Material Choices for Fibre in the Neolithic: An Approach through the Measurement of Mechanical Properties

Studies of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Europe have focused on plants and animals exploited for food. However, the exploitation of plants for fibres underwent a significant change with the addition of domestic flax as a fibre crop. While the technology of flax fibre processing is increasingly understood by archaeologists, its material value as a fibre crop in comparison to indigenous fibre is less well explored. We examine the mechanical properties of flax and two indigenous fibres (lime bast, willow bast), by testing fibre strips for tensile properties and discuss the results in the light of material choices in these periods.     

How to Surpass the Qin

In the famous chapters on the flaws of the Qin (221–207 BCE) dynasty, Jia Yi (200–168 BCE) deals with the reasons for the Qin’s defeat. This article, grounded in previous scholarship, will analyze Jia Yi’s discussion of the fall of the Qin and will show that the negative depiction of Qin policies was part of Jia Yi’s strategy for implementing the political agenda of the Han. Moreover I argue that the Guo Qin lun, or “To Surpass the Qin,” is not simply a historical analysis, but a political treatise that also deals with: (1) heeding the advice of meritorious ministers; (2) persuading the emperor to apply policies to bring tranquility to the people.     

Physical-biological or socio-cultural ‘destruction’ in genocide? Unravelling the legal underpinnings of conflicting interpretations

The recent implementation of the 1948 Genocide Convention has shed light on some of its ambiguities, in particular the meaning of the ‘intent to destroy the group’, the mens rea of genocide, and whether the intended destruction should be understood in physical-biological terms or as an intent to eliminate the group as a social-cultural entity. The debate has been particularly acute within the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where the former, narrow understanding has finally prevailed. In contrast, in other jurisdictions, such as the German courts, a clear stance has been taken in favour of a broader socio-cultural understanding. This article integrates the legal constraints of interpretation into the debate on the meaning of group destruction. It focuses on the respective foundations of these conflicting interpretations, especially the reference to ‘cultural genocide’, and addresses the socio-legal underpinnings of both. In particular, it places a special emphasis on the international legal rules of interpretation as set out in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and on the principles of international criminal law such as the nullum crimen sine lege principle.     

Anthropological Contributions and Challenges to the Study of Children and Childhoods

This essay considers the anthropology of childhood's recent growth. It summarizes the sub-field's extensive if often unacknowledged past, reviews its late 20th-century bourgeoning, and then highlights three influential teaching texts, each of which argues for a more considered, culturally informed understanding of children and childhood while performing the vital service of bringing together heretofore scattered ideas and data. To ensure the field's further maturation, scholars must leverage what an integrative, four-fields approach has to offer, attend to the conjoined, coterminous, and coeval facets of adulthood and childhood; leverage what an integrative, four-fields approach has to offer; expand the pediatric lens; and otherwise guard against our own cultural biases.     

Keeping an eye on your pots: the provenance of Neolithic ceramics from the Cave of the Cyclops,Youra, Greece

Combined petrographic and chemical analysis of MN and LN ceramics from the Cave of the Cyclops on the island of Youra, Greece, has revealed a compositionally diverse assemblage with a range of different local and off-island sources. Ceramics deposited in Neolithic times on this barren, rocky outpost of the Sporades chain may have originated from a surprising number of possible origins, including from the Plain of Thessaly, Euboea and the volcanic northeast Aegean islands. This picture challenges traditional assumptions about Neolithic pottery production and indicates that significant movement of ceramics was already taking place within the northern Aegean as early as the beginning of the sixth millennium BC. The discovery of a persistent local pottery tradition, that is also found on the neighbouring island of Kyra-Panagia, indicates significant continuity in ceramic technology over some 1500 years.     

New radiometric ages for the Fauresmith industry from Kathu Pan,southern Africa: Implications for the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition

The Fauresmith lithic industry of South Africa has been described as transitional between the Earlier and Middle Stone Age. However, radiometric ages for this industry are inadequate. Here we present a minimum OSL age of 464 ± 47 kyr and a combined U-series–ESR age of 542₋₁₀₇⁺¹⁴⁰ kyr for an in situ Fauresmith assemblage, and three OSL ages for overlying Middle and Later Stone Age strata, from the site of Kathu Pan 1 (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). These ages are discussed in relation to the available lithostratigraphy, faunal and lithic assemblages from this site. The results indicate that the Kathu Pan 1 Fauresmith assemblage predates transitional industries from other parts of Africa e.g. Sangoan, as well as the end of the Acheulean in southern Africa. The presence of blades, in the dated Fauresmith assemblages from Kathu Pan 1 generally considered a feature of modern human behaviour ( McBrearty and Brooks, 2000, The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior, J. Human Evolution 39, 453–563),-provides evidence supporting the position that blade production in southern Africa predated the Middle Stone Age and the advent of modern Homo sapiens.     

