Localising the Australian National Action Plan on Women,Peace and Security: a matter of justice

In the bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council, the Australian government emphasised international peace and security and Indigenous peoples as two of the eight key elements supporting its nomination. Australia's positive track record in support of the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, including the delivery of an Australian National Action Plan (NAP) along with recognition of historical injustices to Indigenous Australians, was highlighted as a valid and important argument in favour of its nomination. The Australian NAP, however, has all but ignored the local context in its development and application, focusing instead on its commitments abroad. This framing of the Australian NAP is informed, firstly, by the WPS agenda policy framework applying to conflict and post-conflict situations, and, secondly, by its location within the UN mandate, requiring those situations to be internationally recognised. This article applies Nancy Fraser's tripartite justice framework to reveal that the Australian NAP gives rise to the political injustice of ‘misrepresentation’ in relation to intra-state (violent), domestically situated Indigenous–settler relations, which are denied the status of ongoing internationally recognised conflict. The author suggests that the remedy to this injustice is to reframe and recognise the conflict status of Indigenous–settler relations in the localisation of the Australian NAP. This localisation creates openings for Indigenous Australian women to engage with the WPS agenda in meaningful ways.     

Is Unresolved Inflammatory Angiogenesis a Mechanism for the Delayed Development of Skeletal Lesions in Syphilis?

A recently described case of putative early tertiary syphilis in a young adult male from 6th century Anglo‐Saxon England exhibits a distinctive endocranial pathology. A case–control study using both clinical and archaeological materials was performed to investigate a possible association of the pathology with syphilis. Scanning electron microscopy and microcomputed tomography were used to image the syphilitic case and normal cranial material. Although the pathology does seem to have an association with syphilis (OR = 13.14), the sample size is small, and the authors caution against overinterpretation of the results. The study confirms observations by other authors suggesting the lesion has some association with a range of pathological conditions. Any association with syphilis seems to be restricted to the early tertiary stages and is possibly absent in the later stages of the disease. The morphological differences present in the samples observed by scanning electron microscopy and microcomputed tomography illustrate the abnormal nature of the vascularity within the syphilitic cranium. The widespread presence of similar lesions within other tubular bones leads the authors to propose hypothesis that unresolved angiogenesis is the underlying mechanism behind the skeletal changes in tertiary syphilis. This angiogenic model accounts for several diverse characteristics in the progression of skeletal disease resulting from infection by spirochetes of the Treponema pallidum family. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Pottery Informatics Query Database: A New Method for Mathematic and Quantitative Analyses of Large Regional Ceramic Datasets

There is an increasing demand within the humanities and social sciences to use computers to analyze material culture and discover patterns of historical and anthropological significance. Using southern Levantine Iron Age (ca. 1200–500 BCE) ceramics as a test case, the Pottery Informatics Query Database (PIQD) provides a novel solution for constructing regional ceramic typologies. Beyond digitally archiving 2D/3D-scanned ceramics, the PIQD encodes ceramic profiles as mathematical representations. This method of digital preservation enables rapid queries to be conducted in a mathematically grounded approach. In this sense, the queries are similar to online Basic Local Alignment Search Tool searches developed in the field of genetics by rapidly associating large quantities of digital vessel profiles to each other based on similar morphological traits. The PIQD is an open-source online tool that enables scholars and students to test humanities-related hypotheses against ceramic data in ways that conventional publications or other databases cannot provide. Regional spatial patterning of the ceramic data is delivered over a Google Earth-based user interface. In this paper, we present the PIQD as an objective method for developing a comprehensive ceramic typology of an entire region of archaeological study and provide an arena to conduct novel scientific research. We then demonstrate through a case study its analytical capabilities to handle large datasets of 3D scans and digitized 2D ceramic profiles and generate cultural inferences with the ceramic assemblages of the Iron Age II “Edomite” region located in modern southern Jordan. PIQD adds an important methodological tool to the post-excavation cyber-archaeology tool box.     

(Re)assembling Communities

This article seeks to bring together studies of community from both the New and Old Worlds and examine their various strengths and weaknesses. Whilst applauding many of the recent developments, particularly the emphasis on communities as the outcome of practice and agency, I suggest that there are three specific difficulties present in the current studies of community: an underlying subtext which supports modern political notions of community as a timeless form of sociality; a prominent anthropocentric vision of community as the province purely of human beings; and a failure to fully embrace the role of affect and emotion. By rethinking communities as assemblages, this article seeks to build on the firm foundations constructed in the last 15 years to present new possibilities for taking this important concept forward.     

