Changing Water Depths in the Eastern Part of Sydney Harbour due to Human Impacts

Sydney Harbour has been significantly modified by human impacts from the start of the European settlement in 1788. Land clearing has accelerated soil erosion, resulting in increased sedimentation. Dredging has deepened many areas to accommodate ever-larger ships. In this paper a GIS method is used to map bathymetric changes in the eastern part of the harbour from 1903 to more recently. Dredged areas are apparent in the entrance and in wharfage areas, while sedimentation is most marked around the deepest section, which is well inside the harbour itself. In this latter region sediment has built up considerably, to over 3 m in some locations, and ship-induced motions appear to have had an impact. Despite these changes the overall depth of the eastern part of the harbour has changed little. This work is of interest to maritime archaeologists because it brings out the types of processes by which sediments can accumulate and be removed thus altering a harbour’s seabed and potentially burying, exposing or erasing archaeological sites and artefacts.     

The changing geographical distribution of wealth in England: 1086–1334–1525

Attempts hitherto made to assess changes in the geographical distribution of wealth in medieval England have inevitably been based upon county totals. A more detailed coverage is now possible with the completion of the mapping of information from the Domesday Inquest of 1086 and the lay subsidies of 1334 and 1524–1525. The outstanding feature that emerges is that there were considerable changes, but that the areas of change in 1086–1334 were very different from those of 1334–1525. Before 1334, the main increases in wealth took place in three areas: (1) in the silt belt of the Fenland; (2) in the north where William the Conqueror had devastated the countryside in 1069–1070; and (3) in scattered areas of marsh, wood and afforested land over the rest of the countryside. After 1334, the main areas of increment were five: (1) the south-west peninsula, extending eastwards to include the cloth-making districts of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire; (2) the cloth-making areas of Essex and Suffolk; (3) part of the West Riding; (4) London and much of the countryside around; and (5) the peat area of the southern Fenland.     

Jury Service as an Invitation to Citizenship: Assessing the Civic Value of Institutionalized Deliberation

When considering the merits of deliberative democracy, it is important to look into the experience of the American jury system. The jury has demonstrated the potential for citizen deliberation to play a central role in longstanding governmental institutions, but it has also played an unrecognized role in promoting civic engagement. Building on previous research demonstrating how jury service spurs increased electoral participation after jury service, we present results from a three-wave panel survey that show that a subjectively rewarding jury experience can spur broader civic engagement beyond voting. Given the value of the jury as both a model of deliberation and an engine of civic spirit, we consider the potential value of creating citizen juries to improve the initiative process, which currently lacks the citizen deliberation that is essential for any effective direct democratic processes.     

Performing the Lodge: Masonry, masculinity, and nineteenth-century North American moral geography

Geographies reinforce gender and facilitate gender performativity. In this study of nineteenth-century Masonry, we demonstrate the influence of Masonic Temples in the promotion and performance of ‘Masonic masculinity.’ Masonry, through its design and construction of interior space, its embedded material symbolism and especially the geography of Masonic ritual itself, inculcated morality in prospective and raised Master Masons. Masonic Temple architecture and décor typify Victorian moral environmentalism vis-à-vis the parlor, the Masonic Lodge a domesticated male space where significant numbers of bourgeois men (and women) acted out a particular and peculiar masculine moral geography.     

INAA of pre-contact basalt quarries on the Samoan Island of Tutuila: a preliminary baseline for an artifact-centered provenance study

This project presents a material-centered instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) characterization of 120 geologic samples selected from four fine-grained basalt quarries on the Samoan Island of Tutuila. Previous attempts at definitive differentiation of these Tutuilan quarries have utilized x-ray fluorescence (XRF). In this study, clear differentiation of each analyzed quarry was achieved using INAA. Biplots of canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) scores for the INAA data illustrate clear separation based on the variation in chemical composition between each quarry. The samples analyzed not only define quarry separation, but also provide the “core group” for a preliminary baseline necessary for future artifact-centered provenance studies. Inclusion of these “core group” samples in the baseline was confirmed by stepwise discriminant analysis. These findings suggest the ability to determine artifact quarry of origin on the island of Tutuila, which can elucidate the importance of individual Tutuilan quarries in the production, distribution and consumption of fine-grained basalt artifacts in Polynesia.