Décembre 1993‐Février 1994

Alexandre, P., Plaidoyer impossible pour un vieux président abandonné par les siens (Albin Michel, 1994), 218pp., 95F.

Faux, E., Legrand, T., and Perez, G., La main droite de Dieu. Enquête sur François Mitterrand et l'extrême‐droite (Seuil, 1994), 264pp., 110F.

Montaldo, J., Mitterrand et les 40 voleurs ... (Albin Michel, 1994), 276pp., 120F.

Schneider, R., Les dernières années (Seuil, 1994), 284pp., 120F.     

Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1989

Abstract

CHILDHOOD IS A TIME of rapid biological growth and development, and a stage of the life course during which bodies are particularly sensitive to social and environmental stressors. As a consequence, events which may impact upon a child’s care and treatment can become physically embodied within their bones and teeth. The skeletal remains of children have been neglected within archaeological discourse until recently, but they are, in fact, a particularly important demographic for understanding the impact of social processes on past population health. This research examines the prevalence of skeletal disease in children (≤16 years) in Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) between ad 1000 and 1700. Data for a total of 4,626 children from 95 sites were collated from published and unpublished skeletal reports and analysed for evidence of skeletal changes reflecting disease. A biocultural approach was adopted in which the evidence was interpreted in relation to ecological, social, economic and environmental conditions. It was observed that childhood levels of skeletal stress did increase significantly after 1540. It was noted that during the Reformation sociocultural and economic factors added to stressors in the ecology of the medieval child. The effects of the Reformation were found to be the greatest aggravator in the rise of morbidity prevalence over seven centuries. Differences in morbidity patterns between non-adult age categories indicated that a state of ‘childhood’ existed until at least eleven years of age, after which there appears to have been a gradual transition into adolescence and adulthood.     

New Methods on Old Castles: Generating New Ways of Seeing

THE USE of new methods on old castles generates new ways of seeing and leads to new interpretations. Three types of analyses are demonstrated on four late 13th-century castles from North Wales. Feature Analysis invokes the use of a decision-tree to help in the determination of room function. Access Analysis via access diagrams is used to understand the functional organization of rooms within each castle. Finally, a Comparative Analysis employing access diagrams, plans, a table and a cumulative graph is performed to note developmental trends in the castle designs, to detect differences between the castles, and to lead to new interpretations or new working hypotheses.