On the Additions to the Collection of National Antiquities in the British Museum

The evidence for prehistoric occupation in the area of the modern City of London is re-assessed. Two myths surrounding the city's prehistory are examined: a literary myth of a glorious Trojan past and a modern archaeological myth of the absence of prehistory. Having drawn a ‘traditional’ distribution map of prehistoric artefacts, the authors attempted to improve its reliability by quantifying the impact of Roman groundworks on the surviving prehistoric deposits. Topographic models of the area in prehistory and in the Roman period were drawn, and the methodology of the interpolation is discussed. The relative value of in situ, residual and stray finds are considered in the light of this new information. While there is good evidence for Late Bronze Age occupation in the City, the evidence for Neolithic activity is considered to be heavily skewed by Roman activity. The data are used to suggest areas of the City where there is particularly good potential for the survival of prehistoric deposits. The City provides a case study for analysing prehistoric material in a ‘difficult’, deeply stratified, urban context more associated with Roman and medieval archaeology.     

四川汉代神话图像中的象征意义--浅析陶摇钱树座与陶灯台

本文对两件现流传至香港的四川汉代文物进行了研究.通过这两件造型独特的文物,可以反映出汉代四川浓厚的地域文化色彩,并在一定程度上显示出其与外域文化之间的联系.文章认为,以西王母和昆仑神话体系为中心,构成四川汉代神话图像中最具象征意义的特点.     

Humayma's notched peak: a focus of Nabataean and Roman veneration and civic identity

The most distinctive landscape feature at the southern Jordanian site of Humayma is Jebel Qalkha's highest peak, which is split at the top by a wide notch. The Nabataean town of Hawara (Roman Hauarra/Hauara) was built on the plain immediately east of this peak. This paper draws on the site's foundation myth, petroglyphs, betyls and religious and civic structures to illustrate the significance of this notched peak for the site's ancient populations. The evidence suggests that this distinctive peak served as a focus of veneration and a marker of civic identity for Humayma's Nabataean and Roman inhabitants.     

Nationalism and nostalgia: the case of radical Basque nationalism*

Abstract. This article argues that the myth of the Golden Age is a key mobilising element within radical Basque nationalism. By using an ethno‐symbolist approach, this article argues that nostalgia, a catchword for looking back, usually relates to an idealised past. It then proceeds to explain how ETA in particular has domesticated the past to justify its political violence which is currently exalted as a means of honouring the fighting spirit of their ancestors. From this perspective, violence is presented as a redemptive act that can stop the decay of the Basque nation and bring a new political future in which the inspiring ancient virtues will be rediscovered. This nostalgic gaze upon the past continually ‘reminds’ radical Basque nationalists of an imaginary, yet familiar, past which can only be regained by using revolutionary violence.     

Schmitt and the Sovereignty of Roman Dictators: From the Actualisation of the Past to the Recycling of Symbols

The aim of this article is to analyse the complex roots of Carl Schmitt's theory on dictatorship in the classical world through the lens of classical receptions. It argues that Schmitt was deeply engaged with the classical tradition in formulating his theory on dictatorship. Knowingly or unknowingly, Schmitt legitimates his theory through a foundation in both the Roman idealisation of the virtuous dictators of the early Republic as well as the long tradition of the narrative of the enlightened sovereign as a guarantor of law, present in both Greek and Roman antiquity and in the subsequent European tradition. Schmitt skilfully repurposed the Roman historical tradition on dictators but glossed over the traditional antipathy of Roman republicanism towards sovereign rule. The claim that this article is presenting is that even though it has been overlooked by earlier scholars, Schmitt was both directly and indirectly influenced by the classical tradition of dictatorship and utilised their mythical and symbolic dimensions in the later Roman and the subsequent European legal and political traditions. The reason for this omission was that Schmitt, like his contemporaries, belonged to one of the last generations to be groomed in the classical tradition of literature.     

