Cultural quarters and urban regeneration – the case of Cathedral Quarter Belfast

Elements of culture and cultural policy have now become firmly integrated within urban design and regeneration practice. Culture is recognised as a driver of economic renewal and many cities have utilised culture as an additional means of achieving regeneration outcomes through the application of designated cultural quarters. This study provides a critical evaluation of the regeneration and development of Cathedral Quarter Belfast, exploring the integration of cultural and economic strategies to encourage greater cultural provision and economic development as well as examining the role of culture as a catalyst in the regeneration process. It does so by utilising a mixed methodology incorporating qualitative key informant interviews and a quantitative survey of visitors to the quarter. This research examines and challenges existing theories in relation to culture-led regeneration making a valuable contribution to the literature on the application of cultural quarters and identifies areas for further investigation.     

Of Gates in the Ground and Castles in the Air: A Case of Biblical Unreal Estate

ABSTRACT

The latter part of Psalm 24 describes the personified gates of Jerusalem as raising themselves up in order to allow the King of Glory to en-ter. This, in addition to the rest of the strong mythical overtones of the psalm, creates an image of architecture coming alive to join in the celebratory entry of the divine ruler.

There are numerous, but no definitive, suggestions as to the identity of who or what is supposed to be entering the gates and under what circum-stances as well as how the raising gates are to be understood. In this essay it is argued that the psalm only supplies half the data and that it forms the optimis-tic complementary ending to the anguished cry of despair of Lam 2,8–9. Ap-plying critical spatial analysis to these two texts, in addition to other support-ing material, will not only show that one is a response to the other, but may also provide a more secure dating for the psalm and its social setting as well as a clearer understanding of the specific metaphor of personified architec-ture.     

Studying the Cannons of Punta Santa Anna,Spain: In Situ Conservation,Promoting Public Access,and Monitoring Iron Corrosion

The 2001 UNESCO convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) encourages and supports projects that would make accessible to the general public underwater cultural sites. Since 2010 the Catalonian Federation of the World Underwater Federation (FECDAS), have been developing outreach activities with the objective of promoting the protection of the UCH among recreational scuba divers. The purpose of this paper is to introduce one such project, the Punta Santa Anna in Blanes, Spain. This project has three objectives: the promotion of UCH to the general public, the in situ protection of this underwater archaeological site, and a case study on iron corrosion processes. FECDAS/CMAS will create an underwater archaeological park where recreational scuba divers will be able to visit some purposely selected archaeological iron cannons. To expose UCH to the general public will potentially affect the integrity of these artefacts. This risks potential damage and so, with the objective of minimizing potential threats, a series of protective measures and a systematic monitoring programme have been planned. The programme is designed to study the relationship between the underwater environment and the artefacts. The aim is to acquire a better understanding of the corrosion processes of iron objects present in marine underwater sites.     

Archaeometric investigation of Roman tesserae from Herculaneum (Italy) by the combined use of complementary micro-destructive analytical techniques

Vitreous tesserae from two mosaics in Herculaneum (Italy) dating from the 1st century AD have been investigated in order to gather information on Imperial Age opaque glass. The combined use of complementary micro-destructive analytical techniques, namely optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) allowed to define the nature of formers, fluxes, chromophores and opacifying compounds and to determine the type of raw materials employed for their introduction. The results confirmed the high technological level of Imperial Age glassmakers and clarified some details of the production processes. Experimental data have been obtained concerning formation of antimony-based opacifiers. The presence of tin-containing Ca- and Pb-antimonates has been ascertained in various green, yellow and turquoise tesserae. Moreover, unusual divergences from the established Roman age ‘low magnesia–low potash’ (LMLK) glass composition have been found for some red and green samples.     

Personal Security and Electoral Demobilization: A Comparative Analysis

This research examines the link between the encroachment upon personal security and political participation among women in Lebanon and Morocco. Analyses are performed on the Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa Survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) from August 2009 to June 2010. Results indicate a strong link between perceptions of personal security in both public and private spheres, and the propensity to vote. The results show that not feeling free to leave the home and experiencing regular sexual harassment in the public sphere curtail women's likelihood to vote. These findings have profound implications for shaping policies as they apply to women in the transitioning Middle East.     

The ‘invisible’ product: developing markers for identifying dung in archaeological contexts

Dung is one of the most valuable resources in arid countries: traditional communities all over the world use it for heating, cooking, building and decorative purposes. It is commonly assumed that the same happened in the past, especially after the domestication of herbivores in the 11th millennium B.C. The presence and use of dung in archaeological contexts has been routinely studied through different techniques among which spherulites (calcium carbonates that form in animals guts) and small seeds assemblages’ analyses. However all the proxies considered so far to trace dung can be unreliable, especially when used singularly. After a review of the traditional methods used to trace dung in archaeological contexts, this paper presents the results of an ethnographic study on 11 modern dung cakes collected in northern India that were analysed for chemical, spherulite and phytolith content. Our results show that the lack of spherulites cannot be taken as absence of dung input and that the combination of phytolith and chemical signatures can be a reliable proxy for the inference of dung presence in archaeological contexts.     

What is on the craftsmen’s menu? Plant consumption at Datrana,a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat,India

The exploitation of lithic resources was an important aspect of prehistoric resource exploitation strategies and adaptation. Research has mostly focused on technological and spatial aspects of lithic factory sites, often overlooking how these sites were integrated within local socioecological dynamics in terms of food acquisition and consumption. The aim of this paper is to study plant consumption at Datrana, a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat, India, in order to understand its occupants’ subsistence strategies. The results of archaeobotanical, mineralogical and soil pH analyses show that the occupants of this factory site were consuming local crops but not processing them, suggesting that either (a) food was being processed in other areas of the site or (b) it was acquired in a ‘ready-to-consume’ state from local food-producing communities. This study highlights the integration of a lithic factory site within its surrounding cultural and natural landscape, offering an example of how the inhabitants of a workshop interacted with local communities to acquire food resources.     

A hypothesis on different technological solutions for outdoor and indoor Roman wall paintings

The determination of the chemical composition of different parts of wall paintings (pigments, mortars and binders) provides information about technology of preparation of an artefact. Herein, we present a multi-methodological characterisation of wall paintings from a Roman archaeological site in Cuma, focusing on differences between an indoor (domus) and outdoor fabrication (a temple, Tempio con Portico (TCP)). Both pigments, binders and mortars were studied via a combination of destructive/μ-destructive (mass spectrometry, ionic chromatography, ICP-based techniques) and non-destructive (Raman microscopy, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and X-ray diffraction) methodologies. Particularly, the systematic presence of dolomite only in mortars from TCP may suggest an intentional use of such limestone for the outdoor fabrication of public interest. Differences between TCP and domus are also related to the composition of the pigment binder. In particular, the detected binders (studied by LC-MS/MS and GC-MS) were proteinaceous in the case of domus (possibly egg and animal glue) and drying oils in the case of TCP. Ultimately, our multi-methodological study provides an overall picture of the material components of paintings from fabrications with different use, proposing a hypothesis on technological choices according to conservative and destination reasons.