Late Triassic palynoflora from the Pranhita–Godavari Valley,India: evidence from vertebrate coprolites

Vijaya, Prasad, G.V.R. & Singh, K., June, 2009. Late Triassic palynoflora from the Pranhita–Godavari Valley, India: evidence from vertebrate coprolites. Alcheringa 33, 91–111. ISSN 0311-5518.

The Upper Triassic Maleri Formation, represented by red clays and sandstones, has to date not produced any plant macrofossils or palynomorphs. Many spiral and non-spiral coprolites collected during this study from the Maleri Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley were analysed for palynomorphs. Based on shape, nature of coiling and size, the Maleri coprolites are classified into seven groups. Of these, only Group-I, Type 5 (non-spiral) and amphipolar (spiral) types yielded diverse gymnospermous and pteridophytic spores, pollen, other plant debris and sparse fungal spores and algal remains. Occurrences of Antulsporites varigranulatus, Aratrisporites spp., Cadargasporites baculatus, Dubrajisporites isolatus, Enzonalasporites vigens, Foraminisporis coelatus, Grandispora spinosa, Kraeuselisporites saeptatus, Polycingulatisporites reduncus, Staurosaccites spp., Tethysispora unica and Tikisporites balmei confirm a Late Triassic age for the coprolite-bearing red clays. Records of Classopollis classoides and Callialasporites turbatus/dampieri in these assemblages more precisely suggest a Norian to Rhaetian age. The non-spiral coprolites were possibly produced by aquatic piscivorous animals whereas the spiral coprolites may have been produced by an as yet unidentified fish taxon. The coprolite-producing animals (spiral and non-spiral groups) possibly ingested gymnospermous and pteridophytic plant remains passively along with water or their herbivorous prey.     

Nationalism and Empire in Eastern Europe

Jurij Borys. The Sovietization of Ukraine, 1917–1923. The Communist Doctrine and Practice of National Self-Determination. Revised edition. Edmonton: The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1980. Pp. xxii, 488; Vera S. Dunham. In Stalin's Time. Middle-class Values in Soviet Fiction. Introduction by Jerry F. Hough. First paperback edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Pp. xiv, 283; Taras Hunczak, editor. The Ukraine, 1917–1921: A Study in Revolution. Introduction by Richard Pipes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1977. Pp. viii, 424; Roy Medvedev, The October Revolution. Foreword by Harrison E. Salisbury. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. Pp. xix, 240; Rosalind Mitchison, editor. The Roots of Nationalism: Studies in Northern Europe. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd., 1980. Pp. vii, 175; Peter J. Potichnyj, editor. Poland and Ukraine, Past and Present. Edmonton: The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1980. Pp. xiv, 365; Edward C. Thaden, editor. Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, 1855–1914. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. Pp. xiii, 497; Anthony F. Upton. The Finnish Revolution, 1917–1918. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1980. Pp. v, 608.     

Book reviews

James E. McClellen III and Harold Dorn. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1999.404 pages + illustrations + maps + graphs + bibliography + index. $55.00 (hardcover), $18.95 (paperback).

Arnold Pacey. Meaning in Technology (Cambridge, Mass and London, England: MIT Press, 1999), pp. viii+264.     

Review Article: Metanarratives in Global Histories of Material Progress

WILLIAM R. THOMPSON. The Emergence of the Global Political Economy. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. xi, 252. $25.99 (US), paper; DEREK H. ALDCROFT and ANTHONY SUTCLIFFE, eds. Europe in the International Economy, 1500–2000. Cheltenham and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999. Pp. xi, 289. $90.00 (US); KENNETH POMERANZ. The Great Divergence: Europe, China, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. Pp. x, 382. $39.95 (US).     

One problem involved in translating to meaning: An example of acknowledging time and tradition

Abstract

The translation to meaning of Psalm 82 changed through time and tradition. The polytheistic world of the author of the poem was not the accepted context for understanding the psalm when it was considered as part of the Bible. Jewish and Christian readings of the same text have traditionally been quite different. Examples of various understandings of the psalm from the author's to the Reformation's are presented to demonstrate that the official meaning of the biblical text actually has been different according to the tradition in which it has been read.     

