合浦汉墓出土绿柱石宝石珠饰的科学分析

采用便携式拉曼光谱仪对广西合浦出土的新莽(8—23年)和东汉(25—220年)晚期的宝石珠饰进行了原位无损分析,新发现了一批在外观上极易被误认为各色水晶的绿柱石族矿物(如海蓝宝石和透绿柱石)制作而成的浅蓝色和无色透明珠饰。利用手持式显微镜对绿柱石宝石珠饰的穿孔形状、孔径大小及其内部微痕特征进行了观察分析,参考南亚和东南亚同时期石质珠饰的钻孔工艺及钻具研究成果,认为这批绿柱石珠饰采用了钻石钻头双面对钻钻孔工艺。结合南亚地区宝石资源、出土绿柱石宝石珠饰及其钻孔工艺和加工作坊等情况,认为这批绿柱石宝石珠饰是由南亚经海上丝绸之路输入的舶来品。研究结果为探讨汉代中国南方与南亚和东南亚的经济和文化交流提供了有益信息,有助于提高对古代海上丝绸之路这一贸易网络在传播珍贵物品的认识。     

From Nihewan to Zhoukoudian: Cultural Evolution Pattern in the Paleolithic Age of Northern China

Nihewan and Zhoukoudian are important areas where early humans and cultures originated and reproduced in northern China and even East Asia. Geologically, both site groups belong to the Haihe River valley; chronologically, the Nihewan sites date to ca. 1.7 million years ago, and the Zhoukoudian sites date to ca. 0.5 million years ago; and culturally, both are dominated by the small-flake-tool culture. Thus, it is speculated that the early culture in the Zhoukoudian sites came from the migrants from the Nihewan Basin who facilitated cultural diffusion in the area; in turn, it also affected the culture in the Nihewan area during the subsequent development. This paper proposes the development path of the Paleolithic culture in northern China, that is, early humans in this region roughly experienced three stages of subsistence from lake-dependent to cave-dependent and then to river-dependent.     

WHEN ARTS MET MARKETING

This article argues that arts marketing theory is embedded in the existing context of the nonprofit arts sector – that is, Romantic belief in the universal value of the arts and producer authority over the consumer. As “a set of techniques” and “a decision‐making process”, marketing was able to sit comfortably in the nonprofit arts context during the 1970s and 1980s. However, recent recognition of marketing as “a management philosophy” has brought out incompatibilities between the customer orientation of the marketing notion and the Romantic view of artistic production. This article demonstrates that arts marketing writings embrace Romanticism through the following: generic marketing concept; relationship marketing approach; extended definition of the customer; extended definition of the product; and reduction of marketing to function. Such findings suggest that persistence of the existing belief system and the embeddedness of the market be considered when marketisation in the arts sector is analysed.     

Creative shifts and directions

The availability and “readiness” of culture as a mode of governmental control makes cultural policy a matter of great importance in any contemporary society. This is true not only in liberal democracies with established arts councils or cultural policies, it is also proactively pursued by a technologically advanced yet illiberal regime like Singapore, eager to position itself as the global “Renaissance City” of the twenty‐first century. What this “renaissance” model entails remains highly cryptic, not least because cultural terms and political markers are often elusive, but also because the very concept of “cultural policy” shifts along with the political and economic tides in Singapore. Drawing on a rarely cited essay by Raymond Williams, this article offers an historical look at cultural policy in Singapore – from its first articulation in 1978 to its present standing under the rubric of “creative industries” (2002). It considers some of the problems encountered and the societal changes made to accommodate Singapore’s new creative direction, all for the sake of ensuring Singapore’s continued economic dynamism. This article contends that cultural policy in Singapore now involves extracting creative energies – and economies – out of each loosely termed “creative worker” by heralding the economic potential of the arts, media, culture and the creative sectors, but concomitantly marking boundaries of political exchange. In this regard, culture in Singapore has become more than ever a site for governmentality and control.     

The Takarazuka Girls’ Revue in the West: public–private relations in the cultural diplomacy of wartime Japan

This essay examines wartime Japan’s establishment of culture bureaus and its promotion of the Takarazuka Girls’ Revue in allied European nations and the United States in a moment of international crisis. This overseas cultural policy was part of a series of alternative strategies employed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an effort to persuade the West to acknowledge Japan’s self‐appointed role as a leader in East Asia, capable of producing advanced cultural products on a par with those of western nations. Key features of this essay include the negotiation between state goals and private interests in the performance of cultural diplomacy, as well as the aesthetic articulation of a hybrid Japanese culture which was traditional yet fully modern, particularly as presented on stage through a display of the female body.     

Notice of the Proceedings at the Monthly Meetings of the Archæological Institute

The English glass industry adopted coal as a fuel at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the consequent reduction in costs enabling sales and production to increase. From a minor forest industry, glass manufacture became an important part of the coalfield economy, with innovative furnace structures forming striking features in the eighteenth-century urban landscape. Recent archaeological investigation has shown that glass-works have left significant survivals on subsequently redeveloped sites, in the form of underground flues and furnace bases, and residues from processes.     

戈壁行者

1300多年前,大唐盛世,高僧玄奘沿着丝绸之路出发,独自穿越戈壁,前往遥远的西方寻求佛法。唐玄奘取经路上曾经九死一生,尤其是在甘肃与新疆交界的莫贺延碛戈壁这一段,他实现了人生的超越。2013年5月22日,我们踏上了1300年前的"玄奘之路"。