Petrography as a technique for investigating Iroquoian ceramic production and smoking rituals

Petrographic data and macroscopic observations are used to examine some of the social contexts and functional considerations underlying the production of pottery containers and smoking pipes at Antrex, a Middle Ontario Iroquoian village site located in southern Ontario. Results suggest that while pottery was produced by small groups of people for widespread consumption within the community, pipes were made by individuals for their own personal use. Overall, this research supports the hypothesis that by the beginning of the Late Woodland period, a shift away from communal ritual practices led by ritual specialists or shamans had occurred. Smoking might have, in some contexts, become a solitary religious experience.     

Dynamic Stability and Design of C-Bent Columns

Symmetrically reinforced bridge columns with a horizontal cantilever in one direction, called C-bent columns, tend to deform predominantly in the direction of applied moment when subject to strong earthquake shaking. For this reason, the strength in the direction of applied moment is generally increased in design. This article describes the use of inelastic dynamic time history analyses with a suite of ground motion records to quantify the amount of strength increase required to minimize likely peak and permanent displacement demands. It is shown that the strength should be increased by approximately 2.3 times the applied moment in design.     

Politics and Policy in the 103rd and 104th Congresses: Evaluating the Effects of Divided Government in the Postreform Era

The 1980 Reagan transition and the 1988 Bush transition offer important case studies for understanding the challenges of presidential transitions. Although not without its shortcomings, the 1980 transition was, at least comparably, the most successful of the transfers in power since the modern era of presidential transitions commenced with the Carter effort in 1976. 1988 offers useful lessons about "friendly takeovers": the passing of power from a president to a president-elect of the same party. The 1988 transition is also of interest because it offers the only instance of a sitting vice president elected to the presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1836. The 1988 transition, moreover, marked the ascendancy of President George W. Bush's father to the office, and it was a transition in which he and several members of this administration participated, Chief of Staff Andrew Card most notably.     

Quakers,North Carolinians and Blacks in Indiana's Settlement Pattern

Indiana had an unusually sizeable Quaker population by 1850 that formed the state's fifth largest denomination and comprised the fourth largest number of Quakers in the United States. Quaker churches were concentrated in east-central Indiana. Most of the Quakers came from the South, particularly North Carolina. Southern Quakers had freed their slaves by 1800 and were actively opposed to the “peculiar institution,” and many free blacks lived near them. When economic and political conditions in North Carolina became intolerable for the Quakers and blacks, many of them moved to Indiana together. Although some blacks migrated separately and settled different areas, many chose to locate close to the Quakers due to their antislavery and humanitarian philosophy. As a result, there was a close association in Indiana among natives of North Carolina, Quakers and blacks by 1850.     

Is there a Direct Pro-Judah Polemic in Judges?

In recent years, there seems to be a general consensus that in its current canonical form, the book of Judges is redacted out of a pro-Judah bias that seeks to glorify the tribe of David at the expense of the other tribes. Approaching the issue from a literary/rhetorical perspective, this article seeks to challenge this consensus by re-examining the evidence for an alleged direct pro-Judah polemic in Judges. It is argued that in each case where an instance of direct pro-Judah polemic is alleged to have been found, either Judah is discovered not to be portrayed as positively as initially thought, or its positive portrayal can be explained more credibly by factors other than a pro-Judah polemic.     

Exploring Bristol’s historic glass industry: archaeological investigation at the Soap Boilers’ and Hoopers’ glasshouses,and the Powell & Ricketts’ Bottle Works,Avon Street,Glass Wharf,Bristol

SUMMARY: In 2007, extensive archaeological excavation was undertaken on an important post-medieval glassworking site at Glass Wharf, Bristol. The excavation exposed remains relating to a series of glassworks dating between the early 18th and early 20th centuries and, significantly, uncovered a sequence of five glass-melting furnaces and covering structures, which together reflect wider changes in glassmaking technology throughout these periods. Detailed scientific analysis of glassworking debris from the excavation has also been undertaken, which provides much-needed detail on the development of recipes and raw materials used in bottle manufacture during the 18th and 19th centuries.     

Acaste (Trilobita: Phacopina) from the Early Devonian of Tasmania

Edgecombe, G.D. March 2007. Acaste (Trilobita: Phacopina) from the Early Devonian of Tasmania. Alcheringa 31, 59-66. ISSN 0311-5518.

The widespread Siluro-Devonian acastid trilobites Acaste and Acastella are known from few occurrences in Australasia, these being confined to Lochkovian strata in Victoria and New Zealand. A new species, Acaste andersoni, is described from a correlative of the Bell Shale near St Valentines Peak in north-western Tasmania. Acaste supplements the biogeographic links between the Early Devonian faunas of New Zealand, Victoria and Tasmania.

Gregory D. Edgecombe [greged@austmus.gov.au], Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia; received 2.3.2005, revised 6.4.2005.