Preparation of Engineering Geological Maps of Bam City Using Geophysical and Geotechnical Approach

Engineering geological mapping was carried out at a scale of 1:25000 in the city of Bam, located in southeastern Iran, to provide engineering geological information as a base for seismic microzonation of the city. In this study, Seismic Refraction and Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) surveys were employed along with boreholes in order to identify the characteristics of subsurface material in Bam city. A number of different kinds of maps of the city were prepared consisting of Iso-depth, Iso-velocity, and Iso-Poisson's Ratio maps. The study also involves trial pitting and continuous core recovery, in-situ, and laboratory tests. Borehole data, index properties of soils, and standard penetration test results were used to assess subsurface conditions. Geophysical and geotechnical data were combined to simulate geotechnical boreholes and prepare engineering geological maps to provide basic data for seismic geotechnical microzonation to facilitate in the reconstruction of the city of Bam.     

Y 19 manas.paoiriia- and aṣ̌a.paoiriia-

Yasna 19 contains an Avestan exegesis of the Gāthic stanza Ahuna Vairiia, the most revered text in Zoroastrianism. The stanza is traditionally understood to be the essential statement of the religion of Mazdā. Thus, in Y 19 we have a unique opportunity to ask about the significance that the Gāthās of Zarathu?tra held for the later Avestan tradition. In what intellectual horizon did Zoroastrian priests place their founding text? Although Y 19 exegesis of the Ahuna Vairiia contains semantic obscurities, it is possible to establish the meaning of the commentary through syntactic and conceptual analysis of two key terms and the phrases where they occur. The article critically examines the earlier interpretations of the text. Having found these inadequate, it proposes a new reading and understanding of the Avestan exegesis. In particular, the article argues that the Avestan exegete understood the Gāthic stanza within an eschatological horizon.     

Terra Economica: Waste and the Production of Enclosed Nature

Abstract: This essay provides an analysis of the “dirty” history and geography of enclosure, as both an instance of primitive accumulation and a production of nature. Specifically, I reconsider the English enclosures as a struggle over the land‐use designation of “waste”. Whereas both open fields and common waste lands were an essential and valuable part of the common right economy, advocates of enclosure came to see these same lands as wasted commons; lands that were potentially, but not yet, improved. This dialectic of waste and potential permeates the fabric of the nature produced through enclosure, which I name terra economica. Typically, this terrain has been understood as a passive repository of free resources, extending across absolute space. While such accounts consider the making of nature into a universal means of production, it is equally important to consider the ways in which nature is produced as a universal condition of production.