The geochemical diversity of neogene clay deposits in Crete and its implications for provenance studies of Minoan pottery*

The determination of provenance probably forms the primary role of geochemical analyses in archaeological ceramic studies. In what has comprised a successful field of study, the ultimate basis for such research has been the comparison of pottery compositions with the geochemical diversity displayed by clay deposits within a given study area. Although such studies are now common, the understanding of chemical and mineralogical variability in ceramic raw materials has been somewhat neglected, with the dominance of assumptions rather than the actual analysis of clays. In this paper, a study is presented of Neogene clays in Crete (Greece), a clay type commonly used in ancient and modern pottery production. Sixty‐one samples were taken from 28 locations in the central and eastern parts of the island, to reveal both intra‐ and inter‐deposit variability. In one deposit chosen for multiple sampling, the 14 samples display great variability in the alkali elements, Fe and Co, and to a lesser extent in the REEs. Many of the geographically separate deposits differ from each other in chemical composition, with Eastern Cretan deposits showing higher REE concentrations and higher Th/Sc ratios, whereas Central Cretan deposits of younger geological stages are characterized by a lower Th/U ratio. Mineralogical analysis by XRD is used to explain aspects of the geochemical variability of the clays.     

The moral economy of home construction in late socialist Yugoslavia

Housing shortages in Yugoslav cities were a perennial concern for authorities and citizens alike. They disproportionately affected Yugoslav workers who as a consequence were the demographic most likely to independently construct a family home. This article explores how informal builders justified home construction in moral terms, legitimizing it on the basis of physical labour that was invested in home construction. This was couched in both the language register of Yugoslav socialism and patriarchal custom (according to which a male-headed household should enjoy the right to a family home). Construction was also conditioned by the opportunities and constraints of late socialist temporalities.     

The Epistemological Challenge of Higher Education Student Volunteering: “Reproductive” or “Deconstructive” Volunteering?

Abstract: This paper addresses student volunteering as an important socio‐cultural trend which is generally taken for granted and un‐interrogated. We explore tensions inherent in the practice and articulation of higher education student volunteering, via biographical narratives of contrasting student volunteers and employ Rose's (1993, Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, University of Minnesota Press) theory of “paradoxical space” to unpick and understand these narratives, as this has proven a generative approach to re‐conceptualising students’ engagement with universities and communities. Building on this theoretical approach, we propose a new conceptual framework to analyse students’ learning and understanding of social justice through volunteering. This framework contrasts reproductive altruism, or volunteering which reproduces social inequalities, with a deconstructive form that provides students with resources to recognise and challenge power relations and inequality in society.     

The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History

Our respondents, North American and British alike, have provided a series of perceptive comments on our essay “A Peripheral Vision”. They are as wide-ranging as they are well argued and provide ample food for thought on the direction of Communist historiography, not only in Britain but in America and beyond. We want to thank all of them for their informed, often argumentative and sometimes critical collaboration, as well as Dan Leab, the editor of American Communist History, who has made this exchange possible.     

Conference review

CULTURE IN THE MARKET ECONOMY‐ECONOMY IN CULTURE, Debrecen, Hungary, 19–21 October 1995