Phenol Formaldehyde Revisited—Novolac Resins for the Treatment of Degraded Archaeological Wood

Archaeological wood is usually severely degraded. The Norwegian Viking Age Oseberg find exemplifies problems arising due to past conservation treatments and the need for new types of preservatives. Phenol formaldehyde (PF) has been investigated as a consolidant for alum‐treated wood. X‐ray tomography has revealed that it is possible to obtain a porous structure inside the wood, ensuring ethical acceptability by allowing re‐treatment. In order to understand the curing mechanics, the kinetics of the initial condensation reaction were elucidated at room temperature. It was found that a second‐order reaction using both phenol and formaldehyde concentrations is the most probable mechanism.     

The Women of Brassempouy: A Century of Research and Interpretation

  The discovery of female figurines at Brassempouy in the 1890's would launch more than a century of debate and interpretation concerning Paleolithic representations of women. The figurines emerged from the ground into a colonial intellectual and socio-political context nearly obsessed with matters of race. This early racial interpretive frame would only be replaced in the mid 20th century, when prehistorians turned to questions such as fertility and womanhood. The first figurines were discovered in 1892 under rather tortured circumstances in which their very ownership was the subject of a heated dispute between Edouard Piette and Emile Cartailhac. Their toxic relationship would lead Piette, in his subsequent excavations, to be extremely precise about issues of stratigraphic and spatial provenience. Piette's publications and archives enabled Henri Delporte to confirm the Gravettian attribution of the figurines and have allowed the present author to create a map of their spatial distribution within the site. Technological and microscopic analysis of the Brassempouy figurines resolves some lingering questions about the sex of certain of the figurines and suggests an original context of figurine fabrication and the abandonment of unsuccessful sculpting attempts.

Struggling with the Past

Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheosis of the individual has been achieved under the rubric identity, the most pervasive theoretical term of the last few years. This focus obscures the fundamental idea that individuals do not exist in isolation. The relational concept of struggle will help us past this theoretical impasse. This concept has many components including real struggles in the past, our struggles to know the past, and using the past to struggle in the present. Our goal is to struggle past identity politics and the individual by focusing on peoples' real struggles in real cases.     

Book reviews

Fumio Itoh (ed.), China in the Twenty‐First Century: Politics, Economy, and Society. New York: United Nations University Press, 1997. xiv + 287 pp. $31.15.

David Lee and Christopher Waters (eds), Evatt to Evans: The Labor Tradition in Australian Foreign Policy. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, in association with the Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1997. ix + 257 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Richard Haass, The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1997. 148 pp. US$24.95 (cloth).

Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith (eds), Australia and Asia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp. No price given.

Geoffrey Edwards and Alfred Pijpers (eds), The Politics of European Treaty Reform, The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference and Beyond. London and Washington: Pinter, 1997. viii + 353 pp. No price given (paper).

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. x + 425 pp. $75.00 (cloth).

Melvyn P. LeMer, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. xvii + 689 pp. US$25.00 (cloth).

Donatella Delia Porta and Yves Meny (eds), Democracy and Corruption in Europe. London: Pinter, 1997. viii + 208 pp. £45.00 (cloth), £13.99 (paper).

Rodney Gouttman, Bondi in the Sinai: Australia, the MFO and the Politics of Participation. Maryland: University of America, 1996. xiii + 202pp. US$29.50 (cloth).

James Cotton and John Ravenhill (eds), Seeking Asian Engagement: Australia in World Affairs, 1991–95. Melbourne: Oxford University Press with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1997. xiv + 362 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Godfrey Linge and Doug Porter (eds), No Place for Borders: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Development in Asia and the Pacific. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1997. xxii+ 191 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Aharon Levran, Israeli Strategy After Desert Storm: Lessons of the Second Gulf War. London: Frank Cass, 1997. ix+ 169 pp. £35.00 (cloth), £17.50 (paper).

Daniel Fineman, A Special Friendship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. viii + 357 pp. $70.00 (cloth).

The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993–1996. United Nations Blue Book Series, Volume X. New York: Department of Public Information, United Nations, 1996. 750 pp. US$29.95 (paper).

Edmond Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds), Africa in the New International Order: Rethinking State Sovereignty and Regional Security. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996. ix + 253 pp. US$49.95 (cloth), US$19.95 (paper).