northeastern Buenos Aires Province,Argentina: Implications for Archaeological Sites Formation

The main objective of this study was to determine the taxonomic and taphonomic characteristics of the micromammal remains recovered from pellets of Pseudoscops clamator (striped owl), collected at three localities in northeastern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina (Punta Lara Natural Reserve, 34°49'02,6''S, 58°03'03,9''W; Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, 34°36'6,44" S, 58°21'33,22" W; Los Robles Park, 34°40'22,03''S, 58°52'18,88''W). The main taphonomic variables (e.g. evidence of digestive action, breakage patterns and relative abundance of skeletal elements) suggest that this owl mainly produces intermediate to moderate modification. On the other hand, P. clamator preyed mainly upon large‐sized (>150 g) micromammals (e.g. Lutreolina crassicaudata, Cavia aperea, Holochilus brasiliensis and Rattus sp.), and to a lesser degree on medium‐ (50–150 g) and small‐sized species (<50 g) (e.g. Scapteromys aquaticus, Calomys sp., Oligoryzomys flavescens, Akodon azarae and Mus musculus). Fossil assemblages with a dominance of large‐sized micromammals are commonly associated with humans as agents of accumulation. However, this study demonstrates that this owl produces assemblages with abundant large‐sized micromammals, which introduces an equifinality problem. In that sense, digestive corrosion marks, breakage patterns and the relative abundance of skeletal remains are the main attributes to differentiate P. clamator from humans, as agents of accumulation. Finally, our results might serve as an analytical model for the taphonomic interpretation of the fossil record of micromammals from paleontological and archaeological sites, which fall within the distributional range and habitat of P. clamator. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Maronite Leadership’s Approach toward Syria, 1970–2011: Between Integration,Separation, and Pragmatism

The Maronite–Syria relationship is troublesome, and one can say that the two sides are diametrical opposites. The Maronites, in general, represent the aspiration for an independent Lebanon, while Syria considers Lebanon a part of “Greater Syria” and aspires to annex the Lebanese territories. The Maronite community has consistently resisted these aspirations. However, the Maronite community is not a coherent one, which is reflected in its approach toward Syria. In fact, the Maronite leadership has adopted three different approaches toward Syria: an integrative one that aspires to full cooperation with Syria; a separatist one that strongly considers Lebanon and Syria to be separate states; and a pragmatist one that adheres to intimate or unfriendly ties according to local Lebanese interests. This article introduces the three Maronite approaches and claims that one cannot disassociate these approaches, especially the pragmatist one, from the Syrian policy toward Lebanon, which includes changing alliances according to Syria’s political interests. Moreover, the article suggests that these approaches will remain in place regardless of which Maronite leader supports each one and regardless of who will rule in Syria.     

SEISMIC HAZARD ASSESSMENT OF METROPOLITAN TEHRAN,IRAN

This paper presents a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment of Tehran, the capital of Iran. Two maps have been prepared to indicate the earthquake hazard of Tehran and its vicinity in the form of iso-acceleration contour lines. They display the probabilistic estimate of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) over bedrock for the return periods of 475 and 950 years. Tehran is a densely populated metropolitan in which more than 10 million people live. Many destructive earthquakes happened in Iran in the last centuries. It comes from historical references that at least 6 times, Tehran has been destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes. The oldest one happened in the 4th century BC. A collected catalogue, containing both historical and instrumental events and covering the period from the 4th century BC to 1999 is then used. Seismic sources are modelled and recurrence relationship is established. For this purpose the method proposed by Kijko [2000] was employed considering uncertainty in magnitude and incomplete earthquake catalogue. The calculations were performed using the logic tree method and three weighted attenuation relationships; Ramazi [1999], 0.4, Ambraseys and Bommer [1991], 0.35, and Sarma and Srbulov [1996], 0.25. Seismic hazard assessment is then carried out for 12×11 grid points using SEISRISK III. Finally, two seismic hazard maps of the studied area based on Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) over bedrock for 10% probability of exceedance in two life cycles of 50 and 100 years are presented. The results showed that the PGA ranges from 0.27(g) to 0.46(g) for a return period of 475 years and from 0.33(g) to 0.55(g) for a return period of 950 years. Since population is very dense in Tehran and vulnerability of buildings is high, the risk of future earthquakes will be very significant.     

RESEARCH REPORT: MAGNETIC INVESTIGATIONS AND THE AGE OF A MEDIEVAL KILN AT KUNGAHÄLLA (SOUTH‐WEST SWEDEN)*

The results from a magnetic survey and archaeomagnetic investigation of a medieval brick kiln at Kungahälla in Bohuslän (south‐west Sweden) are reported. Detailed magnetic total field and magnetic gradient measurements over known traces of the kiln showed marked local magnetic anomalies of up to 200 nT, revealing the rectangular shape of the kiln remains. Palaeomagnetic investigations of the remanent magnetization of 12 bricks from the kiln floor gave precise definitions of both the direction of the archaeomagnetic field [(D_m, I_m) = (66.7°, 8.8°), k = 655, α₉₅= 1.7°] and the palaeointensity [B_m= 69.0 ± 3.6 µT]. An archaeomagnetic date is obtained by comparing the direction of the archaeomagnetic field found in the kiln with a geocentral dipole‐transformation of the British master‐curve for secular variation. Of two possible archaeomagnetic dates (ad 1280 ± 50 or ad 1480 ± 50), the ad 1280 ± 50 age is in good accordance with the C‐14 ages and archaeological dates as well as with direct historical evidence, whereas a c. 100 years younger TL date appears to be too young.