Optically stimulated luminescence dating of the city wall system of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia)

In addition to a series of chronological markers (artefacts, pottery) in the archaeological contexts of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to generate reliable ages for the city wall system of the oasis. A massive aeolian sand deposit burying the oldest part of the outer wall of Tayma was sampled to obtain a minimum age for the construction of this wall. The sequence of OSL ages from the inactive dune (ID) (4900 ± 300 a, 5100 ± 400 a, 4400 ± 300 a, 3900 ± 200 a, 4000 ± 200 a) is in full accordance with ¹⁴C-AMS ages of charcoal embedded into the same dune (4190–4420 cal BP, 3870–4080 cal BP). Underlying alluvial samples from the inactive gravel sheet (IGS) in contrast give maximum ages for the construction which scatter between 6600 ± 300 a and 4900 ± 400 a. The new dating sequence provides evidence that the oldest part of the ancient city wall system already existed in the 2nd half of the 3rd mill. BC which is earlier than expected thus far from archaeological and architectural interpretation.     

Defending the rise of western culture against its multicultural critics

It is only in Western Europe that the whole pattern of culture is to be found in a continuous succession and alternation of free spiritual movements; so that every century of Western history shows a change in the balance of cultural elements, and the appearance of some new spiritual force which creates new ideas and institutions and produces a further movement of social change (Christopher Dawson).     

World history—for africa,against europe

Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past. By Patrick Manning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 384 pp. £50.00 cloth; £18.99 paper.     

Manufacturing Modernity: Cleaning,Dirt, and Neoliberalism in Chile

Since the coming to power in 1973 of the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, neoliberalism in Chile has been discursively tied to the goal of “modernizing” Chilean society. This discourse of modernization has relied for its articulation upon another important discourse, that of “cleanliness” as a marker of progress: clean spaces are seen as those of modernity whereas dirty spaces are taken to represent social and economic “backwardness”. In this paper, then, we explore how spaces which are considered emblematic of the modern economy—shopping malls, giant office complexes, university campuses—are maintained as clean spaces. However, in order for the discourse of cleanliness as modernity to work, it is crucial that the corridors of mobility—train routes, subways, city streets—which allow passage between these nodes of the modern economy also be maintained as sanitary spaces. The result is the construction discursively of an almost seamless nexus of hygienic spaces, one which stands in contrast to the dirty spaces of the “other” Chile. The paradox in all of this, however, is that the workers who are crucial to this project—janitors—have suffered greatly as a result of neoliberalism.     

Asia First?

This paper defends the traditional argument that sometime in the medieval/early modern era Europe took a historical path that set it decisively apart from other civilizations. The claim is not that medieval/early modern Europe was already more advanced than Asia in terms of overall economic performance, technological capability, and living standards. It is that from the twelfth century onwards Europe showed itself to be a great learner, in a cumulative, self-reinforcing process of assimilation, innovation, and invention. This modern trait gave Europe a unique developmental dynamic.     

The Dynamics of Regional Disparities in Central and Eastern Europe during Transition

This paper examines the evolution of territorial imbalances in per capita income in the Central and Eastern Europe regions between 1990 and 2001. In order to overcome the limitations of conventional convergence analysis, we have combined a non-parametric approach that allows us to study the dynamics of the entire cross-section distribution, with a series of theoretical results and measures taken from the literature on personal income distribution. The results obtained show an overall reduction in regional inequality over the study period. This process has been compatible with the simultaneous presence of between-country convergence and within-country divergence. Likewise, we have observed a reduction in the development gap between the sample regions and Western Europe. In any event, the polarization of the distribution under consideration has decreased, while the registered level of intra-distribution mobility is relatively low. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the important role played in explaining the distribution dynamics by factors such as the national component, spatial location, productive structure, agglomeration economies and the percentage of gross domestic product devoted to investment.     

(Un)Inventing America: the transpacific Indies in Oviedo and Gómara

In this article, I analyze the so-called ‘discovery of the Pacific’ and its implications for Spanish understanding of global geography, in two of the most important early histories of the early encounter with the New World: the works of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Francisco López de Gómara. Their general histories of the Indies tackle the Pacific in their accounts of the various expeditions that Spain sent to the Moluccas and Philippines between 1519 and 1542. There we see how both historians struggle to contain the discovery that the Pacific was much broader and emptier than anyone had expected it to be, and thereby prevent it from becoming, in the Spanish imagination, an insurmountable barrier that decisively separated America from Asia. Oviedo is committed to the idea that the Indies are a single tropical expanse that can be successfully spanned by Spanish military might and navigational skill, no matter how large an ocean it contains. Gómara gives up on the unified Indies, embraces the ‘invention of America,’ but miniaturizes the Pacific in order to keep Spain's South Sea ambitions alive. Each in his own way thereby articulates the New World with broader geographies and expansive horizons.     

Evidence of contact between New and Old World: paleoparasitological and food remains study in the Tagus river population of Sarilhos Grandes (Montijo,Portugal)

The period of European maritime expansion that started in the fifteenth century had a great impact on trading, on human migrations and consequently in the dispersion of infectious diseases. Portugal was at the core of this expansion; however, studies about parasitic infections, especially helminths, are lacking. This study aims to help reduce this gap presenting the results of microscopic analysis of soil sediments collected from the São Jorge churchyard of Sarilhos Grandes (Montijo). Consecrated in the fourteenth century AD, it remained as a burial ground until the nineteenth century. Soil samples collected from the pelvic girdle of five adult individuals and samples taken as control were analysed under the microscope after current conventional methodological procedures were undertaken. Eggs from Ascaris lumbricoides were identified. Also eggs of trichostrongyle type species were identified in two individuals and may represent the first report in archaeological European samples. Food remains include potato and rice starches, muscle fibres, bivalves, pollen grains and fungi spores. The stratigraphy interpretation together with potato findings put the oldest skeletons to a chronology around the sixteenth century AD. These results are consistent with historical sources that documented the prominence of Tagus river nearby villages in maritime expansion.