Commentary. The Diseases of Alexander the Great

The accompanying articles that speculate that Alexander the Great had a traumatic carotid dissection or congenital cervical scoliosis demonstrate the difficulties in retrospective diagnosis as a historical enterprise. The extant primary sources were written centuries after Alexander’s death and are ambiguous in their original languages, and even more so in translation. Thus we cannot be certain what illness Alexander actually had. Furthermore, anachronistic diagnosis removes Alexander from the medical context of this time, telling us little of historical significance about him. Such investigations also illustrate the more general limits that the absence of context imposes on the study of ancient history.     

A neolithic case of down syndrome?*

Abstract

The aim of the study is to draw attention to the existence of a Neolithic figurine from Greece with characteristics compatible with Down syndrome. We have reviewed the relevant medical and archaeological literature, and we have compared photographs of the figurine with photographs of a patient with typical Down syndrome (DS). From the above data we conclude that the 7000 years old artefact may well be the most ancient representation of the disease in Western civilisation.     

Heinrich Klüver and the temporal lobe syndrome*

Abstract

Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy described a constellation of symptoms in monkeys following large resections of the temporal lobe that they termed the “temporal lobe syndrome”; now commonly referred to as the Klüver‐Bucy syndrome. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to review Heinrich Klüver's behavioral studies on monkeys that led up to his temporal lobe experiments with Paul Bucy; (2) to understand why Brown and Schäfer dismissed the behavioral changes in temporal lobe monkeys they had observed fifty years prior to the studies of Klüver and Bucy; and (3) to show that Klüver's phenomenologically motivated conceptual paradigm helped to unify both neuropsychological and neuroanatomical theories regarding the visual and emotive functions of the non‐human primate temporal lobe.     

Lake Dwellings in Baden-Württemberg. Conservation Projects In Situ at Lake Constance and the Federsee Moor

The Baden-Württemberg shoreline of Lake Constance and the lakes and moors of Upper Swabia contain important prehistoric wetland sites. From 1979, new research has brought up not only important finds and scientific results but also increasing information about bank erosion in the lakes and desiccation in the moorlands. At Lake Constance, early attempts were made in the 1980s to protect sites threatened by erosion by covering them with geo-textile and gravel. With further protective projects the know-how improved, but crucial questions still remained: What are the best practical solutions? How about ecological compatibility? Do we have other options? The INTERREG IV 2008–2011 international project ‘Erosion and Archaeological Heritage Protection in Lake Constance and Lake Zurich’ brought deeper insights and opened the field for new experiments with protective measures. At the Federsee Moor a long-term project started in 1980 with close collaboration between nature conservation and archaeological heritage management. With archaeological stocktaking, acquisition of land, establishment of new nature reserves, exchange of landholding and hydrographic engineering, the project was completed with the help of European Union funding by LIFE+in 2013.     

Local government and the meanings of political representation: A case study of Bologna between 1860 and 1915

Since the early nineteenth century political opposition became a central concept of political representation in constitutional monarchies. While this concept marked the political language of unified Italy on the national level, in local administration the legitimacy of political opposition remained an issue of dispute, as illustrated in this analysis of the political language in Bologna's local council. Local perceptions of national events, like the government's reaction to Garibaldi's unsuccessful Mentana-campaign, assumed major symbolic meaning in local politics and challenged traditional understandings of municipal administration by introducing the concept of political opposition. In Bologna, after Rome the second city of the former Papal State, the Moderates were able to grow into a position of political hegemony after the Unification of Italy and remained the predominant political force also after Italy's “parliamentary revolution” of 1876 and the electoral reforms of the 1880s. As a consequence of its limited influence on the local administration, Bologna's Left defined its ideological profile earlier and more clearly than the Left in other parts of Italy and integrated issues of national importance into local political discourse. Analysing the relationship between central administration and periphery, the article reveals the development of political language and the changing meanings of political representation between Unification and World War One and explains on this basis the escalation of social and political conflict in Finesecolo Italy.