Plasters from Different Buildings of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City): Characterization And Provenance

In this work, we present the results of the characterization of 20 lime plaster samples taken from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), the ancient capital of the Aztec empire. The samples come from different buildings of this precinct (A, B and D) and from the west façade of phase VI of the Templo Mayor pyramid. The objective of the work is to characterize the plaster samples, to understand the raw materials used, and to evaluate the presence of similarities and differences among the samples in the building techniques and raw materials employed. All the samples were studied with OM, SEM–EDS and LA–ICP–MS. The study provided evidence of the plastering and replastering practice in the same constructive phases. The results of the analyses showed the existence of important similarities and differences among buildings and constructive phases in the Sacred Precinct. In order to understand the provenance of the limestone used in the plasters, the lumps and the binder of the samples were analysed. The results were compared with those of the limestone outcrops located in central Mexico. The provenance study showed that all the limestone used in the construction of the analysed buildings of Tenochtitlan's Sacred Precinct comes from the Tula region.     

Roman pottery production in Civitas Tungrorum,central Belgium,during the first–third centuries ce

Aspects of Roman pottery production at the workshops of Kontich, Tienen, Rumst, Grobbendonk and Clavier-Vervoz in the Civitas Tungrorum of central Belgium are explored. A total of 150 wasters from five sites were studied macroscopically, as well as via a combination of thin-section petrography, geochemistry and scanning electron microscopy, in order to gain insights into ceramic technology and aspects of the organization of production. Particular emphasis was given to the individual technological sequences and shared strategies of raw material selection, paste preparation and firing employed at the five adjacent sites. The integration of petrographic and geochemical data permitted the establishment of compositional reference groups for the Roman kiln sites of Civitas Tungrorum, which can be used to track their products within the surrounding landscape.     

Geoarchaeology and spatial distributions of the ‘Coche Quemado' obsidian source in north-western Patagonia

In north-western Patagonia, obsidian was used during the entire Holocene, and its importance increased with time. Recent fieldwork discovered a new obsidian source located in the Río Grande, which was called ‘Coche Quemado' (CQ). The results indicate that the CQ source has a different geochemical signal than all other sources in the region. Its use is spatially restricted to piedmont and, to a lesser extent, the plains. Chronologically, CQ was exploited in the middle and late Holocene, and its use accounts for a range of spatial distribution between 150 and 200 km.     

Chemical and mineralogical characterization of Aguada Portezuelo pottery from Catamarca,north-western Argentina: PIXE,XRD and SEM-EDS studies applied to surface pre- and post-firing paints,slips and pastes

Particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microprobe analysis (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analytical techniques were used to characterize surface paints in pre- and post-fired Aguada Portezuelo decorated pottery. Surface paintings in black, white, red, brown, burgundy and ochre were analysed. Major, minor and trace elements were detected by PIXE, whereas XRD and SEM-EDS gave information on the main mineral phases and the characteristic morphology for each analysed pigment. The results obtained indicate that the main colour groups can be easily discriminated by PIXE, and they are characterized by only one pigment for each colour: hematite (red) and manganese mineral oxides (black), respectively, whereas white pigments are characterized by calcite, ghelenite and gypsum.     

Immigrant entrepreneurs,diasporas, and exports

This paper demonstrates the positive effect of immigrant entrepreneurs on manufacturing exports over and above that of diasporas. Using small-scale regional administrative data, our instrumental variable estimates of export gravity models imply that ceteris paribus, that is, holding constant the total number of immigrants, the expected protrade effect of a migrant becoming an entrepreneur amounts to an average increase of US$5,946 in the export flows toward her country of origin. Besides these dyadic effects, immigrant entrepreneurs unlike nonentrepreneurial immigrants raise a region's overall competitiveness and export flows toward other destinations as well.     

Practices of Illegalisation

This article contributes to theorising the often unrecognised continuities between the illegalisation of migrant and refugee mobilities as an effect of lawmaking or other state practices of border policing and immigration law enforcement and the illegalisation of the rights, claims, and juridical status of minoritised citizens. Against a backdrop of resurgent right-wing nationalisms, we pursue this transversal analysis of state practices of illegalisation to draw attention not only to labour subordination and disposability but also the more fundamental relationship between law and terror. The making of such regimes of citizenship takes place in obvious ways at the ostensible outer edges of nation-state territories. They are also replicated in the various spatial arrangements that ensure racialised dispossession within global cities, cities that are better understood as reconfigurations of settler-colonial cities. We argue that the study of practices of illegalisation allows critical poverty scholarship to better discern how sociopolitical categories and classifications that are central to wider processes of marginalisation and domination may arise or be reinforced as effects of the state’s legal productions of illegality.     

胡适与蒋介石(1949—1950)

在中国政局发生巨变的1949—1950年,胡适、蒋介石在面对失败危机时,有着极为密切的合作。蒋介石对胡适极为倚重,他委托胡适赴美活动,后又委任胡为外交部长,都是为讨好美国,以获得美国援助。胡适对蒋介石的支持和拥护是无条件的。他受蒋之托前往美国宣传、游说,争取美援为蒋"辩冤白谤",竭力维护蒋介石的反共领袖地位。在敦促美国和国际社会不承认中共政权方面,胡、蒋也配合默契。胡适还以思想、文化为阵地从事反共斗争。胡、蒋所以能亲密合作,除了有共同的反共诉求外,还是二人互相需要、互相选择的结果。     

Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill? A Low-Cost and Time-Efficient Molehill Survey of the Lost Medieval Harbor Site of Monnikerede,Belgium

Grasslands pose a particular problem for archaeological survey involving artifact assessment, as no material is plowed up to the surface. Although finds in molehills are often the only source of information available on sites with such low visibility, an archaeology of molehills has thus far been largely disregarded. Yet, by applying a low-cost and time-efficient methodology, both the potential and the pitfalls of molehill archaeology come to the forefront. At the medieval harbor site of Monnikerede, it was possible to assess material culture and to locate certain structural elements. However, when artifact densities were compared with the underlying geophysical anomalies, a more complex relationship appeared at the level of individual features.     

Thermal and Petrographic Characterization of Herculaneum Wall Plasters

Roman plasters sampled from different houses at the archaeological site of Herculaneum, Italy, (2010–12) were studied by means of petrography, thermal analysis and X‐ray fluorescence. Herculaneum plasters are composed by preparatory layers (arriccio) with a thickness of several centimetres and are based on a calcitic binder and volcanic scoriae as aggregates, covered by a thin final layer characterized by a low granulometry. Most of the sampled plasters can be placed into two groups based on the aggregate composition and classified as marmorino or intonachino. However, a similar aggregate composition did not induce superimposable thermal behaviour, thus suggesting that the samples underwent different ageing/weathering processes, with a consequent change of the ratio among the components.