中国古代神话的特色及其成因

中国古代神话是中国本土的产物,它深深地植根于中国悠久的文化土壤之中,渗透着东方智慧的光芒。诚如德国哲学家黑格尔所言,中国是个早熟的儿童,中国的古代神话就是中国这个早熟的儿童,通过神话的方式,对中国历代著名人物的思考与评价。中国古代的神话闪烁着理性的光芒,它有明确的指导思想,那就是尚德、尚功与尚智,着眼于著名人物对时代与民众的贡献,中国的古代神话与中国祭祀文化的精神实质是一致的。因而中国的古代神话,在世界各民族神话之林中,是独具特色的神话之一。     

The Polish Nobility’s “Golden Freedom”: On the Ancient Roots of a Political Idea

This essay traces the Greek and Roman roots of Polish sixteenth- to eighteenth-century political thought by discussing the Polish nobility’s concept of the “Golden Freedom” (L. aurea libertas). By focusing on the Roman and the Greek concepts of liberty and the mixed constitution, it argues that the Golden Freedom, a notion central to the Polish-Lithuanian nobility’s self-identification, was based on Roman political ideals and practices that were incompatible with the political reality of the Commonwealth.     

Nationalism and Historicity

Abstract. In this article the nation is shown to be a historical subject. As such, it is constructed and constantly reconstructed by discursive practices of power and knowledge. The author argues that the symbiotic interlinkage between nationalism and the organising knowledge principle of historicity, is an example of a power practice in the modern state. Throughout the article, it is shown that this practice is produced by interaction between the institutionally represented, sovereign or objective state and intellectual knowledge and its institutionalisation within the state as an academy, which acquires sovereignty in the production of objective truth. This peculiar discursive representation of making what really is personal interactions and struggles into official institutions has managed to produce the subject of the historical nation. The empirical case of Sweden is briefly discussed. During the age of great power, an exclusivist discourse of noble genealogical distinction of the ‘Goths’ was established. In modem Sweden, this genealogical myth is transformed to a popular national myth of exclusivity, a myth with great power potentials in the ‘national projects’ of modem politics.     

Fragmented Images: The Last Tomb Paintings of Tarquinia

Cultural decline as a result of the Roman conquest is usually invoked to explain the gradual disappearance of Tarquinian tomb paintings during the third century BC. By contrast, this paper argues that, first, the late tomb paintings of Tarquinia markedly differed from their predecessors by decorating individual burials (fragmentation), as opposed to entire chamber tombs, which should be seen as a culturally meaningful development in the iconographic approach towards representing the deceased; and that, second, the disappearance of this time‐honoured type of monument be seen as part of wider changes in the ways in which Tarquinian and other Etruscan elites chose to materialize their ideologies during the cultural and political realignments of the period of the Roman conquest.     

The Rolt Memorial Lecture, 1983 Our Debt to Roman Engineering: The Water Supply of Lincoln to the Present Day

Abstract

Lincoln was one of the four colonia of Roman Britain and therefore intended to serve as an example of cultured urban life to the surrounding region. A good water supply was essential in Roman towns but Lincoln, stand above the 200ft contour, could not receive a normal gravity fed system. This paper examines the archaeological evidence for the water supply to Roman Lincoln and looks at how the problem was solved in later generations. Dr Lewis argues that a comparison of the solutions to engineering problems of even the distant past and the present is an important aspect of industrial archaeology.     

A Historical Myth? Matthew Flinders and the Quest for a Strait

This article takes issue with a recent argument, made by the late Rupert Gerritsen, that Matthew Flinders deliberately concocted a myth about a north–south strait dividing Australia in order to gain the attention and patronage of Sir Joseph Banks to support the first circumnavigation of Terra Australis in HMS Investigator in 1801–3. This article argues that Flinders did not create a myth but based his arguments on contemporary views that such a dividing strait might exist, backed up with cartographic evidence. Flinders’ achievements in connection with the circumnavigation reflected the analytical mind that led him to search for a strait.     

Treaty of Zohab, 1639: Foundational Myth or Foundational Document?

Beginning with their first confrontation in 1514, the Ottomans and the dynasties ruling over Iran fought over the borderlands extending from the Persian Gulf to Mount Ararat. The transformation of this indeterminate borderland into a clearly defined and increasingly monitored border took almost four centuries. It became an internationally recognized border only after seven decades (1843–1914) of intermittent work by mixed international commissions. Despite such a tangled history, a well-entrenched tradition of Middle Eastern history suggests that the Iranian–Ottoman frontier was firmly established by the Qasr-i Shirin/Zohab Treaty of 1639; and it is one of the oldest boundaries of the world. The myth of 1639 is powerfully enshrined in the historiographies and nationalisms of the countries sharing this boundary. Questioning this myth in the light of Ottoman–Iranian relations, this paper analyzes different versions of 1639 Treaty that were brought to boundary negotiations and exist in various chronicles, and suggests an alternative reading of this foundational myth.     

