The public life of the Swahili stonehouse, 14th–15th centuries AD

Houses are an important subject of archaeological research, normally explored through the households they contain. This has established a deliberately social agenda for the archaeology of houses, yet has had the unintended consequence of creating bounded worlds for study. Although household archaeologies explore the ways that households contributed to broader social and economic realms, it is rare to think through the public role of houses for non-residents and the larger population of the settlement. This paper seeks to explore this more public aspect of houses using the data from archaeology at Songo Mnara, a 14th–15th century Swahili town on the southern Tanzanian coast. This was a time when stone-built domestic architecture was first emerging in this region. The archaeology of the houses provides data for a series of ways that the house was at the heart of the economic and political life of the town, as well as demonstrating a spatial continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces. It is therefore suggested that the domestic and residential functions of the house for a particular household should be balanced with an appreciation of the broader world of the house itself.     

Glassmaking in Bagot’s Park,Staffordshire, in the 16th Century

Abstract

Out of 15 glass-making sites found in Bagot’s Park during land reclamation, one, Site 4, was left for examination. Two furnaces were excavated; the larger was for the melting of glass in six crucibles, and was typical of late medieval English practice, being built of brick and stone with a clay dome; it was the first to be excavated with clear evidence of an all-over timber and tile roof. The second, built partly of brick, was for annealing. The main product was Crown window glass; the amount of Broad glass and vessel found was insufficient to say with certainty that they were made on the site.

Archaeological evidence supported by documentary references suggested that the site was in use in the early 16th century, well before the agreement of 1585 between the Bagots and the Lorrainer Henzey family. Such evidence of glass production in this period suggests that the weakness of the English glass industry before 1567 may have been exaggerated.     

Trace,incident, and testimony: The story of Amano Kozo,lieutenant of the 33rd regiment of the 16th division of Japan’s China expeditionary army

ABSTRACT

Instead of writing on the grand narrative of the Nanjing Massacre, this article studies a much smaller and lesser known event, or the incident of Amano Kozo, a lieutenant in Japan’s China Expeditionary Army, who (or his soldiers) slapped John Allison, an American consul. It ignited a serious diplomatic dispute between the United States and Japan and led to Kozo’s own indictment by a Japanese military trial. The author analyzes the circumstances surrounding the incident, using the Japanese trial records and telegrams from the American side. He discusses the problematic testimonies from Japanese war veterans made half a century later and concludes that it is impossible to understand the details of history by simply bringing known facts into causal relationships; rather, combing through the traces left behind from the incident and analyzing their semantic meaning may well be a better way to deepen our understanding of history.     

Gendered Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) landscapes of Banks Island’s northern interior,Arctic Canada, 17th–20th centuries a.d.

Abstract

Archaeological survey data from the northern interior of Banks Island in Canada’s western Arctic builds upon traditional interpretations of past land use to explore the ways in which this landscape was perceived by different groups. The data confirm earlier archaeological, ethnographic, and oral history work which suggest that the area was occupied primarily in the summer months at two separate times in the past: the Palaeoeskimo period and the Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) period. The earlier occupation was less intensive than the latter and both were focused on muskox hunting. Drawing on ethnographic studies of the Inuit in both the early and late 20th centuries, and on the distribution of archaeological camp sites versus hunting sites, a reconstruction is made of the different ways in which men and women experienced and understood the survey area during Inuinnait times. It suggests that the main drainages formed important travel routes, and that while women’s knowledge of the region was concentrated along these corridors and in favorite camping places, men’s knowledge extended into hunting areas beyond their peripheries.     

The Neurophysiological Aspects of Pavlov’s Theory of Higher Nervous Activity: In Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Pavlov’s Birth

Whereas Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936) is well-known for his work on classical conditioning, his contribution to neuroscience, particularly his interest in the function of neural centers in the central nervous system, is not as widely known. During the last three decades of his life, Pavlov explored cortical processes by salivary reflex conditioning, a method he used to develop his theory of higher nervous activity. This theory outlined the function of the brain in higher organisms in their interaction with the changing environmental contingencies. As early as 1908, Pavlov outlined a neurophysiological theory as the physiological basis of his theory of higher nervous activity. He maintained that the neural processes of excitation and inhibition irradiate and concentrate among the cortical neural centers. Most of all, he emphasized the plasticity of the cortex in higher organisms’ in the Darwinian struggle for existence.     

