Dendrochronology reveals the construction history of an early 19th century farm settlement,southwestern Virginia,USA

The McDonald Farm (also called the Anderson-Doosing Farm) in Catawba Valley, Virginia dates to 1789 and is registered with the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the National Park Service. According to written accounts, oral histories, and architectural analyses, the construction of four structures (a collapsed cabin, a standing cabin, a barn, and a smokehouse) at the farm likely occurred in the early to mid-19th century. To verify and refine the construction dates of the four structures, we absolutely dated the tree rings in logs used in their construction by comparing their ring patterns with a composite reference tree-ring chronology created from four regional locations. We used established graphical and statistical techniques used in dendrochronology to ensure that all tree rings were dated absolutely with 99.99% certainty. We found cutting dates for the collapsed cabin ranged from 1809 to 1810, making the likely builder Samuel Myers and not Joseph Anderson, who is currently given credit for its construction. The logs in the barn had cutting dates ranging from 1830 to 1831, confirming the 1830 construction date estimated by the historical documents and confirming the builder was Joseph Anderson. The logs from the standing cabin and smokehouse had cutting dates ranging from 1838 to 1840, refining the “mid-19th century construction” listed in the register nomination. Furthermore, the nomination gave credit of the construction of these latter two structures also to Joseph Anderson, but the builder was actually John Gish who owned the farm from 1837 to 1845. Our study demonstrates the benefit and reliability of using dendrochronology to verify and refine construction dates and ownership histories of historic structures in the Southeastern U.S.     

First Geochemical ‘Fingerprinting’ of Balkan and Prut Flint from Palaeolithic Romania: Potentials,Limitations and Future Directions

Long‐distance raw material transfers across Romania prior to the Last Glacial Maximum have previously been inferred from either visual and/or petrographic observations of East Carpathian sites. We investigated the potential to ‘fingerprint’ flint from archaeological sites at Mitoc‐Malu Galben and Bistricioara–Lut?rie III in Eastern Romania, using in situ high‐precision analyses of 28 major, minor and trace elements determined by laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) in combination with multivariate statistical analysis. Our results suggest that geochemical analyses have the ability to distinguish between different geographical sources but are unable to positively associate flint artefacts from archaeological contexts to these geochemical groups. The mismatches of signatures between artefacts and geological materials, however, raise new questions and open unforeseen perspectives.     

West Papua and the Australia-Indonesia relationship: a case study in diplomatic difficulty

This article is a study of West Papua's impact on the relationship between Australia and Indonesia. Its purpose is to enhance understanding of various diplomatic challenges emerging from West Papua, the origins of these challenges, and how they impact upon the relationship. This will be achieved through an analysis of a particular incident in 2006 in which 43 West Papuan refugees arrived in Australia. This led to a diplomatic storm between the Indonesian and Australian governments, and a highly charged public debate. Insights will be gleaned from the incident and its aftermath to broaden our understanding of West Papua's impact on the Australia-Indonesia relationship.     

Renewing the War on prostitution: The spectres of 'trafficking' and 'slavery'

The 1990s saw government initiatives restricting immigration in many countries, and a good deal of popular unease. Associated policies have targeted sex workers, as with the Policing and Crime Bill that is currently in its Third Reading in the House of Commons (UK). In the name of 'victims' of a trade organised by 'evil' traffickers, this Bill seeks further sanctions against all of those involved. This editorial asks whether initiatives during the current recession might not seem to succeed but for the wrong reasons. Immigrants are already leaving the UK in search of a living while local workers, who were promised safer working conditions in the wake of the murder of five women in Ipswich (2006), will be punished more and more. With its apparently humanitarian efforts to 'stop the traffic', the UK government will turn out to have replaced our 'slaves' from abroad with home-grown substitutes, and effectively solidified and further excluded an underclass. This situation suggests striking parallels with the panic over white slavery during the last comparable period of globalisation culminating in the First World War.     

Author and Reader Perceptions of the Literary Map

There is a continuing need in cartographic communication for reserarch directed toward better understanding of the perceptual properties of maps, particularly as they interrelate between map author and map reader (percipient). This research explores that area by examining the perceptions of authors of maps utilized in science fiction and fantasy, and readers who encounter these maps in the literature.

The first phase of the research demonstrates that authors generally have a positive attitude toward the literary map and view them as critical to the formulation of a story and important to proper understanding of the narrative. By contrast, readers tested in the second part of the study view literary maps as superfluous and in general have a negative attitude toward them.

The literary maps employed in this research fail to communicate effectively with the reader. Poor cartographic communication and the negative attitude of readers toward the literary map is explained in terms of functional illiteracy.