An Insular Reliquary from Melhus: The Significance of Insular Ecclesiastical Material in Early Viking-Age Norway

THIS PAPER presents and discusses a unique insular reliquary shrine discovered in an early 9th-century woman’s grave at Melhus, central Norway, over a century ago. In addition to a detailed re-evaluation of the shrine and its use in its original ecclesiastical context, the paper also proposes an alternative interpretation as to how the local pagan population may have conceptualised this Christian object after it arrived in Norse hands. While most of the insular ecclesiastical items in Scandinavia were broken up and transformed into personal ornaments, the Melhus shrine was kept complete, suggesting it was considered to be of special value. It is argued here that this status should be seen in association with the shrine’s involvement in local narratives and ritual aspects connected with the earliest voyages across the North Sea. The woman with whom the reliquary was buried may have played a central role in these rituals.     

Beyond the Visible: Combined Neutron and X‐ray Imaging of an Altar Stone from the Former Augustinian Church in Fribourg,Switzerland

An altar table from the former Augustinian church in Fribourg (Switzerland) was studied by means of neutron and X‐ray imaging to investigate the embedded reliquary. The neutron transmission images showed that the sepulcrum contained three objects showing high contrast and high attenuation. As the particles were almost invisible in the X‐ray image, it was assumed that they were organic material. Comparative measurements on reference samples of materials possibly contained in such a reliquary (bone, teeth, leather, incense and parchment) suggest that the particles are bone fragments. Besides an assessment of the content, the results from the neutron investigation allowed a proposal of the probable geometry (i.e., shape and dimensions) of the sepulcrum.     

论20世纪20年代的日本裁军运动

近代日本政府一直奉行"富国强兵"政策,把扩军备战置于优先考虑的地位,使日本军事实力在20世纪初达到西方强国的水平,并能直接挑战西方国家的霸权.但日本的军备扩充受国内外因素的制约,并不是简单地沿着直线上升.20世纪20年代日本出现了颇具规模的裁军运动,这是第一次世界大战以后日本国内和平反战力量的兴起、日本经济对美国的高度依赖和美、英等国在远东寻求新的力量均衡等多种因素促成的.     

The Medieval Manor of Penhallam,Jacobstow, Cornwall

THE remains of the medieval manor of Penhallam lie in a sheltered valley in the parish of Jacobstow, some 3 miles from the sea. It was one of the principal houses of the Cardinham family who held, under the king, the largest seignory in the county of Cornwall. Extensive excavation between the years 1968 and 1973 revealed substantial remains of a sophisticated manor house, standing within an earlier ring-work. The stone-built house was constructed in four periods during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It was deserted in the middle of the 14th century and was gradually demolished. Mo remains of the buildings were visible above ground at the time of the commencement of the excavation. The site, now known as Berry Court, takes the name of a small homestead of probable 16th-century origin, standing on the outer edge of the moat.

There was no visible trace of the hall associated with the early Norman ring-work, but its existence is attested by the subsequent development of the site. Excavation revealed that there were stone buildings standing on the four sides of a courtyard. They comprised a hall, camera, chapel, service rooms, lodgings and a gatehouse. From these remains it was possible to obtain much information about the construction and development of a medieval manor house in the 12th and 13th centuries. Excavation of the 13th-century gatehouse and drawbridge well revealed the construction, assembly and operation of a counter-balanced bridge.

The excavation finds, attributed to the 13th and early 14th centuries, have been presented to the Royal Institution of Cornwall at Truro.     

区域交流影响下的文化趋同与社会发展——东山村遗址崧泽文化墓葬的启示

东山村遗址的发掘为太湖地区崧泽文化增添了新材料,为进一步探讨崧泽文化的发展进程提供了重要契机。东山村崧泽文化墓地的陶器显示出其在继承马家浜文化的同时,也与周边文化处于相互影响之中,使得区域文化面貌逐步趋同,这种趋势同样表现在太湖地区内部,另一方面,陶鬶差异暗示的地方类型则始终存在。从社会层面来看,太湖地区在崧泽文化早期就已经出现了聚落内部的分层构成,其社会发展进程明显受到区域文化交流的影响。     

