Specialization of ceramic production: A sherd assemblage based analytic perspective

One expectation of emergent complexity is that as ceramic craft specialization increases it is reflected by increasingly homogeneous products due to the modified organization of craft production by specialists. This question has most often been addressed by analysis of sub-sets of larger ceramic assemblages consisting of intact vessels from idiosyncratic contexts. However, excavations often do not yield appropriate whole vessel sub-sets. In order to evaluate the changing context of the organization of ceramic production, we engage a robust methodological approach to the analysis of ceramic sherd assemblages, rather than intact vessels, rooted in cluster analysis but which we rigorously evaluate by other means. We successfully employ this method to assess changes in the organization of ceramic production through a 1000 year sequence leading to the emergence of the Tarascan state, and conclude in this case that no significant reorganization of ceramic production occurred with Tarascan state formation.     

'Into every home, into every body': organicism and anti-statism in the British anti-fluoridation movement, 1952-1960

This article argues that the anti-fluoridation campaigns in the 1950s stemmed from concerns about both the increasing 'chemicalization' of food and the growing authority of the state over the private home and individual body. The British Housewives League (BHL), an organization typically thought insignificant after the late 1940s, was in fact at the centre of these campaigns. Steeped in the beliefs of inter-war and wartime organicism, the housewives believed that government intervention in food production and distribution was producing a post-war diet laden with harmful chemicals. The Ministry of Health's proposals to test water fluoridation in select communities in the early 1950s only further convinced the housewives that the state was harming the nation both physically and politically. More and more citizens would have no choice but to drink impure, potentially harmful water, they argued, and the burgeoning state would continue encroaching on private homes and bodies. While scholars have already demonstrated that what we now think of as 'leftist' environmental ideas were popular among 'rightist' movements of the 1930s and 1940s, the anti-fluoridation campaigns show that the BHL continued in the post-war years to intertwine our present-day notions of 'left' and 'right' ideologies.     

The 'Mardi Gras' Shipwreck: Results of a Deep-Water Excavation, Gulf of Mexico, USA

The 'Mardi Gras' Shipwreck is the remains of an early-19th-century sailing vessel lost in approximately 1220 m of water in the Gulf of Mexico. A recent archaeological investigation documented the wreck and recovered several artefacts, including glassware, ceramics, navigational instruments, a cannon, and a stove. Analyses of these artefacts and the surviving hull have led to preliminary conclusions on the nature of the vessel and its crew.
© 2009 The Authors     

Opacifiers in Late Bronze Age glasses: the use of ToF-SIMS to identify raw ingredients and production techniques

Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is applied to the study of four samples of opaque glass of Late Bronze Age date. The technique is uniquely capable of identifying compositional heterogeneity at a sub-micron resolution within the crystalline opacifiers dispersed through homogeneous glass matrices. It is shown that this provides crucial information on the possible raw ingredients of the opacifying inclusions used, and has the potential for highlighting regional variations in the production technology involved in creating different colours of opaque glass.     

The early history of the neuroscience of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Research on the neurobiology and pharmacotherapy of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown exponentially since 1980. A reasonable question is whether this research has improved our understanding and treatment of ADHD. This article describes relevant developments that took place roughly between 1900 and 1970. During this time, the efficacy of stimulant therapy for the disorder was established and the symptoms of ADHD were linked to many possible nervous system disorders including in the brain-stem, reticular formation, diencephalon, basal ganglia, frontal lobes, and cortex. In 1970, the catecholamine hypothesis of ADHD was proposed. It is concluded that early theories about the neurobiologic basis of ADHD anticipated core ideas of modern theory.     

Provenance of Zhangzhou export blue-and-white and its clay source

Trace element compositions of 25 shards of Chinese Late Ming export blue-and-white porcelain from Zhangzhou and Jingdezhen kilns are analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Principle components analysis and REE distribution curves are used to establish method for provenance unknown Chinese export blue-and-white porcelain which may have originated from Zhangzhou or Jingdezhen kilns. By matching the REE distribution curves of Zhangzhou kiln samples and parent rocks of the possible clay sources used to make Zhangzhou blue-and-white, and comparing it with previous results of geological, geochemical and archaeological researches, the clay used for producing Zhangzhou export blue-and-white has been identified as having been collected from the weathered shells of a nearby potassium feldspar miarolitic granite outcrop.