William of Malmesbury and fortuna

The great Benedictine historian William of Malmesbury has divided scholarly interpretation over recent decades. For some, William was a precocious scholarly talent who steered around or subverted the constraining absurdities of the providential orthodoxy. For others, his explicit expressions of faith in God’s providence, despite its often vexatious reverses, betray a sincere piety and reverence for the hidden justice of divine cosmic rationality. These conclusions have relied on flawed assessments of William’s use of the term fortuna, fortune. They adhere to a broader status quo that imagines all medieval thinkers took for granted that fortune’s reverses were inscrutable and inevitable. On the contrary, this article argues that William was concerned with determining the precise causes of fortune, so that he might prescribe ethical advice to prevent its reverses. This has consequences for understanding the ends of twelfth-century historical writing and the development of thought pertaining to individual and collective punishments.     

Distinction and the Ethics of Violence: On the Legal Construction of Liminal Subjects and Spaces

This paper interrogates the relationship among visibility, distinction, international humanitarian law and ethics in contemporary theatres of violence. After introducing the notions of “civilianization of armed conflict” and “battlespaces”, we briefly discuss the evisceration of one of international humanitarian law's axiomatic figures: the civilian. We show how liberal militaries have created an apparatus of distinction that expands that which is perceptible by subjecting big data to algorithmic analysis, combining the traditional humanist lens with a post‐humanist one. The apparatus functions before, during, and after the fray not only as an operational technology that directs the fighting or as a discursive mechanism responsible for producing the legal and ethical interpretation of hostilities, but also as a force that produces liminal subjects. Focusing on two legal figures—“enemies killed in action” and “human shields”—we show how the apparatus helps justify killing civilians and targeting civilian spaces during war.     

Guidelines for On-Site Assessment of Historic Timber Structures

In the scope of European Cooperation in Science and Technology–Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage (COST IE0601–WoodCultHer) (available at http://www.woodculther.org) it was agreed to produce Guidelines for the Assessment of Historic Timber Structures, covering the principles and possible approaches for the safety assessment of old timber structures of historical relevance that could be used as the basis for possible European Standards, as discussed with CEN/TC346 (Conservation of Cultural Heritage).

This approach was targeted at all those concerned with the conservation of heritage buildings. These guidelines should also help decision-making regarding the need for immediate safety measures. The aim is to guarantee that inspection and assessment measures provide the necessary data for historical analysis, structural safety assessment, and planning of intervention works, while having minimal impact on the building fabric (the original materials, structural systems, and techniques).This article provides information on the criteria to be used in the assessment of load-bearing timber structures in heritage buildings. It covers the preliminary assessment (desk survey, preliminary visual survey, measured survey, structural analysis, and preliminary report), as well as the detailed survey of timbers (with a special emphasis on visual strength grading on site) and carpentry joints. The subsequent diagnostic report and the detailed design of repairs are outside its scope.     

The making of a city campus

Campus spatial development has attracted relatively little scholarly research, yet through time major moves reflect and interact with broader policy, design, and societal trends. The city campus as a high‐density, mixed‐use knowledge precinct has emerged as a distinctive type. Its growing prominence points to the convergence of interdependent trends in urban life, higher education, and economic growth. This article describes, contextualises, and reflects upon the physical evolution of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in central Sydney. The narrative identifies several distinct development phases: from the urban renewal of a rundown inner‐city precinct through comprehensive replanning following the tenets of high modernism, then adaptive reuse and heritage conservation, to architectural design excellence. In the process, it has become an Australian exemplar of a “tech transformed” contemporary city campus.     

Going global: the transnationalization of care

This article critically examines the contours of ‘care transnationalization’ as an ongoing social process and a field of enquiry. Care transnationalization scholarship combines structural understandings of global power relations with an emphasis on social interactions between defined actors in ways that keep sight of human agency, material welfare and wider social development. It has, however, tended to privilege particular forms, dynamics and sites of care transnationalization over others. The body of research on care labour migration, which is otherwise the most developed literature on care transnationalization to date, contains a number of biases and omissions in its coverage of border-spanning relations and their mediation across country contexts. At the same time, other significant forms of care transnationalization, such as those involving consumer-based care migration, corporate restructuring and the formation of care policy, have suffered from comparative neglect. Working towards an integrated agenda that addresses these diverse expressions of care transnationalization and how they ‘touch down’ in a range of sectoral, social and country contexts is of prime importance to policy research agendas directed at understanding the wider development impacts of processes of social and economic restructuring.     

New discoveries in the Piramide Naranjada in Cahuachi (Peru) using satellite,Ground Probing Radar and magnetic investigations

The detection of buried earthen structures by using remote sensing techniques is still an open issue and a strategic challenge as crucial as it is complex. It is crucial because earthen archaeological remains are widely present thoughtout the world (in South America, Asia, Africa) and it is complex due to the subtle physical contrast between earthen remains and the surrounding subsoil.     

The One Hundred and Forty-Third Report of the Council

In March 1991 and February—March 1993 a series of military training earthworks in Crowthorne Wood, near Bracknell, Berkshire, was surveyed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (R.C.H.M.E.) at the request of Berkshire County Council. The results of the survey and research into the earthworks' history have revealed a chronological depth reflecting the development in military earthworks from the Napoleonic Wars to the late nineteenth and twentieth century. The following account falls into two sections: the first describes remains which probably date from manoeuvres of 1792; and the second describes later trench systems. Each is preceded by an outline of the historical background to the remains.     

The provenancing of ochres from the Neolithic Temple Period in Malta

Ochres have played an important role in early human societies, and recent studies have shown that these pigments are important tools in establishing trade routes between countries as particular varieties of the material were sought for use by these ancient groups. This paper explores the provenancing of the ancient ochres used during the Neolithic Temple Period on the Maltese islands. Here ICP-AES was employed to establish geochemical trends and ‘signature’ elements present in ochre that had previously been thought to have been imported from mainland Europe. When coupled with statistical tests, data was used to link the archaeological pigments to a geological source. Results revealed a strong link between the Maltese archaeological pigments and local sources, which had never been studied prior to this project. These indicated that, contrary to popular belief, the Maltese archipelago was the most likely source for Neolithic ochre.     

Crenostrea sp. cf. C. cannoni (Marwick, 1928) (Bivalvia: Ostreoidea) and associated fauna from east of Heard Island,Kerguelen Plateau: age and palaeoenvironmental value

Quilty, P.G., Clark, N. & Hibberd, T., 21.01.2015. Crenostrea sp. cf. C. cannoni (Marwick, 1928) (Bivalvia: Ostreacea) and associated fauna from east of Heard Island, Kerguelen Plateau: age and palaeoenvironmental value. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A well-preserved single left valve of a large oyster embedded in coarse volcaniclastic sediment and identified as Crenostrea sp. cf. C. cannoni (Marwick, 1928) was dredged from east of Heard Island, central southern Indian Ocean. It is accompanied by a fragment of the pectinid bivalve Austrochlamys sp. indet. and foraminifera. Austrochlamys sp. indet. and other bivalve fragments were analysed for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C, the results yielding an age of 17.5 Ma (later early Miocene) and a water temperature of ca 10°C. Foraminifera and sediment characteristics indicate that accumulation occurred in mid-continental shelf depths, at a location where nutrient supply was good.

Patrick G. Quilty [p.quilty@utas.edu.au], School of Earth Sciences (Private Bag 79) and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS: Private Bag 129), University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Nicola Clark [nc118@leicester.ac.uk], Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. Ty Hibberd [ty.hibberd@aad.gov.au], Australian Antarctic Division, Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, Australia.