Aspects of ancient Greek trade re-evaluated with amphora DNA evidence

Ancient DNA trapped in the matrices of ceramic transport jars from Mediterranean shipwrecks can reveal the goods traded in the earliest markets. Scholars generally assume that the amphora cargoes of 5th-3rd century B.C. Greek shipwrecks contained wine, or to a much lesser extent olive oil. Remnant DNA inside empty amphoras allows us to test that assumption. We show that short ∼100 nucleotides of ancient DNA can be isolated and analyzed from inside the empty jars from either small amounts of physical scrapings or material captured with non-destructive swabs. Our study material is previously inaccessible Classical/Hellenistic Greek shipwreck amphoras archived at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in Athens, Greece. Collected DNA samples reveal various combinations of olive, grape, Lamiaceae herbs (mint, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage), juniper, and terebinth/mastic (genus Pistacia). General DNA targeting analyses also reveal the presence of pine (Pinus), and DNA from Fabaceae (Legume family); Zingiberaceae (Ginger family); and Juglandaceae (Walnut family). Our results demonstrate that amphoras were much more than wine containers. DNA shows that these transport jars contained a wide range of goods, bringing into question long-standing assumptions about amphora use in ancient Greece. Ancient DNA investigations open new research avenues, and will allow accurate reconstruction of ancient diet, medicinal compounds, value-added products, goods brought to market, and food preservation methods.     

The diary of William MacEwan: Part II

This instalment of the Diary describes the first stage of the journey from Quilimane to the interior, then the most convenient and practicable way to the British territory of Nyasaland, and the way by which both people and goods entered and left that country. This is all changed ; the route has been abandoned by the African Lakes Corporation, and Maruru, the first place where the Diarist saw African village life, probably no longer exists. When the Diary is completed, it is hoped to publish an article describing the country MacEwan saw as it is at the present day. Much has been done to improve the condition of the natives under British rule since then, but it is more difficult to ascertain their condition under the Portuguese ; much more, however, remains to be done. Transport, of course, has been improved out of all comparison, and it will be interesting to compare it with the means by which MacEwan entered the then Darkest Africa—improvement which has taken place well within a single lifetime.     

The art of displacement – curating a preschool context in a public transport system

ABSTRACT

This article discusses ways of enabling the youngest children at preschool (1–3 years) to participate in creating space in the public transport system. One researcher, two preschool educators and six preschool toddlers travelled on foot, by bus and by underground train to the Brunkeberg tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden. Drawing on artistic site-specific methods of displacement, this article details three propositions for how to ‘do’ preschool in the public transport system: locations, dimensions and positions. By placing the routines and rhythms of a preschool practice into the urban spaces of transport, the ‘miniature preschool’ comes to curate context. The article proposes methods for a preschool practice to curate context through activating mobile but particular locations within a specific place; creating a vocal mobile architecture; and enabling multiple and mobile positions within one specific situation.     

Lost at Sea: Finnish government,shipping companies and the United Nations embargo against China during the 1950s

Finnish Cold War foreign policy was based on the desire to stay out of all international disputes. Yet, during the 1950s, two Finnish tankers, Wiima and Aruba, received an enormous amount of foreign attention when they tried to sail to Communist China. The United Nations had urged all countries, including non-members such as Finland, to stop selling strategic goods to China, which had intervened in the Korean War. The embargo created a highly profitable opening in the shipping market for anyone willing to transport such goods, and Finnish companies tried to fill it. This article suggests that they were in fact undermining the embargo more extensively than has been generally known. When the Finns were criticized for their actions, they interpreted this as a sign of the ruthlessness of great powers. At first, the Finnish government failed to recognize that these companies drove the country into the middle of international conflict and then took little decisive action to steer the country out of it. The allegedly pragmatic Finnish foreign policy was in this case actually based on unreliable information and incorrect assumptions.     

Global Markets, Local Practice: Ottoman-period Clay Pipes and Smoking Paraphernalia from the Red Sea Shipwreck at Sadana Island, Egypt

Shipwreck archaeology provides unique evidence for trade, commercial relationships, and the day-to-day existence of occupational communities defined by residence and employment within the industrial space aboard a ship. These concerns are addressed particularly well by finds of utilitarian items such as a small assemblage of 21 clay pipes and three other smoking-related artifacts recently excavated from the ca. 1765 Sadana Island ship which sank at anchor while loaded with coffee, porcelain, qulal, and other goods. Analysis of the assemblage specifically contributes to questions of chronology and typology and presents new evidence for regionalism, style, and the impact of far-reaching trade routes on markets with a global perspective.     

