‘M GLOW BLUE’: ARCHAEOMETRIC RESEARCH AT MICHIGAN'S FORD NUCLEAR REACTOR

The Ford Nuclear Reactor operated from 1957 to 2003 on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over its 45‐year lifespan, the facility played a key role in archaeometric research, fostering early methodological studies using INAA and supporting archaeological materials science investigations of lithics, ceramics, metals and bone. One small part of the FNR's abundant legacy was the initiation of trace‐element studies of Oaxacan ceramics, which are now beginning to shed light on early exchange interactions and the origin of the Monte Albán state in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, between 500 bce and 200 ce .     

How I was Denied Scholastic Opportunities by the British Government

This paper describes the difficulties the author had in obtaining twice a UK visa from the British Consulate in Paris. She was once refused an academic visitor visa despite an invitation to conduct research for two years at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Then, the following year, she was denied again a short visit to attend a conference at the Department of Museum Studies, Leicester University.     

The Judicial Bookshelf

"In law, also, men make a difference," ¹ counseled Felix Frankfurter the year before his appointment to the Supreme Court. Frankfurter highlighted one of the three critical components of judicial decision-making in constitutional law: alongside the text of the Constitution itself and the cases that pose various questions for decision are the women and men who answer those questions. Those answers, as Frankfurter believed, are invariably influenced by the values Justices bring with them to the Bench. Yet he was expressing no newfound truth, but an awareness that had been apparent for a long time. "Impressed with a conviction that the true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government," President George Washington wrote future Attorney General Edmund Randolph in 1789, "I have considered the first arrangement of the judicial department as essential to the happiness of our country and the stability of its political system." To be sure, the Court's role in the political system was unclear, but Washington realized the impact the Court might have in the young Republic. This required, he told Randolph, "the selection of the fittest characters to expound the laws and dispense justice." ² And as he filled the six seats Congress had authorized for the Supreme Court, the first President made sure that each nominee was a strong supporter of the new Constitution.     

Shape matters: assessing regional variation of Bell Beaker projectile points in Central Europe using geometric morphometrics

Despite the large-scale expansion of Bell Beaker phenomenon, there is a tension between the normative Bell Beaker material culture categories and their local objectification in the form of real artefacts. Stone projectile points provide an opportunity to evaluate how much was the general category of such a point influenced by regional and local factors. The aim of this paper is to explore shape and size variation of Central European Bell Beaker projectile points from Moravia (Czech Republic) to elucidate factors responsible for this variation. The sample consists of 194 projectile points from 54 Central European Bell Beaker sites (2500–2300/2200 BC) distributed in Morava River catchment. The size and shape of projectile points were studied by landmark-based geometric morphometrics and expressed as shape groups, which have been assessed in terms of their spatial distribution, raw material, and reutilization. Although several shape categories of points were identified, there is a strong degree of uniformity in the research sample. The dominant shape category (75.4 % of points) was pervasive across geographic space and was not significantly affected either by raw material or reutilization. A lower degree of reutilization of points is interpreted as a consequence of a non-utilitarian role of projectile points, which represented a critical component of Bell Beaker mortuary practices.     

Neutron activation analysis of stone from the Chadron Formation and a Clovis Site on the Great Plains

Cryptocrystalline silicates from the Chadron Formation were widely used by prehistoric human groups in the Great Plains of North America. There are two documented quarry areas: Flattop Butte in Colorado and the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Cryptocrystalline silicates from these sources are visually indistinguishable, making it difficult to determine the sources of artefacts found at archaeological sites. In this investigation, neutron activation analysis is used to distinguish the two sources. This technique also identifies lithic material from the Clovis-age Eckles site in Kansas as being from Flattop Butte.