Shifting Bordering and Rescue Practices in the Central Mediterranean Sea,October 2013–October 2015

This counter‐mapping project illustrates the areas of intervention of different operations geared toward rescue and enforcement between 2013 and 2015, including the Italian Navy's “Mare Nostrum” search and rescue mission, the EU border agency Frontex's “Triton” enforcement operation, the humanitarian interventions of commercial vessels, and the action of civil‐society rescue vessels such as those operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF—Doctors Without Borders). The project offers a spatial understanding of the Mediterranean border‐scape, the practices of rescue and enforcement that occur within it, and the risk of sea‐crossing at this particular moment. Through these maps, the Central Mediterranean Sea emerges as a striking laboratory from which novel legal arrangements, surveillance technologies, and institutional assemblages converge.     

Lega democratica and the making of Italy’s center-left

This article analyzes the history of the Lega democratica, a group of Catholic intellectuals active between 1975 and 1987, and its impact on Catholic debates in Italy’s Second Republic. Despite its small membership, the group’s heritage influenced Italy’s post-1994 center-left and shaped its leadership. Such relevance is explained by describing the Lega democratica’s legacy on four issues. First, on Catholic pluralism: the group was central to a decade-long failed attempt to reconcile different souls of the Italian Catholic laity, which anticipated the end of the Christian Democratic party. Second, after Aldo Moro’s murder the Lega democratica theorized the impossibility of a ‘historic compromise’ between Communists and Christian Democrats: such a development framed their post-1994 attitude. Third, the group’s history reveals a growing generational split on how to achieve political reform (mediation vs. rupture). Finally, the emerging idea of a ‘primacy of civil society’ in the political sphere partly defined the Ulivo coalition’s ideology.     

Marbles,granites and basalt used in the cruciform basilica of Abila (Decapolis,Jordan): archaeometric characterization and provenance

The provenance of granite, basalt, and marble used in building the cruciform basilica of Abila of the Decapolis, northwestern Jordan, is investigated using chemical and petrographic techniques. The basilica is dated to the late fifth or early sixth century AD. The stones were characterized using macroscopic traits in combination with optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and stable oxygen and carbon isotope spectrometry. These data were compared to the published databases for marbles, granites, and basalts used in antiquity. The comparison showed that the basalts are most probably local. The islands of Marmara (Proconessos-1), Turkey, are the primary source of the white marbles, while Paros island (Paros-2), Greece, is a minor source. The source of the green Cipollino marbles is Styra in the island of Euboea (Greece). The pink and gray granites are likely microasiatic from the Çigri and Kozak Dâgs, respectively, northwest Turkey.     

International regulation of historic buildings and nationalism: the role of UNESCO

This article focuses on the (ambiguous) relationships between nationalism and international regulation of historic buildings, namely, the activity of UNESCO in this field. It studies two different forms of UNESCO intervention: the creation of a list of world heritage sites of outstanding universal value, which includes several historic cities and buildings; and UNESCO Recommendations aimed at protecting historic urban landscape. The article shows that UNESCO seems to favour both political and cultural forms of nationalism and can significantly affect the nationalistic use of historic buildings and, more broadly, affect on the very idea of Nation and nationalism.     

Erdoğan’s pragmatism and the ascension of AKP in Turkey: Islam and neo‐Ottomanism

This article aimed to analyze the ascension of Justice and Development Party—Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi (AKP)—in Turkey and its political measures regarding both Islam and the country's Ottoman past, in order to comprehend the party's role in a potential shift of Turkish national identity and in Turkey's relationship with the Middle East. The article does this through a content analysis of decrees, laws, and other measures taken by the AKP that emphasizes its cultural and religious policies, as well as revisiting literature produced about the subject. Analyzing Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government during his time as Prime Minister (2003–2014), two noteworthy features come to light: its Islamic influence and its so‐called neo‐Ottomanist outlook. However, this article argues that besides an identity‐ and ideology‐based motivation, the AKP had pragmatic intentions in adopting such approaches, aiming to gather support both domestically and regionally.     

The Roman Ship 'punta Scifo d' and its Marble Cargo (Crotone,Italy)

In the first three centuries AD, large‐scale building projects, both in Rome and in the western colonies, stimulated the demand for marble from the eastern quarries. The Punta Scifo D shipwreck – discovered in 1986 in the Bay of Scifo, south of Crotone, Italy, and investigated in 2011 and 2013 by a team from the Università Ca' Foscari of Venice – is an important source for the reconstruction of this kind of trade in the Roman Empire. Studies of the cargo, dated to the third century AD, were the basis for the virtual reconstruction of a barge about 40 m long carrying a cargo of almost 340 tons. Petrographic and isotopic analyses demonstrated that it carried three different types of marble: mainly Proconnesian, some Pentelic, and one slab of Dokimean marble. The ship probably departed from the island of Marmara, and stopped at Ephesos, and perhaps also at Piraeus.