Command Celebrities: The Rise and Fall of Hanzelka and Zikmund

In the 1950s and 1960s, the travellers, explorers, authors, and filmmakers Ji?í Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund became celebrities both in Czechoslovakia and abroad. The Communist cultural authorities actively supported the transformation of the two men into cultural icons, which could be exploited as a model for the suppression of ‘old’, ‘decadent’, and indeed ‘popular’ culture, and as a tool for recruiting members of the intellectual, cultural, and social elites into its service. Hanzelka and Zikmund’s multimedia travelogues, as well as their dashing public personae, blended in a unique way the ‘high’ and ‘low’, the accessible and unreachable, the familiar and the exotic, in the officially promoted culture of the time. But in the later 1960s, as Hanzelka and Zikmund’s political loyalties towards some form of reform socialism became more blatant, the two men fell into disfavour, and they found themselves banished from the public sphere following the events of 1968 until the regime fell in 1989. This article investigates how the curious ‘command celebrity’ of ‘H&Z’ straddled socialist ideology and capitalist consumerism, political affirmation and cultural critique.     

UNIQUE PRE‐ROMANESQUE MURALS IN KOSTOĽANY POD TRÍBEČOM,SLOVAKIA: THE PAINTING TECHNIQUE AND CAUSES OF DAMAGE

Pre‐Romanesque murals at Kosto?any pod Tríbe?om, Slovakia, have been investigated by portable X‐ray fluorescence and by microanalytical methods to identify painting materials (pigments and binders), and to explain the degradation of colours. Today, missing green and blue shades have been reconstructed according to residual concentrations of Cu, which correspond to copper chlorides—products of salt corrosion of the copper carbonates azurite and/or malachite, accelerated by micro‐organisms. As confirmed by powder X‐ray microdiffraction, original minium (Pb₃O₄) has been transformed to brown–black plattnerite (PbO₂). In increased humidity, even insoluble pigments are washing down from the walls and the intensity of colours further diminishes.     

OXYGEN AND CARBON ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN DENTAL ENAMEL FROM THE CARIBBEAN: IMPLICATIONS FOR INVESTIGATING INDIVIDUAL ORIGINS

This study explores the potential of carbon and oxygen isotope data from human enamel carbonate (n = 50) to contribute to mobility studies in the Caribbean. Most oxygen and carbon isotope results display limited variation, with substantial overlap between islands. However, a few individuals from El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba possess relatively low δ¹⁸O and high δ¹³C. Two of these individuals were previously identified as possible non‐Antillean immigrants on the basis of strontium isotopes, and bioarchaeological and mortuary evidence. The carbon and oxygen isotope results provide additional evidence supporting the proposed non‐local origins of these individuals and contribute to explorations of their potential natal origins.     

The Experiments of Ramón M. Termeyer SJ on the Electric Eel in the River Plate Region (c. 1760) and other Early Accounts of Electrophorus electricus

Dr. Haakon Sæthre was a leader of Norwegian neurology and psychiatry. He was resourceful, compassionate and had immense pride in his independent homeland. He described Sæthre-Chotzen syndrome (acrocephalosyndactyly type III). When Nazi Germany occupied Norway during World War II, Sæthre fearlessly and actively resisted, from revoking his medical association membership, to hiding persecuted Jews as patients in his psychiatric ward and aiding in their escape to Sweden, to managing the largest “illegal” food warehouse in Oslo with Danish humanitarian aid. As a prominent and noticeable citizen, he was arrested and executed by the Nazis in reprisal for the resistance's assassination of a hated Norwegian Nazi. His legacy lives on in Norway, where he was honored by a scholarship fund, a portrait and multiple plaques at Ullevål Hospital, and a street and memorial statue in his hometown. He was a hero and should be remembered by all who practice neurology.     

Computed tomography of mummified human remains in old Finnish churches,a case study: the mummified remains of a 17th-century vicar revisited

Summary: Mummified human remains have been preserved in the cool, well-ventilated crypts of old Finnish churches, which were popular burial sites among the elite of the early modern period. Here, the authors present the results of a computed tomography study of the remains of an early 17th-century vicar of Keminmaa. They examined the preservation of his remains and made several pathological findings; the causes of the latter possibly had a severe impact on his health. He was a large man who achieved relative longevity for his time, although he suffered from conditions related to obesity. There were also potential indications of tuberculosis. Inflammatory changes, for example, had afflicted his spine.     

The first fossil avian egg from Brazil

Marsola, J.C.A., Grellet-Tinner, G., Montefeltro, F.C., Sayão, J.M., Hsiou, A.S. & Langer, M.C., 2014. The first fossil avian egg from Brazil. Alcheringa 38, 563–567. ISSN 0311-5518.

In contrast to the rich record of eggs from non-avian dinosaurs, complete eggs attributable to Mesozoic birds are relatively scarce. Nevertheless, several well-preserved specimens have been discovered over the last three decades revealing functional and phylogenetic characters that shed light on the breeding strategies of extinct birds. Here we report the first fossil avian egg from Brazil, which was discovered in Upper Cretaceous strata of São Paulo in the southeastern part of the country. The taxonomic identity and structural features of the biomineralized tissues were determined using a combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy, Wave Dispersion Energy analyses and Computed Tomography. These show that the 125.5-μm-thick shell of the 31.4?×?19.5?mm egg incorporates three structural layers of similar thickness with both prismatic and aprismatic boundaries. Close similarity between the Brazilian bird egg and those of enantiornithines from the Upper Cretaceous Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Río Colorado Subgroup) of Argentina advocates affinity with basal Ornithothoraces. Furthermore, coherency of their depositional contexts might imply a compatible preference for breeding and nesting environments.

Júlio Cesar de A. Marsola [juliomarsola@gmail.com], Annie Schmaltz Hsiou [anniehsiou@ffclrp.usp.br] and Max C. Langer [mclanger@ffclrp.usp.br], Laboratório de Paleontologia de Ribeirão Preto, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo state, 14040-901, Brazil. Gerald Grellet-Tinner [locarnolugano@gmail.com], Centro Regional de Investigaciones La Rioja—Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/n, 5301 Anillaco, Argentina; Orcas Island Museum, PO Box 134, 181 North Beach Road, Eastsound, WA 98245. Felipe C. Montefeltro [felipecmontefeltro@gmail.com], Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Avenida 24A 1515, Rio Claro, São Paulo State, 13506-900, Brazil. Juliana M. Sayão [jmsayao@gmail.com], Laboratório de Diversidade do Nordeste, Núcleo de Biologia, Centro Acadêmico de Vitória, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Rua do Alto do Reservatório s/n, Bela Vista, Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco state, 52050-480, Brazil. Received 18.12.2013; revised 30.4.2014; accepted 18.5.2014.     

Gender: A Useful Category in the Analysis of Ego-Documents?

The article discusses the significance of the concept of gender for historical analysis, particularly on the basis of the importance of different types of ego-documents for the self-expression of the sexes. Attention is focused mainly on the status of autobiographies as a historical source, with some consideration of other types of life writing. It is shown how the form of this genre affects the sexes’ access to self-expression and how their differing ‘cultural space’ opens up opportunities for people's self-creation. The development is viewed in an international light, with reference to both ego-documents and history in general, and it is shown how sources of this kind and women's perspectives are necessary preconditions for the humanities to be able to achieve an important reinterpretation of older historical arguments. Each can provide scholars with opportunities to investigate material that has previously defied their analysis.