Exploring Bristol’s historic glass industry: archaeological investigation at the Soap Boilers’ and Hoopers’ glasshouses,and the Powell & Ricketts’ Bottle Works,Avon Street,Glass Wharf,Bristol

SUMMARY: In 2007, extensive archaeological excavation was undertaken on an important post-medieval glassworking site at Glass Wharf, Bristol. The excavation exposed remains relating to a series of glassworks dating between the early 18th and early 20th centuries and, significantly, uncovered a sequence of five glass-melting furnaces and covering structures, which together reflect wider changes in glassmaking technology throughout these periods. Detailed scientific analysis of glassworking debris from the excavation has also been undertaken, which provides much-needed detail on the development of recipes and raw materials used in bottle manufacture during the 18th and 19th centuries.     

Eighteenth-century glass and pottery manufacture at Morison’s Haven,Prestongrange, East Lothian

Abstract

This paper presents the results of archaeological investigations of the remains of an 18th-century glassworks at Prestongrange Museum, near Prestonpans, East Lothian. The site is part of an industrial complex previously known as Morison’s Haven, named after its associated tidal harbour. It has a long history of coal extraction that was established as early as the 13th century, and includes industries such as glassmaking, salt, pottery and brick and tile manufacture, and a colliery. The archaeological remains of the glassworks came to light during investigative works designed to locate Gordon’s Pottery, which was known to have manufactured fine tablewares in the 18th century.     

Cecil Sharp in Somerset: Some Reflections on the Work of David Harker

David Harker's criticism of Cecil Sharp's work has been called the beginning of serious critical work on the early folk music movement, and it has become an orthodoxy which later commentary has accepted without question, taking its accuracy and the validity of its research base on trust. This article shows that the trust has been misplaced. It uses a fresh, more complete and more rigorous analysis of the Sharp MSS to show that Harker's criticism is inaccurate, innumerate, flawed in its methods, and unjustified in its assumptions. It forces a reassessment both of Sharp's work and of Harker's, and renders untenable many of the assumptions upon which modern interpretations of the early folk music movement in Britain are based.     

Fowler's Type F3 Early Medieval Penannular Brooches

ANALYSIS OF FOURTEEN penannular brooches identifies an important group (Fowler's Type which derives its unique appearance from a combination of forms and motifs peculiar to zoomorphic penannular brooches and hand-pins. They are an Irish type and can be dated to the later 6th and early 7th centuries.     

The Meeting-Places of Parliament in the Ancient Palace of Westminster

Abstract

The importation into England of church furnishings of most kinds has been going on since the early Middle Ages. The focus of this study is on wooden furnishings and the early 19th century, when a specific group of patrons scoured mainly France and the Low Countries for the furniture that had been prised from churches, as a direct and indirect result of the French Revolution. The taste for such material was fuelled by a Romantic enthusiasm, although ironically much of it was in the Baroque style. The historical setting for this nostalgic explosion in interest is briefly sketched, as well as an account of its development into the early 20th century.     

Galilee Blooming: First palynological and archaeological data from an Early Byzantine Cistern at Horvat Kur

Abstract

Preliminary archaeological and palynological results are presented from an early Byzantine cistern of the village Horvat Kur in eastern Lower Galilee/Israel. The rural site was settled from the Hellenistic until the Early Arab period, its synagogue was constructed shortly after 425 AD and renovated sometimes during the 2nd half of the 6th century AD. It was abandoned probably as a consequence of the earthquake of 749 AD. The intact and properly sealed cistern contained complete or fully restorable pottery. Two cooking pots from the early 5th century AD comprised sediments which was sampled for palynological purposes. Both samples, as well as a sample from the soil beneath one of the pots and a modern surface sample from the site, revealed well preserved palynomorphs in comparably high concentration showing a great potential of the cistern as a pollen archive. The pollen content points to an open, grassy semiarid landscape with an apparent scarcity of cultivars and trees in the vicinity of the site and an abundance of herbs, especially Asteraceae, which are still commonly found in modern regional vegetation.     

