The history of the neurological examination. Part 1: ancient and pre-modern history--3000 BC to AD 1850

Every time a physician conducts a neurological examination the process continues a biomedical search for understanding the nervous system which is as ancient as the earliest civilizations in human history. Most of the modern neurological examination evolved in a short time span, between 1850 and 1914, but the origins of neurology as a medical quest for knowledge date to the first evolution of urban life, in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. This paper reviews this history in two chronological segments: part 1 up to 1850 and part 2 the subsequent period.     

Rare Himyaritic coins from Hadramawt

Three rare Himyaritic coins found in the territory of the ancient Hadramawt kingdom are published for the first time. Two of the coins bear the name of the king,'Amdan Bayyin, while the third has the name of Tha'ran Ya'ub.     

ROCK PHYSICS AND THE NEOLITHIC AXE TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN*

This paper is concerned with the products of a number of Neolithic quarries in highland Britain. It investigates the claim that the scale of axe distribution was partly the result of social factors which resulted in these artefacts gaining an added value in areas remote from their sources. One case study considers the sequence of production in Cumbria, in relation to the tensile strength of the rock quarried in different parts of the region. It shows that these considerations had only a limited influence over the choice of stone source and the scale on which it was worked. A second study compares the tensile strength of the main raw materials used for making non-flint axes with the extent to which these sources were actually exploited. Again there is only a limited relationship between the two, suggesting that social factors may indeed have been important.