METALLOGRAPHIC STUDY OF IRON ARTEFACTS FROM THE EASTERN TRANSVAAL,SOUTH AFRICA

The microstructures of two adzes, two hoes and a spear point from Iron Age settlement sites in the Kruger National Park have been examined. Electron microprobe analyses of the slag inclusions were also made. Some of the objects are made of high carbon steel while others have a highly variable carbon content. All appear to have been forged at relatively low temperature and then annealed at a low temperature near 700°C. None have been hardened by quenching and tempering. Some of the objects contain only traces of included slag while others have large slag inclusions. The slag compositions are quite different from those of medieval bloomery slags and are representative of African iron smelting practice in their high content of CaO, K₂ O and Na₂O. On the basis of the titanium content of the included slag, two of the objects are identified as made of the ore from Rooiwater and one from Phalaborwa ore.     

From Corporatism to Public Utilities: Workplace Pensions in the 21st Century

For many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, workplace pensions have been an important mechanism for supplementing state‐sponsored social security. Notwithstanding significant differences between developed economies in the significance attached to workplace pensions, provision has been typically encouraged through preferential tax policies on benefits and compensation packages. If relevant for the baby‐boom generation, it is doubtful that these arrangements will be as important for future generations. As state‐sponsored social security has been discounted in terms of promised value and entitlement, traditional workplace pensions have been closing and replaced by retirement saving instruments that are neither as lucrative nor as dependable. Retrenchment in workplace pensions has prompted governments to consider and, in some cases, develop different types of retirement savings institutions. This paper charts the decline of traditional workplace pensions, the apparent inadequacy of alternatives such as money‐purchase (defined contribution) schemes, and the rise of what are referred to as ‘public utilities’: government sponsored savings institutions designed to compensate for the decline (in coverage and promised value) of workplace pensions albeit at a more modest level than that associated with traditional defined benefit schemes. Reference is made to the experience of the USA, the UK, and Australia with passing comments of related developments in Germany and continental Europe. It is argued that the rise of public utilities in this domain is indicative of the transformation of corporate capitalism over the past 25 years and the realisation that the costs of neoliberalism may be so significant that governments have to take responsibility, once again, for underwriting retirement welfare.     

A Powerful Place of Pictland: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Power Centre of the 4th to 6th Centuries ad

OUR UNDERSTANDING of the nature of late and post-Roman central places of northern Britain has been hindered by the lack of historical sources and the limited scale of archaeological investigation. New work at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (NJ 49749 26345), has begun to redress this through extensive excavation and landscape survey. This has revealed a Pictish central place of the 4th to 6th centuries ad that has European connections through material culture, iconography and site character. In addition to reviewing the place-name and historical context, this article outlines preliminary reflections on five seasons of excavation and survey in the Rhynie landscape. The article also provides a detailed consideration of chronology, including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical analysis. The results reveal the multi-faceted nature of a major, non-hillfort elite complex of Pictland that comprised a high-status residence with cult dimensions, a major centre for production and exchange, and a contemporary cemetery. A series of sculptured stones stood in association with the settlement and cemetery and the iconography of the stones, along with the wider archaeological evidence, provides a rich dataset for a renewed consideration of the central places of early medieval northern Britain with broader implications for the nature of power and rulership in late and post-Roman Europe.     

METALLURGY OF BRONZE USED IN TOOLS FROM MACHU PICCHU,PERU*

Although the tin‐bronze artisans’ tools found at Machu Picchu appear to have been cast to their final shape, examination of their microstructures shows that they were forged and annealed. As found, the tools were broken or cracked due to poor ductility of the bronze. Rolling and annealing of samples of bronze formulated with sulphur and iron additions to replicate the metal used at Machu Picchu show that the minimum amount of deformation needed to induce the observed recrystallization is a 12% reduction in thickness. The sulphur and iron impurities retard nucleation of new grains during annealing, but do not inhibit subsequent grain growth. Tensile tests show that while up to 10% porosity in cast bronze has no effect on hardness or initial strain‐hardening rate, it reduces the tensile strength and ductility enough to embrittle the metal. Hardness is an inadequate indicator of the strength properties of cast bronze intended for use in tools or weapons. The results show that when the metalsmiths at Machu Picchu started making bronze tools for use by stone and woodworkers, they had not mastered the art of making metal with adequate strength properties for this service. The forging and annealing procedure they used did not enhance the mechanical properties of their tools, and may reflect an inherited metallurgical tradition.     

