Heritage and scent: research and exhibition of Istanbul’s changing smellscapes

This paper examines heritage, and particularly intangible heritage, by concentrating on the experience of smell to explore a heritage site in Istanbul, Turkey: the Spice Market. Due to a restoration project, the site became the focus of the 2012 international workshop ‘Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice,’ which aimed at documenting the existing and threatened scents of the marketplace. In 2016 a gallery exhibition, ‘Scent and the City,’ was created as part of an effort to raise awareness about how scent constitutes an important component of the heritage of place. After providing a brief overview of the marketplace’s transformations since its construction in the seventeenth century, this paper covers various methods of scent research, including scent walks, mapping, oral history interviews, and artistic performances, and illustrates how the smellscapes of this historic, and now touristic, quarter of Istanbul are changing. By bringing a sensory approach to this important heritage site in Istanbul we demonstrate how an embodied approach, which forefronts scent as intangible heritage and a primary modality, can serve as a catalyst for individuals and communities to access their memories, emotions, and values and increase awareness of the role scent plays in defining locality.     

Loyal citizens or dangerous stateless refugees? The ‘Armenian Question’ in World War II Romania, 1940–44

After the massacres and genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, thousands of Armenian refugees arrived in Romania and reinvigorated the local minority group (native Armenians), which at that time was mostly assimilated. While native Armenians were citizens, the refugees were stateless people holding Nansen passports. From the 1930s on, and especially during the Antonescu regime (1940–44), the legal status of Armenians, especially of Nansen refugees, worsened due to the rise of ethno-nationalism, particularly in the economic area (a process called Romanianization). This article investigates the ‘Armenian Question’ in World War II Romania, including its connection with the ‘Jewish Question’. Believing that Nansen Armenians were disloyal to Romania—because some of them wanted to repatriate to Soviet Armenia and engaged in communist and fascist revolutionary organizations—and profited from the Romanian economy, and especially from Romanianization, the Antonescu regime treated this group as dangerous foreigners and subjected them to police surveillance and legal and economic persecution, resembling, to a certain extent, its antisemitic policy. However, Antonescu did not push the persecution of Nansen Armenians too far and, in general, they fared better than the Jews.     

National Industry Clusters and Regional Specializations in Turkey

The article aims to identify industry clusters in Turkey by examining inter-industry selling and purchasing relationships. The 1990 Turkish input-output table is used to identify similarities between selling and purchasing patterns of the 60 manufacturing industries and derive a matrix that describes relative linkages between them. The article also investigates the regional specializations by using the identified national clusters as templates for an analysis of local patterns. Principle component factor analysis reveals the presence of six identifiable industry clusters. The firms within the identified clusters provide a potential to share technical information and knowledge transfer through formal or informal interactions.     

Heat,smoke and fuel consumption in a high mountain stállo-hut,northern Sweden – Experimental burning of fresh birch wood during winter

The overall aim of this study was to investigate in situ, the use of an open fire for heating a traditional mountain Sami stállo-hut during winter using fresh mountain birch as fuel. The study took the form of repeated actualistic experimentation and the following parameters were recorded: fuel consumption and logistics, indoor temperature, CO-levels inside the hut and temperature in both the hut and the traditional Sami stone-lined hearth with a stone filling of flat stones. Our results show that fresh birch is an effective fuel and that about 3.6 kg (dry weight) of wood was used per hour; it took a few hours of work per day to obtain the firewood required. The highest temperature recorded beneath the stone filling in the hearth was 437.7 °C. The hearth stored a lot of heat but this did not affect the indoor temperature during the night. The highest indoor temperature indoor was +26.9 °C, but it was generally much lower and varied considerably during the day and in relation to the outdoor temperature. The CO-levels reached 112 ppm at floor level and co-varied with the smokiness experienced inside the hut.     

Multi-scale tribological analysis of the technique of manufacture of an obsidian bracelet from Aşıklı Höyük (Aceramic Neolithic,Central Anatolia)

Tribological analysis is employed in a pilot study of the technological steps involved in the manufacture of a polished obsidian bracelet from A??kl? Höyük, an Aceramic Neolithic site in Central Anatolia (8300–7500 cal. B.C.). The study includes morphological analysis of the bracelet, based on profile measurements, and identifications of wear variations indicated by surface topographic features and parameters. The manufacturing skill that is revealed suggests early appearance of a regional tradition of obsidian working, which reached its full development in the 6th millennium cal. B.C. with the production of various ornamental objects, including mirrors and vessels. The cultural record and location of A??kl? Höyük make the site important for our understanding of the technological developments during the early Neolithic in Anatolia.     

Traditional Soap Workshops in Nizip (Gaziantep), South-Eastern Turkey

With the development of the modern soap production techniques, traditional ways started to vanish. In the past, sabunhane, soap workshops, were built in the regions where there was olive-oil production. In Turkey, many soap workshops, large and small in scale, in the settlements where there was soap production. Until now, there has been no extensive study of the soap workshops in Turkey. This study identifies and documents the historical soap workshops in and around Nizip (Gaziantep) in south-eastern Turkey, which are important features of the region’s industrial heritage. Amongst these workshops, Nizip Say?nlar workshop, which was built in the 19th century with architectural features characteristic of the region, and which reflects the technological level of the period and processes of production, is described in greater detail. First, the distinctive architectural features of the soap workshops are analysed. The importance of soap production and its historical development are described, and the tools and techniques used in the production and relationship with the architectural space of the workshops are explained. A comparative study of the soap workshops located around Nizip is undertaken and some suggestions on the preservation of a few surviving soap workshops are provided.     

