Visualising Traces of the Past in Latin America*

The articles included in this special issue address the shifting relationship between traces of the past and photography in Latin America from the nineteenth century to the present day. Looking at different forms of materiality and trace in Latin America, from pre-Columbian remains to body art and industrial ruins, this issue also understands photographs as material objects that ‘act’ within particular visual economies. In this introduction, we offer some brief reflections on ruins and ruination in Latin America, and on the relationship between photography and the past.     

Ruwayda: an historic urban settlement in north Qatar

SUMMARY: Ruwayda was first identified as an archaeological site in the 1970s and was excavated between 2009 and 2014. Despite a paucity of documentary evidence, this large settlement, which extends over an area of more than 90 hectares, contains a number of features indicative of an urban settlement including two mosques, a series of warehouses, a large multi-period fort, large courtyard houses interspersed with smaller, less substantial structures and a number of cemeteries. In addition to these buildings, there is also evidence for associated field systems and a walled garden.     

Some theses completed in the United Kingdom, 1974

The North Atlantic World in the Seventeenth Century by K. G. Davies. Empire to Nations: Expansion in America 1713–1824 by Max Savelle. (Volumes IV and V of Europe and the World in the Age of Expansion, edited by Boyd C. Shafer) Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press and Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. xiv+366, xxi+335. £5.75 each.

The Royal Navy and North America: The Warren Papers, 1736–1752 edited by Julian Gwyn. London: Navy Records Society, 1975. Pp. 463; £6.00

Empire or Independence by I. R. Christie and B. W. Labaree. Phaidon Press, 1976. Pp. ix + 322; £5.95.

The Spirit of ‘76: The Growth of American Patriotism Before Independence by Carl Bridenbaugh. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. Pp. xiv+ 162; £5.25.

Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692–1962 by Colin G. Clarke. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1975. Pp. xi+270; £15.00.

Convicts and Colonial Society 1788–1853 edited by Lloyd Evans and Paul Nicholls. Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell Australia, 1976. Pp. viii+250; $5.95.

Religion in Early Australia edited by Jean Woolmington. Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell Australia, 1976. Pp. xiii + 174; $5.95.

The North‐West Mounted Police and Law Enforcement 1873–1905 by R. C. Macleod. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976. Pp. xi+218; £10.50.

The Round Table and Imperial Union by John Kendle. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1975. Pp. xvi + 306; £8.75.

The Lion's Share: A Short History of British Imperialism 1850–1970 by Bernard Porter. London: Longman, 1975. Pp. xiii+408. £6.95 hard cover; £3.75 paper back.     

Pterygotid eurypterid chelicera from the Lower Devonian of Victoria

A single eurypterid (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) chelicera, assigned to Acutiramus sp. cf. A. bohemicus, is described from the Wilson Creek Shale, Turtons Creek inlier, north of Foster, Victoria, Australia. The specimen comprises the proximal portion of both rami. This pterygotid chelicera supports an Early Devonian (?Lochkovian) age for the stratum at this locality, by comparison with occurrences of A. bohemicus from the Czech Republic and closely related species in northern Gondwana.     

Redescription of Parexus recurvus,an Early Devonian acanthodian from the Midland Valley of Scotland

Parexus Agassiz was one of the first Early Devonian ‘spiny sharks’ to be described. The genus is readily recognized by the large size and ornament of its anterior dorsal fin spine. Although two species were erected, reappraisal of all known specimens indicate they should be synonymized in the type species Parexus recurvus. Farnellia tuberculata Traquair, originally described as a vertebral column, is actually tooth rows of jaw dentition, and is also now considered to be a junior synonym of P. recurvus. Parexus has a perichondrally ossified scapulocoracoid of typical acanthodian shape, and diagnostic features of the family Climatiidae, but has distinctive scales comprising appositional growth zones that closely resemble those of the putative stem chondrichthyan Seretolepis elegans Karatajute-Talimaa.