The first discovery of Neolithic rice remains in eastern Taiwan: phytolith evidence from the Chaolaiqiao site

Located in the key junction between mainland China and Island Southeast Asia, Taiwan is of great significance for our understanding of the southeastward dispersal of rice agriculture in the prehistoric period. Until now, quite limited archaeobotanical work has been done in this region. In eastern Taiwan, no archaeological evidence of rice agriculture has been obtained, probably owing to the poor preservation conditions for plant macroremains. Here, we report a new discovery of 4200-year-old domesticated rice remains at the Chaolaiqiao site, which for the first time in detail demonstrates the ancient practice of rice agriculture in this area. Based on a combination of factors that include a rice-based plant subsistence strategy, the mid-Holocene limits to available farmland and the fast-growing Taiwan Neolithic population from settlement pattern data, we infer that this contradiction in eastern Taiwan between land-dependent agriculture and limited suitable farmland encouraged a population movement out of Taiwan during the Middle Neolithic period.     

An investigation of the frequency of squatting facets in Later Stone Age foragers from South Africa

Distinctive morphological changes attributed to a habitual squatting posture were observed on the distal femur, distal tibia and on the talar neck of Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers. The frequency of squatting in LSA foragers (n = 56) was determined by the presence of anatomical features of joint hyperflexion. Three South African comparative skeletal groups from different time periods were also analysed: skeletal remains of early farming populations (n = 17), 18th century ‘Free Blacks’ and/or slaves from Cobern Street, Cape Town (n = 21), and a modern cadaver sample (n = 29). The results show that 28 out of 56 LSA foragers (50%) were habitual squatters; 13 out of 17 farmers (76.5%) and one of 21 individuals from the Cobern Street collection (4.8%) demonstrated squatting facets. No anatomical squatters were found in the modern cadaver sample. There was no significant sex difference between squatters and non‐squatters. Hence at least half of the LSA foragers and farmers were habitual squatters, according to the signs of joint hyperflexion. Squatting is a comfortable position for those used to it because the body weight is supported with minimal muscular activity. Two probable reasons are suggested for the difference in postures adopted by the different groups: (1) availability or lack of availability of furniture and (2) cultural and individual differences in resting posture. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introduction

Abstract

This paper examines mechanical drawings made between 1811 and 1835 by Cesar Nicolas Leblanc, draftsman and engraver for the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, for publication by the French patent ministry. It compares Leblanc's engravings with the original drawings of the same machines, drawings which mechanics and inventors had submitted with their patent applications and upon which Leblanc based his published copies. The paper further compares Leblanc's patent engravings with his engravings of other machines, ones of proven utility. Leblanc developed a visual vocabulary to accompany Conservatoire Director Gerard‐Joseph Christian's philosophy of industrial mechanics, and used it to expose a crucial ambiguity in French patenting practice. Patented machines were unproven machines, Leblanc's patent engravings argued, while his other engravings endorsed machines of known value.     

From private to public: Alba de Céspedes' agony column in 1950s Italy

A unique, if problematical, historical source for the study of the ‘private sphere’, the problem page has, as yet, been the subject of little serious attention. This article initially considers the problem page in general terms, and with particular reference to 1950s Italy, a time when a notable feature of the changing patterns of cultural consumption was the emergence and upsurge in popularity of the weekly magazine. The rest of the paper is devoted to an analysis of best‐selling author Alba de Céspedes' agony column, ‘Dalla parte di lei’, published in the magazine Epoca. The article shows that the column provides intriguing insights into the state of family and marriage during a time of transition. It discusses the idea of the agony column as a commodity, but also highlights de Céspedes' aim of providing a kind of compendium of lay morals, arguing that any attempt to provide an alternative to the Catholic Church, and the prevailing conservative attitudes of the time, was a matter of careful negotiation.     

The effect of a top predator on kangaroo abundance in arid Australia and its implications for archaeological faunal assemblages

The dingo has received considerable attention in the Australian archaeological literature as an agent of bone fragmentation and accumulation. Dingoes have also been studied with respect to their commensal relationship with Aboriginal people. Study has not been directed, however, to the meta-role of dingoes as prey regulators that suppress kangaroo abundance, and the subsequent impact on human subsistence that direct competition between dingoes and humans over the same animal resources could have produced. This study presents data gathered in two adjacent cultural landscapes defined by human land use, one with dingoes and one without dingoes – to illustrate the archaeological effect that dingoes may have had on human economic systems by suppressing kangaroo abundance. Live kangaroos and kangaroo skeletal remains were on average 14-fold and 32-fold more abundant in the absence of dingoes, and contemporary commercial kangaroo harvesting and sheep grazing were restricted to areas where dingoes were absent. Given the marked effects that dingoes have on contemporary kangaroo abundance and the human economy, we argue that dingoes likely shaped the human economy in the past through human–dingo competition for the same limited resources. Evidence for competition between humans and dingoes could be investigated in the archaeological record by comparing the relative frequency of prey of different body sizes, as well as the degree of fragmentation of kangaroo skeletal elements, before and after the arrival of dingoes.