Multiple paths of development: knowledge bases and institutional characteristics of the Swedish food sector

The aim of this paper is to explore the relation between the critical knowledge base of firms and how firms respond to incentives embedded in the institutional framework surrounding them. The analysis gives us a better understanding of the complex development of the food sector in Southern Sweden in the past decades. Theoretically, the paper combines concepts of path dependency and knowledge bases, and applies this framework to a set of development trajectories of firms in the Scanian food sector. Three development paths are identified—path extension, path renewal and new path creation. Findings illustrate that these are rooted in different knowledge base combinations of firms, which make them respond differently to similar place- and sector-specific institutional conditions.     

Reconstruction of the Rib Vaults of the Hypostyle Hall in the Maniace Castle of Siracusa After the 1693 Earthquake

Built in the first half of the 13th century on behalf of the Emperor Frederick II, the Maniace Castle of Siracusa focuses its enigma in the hypostyle hall (which was composed of 25 quadripartite rib vaults) and the design criteria adopted for its implementation. Recent research and a careful rereading of the documentary “restoration project” after the earthquake of 1693 have offered new tools to understand the construction techniques and building procedures for the entire organism. It has been possible to demonstrate that the different material (white limestone and volcanic stone) used for the vaults is, in fact, a product of reconstruction. The constructive node, which historiography has taken for granted, is now crucial—the documentary evidence of the restoration after the earthquake compared with the materials found in situ provide interpretive keys to decode genesis and procedures of the huge structure built five centuries before.     

Mycenaean shipwright tool kit: its reconstruction and evaluation

The present study aims to answer questions of utility and efficiency, on the basis of archaeological evidence, of the nominated Mycenaean shipwright tool kit through experimental methods. The target set was established through the recording of archaeological data, examination of the available findings, classification of the finds, gathering of the relevant sources (literature, iconography, archeological parallels and preserved traces), reconstruction of the findings (casting, elaboration of the metallic parts and reconstruction of the hafts), usage of the reconstructed tools and the evaluation of them qualitatively, quantitatively and ergonomically via the reconstruction of a segment of the Uluburun shipwreck hull. Knowledge of tool production of the Late Bronze Age has been furthered. Questions on the casting of the metal parts of tools and the elaboration of their different parts have been answered. The reconstructed tools appear suitable for use in pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery in shipbuilding by skilled woodworkers. Moreover, the reconstructed tools proved to be user friendly. Experimental methods proved useful in the allocation of efficient criteria for the use-based classification of tools. Functional differences between the tools were shown, and questions on utility were answered. The Late Bronze Age shipwright, as master of his craft and tool use, could make new tools or adjust them to the demands of a particular job, as well as to his own body build. The range of tools used for shipbuilding in the Late Bronze period is comparable to those used today.     

Computing Abilities in Antiquity: The Royal Judahite Storage Jars as a Case-study

Studying the volume of ancient pottery vessels can shed light on the development of complex societies and state apparatus by revealing the means taken to standardize trade and taxation. It can also shed light on the cognitive abilities of ancient people by investigating their knowledge of computing. This paper explores, as a case study, the volume and shape of the lmlk (“belonging to the king”) royal storage jars, which probably represent the highest level of standardization in eighth century BCE Judah. To estimate the volume of these vessels we constructed a computer 3D model for each jar. The variation in the jars’ linear dimensions is about 2–3%, a number that is characteristic of human-made objects produced by professionals without employing measurement tools. Had the potters produced jars of the same height, they could have easily reached 3–4% accuracy in the volume. Surprisingly, the variation in the jars’ volume is 7–10%. We hypothesize that rather than height the potters focused on the jars’ shape and wall width, estimating the volume according to the jars’ outer measurements. We propose a simple way that these measurements could have been taken and suggest a formula that could have been employed by the potters and customers for quickly calculating a jar’s volume.     

Formt die Technik die Musik? Montageästhetik zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts

Does technology shape music? Aesthetics of assembly at the beginning of the 20^th century. This article deals with the relationship between assembly in production technology and similar processes in musical composition. Can composers like Eric Satie, Igor Strawinsky or George Antheil, who used assembly methods in some of their compositions, be called assemblers? The authors point out that all three composers used assembly methods in different ways and with different purposes. Applying a theoretical approach inspired by media studies they come to the conclusion that the conditions under which musical works using assembly methods are shaped do not originate in technology but in the aesthetic convictions of the composer. Apart from assembly methods there are many other compositional principles the composer relies on. Technology may inspire music but does not determine the musical outcome.     

Fishing settlements in the Pskov region in the 16th century (according to archaeological data and written sources)

Numerous written sources report that an extensive system of special fishing villages called isads existed in the Pskov region in the 16th century. These villages were inhabited by professional fishermen and their fishing grounds were strictly delineated. Due to the analysis of scribes books, cartographic material analysis and exploratory excavations in the area, 314 sites were exposed. More than 60% of the fishing sites mentioned in the scribes books were mapped and the location of 20% more was determined by indirect information. Some of the isads which were located are partially studied by prompt or archaeological excavations. During the excavations of beach debris, some fishing gear dated to the late Medieval–Modern time periods were found. The combination of information obtained from the study of lake coastline changes, hydrological regime of waterways and water bodies of the Pskov region, and data on the economy and economics of the whole area under study give impetus to research into a number of problems related to natural environmental characteristics of the Pskov region for the period of study.     

Morphometric analysis and detection of invisible archaeological elements by spectral treatment of digital images

The aim of this paper is to describe the creation of a method to apply digital image treatment, consisting of a combination of filters and algorhythms, to prehistoric rock carvings, to enhance the information obtained from them. In the experimental phase a study was made of a laboratory piece and two highly valuable pieces of cave art from the Tamanart Valley in Morocco and the Casares Cave in Guadalajara, Spain. The results clearly demonstrate the potential of the proposed digital methodas information was obtained that could not have been achieved by the traditional techniques.     

Historic and symbolic violence in the Romani Fuenteovejuna by TNT-El Vacie: Gender,ethnicity, and interculturalism

Abstract

I address here the performance of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna undertaken by TNT-El Vacie, giving particular consideration to the ways in which Antonio Álamo’s adaptation, Pepa Gamboa’s direction, and the staging of El Vacie, a company composed exclusively of Roma women, constitute a site of resistance as well as a performance of gender, identity, and place. From this vantage point, I wrestle with issues of agency, dialogism, and intercultural communication to make sense of ontological as well as hermeneutic aspects of the performance text: deletions and additions; orality and authority; meta-theatricality and self-reflexivity; acting and becoming. In addition, I bring to bear the fact that the name of the company, El Vacie, bears witness to the impoverished settlement or shantytown where the women reside, which stands within a mere two hundred yards of the theater where the play is performed. The name of the company signals the identification of the actresses with the marginal space in which they live, enriches the text, and further complicates their reading of Fuenteovejuna by adding levels of referentiality and indexicality that redefine boundaries as well as processes of exclusion and inclusion. While this is not the first collaboration between TNT and El Vacie—it was preceded by the successful and award-winning 2009 staging of La Casa de Bernarda Alba—I consider this performance a particularly important contribution to the construction of a historicized cultural politics of identity that makes the Romani community visible by positioning the women of El Vacie center stage as participants, creators, and interpreters of the national cultural patrimony. Through this cultural intervention, certain spaces and markers of the Roma community acquire visibility as they get inserted into a national historical discourse from which they previously had been historically excluded.