The Basis of Union: New Zealand Baptists forge a Denomination in the 1940s

This essay examines a crucial period in New Zealand Baptist life. During the 1940s Baptist leaders sought to establish a more centrally organised denomination than had previously existed. Motivated by a desire to position Baptists closer to the mainstream of Protestant religious life, this centripetal dynamic was tested by a cluster of crises and debates. Some of these reflected theological tensions that had been present in the denomination for decades. Others, more immediate and linked to particular personalities, exposed key issues of control and authority. The leadership of the largest church, Baptist involvement in the Ecumenical movement, and the principalship of the theological college were contested. Despite the considerable potential for division, the outcome was a more connectional denomination, able to maintain unity under stress, though one not as centrally driven as some in the Executive desired.     

Researching African Statehood Dynamics: Negotiability and its Limits

A focus on ‘negotiating statehood’ offers an alternative set of lenses on evolving transitions and transformations in African state–society relations to other more teleological perspectives. Notions of ‘negotiation’ and the ‘negotiability’ of authority structures allow recognition of the pliability of emerging state forms and may help in focusing on the dynamic processes through which statehood may be refounded and rationalized. This article presents a preliminary assessment of the analytical and empirical scope for employing the notion of ‘negotiating statehood’. The main argument is that although one can conceive of many processes as being negotiated, in (empirical) reality these particular lenses will be more appropriate for some situations than for others. The article therefore seeks to explore the limits of the conceptual framework associated with the idea of ‘negotiated’ statehood. It will do so through a review of selected historical and empirical contexts within which one might expect such particular dimensions to be highlighted, in contrast to situations where for one reason or another no such interactions (can) take place. In this connection the article also highlights the limitations the broader context places on the scope for realizing various state‐building designs.     

Landscapes of Redemption: Tracing the Path of a Convict Miner in Western Australia

This paper presents alternative readings of the archaeology of a series of nineteenth-century industrial and convict sites in the midwest region of Western Australia. In particular it employs the biography of Joseph Horrocks a former convict turned mine manager, to reinterpret the relationship between these places, considering the agency of the individual and suggesting how his experiences at some sites may have influenced him to attempt to create an idealised industrial settlement aimed at assisting with the reform of convicts.     

Book Reviews

A Feng 阿风, Ming Qing shidai funü de diwei yu quanli: yi Ming Qing qiyue wenshu, susong dang’an wei zhongxin 明清时代妇女的地位与权利——以明清契 约文书,诉讼档案为中心 (The status and rights of women during Ming and Qing times: focused on contractual documents and litigation archives of the Ming and Qing);Eli Alberts, A History of Daoism and the Yao People of South China;Robert Ford Campany, Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China;Barbara Hendrischke, The Scripture on Great Peace: The “Taiping Jing” and the Beginnings of Daoism (Daoist Classics);Jin Jiang, Women Playing Men: Yue Opera and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Shanghai;Ma Liangkuan 马亮宽, Fu Sinian shehui zhengzhi huodong yu sixiang yanjiu 傅 斯年社会政治活动与思想研究 (A study of Fu Sinian’s thought and social-political work);Daniel J. Meissner, Chinese Capitalists versus the American Flour Industry, 1890–1910: Profit and Patriotism in International Trade;Rong Xinjiang 荣新江, Sui Tang Chang’an: xingbie, jiyi ji qita 隋唐长安: 性别, 记忆及其他 (Sui-Tang Chang’an: gender, memory, and other);Wen-hsin Yeh, Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, 1843–1949     

再现火塘边的故事

在茂密纷乱的植被下面．某采砂场的土面被一道黑色的水平带所打断,那是一条窄窄的灰烬层。这个采砂场布满了不规则的台阶和断崖．它的出现打断了摩拉维亚南部葡萄庄园微微起伏的地形。冰川风经由中欧河谷平原携带来细细的沉积物。几千年来形成了数十米厚的地层堆积。这些堆积中埋藏着人类的偶然行为遗留的踪迹：几块燧石、捕获动物的骨骼。或是那来自火塘边的薄薄的灰烬层。它们为人类学家克洛德·列维·斯特劳斯提出的人类区别于世界上其他生物的一种活动——“炊煮”提供了很早的证据．     

The use of a high-resolution 3D Chirp sub-bottom profiler for the reconstruction of the shallow water archaeological site of the Grace Dieu (1439), River Hamble,UK

The remains of Henry V's flagship, the Grace Dieu, currently lie buried within the inter-tidal sediments of the River Hamble (S. England). Previous archaeological investigations have been hindered by difficult excavation conditions resulting in a poor understanding of the dimensions, shape and degradation state of the hull's deeper structure. This study therefore aimed to image, characterize and reconstruct the buried remains of this vessel using a high-resolution 3D acoustic sub-bottom Chirp system with RTK-GPS positioning capability. The accurate navigation and high-resolution data that were acquired enabled the construction of a full 3D image of the site that not only identified the remains of the wooden hull, but also features buried within it. In addition, the degradation state of these buried wooden remains were investigated by calculating reflection coefficients while a hypothetical larger reconstruction of the Grace Dieu's hull was achieved, through the use of the ShipShape ship design software package.     

Preliminary neutron diffraction study of two fenestrated axes from the ‘Enot Shuni' Bronze Age cemetery (Israel)

Neutron diffraction (ND) analyses of ancient metals show that this method is capable of detecting differences in the inner composition and microstructure of ancient metal objects. Here, ND measurements were conducted on two ‘eye shaped’ axes from the end of the 3rd-beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The objects were excavated from the ancient cemetery of ‘Enot Shuni' Israel; one is made of bronze and the other of silver. Both artefacts are rare finds, with the silver axe unique in the archaeology of Israel, and therefore had to be analysed locally. For that purpose, a newly assembled diffractometer (KARL) at the IRR-1 of the Nuclear Research Centre (Soreq, Israel) was used. ND measurement on the bronze axe revealed the existence of an α-phase with a range of Cu/Sn ratios (Cu–Sn solid solutions) and some amount of a δ-phase (intermetallic compound of Cu and Sn). The silver axe ND pattern shows the existence of an α-phase (Ag–Cu solid solution) and some amount of copper metal. Our ND data are discussed in comparison with XRF surface measurements and thermal neutron radiography. The results are shedding more light on the in-depth material composition profile, as well as on the objects’ structural and compositional affinities, and help to better understand the production processes and assist in conservation decisions.