Origins of the Creutzfeldt and Jakob Concept

A review of the publications of Hans Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob pertaining to the concept which bears their name (CJD) reveals that they described a neuropathological syndrome and were opposed to its classi- fication as a neurological disease. The evidence on which Creutzfeldt and Jakob based their view is reevaluated, and studies by other workers are cited in which a range of environmental and genetic factors generated the CJ syndrome, challenging the proposition that CJD is a disease with a single cause..     

‘Our land is only founded on trade and industry.’ Economic discourses in fifteenth-century Bruges

Economic historians study production, consumption, market phenomena, and economic policies, while what is referred to as ‘the history of medieval economic thought’ largely remains the province of historians of ideas. However, participants in medieval industry and commerce, informed by daily production, market and financial practices, also uttered discourses on the state of the economy and on the measures governments should take to resolve crises or economic decline. When the burghers of Bruges formulated their economic demands in times of crisis, such as during the revolt of 1488, their utterances reveal commonly accepted presuppositions of which institutional levels, the prince, the town, or the guilds, should stimulate the economy by reducing transaction costs.     

Your Tacitism or mine? Modern and early-modern conceptions of Tacitus and Tacitism

The purpose of this article is to show, by the example of Hugo Grotius's Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis (AH), that the nature and content of the concept of Tacitism (Tacitist, Tacitean) in the period around 1600 was markedly different from modern perceptions of the style and political purport of Tacitus's works. This gap between current and early-modern conceptions of Tacitus is important to bear in mind for intellectual historians dealing with early-modern intellectual currents such as Reason of State, Neo-Stoicism, Tacitism, and others.This article first describes how the Tacitean style is characterised in literary criticism around 1600; then it explores the qualities of Hugo Grotius's imitation of Tacitus from the 17th-century perspective and from that of some main aspects of the present-day view of Tacitus. It concludes that Grotius's imitation shows Tacitus's style in a characteristically 17th-century mirror, in that it puts emphasis on Tacitean syntax, brevity and choice of words (the stylistic micro-level), as well as on political iudicium and Reason of State, but omits imitation of the narrative and structural qualities of Tacitus's composition, and their implications, which are central to modern interpretations.     

The oldest human traces north of the Carpathians (Kończyce Wielkie 4, Poland)

In the area of the Kończyce Wielkie quarry (middle-southern Poland), the Quaternary deposits of different genesis crop out. The lower fluvial series is overtopped with the glacigenic sediments occurring below the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary. This ice-sheet advance is correlated with the Günz and with the oldest traces of glaciations in Western Europe. Culture materials were located within layer of fluvial sands with fine-grained gravels, below the boulder pavement and diamicton – interpreted as till. Raw materials inventory are local flint and hornstone, also foreign flint, hornstone, quartzite, opalite and gneissose granite. The inventory contained macrolithic and microlithic cores, flakes and tools. The tools are made from pebbles, flakes and microlithic-flakes.     

Natural and unnatural complexities: flood control along Manitoba's Assiniboine River

Flooding and flood control long have been topics of concern for geographers and historians of North America, from Gilbert White's foundational work to attempts to understand the recent disaster in New Orleans. This paper considers the problem of flood control along the Assiniboine River in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The first section addresses the local landscape and the larger context, explaining changes in the relevant human and physical geography. The second section examines efforts to mitigate flooding, focusing on how the risk of inundation was shifted in location (not eliminated altogether) and compounded through time (not progressively resolved). The third focuses on a further source of complexity: the contested character of government jurisdiction. This final section also addresses major mid twentieth century changes in mitigation efforts: in the light of flooding on an unprecedented scale, governments became more open to compromise and more willing to undertake substantial projects. Gilbert White asserted that while floods are natural occurrences, flood damages are the responsibility of humanity. The question of responsibility might seem relatively clear in relation to flood mitigation, given that dykes are human constructions. The history of flood mitigation along the Assiniboine would suggest, however, that assigning responsibility for the failures and successes of flood mitigation is not so straightforward.     

ON THE VALUE OF FOREGONE OPEN SPACE IN SPRAWLING CITIES

Foregone benefits of the open space that is sacrificed through urban sprawl are hard to quantify. We obtain a simple benchmark measure by introducing a demand for trips beyond the urban boundary into the monocentric city model. The externality arises from the increase in travel costs that expansion of the city imposes on its prior inhabitants. An empirical application illustrates the moderate informational requirements. It indicates that open space externalities warrant rather mild restrictions on urban expansion.     

Assessing the effects of geomorphological processes on archaeological densities: a GIS case study on Zakynthos Island,Greece

While geomorphological processes are considered key factors in the distribution of archaeological surface finds, few studies have attempted to quantify the relationship between artefact dispersal and erosional/depositional patterns. This paper compares Unit Stream Power Erosion Deposition model (USPED) and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and integrates the results in the archaeological finds’ density map of Zakynthos Archaeological Project. The study area (Palaiokastro), with artefacts dated from middle Paleolithic to medieval times, includes a steep terrain with a surrounding plain area, where the downslope erosion has considerably modified the distribution of archaeological remains. Through this study, it is possible to identify relationships between high artefact densities and stable/non-eroded surfaces, and on the other hand, low densities and eroded surfaces. However, the results indicate a degree of spatial variability, which modifies the predicted relationship. The consideration of the effects of these temporal and spatial patterns is crucial for developing effective sampling methods and accurately interpreting the archaeological record.