The nation,the élite and the Southeast Asian antiquities trade: With special reference to Thailand

Abstract

The dealings that the Thai nation state has had with archaeological sites and antiquities appear to fit at least as well within the framework of antiquarian collecting as within that of modern archaeology. It is argued that this reflects the potential that sites and antiquities have to function as cultural capital. Citing Pierre Bourdieu, it is proposed that there is a commonality of interests between the state and the many private collectors among the Thai elite and that this derives partly from the emphasis that is placed on the display or performative potential of sites and antiquities. An appreciation of how antiquities function as cultural capital is surely a prerequisite for any successful effort to counter the looting of sites and the illegal trade in antiquities.

‘There is an economy of cultural goods, but it has a specific logic.’[1]     

Hotelling Games with Three,Four, and More Players*

Abstract. This paper extends the interval Hotelling model with quadratic transport costs to the n‐player case. For a large set of locations including potential equilibrium configurations, we show for n > 2 that firms neither maximize differentiation—as in the duopoly model—nor minimize differentiation—as in the multi‐firm game with linear transport cost. Subgame perfect equilibria for games with up to nine players are characterized by a U‐shaped price structure and interior corner firm locations. Results are driven by an asymmetry between firms. Interior firms are weaker competitors than their rivals at the corners. Increasing the number of firms shifts even more power to the corner firms. As a result, there is too much differentiation from the social perspective if n ≤ 3, while adding firms leads to a level of differentiation in equilibrium below the social optimum.     

Trade and the Construction of Bahamian Identity: A Multiscalar Exploration

Using ceramic data, we explore how a multiscalar approach, framed within Giddens' Theory of Structuration, can lead to a more complete understanding of the construction of New World Creole identities. The two scales of analysis serve to inform one another. We draw upon archaeological and historical data from five plantation sites located on three islands of the Bahamas. On the macroscale level, we demonstrate how regional trade networks limited or facilitated access to ceramics and shaped the ways that individual planters used these goods to construct statements about wealth and prestige. A microscale analysis of ceramics recovered from six slave households demonstrates how families with complete market access used ceramics as a means of creating a sense of community identity and mediating tensions within the quarters.     

Consumer Subsidies in India: Is Targeting Effective?

This article analyses the effectiveness of self-targeting in the Indian public distribution system and shows that implicit targeting leaves considerable scope for improvement. There is a wastage of the associated consumer subsidy in the sense that a substantial amount goes to the non-targeted population while a part of the deserving population is left out of the scheme for various reasons. Hence, it is worth diverting resources to goods which are better targeted from goods which are poorly targeted. That is, even if targeting cannot be improved, switching of subsidies both between goods and areas can lead to improved distribution of subsidies to the poor.     

2005 Cultural Heritage Legal Summary

Abstract

Archaeologists studying ancient state societies often divide political economic models into separate prestige goods and subsistence goods systems. For the Maya during the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 600–900), scholars have suggested that the elite centrally controlled the production and circulation of prestige goods while local communities and households were responsible for subsistence goods manufacture and exchange, which operated in a largely decentralized fashion. We examine an alternative to this dichotomous system through a festival market model that postulates a wide array of social groups engaged in material goods exchange during ceremonial events and public festive gatherings. This model is investigated using modal, petrographic, and Instrumental Neutron Activation analyses (INAA) of Late Classic ceramic figurines from the Motul de San José region, Petén, Guatemala. Ceramic figurines are frequently associated with household affairs because of their presence in household middens. We find that paste types crosscut different household status groups and communities within the region and argue that figurines were exchanged within the context of festival markets. This exchange pattern has important implications for linking households to larger political and regional spheres of social and economic life.     

Welfare Theory,Public Goods,and Public Facility Location

The paper discusses a number of issues that are important to the development of a useful normative “welfare theory” of the public space economy. Attention is specifically focused on theoretical welfare economic models of public goods provided at facilities to which consumers must travel for consumption. The recent analysis of Bigman and ReVelle [2] is subjected to critical scrutiny and found wanting. An alternative, more complex but still very simple, analysis is provided.     

Mortuary Variability and Status Differentiation in the Late Jomon of Hokkaido Based on the Analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Shuteibo</Emphasis> (Communal Cemeteries)

The shuteibo, a type of communal cemetery characterized by a circular embankment, was constructed in the latter half of the Late Jomon (c. 1520 cal BC–1250 cal BC) in Hokkaido, Japan. Shuteibo at the Kiusu, Misawa-1, Bibi-4 and Kashiwagi-B sites are key to understanding the complex hunter-gatherer societies of the Late Jomon. Elite graves inside the shuteibo and non-elite graves outside them show clear differences in terms of grave goods, red ocher and grave markers at Kiusu-4. These communal cemeteries may have been created and maintained by elites who had access to highly valued materials, such as jadeite, through long-distance trade. Differences in the number of graves and grave goods among shuteibo at the Misawa-1 and Bibi-4 sites indicate differences in group size and intra-site elite differentiation. The Kiusu site has both the largest example and the largest concentration of these cemeteries in Hokkaido. At the inter-site level, differences in the size of these communal cemeteries indicate variability in the number of corporate groups as well as in relative power between sites.     

