Mapping Submerged Archaeological Sites using Stereo‐Vision Photogrammetry

Creating photo‐mosaics and plans of submerged archaeological sites quickly, cost‐effectively and, most importantly, to a high level of geometric accuracy remains a huge challenge in underwater archaeology. This paper describes a system that takes geo‐referenced stereo imagery from a diver‐propelled platform and combines it with mapping techniques widely used in the field of robotic science to create high‐resolution 2D photo‐mosaics and detailed 3D textured models of submerged archaeological features. The system was field tested on the submerged Bronze Age town of Pavlopetri off the coast of Laconia, Greece, in 2010. This paper outlines the equipment used, data collection in the field, image processing and visualization methodology.     

The political ecology of recovery from armed conflict: the case of landmines in Mozambique

The devastation wrought by landmines on local populations is well known. However, the broader effects of mine presence on postwar recovery, and the progress of a ‘peace process’, remain largely unexamined. Both the academic and the practitioner literature regarding landmines lack a framework within which the mix of economic, political, social, agricultural, and ecological repercussions of mine presence in a context of postwar recovery can be investigated. Here, we consider the utility of political ecology to examine the influence of landmine presence on the socioecological relations important to postwar recovery in Mozambique. Landmines constitute the primary obstacle to the reconstruction and development in Mozambique. Because mine presence influences different aspects of recovery differently, we have selected three cases in the country where mine presence has impacted important components of recovery: agriculture, transportation corridors, and international investment. Peace process and recovery efforts by the international community do not presently address the broader, non-medical influences of landmine presence on recovery, and it is the intention of this article to contribute to an initial examination of these issues.     

Culture versus commerce: societies and spaces for elites in eighteenth-century Liverpool

Our understanding of an eighteenth-century renaissance in English towns is based around the emergence of cultural infrastructures and organisations which formed the cultural capital of a polite society concerned with both sociability and differentiation. Urban improvements are seen as spreading to a wide variety of towns including a number of large commercial centres. This paper explores the experience of this urban renaissance in Liverpool, focusing in particular on the ways in which cultures and counter cultures were created around the changing social and economic infrastructure of the town. The changes occurring in Liverpool were characteristic of wider debates about the relationship between commerce and culture. The town had ambitions to cultural grandeur, a wealthy corporation and a growing number of middle-ranking professionals, merchants and tradesmen. And yet many of its social and leisure facilities were lost as Liverpool grew into the leading provincial port of late eighteenth-century England. Rather than see the fate of these spaces and societies as the triumph of commerce over polite culture, or as a reflection of an alternative culture, the paper argues that their demise can only be fully understood in the context of political and ideological conflict between elite groups, especially over the slave trade. The gradual resolution of these conflicts around the turn of the nineteenth century encouraged growing investment in cultural capital in the town.     

Evaluating European Regional Innovation Strategies

In this paper we analyse the degree of achievement of the Regional Innovation Strategy goals. This is an European Union Commission policy oriented toward the promotion of regional Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy design through the involvement of regional stakeholders. We analyse two categories of objectives: those dealing with process participation and those dealing with behavioural change. Our results show that the overall achievement of the goals is meaningful: the former have been achieved in a larger extent than the latter ones. However, other aspects such as multidisciplinary, and the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation system have not been so fruitful.     

From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers: The Archaeology of the California Channel Islands

California’s Channel Islands were home to some of the most distinctive Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast. Never connected to the mainland during the Quaternary, the Channel Islands have an impoverished terrestrial flora and fauna, but some of the richest and most productive marine environments in the Americas, including diverse kelp forest, intertidal, and offshore marine habitats. Native Americans occupied the Channel Islands for roughly 13,000 calendar years until the early nineteenth century, providing one of the longest and best preserved records of maritime hunter-gatherers in the Americas. We provide an overview and analysis of Channel Islands archaeology, from the relatively mobile peoples who colonized the islands during the Late Pleistocene to the complex hunter-gatherers documented by early Spanish explorers. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of Channel Islands archaeology for enhancing knowledge on a number of broad anthropological issues, including coastal and aquatic adaptations, seafaring, cultural complexity, trade and exchange, and ancient human impacts on the environment.     

LOCAL TAX BURDENS AND THE SUPPLY OF BUSINESS SITES IN SUBURBAN MUNICIPALITIES*

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of local household tax burdens and other community attributes on the supply of business sites made available by local municipalities. A model of community site supply is tested in which municipalities trade off increased fiscal benefits from business location and reductions in environmental quality that accompany industrial and commercial development. This tradeoff is embodied in municipal zoning decisions. Empirical analysis of industrial and commercial zoning in two rapidly growing suburban counties of the Philadelphia metropolitan area provides considerable support for the tenets of community site supply theory.     

The uses of soil stabilizing gel media in the conservation of large and small shipwreck artifacts

The recovery of a marine steam engine, which lay for 113 years in the hull of an iron shipwreck, SS Xantho , presented conservators with a big packing/storage problem.
Collecting large quantities of ceramic sherds and glass fragments from shipwreck sites can lead to a compromise situation developing with regard to storage/packing of these materials. Some damage is likely to occur during transit to the conservation laboratory. Similarly, storing artifacts onboard an expedition work boat presents some risks during unsettled sea conditions.
This paper describes the use of two gel media (normally used for agricultural purposes) with respect to their suitability for providing interim storage environments and protection during travel for large (concreted) and small artifacts. The application of Agrosoke and Erosel during field trials on HMS Pandora (1791), the Foam (1893), SS Xantho (1872) and the H.E.I.C. ship Trial (1622) are described with methods of preparation and use. Problems associated with the use of chemical additives are mentioned though conclusions are not drawn for want of further investigation.