Lead isotope analyses of gold–silver ores from Roşia Montană (Romania): a first step of a metal provenance study of Roman mining activity in Alburnus Maior (Roman Dacia)

The Ro?ia Montan? ore deposit (Apuseni Mountains, Romania) is Europe’s largest Au–Ag deposit. It also corresponds to the Roman Alburnus Maior mining site, known by historians and archaeologists due to the discovery of dozens of Roman wooden wax tablets during the underground works carried out during the 18th and 19th centuries.     

The re-identification of great bustard (Otis tarda) from Fishbourne Roman Palace,Chichester, West Sussex,as common crane (Grus grus)

Abstract

This paper details the results of recent reanalysis of the animal remains from the 1960s excavations at Fishbourne Roman Palace, West Sussex. It argues that specimens originally identified as belonging to the great bustard are, in fact, misidentified remains of common crane. This discovery has important connotations. First, these findings need to be reported so that the avian archaeological record can be updated to avoid future syntheses of Romano-British faunal remains incorrectly including great bustard. Secondly, interpretations of the zooarchaeological remains at Fishbourne Palace will alter, due to the differing ecological histories of bustards and cranes.     

The contemporary in post-medieval archaeology

SUMMARY: Contemporary archaeology is an emerging field of enquiry within the wider discipline associated with the questioning of temporal boundaries in what we study and why we engage with material remains of the recent past more generally. This article argues that contemporary archaeology should be broadly defined at this stage in its development and therefore can be located in Post-Medieval Archaeology through research that explicitly engages with what it is to conduct contemporary archaeology, but also through those implicitly considering how the past intrudes into the present. We believe that Post-Medieval Archaeology will continue to highlight archaeological studies of the contemporary into the future.     

Lascivious Vines,Corrupted Virgins,and Crimes of Honor: Variations on the Wine Production Myth as Narrated in Early Persian Poetry

The Persian wine production myth centers on the relationship between a male vintner and his female vine and her daughters, the grapes. This myth, the earliest extant examples of which are found in qasīdas by the Samanid poets Rūdakī and Bashshār Marghazī and which was much developed by Manūchihrī and his contemporary Farrukhī, contains images of femininity, the mother–child bond, separation, violence, execution, and ultimate redemption. The grape harvest comes in the late summer and culminates in the Mihragān festival, a celebration focused on the grape and grape wine, at which poems containing versions of the wine production myth were recited. The present study maps the evolution of this myth over the span of a century through a close reading of eleven poems with specific reference to variations in narrative structure.     

Nabataean Dushārā (Dusares) — an overlooked cuirassed god

Abstract

This paper sheds new light on the images of the Nabataean god Dushārā on the coins of Roman Bostra under Commodus, Caracalla and Philip the Arab. It analyses and interprets for the first time iconographic details such as the god's cuirass, his Alexander-like hairstyle and the assimilation of his facial features to the emperor of the day on the coin obverses. This study argues that Dushārā's image is a late ad-hoc creation for a local Bostran context that did not travel far beyond the city. Alongside the anthropomorphic representation, Dushārā continued to be depicted and worshipped in the form of a betyl at Bostra, Petra and throughout the Roman province of Arabia.     

The Problems of Horace Ars Poetica 119–120

A famous passage in the 1st-century Greek merchant's handbook, Periplus Maris Erythraei, reports a Roman attack on the city of Eudaimôn Arabia – Aden in present-day Yemen. No such campaign is known from other sources, and the passage has been ascribed to a scribal error, to an otherwise unknown Roman campaign and to a mix-up with the well-known Arabian campaign of Aelius Gallus. The author argues that none of the above is correct, and that the report of the Periplus is in fact the result of a misinterpreted passage in Augustus’ political will – the Res Gestae.     

Folklore and Basque Nationalism: Language,Myth, Reality

Abstract. This article establishes a precise relationship between folklore and ethno-nationalism. In particular, it argues that the discursive elements of folklore have been used, as political narrative, within the history of Basque nationalism. The Basque nationalist movement, throughout its history, has been especially adept at harnessing the rhetorical power of language, history, myth and memory in its articulation of a Basque, as opposed to a Spanish, identity. The article concentrates on the specific information selected for transmission by the ideology of Basque nationalism. It is this articulation which establishes links between past and present, myth and ideology, and the relationship between culture and identity in the human experience. These are the bonds which are perhaps most pertinent to the general cause of ethno-nationalism, and the Basque case in particular.