From infrastructure to digital networks: accessibility and connectivity in transport geography research at Aberdeen

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the contribution made to transport geography research at the University of Aberdeen over the last century. In section one, the earliest work in transport geography emphasised the physical connectivity provided by transport through infrastructure networks. Section 2 discusses the contribution made at Aberdeen to debates around accessibility and connectivity. This work had a strong rural dimension and evidenced a growing recognition of the importance of technology in transport. It provided the springboard for research on digital connectivity with important contributions to the wider domain of transport studies in the fields of flexible transport, rural connectivity, transport and energy and social media and big data as reported in Section 3. Section 4 brings the story of transport research at Aberdeen up to the present. It frames research under the banner of intelligent mobility (IM), which links technology and mobility to the wider societal objective of enabling the smarter, greener and more efficient movement of people and goods. Contributions are reported to the fields of shared mobility, smart rural mobility, transport security and privacy and accessibility. Finally, a return to the theme of infrastructure networks and connectivity is highlighted in work on global production networks in aviation.     

Surplus Production and Marine Resource Use in the North Norwegian Iron Age

The coast of northern Norway was an important dried‐cod production area during the Medieval period. During the Iron Age, marine resources had also played a vital role in the economy of the inhabitants in the region. The increase in marine harvesting post c.AD 600, as substantiated by archaeological finds, suggests that mass maritime goods, in addition to those goods of a prestigious character, were a significant part of the chiefly provisioning system of the Iron Age.     

New Interpretations Concerning the Shape of Queen Eleanor Plantagenet’s Headdress from her Tomb in Las Huelgas Abbey (1214)

This article focuses on the headdress with which Queen Eleanor Plantagenet was buried in Las Huelgas Abbey in 1214. Headdresses have not received much attention from scholars, perhaps because few remains survive. Fortunately, new research has made it possible to re-attribute to Queen Eleanor some of the textiles that once composed her headdress. Originally from Las Huelgas mausoleum and now housed in the Royal Palace in Madrid, all the grave goods were first studied when the mausoleum was opened in the 1940s. This paper also deals with issues arising from the preservation and interpretation of the headdress and problems related to the loss of data from the studies conducted in the 1940s. Studying the textiles, including technical analyses on their weaves and comparisons with visual sources and unpublished materials from the 1940s, has allowed for a new understanding of the appearance of the Queen’s headdress, an aspect never previously described in detail.     

Are America's Political Principles Universal?

Abstract

Universal principles direct political life by defending natural rights and by directing politics to the dominance of reason in enjoying other goods. Good politics comprises the institutions and laws that combine these principles in the most excellent conditions, and lesser politics would imitate these as appropriate to their own circumstances. Principles much like our founding ones are universal in this subtle manner, and are, therefore, justly available for export, in complex ways.     

A FIJIAN PEASANTRY: GALALA AND VILLAGERS

Village societies in rural Fiji have often been studied in terms of a dichotomy between traditional village communalism and independent galala individualism. This was especially so in the 1960s, at a time when government efforts to promote individualist Fijian agriculture led to the creation of a number of resettlement schemes based on the peasant model. Social scientists hailed the galala movement as a fundamental and progressive process of change in Fijian society. However, recent evidence and the demise of regulations which institutionalised galala point to the present lack of distinction between galala and villagers. Indeed, there is considerable confusion within some villages over how galala should be defined and it seems to be much more a matter of spatial location of residence than any attitudinal or economic break with communalism.     

The Role of Ordinary Goods in Premodern Exchange

The use of consumption studies to examine the social as well as the utilitarian role played by ordinary domestic goods helps to explain why exchange is a compelling social phenomenon. Under conditions of emergent social complexity, exchange activities become even more important, because a diversity of goods enables an ever-growing number of individuals to demonstrate membership in cross-cutting social groups based on status, ethnicity, age, gender, and profession. An archaeological case study in central India, in which it was found that nonlocal goods were widespread in a medium-sized town in the early centuries A.D., provides data for the evaluation of consumption activities at the household level, in which social subsistence was manifest in the acquisition and use of a shared material culture.     

Vices Are Not What They Used To Be: The Archaeological Importance of the Term “Vices” in Argentinean Historical Military Documents of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article characterizes the sense and use of the word vicios (vices) in historical documents in nineteenth-century Argentina. The term was frequently used among soldiers, indigenous people, and criollos who occupied the border. The “vices” consisted of a range of highly appreciated edible goods (including tobacco, yerba mate [Ilex paraguariensis], and sugar). Documentary sources do not agree what products fall under the term vicios. We propose some archaeological expectations with regard to each of these products.