Reviews

Sam Smiles, The Image of Antiquity: Ancient Britain and the Romantic Imagination, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. x + 252 pp., 128 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–300–05814–4. £35.00.

Marcia Pointon (ed.), Art Apart: Art Institutions and Ideology Across England and North America, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1994. 292 pp., 39 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7190–3918–5. f 10.99.

Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff (eds.), Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles, London: Routledge and Minneapolis: the University of Minnesota Press, 1994. xx + 301 pp., 26 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–415–09274–4. £14.99.

Sheena Mackellar Goulty, Heritage Gardens. Care, Conservation and Management, London and New York: Routledge, 1993. 176 pp., 82 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–415–07474–6. £19.99.

Anne Fahy (ed.), Collections Management, London and New York: Rontledge, 1995. xii + 304 pp., 2 figs. ISBN 0–415–11283–4. £19.99.

Annie E. Coombes, Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. vii + 280 pp., 112 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–300‐ 05972–8. £35.00.

Lesley Hoskins (ed.), The Papered Wall. The History, Patterns and Techniques of Wallpaper, London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. 256 pp., 185 col. and 157 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–500–23695‐X. £32.00.     

Estimating the Variability of Active‐Layer Thaw Depth in Two Physiographic Regions of Northern Alaska

The active layer is the zone above permafrost that experiences seasonal freeze and thaw. Active‐layer thickness varies annually in response to air and surface temperature, and generally decreases poleward. Substantially less is known about thaw variability across small lateral distances in response to topography, parent material, vegetation, and subsurface hydrology. A graduated steel rod was used to measure the 1998 end‐of‐season thaw depth across several transects. A balanced hierarchical sampling design was used to estimate the contribution to total variance in active‐layer depth at separating distances of 1, 3, 9, 27, and 100 meters. A second sampling scheme was used to examine variation at shorter distances of 0.3 and 0.1 meter. This seven‐stage sample design was applied to two sites in the Arctic Foothills physiographic province, and four sites on the Arctic Coastal Plain province in northern Alaska. The spatial variability for each site was determined using ANOVA and variogram methods to compare intersite and inter‐province variation. Spatial variation in thaw depth was different in the Foothills and Coastal Plain sites. A greater percentage of the total variance occurs at short lag distances (0–3 meters) at the Foothills sites, presumably reflecting the influence of frost boils and tussock vegetation on ground heat flow. In contrast, thaw variation at the Coastal Plain sites occurs at distances exceeding 10 meters, and is attributed to the influence of well‐developed networks of ice‐wedge polygons and the presence of drained thaw‐lake basins. This information was used to determine an ongoing sampling scheme for each site and to assess the suitability of each method of analysis.     

Recent archaeological research at Saruq al‐Hadid,Dubai, UAE

In September 2014, the University of New England (UNE), Australia, began a three‐year programme of archaeological fieldwork and post‐excavation analyses focused on the site of Saruq al‐Hadid. In this paper, we present the initial results of our current field and laboratory research particularly related to site stratigraphy and formation processes, relative and absolute chronology, and the preliminary results of various programmes of post‐excavation analyses including archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, ceramic and archaeometallurgical studies. These studies provide new data to build into the archaeological understanding of Saruq al‐Hadid that has, to date, focused largely on intensive excavation.     

“And They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love”: Exploring the Role of Christian Love on Maloga Mission, 1874–1888

This article investigates the power, and the politics, of Christian love on the Australian settler‐colonial frontier through the case study of two evangelical missionaries, Daniel and Janet Matthews, during their time at Maloga Mission (a non‐denominational mission to the Aboriginal people of the Murray River which they founded on its northern banks in 1874). Whether protested in private missives, professed in public tracts, or proclaimed to their assembled audiences, Christian love played a vital role in the both the secular justification, and the sacred sanctification, of the Matthews' mission. Yet in practice, the operation of this emotion was complex. Through an exploration of the role of Christian love in the life of Maloga mission and its missionaries, this article will show how the intricacies of its formulation, expression, reception, and reciprocation make this a crucial if often overlooked concept for the study of mission history, and specifically, in this case, the study of nineteenth‐century settler‐colonial missions.