The application of histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to the analysis of early Anglo-Saxon burned bone

Macroscopic examination, histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) are applied to the analysis of burned bones from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Elsham in Lincolnshire, UK. These methods were undertaken to gain a greater understanding of pyre conditions from an archaeological context and the effects of burning on bone microstructure. Sixteen samples were employed for thin-section analysis while eight samples were used with FTIR. The results suggest that these methods correspond well with macroscopic examination, though anomalies did occur. The techniques employed in this paper have demonstrated that the temperatures reached on the funerary pyres at Elsham ranged from 600 °C to over 900 °C under oxidizing conditions.     

Local Democracy and Local Government Efficiency: The Case of Elected Executives in Australian Local Government

In the international context it has been argued that institutional reform to leadership in local government can improve the sector in terms of both its democratic legitimacy and its operational efficiency. In Australia, despite two decades of far-reaching reform processes across state government jurisdictions, focused heavily on structural change, local government still faces daunting problems, yet the potential of reform to political leadership as a method of alleviating these problems has not been fully explored. This paper thus examines the applicability of alternative leadership models to Australian local government, in particular the elected executive model which characterises some American and European local government systems. We argue that the introduction of elected executives could prove problematic in terms of accountability and representation in Australian local government.     

Fluid flow and the Heart Mountain fault: a stable isotopic, fluid inclusion, and geochronologic study

Numerous studies have proposed that movement along the 3400‐km² low‐angle (<3°) Heart Mountain detachment fault of north‐western Wyoming and south‐western Montana was facilitated by the presence of lubricating fluids. A recent stable isotope study suggested that the fluids along the Heart Mountain fault originated from large hydrothermal systems associated with Eocene intrusive centers. Herein, we present results from a combined stable isotope, fluid inclusion, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology study of the relationship between shallow crustal fluids from Eocene intrusive centers in the New World Mining district and fluids associated with the Heart Mountain fault. Our results suggest that: (i) Eocene intrusive bodies within the New World Mining District focused hydrothermal fluids along specific units and structures from the ore deposit centers along the Heart Mountain fault detachment surface; (ii) hydrothermal waters were focused along the Heart Mountain fault from the breakaway region near Silvergate, Montana toward Heart Mountain in Cody, Wyoming; and (iii) hydrothermal activity along the Heart Mountain fault occurred at the same time as emplacement of the Eocene intrusives, between 50.1 and 48.1 Ma. These data, taken together, suggest that the hydrothermal activity generated by intrusion of Eocene rhyodacites and dacites provided the source of fluids found along the Heart Mountain fault plane.