Changes in crop cultivation during the last five centuries before the Roman conquest: archaeobotanical investigation in the Clermont-Ferrand basin,Massif Central,France

For several decades, a growing number of protohistoric sites in Auvergne (Massif Central, France)—mostly excavated through preventive archaeology—have been subject to the collection of archaeobotanical analysis. This study presents the archaeobotanical results from ten La Tène sites dating from the last five centuries before the Roman conquest. In addition to providing an inventory of taxa, this paper concerns crops and crop cultivation methods. These results are interpreted in a wider context, dealing with crop husbandry, arable farming, storage and consumption practices. The sites are located in the Limagne plain within a 50-km radius around the city of Clermont-Ferrand. A total of 23,579 carpological remains were identified from 163 sediment samples totalizing a volume of 1096 l. Comparable to other sites in Gaul, the spectrum of cereals and pulses is restricted. Spelt (Triticum spelta), einkorn (Triticum monococcum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) are disappearing or becoming rare. A better control of agricultural techniques and increased yields is supposed during the ca. five centuries of the La Tène period. Mixed cultivation is hereby replaced by the sowing of monocrops. At the beginning of this period, farming systems are dominated by a polyculture of cereals and pulses. They become more specialized during the last two centuries before the Roman conquest; diversity of cereals and pulses is decreased.     

Assessing individual systemic stress through cortisol analysis of archaeological hair

As a product of physiological status and the social and physical environments, stress has significant impact on health and well-being in both ancient and contemporary societies. In bioarchaeological research, stress is characterized using an array of skeletal indicators that record stressful periods during childhood and adulthood. In modern clinical research, exposure to stress can be assessed using systemic cortisol levels that have been shown to fluctuate in response to experienced stress. Analysis of cortisol levels in archaeological hair should enable assessment of stress during a short, but critical, period of an individual's life. For this pilot study, we selected hair samples from ten individuals from five different archaeological sites in Peru, and analyzed them in segments to determine cortisol levels. These data demonstrate that it is possible to observe biogenic patterns of cortisol production, and that individual experiences of stress can be reconstructed for the period of time represented by each hair sample. Analysis of cortisol levels in hair has the potential to be a valuable short-term dynamic stress indicator that will complement paleopathological and biochemical studies of health and stress, and permit the reconstruction of increasingly detailed life histories.     

Management cultures and regional development: High performance management and the location of new manufacturing plants

In-depth case studies of new manufacturing plants are used to motivate a new business location model that incorporates management practices and cultures as location factors. This model is tested using US data on the location of new manufacturing plants. It is found that plants that adopt high performance management practices and cultures rely on different criteria when making their location decisions from those plants that are managed in more traditional ways. Omitting management culture from studies of business location may result in biased estimates of the importance of various traditional location factors. By demonstrating that location decisions are differentiated according to the management practices of firms, it is argued that regional development planning should pay more attention to specific business characteristics and that regional development policy include programmes that strengthen complementarities between management practices and the regional economic environment.     

Reviews

The Bulkies: Police and Crime in Belfast, 1800–1865 Brian Griffin, 1997 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. xi + 166, ISBN 0.7165.2670.0, £29.50 (hb)

The Hungry Stream: Essays on Emigration and Famine E. Margaret Crawford (ed.), 1997 Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University pp.215, ISBN 1.85589.677.1, £25 (hb); ISBN 0.85389.674.7, £9.50 (pb)

The Feminization of Famine Margaret Kelleher, 1997 Cork University Press pp.258, ISBN 1.85918.077.9, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85918.078.7, £16.95 (pb)

The Two Irelands, 1912–1939 David Fitzpatrick, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xviii + 301, ISBN 0.19.289240.1, £8.99 (pb)

The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916–23 Peter Hart, 1998 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xvi + 350, ISBN 0.19.820537.6, £40.00 (hb)

The Politics of Illusion: a Political History of the IRA Henry Patterson, 1997 London, Serif pp.320, ISBN 1.897959.31.1, £14.99 (pb)

Peace or War? Understanding the Peace Process in Northern Ireland Chris GILligan & Jon Tonge (eds), 1997 Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing pp. 167, ISBN 1.85972.519.8, £35.00 (hb)

The Irish RMs: The Resident Magistrates in the British Administration of Ireland Penny Bonsall, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.224, ISBN 1.85182.331.X, £30.00 (hb)

The Geopolitics of Anglo‐Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century G. R.Sloan, 1997 London, Leicester University Press pp.320, ISBN 0.718.51356.8, £45.00 (hb)

Hope Deferred: Experiences of an Irish Unionist Basil Mcivor, 1998 Dundonald, Blackstaff Press pp. 163, ISBN 0.85640.620.1, £12.99 (pb)

Who Are ‘The People'? Unionism, Protestantism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland Peter Shirlow & Mark Mcgovern (eds), 1997 London, Pluto Press pp. 192, ISBN 0.7453.1213.6, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.1208.X, £13.99 (pb)

Crisis and Decline: the Fate of the Southern Unionists R. B. Mcdowell, 1997 Dublin, Lilliput Press pp. x + 227, ISBN 1.8746.7592.9, £16.99 (hb)

Crime in Ireland 1945–95: Here be Dragons John Brewer, Bill Lockhart & Paula Rodgers, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp. 268, ISBN C.19.826570.0, £40.00 (hb)

Explorations in Law and History W. N. Osborough (ed.), 1995 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. 193, ISBN 0.7165.2451.0, £24.95 (hb)

Decadence and Danger: Writing, History and the fin de siècle Tracey Hill (ed.), 1997 Bath, Sulis Press pp.228, ISBN 0.9526.856.1.2, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.9526.856.2.0, £13.95 (pb)

