Foodstuff placement in ibis mummies and the role of viscera in embalming

Recent excavation of a mummified ibis, in whose bill were found numerous snails, and the 2010 radiological study of ibis mummies from Yale's Peabody Museum drew attention to the presence of bird foodstuffs intentionally placed inside mummified ibises following evisceration. The foodstuff packing in the Peabody's ibises was likely contained within the birds' own viscera. Radiographs of a hatchling ibis mummy at McGill's Redpath Museum demonstrated similar placement of foodstuffs within the eviscerated body cavity. This pattern of ibis evisceration, with the previously unreported practice of foodstuff packing, suggests the provision of an afterlife food source to the bird. These findings lend support to the idea that the viscera of ibises, and humans alike, were meant to continue their living function in the afterlife. Given that organs of digestion and respiration were specifically preserved and retained within, or in conjunction with, human mummies, the implication is that animals were also treated with similar respect and care, and the crucial role of the viscera was recognised.     

Tragic Elements in Calderón's La Dama Duende

Abstract

Ricardo Landeira. El género policíaco en la literatura española del siglo XIX. Universidad de Alicante, 2001. 142 pp.

Armine Kotin Mortimer and Katherine Kolb, eds. Proust in Perspective: Visions and Revisions. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002. xii + 316 pp. $39.95.

Madeleine Dobie. Foreign Bodies: Gender, Language, and Culture in French Orientalism. Stanford University Press, 2001. xiv + 234 pp. $49.50.

Daniel Murphy. Vicente Aleixandre's Stream of Lyric Consciousness. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2001. 263 pp. $43.50.

Zygmunt G. Baranski and Rebecca J. West, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. xxii + 367 pp. $59.95 cloth; $21.95 paper.     

A Review of “Primary Politics: How the Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System”

Arnold, Peri E. Making the Managerial Presidency: Comprehensive Reorganization Planning 1906-1980. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. xiv, 374. $37.50.

Edwards, George C. Ill, Steven A. Shull, and Norman C. Thomas, eds. The Presidency and Public Policy Making. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985. Pp. xix, 227. Hardbound $24.95; softbound $9.95.

Pfiffner, James P., ed. The President and Economic Policy. Pittsburgh, PA: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1986. Pp. x, 271. Hardbound $35.00; softbound $14.95.     

Charity and Political Protest in French Popular Music

This article explores the cultural assumptions expressed in the self-proclaimed ‘alternative’ and ‘protest’ sector of French popular music, and how these become problematic when leading a charity concert. Liberté de circulation (1999) is a small-scale concert set up for the benefit of the Groupe d'Information et de Soutien des Travailleurs Immigrés (GISTI) in support of illegal immigrants, and its participants (artists and organisers) have a confused relationship with contestation and media exposure. While they convincingly wrap their pro-migration discourse in notions of solidarity and universality, they often confine themselves in artistic and production terms to a certain marginality, which fails the objective of raising funds and public awareness for the charity targeted. Drawing on a comparison between Liberté de Circulation and Les Enfoirés, a high-profile, televised charity show supporting the destitute, the article observes the problematic articulation of charity to political commitment and, in so doing, contributes to debate about the formation of cultural identities around the concept of ‘resistance’ in contemporary France. This discussion follows the pluridisciplinary method of popular music studies and includes an analysis of song lyrics, orchestration, artists' declarations in interviews and the media reception of charity concerts.     

Wrap a Wreck! In Situ Conservation of a Ship on Land Suffering from Fungal Decay

Many sixteenth- to eighteenth-century shipwrecks have been found after land reclamation in parts of the former Zuiderzee, one of the busiest waterways in Dutch history. After the land fell dry, some shipwrecks were excavated, destroyed, reburied, or covered with sand or clay. In the late 1970s a method was developed to mitigate degradation processes of some of the wrecks remaining in good condition by wrapping them in plastic foil. The idea was that the plastic would prevent evaporation and lateral subsurface flow. Wet conditions prevent decomposing of wood by especially soft rot fungi. Oxygen will be rapidly depleted by decomposition of organic matter.

Recent monitoring of wrapped shipwrecks has shown that this method of preventing rot worked exceptionally well. We adapted wrapping using new technology nowadays applied for sealing tunnels and landfills. We will present the implementation requirements, materials and new adapted method for wrapping shipwrecks.     

People with history: An update on historical archaeology in the United States

Historical archaeology has expanded greatly in the past decade. This essay discusses some of the trends and themes that have become important in historical archaeology in the United States since 1982. The first section briefly assesses the field. The second discusses capitalism as one theme that may serve to unify research. Cross-cultural research, integrative analyses, and the concepts of power and ideology are central to this theme. The third section is a brief case study concerning the historic Cherokee. The conclusion comments on the institutional state of historical archaeology.