A Feasibility Study for the Investigation of Submerged Sites along the Coast of Slovenia

Maritime investigations along the Northern Adriatic coast have traditionally focused on the Roman and later archaeology. However, studies of post-glacial sea-level change and shoreline displacement suggest there is significant potential for the discovery of sites close inshore dating back to the early- to mid-Holocene, c .9000 BC onwards. A feasibility study for the investigation of submerged sites along the coast of Slovenia was undertaken in 2005. Here we describe the project rationale and research design, the survey and recording methods used, the logistical problems encountered, the results obtained (regardless of age), and the prospects for future research in the region.
© 2009 The Authors     

Testing Significance or Testing Credulity?

The paper examines two recent attempts to analyse a set of data relating to Icenian coin hoards. The methodology of the second attempt, which is based on significance tests made on 'permillia' data (i.e. coins per thousand), is shown to be fatally flawed, and its conclusions unfounded. The danger of using analytical statistical techniques without consideration of the assumptions on which they are based, is stressed. Alternative approaches, one analytical and one graphical, are presented: they suggest an interpretation which differs from those of both the original analyses.     

Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s

Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.