Reviews

Spatial models and locative expressions in Baluchi , Ela Filippone, Baluchistan Monograph Series, IV, Naples: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1996, 427 pp.

Qissah‐yi niyaz , Hushang Rahnema, Philadelphia: Miras‐e Iran, 1998, 175 pp.

Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij , Majid Naficy, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997, 144 pp., $27.50

Mysticism and the Plurality of Meaning: The Case of the Ismailis of Rural Iran , Rafique Keshavjee, London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1998 (Occasional Papers, no. 2), vii + 47 pp.

Sacred Acts, Sacred Time, Sacred Space , John Walbridge, Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.

The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews , vol. 2, ed. Homa and Houman Sarshar, Beverly Hills, Calif.: Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History, 1997.

Padyavand , Judeo‐Iranian and Jewish Studies Series, vol. 2, ed. Amnon Netzer, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1997.

Memoirs of M. E. Amirteymour Kalali: Tribal Leader, Majles Deputy, Cabinet Minister , ed., Habib Ladjevardi, Iranian Oral History Project, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 1997.

Persian Cookings: A Table of Exotic Delights , Nesta Ramazani, New York: Quadrangle Books, 1974, reprint Iranbooks, Inc., 1997, 296 pp.

The Legendary Cuisine of Persia , Margaret Shaida, U.K.: Lieuse Publications, 1992., reprint Penguin Books, 1994, 337 pp.

Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution , Haleh Esfandiari, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997, 234 pp., $15.95, paperback, ISBN: 0–8018–5619–1, $24.50, hardcover, ISBN 0–8018–5618–3.

Die iranische Schia und die islamische Einheit 1979–1996 , Wilfried Buchta, Hamburg, Deutsches Orient‐Institut, 1997, 427 pp.

Maqalati dar jami^cah‐yi shinasi‐yi siyasi‐yi Iran [Articles on the Political Sociology of Iran], Ervand Abrahamian, trans., Soheyla Torrabi‐farsani, Tehran: Shirazeh Publications, 1997, 254 pp. + index.

Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran: The Institutionalization of Factional Politics , Bahman Baktiari, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996, ISBN 0–8130–1461–1, 282 pp. appendix, notes, bibliography, + index.

Street Politics: Poor People's Movement in Iran , Asef Bayat, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 216 pages + plus glossary.

The United States and Iran; In the Shadow of Musaddiq , James F. Goode, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, xiv + 235 pp.

The Soviet Republic of Iran, 1920–1921; Birth of the Trauma , Chosroe Chaqueri, Pittsburgh and London: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, xxvii + 649 pp.

Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran , Edward Shirley, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997, 247 pp.

The Middle East: from the end of Empire to the end of the Cold War , P. J. Vatikiotis, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, $65.00.

Iran and the Gulf: A Search for Stability , Jamal S. al‐Suwaidi, ed., Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 1996, xi + 425 pp., 12 figures, 8 tables, maps.

The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion , ed. Gary Sick and Lawrence G. Potter, ,New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, 356 pp.

The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Boom and Petro‐States , Terry Lynn Karl, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, 342 pp., $55.00, $22.00, paper.     

Lifestyle,occupation, and whole bone morphology of the pre‐Hispanic Maya coastal population from Xcambó, Yucatan,Mexico

The present bioarchaeological study examines the external diaphyseal geometric properties of humeri, radii, femora and tibiae of the Classic period skeletal population of Xcambó, Yucatan, Mexico. The diaphysial proportions are evaluated using a biomechanical approach together with data from the material context and other osteological information. Our intent is to provide new answers to questions concerning lifestyle, domestic labour division and subsistence strategies of this coastal Maya settlement that was inhabited from the Late and Terminal Preclassic (300 BC–350 AD) to the Postclassic Period (900–1500 AD). Our results provide evidence for a marked sexual division of labour when compared with values from contemporaneous inland populations. The overall male and female loading patterns differ remarkably in terms of form and in bilateral comparison. A high directional asymmetry in the upper limbs is evident among males, a condition related to maritime transportation and trading activities. On the other hand, female upper limbs are characterized by very low side differences. Forces on the arms of women were probably dominated by food processing, in particular the grinding of grains or seeds. In the lower limbs, males show significantly higher anteroposterior bending strengths, which can be explained by greater engagement in transportation tasks and carrying heavy loads. In the course of the Classic period (350–900 AD), diachronic changes affect the male sample only, which suggests a shift of occupational pattern and physical demands. This shift, in turn, reflects Xcambó's changing role as the centre of a densifying settlement area and its place in the trading activities of northern Yucatan. Other topics of discussion relate to general regional trends and local prehispanic subsistence strategies. Our conclusions emphasize the value of geometric long bone analysis in the reconstruction of activity patterns and lifestyles in ancient coastal settlements. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.