Schooling on the Missionary Frontier: The Hohi Mission Station,New Zealand

Schooling was integral to the process of missionization in many of the places where it occurred throughout the world, yet it has scarcely been explored through the archaeological record. Excavations at Hohi, New Zealand, located a school founded by CMS missionaries in 1816, providing a material record that, in conjunction with documentary sources, enables reconstruction of schooling during the earliest stages of cultural engagement in this part of the Pacific. The motivations of both missionaries and indigenous Maori in the establishment and erratic progress of this school are examined, highlighting the role of indigenous agency in the cultural engagements that played out there.     

“Religious Violence as Modern Myth”

Abstract

In this essay the author summarizes the argument of his book entitled The Myth of Religious Violence, whose main contention is that there is no reason to suppose that people are more likely to kill for a god than for a whole other host of “secular” ideologies and practices that behave in the way that “religions” do. The author then goes on to respond to various critiques that have been made of the book since its appearance in 2009.     

Hydrothermal,multiphase convection of H2O‐NaCl fluids from ambient to magmatic temperatures: a new numerical scheme and benchmarks for code comparison

Thermohaline convection of subsurface fluids strongly influences heat and mass fluxes within the Earth's crust. The most effective hydrothermal systems develop in the vicinity of magmatic activity and can be important for geothermal energy production and ore formation. As most parts of these systems are inaccessible to direct observations, numerical simulations are necessary to understand and characterize fluid flow. Here, we present a new numerical scheme for thermohaline convection based on the control volume finite element method (CVFEM), allowing for unstructured meshes, the representation of sharp thermal and solute fronts in advection‐dominated systems and phase separation of variably miscible, compressible fluids. The model is an implementation of the Complex Systems Modelling Platform CSMP++ and includes an accurate thermodynamic representation of strongly nonlinear fluid properties of salt water for magmatic‐hydrothermal conditions (up to 1000°C, 500 MPa and 100 wt% NaCl). The method ensures that all fluid properties are taken as calculated on the respective node using a fully upstream‐weighted approach, which greatly increases the stability of the numerical scheme. We compare results from our model with two well‐established codes, HYDROTHERM and TOUGH2, by conducting benchmarks of different complexity and find good to excellent agreement in the temporal and spatial evolution of the hydrothermal systems. In a simulation with high‐temperature, high‐salinity conditions currently outside of the range of both HYDROTHERM and TOUGH2, we show the significance of the formation of a solid halite phase, which introduces heterogeneity. Results suggest that salt added by magmatic degassing is not easily vented or accommodated within the crust and can result in dynamic, complex hydrologies.     

A new apparatus for measuring elastic wave velocity and electrical conductivity of fluid‐saturated rocks at various confining and pore‐fluid pressures

Pore‐fluid pressure is a critical parameter that governs geodynamic processes including seismic activities. Its evaluation through geophysical observations provides us insights into these processes. The quantitative evaluation requires a thorough understanding of the influence of pore‐fluid pressure on geophysical parameters, such as seismic velocity and electrical conductivity. To study the influence of pore‐fluid pressure on these parameters, we have built a new apparatus with a pore‐fluid pressure control system, which is capable of simultaneously measuring elastic wave velocity and electrical conductivity. Our new apparatus employs two sets of plastic piston–cylinders for the electrical insulation and pore‐fluid pressure transmission. The pore fluid is electrically isolated from the metal work, and its pressure can be precisely controlled without significant contribution of the friction between the piston and cylinder. Our new apparatus was used for a simultaneous measurement of velocity and conductivity in a brine‐saturated Berea sandstone. Elastic wave velocity and electrical conductivity changed in response to the change in confining and pore‐fluid pressures, showing the usefulness of the new apparatus.     

Evaluation of Structure from Motion Software to Create 3D Models of Late Nineteenth Century Great Lakes Shipwrecks Using Archived Diver-Acquired Video Surveys

Here we demonstrate the ability to use archived video surveys to create photorealistic 3D models of submerged archeological sites. We created 3D models of two nineteenth century Great Lakes shipwrecks using diver-acquired video surveys and Structure from Motion (SfM) software. Models were georeferenced using archived hand survey data. Comparison of hand survey measurements and digital measurements made using the models demonstrate that spatial analysis produces results with reasonable accuracy when wreck maps are available. Error associated with digital measurements displayed an inverse relationship to object size. Measurement error ranged from a maximum of 18 % (on 0.37 m object) and a minimum of 0.56 % (on a 4.21 m object). Our results demonstrate SfM can generate models of large maritime archaeological sites that for research, education and outreach purposes. Where site maps are available, these 3D models can be georeferenced to allow additional spatial analysis long after on-site data collection.