Too little,too late: the geochemistry of a 1773 Philadelphia porcelain openwork basket

A dated (1773) openwork basket labelled “PHILADELFIA” attributed to the Bonnin and Morris factory has a lead-bearing, silicious–aluminous–calcic (S-A-C) composition that contrasts with the phosphatic (bone ash) porcelains known to have previously been made during the mid-1760s to early 1770s in what is now the United States. The basket was underfired and so contains relics of a flint (Pb) glass flux, but kiln temperatures were nonetheless sufficient for subsolidus pseudowollastonite and anorthite to have been resorbed, implying that the duration of firing (soaking) near peak kiln temperatures was insufficient to ensure thorough vitrification. During cooling, liquidus pseudowollastonite and silica polymorphs (but not anorthite) formed, showing that the melt was confined to the tridymite–pseudowollastonite cotectic above the Trd–Wol–An eutectic (1170 °C) in the SiO₂–Al₂O₃–CaO system. Rapid cooling is also indicated by quenched silica polymorphs in the relict glass particles. Although Bonnin and Morris employed some former Bow (London, c. 1743–74) workers, the S-A-C wares initially produced by this factory are compositionally distinct from the 1773 basket, which in this regard more closely resembles the body and glaze of a reputed Chelsea triangle-period (London, c. 1745–49) vessel. Regardless of how they obtained this technology, it is ironic that Bonnin and Morris chose to abandon phosphatic pastes in favour of what in Britain had become an obsolete formula.     

Flake scar patterns of Clovis points analyzed with a new digital morphometrics approach: evidence for direct transmission of technological knowledge across early North America

Clovis points are the principal diagnostic artifacts of a Clovis complex that spread across North America between ca. 11,050–10,800 radiocarbon years before present. Clovis may be the best documented Paleoamerican culture in North America, but much remains to be learned about the movement and interactions of Clovis peoples. Similarities among Clovis points from geographically diverse locations have led some researchers to suggest that a uniform projectile point technology existed across North America during Clovis times. Others have rejected this idea, proposing local and independent technological adaptations to different regional environments. To investigate these ideas, we used digital morphometrics to analyze 50 Clovis points from nine different contexts. First, 3D surface models of the points were created with a portable laser scanner. Next, these models were digitally cross-sectioned through both faces, yielding two-dimensional isoheight contours of flake scar patterns that reflect the original reduction techniques used to shape the projectile points. In the final step, the contours were transformed with elliptic Fourier analysis into Fourier coefficient series, and patterns of variation and symmetry were explored with principal components analysis. When compared to modern Clovis point replicas made by an expert knapper, the flake scar contours of the ancient Clovis points showed little morphological variation and a large degree of bifacial symmetry. Our results support the existence of a widespread standardized “Clovis” knapping technique, most likely transmitted through direct interaction between knappers from different groups.     

The Sheep Project (1): determining skeletal growth,timing of epiphyseal fusion and morphometric variation in unimproved Shetland sheep of known age,sex, castration status and nutrition

The Sheep Project was designed to investigate the effects of castration, breeding age and nutritional plane on bone growth, epiphyseal fusion, tooth eruption and tooth wear in sheep. The project investigates a population of 356 unimproved Shetland sheep skeletons evenly distributed between females bred at different ages, males and castrates, raised on either high or low nutritional planes. This first instalment focuses on two aspects of our larger study, namely bone growth and epiphyseal fusion as affected by sex, castration and nutrition. Nutrition, sex and castration are shown to influence bone growth in ways that are often element-dependant and not consistent through time. We demonstrate that metric variability (variance) is strongest in males, with little difference between females and castrates, and that, in our sample, nutrition has little influence on variance in any sex cohort. Of importance to the development of models of past animal management this study demonstrates that the standard epiphyseal fusion ranges used by zooarchaeologists are too narrow in most instances and do not account for the large variation between sexes or the lesser variation between planes of nutrition. We recommend methods for recognizing castration and the presence of more than one sheep breed, or type, within the zooarchaeological record.     

