Gabbroic clay sources in Cornwall: a petrographic study of prehistoric pottery and clay samples

Summary.  This analysis of prehistoric pottery and clay samples from Cornwall demonstrates that the clay used to make Cornish gabbroic pottery in prehistory originated around the gabbro rock outcrop in a small area of the Lizard peninsula. The research uses petrographic and chemical analysis to subdivide the prehistoric pottery into six groups. Owing to the unusual geology of the Lizard these groups can be attributed to specific locations. The most abundant pottery fabric, Typical Gabbroic , was made using coarse clay which is mainly found in a 1 km² area near Zoar. A finer version of this clay, found higher in the soil profile or slightly transported and redeposited, was used to make Fine Gabbroic pottery and an even finer variant called FNS (Fine Non-Sandy) Gabbroic . We identify for the first time here a Loessic/Gabbroic pottery fabric which can be matched exactly to clay found at Lowland Point. Serpentinitic/Gabbroic pottery was made using clay from the gabbro/serpentinite border zone. Pottery made from the Granitic/Gabbroic fabric did not match any clay from the Lizard, showing that gabbroic clay was sometimes removed and made into pottery elsewhere in Cornwall. The main clay source near Zoar was used for clay extraction throughout the Bronze Age and Iron Age for pottery which was traded all over Cornwall. Other gabbroic clay sources produced pottery only during certain periods and exclusively supplied particular settlements, such as the Loessic/Gabbroic fabric which was found only at Gear and Caer Vallack. The results suggest that pottery was produced by several small-scale cottage industries, which may have operated on a seasonal, part-time basis and probably formed only part of a wide range of activities located around the Lizard area.     

Of plagues,planes and politics: Controlling the global spread of infectious diseases by air

In recent years, the implications of globalisation for the spread of infectious diseases has begun to emerge as an area of concern to political geographers. Unsurprisingly, much of the contemporary literature focuses on the multifarious threats posed by human and, increasingly, non-human mobility. Prompted by current geopolitical concerns surrounding the public health implications of regular international air travel, this paper extends such research by exploring the ways in which the technology of the aeroplane stimulated the production of new international sanitary initiatives aimed at safeguarding global public health in an era of mass aeromobility. By tracing the development of sanitary regulations for aerial navigation, from their origins in the 1920s through the twentieth century in particular, we document the emergence of a series of public health interventions that were designed to limit the public health threat associated with increased international air travel and the concomitant rise in the mobility of infectious diseases. From inoculation certificates to quarantine and the routine ‘disinsection’ of passenger aircraft with powerful insecticides, modern air travel is replete with a complex set of procedures designed to lessen the risks associated with flying between different climatic and ecological zones. Our detailed examination of the historical context in which these procedures were devised and implemented leads us to consider the importance of time and space, power and efficacy, to the development of a more nuanced understanding of the shifting public health response to an increasingly fluid, mobile, and inter-connected society.     

Locating the Harbour: Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim: a Roman and Islamic Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt

Recent maritime investigations at Quseir al-Qadim, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, have revealed the importance of this port in both the Roman and later Islamic periods. This paper outlines the key evidence for the location of the harbours, from survey, sedimentological analysis and selective excavation. The Roman harbour, occupied between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD, was located in a now-silted lagoon. Over 100 sedimentological cores indicated its siltation process. By the time the site was reoccupied in the 12th century AD, the harbour was reduced to a small bay at the entrance to the former lagoon.
© 2007 The Author     

Fiat Lux: Functional Analysis of Three Saxo-Norman Pottery Lamps from Berkeley,Gloucestershire

THIS PAPER COMPRISES analysis of three Saxo-Norman pottery lamps recovered during archaeological excavations in 2012 in the Edward Jenner Museum garden, Berkeley, Gloucestershire. While such vessels have been known to archaeologists since the earliest days of Saxon and medieval pottery studies, their specific function, other than general ‘lighting’, has never been considered. Similarly, the composition of the fuel in such lamps has not been scientifically verified. In the following paper, both of these areas are addressed through experimental archaeology and organic residue analysis. The conclusion reached is that the lamps were chosen for use in a late-Saxon industrial workshop as they were ideal for the setting, providing a consistent, stable and bright light source in comparison with other available lighting methods of the period.     

Lower Ordovician trilobites from the Septembersø formation,North-East Greenland

McCobb, L.M.E., Boyce, W.D., Knight, I. & Stouge, S., 2014. Lower Ordovician trilobites from the Septembersø formation, North-East Greenland. Alcheringa 38, 575–598. ISSN 0311-5518.

The informally named Septembersø formation is a 76 m thick succession of microbial and peritidal shelf carbonates deposited on the North-East Greenland shelf of Laurentia. The formation, assigned to the lower part of the Cape Weber Formation in all previous studies, lies disconformably upon the Skullrockian Antiklinalbugt Formation (revised) and conformably below the Tulean to Blackhillsian Cape Weber Formation (revised) in the Fimbulfjeld Group. With the exception of Randaynia, the modest trilobite fauna recovered from the Septembersø formation consists exclusively of bathyurids, and all represent new species. Both Chapmanopyge knudseni sp. nov. and Punka adamsi sp. nov. are represented by sufficient material to merit specific names. The remaining taxa, belonging to Bolbocephalus, Peltabellia, Randaynia and Chapmanopyge are left in open nomenclature. The trilobite genera present suggest that the Septembersø formation is referable to the Tulean Stage of the Ibexian Series, latest Tremadocian/earliest Floian in Global Standard terms.

Lucy M. E. McCobb [lucy.mccobb@museumwales.ac.uk], Department of Natural Sciences, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK; W. Douglas Boyce [dougboyce@gov.nl.ca] and Ian Knight [ianknight@gov.nl.ca], Geological Survey, Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 8700, St. John’s, NL, Canada A1B 4J6; Svend Stouge [svends@snm.ku.dk], Natural History Museum of Denmark (Geological Museum), Øster Voldgade 5–7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.     

The Civic Survey of Greater London: social mapping,planners and urban space in the early twentieth century

This paper examines work conducted between 1915 and 1919 by a group of architects and planners based at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project, called the Civic Survey of Greater London, and the substantial collection of maps and diagrams that resulted from it are currently unknown in histories of mapping and planning, thus this paper offers a preliminary account and analysis of the work. The paper begins by assessing the development of surveying and mapping techniques in the nineteenth century with the aim of situating the Survey within broader historical trajectories. The following section of the paper examines the immediate context for the Survey, in particular the place of Patrick Geddes and his ideas. The third part of the paper focuses on the work of the Survey itself. The fourth part draws out key analytical threads in dialogue with a number of the maps of the Survey. The emphasis placed here is on exploring lines of continuity between the Civic Survey of Greater London and earlier techniques of representation and governmentality. The concluding section reflects briefly on the reasons for the Survey's subsequent relative obscurity and the importance of the project for later traditions of surveying.