A Neolithic dugout from a multi-period site near St Albans, Herts, England

In December 1988 rescue excavations on a multi-period gravel site 5 km south-east of St Albans revealed the charred remains of a probable logboat containing cremated human and animal remains. Radiocarbon dating indicated a date in the early 4th millennium BC. The site continued to be used sporadically until the Late Iron Age, and there is some indication that it may have continued to have a ritual significance. The excavation also recorded one (possibly two) Early Saxon sunken floor huts, and ovens and ditches associated with medieval Parkbury.     

An Illustration of the Use of an Atypicality Index in Provenancing British Stone Axes

An atypicality index has been used to compare the chemical compositions of 11 British prehistoric implements (axes and axe‐hammers, and a mace) with previously suggested and likely sources in South Wales (Group XIII spotted dolerite from the Carnmenyn area, and Group VIII rhyolite from Carnalw). Atypicality indices together with mineralogy indicate that only two out of six supposed Group XIII implements are likely to be Group XIII, and only one of the five rhyolite implements is likely to originate from Carnalw. These results provide statistical support for earlier provenancing of seven of the implements, and provide the first geochemical source information for four implements. The results illustrate the usefulness of the atypicality index in archaeology, and support the idea that Groups XIII and VIII comprise a larger variety of chemical types than previously thought. Further work is now needed to determine how prevalent this variety is within these implement groups.     

Ancients and moderns in medieval music theory: from Guido of Arezzo to Jacobus

ABSTRACT

Medieval discourse about both the theory and practice of music featured much debate about the views of moderni and antiqui from when Guido of Arezzo devised a new way of recording pitch in the early eleventh century to the complaints of Jacobus in the early fourteenth century about new forms of measured music in the ars nova. There was also a shift from a Boethian notion that practical music was a manifestation of cosmic music, towards a more Aristotelian model, that privileged music as sensory experience. That this could have a profound effect on human emotion was articulated by Johannes de Grocheio writing about music c. 1270 and Guy of Saint-Denis soon after 1300 about plainchant. Jacobus, writing in the 1320s, was troubled by this shift in thinking about music not as reflections of transcendent realities, but as sounds of human invention that served to move the soul. He argued that musical patterns should reflect a transcendent harmony that was both cosmic and celestial.     

On the Transformative Potential of Community Land Trusts in the United States

Growing interest in non‐capitalist ownership models raises empirical questions about the political implications of such models. In this paper we ask: are non‐capitalist property ownership models inherently politically transformative? A study of community land trusts (CLTs) based in Minnesota illustrates that alternative property models do not necessarily produce transformative political outcomes. Interviews of those involved in CLTs revealed that they most often engage in affirmative politics, rather than challenging structural problems. Seeds of transformation were evident in these CLTs as well, however, and we explore these moments through four lenses of transformation in order to see the potential building blocks toward other worlds. To this end, we highlight changes in participant subjectivities, collective relationship building, the cultivation of community control, and the subversion of power hierarchies. While these moments offer pathways toward greater transformation, this study reveals the necessity of intentionally transformative practice in alternative ownership models.