In search of the optimum Raman/IR signatures of potential ingredients used in San/Bushman rock art paint

Vibrational spectroscopy (Raman and FTIR) has played an important role in identifying pigments, substrata and deterioration products in rock art studies worldwide: in the laboratory and on-site. However, the detection of organic binders and carrying agents has so far been scarce and the quality of many spectra recorded on-site inadequate. In this study, possible pigments (charcoal, ochre, raptor faeces, thermally treated ostrich egg shell, etc.), binders (fat, egg, blood) and carrying agents (saliva, gall, egg, water) were selected based on artistic considerations and analysed with FTIR and Raman (514.6 and 785 nm excitation, both available in mobile instruments) spectroscopy in order to determine usable marker bands for each ingredient. The resultant marker bands were then used to analyse five ten year old San replica paints. It was found that FTIR spectroscopy is very efficient to identify organic compounds as there is no fluorescence but the broadness of the bands inhibits the exact assignment of many ingredients. A high fluorescence background experienced for many natural products prevented the recording of Raman spectra for all ingredients, in many instances though the sharp peaks usually associated with Raman spectra make identification easier than with FTIR spectroscopy. Most of the ingredients in the paints could be identified, but it is clear that better results are obtained when more that one technique is used.     

War-related excess mortality in The Netherlands, 1944–45: New estimates of famine- and non-famine-related deaths from national death records

Despite there being several estimates for famine-related deaths in the west of The Netherlands during the last stage of World War II, no such information exists for war-related excess mortality among the civilian population from other areas of the country. Previously unavailable data files from Statistics Netherlands allow researchers to estimate the number of war-related excess deaths during the last stage of the war in the whole country. This study uses a seasonal-adjusted mortality model combined with a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the number of excess deaths in the period between January 1944 and July 1945 at a total of close to 91,000 (75%) excess deaths. Almost half of all war-related excess mortality during the last year of the war occurred outside the west.     

Responses of South African Agate and Chalcedony When Heated Experimentally,and the Broader Implications for Heated Archaeological Minerals

Here we present a database of responses by South African agate and chalcedony to heat treatment. This will assist analyses of heated stone tools not only in South African archaeological sites, but wherever heated agate and chalcedony pieces were knapped. The minerals are abundant worldwide. To replicate potential heating methods during the Stone Age we placed some minerals in a wood fire, some under coals, and others were buried in sediments beneath fires. Thermal responses include lustrous flaked surfaces, pot lid fractures, semi-circular internal fractures, rough internal surfaces, and crazing. Aerobic heating is implied by pot lid fractures. To explain the thermal responses we analyzed the minerals using X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, and carbon and sulfur analyses. Our chalcedony contains more water and impurities than agate, making it more vulnerable to thermal damage. Our method of combining field experiments with chemical analyses has global applications even though we expect that mineral components of agate and chalcedony will vary slightly in different parts of the world.     

Dr. H.F. Verwoerd en die Ossewa-Brandwag 1938–1952

Abstract

South Africa's railway and harbours operator (SAR&;H) was the arch promoter of overseas tourism to South Africa for thirty years after Union in 1910. To its package tours for independent inbound tourists, the SAR&;H added exclusive port-to-port rail trips across South Africa by partnering with overseas cruise ship operators. Whereas the European market was a mainstay, the more distant North American market only became accessible in relation to lengthy round-the-world cruises. Between 1926 and 1939 approximately fifty long-distance luxury trains met thirty-one cruise liners to transport some 5,000 wealthy tourists through various inland scenic, cultural and wildlife attractions in southern Africa. Port calls by visiting cruise liners created their own spectacle and stir. Eventually more cruise passengers elected to stay on board ship at the end of long ocean voyages, elite visitors took cross-country flights to increase the novelty of travel, and this first period of South African sea-rail tourism came to a close.     

The success–failure dichotomy revisited: young adults' motives to return to their rural home region

Researchers are increasingly aware that nonlinear perspectives of the transition into adulthood and non-economic motives, such as family and friends, may help to improve our understanding of young adults' migration decisions. This paper combines these new insights with the traditional economic success–failure arguments in order to explain young adults' return migration to their rural home region. We present four orientations in return motives: the social, family, functional and partner orientation. They consist of different combinations of the stereotypical success–failure arguments with non-serial transitional stages, and with different attachments to the home region. They also show that in some cases, return migration should actually be interpreted as staying in the home region, because the young adult returnees had not mentally left the region. We therefore state that our results provide a solid argument for reinterpreting the out-migration of young people from rural areas.