Paleopathology of The Population of Krasnoyarsk,Central Siberia (Pokrovskiy and Voskresensko-Preobrazhenskiy Cemeteries of the 17th– Early 20th Centuries)

Published data on the paleopathology of Siberian populations are scarce. However, two samples of adult and non- adult skeletons taken from excavations at the Pokrovskiy (17th–18th centuries) and Voskresensko-Preobrazhenskiy (17th–early 20th century) cemeteries in Krasnoyarsk (123 and 204; 101 and 81, respectively) revealed cases of rickets, tuberculosis, and congenital syphilis in children, and vertebral tuberculosis and tertiary syphilis in adults. Trauma areas included ribs, hands, forearms, and tibiae. These two samples provide evidence on which to base an assessment of the health of the Krasnoyarsk population from 1628 to the early 1900s.     

Gaston Paris. August 9th, 1839–March 5th, 1903

RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND HERESY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By the Rev. F. W. BUSSELL, D.D. London: Robert Scott. 1918. Reviewed by J. Kennedy.

SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE TAIN AGE AND OTHER STUDIES. By M. E. DOBBS. Price 2s. 6d. net. Dundalk.. 1917. Reviewed by J. Baudi?.

THE MEGALITHIC CULTURE OF INDONESIA, by W. J. PERRY, B.A. Manchester: University Press. Longmans, Green &; Co. 1918 Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.     

Lincoln,Race, and the Spirit of ’76

Abstract

This essay examines how Lincoln dealt with race, slavery, and emancipation in antebellum America. It argues that despite a few controversial statements and policies regarding black Americans, Lincoln sought to preserve the American union and its system of self-government by reclaiming the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who exploited white bigotry in his promotion of local “popular sovereignty” as a solution to the slavery controversy, Lincoln highlighted the natural rights of blacks as a way to prevent the spread of slavery and thereby save what he would later call “the last best hope of earth.”     

On the Biological Affinities of People of the “Lappish Parishes”: A Craniometric Analysis of the 17th– Early 19th Century Population of Alozero,Karelia

The 17th–early 19th century cranial series, consisting of 23 specimens (15 male and 8 female) from Alozero is the earliest from northern Karelia. The cemetery was evidently left by one of the ?rst groups of Karelians who had permanently settled in this territory. Their crania are generally similar to those of later Karelians. Two distinct morphological trait combinations are present. One is characterized by robustness, a very high vault and a broad face. This combination appears to be the earliest since it links the Alozero people not only with later northwestern Karelians but also with the medieval population of the northwestern Ladoga region and ultimately with the Mesolithic and Neolithic people of the Baltic region. Another trait combination includes a medium high cranial vault, a medium broad face and a convex nasal bridge, linking it with the combination displayed by recent Finns of Finland. The latter component apparently re?ects immigration from central Finland. The predecessors of Karelians in that territory are sometimes said to be related to modern Sami. However, no evidence of Sami admixture has been detected either in the Alozero series or in other Karelian groups     

‘Almost Every Miracle is Open to Carping’: Doubts,Relics, Reliquaries and Images of Saints in the Long 12th Century

Many of the great surviving monuments from the middle ages, the cathedrals, churches and objects made for them or for private devotion, testify to the importance of Christian faith in medieval culture. Devotion to the saints was a facet of that belief, vividly recorded in the surviving relics, reliquaries and images of saints as well as in hagiographic literature. Yet medieval sources also contain references to doubts about the nature and power of saints and their relics. The overcoming of doubt or incredulity was a widely used trope in hagiography. However, if we take medieval doubts seriously, they should prompt us to consider whether the images and objects created to celebrate particular saints might sometimes have been designed to bolster dubious claims or help to authenticate disputed material within a rich discourse about both individual saints and relics and about the nature of holy bodies more generally.     

Bakhtin,Boredom, and the ‘Democratization of Skepticism’

This article examines recent scholarly work on boredom by drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s account of modernity, irony, and mass skepticism. In The Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin noted that, beginning in the 1840s, Western societies had been gripped by an “epidemic of boredom.” He was referring to a peculiarly modern form of mass boredom, associated with the “atrophy of experience” in a mechanized and urbanized social life—a boredom Elizabeth S. Goodstein has characterized as the “democratization of skepticism.” Although Bakhtin says little about “boredom” directly, he probes the sociocultural conditions that give rise to it. Bakhtin, for example, celebrates the liberatory and egalitarian promise of modern vernacular speech, which displays a healthy suspicion of “monotonic” qualities of elite genres, and which springs not from the pulpit or the palace, but from the street, the marketplace and the public square. Bakhtin is concerned about the nihilistic implications of this disenchantment of the world and the threats it poses—indifference, reification and alienation—to the “participative” mode of social life he favours.     

