From commodity to money: The rise of silver coinage around the Ancient Mediterranean (sixth–first centuries bce)

The reasons why the Western Mediterranean, especially Carthage and Rome, resisted monetization relative to the Eastern Mediterranean are still unclear. We address this question by combining lead (Pb) and silver (Ag) isotope abundances in silver coinage from the Aegean, Magna Graecia, Carthage and Roman Republic. The clear relationships observed between ¹⁰⁹Ag/¹⁰⁷Ag and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁶Pb reflect the mixing of silver ores or silver objects with Pb metal used for cupellation. The combined analysis of Ag and Pb isotopes reveals important information about the technology of smelting. The Greek world extracted Ag and Pb from associated ores, whereas, on the Iberian Peninsula, Carthaginians and Republican‐era Romans applied Phoenician cupellation techniques and added exotic Pb to Pb‐poor Ag ores. Massive Ag recupellation is observed in Rome during the Second Punic War. After defeating the Carthaginians and the Macedonians in the late second century bce , the Romans brought together the efficient, millennium‐old techniques of silver extraction of the Phoenicians, who considered this metal a simple commodity, with the monetization of the economy introduced by the Greeks.     

Toward a More Socially Impactful Geographical Analysis

The fiftieth anniversary of Geographical Analysis occurs for many quantitative human geographers at an exciting era of new and exciting sources of data and computational advancements. However, it also represents a crossroads where excitement to quickly capitalize upon these new data sources and methods risks reverting the discipline back to its abstraction‐rich and overly generalized roots, erasing much progress made in the pages of this journal that advocated for the recognition of individual differences and need for alternative and even qualitative data sources. In this commentary, I reflect on what we can do over the next 50 years to ensure that the journal is producing research that is socially impactful and better able to explain the messiness of social reality.     

Plastic possibilities: Contrasting the uses of plastic ‘waste’ in India

This article draws on examples of inventive plastic reuse from India and personal anecdotes of elders as an anthropological reflection on possible plastic futures. It sketches the large-scale governmental reforms in the domain of municipal solid waste management, or MSWM (which, by legal definition in India, includes plastic waste). In this regard, it draws out some of the problematic socio-political and environmental implications of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Clean India’ campaign, whose technocratic policy orientations towards standardized centralized MSWM echo his cultural nationalist agenda. These reforms contrast with home-based re-engineering methods and the redeploying of plastic discards (thereby making them notuner moton (‘like new again’), and their localized circulation through relatively local but uneven reputational and economic networks. Clean India sequesters and processes vast quantities of plastics through the wide-ranging adoption of a waste-to-energy techno-fix (in which plastics are incinerated). In contrast, the authors illustrate routine practices and relations whereby people reuse, repurpose and recycle plastics. While Clean India can detract from and disrupt these mundane practices and everyday relations, these are suggestive of alternative plastic futures – both socio-material and environmental.     

OPTIMALITY OF RECYCLING AND THE LOCATION OF A RECYCLING CENTER

ABSTRACT. Consider a community investigating the integration of recycling into its waste management program. Even if (1) the county's citizens do not gain utility from recycling, (2) landfill space is plentiful, and (3) the market price for recyclables is zero, recycling can still be optimal for a local government. By determining the relationship between the amount of recycling and the location of a recycling center, conditions are identified under which recycling will reduce total waste management costs enough that municipal recycling will be optimal. In addition, it is shown that the likelihood of municipal recycling increases with the size of the city.     

A STUDY OF CHINESE PORCELAIN RAW MATERIALS FOR DING,XING, GONGXIAN AND DEHUA WARES*

The raw material used largely determines the type and quality of porcelain produced. Twenty-three raw materials used for making Ding, Xing, Gongxian and Dehua porcelain bodies were studied using principal component analysis. Results show that for Dehua wares, only one raw material was used. For Ding wares, although there were many possible raw materials, the use of one alone is unlikely. Lingshan clay was the main raw material but it has to be mixed with other raw materials: Pinjiawa clay, quartz, feldspar and dolomite. The Xing pieces can be divided into three groups and Gongxian wares into two groups, which are discussed in detail.     

Interpreting Spatial Economic Structure and Spatial Multipliers: Three Perspectives

The measurement and interpretation of spatial economic structure have presented many problems for analysts. The notion of a spatial multiplier has received even less formal attention; part of the motivation for this paper is the examination of the degree to which sectoral decomposition analysis might prove useful in illuminating the paths of interaction across space that are associated with changes in exogenous activity levels. In this paper, we present three perspectives that examine spatial structure in the context of an aggregated interregional social accounting matrix for Bangladesh. These perspectives examine structure at the micro-, meso-, and macrolevels and are interpreted with the assistance of several alternative methods, including structural path analysis, the field of influence, the superposition principle, multiregional feedback loop analysis, and the Matrioshka Principle; the results are interpreted analytically and cartographically. Some attention is also devoted to the formulation of a general approach to spatial multipliers. It is shown that the structure of flows and the structure of influence reveal patterns that, taken together, provide important insights into an understanding of structure and may prove to form the basis for the eventual formal presentation of the spatial multiplier.     

Marital instability in a rural population in south-west Uganda: implications for the spread of HIV-1 infection

"The aim of this study was to examine people's beliefs about the causes of marital instability in a rural population cohort in south-west Uganda. Results from a baseline survey of HIV-1 infection in the cohort of over 4,000 adults (over 12 years old) showed a twofold increase in risk of infection in divorced or separated persons when compared with those who are married. A purposive sample of 134 respondents (seventy-two males, sixty-two females) selected to represent different ages, religions and marital status were asked in semi-structured interviews to comment on the reasons for continuing marital instability in their community. The most common reasons suggested for marital instability were sexual dissatisfaction, infertility, alcoholism and mobility....HIV infection was not mentioned as a direct cause of separation, but a small independent study revealed that seven out of ten couples separated on learning of a positive HIV test result of one or both partners. Marital instability is not uncommon in this population; there is evidence that HIV infection is making the situation worse." (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

A PILOT STUDY IN NON-CONTACT LASER PHOTOTHERMAL ARCHAEOMETRY OF ANCIENT STATUARY PEDESTAL STONES FROM CYPRUS

Several samples of geological stones from statuary pedestals found in various archaeological sites in Cyprus have been characterized using non-contact laser infrared photothermal radiometry. Thermal diffusivities and effective optical absorption coefficients were calculated using a one-dimensional thermal-wave model. The mean values and standard deviations were tabulated and comparisons were made with lithographic and petrographic studies of the samples. Good correlations were found, thus demonstrating that laser photothermal archaeometry is a promising methodology for the accurate, potentially non-destructive and convenient characterization of the origins of ancient stones in Cyprus and other geological and archaeological sites.