20世纪美国联邦政府行政改革的历史考察

美国联邦政府的行政改革贯穿于整个20世纪,可以划分为四个阶段,每个阶段有不同的侧重点：第一阶段改革开始于19世纪末、20世纪初,“效率政府”是这一时期行政改革所追求的主要目标;第二阶段改革实施于20世纪中期,“忠诚政府”成为联邦政府改革的特点;20世纪70、80年代改革进入第三阶段,强调官员的职业道德,改革特点为追求“道德政府”;20世纪90年代美国政府管理进入一个全面调整时期,“重塑政府”成为行政改革追求的主要目标,从而在实践上把20世纪美国联邦政府行政改革推向了高峰。从行政管理学的角度分析,精简机构、节约开支和提高效率,始终是20世纪美国联邦行政改革的核心内容。从政治学的角度分析,防止职业官僚垄断政府权力和整治官僚主义作风,也始终是20世纪美国联邦政府行政改革必须面对的问题。     

Recently Discovered Remains of a Roman Bridge in the River Trent

Abstract

The early Donjon at Langeais is among the best-known early medieval buildings in Europe, but has not been systematically studied; this paper is based on a stone-by-stone record and archaeological analysis of the standing building, and presents an interpretation of its structural and functional history. Three major structural phases have been identified. Most of what remains is original (Phase I); the ruin can be reconstructed as a main block of two floors with two tower-like attachments to the east side, probably linked by a gallery. A date of c. 1000 is proposed, but does not allow definite attribution to Fulk Nerra. Considerations of comfort and convenience were more important to the original design than security, although the building had some defensive capacity, and could have been incorporated in a walled circuit; it may have been an entire residence of a type ancestral to the mature multi-storeyed residential donjon, or have been included in an assemblage of low-level buildings, representing an alternative form of domestic planning. In the later 11th or early 12th century (Phase II), the annexes were reduced and the building deprived of any defensive character by the insertion of ground-floor doorways. The 15th century saw the demolition of the west wall, followed by consolidation of the remains, and other modifications (Phases IIIa, IIIb and IIIc). A combination of archaeological observation, recording, remote sensing and historical research shows that the fortified area extended at least to c.200 m west of the donjon in the 11th century, and contained a collegiate chapel.     

The Poisoned Arrows of Amor: cases of syphilis from 16th-century Iceland

While syphilis spread rapidly in Europe during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, scholars have doubted that the disease reached Iceland at that time. Still, discoveries of nine cases of venereal and congenital syphilis during a recent excavation on a monastic site, Skriðuklaustur (1496–1554) in East Iceland, indicate that the disease became an epidemic there, as it did worldwide. These findings may also be regarded as an important source of information on the contacts and communications of a country, which is commonly regarded as having been socially isolated from the outer world, with its neighbouring countries during the medieval times.     

Unfinished and Paired Logboats from Bavaria, Germany

Though Bavaria is far inland, at least 20 logboats are known, but only recently have some been properly recorded. This paper deals with two vessels discovered in the early 1990s. The remains at Laufen-Pfaffing represent a semi-manufactured logboat, which was purposely sunk as was the custom in Austria until the mid-20th century. The vessel from Wessobrunn-Blaik is also unfinished and shows several tool-marks. It is too narrow to float on its own: therefore it is part of a paired logboat. There is plenty of archaeological evidence for this kind of craft, but no ethnographic evidence. Apart from use as ferries, other uses are discussed.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

A Structural Analysis of The Chantry,Bridport, Dorset

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS of the Chantry, Bridport before and during its restoration has revealed that it was constructed in the late 13th or early 14th century as a municipal building, probably associated with a harbour. In the later 14th century it was converted into a house for a chantry priest. The building was enlarged at this date by the addition of an attic storey which contains a columbarium.     

The Cathedral Church of St Nicholas,Newcastle: ‘A Tangled Story’, or ‘Cutting the Geordian Knot’

This paper argues that, far from being a ‘lost cause’ when it comes to the study of medieval church architecture, St Nicholas at Newcastle reveals a considerable amount of its building history and development. It will also be argued, and evidence offered, that the sweeping restoration and rebuilding of much of the fabric in the 19th century was accrued out according to a ‘restore as was’ policy, meaning that many medieval features were reproduced. Further, it will be argued that some of the architecture may have been misdated, with potentially significant implications for the study of northern English architecture of the early 15th century.