灵寿故城附近发现早期直刀币

中山国灵寿故城附近最近零星发现有所谓“直刀”币①,对于探索有关问题很有帮助。现简要报道如下:1.2005年10月初,在灵寿县古城村(灵寿故城东约6华里)发现罐装钱币,内装刀币21枚,多残断。我们见到完整的9枚,通长在142—147mm之间,多为15—16g,有3枚重13—13.5g。绿锈。正面柄部均有1条线,背部平素。脊背郭线与柄部郭线上下贯通。背弧。刃部有郭(图一、图二,插二下)。详细数据见下列表格。2.2002年,在灵寿县冈北村南(灵寿故城北约2华里)发现刀币2枚(可能出自墓葬)。绿锈。一枚刃部稍残,未见郭线,柄部正面1条线,背面平素,脊背郭线与柄部郭线上…     

Beyond cemetery walls: early medieval funerary topography and Christian salvation

The article examines how the topography of the Christian cemetery in Merovingian Gaul mirrored the status which the souls of individuals were believed to occupy in the sphere of the next world. In practice, moreover, the clergy's treatment of Christian corpses was often perceived as determining their fate. Drawing on both literary and material evidence, the article argues that the boundaries established between the faithful and the damned in the Christian cemetery supported the Church's claims to sacral authority in this life and the next.     

Buried together,buried alone: Christian commemoration and kinship in the early Middle Ages

This essay explores the ways in which strategies of commemoration elaborated by kin groups changed after the end of the western Roman empire and what role Christianity played in these transformations. In order to shed some light on the situation, a broad sample of cemeteries dating from late antiquity and the early Middle Ages was analysed, focusing on the spatial organization of the individuals within the cemeteries and around cult places. For this purpose archaeological, physical anthropological and epigraphic data were studied and juxtaposed with the theoretical debates expressed by Christian writers. The data at hand seem to suggest that rather than radically transforming kinship commemoration strategies, Christianity added new ideological layers, making its use and display multidimensional.     

The marbles of two early Christian churches at Latrun (Cyrenaica,Libya)

The provenance of twenty-seven architectural marbles from the two 6th century AD Christian churches of Latrun (Cyrenaica, Libya) has been established by discriminant function analysis of twelve isotopic, EPR and petrographic/morphological variables. Sixteen samples (59%) originate from Proconnesos, while 8 samples (30%) are assigned to the calcitic quarries of Thasos and 1 to the Docimium quarries near Afyon. The last two samples are of uncertain provenance and might be Proconnesian as well. These results demonstrate that the suggestion made long ago by Ward-Perkins that the presence on non-Proconnesian, possibly Thasian, marbles at Latrun was well founded. Particularly interesting is the strong correlation found between provenance and type of the architectural element sampled. Thasian marbles at Latrun were used exclusively for the manufacture of chancel screens. Seven out of nine screens sampled have this provenance, suggesting that the use of different materials is related to issues of work organisation and specialisation in different marble production centres.     

Stable isotope data from the early Christian catacombs of ancient Rome: new insights into the dietary habits of Rome's early Christians

This study reports on the first attempt that determines the diet of a small but conceivably representative section of Rome's early Christian community by means of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N measurements on collagen extracted from twenty-two samples of human bone. Samples derive from the Liberian Region in the catacombs of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way—an area that has been radiocarbon dated to the period from the mid-3rd through early 5th century AD. Comparing our results to those produced for several other sites, we argue that this population's typical diet included freshwater fish. We also briefly discuss breastfeeding and the freshwater reservoir effect, to then explore the dietary, art historical, and possible sociological ramifications of our results.     

敦煌残卷《时要字样》考述

<时要字样>为敦煌残卷,凡存三个写卷,即斯6208号、斯5731号和斯6117号.     

The nation in bronze and granite: Creating national monuments in post-Soviet Bishkek

Scholars of nationalism have long looked to material forms of symbolic power to understand the politics and cultures of nations, and national monuments specifically have been studied as reflections of ideological programmes of political regimes. However, these approaches have paid insufficient attention to processes of creation. Given the importance of material symbols as sites through which the nation is understood, I argue that analysing the dynamics of creation expands our understanding of symbolic nation making. Using the case of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and focusing on moments of creation and the actors involved in them, I build a conceptual framework for understanding the construction of national symbols on the ground based on three interconnected and co-constituting dynamics: spatial, temporal and aesthetic/semiotic. Using this framework, I demonstrate how meaning and materiality are related to one another both as component and consequent in the creation of national monuments and how it is their very imperfection as material representations that provides the context for the nation to emerge as a category of discourse.