Glass on the Amber Road: the chemical composition of glass beads from the Bronze Age in Poland

The article discusses the chemical composition of 56 glass samples from 52 beads found in Poland at 13 archaeological sites (mainly cemeteries). The artefacts have been dated to the II–V period of the Bronze Age (=phases BzB–HaB; c. 1600–750/700 bc). The LA-ICP-MS method was applied. Two groups were distinguished in this assemblage based on a comparison of the MgO to K₂O ratio in glass: (i) high magnesium glass (HMG)—23; and (ii) low magnesium and high potassium glass (LMHK)—33 (29 matrix glass specimens and 4 decorative). In southern Poland, beads made of HMG and LMHK are often found in the same cemeteries. Analyses have shown that HMG was most probably made in Mesopotamia and that at least one cobalt glass is of Egyptian provenance. LMHK glass was made in Europe, most probably in Italy. Also, Italy was the most probable transit point for artefacts made of HMG en route to East-Central Europe.     

Book reviews

Teny S. Reynolds and Stephen H. Cutcliffe, Eds. Technology and the West: A Historical Anthology from Technology and Culture (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 461.

Jon Agar. Science and Spectacle: The Work ofjodrell Bank in Post‐War British Culture. Harwood, 1998. pp. Xx+260. IIIus., Index., Bibliog.

David Nye. Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998), pp. xii + 331.     

Ein Zeichen fur den Herrscher - Gottes Zeichen fur Ahas in Jesaja 7,10-17

Das Konig Ahas vom Propheten Jesaja in Jes 7,14-17 gewahrte Zeichen wird aus seinem Kontext herausgedeutet. Dabei wird eine Abfolge von sich thematisch entsprechenden und inhaltlich erganzenden Gottesworten in Jes 7 und 8 hervorgehoben, die alle den Sinn haben, Konig Ahas den Untergang der syrisch-ephraimitischen Koalition und den Bestand des davidischen Konigshauses in Jerusalem zuzusprechen. Das Immanuel-Zeichen erhalt in diesem Zusammenhang die Funktion eines Bestatigungszeichens. Der Form nach handelt es sich um ein Heilszeichen. Zu der bedeutenden Person fur die Zukunft Judas wird Immanuel erst durch die literarische Erweiterung der Ansage.     

Chemical evolution of metamorphic fluids in the Central Alps,Switzerland: insight from LA‐ICPMS analysis of fluid inclusions

The chemical evolution of fluids in Alpine fissure veins (open cavities with large free‐standing crystals) has been studied by combination of fluid inclusion petrography, microthermometry, LA‐ICPMS microanalysis, and thermodynamic modeling. The quartz vein systems cover a metamorphic cross section through the Central Alps (Switzerland), ranging from subgreenschist‐ to amphibolite‐facies conditions. Fluid compositions change from aqueous inclusions in subgreenschist‐ and greenschist‐facies rocks to aqueous–carbonic inclusions in amphibolite‐facies rocks. The fluid composition is constant for each vein, across several fluid inclusion generations that record the growth history of the quartz crystals. Chemical solute geothermometry, fluid inclusion isochores, and constraints from fluid–mineral equilibria modeling were used to reconstruct the pressure–temperature conditions of the Alpine fissure veins and to compare them with the metamorphic path of their host rocks. The data demonstrate that fluids in the Aar massif were trapped close to the metamorphic peak whereas the fluids in the Penninic nappes record early cooling, consistent with retrograde alteration. The good agreement between the fluid–mineral equilibria modeling and observed fluid compositions and host‐rock mineralogy suggests that the fluid inclusions were entrapped under rock‐buffered conditions. The molar Cl/Br ratios of the fluid inclusions are below the seawater value and would require unrealistically high degrees of evaporation and subsequent dilution if they were derived from seawater. The halogen data may thus be better explained by interaction between metamorphic fluids and organic matter or graphite in metasedimentary rocks. The volatile content (CO₂, sulfur) in the fluid inclusions increases systematically as function of the metamorphic grade, suggesting that the fluids have been produced by prograde devolatilization reactions. Only the fluids in the highest grade rocks were partly modified by retrograde fluid–rock interactions, and all major element compositions reflect equilibration with the local host rocks during the earliest stages of postmetamorphic uplift.     

CANDID DISCUSSIONS ABOUT FIELDWORK: The New Ethnographer pre-field training workshop

In this conference review, the author reviews the first The New Ethnographer (TNE) pre-fieldwork training workshop for doctoral students that took place over two days at the London School of Economics and Political Science in February 2020. TNE's approach to pre-fieldwork training runs counter to institutionalized approaches of risk management: it acknowledges fieldwork's inherent messiness and ethnographers’ emotional and embodied entanglements, while inviting participants to rethink the language of ‘risk’ and ‘danger’. TNE's contribution lies in facilitating frank and experimental conversations between early career researchers, first via its digital platform, and now through scenario-based learning in the classroom.     

Enterprise Discourse and Executive Talk: Stories that Destabilize the Company

In this paper, we are interested in dissolving the dominant representation of the enterprise as a singularity and a site of rational, reproductive and progressive imperatives. It is this discursive figuring that, in our view, stands in the way of the development of more innovative forms of politics involving claims on corporate wealth. We offer a discussion of enterprise discourse that highlights contradictory narratives of the corporation and the multiplicity of logics seen to determine its dynamics. Taking the Australian-based multinational BHP, in particular its steel division, as our object of analysis, we use excerpts from interviews conducted with two ex-general managers of the Newcastle steel plant to deconstruct the dominant monopoly capitalist representation of the company. Drawing upon existing enterprise discourses and fragments of executive talk, we produce a decentred, 'disorganized' representation of the enterprise, and point to the ways in which it might invigorate a new form of politics in and around the corporation.     

Financial narratives of the modern corporation

This paper is about the ways that financial narratives are usedby corporations to drive organizational change. Analysis offinancial practices within BHP Ltd, a large Australian resourcescompany, is used to trace the development of new managementstrategies, how they have been propelled by financial tacticsand tools and how specific investment outcomes have been valorizedto the exclusion of others. The second section of the paperfocuses on the role of the logics of finance and accountingin general and the ways particular corporate accumulation anddistributional outcomes are produced. The section draws heavilyon insights into accounting representations of the firm in thework of Anthony Hopwood and his peers centred on the journalAccounting, Organizations and Society. The third section discussespossibilities for alternate distributional outcomes which mightarise from different stakeholder participation in the governanceand operation of large firms.