Female Personifications and Masculine Forms: Gender,Armour and Allegory in the Habsburg–Valois Conflicts of Sixteenth-Century Europe

This article examines the visual and material culture of sixteenth-century elite ceremonial armours and the paradoxes inherent in using images of women to decorate them between 1525 and 1550. It argues that foreign invading forces and their allies exploited or inverted traditional gender binaries associated with the classical and humanist iconography of the Italian Renaissance, particularly its female allegorical forms, to visually signify power relationships between combatants during the Italian Wars. Rather than simply embodying masculinity, elaborate ceremonial armours with images of women are revealing of both ideals of masculinity and femininity during times of war. These portrayals were part of wider conversations about gender and power, about the strength and weaknesses of women, and, ultimately, women's inferior status to men, which were utilised in allegorical forms to make claims to authority on these elite forms of male dress.     

Port Royal, Jamaica: The archaeological problems and potential

In September 1968, one of the authors (P. Mayes), having been appointed Head of Mission by the British Ministry of Overseas Development to act as advisor to the Jamaica National Trust Commission, made recommendations which formed the basis for the establishment of the Port Royal Project. The Project is concerned with the excavation, conservation and presentation of 17th century Port Royal, which was founded in 1655 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 (see Fig. 1). For the purposes of archaeology the area was divided into three: the Archaeological-Historical Reserve, encompassing the protected underwater area and lands currently occupied by government facilities at the west end of Port Royal; the area in the centre of Port Royal which is protected archaeologically by modern housing and the area at the east end of Port Royal in which it was proposed that commercial expansion should be allowed on land held on lease from the Jamaican government. Work began early in 1969 in a section of this last area, which was threatened, at that time, by the construction of an hotel. This area was part of the shoal water section of sunken Port Royal (see below and Fig. 2). Since that date excavation headquarters and conservation laboratories have been established in the old naval hospital and the construction of a major museum, the first phase of the presentation programme, has begun.     

Book reviews

In Search of Khayyam. By Ali Dashti (translated by L. P. Elwell‐Sutton). New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. 276pp. $11.00.

The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880–1946. By Vartan Gregorian. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969. 398pp. $17.50.     

THE USE OF NON-DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVATION ANALYSIS AND PATTERN RECOGNITION IN THE STUDY OF FLINT ARTEFACTS

A method is described for the identification of the origin of flint artefacts. The method is based on the variation in the trace element concentrations for different origins. The trace element concentrations were determined by non-destructive neutron activation analysis. The identification was obtained from a pattern recognition analysis.     

Reviews of books

Historical Archaeology -