U-Pb zircon age of the youngest magmatic activity in the High Tatra granites (Central Western Carpathians)

Detailed cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging of zircon crystals, coupled with Laser Ablation Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) U-Pb zircon dating was used to develop new insights into the evolution of granitoids from the High Tatra Mountains. The zircon U-Pb results show two distinct age groups (350±5 Ma and 337±6 Ma) recorded from cores and rims domains, respectively. Obtained results point that the last magmatic activity in the Tatra granitoid intrusion occurred at ca. 330 Ma. The previously suggested age of 314 Ma reflects rather the hydrothermal activity and Pb-loss, coupled with post-magmatic shearing.     

Social Relations and War Remembrance: Second World War Atrocities in Rural Tuscan Villages

This article addresses the issue of how long‐term memory of extreme conditions is socially transformed. It focuses on elements of the social structure and pre‐war habitus that might help understanding of the divided memory of massacres that were perpetrated by the Nazis in three rural Tuscan villages between 1943 and 1944. Within the “mnemonic communities”, discrepancies arise since some of the villagers paradoxically blame the partisans instead of the Nazis. An attempt is made to trace current representations of historical events in the framework of traditional social institutions and political life of these small villages in time of crisis. Battles over memory are seen as a twofold process—that is, as part of “internal”, intra‐village relations as well as a form of reaction toward the “external” world of which they feel victims. The article argues that long‐term memory of past political violence is strictly bound up with local power relations.     

Exactly As People Tell,or an Ethnography of the (In)Visible Things of Mayajigua

This paper explores some of the consequences of using archival materials produced by an anthropologist's informants. What happens when a resident from a rural area of Cuba is hired to write about the “world”, a term used by Carl L. Withers, in which he, his relatives and his neighbours live? By reading letters and other papers sent during the late 1940s, and kept by Withers for more than thirty years, my hypothesis is that his informants took seriously their capacity to create something other than a simple “testimony”. Withers's principal informant, created himself, his neighbours, strange beings and the world in which they cohabited as a certain type of artefact, as “data”.     

Systematic position of two Early Devonian sinistral heterostrophic gastropods from the Garra Limestone,New South Wales

Two Early Devonian gastropod genera, Garraspira gen. nov. and Anoriostoma from the GarraLimestone, with sinistrally heterostrophic shells, share several shell features and are placed in the new tribe Anoriostomatini within the subfamily Agnesiinae. In contrast to the other members of the latter subfamily these genera represent a lineage in which the apertural slit was lost during evolution. This fact supports the opinion that the presence or absence of the apertural slit does not necessarily have significance for high-level taxonomy. Morphology of the gerontic whorl in Anoriostoma sinistra and Garraspira imtsitata suggests their limited mobility during the last ontogenetic stage.     

Modified Moran's I for Small Samples

The most common indicator used to measure spatial dependence is Moran's I proposed by statistician Patrick A. P. Moran in 1950. The index is simple to use and applies the principle of the Pearson correlation coefficient, although it incorporates a proximity measure between elements. However, Moran's I tends to underestimate real spatial autocorrelation when the number of locations are few. This study aims to present a modified version of Moran's I that can measure real spatial autocorrelation even with small samples and check for spatial dependence.     

Benedictine reform and pastoral care in late Anglo‐Saxon England

This article challenges the traditional assumption that the so‐called Benedictine reform produced a clear demarcation between secular and monastic communities in late Anglo‐Saxon England and, consequently, between, on one side, those who had pastoral responsibilities towards the laity and, on the other, those characterized by monastic seclusion. Though to varying degrees, the evidence available for both reformed and newly founded Benedictine communities suggests that the late Anglo‐Saxon monks, especially those serving the urban cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester and Canterbury, could be actively involved in the delivery of such pastoral provisions as preaching, baptism, attending the dying, and burial. Monastic communities therefore represented yet another factor influencing the lively and quickly developing pastoral landscape of late Anglo‐Saxon England.     

Famine and the changing role of NGOs: an Irish perspective

The paper discusses how the recent history of famine has influenced the mission of relief-oriented non-governmental organisations (NGOs).     

Archaeometric characterisation of coarse and painted fine ware from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Posta Crusta</Emphasis> (Foggia,Italy): technology and provenance

Coarse and painted fine wares from the Late Antique residential complex of Posta Crusta (Lucera, Foggia, Italy) have been here investigated. The ceramic characterisation was our main concern; even so, the provenance and the production technology have been further investigated, focusing on both ceramic bodies and coatings. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and a set of bulk chemical analyses (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, instrumental neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence) were used for the characterisation of 44 samples. Chemical and mineralogical data here obtained were compared with results previously achieved on San Giusto local production, in order to distinguish production areas and identify possible exchanges. As for coarse wares, the characterisation of Posta Crusta pottery shed new light for the reconstruction of the production/distribution framework of this part of northern Apulia. The following trends can be identified: (1) pots from Posta Crusta and San Giusto settlement that can be referred to a single production site, likely located in the nearby territory of one of this two sites; (2) pots from San Giusto kiln exported to Posta Crusta; (3) pots of unknown origin but compatible with the northern Apulian area. Furthermore, it was possible to verify that all Posta Crusta ceramics used the alluvial deposits widely outcropping in northern Apulia as received. As for painted fine wares, Posta Crusta samples enucleated a distinct and homogenous group, including six samples from San Giusto. This result is highly encouraging as it provides the clear evidence of a production group, although it is not possible to refer it to a precise locality. The marine deposits outcropping in northern Apulia can have been surely exploited for raw materials supply. Coatings texture seems to suggest two different ways of application: immersion and painting.