Rminiscences of the 10th Panchen Erdeni

Talkingaboutthesuddendemiseofthe1OthPanchenErdeniinTibet1Oyearsago.everyoneImetexpressedtheirsorrowbysay-ing"Itwasfartooearly".Indeed,the1OthPanchenErdeniwasagreatmasterreveredbyall.MyfirstmeetingwithhimtookplaceinLanzhouinApril1951,whenIwasworkingintheEthnicGroupOfficeoftheCPCGansuProvincialUnitedFrontWorkDepartment.HewasonhiswaytoBeijingtopaytributetotheCentralGovernmentandassistinthenegotiationswiththelocalgov-ernmentofTibetonmattersconcern-ingthepeacefulliberationofTibet.Heimpr…     

Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archæological Institute,June 4th, 1885

This is the report of three small research excavations at Waltham Abbey. Each was designed to answer specific questions about the destroyed east end of the Collegiate Church and the relation to it of the Augustinian extensions. Excavation in 1984 was across the chancel of the Collegiate Church which became the Augustinian central nave. In 1986 an area around the Collegiate ambulatory was dug and, in 1987, this was extended to establish the geometry of the apse.

In the area excavated there were no remains of a church which might pre-date the apse-and- ambulatory form. The eastern walls were taken down when the building was extended as part of the Augustinian re-foundation of 1177. Continuous but irregular Collegiate pier foundations were seen and four buttress projections, to the wall foundations, suggest that the aisles and ambulatory had been vaulted. The Collegiate chancel pier foundations seem to have been re-used and even the piers themselves appear to have been incorporated into the Augustinian design. Two new pier foundations for the Augustinian central nave were seen. This nave was wider than the adjacent chancel which caused problems of alignment. Part of the Augustinian north-aisle tiled pavement survived. A previously discovered curved foundation is now known to be that of a small ‘bubble’ chapel which was added between two adjacent buttresses of the Collegiate Church.

As a result of the excavations it is possible to predict the form of the second Collegiate church, of Romanesque style, and to suggest it was begun in the late eleventh century. To the west of the present excavations a much more modest apsidal end is still possible for Harold's original Collegiate Church dedicated c. 1060; no physical evidence of this church has been established with certainty but some possibilities are mentioned.

There is a full documentary survey and a discussion of parallels for the apse-and-ambulatory east end with Waltham having features in common with churches of other secular houses. Details are given of mortar analysis and of stonework which shows some clear parallels with the church begun at Durham c. 1095. There is a record of all previous work on the monastic site.     

Headaches of the 14th Dalai Lama

AIthoughthe14thDalaicliquehasbeenmakingabigfanfareaboutthesocalled"Tibetanissue",thecliqueisbeingtornLapartbyinfightingHEROSBECOMEENEMY.The"fourriversandsixmountainranges"referstoareactionaryrebelorganizationfirstfoundedbysomeheadmen,religiousfiguresandbanditsinearly1956intheTibetanareasinSichuanandYunnan.In1958,asegmentmovedintoTibet,totheappreciationandsupportofthe14thDalaiLamaandTibetanseparatistforces.The"religionprotectionarmyofthefourriversandsixmountainranges"wasformedtoresis…     

Investigating the dietary life histories and mobility of children buried in St Gertrude Church cemetery,Riga, Latvia, 15th–17th centuries ad*

Carbon and nitrogen isotope profiles were obtained from incremental dentine analysis of 19 non-adults from a cemetery in Riga, Latvia. The research compared the life histories and diet between people buried in two mass graves and the general cemetery. The δ¹³C profiles of several children from the mass graves were similar but did not resemble the patterns seen in children from the general cemetery, suggesting that they probably represented a different population group. The rise in δ¹⁵N values towards the end of the life of four individuals from one mass grave suggests they were victims of an historically documented famine.     

France’s ‘elites’, Islamophobia,and communities of friendship in Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages

Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages (2011–2016) joins an ongoing discussion over the French political class’s relationship with the racial and religious divides in contemporary French society. Louatah portrays the political class as imposing from above a divide between French descendants of Muslim immigrants and their majority-culture compatriots, and suggests that the functioning of the modern state makes this necessary: states are founded upon communities of belonging which require the exclusion of given minorities, and will reimpose that exclusion with force if a more inclusive model of community threatens to emerge. Two readings of how Les Sauvages suggests we should respond to this are possible. One suggests that subjects should reject the state entirely, seeking to form inclusive communities escaping its control. Another suggests that the structures of the modern state should be appropriated to promote inclusion, but that the nature of modern democracy will prevent such action from succeeding completely; as such, traditional political engagement must work in conjunction with more radical attempts to form communities free from exclusion. Both readings, however, hold in common the idea that racial and religious divides are imposed from above and that these divides cannot be completely overcome while working within mainstream political structures.