Placing the Pillar of Eliseg: Movement,Visibility and Memory in the Early Medieval Landscape

THE LANDSCAPE CONTEXT of the early 9th-century monument known as the Pillar of Eliseg is interrogated here for the first time with GIS-based analysis and innovative spatial methodologies. Our interpretation aims to move beyond regarding the Pillar as a prominent example of early medieval monument reuse and a probable early medieval assembly site. We argue that the location and topographical context of the cross and mound facilitated the monument’s significance as an early medieval locus of power, faith and commemoration in a contested frontier zone. The specific choice of location is shown to relate to patterns of movement and visibility that may have facilitated and enhanced the ceremonial and commemorative roles of the monument. By shedding new light on the interpretation of the Pillar of Eliseg as a node of social and religious aggregation and ideological power, our study has theoretical and methodological implications for studying the landscape contexts of early medieval stone monuments.     

Minerva Scientifica: the owl that flies at dawn - women scientists,women composers

ABSTRACT

Under the leadership of soprano Frances M Lynch, Minerva Scientifica deploys sung theatrical performances to encourage, celebrate and demonstrate the achievements of women in science and music. Based on collaborative discussions between practising female scientists and contemporary classical composers, the events staged by Minerva Scientifica are receiving high acclaim not only as educational and musical experiences for general audiences, but also for enhancing scientists’ appreciation of their own work. Adopting a historical approach, this article first explores the relationships between three pairs – women and science, music and science, women and music – before giving a more detailed account of the project’s evolution since 2011.     

From liberating production to unleashing consumption: Mapping landscapes of power in Beijing

This article offers an analysis of two locales in downtown Beijing nominally set aside for public use, Tiananmen Square and The Place, as successively linked landscapes of power that define the shifting and relations between market and place negotiated by the Chinese Communist Party-state over time. However, whereas Zukin (1993) argues that such landscapes lack coherent values because of their subordination to capitalism’s haphazard process of “creative destruction,” a salient feature of Beijing’s shifting landscapes of power is the authoritarian Party-state’s persistent mediation of market relations, and its subordination of the contradictions between market and place to the changing needs of the regime under market reform. Despite their apparent differences in intent and design, the shopping mall has eclipsed the public square as a key urban site through which the Party-state seeks to build a self-conscious and cohesive socioeconomic class of subjects over which and for which it seeks to rule.     

Human and animal diet at Conchopata, Peru: stable isotope evidence for maize agriculture and animal management practices during the Middle Horizon

This paper reports δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values for human and animal skeletal remains from the Middle Horizon (AD 550–1000) site of Conchopata in the Peruvian highlands. The data indicate that maize was the dietary staple for both humans and the majority of animals at this urban site. Camelids at the site segregated into two groups according to δ¹³C values, reflecting two distinct animal management strategies. Human infants were found to have elevated δ¹⁵N values, reflecting the trophic level effect of breastfeeding. No sex based differences in diet were observed.     

Reviews

The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism , Janet Afary, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, xxi + 448 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Surveyors of Persian Art: A Documentary Biography of Arthur Upham Pope & Phyllis Ackerman , Jay Gluck and Noel Siver, eds., Ashiya, Japan: SoPA and Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda, 1996, xxii + 658 pp., illustrations, Bibliography, Index.

Syria and Iran: Rivalry and Cooperation , Hussein J. Agha and Ahmad S. Khalidi, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, xii + 126 pp.

Iran and the Muslim World: Resistance and Revolution , Nikki R. Keddie, New York: New York University Press, 1995, ix + 303 pp.

Études safavides , Jean Calmard, ed., Bibliothèque Iranienne 39, Paris and Téhéran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993, xiv + 389 pp., 58 plates.

Women and Fundamentalism: Islam and Christianity , Shahin Gerami, Women's History and Culture, Vol. 9, New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1996, xiii + 178 pp.

The Persian Revolution , Edward G. Browne, Abbas Amanat, ed., New Edition, Washington: Mage Publishers, 1995, Ixiv + 470 pp., Introduction, correspondence, reviews.

Iran After the Revolution: Crisis of an Islamic State, Saeed Rahnema and Sohrab Behdad, eds., London and New York: I.B. Taurus, 1995, xii + 292 pp., Index.

Mediaeval Isma^cili History and Thought ,Farhad Daftary, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xviii + 331 pp.

A Journey to Persia: Jean Chardin's Portrait of a Seventeenth‐Century Empire , R.W. Ferrier, ed., London and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 256 pp., illustrations.

George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy ,James A. Bill, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Shi^ca Islam: From Religion to Revolution , Heinz Halm, translated by Allison Brown, Princeton, New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997, 176 pp.

Iran and the Former Soviet South , Edmund Herzig, London: Royal Institute for Foreign Affairs, 1995.

Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran , Darius M. Rejali, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994, xviii + 289 pp.     

MARKET DEFINITION AND ASSESSING THE COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RAIL AND TRUCK TRANSPORTATION*

ABSTRACT. In this paper we develop a method for establishing market definition in studies of intermodal competition. We employ the proposed method in a transportation model that yields estimates of the substitutability between truck and rail services for the transport of fresh fruits and vegetables. The model includes the produce being shipped as an input into the production of delivered produce. Our results demonstrate that fairly disaggregate market definitions are required to characterize adequately the intermodal substitution possibilities of interest. While disaggregate data are required for econometric estimation of the cost function, it is essential that elasticities be calculated at a disaggregate level as well. The elasticities reported are larger than reported in earlier work and provide strong evidence of vigorous intermodal competition in produce transportation markets.     

Pandora and Hatshepsut: Ancient Archtypes in the iconography of kingship

Greek myths contain iconographic material relating to the legitimacy, power and succession problems of early kingship. They may even represent the relics of kingly liturgies recited at coronations and New Year festivals. This essay analyses Hesiod's Pandora, her presentation and regalia, as an icon of queenly power reflecting the important power of women in the Egyptian royal cult and the great exponent of that role, Queen Hatshepsut. Pandora's veil, crown, name and ‘box’ or ‘jar’ recall both the moment of apotheosis of Egyptian queens and the emblems of the Egyptian royal priestesses who tended the divinity of kings. They also recall the astral and solar imagery of the great goddesses of Mesopotamia, Anath, Ishtar and Astarte—as well as Hesiod's Europa—queenly figures of great power.