Southwest Arabia During the Holocene: Recent Archaeological Developments

Recent fieldwork has considerably increased our knowledge of early Holocene settlement in Southwest Arabia. Neolithic settlement occurred within an environmental context of increased monsoonal moisture that continued during the mid-Holocene. A now well-attested Bronze Age exemplified by village- and town-scale settlements occupied by sedentary farmers developed toward the end of the mid-Holocene moist interval. The high plateau of Yemen was an early focus for the development of Bronze Age complex society, the economy of which relied upon terraced rain-fed and runoff agriculture. On the fringes of the Arabian desert, the precursors of the Sabaean literate civilization have been traced back to between 3600 and 2800 B.P., and even earlier, so that a virtually continuous archaeological record can now be described for parts of Yemen. In contrast to the highlands these societies relied upon food production from large-scale irrigation systems dependent upon capricious wadi floods. Bronze Age settlement, while showing some links with the southern Levant, now shows equal or stronger linkages with the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea. Although some regions of Yemen show breaks in occupation, others show continuity into the Sabaean period when a series of major towns grew up in response to the incense trade with the north. It is now clear that these civilizations grew up on the foundations of earlier Bronze Age complex societies.     

Strange Bedfellows: Explaining Political Cooperation between Communist Successor Parties and Nationalists in Eastern Europe

Abstract. In postcommunist politics many of the ‘new national right’ political formations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have joined forces with the communist successor parties. Such a combination is, on the surface, a baffling mixture; how is it possible that two fundamentally different ideological approaches (nationalism and internationalist socialism) can coexist and actively cooperate to form such a potent political force? What are the conditions under which such political cooperation emerges? This article attempts to answer the above questions by, first, empirically testing the effects of several factors which might explain postcommunist–nationalist political cooperation. Second, the quantitative analysis is buttressed with a comparison of the Hungarian and Russian cases. The analysis indicates that the most important variable associated with the emergence of postcommunist–nationalist political cooperation is the effect of previous regime type.     

HISPANO-MORESQUE POTTERY PRODUCTION OF THE FOURTEENTH-CENTURY WORKSHOP OF TESTAR DEL MOLÍ (PATERNA,SPAIN)

Excavation of Testar del Molí, the only workshop found in the Manises-Paterna area, revealed the existence of a fourteenth-century ceramic workshop covering the remains of the thirteenth-century workshop. This study is concerned with the fourteenth-century production, and forthcoming papers will connect both epochs following the findings of current excavations. The chemical and mineralogical characterization of the ceramic production of this workshop shows the presence of three groups of ceramic pastes which could also be distinguished by, and, thus, related to, their daily use. The raw materials found in the excavation have also been mineralogically and chemically characterized, and a model of possible mixtures of raw materials has also been developed in order to determine their possible use in the manufacture of the pottery previously characterized.     

TECHNOLOGY AND COLOUR DEVELOPMENT OF HISPANO-MORESQUE LEAD-GLAZED POTTERY

Lead-glazed pottery from the medieval workshop of Les Olleries Majors (Paterna, Spain) has been studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and optical spectroscopy. Yellow, brown and honey-coloured glazes occur on pots glazed on only one surface. They have virtually identical compositions and transmittance spectra, their apparent differences in colour are due to the colours of the underlying pastes. Yellow glazes occur on cream-coloured calcareous bodies, honey-coloured glazes occur on less calcareous bodies with some development of hematite, while brown glazes occur on red siliceous cooking-pots. Green glazes are found on pots glazed on both surfaces; the glazes trapped CO₂ evolved by decomposing carbonates, resulting in an internal reducing environment. This caused the reduction of iron to the ferrous state which coloured the glaze green by diffusion.     

Auguries of Hegemony: The Sex Omens of Mesopotamia

Ancient Mesopotamian scholars examined problematic aspects of male erotic desire within the discourse of divination. They documented an array of sexual acts, reading each as an omen, a sign signifying an aspect of the future. Guinan shows that the omens are informed by a coherent perspective and, in general, are concerned with the impact of erotic desire on notions of male identity and expectations of gender hierarchy. The omens oppose masculine hegemony and male/female eroticism in such a way that the denial of one is the assertion of the other. In these omens, masculine power and agency are both expressed and preserved by the disavowal of erotic interactions with women.