REVIEW ESSAY

Rednecks, Eggheads and Blackfellas: a study of racial power and intimacy in Australia. By Gillian Cowlishaw Sydney: Allen and Unwin. 1999. Pp. xix + 352. Figures, Maps, Photos & Index $35     

Lebens‐Geschichte ‐ Wissenschafts‐Geschichte. Vom Nutzen der Biographie für Geschichtswissenschaft und Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Biography as a genre of historiography had been dismissed for some years, criticized for being conservative, resistant to theoretical approaches, and hostile to methodological innovations. But the predominance of a historiography devoted to structures, functions, and statistics has, however, led to a renewed interest in the human factor in history. This paper argues that the pluralism of methods and theories which has emerged thereafter reopened the case for an innovative biography, thus facilitating the convergence of general history and the history of science.     

Application of veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for relics at underwater cultural heritage sites

Because it is often difficult to preserve fragile relics in situ at underwater cultural heritage sites, it is sometimes necessary for relics to be extracted and moved to a controlled environment on land for protection and study. This paper discusses the feasibility of using the volatile organic compound veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for underwater fragile relics extraction. The results show that different materials (iron, tile, sand, wood) under water can be bonded together and extracted when using veratraldehyde. The fact that veratraldehyde is difficult to spread on the surface of underwater objects is a problem that can be solved by adding a layer of strong hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) fibres onto the object, serving as a ‘package' for the relics. Under laboratory conditions, we used veratraldehyde and PP fibres to extract broken tiles from underwater sand onto an exhibition stand. The broken tiles, in both condition and distribution, were safely and completely retained as the veratraldehyde was slowly removed by the soaking process. This work fills a gap in knowledge about temporary consolidant materials in underwater archaeology, and provides a new method for extracting underwater fragile cultural relics without damaging them.     

Electrochemical Characterization and Dating of Archaeological Leaded Bronze Objects Using the Voltammetry of Immobilized Particles

The application of solid state electrochemistry techniques for the characterization and dating of leaded bronze objects is described. Characteristic voltammetric signatures of copper and lead corrosion products were used as markers of more or less prolonged corrosion periods. The proposed methodology was applied to samples from the Roman archaeological sites of Valeria (Spain) and Gadara (Jordan), Roman and medieval sites in Xàtiva (Spain), and modern statuary exhibited outdoors, on the campus of the Universitat Politècnica of Valencia, Spain, covering a time interval between the fourth to second century bc and the 20th century ad . For such samples, the ratio between the signals for copper and lead corrosion products decreased monotonically with the corrosion time. This variation was modelled on the basis of thermochemical and kinetic considerations, the experimental data being consistent with a potential rate law for the corrosion process.