Demographic and budgetary influence on the geography of the poll tax: alarm or false alarm?

"The paper examines the influence of demographic change and the adaptation of local authority budgets on the level of poll tax between local authorities. The changes introduced by the Local Government Finance Act [in the United Kingdom] are argued to make almost all the possible variation between areas depend upon demography and local decisions on expenditure. Means of assessing local expenditure need are outlined and a consistent measure is developed which is used to estimate the relative contributions of changing need, tax base, new expenditures and grants over the period 1974-85 and up to 1991. 'New realism' in local authority spending is argued to combine with demographic change to allow radically reduced potential poll tax levies to be estimated than have been forecast by other sources. The reductions are particularly significant in inner London and many metropolitan districts."     

APPLICATIONS OF PETROGRAPHY AND ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN STONE SCULPTURE*

Examples of research on ancient Indian stone artefacts utilizing petrographic examination coupled with qualitative and quantitative electron beam microprobe analysis of specific minerals are described. Types of artefacts discussed include Gandharan schist sculptures. Pala dynasty phyllite and schist objects from eastern India, Hoysala sculptures from Karnataka state (southern India), and sandstone objects from northern India. In spite of the rich history of stone sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, characterization studies to date have been limited in scope, typically involving unprovenanced artefacts. The examples described point to areas in which more extensive research could produce useful information for the provenancing of artefacts.     

GREENSTONE AXES FROM EASTERN CENTRAL SWEDEN: A TECHNOLOGICAL-PETROLOGICAL APPROACH*

Thin-section study of Mesolithic-Neolithic axes from five sites in eastern central Sweden and of dolerites occurring in the vicinity showed that the axes were almost definitely produced from local material. Knapping experiments were carried out on blanks from two of these local dolerite varieties and on control material from Delaware, New Jersey, to produce thin-butted axes. These showed that the unconventional shape of the Swedish preforms is mainly, if not completely, determined by the intrinsic properties of the rock and not by local or regional cultural differences or bad craftsmanship. A number of features were observed in thin-section, such as a relatively coarse grain size, veining and small cracks, which may lead to the inferior knapping qualities of the Swedish dolerites.     

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF A BOG BODY ADIPOCERE

Chemical analyses were carried out on adipocere obtained from a bog body recovered from a peat bog at Meenybradden, County Donegal, Ireland. Chromatographic (thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography) and mass spectrometric analyses, combined with microanalytical chemical transformations, have yielded detailed compositional information. An absence of intact triacylglycerols, diacylglycerols and monoacylglycerols indicates that hydrolysis is complete. Consequently the adipocere is composed mainly of fatty carboxylic acids. The high proportion of palmitic and stearic acids, together with depleted oleic acid content, indicates that extensive reduction and, possibly, β-oxidation have occurred during burial in the peat bog. Hydration of the double-bond in oleic acid has also occurred, as is shown by the formation of 10-hydroxystearic acid. The monoenoic fatty carboxylic acids that are present, composed mainly of C₁₈ and C₁₆ compounds, comprise a mixture of positional isomers. The results are compared and contrasted with those obtained from previous studies of the lipid composition of other adipoceres and cadavers of archaeological interest.