Transitions in Palaeoecology and Technology: Hunter-Gatherers and Early Herders in the Gobi Desert

The desert and arid steppes of Mongolia and northern China were geographically central to the spread of pastoralism and the rise of pastoralist states, but research on the organizational strategies of pre-pastoralist hunter-gatherers and the spread of herding has been extremely limited. Until recently, catalogues of sites collected by Westerners in the 1920s and 1930s comprised the body of English-language publications on Gobi Desert prehistory. This article introduces a wealth of new site-specific and interpretive data, drawing on English-language sources as well as Russian- and Mongolian-language publications to create a synthesis for the prehistory of the Gobi Desert from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum to the adoption of herding. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between a major shift in desert ecosystems, comparable to the ‘greening of the Sahara’, the establishment of an oasis-based broad-spectrum foraging strategy, and progressive desertification and deforestation after 2000 BC. We conclude that an oasis-based adaptation was contemporaneous with the expansion of forests and wetlands and persisted throughout the early stages of herding. A major decline in these economies occurs after 1000 BC, in conjunction with continuing trends towards heightened aridity and major societal changes across Northeast Asia. The persistent co-existence of Bronze Age burials and microblade-based habitation sites around oases, as well as similarities in material culture, suggest that these groups overlapped geographically or were the same entity.     

The Complexity and Fragility of Early Iron Age Urbanism in West-Central Temperate Europe

The development of large agglomerations is one of the most important phenomena in later Eurasian prehistory. In west-central temperate Europe, the origins of urbanism have long been associated with the oppida of the second to first centuries BC. However, large-scale excavations and surveys carried out over the last two decades have fundamentally modified the traditional picture of early centralization processes. New results indicate that the first urban centres north of the Alps developed over time between the end of the seventh and the fifth century BC in an area stretching from Bohemia to southern Germany and Central France. Sites such as the Heuneburg, Závist, Mont Lassois and Bourges produce evidence of a process of differentiation and hierarchization in the pattern of settlement that was concurrently an expression of, and a catalyst for, increasing social inequality. Although contacts with the Mediterranean world would certainly have played a role in such processes, endogenous factors were primarily responsible for the development of these early Central European agglomerations. This paper summarizes recent fieldwork results, showing the heterogeneity and diversity of Early Iron Age central places and outlining their diachronic development. The fragility and ephemeral character of these centres of power and their territories is highlighted. Their demise was followed by a period of decentralization that constitutes a prime example of the non-linear character of history.     

Disease: A Hitherto Unexplored Constraint on the Spread of Dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis lupus familiaris</Emphasis>) in Pre-Columbian South America

Although debate continues, there is agreement that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were first domesticated in Eurasia, spreading from there to other parts of the world. However, while that expansion already extended as far as Europe, China, and North America by the early Holocene, dogs spread into (and south of) the tropics only much later. In South America, for example, the earliest well-attested instances of their presence do not reach back much beyond 3000 cal. BC, and dogs were still absent from large parts of the continent—Amazonia, the Gran Chaco, and much of the Southern Cone—at European contact. Previous explanations for these patterns have focused on cultural choice, the unsuitability of dogs for hunting certain kinds of tropical forest prey, and otherwise unspecified environmental hazards, while acknowledging that Neotropical lowland forests witness high rates of canine mortality. Building on previous work in sub-Saharan Africa (Mitchell in Archaeol Res Afr 50:92–135, 2015), and noting that the dog’s closest relatives, the grey wolf (C. lupus) and the coyote (C. latrans), were likewise absent from South and most of Central America in pre-Columbian times, this paper explores instead the possibility that infectious disease constrained the spread of dogs into Neotropical environments. Four diseases are considered, all likely to be native and/or endemic to South America: canine distemper, canine trypanosomiasis, canine rangeliosis, and canine visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania amazonensis and L. colombiensis. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which the hypothesis that disease constrained the expansion of dogs into South America can be developed further.     

改性胶原蛋白用于书画粉化颜料加固的适用性探讨

胶矾水是书画装裱和修复中常用的材料,但同时也是导致纸张酸化的重要原因之一。为探讨改性胶原蛋白用于书画粉化颜料加固的适用性,以鱼胶、壳聚糖及魔芋葡甘聚糖等为原料,考察了固色剂对宣纸及着色颜料性能的影响。结果表明:固色剂处理后,固色剂在纸张纤维表面形成薄膜,明显改善了纸张的力学性能,并且固色剂对颜料的老化起到一定的延缓作用。本研究将对书画装裱中传统工艺的科学化起到一定的指导意义。     

山岳旅游地旅游者动机行为研究——黄山旅游者实证分析

本文以黄山旅游者为实证分析对象,揭示了山岳旅游地旅游者旅游动机的基本特征,分析了中外不同类型旅游者旅游动机的差异。文章试图为山岳旅游地的保护、开发和管理提供有益的参考。     

论中国国家安全利益区

本文介绍了国家安全利益的概念,阐述了我国国家安全利益的基本涵义;并分析了国家安全利益区的性质特征,提出了确定国家安全利益区的基本原则和一般方法。     

论纳西族民族文化生态

纳西民族生态文化是纳西族与自然环境相互调适的结果。本文对纳西民族的天人感应、祭天民俗、白地圣地的环境优选及宗教信仰等文化生态现象进行了探讨。     

驼道悠悠——锡林郭勒草原行（下）

常书鸿先生40年代只身前往敦煌,在极其艰难困苦的条件下,对敦煌莫高窟进行了卓有成效的保护,并开展了临摹研究等一系列工作,终于迎来了敦煌的解放和中华人民共和国的成立。为了事业,他吞下了妻离子散的苦果,心血沥沥,饱尝艰辛。他以牺牲个人幸福为代价,保护了祖国优秀文化遗产。全国解放初期,中央即决定在北京举办“敦煌艺术展览”,周总理亲临参观指导并对他进行了亲切表彰勉励,中央人民政府政务院文教委员会为敦煌文物研究所颁发了时任政务院副总理的郭沫若先生亲笔书写的奖状。     

神圣与世俗:旅游背景下佛教寺院建筑功能及其空间转化与管理

传统文物寺院旅游业的大力发展造成了寺院功能在神圣和世俗之间的转换和冲突。这种冲突主要体现为游客旅游和佛教徒朝圣之间、地方发展经济和文物保护之间、以及僧侣佛法修持和寺院世俗经营之间对寺院建筑空间利用需要上的对立。本文立足于传统寺院内部建筑神圣和世俗功能的空间分异,分析了不同行为主体在不同时间和空间对寺院不同区域建筑的功能变化和要求的差异,将寺庙建筑功能区域划分为佛国象征区、僧人修行区及生活区、世俗接待区、寺庙外围区,并对各个区域的行为主体及行为时间进行调整,提出了一些建筑功能空间转化和管理的建议。