JADE and GREENSTONE IN the PREHISTORY of SICILY and SOUTHERN ITALY

Summary: The authors consider the specific nature and possible provenance of the various rock types commonly described as 'jades'or 'greenstones'from which some of the prehistoric axes and adzes in southern Italy and Sicily were made. Despite the presence of jadeite-rich pyroxenes in Calabrian metamorphic rocks, a non-local origin, probably in the north Italian or Alpine zone, seems more likely for 'jadeite'implements in the south. By contrast, nephrite and serpentinite artifacts probably derive from sources in southern Basilicata, Calabria, and possibly northeastern Sicily, where alluvial deposits or natural outcrops could have been exploited. Certain aspects of procurement and techniques of manufacture are comparable with others recorded ethnographically. Evidence emerges for long-distance as well as local and interregional exchange.     

Satisfaction with Sunbelt Migration

Migration to non-metropolitan areas of high environmental amenity and low population is a lifestyle choice made by a small percentage of people on or about the age of retirement from the workforce Although the proportion of older people involved is low, their numbers are significant to host towns. An aspect of retirement migration which has received little attention by researchers in Australia is the extent to which such moves realise hoped for benefits for the migrants. This paper reports results of interviews undertaken in 1986 with 146 people who had migrated, on or about retirement, to the New South Wales north coast town of Port Macquarie. Several indicators of life and place satisfaction were used They all showed high absolute and relative levels of satisfaction. Although there was tittle dissatisfaction with the results of moves, search behaviour undertaken prior to moving and a number of personal characteristics of migrants, are analysed to explain some variance in satisfaction levels.     

FINITE FAULT MODELLING OF NEAR-FIELD ROCK MOTIONS IN THE NEW MADRID SEISMIC ZONE

Due to lack of strong motion records, point-source and finite-fault models have been used to simulate far-field motions at Memphis and St. Louis Cities from earthquake events in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. However, near-field rock motions and their associated uncertainties have never been studied within this zone. The objectives of this study are to develop a simple procedure to account for the uncertainty effect of earthquake source parameters, to analyze the sensitivity of near-field rock motions to input source parameters, and finally, to generate rock motions at two sites located within 11 km from the southwestern segment (strike-fault) and a third site bove the Reelfoot Rift (reverse fault) using a well-validated finite-fault simulation program; FINSIM. An equal-weight logic tree was developed to ensure that the assumed uncertainties are within physical, geological, and seismological constraints. For each site, 100 acceleration time histories with various combinations of parameter uncertainties were respectively simulated for an earthquake of M _w 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0 from each of the two faults. Their average spectral accelerations were in good agreement with those derived from the attenuation relation-ships representative to the Central and Eastern United States. Numerical simulations indicated that spectral accelerations are sensitive to the slip velocity, depth to top of fault, fault strike, slip distribution, and hypocentre location along the strike.     

CONFUSING HISTORY

This compendium of fifty essays by international philosophers examines history from the point of view of its cognate disciplines, historiography and the philosophy of history. The authors often use the terms history, the past, and historiography interchangeably. Essays are grouped in four broad categories: basic problems, major fields, philosophy and sub‐fields of historiography, and classical schools and philosophers of history. The book provides useful insights, some dated by the fashion of postmodernism. The essays are largely independent of one another, and may be read in any order. The volume will be of interest to philosophers, historians, and social scientists with a theoretical bent.     

“The Gospel Has Always Been Disturbing”: The Centrality of “God's Will” to the Cold War Political Activism of the Reverends Frank Hartley and Alfred Dickie

Religious faith was pivotal to the personal ideologies and radical political activism of the Reverends Alf Dickie and Frank Hartley, both of whom were prominent in the Australian peace movement from 1949 until the early seventies. This article examines Dickie's and Hartley's self‐identification as prophets in the context of the optimism of the post‐war era and its subsequent retreat as the Cold War altered the political climate. It examines how their post‐war political activism was framed by a devout faith in the existence of an objective “truth” with regard to the Cold War, a “truth” based on a self‐styled notion of the “Will of God”. Further, it argues that suffering was understood by these self‐declared prophets to be inherent to their mission and was thus embraced, when ostensibly visited upon them, as an affirmation of the righteousness of their cause. For Dickie and Hartley, an active association with the radical Left was a natural expression of God's Will.