Beyond Fashoda: Anglo‐French security cooperation in Africa since Saint‐Malo

Traditionally divided on security matters, France and Britain broke new ground when they signed the 1998 Saint‐Malo agreement, promising to collaborate on defence and security, and pledging to cooperate bilaterally and in a ‘bi‐multi’ fashion on Africa. This Anglo‐French collaboration is the focus of this article, which begins by setting out the lack of UK–French security cooperation in Africa from the colonial to the early post‐Cold War era. It then shows how there has been a degree of institutionalization of Anglo‐French relations, alongside greater cooperation in terms of ESDP missions and the training of African peacekeepers. Next, this study explains the recent evolution of UK–French security relations in terms of neo‐classical realist theory. Finally, it assesses the likelihood of closer Anglo‐French security collaboration in the future.     

Writing and Publishing the Cold War: John Berger and Seeker & Warburg

Following Christopher Lasch's early study, accounts of the ‘culturalcold war’ have become largely synonymous with the activitiesof the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The major accounts ofthe Congress have drawn on a comparatively narrow range of archivesources, personal papers, memoirs, and interviews Recent studiesof cold war broadcasting have broadened the scope of the ‘cultural’and made extensive use of previously inaccessible archive materialin Europe, North America, and the former Soviet Union This articlecontinues the process of broadening our understanding of thecultural dimensions of the cold war by focusing on the publishersSeeker & Warburg and highlighting, more generally, the opportunitiesthat publishers' archives afford for opening up new areas ofinvestigation and research on the cold war ^*I would like to thank John Berger, Mary Eagleton, Simon Gunn,Louise Jackson, and an anonymous referee for comments on anearlier version of this article I would also like to thank RandomHouse and Independent Labour Publications for permission toquote from material in the Seeker & Warburg Archive andthe ILP Archive Material from the Blair, E correspondence ispublished courtesy of the Lilly Library, Indiana University,Bloomington, IN Finally, I would like to thank Michael Bottand his colleagues at the University of Reading for their assistancein identifying relevant material in the Seeker & WarburgArchive     

Dimensions of Global Economic Restructuring and the Idea of Decentralisating Labour Relations in Australia

Though always more exposed than many other countries to the vicissitudes of international competition, Australia seems to have become increasingly vulnerable to the pressures accompanying global restructuring. This much is evident in the pattern of foreign debt, the balance of payments and trade, and fluctuations in our exchange rate. Media paranoia over the day-to-day pegormance of macro-indicators obscures, however, the pressures global restructuring has brought against the integrity and efficacy of our major institutions Not only have there been serious questions raised about the usefulness of the centralised arbitration system in the context of global restructuring, the Australian labour movement itself faces an uncertain future. Notwithstanding the claimed virtues of an enterprise-based labour relations system, there are good reasons to suppose that a decentralised system would have its own problems in accommodating rapid economic change. In this respect, the search for an American-style decentralised institutional regime may be ill-advised; more useful may be an enhanced capacity to adjust within the current framework of Australian labour relations.     

Media Representation of Forestry and Soil Issues in the Australian Urban Press, 1990–1991

Newspaper content analysis is used to identify the relative priorities given to forestry and soil degradation in four ‘quality’ Australian newspapers; The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Review and The Melbourne Age, from September 1990 to August 1991. The difference in priorities given to deforestation and soil degradation is discussed as an outcome from the process of news production. News production is argued to be the outcome of a socialisation process in which journalists learn from their employing organisation what items are regarded as newsworthy material as well as their relative priorities.