Detecting Late Holocene cultural landscape modifications using LiDAR imagery in the Boreal Forest,Susitna Valley,Southcentral Alaska

The subarctic boreal forest, or taiga, is the largest biome in the world but has received minimal archaeological research because of its remoteness and difficult working conditions. In Southcentral Alaska the most common archaeological sites are surface manifestations of proto-historic semi-subterranean caches once used for food storage and living structures. However, in dense summer vegetation, these small-scale features are difficult to locate without high intensity pedestrian survey. To test the usefulness of LiDAR data for archaeological prospection in the taiga, we compare LiDAR imagery to the known distribution of small-scale semi-subterranean cultural features. The use of LiDAR, when complemented with Sky-View Factor, has proven valuable in identifying relatively small semi-subterranean features though it does not replace on-the-ground investigation. Nevertheless, the application of LiDAR to locate low density and small-scale cultural features is widely applicable across the subarctic in densely vegetated contexts and may assist in significantly expanding our current knowledge of land-use patterns and site distributions in logistically challenging places.     

Baudelaire's “Teacher”: Joseph de Maistre and Le Spleen de Paris

For a total of twenty years (1856–76), Gustave Flaubert corresponded with a woman whom he would never meet and who had first written to him to express her admiration for his novel, Madame Bovary. These forty-five letters are among the most fascinating and important that he was to write, reflecting on his life, on art and esthetics, and on his determined dedication to the practice of writing. The letters to Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie occupy a central role in Flaubert's Correspondence, between the long series of letters he wrote to two other women, Louise Colet and George Sand. They are all dominated by the idea of the centrality of art, literature, and the activity of writing, and of the subordinate status of all other experiences and interests.     

The Achill Yawl: vernacular boats in historical context on Achill Island,Ireland

Achill yawls, originally introduced to Ireland as ships' boats aboard Norwegian merchantmen, developed into distinct working vessels along Achill Island's shores during the 19th century. These boats were subsequently modified for recreational racing in the mid‐20th century. Despite changes to their design, they are often nostalgically viewed as traditional symbols of an Achill islander identity, though their popularity may have been prompted by late‐19th‐century British legislation. The authors take an ethnographic approach in interpreting Achill yawls over time, contextualizing their social functions through an exploration of primary historical and photographic archives, extant vessels, and interviews with Achill islanders. © 2010 The Authors     

Annotated Bibliography: Children's Folklore Review

The Fisher King in the Grail. Romances. By W. A. Nitze. (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, xxiv. 3.) By Alfred Nutt.

Folklore and Folk-Stories of Walks. By Marie Trevelyan. With an Introduction by E. Sidney Hartland. Elliot Stock, 1909. Fcap. 4to, pp. xiv+350. By Charlotte S. Burne.

Native Life in East Africa. The Results of an Ethnological Research Expedition. By Dr. Karl Weule. Trans, by Alice Werner. Sir Isaac Pitman &; Sons, 1909. Ryl. 8vo. pp. xxiv +431. Maps and Ill. By E. Sidney Hartland.

Folklore of the Santal Parganas. Trans, by Cecil Henry Bompas, Indian Civil Service. Nutt, 1909. 8vo, pp. 483. By W. Crooke.

Myths and Legends of the New York State Iroquois. By Harriet Maxwell Converse. Edited and annotated by A. C. Parker. Education Department Bulletin, No. 437. Albany, N.Y., 1908. (New York State Museum Bulletin, 125.) 8vo, pp. 195. By A. C. Haddon.     

Pushing Boundaries in Oral History Based Biographies

The author comments on three preceding articles, two by authorsof oral history–based biographies (Sandy Polishuk's biographyof Julia Ruuttila and Catherine Fosl's biography of Anne Braden)and a third by their editor, Deborah Gershenowitz. The authoracknowledges the constraints imposed on the authors of oralhistory–based biographies, both by the refusal of biographicalsubjects to discuss certain matters and by the necessary honingthat editors undertake. While granting the need for author-subjectand author-editor negotiations and revisions, the author (ofthis commentary) insists on the value of pushing boundariesin oral history–based biographies and finds encouragementin the process of dialog, negotiation, and compromise that improvedthe books under consideration.     

Assessing the distribution of Asian Palaeolithic sites: a predictive model of collagen degradation

Having previously shown that there is a statistically significant relationship between areas of low collagen degradation and the location of archaeological sites in Africa [K.M. Holmes, K.A. Robson Brown, W.P. Oates, M.J. Collins, Assessing the distribution of African Palaeolithic sites: a predictive model of collagen degradation, Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (2005) 157–166], we here test the applicability of the same model on Palaeolithic archaeological remains from Asia.