A flock of sheep,goats and cattle: ancient DNA analysis reveals complexities of historical parchment manufacture

Parchments comprise one of the most common and valuable sources of archaeological and historical data. Previous studies have shown that parchment also preserves genetic data. These data could be valuable for population studies, to understand past animal husbandry, the development of breeds and varieties and to comment on the provenance of parchments. To improve our understanding of DNA contained in parchments, we analysed genetic data, including both mitochondrial and autosomal loci, from 18th to 19th century English parchments which stable isotope analysis had indicated were well-preserved. DNA results were unexpected. All but one of the parchments produced multiple sequences matching several different species. Ion beam analysis ruled out surface treatments of the parchments (including ink and animal glues) as the origin of these multiple sequences. Our results suggest that the DNA content of parchment is more complex than previous research has suggested and that multiple stages of parchment manufacture, treatment and storage are preserved in parchment DNA extracts.     

Towards a Language of ‘Europe’: History,Rhetoric, Community

From Herder to Benedict Anderson, language and nation have been at the centre of ideas about (imagined) community. This hypothesis, however, poses a problem for analysing ideas about Europe. How can we understand “Europe” as a concept or form of identity when language and nationality are considered the foundation of imagined communities and loyalties? This article addresses this difficulty. It uses J. G. A. Pocock’s definition of “sub-languages” to suggest that one can investigate the rhetorical strategies, images and vocabularies with which texts articulate ideas about Europe. These sub-languages evoke imagined communities, most obviously when texts name and identify particular groups of people as “Europeans.” But by using images and rhetorics about Europe, these texts also appeal to a readership that comprehends—even if it does not fully accept—certain assumptions about the continent. In this way, texts evoke an imagined community of readers who purportedly share a similar way of understanding Europe, or who can perhaps be persuaded to think about it in similar terms. These processes are historically particular, and so the article concludes with concrete examples. It focuses on how early-nineteenth-century philhellenes evoked a European imagined community to solicit support for the Greek Revolution (1821–32).