An Optimized Approach for Protein Residue Extraction and Identification from Ceramics After Cooking

Extraction of protein residues from archaeological matrices, such as pottery clay, lithics, and grinding stones, has proven to be methodologically challenging. Protein residue analysis is fraught with technical challenges in analytical chemistry. In cooking pottery, protein residues are thought to bind to clay surfaces in vessel walls through a variety of primarily non-covalent interactions. Removal of protein residues requires the disruption of these interactions, and a diverse set of tools has been proposed and applied. Here, we test extraction procedures through varying combinations of physical parameters and solvents to derive an optimal approach yielding efficiencies of recovery from experimental pottery above 60%. The utility of our extraction approach was further validated through liquid chromatography?Cmass spectrometry analysis of experimental residues. We have identified several hurdles to developing a successful study of protein residues from pottery, each of which is surmountable with additional method development in the realm of archaeological chemistry.     

Excavations on the Town Wall,Roushill, Shrewsbury

Abstract

The pentice, a medieval, colonnaded walkway centrally placed on the south side of the High Street in Winchester, Hampshire, occupies part of the site of the former Norman palace. Other medieval colonnaded walkways exist, notably at Chester and Totnes, but it is not entirely clear when these latter walkways were created, nor whether they resulted from piecemeal development over time, or from a single, concerted campaign of building. These questions are explored with regard to The Pentice in Winchester between c. 1250 and c. 1550 in this interdisciplinary study, which includes evidence from archaeology, dendrochronology, documents and standing remains. Key new evidence has come recently from dendrochronology, allowing a re-evaluation of documentary evidence and of dates at present ascribed to standing remains on typological grounds. This study presents fresh evidence for the structure of The Pentice in the 14th century and examines the case for development of the present form of the buildings in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Finally, it is noted that this new evidence encourages a re-examination of the argument that structural alignments and split-level retailing were indicators of pre-Plague pressure on street frontage which eased after the Black Death.     

Mass and elite politics in Mill's considerations on representative Government

This paper examines the formal filters of the public's political will defended by JS Mill as consistent with the best form of representative government. Holding that institutions must adjust to democratic society, and that democratic society must be improved to achieve wise rule, Mill rejects secret ballots and electoral pledges, and advocates a constitutional council and graduated enfranchisement. He also recommends but does not require the indirect election of the President and a unicameral legislature. Mill's historically sensitive approach puts pressure on interpreters to be sensitive to their own political and social context when applying Mill's ideas. In particular, obviously undemocratic measures such as plural voting should be adjusted to reflect Mill's view that the ratio between legitimacy and competence is constantly changing. The continual readjustment between the powers of masses and elites is the way that Mill's Considerations on Representative Government manage to avoid the now-traditional charge of expertocracy.     

Laughter and Truth in Fiji: What We May Learn from a Joke

This paper examines a series of events which took place in a Fijian village in the late 1980s and which, for the ethnographer, brought into question joking, lying and telling the truth. The analysis suggests that our ideas of what language is good for necessarily inform our understanding of the truth conditions of what is said, from which it follows that truth may be regarded not as an absolute, but as a function of the moral force of language — itself an historical phenomenon that is embedded in, and constituted through, the everyday social relations that we may analyse in terms of gender, kinship, chiefship, and ideas of the person. Laughter emerges as central both to the events described and their analysis. Subtle though they may be, people's ideas of the moral force of language are amenable to investigation and analysis; but for all we may learn from laughter, it ultimately eludes any analysis — an observation that provides the key to its revelatory force.     

Ceramic production in ancient Nasca: provenance analysis of pottery from the Early Nasca and Tiza cultures through INAA

We report the results of an instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) undertaken on a regional sample of pottery from the Southern Nasca Region. The samples included specimens primarily from the Early Nasca (ca. A.D. 1–450) and Tiza (ca. A.D. 1000–1476) cultures from a total of 16 different prehispanic sites. The results of the analysis demonstrate centralized production of Early Nasca polychromes and decentralized production of pottery from the Tiza culture. The results of this analysis confirm previous conclusions about the organization of these two indigenous cultures of the south coast of Peru and support the hypothesis of an excess production of polychromes at the ceremonial center Cahuachi for Early Nasca, and multiple centers of production for the Tiza culture.     

Extraction and sequencing of human and Neanderthal mature enamel proteins using MALDI-TOF/TOF MS

We report here the first results of a method to extract and sequence mature enamel proteins from modern human and Neanderthal tooth enamel. Using MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry and a combination of direct sequencing and peptide mass mapping we have sequenced a peptide from the tyrosine-rich amelogenin peptide (TRAP) of the X isoform of the amelogenin protein for modern and recent human samples. We also report our results from two Neanderthal enamel samples where we were also able to recover fragments of the TRAP protein, which had a similar sequence to the modern human samples.     

Double Displacement: Western Women's Return Home from Japanese Internment in the Second World War

This article examines the homecoming of Western women from Japanese internment camps at the end of the Second World War. It focuses on British women returning to the United Kingdom, but makes reference to women from other Allied nations such as the United States, Australia and the Netherlands. The paper argues that interned women posed contradictions to gendered understandings of wartime experience and that homecoming further exacerbated this ambiguity. Return from imprisonment exposed the dual meaning of home as the natural realm for women and a national space. Women internees had been away from both and were subjected to control by non‐white men; responses to their liberation reflected these tensions. Homecoming prompted questions about released women's femininity and sexual integrity, but they faced even more difficulty having their war experiences recognised as part of a national story about war.