王鉴生平之几点考证

清初＂四王＂中以王鉴的生平记载最为简略,资料最为缺乏,这与他生活甚为窘顿,晚年更孤苦凄凉,身后萧条有关。本文拟对其中几个问题作些考证,抛砖引玉,以期引起对画史有兴趣的同道多关注这一位培育了王石谷与吴历两位大画家的清代正统派宗师。     

The technological development of stonepaste ceramics from the Islamic Middle East

The microstructures and chemical compositions of stonepaste bodies from the Islamic Middle East, typically produced from a mixture of ten parts crushed quartz, one part crushed glass and one part white clay, are investigated using analytical scanning electron microscopy. For comparison, replicate stonepaste bodies are produced in the laboratory at firing temperatures in the range 900–1200 °C, and are similarly examined. The stonepaste bodies are divided into four primary microstructural groups that reflect the increasing reaction during firing of the glass fragments with the clay and quartz particles. The observed microstructures are then used to assess the geographical and chronological variations in the production technology of stonepaste ceramics from Egypt, Syria, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkey, spanning the period from 11th to 17th centuries AD.     

A Political Ontology of Land: Rooting Syrian Identity in the Occupied Golan Heights

Questions of identity, belonging and place are heightened in societies under protracted military occupation. Bridging scholarship on territorial justice and settler colonialism, this paper examines the impacts of, and responses to, the misrecognition of Arab residents enacted by the Israeli state in the occupied Golan Heights. The injustice of misrecognition entails the imposition on the indigenous population of a Zionist ethnogeography consolidated through Jewish settlements, forced citizenship and discriminatory land and water policies. Focusing on the distinctive agricultural practices by which a Jawlani (Syrian Golani) identity is forged, we highlight the role of sumud (“steadfastness”) as a strategy of non‐violent resistance. Sumud here rests on the mobilisation of communal norms of land and water management, evident in the creation of counter‐infrastructures and water collectives supporting apple orchards. In the face of settler colonial misrecognition, Jawlani rootedness expresses a distinctive ontology on land with a conjoined right of resourcehood.     

Triad Dramas as Commentaries on Revolutionary Disharmony,Totalitarian Nostalgia,and a Yearning for Past Chivalry

In 2007, amateur on-line writer Kong Ergou’s triad novel series, Past Events of the Northeast: Twenty Years of the Triads, became a hit as a piece of network original literature. Five years later, the first volume of the book series was adapted into a network television drama of the same title. Focusing on the television drama, this paper examines three interrelated “dimensions” of the text. The first “dimension” relates to the correspondence between the inception and development of underworld gangs, and the vicissitudes experienced by the Chinese people during the harsh and unprecedented economic and cultural conditions that were introduced during the post-Mao era. A second “dimension” of this dramatic text finds that the nostalgia for and admiration of totalitarian times, together with a postmodern parody and deconstruction of Maoist society and its ideology, are juxtaposed in contemporary popular cultural products such as Past Events, thus demonstrating the complex and obscure emotions of ordinary Chinese people in relation to socialist revolutionary times. The final “dimension” compares the chivalrous spirit espoused by the gangsters with the ever-deteriorating morality and ethical values prevalent in present-day China.     

The oldest silken fungus beetle from the Early Cretaceous of southern China (Coleoptera: Cryptophagidae: Atomariinae)

Cai, C.-y. & Wang, B., 2013. The oldest silken fungus beetle from the Early Cretaceous of southern China (Coleoptera: Cryptophagidae: Atomariinae). Alcheringa 37, 1–4. ISSN 0311-5518

Atomaria cretacea sp. nov., a new silken fungus beetle, is described and figured based on an impression fossil from the Lower Cretaceous Shixi Formation at a locality near Qingxi Town, Jiangxi Province, southern China. The new species can be referred to the extant family Cryptophagidae as supported by the tiny body size, the clubbed antenna with dilated antennomere 1, closely spaced antennal insertions, and abdominal ventrite 1 being longer than the remaining ventrites. It is placed in the extant subfamily Atomariinae based on the presence of a frontoclypeal suture and the absence of gular sutures; and tentatively in Atomaria based on its body size, sub-parallel body shape, and the presence of a frontoclypeal suture.

Chen-Yang Cai [caichenyang1988@163.com], Bo Wang [savantwang@gmail.com], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy; Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China. Received 11.11.2012; revised 26.1.2013; accepted 31.1.2013.     

A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae)

Cai, C., Clarke, D.J., Huang, D. & Nel, A., 2014. A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). Alcheringa 38, 557–562. ISSN 0311-5518.

A remarkable new genus and species of rove beetle, Eocenostenus fossilis gen. et sp. nov., is described and figured based on one well-preserved specimen from the late Eocene of Monteils (near Alès, Gard, France). Eocenostenus is definitively placed in the extant subfamily Steninae, based on the combination of dense and coarse body punctation, globular and protruding eyes, exposed and closely spaced antennal insertions on the vertex, and six visible abdominal terga. Eocenostenus differs from the two extant stenine genera Stenus and Dianous most notably in the structure of the prothorax, which is strongly transverse and with unusual anterolateral projections, and in the anteriorly placed antennal insertions. This new discovery highlights the palaeodiversity of a genus-poor subfamily and suggests that the early diversification of Steninae is probably complicated.

Chenyang Cai [caichenyang1988@163.com] and Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Rd., Nanjing 210008, PR China; Dave J Clarke [dclarke@fieldmuseum.org], Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA; and André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr], Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB, UMR 7205 CNRS UPMC EPHE, CP50, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France. Received 23.1.2014; revised 2.5.2014; accepted 12.5.2014.     

Conflict and Complement: An Exploration of the Discourses Informing the Concept of the Socially Inclusive Museum in Contemporary Britain

This paper argues that there are a number of competing discourses informing debates about the idea of the ‘socially inclusive museum’ in Britain today. It identifies three major discourses present from the 19th century to the present day—the governmental, the representational, and the economic—and explores the relationships between them. It is proposed that recognition of the respective ideological and historical contexts of these different discourses will help us to understand some of the recent confusion and disagreement over the nature and merits of the ‘socially inclusive museum’. The article concludes by proposing some issues for future research.