‘The brede of good & strong Horsis’: zooarchaeological evidence for size change in horses from early modern London

SUMMARY: Almost 200 horse bone measurements from 38 sites excavated across the city of London, dating to the period AD 1220–1900 were analysed. Results identified three main phases of size change: a reduction in size in the mid 14th to 15th century, and size increases in the mid 15th to 16th century and the 17th century. The decline in size testifies to the disruption of horse breeding in the wake of the Black Death, whilst the increases reflect purposeful attempts to increase the size of horses in England through a combination of regulated breeding and the importation of new bloodlines.     

Non-destructive provenance study of chert using infrared reflectance microspectroscopy

In this paper we explore the potential of non-destructive Infrared reflectance microspectroscopy (IRRMS) for the characterization of chert samples from 10 different geological outcrops in North America with emphasis on the Midcontinent. A principle objective of the project is to determine whether IRRMS analysis can provide a mineral-based signature for bedrock sources of chert artifacts. The technique utilizes a Bio-Rad Digilab FTS-40 Infrared spectroscope and microscope attachment that reflects an infrared beam off a chert specimen. Our findings indicate that spectral features from the molecules constituting minor and trace minerals in chert may provide sufficient characterization for chert sourcing.     

Waging War on the Dead: The Necropolitics of Sufi Shrine Destruction in Mali

The destruction of Sufi heritage in Timbuktu used and abused heritage to assert sovereignty, terrorize the living, and repudiate materiality. Archeologists have not analyzed how necropolitics relates to the desecration of the dead and the torture of the living in Mali, where “bodies” are becoming prime stages for radical performances of sovereignty, ideology, and materiality. To understand how Sufi shrines are becoming prime ideological battlegrounds, we must consider the affective presence and emotive materiality of the dead “bodies” and “spirits” of the saints being “slayed,” and acknowledge the relationship between the disturbance of the dead and postcolonial violence on the living.     

Exploring Geographic Origins at Cahuachi using Stable Isotopic Analysis of Archaeological Human Tissues and Modern Environmental Waters

In this study, we used oxygen‐ and hydrogen‐isotope data from human bone (δ¹⁸O) and modern environmental water samples (δ¹⁸O and δD) to investigate geographic origins of individuals buried at Cahuachi, a ceremonial centre in the Nasca region of Peru (c.AD1‐1000). Our objective was to characterise the natural variation in water stable isotopic composition in the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage, and then to use these data to better infer place of origin for 30 adults interred at Cahuachi. Using the δ¹⁸O and δD values of 63 modern environmental water samples, it was possible to differentiate among the northern and southern river middle valleys, and to infer the isotopic composition of drinking water at higher elevations. Over half of the individuals included in this study had drinking water oxygen‐isotope compositions consistent with places of origin away from Cahuachi during the last 10 to 25 years of life, perhaps in the northern river middle valleys or in the upper valleys/sierra. The environmental water stable isotopic baseline developed in this study enabled a better understanding of the natural variation of waters in the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage. As a result, it was possible to assess the geographic range of place of origin for these individuals with greater certainty. Taken together, these data support the idea of Cahuachi as a place of both local and regional significance, with individuals from distant parts of the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage travelling to and/or transporting the dead to the site for death or burial. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Home is home be it never so homely’: Reading Mid-Victorian Slum Interiors

This article considers representations of the ‘slum interior’ as complex cultural narratives produced by urban investigators of the mid-Victorian period, including Henry Mayhew, Thomas Beames and George Godwin. Much existing scholarship on nineteenth-century slum narratives has tended to emphasize the use of sensationalism, hyperbole and tropes of colonialism to describe the dire living conditions of the very poor, a feature particularly apparent in the works of the 1880s. By focusing on writings from the period 1849–1865, this article pays attention to earlier conceptions and projections of slum interiors which were conceived as not altogether abject or ‘other’, but as ambivalent spaces that both defied, and invoked, Victorian forms of domesticity. Through close readings of their textual and visual form, I show how the paradoxical and ambivalent spaces of the slum interior reconfigure in meaningful ways the conventional relations of domestic architecture, inhabitants and their objects.     

‘I couldn't hold the whole thing’: the role of gender,individualisation and risk in shaping fertility preferences in Taiwan

Taiwan has one of the lowest fertility rates in Asia. High direct and indirect costs of childbearing have been identified as key drivers behind this at the macro-level, but little is known about the mechanism of these influences at the individual-level. In 32 qualitative interviews with parents in Taipei, we sought to explore the salient factors for couples in their decisions about having further children. We identified a tension between gendered expectations of childcare responsibilities and women's desire to ‘build a life of one's own’ – a life with options and the freedom to pursue career and social aspirations. Based on our grounded analysis, we reflect on the high relevance of individualisation, risk society and incomplete gender revolution theories for understanding why many couples – and women in particular – choose to cease childbearing at parity one.     

Heads or Tails? Modified Ceramic Gaming Pieces from Colonial California

Modified ceramic disks have been recovered from historic-era sites across the Americas. Small unperforated disks are commonly interpreted as gaming pieces and larger perforated disks are often classified as spindle whorls. Here, we examine these interpretations in light of collections from three colonial-era sites in central California: Mission San Antonio de Padua, Mission San José, and the Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe. We argue that the small unperforated disks from our study sites were two-sided dice. These gaming pieces facilitated the social cohesion of Native people living in the large, multiethnic Indigenous communities that formed around Spanish colonial missions and later Mexican-era ranchos.