THE PROVENANCE OF DONKEY MILLS FROM ROMAN BRITAIN

Pompeiian-style (hourglass) grain mills are common at many Roman sites within the circum-Mediterranean countries. Three examples are known from Corfe Mullen, London and Hamworthy in southern Britain. Petrographic examination, chemical and microprobe analyses indicate that the Corfe Mullen millstone and the London donkey mill were imported from central France into southern Britain. The Hamworthy mill should be designated a ‘flat donkey mill’, and represents a recent (post-Roman) import from a volcanic source in Sardinia. There is no evidence of importation of Roman donkey mills from Germany or for transportation of such mills (or stylistic derivatives) north of London.     

UNRAVELLING THE POPULATION TURNAROUND IN RURAL CANADA

This paper attempts to unravel the rural population turnaround in Canada through a disaggregation and analysis of rural growth rates by (1) two decades, 1961–71 and 1971–81, (2) the farm and non-farm components of rural population, (3) provincially based regions, and (4) area types based on proximity to urban centres. Following a discussion of the various definitional and boundary-matching issues arising from the use of the Census of Canada, results are presented in tabular and map form. Although rural growth rates did in all likelihood exceed urban rates in the 1970s, the extent of this turnaround is undoubtedly exaggerated in the census data, primarily because of definitional and reclassification effects. Moreover, setting aside data-related anomalies, there is strong evidence that much of this rural population growth was in fact ‘spillover’ from urban centres. Cet essai traite du virage pris par la population rurale au Canada au moyen d'une décomposition et d'une analyse des taux de croissance rurale où interviennent(1) les deux décennies 1961–71 et 197 1–81, (2) les com-posantes agricoles et non-agricoles de la population rurale, (3) les régions définies sur une base provinciale, et (4) les types de zones établies à partir de la proximité par rapport aux centres urbains. Les problèmes de définition et de démarcation d'aires comparables soulevés par I'utilisation des données du Recensement du Canada sont abordés en premier lieu. Puis, les résultats sont présentés sous forme de cartes et de tableaux. Bien que les taux de croissance rurale aient, selon toute vraisemblance, dépassé les taux urbains dans les années 70, I'ampleur de ce virage réulte sans doute d'exagérations dans les données du recensement, prin-cipalement attribuables aux effets de délimitation et de reclassification. De plus, mises à part les anomalies relatives aux données, il y ade bonnes raisons de croire que cette croissance de la population rurale provient en grande partie du décongestionnement des centres urbains.     

THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING OF MATERIALS WHICH EXHIBIT ANOMALOUS FADING

This article reports a generalised and systematic approach to the thermoluminescence (TL) dating of samples which suffer from anomalous fading. We hypothesise that the TL signal from each mineral phase is composed of a stable and an unstable portion. The decay of the unstable TL is accelerated thermally, until only stable TL remains. The dating is then carried out on this stable signal. The results, on four known-age, coeval samples, exhibiting gross anomalous fading (25-50% loss over a few days), indicate that many, if not all, samples may successfully be dated with this approach.     

Net migration,unemployment, and the business cycle

"An empirical test of the effects of exogenous shocks upon a region's population size is conducted in the framework of an equilibrium locational model. The model emphasizes the separation of endogenous from exogenous factors, a point omitted in most empirical studies of aggregate migration. Exogenous changes are manifested in the local relative cost of living and the local relative unemployment rate. Hypotheses are tested using a national sample of youth, in addition to census, data [for the United States]. Surprisingly, a simple measure of the size of shock to a regional economy has the greatest explanatory power compared to more sophisticated measures based on prior business cycles."     

THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF URBAN CULTURAL AMENITIES*

ABSTRACT. This paper uses a two-stage hedonic wage approach to derive the benefits from improvement of five cultural amenities. It is argued that the hedonic approach permits valuation of both private and local public aspects of cultural goods since access to the amenity is an essential input in the production of the final service flow. Empirical estimates of willingness to pay suggest price and income elasticities are approximately unity. Lower-bound estimates of marginal benefits for a representative city range from $0.85 million for an additional theater to $57.9 million for an additional zoo facility.