PAST ‘DISTURBANCES’ OF GRAVES AS A SOURCE: TAPHONOMY AND INTERPRETATION OF REOPENED EARLY MEDIEVAL INHUMATION GRAVES AT BRUNN AM GEBIRGE (AUSTRIA) AND WINNALL II (ENGLAND)

Early medieval graves that were reopened in the past are usually considered ‘disturbed’ and hence an unreliable source for traditional cemetery analysis. This paper aims to highlight how the analysis of these ‘disturbances’ can contribute to our understanding of early medieval mortuary rites and attitudes towards the buried human body. Two case studies of cemeteries with high proportions of reopened graves are presented. Thorough archaeological analysis, with careful consideration of the taphonomy of reopened graves, is the key to an understanding of the reopening practices. At Brunn am Gebirge (Austria) most graves were reopened for ‘grave‐robbery’– to remove grave goods – at a time when the bodies were already fully disarticulated. The graves at Winnall II (England) were reopened very soon after burial to manipulate the still largely intact corpses.     

LABOUR MOBILITY AND PLANT PERFORMANCE: ON THE (DIS)SIMILARITY BETWEEN LABOUR‐ AND CAPITAL‐INTENSIVE SECTORS FOR KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION AND PRODUCTIVITY

In this article we analyse differences between capital‐ and labour‐intensive sectors with regard to the impact of workforce composition and labour mobility on plant performance. By the use of geo‐referenced longitudinal employer–employee data on a micro level, we analyse labour flows between plants within and between labour market regions. The analysis is carried out using weighted least squares (WLS) regression analysis combined with additional variance analysis (ANOVA). The results show that there are differences between the sectors with regard to both in‐house workforce composition and type of skill inflow. A high degree of related knowledge in the in‐house workforce has a strong positive effect on plant performance in the labour‐intensive sectors. The analysis of labour inflow indicates that knowledge in the capital‐intensive sectors is localized – only intra‐regional labour flows give rise to increased plant productivity. In the labour‐intensive sectors, the geographic and cognitive dimensions complement one another; similar knowledge needs to be non‐local in order to be beneficial to plant performance, and unrelated knowledge mainly contributes to plant productivity growth when it is local.     

A new Bronze Age shipwreck with ingots in the west of Antalya—preliminary results

Archaeological underwater investigations in the coast of Mersin and Antalya districts of the Turkish Mediterranean have been carried out with the permission of the Ministry of Culture of Turkish Republic since 1999. Many shipwrecks, sunken settlements, port structures, ancient harbour facilities and other archaeological remains have been documented and lodged in the national archive. The most important discovery within the scope of our study in 2018 has been revealed at the boundaries of the Ancient Lycia-Lukka Region in Kumluca at the west coast of Antalya. It is a pleasure for us to announce that a new Bronze Age shipwreck has been discovered in the same waters as the Gelidonia and Uluburun shipwrecks excavated by George Bass and Cemal Pulak. This new shipwreck could probably be dated to 16-15th Century BC, earlier than the Gelidonia and Uluburun ships. The main part of the shipwreck consists of at least 73 pillow-type ingots (copper?) and at least 4 bun (pita) type ingots (copper or tin?). Pillow-type ingots are compatible with Buchholz / Bass Type 1 ingots, which are usually dated to 16th-15th century BC and rarely to 14th century BC. Part of the shipwreck cargo continues under the sand and the remaining part of it, probably including its anchor, is also under natural camouflage. In order to avoid damaging the in situ position of the shipwreck, no samples have yet been taken. The different findings observed under the sand and the part forming the main cargo were untouched.     

Linking Scottish vital event records using family groups

Abstract

The reconstitution of populations through linkage of historical records is a powerful approach to generate longitudinal historical microdata resources of interest to researchers in various fields. Here we consider automated linking of the vital events recorded in the civil registers of birth, death and marriage compiled in Scotland, to bring together the various records associated with the demographic events in the life course of each individual in the population. From the histories, the genealogical structure of the population can then be built up. Rather than apply standard linkage techniques to link the individuals on the available certificates, we explore an alternative approach, inspired by the family reconstitution techniques adopted by historical demographers, in which the births of siblings are first linked to form family groups, after which intergenerational links between families can be established. We report a small-scale evaluation of this approach, using two district-level data sets from Scotland in the late nineteenth century, for which sibling links have already been created by demographers. We show that quality measures of up to 83% can be achieved on these data sets (using F-Measure, a combination of precision and recall). In the future, we intend to compare the results with a standard linkage approach and to investigate how these various methods may be used in a project which aims to link the entire Scottish population from 1856 to 1973.