Die ‘Krüppelfürsorge’ in der Weimarer Republik. Zwischen eigenem Standpunkt und diskursiver Anschlussfähigkeit an eugenische Argumentationsstrukturen

The ‘Krüppelfürsorge’ during the Weimar Republic. Oscillating between an Own Position and the Adoption of Eugenic Arguments. This article examines the discourse about physical disability led by the German ‘Krüppelfürsor‐ge’. It deals with the exhibition GeSoLei (Gesundheitspflege, soziale Fürsorge and Leibesübungen), which took place in Düsseldorf in 1926. The GeSoLei was one of the most popular platforms of the healthy and aesthetic body in the 1920s. It stood in the context of the German ‘national recovery’ after World War I and collected all types of medical, social and athletic professionals to expose their work to a broader audience. Also representatives of the so called ‘Krüppelfürsorge’ presented themselves and at the same time their perspective on people with physical disabilities on this exhibition. The article points out the ambivalent character of their perspective and shows the mixture of including and excluding people with physical disabilities, which was typical for the view of the ‘Krüppelfürsorge’. It demonstrates that the ‘Krüppelfürsorger’ on the one hand were quite progressive towards people with disabilities, but on the other hand showed a striking openness towards eugenic values.     

"The dangers of this atmosphere": a Quaker connection in the Tavistock Clinic's development

During the Second World War, through innovations in officer selection and group therapy, the army psychiatrists John Rickman and Wilfred Bion changed our understanding of leadership. They showed how soldiers under stress could develop real authority through their attentiveness to each other. From contrasting experiences 25 years earlier each had seen how people in groups are moved by elemental forces that undermine judgement and thought. This article arose from my experiences as a trainee at the Tavistock Clinic, where the method of reflective work discussion, giving individuals seated in a circle the choice to speak or to remain silent, seemed similar to a Quaker meeting. Many decades later, I found that this association had a basis in fact. Among other influences on Bion -- a childhood in India, distinguished service in the First World War, and a surgical apprenticeship with Wilfred Trotter -- there is a little-acknowledged Quaker source, in John Rickman, for Bion's radical work in the army that led to new methods of training and organizational consultancy in the postwar Tavistock.     

Geochemistry of sauceboats excavated from Independence National Historical Park (Philadelphia): evidence for a Bonnin and Morris (c. 1770–73) provenance and implications for the development of nascent American porcelain wares

Porcelain sauceboats excavated from a privy with a late 18th century (1786 or later) context at Independence National Historical Park (INHP) are anomalously Al-rich compared with previously analysed Anglo-American sulphurous phosphatic wares. Apart from their S content, they are most similar to phosphatic W^m Reid porcelain (Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, c. 1755–67, and its branch at Shelton, Staffordshire) in terms of their major element constituents, but they contain heavy minerals (e.g., TiO₂ polymorphs) and in this regard resemble a dated (1773) silicious-aluminous-calcic (S-A-C) Bonnin and Morris porcelain (Philadelphia) openwork porcelain basket. In terms of morphology and composition, some TiO₂ polymorphs in the 1773 basket match those from clay from White Clay Creek, Delaware, a resource reputedly exploited by Bonnin and Morris. Their high Nb/Cr ratios indicate derivation from a metapelitic (or granitic pegmatite) source. So too do some from the INHP sauceboats, although others are chrome-rich (∼1% Cr₂O₃), indicating a mafic source. The bedrock beneath White Clay Creek includes metasediments, granitic pegmatite, and metabasites (e.g., of the Wissahickon Formation), pointing to a local source for the TiO₂ polymorphs in the porcelains described here. Although the evidence for a Bonnin and Morris provenance for the INHP sauceboats is circumstantial, their enrichment in heavy minerals, unusual – perhaps experimental – compositions, and aesthetic characteristics nonetheless suggest a Philadelphia origin for these artifacts. The compositions of 18th century Philadelphia porcelain support the contention that knowledge of phosphatic and S-A-C pastes originating in London was transferred first to Staffordshire and Liverpool, and then to Philadelphia, perhaps via a potter by the name of W^m Ball.     

White socio-spatial epistemology

Recent work by geographers concerned with the enduring presence of racism has called for an interrogation of the privileges and contingencies of whiteness. Central to this project of denaturalizing White Identity has been the disclosure of its co-constitution with a host of social practices. Building on the work of critical theorists in the humanities and social sciences concerned with masculinist and post-colonial epistemologies, this paper outlines a socio-spatial epistemology of whiteness. Whiteness's central tenets are an essentialist and non-relational construction of space and identity that underwrite its claims to be realized independent of an Other. Spatially, this refusal manifests itself in the deployment of discursive categories associated with scales, boundaries and extensivity in ways that reify space into discrete, unrelated parcels. We discuss some of the implications of this non-relational construction of space and identity in the context of residential segregation and spatial mobility. The paper concludes by noting that historically and geographically specific forms of whiteness have drawn upon a common socio-spatial framing and that further study in this field will benefit anti-racist activism by disclosing the workings of racialization in numerous human geographic contexts.