Under Pressure: A Laboratory Investigation into the Effects of Mechanical Loading on Charred Organic Matter in Archaeological Sites

The present publication investigates what happens to archaeological sites when they are built over. Focus is put on the degradation of charred organic materials by static loading. It is assumed that materials lose archaeological value if their fragments become too small to be recovered, or too distorted to be classified at species level. Several charred ecofacts of a few millimetres in size (wood fragments, hazelnut shells, and seeds) have been selected and subjected to individual particle strength tests. Assemblages of these particles have also been compressed one-dimensionally and scanned at several stages of testing using laboratory based X-ray microtomography. Microscopic damage by splitting or crushing is found to be limited at the macroscopic yield stress. It initiated at stresses less than 80 kPa for the weakest assemblages, and in all cases at stresses below 320 kPa. (80 kPa represents the load of a 6 m high sand embankment on soft soil that has half-settled underneath the groundwater table, while 320 kPa corresponds to stresses applied beneath the pile foundation level of high-rise buildings.) Sand seeded with charred particles has also been tested to illustrate the beneficial effect of embedment of charred particles in sand during static one dimensional loading.     

The Protohistoric ‘Quicklime Burials’ from the Balearic Islands: Cremation or Inhumation

Traditionally, the Balearic so‐called ‘quicklime burials’ of the Iron Age have been considered to be inhumations in quicklime. The general appearance of the bones, however, resembles more closely that of cremated bones. Laboratory tests reveal that the observed features of the bones from these burials, including cracks, thumbnail fractures and warping, cannot be explained by an inhumation in quicklime. The δ ¹³C value, Fourier transform infrared spectra, SF values and the low carbon content of the apatite moreover indicate a thermal manipulation of the bones. The ¹⁴C content is depleted with regard to the accepted archaeological age of the sample, which can best be explained by carbon exchange between bio‐apatite and fossil CO₂ released during the heating of limestone. This implies that the Balearic ‘quicklime burials’ must be interpreted as an elaborate cremation practice in presence of limestone. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Remembering the 1960s: popular music and memory in Europe

Following the increasing attention paid to popular music in heritage discourses, this article explores how the popular music culture from the 1960s is remembered in Europe. I discuss the role of heritage organizations, media and the cultural policy of the EU in the construction of a popular music heritage of this period. Furthermore, I examine the ways in which attachments to local, national and European identities are negotiated. To this end, I draw upon interviews with representatives of museums, websites and archives. The article reveals a recurring tension between transnational and local experiences of the 1960s. It is found that media and heritage institutions like museums and archives predominantly have a national and local orientation, although narratives with a European vantage point are now emerging on the internet.     

Operationalising national identity: the cases of the Scottish National Party and Frisian National Party

The article sets out to examine the complexity of national identity and to provide a more nuanced understanding of how inclusive and exclusive characteristics of national identity, which appear theoretically contradictory but show empirically considerable compatibility, relate to each other. In order to empirically investigate the nature of national identity, the article develops a multidimensional model – consisting of an ethnic, cultural, territorial and civic dimension. The article explores the understanding of national identity in two specific groups: members of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the United Kingdom and members of the Frisian National Party (FNP) in the Netherlands. The evidence presented is based on data from two full membership studies, and the model is operationalised using a confirmatory factor analyses. The conclusion is that national identity can be conceptualised as consisting of one, or several, base layer(s) that can be ‘topped‐up’ with secondary layers.     

The Metamorphosis of Woman: Transmission of Knowledge and the Problems of Gender

This study investigates the perceived inequality of male and female education, focusing geographically on the lands of Loire and Rhine and distinguishing between: (a) the way knowledge was acquired; (b) the media in which it was set down; (c) the content of the knowledge; and (d) the way it was transmitted to others. Starting with Guibert of Nogent's characterisation of both his (lay) mother's and his (lay) uncle's religious formation as well as his own training as a cleric and an abbot (c. 1125), developments in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are inventoried and the findings are tested on an example from the late middle ages, Christine de Pizan.