Chemical analysis of white porcelains from the Ding Kiln site, Hebei Province, China

The Ding kilns were some of the most famous early kilns of medieval China, producing huge quantities of white and cream-white porcelains of outstanding technical and aesthetic quality. Since 1949 they have been excavated three times, in 1965, in 1987, and in 2009 respectively. In this latest study 69 white porcelain sherds from assured contexts and from the 2009 excavations were analyzed using laser ablation techniques (ICP-AES). The samples date from Five Dynasties, Northern Song and Jin Dynasties respectively (early 10^th to early 13^th C CE). The results show that Ding wares of different times show different characteristics that can be demonstrated through chemical composition. During the early phase of production the Ding ware bodies consisted largely of high firing kaolinitic clays with predominantly calcareous materials as fluxes. After the early Northern Song Dynasty, some calcareous material was replaced by a more potassic material. The compositions of the glazes show a parallel evolution to the bodies. However, because the glazes are very low in titania it seems unlikely that the main clay ingredients of the bodies could have been used in the glaze recipes. For much of the kiln site’s history the glazes appear to have been made mainly from the same siliceous flux-rich materials that had been blended with the main body-clays used to make the Ding ware porcelains, plus some extra calcareous material. The P₂O₅ contents of the glazes suggest that wood ash may have been one source of CaO in the glaze recipes.     

Environmental Assessment in the European Union: Perspectives,Past, Present and Strategic

Environmental assessment (EA) in the European Union (EU) is undergoing a period of significant transition. Following over 10 years of practice and development under Directive 85/337/EEC, the EU EA system is being subjected to legislative reform. In the light of this, this paper provides a critical examination of the past, present and future role of EA in the EU. After evaluating the legislative transposition and procedural effectiveness of the original provisions, the paper examines the extent to which recent amendments to the Directive and the proposed strategic environmental assessment (SEA) Directive will lead to improvement. The authors suggest that although the changes should overcome some of the procedural and practical problems experienced over the last 10 years, a more committed emphasis needs to be placed on fundamental areas of weakness.     

Logging,Women and Submarines: Some Changes in Kamula Men's Access to Transformative Power

In this paper I describe how, for the Kamula, the productive elicitation of both familiar and modern things often requires access to the transformative capacities of ‘bush spirits’. The Kamula narratives I deal with outline how elements of modernity (such as money, logging, guns) are relocated into the domain of these spirits. By the mediation of these spirits, sometimes disturbing, even dangerous, aspects of modernity are transformed and then productively transferred to Kamula men such that they can apparently more effectively negotiate the new forces that now structure their lives. Through these narrative and magical definitions of agency, Kamula men become complicit in a modernity that is increasingly both the source and negation of their power.     

The Role of Culture and Technology in Civil Society Promotion in the Middle East: A Case Study Approach

For over a decade, the U.S. administration has been sponsoring capacity‐building efforts focusing on technology to support democracy activists in Middle Eastern societies; such efforts have often fallen short in their effectiveness. In this article, using a case study approach, we argue that capacity‐building efforts must be approached in a culture‐specific manner. It is imperative to begin exploring the specific nature of civil society in different Middle Eastern societies and translate the Western concept of “civil society” into terms appropriate to Middle Eastern contexts. Based on a culture‐specific understanding, programs involving technology to promote democratic institutions in Middle Eastern societies can be designed.     

William Tell Militarism: The Swiss Model for Canada’s ‘Citizen Army’

Following Confederation in 1867, Canadians needed to move forward from their dependence on British imperial defence. Canadian militiaman Richard John Wicksteed was first to recommend adopting the model of the Swiss Army, a multi-ethnic, rifle-wielding citizen force powerful enough to ensure Swiss neutrality although surrounded by militaristic European powers. General Officer Commanding Edward Thomas Henry Hutton later proposed the Swiss model for a Canadian ‘National Army,’ echoed by Militia Minister Frederick Borden. In 1917, Colonel William Hamilton Merritt was the final advocate, drawn especially to the notion of equality in Switzerland’s universal military training programme. By this time, however, the Great War had changed concepts of Canada’s military needs from a reliance upon the defence-oriented citizen soldier to a more highly trained, expeditionary military force.     

Defending Byzantine Spain: frontiers and diplomacy

The centrality of the Reconquista in the historiography of medieval Spain has meant that there has been little examination of the evidence for interaction on and across political boundaries in pre‐Islamic Spain. This article re‐examines existing theories about the defence of the Byzantine province of Spania that had been established by Justinian in the 550s and was taken by the Visigoths in 625. The two existing and opposing models for the extent, defence, and – therefore – the importance of the province to the empire do not explain the evidence convincingly. Rather, a fluid zone of interaction was established in which diplomacy and ‘propaganda’ was the primary means by which opposition was articulated.