Deeds Not Words: The Life and Work of Muriel Gahan Geraldine Mitchell, 1997 Dublin, Town House pp.224, ISBN 1.860589.046.2, £9.99 (pb)

In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography Brian Graham (ed.), 1997 London, Routledge pp. xiv + 240, ISBN 0.415.15007.8, £47.50 (hb); ISBN 0.415.15008.6, £15.99 (pb)

Space and Place: The Geographies of Literature Glenda Norquay & Gerry Smyth (eds), 1997 Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University Press pp.414, ISBN 0.9527.97802, £15.00 (pb)

Women Divided: Gender, Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland Rosemary Sales, 1997 London, Routledge pp.256, ISBN 0.415.13766.7, £14.99 (pb)

Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland Anthony Bradley & Marianna Gialanella Vauuus (eds), 1997 Amherst, University of Massachusetts pp.336, ISBN 1.55849.130.9, US$50.00 (hb); ISBN 1.55849.131.7, US$16.95 (pb)

Irish Women in England: An Annotated Bibliography Clare Barrington, 1997 Dublin, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre, University College Dublin pp.72, ISBN 1.898473.80.3, £5.00 (pb)

Edmund Spenser's Irish Experience: Wilde Fruit and Salvage Soyl Andrew Hadfield, 1997 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.240, ISBN 0.10.818345.3, £35.00 (hb)

Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity Willy Maley, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.260, ISBN 0.3336.2942.6, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.3336.2943.4, £12.99 (pb)

Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, and the Question of Britain David J. Baker, 1997 Stanford, Stanford University Press, and Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp.221, ISBN 0.8047.2997.2, US839.50, £30.00 (hb)

Locating Swift: Essays from Dublin on the 250th Anniversary of the Death of Jonathan Swift 1667–1745 Aileen Douglas, Patrick Kelly & Ian Campbell Ross (eds), 1998 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.208, ISBN 1.85182.317.4, £35.00, US$45.00 (hb)

Maria Edgeworth's Irish Writing: Language, History, Politics Brian Hollingworth, 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan pp.256, ISBN 0.333.681.66.5, £40.00 (hb)

Verse in English from Eighteenth‐Century Ireland Andrew Carpenter, 1998 Cork, Cork University Press pp.640, ISBN 1.85912.103.1, £40.00, US$60.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85912.104.X, £15.95, US829.95 (pb)

Mrs S. C. Hall: A Literary Biography Maureen Keane, 1997 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 260, ISBN 0.86140.394.0, £33.00 (hb)

Yeats's Political Identities: Selected Essays Jonathan Allison (ed.), 1996 Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press pp.352, ISBN 0.472.10445.4, US849.50 (hb)

Yeats and the Drama of Sacred Space Nicholas Meihuizen, 1998 Amsterdam, Costerus New Series 116, Rodopi pp. 190, ISBN 90.420.0388.X, £19.50, US$34.00 (pb)

High and Low Moderns: Literature and Culture, 1889–1939 Maria Dibattista & Lucy Mcdiarmid (eds), 1996 New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press pp.259, ISBN 0.19.508266.4, £37.50 (hb)

Louis MacNeice and his Influence Kathleen Devine & Alan J. Peacock (eds), 1998 Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe pp. 184, ISBN 0.86140.391.6, £27.50 (hb)

Samuel Beckett and Music Mary Bryden (ed.), 1998 Oxford, Clarendon Press pp.267, ISBN 0.19.818427.1, £40.00 (hb)

Talking of Joyce Umberto Eco & Liberato Santoro‐Brienza, 1998 Dublin, University College Dublin Press pp.86, ISBN 1.900621.13.4, £5.95 (pb)

The Boy in the Moon Kate O'riordan, 1997 London, Flamingo pp. 278, ISBN 0.00.225555.3, £12.99 (hb)

A Glassful of Letters Evelyn Conlon, 1998 Belfast, Blackstaff pp. 208, ISBN 0.85640.618.X, £7.99 (pb)

The Parchment Boat Moya Cannon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.45, ISBN 1.85235.202.7, £11.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.201.9, £5.95 (pb)

Thirst David Wheatley, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.77, ISBN 1.85235.208.6, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.207.8, £6.95 (pb)

Selected Poems Medbh Mcguckian, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.94, ISBN 1.85235.204.3, £13.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85235.203.5, £7.95 (pb)

The Yellow Book Derek Mahon, 1997 Oldcastle, The Gallery Press pp.57, ISBN 1.85253.206.X, £12.95 (hb); ISBN 1.85253.205.1, £6.95 (pb)     

Reading with the Occultists: Arthur Machen,A. E. Waite,and the Ecstasies of Popular Fiction

My article recovers a forgotten moment in the history of popular fiction criticism – the late Victorian advent of what I term occultic literary criticism – to challenge the persistent anxiety thesis that continues to dominate fin-de-siècle studies. In the late 1890s, the close friends, writers, bibliophiles, and, for varying amounts of time, practising occultists Arthur Machen and A. E. Waite used their literary criticism to champion the ecstatic occult potential of mass-circulated popular fiction, insisting that the penny dreadful, the newspaper story, and the popular picaresque as exemplified in Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) represented coded versions of ancient mystery tradition rituals. The cheap popular texts could offer to readers, writers, and collectors the kind of joyous direct encounter with the unseen world that sacred texts no longer could. The pair’s conviction that ecstatic occult initiation was just as, if not more, attainable through popular exoteric texts as through their restricted esoteric counterparts offers an important corrective to contemporary understandings of both the late-Victorian reception of popular fiction and of the reach and constituency of the occult revival.