Weapon injuries in the 12th century Crusader garrison of Vadum Iacob Castle,Galilee

This project analyses the wounds sustained by those defending the Crusader castle of Vadum Iacob, which is to the north of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. To our knowledge this is the first Crusader castle garrison to be excavated and studied, and consequently gives unique information concerning medieval battle wounds. The Muslim forces of Saladin stormed the castle in August 1179. The skeletal remains of five of the garrison who were killed during the siege and the execution which followed have been studied, providing a vivid portrait of what it must have been like in the last hours as the castle surrendered. Multiple sword and arrow wounds were noted, and arrowheads were still in situ at the time of their deaths. All the soldiers appear to have been stripped of their armour and then dumped together with corpses of horses that died in the battle. We explore the nature and anatomical location of the wounds in the context of medieval Islamic weapons, battlefield tactics and the defensive armour of the Crusaders. Despite the limited number of soldiers discovered, the unique nature of this site makes the findings of great significance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stable isotopes in human skeletons of Southern Ontario: reconstructing Palaeodiet

Most native plants of Ontario use the C₃ photosynthetic mechanism and therefore have relatively low ${}^{13}\text{C}{}^{12}\text{C}$ ratios; maize is a C₄ plant and is relatively enriched in ¹³C. The proportion of maize in the diet of a human can therefore be estimated from the ¹³C-content of collagen of fossil bone. We have used this method to follow the increase in consumption of maize in ancient native populations over the interval from AD 400 to 1650, and to quantify the amount of maize consumed. Maize consumption rose gradually to a maximum of 50% of the diet by AD 1400. These data agree with archaeologically derived data for this region, and with previous isotope studies in the northeastern U.S.A. In some of the latter, however, the maximum percentage of maize consumed has been overestimated because maize was assumed to have a δ¹³C value of ?12·5‰; our studies of archaeological specimens show the correct value to be closer to ?9‰. The introduction of beans into the native diet about AD 1100, should have caused a decrease in the ¹⁵N content of human bone collagen because legumes are deficient in this isotope, with respect to meat and fish. However, we observe no significant change in the ${}^{15}\text{N}{}^{14}$N ratio of human bone collagen over the period from 2300 BC to AD 1640. We conclude that meat and fish remained the main sources of protein even after the advent of agriculture into this region.     

The royal society: National committee for geography

The Geomorphology of the British Isles series: Ireland. By G. L. H. Davies and N. Stephens. 21 × 14, 250 pp. Methuen, 1978. £7.95.

Causes of Climate by J. G. Lockwood. 24 × 16, 10 + 260 pp. 22 photos, 102 diagrams, 34 tables, index (to text only), glossary. Edward Arnold, 1979. £5.95.

Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems. Edited by David Ley and Marwyn Samuels, i‐viii. 23 × 16, 337 pp. Croom Helm, London, 1978. £11.95.

South America. By Arthur Morris. 25 × 19, 271 pp., 59 maps and diagrams, 43 plates, appendices, bibliography, index. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1979. Paper, £5.45.

The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807–1840. By D. J. Wishart. 22.5 x 14.5, 237 pp. Illustrations, references, bibliography, index. Croom Helm, London, 1979. £12.95.

Outlook Geography: Worldscapes. A. Ayres et al. 25 × 19, 136 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.45.

The Changing Geography of Britain. By W. E. Marsden. 25 × 19, 196 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.50.     

Pre‐Black Futures

Abstract: In this essay I look at the contemporary production of surplus life in liberal democracies, and how it manifests a new type of sovereign spatial power. This power operates through the capacity to exile individuals and populations who are defined—in advance—as risk failures. I investigate further the ways that these pre‐known risk failures are determined through historical and geographical processes of racial formation, arguing that certain kinds of bodies have become vessels for concepts of risk formed in anticipation of an inevitable future. This “inevitable future” involves the formation of populations, which I term Pre‐Black, who are projected as outside of the enabling web of pastoral power. Moreover, as a consequence of this pre‐failure, individuals and populations can be forcefully and, more importantly, “justifiably” removed from commonly held spaces and resources in a contemporary liberal form of sovereign dispossession.     

Old Wine in New Bottles: The Utility of Data Reanalysis in the Social Sciences

Abstract

The authors reconstruct processes of ethnic identification among residents of rural northeast China from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth through an analysis of naming behavior. They apply discrete-time event-history techniques to individual life histories compiled from longitudinal, nominative household-register data from state farms in what is now Liaoning Province to identify the individual and household circumstances associated with the adaptation of Han or Manchu names, focusing on the role of heredity and status. Ethnic identification in late imperial northeast China was potentially fluid. Many residents were descended from migrants from Shandong who became hereditary tenants on state land administered by a system of Manchu government known as the Eight Banners. As banner people, or qiren, these residents could legitimately claim to be Manchu. As descendants of Shandong migrants, they could also claim to be Han. They could express their choice of ethnic identity through their choice of names not just for their children but also for themselves. Names not only express ethnic self-identification, but their registration by state authorities in the analyzed data also implies official recognition and legitimacy. The authors' results demonstrate that ethnic identity was not hereditary but subject to individual and family choice.