FOURTH MILLENNIUM BC SILVER FROM TELL ESH-SHUNA, JORDAN: ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL INVESTIGATION AND SOME THOUGHTS ON CERAMIC SKEUOMORPHS

Summary. Analytical and contextual details are given for a piece of silver sheet recovered by dry-sieving from a fourth millennium B.C. deposit at Tell esh-Shuna in the north Jordan Valley. Analysis proved that the fragment was composed of a silver-gold-copper alloy. The possible origin of such aurian silver artefacts is considered in the light of current geological evidence, and alternative mechanisms for their appearance reviewed, taking into consideration recent data pertaining to the use of 'non-utilitarian' metals in the southern Levant during the fifth and fourth millennia B.C. Reasons are given for believing that silver artefacts are under-represented in the archaeological record, and the imitation of silver vessels is suggested as a possible explanation for the appearance in Palestine of the distinctive Grey Burnished ceramics at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.     

Resisting the Inevitable? The Parliament Act 1911

The Parliament Act 1911, limiting the veto power of the house of lords, constitutes a major piece of constitutional legislation in the United Kingdom. The vulnerability of the house of lords to major change was long‐standing and to be found in the actions of prime ministers over more than a century. The constitutional crisis leading to the passage of the act was triggered by the rejection of the budget by the Lords in 1909. However, the outcome of the crisis was by no means certain, either in terms of the provisions of the Parliament Bill or its passage. It was neither a product of a clash between peers and people or a principled debate as to the place of the second chamber in the nation's constitutional arrangements. It was the result of the stances taken on the issue that had dominated British politics since the 1880s: Irish home rule. This determined that the house of lords would be subject to change, not in terms of composition but in respect of its powers. In terms of the contemporary relevance of the act, attempts at further changes to the second chamber constitute neither history repeating itself nor unfinished business.