Miocene scleractinian corals from a mixed siliciclastic–carbonate system: Bakhtiari succession,Zagros Basin (central-western Iran)

Colonial scleractinian corals were sampled from three levels within a Miocene marine unit of the Bakhtiari succession, Zagros Basin, central-western Iran. The first two coral-bearing intervals, A and B, contain small-scale scattered colonies and show a poor coral diversity, whereas the third, consisting of a strongly lithified limestone package, reflects a well-developed biostromal framework with higher coral skeletal volume within the Bakhtiari succession. The Bakhtiari succession coral assemblages are characterized by Porites sp. cf. P. maigensis, Porites sp. cf. P. mancietensis, Porites sp. cf. P. collegniana, Tarbellastraea reussiana, Favia sp., Montastrea sp. cf. P. tchihatcheffi, Favites sp. cf. P. neugeboreni, Favites sp. cf. P. neuvillei, Agathiphyllia sp. and Acropora sp. Sedimentological and palaeontological data indicate that the depositional environment is consistent with a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp that was gently deepening basinwards from the shoreline. The hemispherical and massive growth forms of colonies and sparse branching forms dominated the well-illuminated euphotic zone. Abundant domestone and dense pillarstone coral growth fabrics interdigitating with coarse-grained terrigenous sediments developed in the shallow inner ramp environment. Branching forms and meandroid branching colonies together with some massive forms mostly inhabited the low-energy conditions of the lower euphotic to oligophotic zones of the middle ramp. In the middle parts of the mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp, sparse pillarstone together with domestone comprises a mixstone coral growth fabric. Fluctuations in nutrient and clastic sediment input, salinity and the growth of red algae likely terminated coral growth.     

Seismic Resistance Evaluation of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

The article presents seismic resistance evaluation study of unreinforced brick masonry buildings. The study was carried out as part of the Ph.D. research work of the first author. As part of the study, in addition to the standard laboratory tests, a dynamic field test was carried out on single-story, single-room unreinforced masonry structure. The model structure was tested in actual ground conditions against simulated earthquake vibrations produced through controlled explosions, especially designed for this purpose. Based on masonry properties accrued from lab and field tests, finite element models of the brickwork system were also studied. Finally, the software named, “Shear Damage Index (SDI),” developed as part of this study, was used to plot contours of shear demand (shear stress) to shear capacity (shear strength) ratio on the numerical model and hence to identify potential weak zones in the model for possible strengthening of those locations.     

Continuity and Discontinuity in Palestinian Cultural Expressions: Baal, El Khader and the Apotheosis of St. George

The analogical use of Biblical, archaeological and historical discourses on ancient Semitic religious, social and economic practices to interpret aspects of modern Palestinian cultural expressions does not seek to establish a homologous relation. Rather the use of analogical argument is of a typological order which points to mutually shared patterns, regularities, attributes or functions that have survived from ancient times to modernity. The dynamic process of ecological adaptation to the environment, the cultural diversity of which the Canaanite nascent city–states were composed, and the influences of the various peoples with whom the Palestinians came into contact have never ceased. Ethnographic fieldwork reveals a tapestry of life that has witnessed continued adaptations that structured and conditioned the unique socio-economic system, religion and spiritual legacy that the diverse Semitic and non-Semitic ethnic later settlers adapted themselves to. The concept of an authentic, fixed Palestinian identity is a myth. There was never a period of true identity, a genuine moment that encapsulates a ‘cultural essence’ or ‘cultural core’. Palestinian cultural identity has been produced within the context of Palestinian geography and bears structural continuity with primordial Semitic categories of thought. Throughout history, each period was merely a fleeting moment that in its transient fragility represented a momentary socio-economic dynamic adaptation of the culture to the available resources, thus ensuring the survival of the family within the tribe. Palestinians remain a tribal people whose elementary kinship unit was dynamically structured by the early pattern of cave dwellings that formed the ancient cities and hamlets that remained inhabited well into the twentieth century. In modernity the locus of the extended family, the sub-unit of the tribe (hamuleh) in the Palestinian village, is invariably the hosh, the four-generation family-living courtyard.     

Islamism and Iran’s Islamic Period Museum

The Islamic Period Museum of Iran was established, almost 16 years after the Islamic Revolution, as an addition to the previous National Museum building – the Iran Bastan, or Ancient Iran Museum – in 1996. By examining the components of state Islamism, the space of the museum and key exhibits, this paper reveals the analogous relationship between the museum and state ideology. That relationship suggests that the museum embodies fundamental ambiguities and inconsistencies inherent in Iranian state Islamism. Those ambiguities and inconsistencies are only concealed, in the museum as in the ideology, by employing traditionalist rhetoric with regard to religion and identity.     

The heritage ‘NGO’: a case study on the role of grass roots heritage societies in Iran and their perception of cultural heritage

This paper examines the activities of a group of heritage enthusiasts in Iran. Grass roots heritage activism is a relatively recent phenomenon that appeared in Iran since the late 1990s. They are increasingly operating collectively as cultural or heritage NGOs. They have diverse socio-economic origins and political views. However, as this paper argues, they share a common ground in their activities; one that maintains an ambivalent and critical relationship with the state and official definitions of heritage and identity. Referring to interview and other data collected during fieldwork in Iran, this paper traces and analyses the contours of that common ground and argues that there is a nascent heritage movement in the country. The impact and contribution of these emerging and self-reflective heritage movements to Iranian identity, which is reflected in their embracing of diversity and the notion of historical continuity, reveal the dynamism and complexity of the cultural and political landscape of contemporary Iranian society. They also reveal the importance of generating further scholarship in the field of Iranian cultural heritage. In conceptualising the characteristics of a nascent heritage movement in Iran, the paper makes a new contribution to the approach of existing scholarship in the broader field of heritage studies.