Seismic refraction tomography surveys as a method for voids detection: an application to the archaeological park of Cava Ispica,Sicily, Italy

Geophysical surveys are commonly used in areas where the presence of ancient civilizations is historically documented. These investigations are able to detect through indirect methods the presence of bodies or structures in the subsoil measuring the variations of some physical parameters, obtaining information about archaeological remains without causing harm to them.

In the present study, we investigated the presence of anthropogenic buried cavities partially filled with rubble material, in an area located in the northern part of Cava Ispica, one of the most important archaeological sites located in south-eastern Sicily. The results of seismic refraction prospections, processed with tomographic methods, are presented and discussed. The entire valley contains prehistoric burial sites, Christian catacombs and residential units of various kinds. Despite the numerous searches made over past years, much still remains to be discovered.

The seismic refraction tomographic data, analyzed in 3D, revealed the presence of low velocity values (<400 m/s) areas that, considering the lithotypes locally present and the features of other archaeological structures discovered during previous surveys, can be ascribed to the presence of possible cavities. The obtained results show how such geophysical inspections represent an important preliminary tool for archaeological surveys.     

The cultural landscape near the ancient city of Tharros (central West Sardinia): vegetation changes and human impact

The evolution of the cultural landscape in coastal western Sardinia is investigated by means of pollen analysis in the Mistras Lagoon sediments, near the ancient city of Tharros, with particular attention to changes in evergreen vegetation and the impact of human activity. The pollen diagram, spanning the time interval from 5300 to 1600 cal BP, documents the influence of man, climate, and geomorphic dynamics on the evolution of a semi-open evergreen vegetation landscape and variations in extent of a salt-marsh environment. Anthropogenic indicators and microcharcoals concur in depicting increased land use coinciding with the Nuragic, Phoenician, Punic and Roman dominations. Pollen data, along with archaeobotanical evidence, suggest a prevailing arable farming economy, vocated to Vitis and cereals exploitation, during the Nuragic phase until 2400 cal BP, replaced since then by a prevailing stock rearing economy. Between 2050 and 1600 cal BP, a less intensive human impact on the landscape is profiled, consistently with the archaeologically documented abandonment of the rural villages in favour of a slow urbanization, experienced by the Sinis territory in Imperial times. The pollen record provides new insights into the history of important economic plants in the Mediterranean, such as Vitis, Olea and Quercus suber. The results of the pollen analysis reveal how the records of these taxa are primarily influenced by the cultural development of the Sinis region and secondarily by dynamics involving the natural companion vegetation.     

Protecting the Jewish throat: Hebrew accent and hygiene in the Yishuv

In 1913 the Hebrew Language Council (Va’ad ha-lashon ha-ivrit) instituted guidelines for the pronunciation of Hebrew, based on the Sephardic accent. Immigrants struggled to master the new sounds, especially the guttural phonemes, and to repress their native accents. Their pronunciation was frequently criticized as ugly and in need of correction. In the 1930s, Yitzhak Epstein (1862–1943) developed a new approach to the problem of standardizing and beautifying the Hebrew accent that drew on medical evidence to argue that the mispronunciation of various phonemes could damage the vocal cords and cause throat ailments. In the 1940s, Epstein’s “hygienic Hebrew” program was endorsed by a special committee of the Hebrew Language Council, chaired by Shlomo Dov Goitein (1900–1985) and included several of Epstein’s associates, that had been formed to address problems of “speech culture” in the Yishuv. Although the committee enjoyed a successful start, its mission was soon interrupted by the events of 1948–49. By claiming a scientific basis for the preferred Sephardic accent, the language hygienists were able to rationalize their desire to purge Hebrew of unpleasant Yiddish phonemes and to curtail the influence of Arabic on Yishuv speech.     

石峁遗址的考古发现与研究综述

石峁遗址是21世纪中国最为重要的考古新发现之一,引发了学术界关于中国文明起源与形成过程多元性的再反思,对于探索早期国家形成具有重要启示意义。本文回顾了石峁遗址的发现经过及考古历程,介绍了皇城台、外城东门等地点的最新考古成果及综合研究进展,并对研究现状及存在问题进行了述评和反思,以期进一步推动石峁考古发掘与研究工作。     

Reframing and Reconceptualising Gambling tourism in Macau as a Chinese Pilgrimage

Abstract

While dominant discourses, media representations and corporate entities in China downplay the presence of Chinese mainland gambling in Macau, Beijing sanctions millions of its citizens to make the journey to Macau to gamble each year. While Macau’s success is often put down to the extent to which visitors are drawn to a secular destination with integrated resorts to engage in individualistic activities, our approach explores Chinese gambling tourists’ movements, rituals and behaviours along post-structuralist lines, so as to generate new insights. The analysis shows how the metaphor of pilgrimage is an important lens to address individual and communal practices amongst outbound Chinese gambling tourists and brings to light the hyper-meaningfulness, shared values, ritualization, play, risk, and liminal conditions that characterise the processes of their entanglements and the centrality of commercial and political interests. In particular, the analysis indicates the need to explore the significance of cultural, spiritual, economic and social dimensions of Chinese outbound tourism, as well as the unique discourses of power and control affecting their movement and practices. By reframing and reconceptualising gambling tourists as a Chinese pilgrimage, we account for manifestations of culture, governmentality and intentional ritualization as well as contribute an alternative construction of pilgrimage beyond euro-centric accounts, which in turn, will stimulate discussion on geographies of pilgrimage.     

‘Queer(y)ing methodologies: doing fieldwork and becoming queer’ – guest editorial

This themed issue contributes to discussions of queer positionalities in the context of doing fieldwork on/with queer-identified subjects. The point of departure being that the term queer has emerged to qualify a specific scholarship that contests normative orders in gender and sexuality, and that queering is a form of critique of multiple power relations that informs knowledge production. Normative sex and gender orders are reflected in the power-knowledge relations that produce ‘queerness’ as outsider, abnormal and subaltern. In order to challenge these normativities, the production of knowledge must be contested in its conception. Here we present the theoretical framework that grounds our themed issue as well a short summary of the articles in this series.