A Methodology for Assessing the Heritage of Planned Urban Environments: An Australian Study of National Heritage Values

Although urban planning has made strategic and notable contributions to the production of the built environment, these are under‐represented in heritage discourse. Planned environments deserve more attention as a particular class of place because a better understanding of planning and planning excellence can inform best heritage practice. A stepwise methodology for the heritage assessment of planned environments is presented. It is drawn from an Australian study concerned with the identification of places of possible national heritage significance. The approach is constructed around the identification of historical themes (for the categorisation and benchmarking of places based on historical research), indicators (pertaining to the nature of significance in planning terms) and thresholds (pertaining to the degree of significance). The analytical approach is capable of adaptation to diverse settings in which the heritage contribution of planning may be recognised.     

Cold War heritage and the planned community: Woomera Village in outback Australia

The heritage of the Cold War is attracting increasing international interest. Much of that revolves around technological legacies; less attention has been paid to the community infrastructure which supported defence research, weapons testing and military installations. Security and operational logistics meant that research and development was conducted not only in restricted settings but also in often geographically remote situations. An archetypal example is the Woomera Rocket Range in outback South Australia, where long-range weapons were trialled from 1947 under a joint project between the British and Australian governments. Woomera Village, established as a planned residential facility to support personnel employed on the Range, survives today in a similar role, but with a population greatly diminished from its late-1960s heyday. This paper introduces the Village against the backdrop of Cold War heritage and spatial planning ideology, surveys its raison d’être and growth as a Cold War town, and considers its modern-day status as a heritage place and sustainable community.     

Attempts at thermoluminescence dating of fired materials from the Przeworsk Culture settlements

The thermoluminescence (TL) dating method has a significant measurement error margin reaching almost 10%. Due to this fact it could be considered as little effective in case of such sites from the Roman period as burial grounds with many artefacts useful for archaeological dating. However, for many settlements from this period, where pottery is the only kind of artefacts, the TL method can give notable results. The main purpose of the study was to make an attempt at TL dating of pottery and clay daub samples from the Nieszawa Kolonia and Kręcieszki sites and to compare the obtained dates with the results of archaeological dating of selected features from the Przeworsk Culture settlements. In the Kręcieszki site the fragments of burnt clay daub were dated by the TL method for the first time in the Lublin laboratory. It turned out that clay daub is an equally good dating material as pottery. It can be found that the TL dating of pottery from Nieszawa Kolonia confirms two stages of settlement. The first settlement stage is related to the phases B2-B2/C1-C1a of the Roman period, i.e. from the beginning of the 2^nd to the beginning of the 3^rd century. The second group of TL dates corresponds to the phases C2D that is to the second stage of settlement, from the second half of the 3^rd century to the half of the 5^th century AD. The results of TL dating of pottery and clay daub in the Kręcieszki site are rather similar and correspond to the phase B1/B2 of the period of Roman influence, determined from pottery style, but can also indicate the phase B2/C1.     

A sedimentation study of St. Ana Lake (Romania) applying the <Superscript>210</Superscript>Pb and <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs dating methods

The biggest problem with most lakes that have no contact with other water sources and are being charged by precipitation is the massive eutrophication. The aim of this work was to determine the sedimentation rate in order to evaluate the progress of eutrophication for St. Ana Lake (Ciomad Mountain near the Băile Tuşnad in Harghita County (Romania)). The concentration of ²¹⁰Pb was determined by means of high resolution gamma spectrometry as well as derived from ²¹⁰Po activity which was measured through alpha spectrometry; values obtained are in good agreement. For the excess ²¹⁰Pb activity values between 4.0±0.5 Bq/kg and 218±20 Bq/kg have been found. As an alternative method, the ¹³⁷Cs dating method was applied as well. Calculated mass sedimentation rates are in the range of 0.06±0.01 to 0.32±0.05 g/cm² year with a mean of value of 0.15±0.02 g/cm² year. Linear sedimentation rates yielded much higher sedimentation values (between 0.5±0.1 and 7.9±0.7 cm/year with a mean of 2.4±0.6 cm/year), due to the predominant organic matter composition and the long suspension time of the sediment. This is an indication for the process of eutrophication which will probably lead to the transformation of the lake into a peat bog.     

Archaeological Pragmatics

In the course of the 9th century areas in Western Europe were conquered by the Vikings. The Isles of Orkney were settled by Norwegians and became a stronghold. Some possible economic characteristics of Orkney have been considered in an attempt to gain insight into how the local resources might have: been exploited and into the contact between Norway‐Orkney and The British Isles.     

Rules for Cultural Radicals

Abstract: This article explores the various forms of “social skill”, what we call “rules for cultural radicals”, that the Amber Film and Photography Collective (and primarily its founder and leading visionary, Murray Martin) used to create and sustain an egalitarian arts organization and oppositional cultural movement in the Northeast of England. The collective represented a radical challenge to the world of British filmmaking, featuring innovative practices of cultural work, non‐commodified forms of cultural economy and a commitment to a democratic culture. These “rules” constituted innovative forms of strategic action—visionary leadership, improvisation, risk taking, brokerage—that helped create a durable collective identity and networks of solidarity. We explore the extent to which Amber's “rules” are prefigurative of contemporary forms of cultural activism and radical artistic practice.     

Micronesia: The politics of the colonized

Carl Heine. Micronesia at the Crossroads: A Reappraisal of the Micronesian Political Dilemma. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1974. xvi + 210 pp. Notes, appendices, bibliography, and index. $10.00 (cloth); $2.95 (paper).

Daniel T. Hughes and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, eds. Political Development in Micronesia. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1974. 333 pp. Tables, charts, references, and index. $15.00.     

Anthropology and alcohol: In search of a new paradigm

Jerrold E. Levy and Stephen J. Kunitz. Indian Drinking: Navajo Practices and Anglo‐American Theories. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974. xii + 257 pp. Tables, notes, appendices, bibliography, and index. $12.50.

William Madsen. The American Alcoholic: The Nature‐Nurture Controversy in Alcoholic Research and Therapy. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1974. xvii + 248 pp. References, author and subject indices. $11.50.