The Panthéonisation of André Malraux

Girard, A. and Gentil, G. (eds), André Malraux ministre (La Documentation Française, 1996), 508 pp., 140F., ISBN 2 11 003674 5

Lang, J., Lettre à Malraux (Hachette/Edition no, 1, 1996), 186 pp., 100F., ISBN 2 863 91792 7

Larrat, J.‐C., Malraux, théoricien de la littérature 1920–1951 (PUF, 1996), 335 pp., 158F., ISBN 2 13 047430 6

Lyotard, J.‐F., Signé Malraux (Grasset, 1996), 361 pp., 138F., ISBN 2 246 45991 5

Zarader, J.‐P., Malraux ou la pensée de l'art (Vinci, 1996), 249 pp., 110F., ISBN 2 910313 11 5     

Experimental Kiln Firings at Barton-on-Humber,S. Humberside 1971

TECHNIQUES ASSOCIATED with the firing of replica medieval open-topped, doublefilued, and multi-flued updraught kilns have been investigated and are reported here. Particular interest has been taken in the method of forming a cover for the loaded kiln oven, and various solutions are discussed. The experimental open-topped kilns were capped rather than built with a permanent dome.     

Punctuated Equilibrium and the Supreme Court

In the legislative and executive branches, policy scholars have used punctuated equilibrium (PE) theory to describe and explain patterns of change. However, there has been little examination of how PE might apply to courts and legal policy change. This article addresses that gap by providing evidence that legal policy change—here conceptualized as changes in what precedents the Supreme Court most often cites—is governed by PE theory. After making a prima facie case for the applicability of PE theory to the Court, I leverage network rankings of Supreme Court decisions to create a proxy for legal policy change that improves on existing measures. Using both a stochastic process model and an analysis of the punctuations the measure uncovers, I find strong evidence of PE processes.     

Ancient Maya wood selection and forest exploitation: a view from the Paynes Creek salt works,Belize

Ancient building construction wood preserved in a peat bog below the seafloor in a shallow mangrove lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides an exceptional record of Classic Maya wood use. Identifications of construction wood at Early Classic Chan B'i, and Late Classic Atz'aam Na, are reported and discussed to assess forest exploitation and species selection over time. Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) dominates the Early Classic assemblage. The Late Classic assemblage is characterized by greater variability and an absence of mangrove species. When considered in the environmental context, identified species conform to principles of optimal foraging. The change in the wood assemblage over time suggests overexploitation of forest resources, resulting in deforestation of the local landscape and subsequent adaptation of foraging behavior. Deforestation is linked to the wider social context in which growing inland populations created demand for salt, putting greater pressure on the forest resources exploited by the Paynes Creek salt works for fuel and timber.     

Radiocarbon chronology and the correlation of hunter–gatherer sociocultural change with abrupt palaeoclimate change: the Middle Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe

Recent refinements in radiocarbon sampling procedures have enabled a more robust absolute chronology for the Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe. These refinements have allowed for a new chronological sub-division of the Early and Middle Mesolithic periods. Results of this research have indicated that the Middle Mesolithic period was bound by two Early Holocene cooling events, one at 9300 cal. BP and the other at 8200 cal. BP. These results enable a critical evaluation of the role of chronological precision in the investigation of contemporaneity between abrupt climate change and hunter–gatherer sociocultural change. In this paper we focus on the variable chronological resolution of the Early to Middle and Middle to Late Mesolithic transitions in the RMS area, and the role of this variable resolution in our ability to investigate the contemporaneity of these two transitions with different Early Holocene abrupt cooling events. This paper highlights two central challenges facing archaeological investigations of the relationships between climate and culture change: first, the requirement of tight chronological overlap between climate and culture change events and consideration of leads and lags in ecosystem and subsequent human responses to climate change; second, the equifinality problem and the separation of the impact of gradual from punctuated environmental change on human societies.     

Chosŏn Korea in the Ryūkoku Kangnido: Dating the Oldest Extant Korean Map of the World (15th Century)

The date of the earliest extant Korean world map, entitled Honil kangni y?ktae kukto chi to (Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals) and now in the ōmiya Library, Ryūkoku University Academic Information Center, Kyoto, Japan, is unknown. The Ryūkoku Kangnido (as the map is commonly referred to), along with three other Korean world maps believed to have been made in Chos?n Korea in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, is thought to have been derived from a now‐lost world map made in Chos?n Korea in 1402. Opinions on possible dates for the Ryūkoku Kangnido have varied widely. In this paper, a revised date of between early 1479 and late 1485 is proposed on the basis of a study of the Korean place‐names in the map and changes in the Korean civil and military administration they reflect. It is also suggested that, despite showing most of the rest of the world, the Korean officials who produced the Ryūkoku Kangnido were less interested in portraying current images of neighbouring Asian countries than in presenting an up‐to‐date image of Chos?n Korea.