Models for Pore Pressure Response of Low Plastic Fines Subjected to Repeated Loads

Cyclic pore pressure response of low plastic fines is examined with regard to factors influencing overall behavior of such soils under repeated loads. A model for pore pressure generation under repeated loads and another model for relationship between cyclic pore pressure and straining are proposed. The models are developed in consideration of an extended database generated through a comprehensive literature review. The models are evaluated based on the comparisons between predicted and measured pore pressure responses.     

Experimental examination of animal trampling effects on artifact movement in dry and water saturated substrates: a test case from South India

This paper presents the motivation, procedures, and results of an experiment that examines short episodes of animal trampling in dry and water saturated substrates in South India. While horizontal artifact displacement was similar to that modeled by other trampling experiments, vertical artifact displacement in water saturated substrates was greater than any reported experiment to date. The toolstone used in this experiment, a silicious limestone, exhibited minimal damage after trampling. Artifact inclination patterning appeared to be a potentially diagnostic middle-range marker of trampling in water saturated substrates. Given the abundant number of Paleolithic sites that are located on flat, open surfaces near water-bodies, or experience monsoonal climatic regimes, we propose that future excavations should measure artifact inclination on a regular basis.     

Iranian Studies in Turkey

Among other Middle Eastern countries, Iran and Turkey stand out as the two neighboring countries with many linguistic and cultural similarities. The question that comes to the fore is: to what extent do these two countries know each other? This article attempts to provide a picture of the state of Iranian Studies in Turkey with specific attention to three monographs originally written as PhD dissertations in various Turkish universities over the last three decades. Produced from within three different social science and humanities divisions, i.e. Political Science, Persian Literature and History, these are three of the very few scholarly monographs produced on Iran in Turkey. Based on a close reading of these studies, it seems possible to observe that they are mostly ill-balanced by methodological, ethnocentric as well as Turkish nationalist biases.     

A multi-analytical approach to characterize an Early Bronze Age cosmetic material from Müslümantepe,Southeastern Anatolia

The present paper reports the chemical and mineralogical composition of a black pigment material contained in a Syrian Bottle-shaped vessel excavated on an Early Bronze Age grave in Müslümantepe, a site located at the right bank of the Tigris River in Southeastern Anatolia. A combination of different analytical tools like state-of-the-art non-destructive μ-XRD², μ-XRF and μ-Raman spectroscopy compared to classical powder XRD was used to characterize the content of the bottle. The results attest the presence of a manganese mineral (pyrolusite) most probably used for cosmetic purposes. This is the first evidence, which is scientifically tested, of the earliest use of cosmetics in the Upper Tigris of Southeastern Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age period, c. 2700–2550 bc.     

The effects of public capital on private sector performance in Turkish regional manufacturing industries1

This article investigates the impact of public capital formation on private manufacturing sector performance in the seven geographical regions of Turkey and in aggregate. A vector autoregression (VAR) model has been employed to estimate long run accumulated elasticities of private sector variables with respect to public capital for the time period 1980–2000. The results show that public capital affects private output positively in aggregate and in all regions apart from the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions. The results also reveal that only in the Marmara region, the impact is positive both on input and output. The public capital crowds in private sector inputs in some regions.     

Wills,deeds, acts: women's civic gift-giving in Ottoman Istanbul

The waqf (plural awqaf) is the Islamic pious endowment founded for charitable purposes. The Ottoman waqf, especially between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, became a gift-giving practice of solidarity in which women played an active role in founding and maintaining endowments as benefactors. These endowments served almost exclusively civic public services. While there has been considerable research on women and waqf, by moving beyond interpreting the ostensible motives that are always intertwined with women's role as ‘family caretakers’ or ‘devout Muslims’, we attempt to suggest that, interpreted as acts of piety, awqaf, and especially those that were founded as organized spaces known as külliyes, became institutions by which women were able to cultivate (in themselves and others) civic identities, and articulate civic solidarities as citizens of their cities. This image of women as civic gift-givers recasts them as active citizens of Ottoman cities, especially Istanbul.     

Rendering responsible,provoking desire: women and home in squatter/slum renewal projects in the Turkish context

This article is situated at the intersection of urban restructuring, cultural conservatism and neoliberalism in the Turkish context to understand the new subject formations of poor women as they are relocated to high-rise apartment blocks in slum/squatter renewal projects by the prospect of homeownership via long-term mortgage loans. It contributes by showing the gendered effects of urban transformation on poor women as neoliberalism and conservatism interact. It draws upon two ethnographic studies that reveal women’s experiences embedded both in neoliberalism and patriarchy. In neoliberalism, women’s participation in the informal job market was promoted as they were made responsible for contributing to mortgage payments, and they were brought into consumption as they were provoked the desire for good homes via furnishing, and in patriarchy, women’s traditional roles in social reproduction were demanded in spite of their new roles and responsibilities. The study ponders women’s differentiated negotiations with patriarchy which resisted radical challenges when the family and the home framed women’s new responsibilities and desires. The rising conservatism rooted in Islam in Turkey, which prioritizes the family over individual women, created the conditions for it.