Archaeological carved slabs of the Langobard art in churches of Peligna Valley and Spoleto (Italy): provenance of the stones

In this study we investigate the provenance of the limestone and marble used to made carved slabs today placed in three churches located in Raiano and Vittorito (Peligna Valley, Abruzzo, Italy) and in Spoleto (Umbria, Italy). The slabs, representative examples of the Langobard art (Middle Ages), are dated approximately from 8th to 9th centuries A.D. and have the same pattern in terms of decoration, suggesting a progressive expansion of Langobards in central and southern Italy, after the foundation of the Pavia Kingdom.     

Trace Metal Distribution Within Marine and Estuarine Sediments of Western Moreton Bay,Queensland, Australia: Relation to Land Use and Setting

This broad‐scale investigation provides an overview of trace metal concentration and distribution within sediments in the subtropical setting of Moreton Bay on the eastern Australian coast. Samples of sediment in one‐metre long PVC cores were collected from the intertidal zone of the western shoreline of the Bay and within its main estuaries. The material is typically silty sand along the Bay shoreline, becoming more clayey within the estuaries. Downcore pH is typically between 7.0 and 8.0, with layers in some cores of pH 6.0 to 7.0. Locally, pH can fall below 5.0 due to pyrite oxidation or exceed 8.0 due to the presence of shell fragments. A comparison with results of similar studies in other highly populated centres in Australia shows that overall the Moreton Bay area sediments have relatively low metal content. Typically, concentrations are two to three times higher in fine‐grained, estuarine sediments than in sandy material along the Bay shoreline. Compared with Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council Guidelines for metal concentrations in sediments, the elements most commonly elevated and warranting further assessment are Ni, Hg, Pb, Zn, and occasionally Cd, As and Cr. The highest metal concentrations are found in estuaries, close to more populated or industrialised areas, notably along the Brisbane River. Overall, the distribution of metals in unconsolidated material is controlled by (a) the heavy metal affinity for Fe‐ and Mn‐rich oxidised sediments, (b) grain size, (c) background concentrations in local rocks, and (d) conditions of weathering and deposition. For example, natural elevation of Fe occurs in marine sediments adjacent to areas of Tertiary basalts and this has produced a relative increase in a number of trace metals in those sediments. Typically, trace metals correlate well with Al, and with Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides. The results of this study show that in the western Moreton Bay region, natural controls have the major influence over metal distribution; although urban and industrial inputs exist, for much of the area they are secondary. The main sources of introduced trace metals are presumed to be light industry (such as maritime and port facilities, petroleum refineries and storage, manufacturing and chemical processes), landfills, agriculture and intensive fertilising (for example, golf courses) as well as the composite effect of urban centres. Overall, higher concentrations of metals are closely related to intense development. If specific locations are targeted for focussed sampling, elevated concentrations of metals are likely to be found locally.     

Beyond Orientalism: When Marceline Desbordes-Valmore carried Saʿdi’s Roses to France

This article follows a thread of translation and intertextual dialogue, taking us from the thirteenth-century Persian poet Sa?di to the nineteenth-century French poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. It reads Desbordes-Valmore’s poem ‘Les roses de Saadi’ (1860) with the two passages from Sa?di’s Golestān from which it was inspired, shedding new light on the poem’s metapoetic subtext. The original Persian text is compared to two French translations that were circulating at the time when Desbordes-Valmore was writing. This analysis of the Golestān’s reception forms the basis for the argument that Desbordes-Valmore recast in secular terms Sa?di’s discourse on poetic language, emphasizing the continuity, rather than difference, between her concerns and Sa?di’s. The case of Desbordes-Valmore thus reveals a forgotten facet of nineteenth-century French engagements with Middle Eastern culture: one of identification and literary influence, which existed alongside the processes of “othering” for which the period is better known.     

Italy's Postcolonial ‘Question’: Views from the Southern Frontier of Europe

In Italy, like in many other European countries, cultural roots and national identity are currently shifting as the result of contemporary transnational migrations and globalization. This essay analyses how the paradigm emerging from the Italian national case contributes to a redefinition of the postcolonial canon centered on British history and culture and to the notion of a “European” postcolonial as a whole. To this aim, the authors identify in colonial history and contemporary immigration the threads that connect the postcoloniality of Italy to that of other European countries. At the same time, they locate the specificity of the Italian postcolonial in the intersection between these factors and other events in Italian history that have strongly influenced the process of shaping an Italian national identity: the Southern question, intranational and international mass emigrations, new mobilities, the subaltern position of Italy within the European Union, and the geopolitical dislocation of Italy as the Southern frontier of Europe. The authors close their essay by presenting a Mediterranean Southern perspective grounded in new forms of knowledge and aesthetic sensibilities that counteract Europe's sense of encroaching and its politics of border protection.     

Archaeometric evidences of the 4th–2nd century BC amphorae productions in north eastern Sicily

This work focuses on the petro-archaeometric analysis of several transport amphorae dated back from 4th to 2nd century BC which were found in various archaeological excavations recently carried out in Messina and Milazzo (north eastern Sicily). These amphorae, generally known as Graeco-Italic, raise the problem of the identification of their production areas. Petrographic analyses proved the presence of two groups characterised by the presence of coarse metamorphic or volcanic inclusions and one group with finer metamorphic inclusions. Multivariate statistical analyses made it possible to detect the production area of the amphorae with metamorphic inclusion in north eastern Sicily, comparing them with locally produced bricks and clay sediments cropping out near the ancient cities. On the contrary, the studied amphorae rich in volcanic inclusions have petrographic and chemical features which can be attributed to production areas in the Campanian region.     

Artistic Critiques of Modern Dictatorships

Under a political dictatorship it is primarily from the margins that an artistic critique can be articulated, as suggested by the examples presented in this article from Romania and Chile during the 1970s and 1980s. By focusing on their threefold marginality—of the artist, the art form, and the subject of art—and by applying to them Jacques Rancière's concept of dissensus, the analysis of artistic variants of marginality sheds light on the relationship of art and politics in totalitarian regimes.     

Frail hope and new frontiers

This guest editorial takes as its starting point the 2021 guest editorial in ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY on the anthropology of blockchain written by Kosmarski and Gordiychuk, in which they discussed the possibilities of blockchain in terms of a ‘frail hope of novel, weird, grassroots, decentralized forms of social life’. They also argued that blockchain brought us to ‘new frontiers’ in politics, economics, capital, votes and subjective feelings. Two years later, in this 2023 guest editorial, the authors take stock of where blockchain technology stands concerning these ‘frail hopes’ and ‘new frontiers’. They distinguish between three articulations of blockchain imaginaries: blockchain-as-discourse, blockchain-as-sociotechnical assemblage and blockchain-as-spectacle. Then, they explore what blockchain means for capital, and whether we are headed towards mass adoption of blockchain technology, concluding that, for now, they see primarily institutional adoption. The authors also discern parallel institutional structures, with traditional finance on one side and blockchain-enabled crypto finance on the other, and they examine the regulated future of crypto assets.