The arts of memory revived: The re‐interpretation of old parliament house

Abstract

The authors discuss the interpretation of Old Parliament House in Canberra, which ceased being the site of the Australian Federal Parliament in 1988 and is now an historic building and open to the public. The challenge lies in a building, which is not only an historic piece of architecture, which contains the National Portrait Gallery, but also the site of all Australian federal political life for sixty years. How to tell such a plethora of stories to a variety of visitors remains a daunting proposition.     

Notice of the Annual Meeting,at Norwich

Excavations took place in 1969, in advance of housing development, on the site of a fourth-century Roman pottery workshop, two adjacent kilns, a well, a large pit and two burials. The workshop contained internal features linked with pottery production, including possible emplacements for potters' wheels. Two kilns, each constructed differently, were producing grey and colour-coated wares. A large pit was used for rubbish. A well, square in plan, was associated with the workshop and must have provided water for the potters. Of particular interest was a complete millstone, which appears to have been used as a flywheel fixed to a potter's wheel. Pottery production at the site may have continued into the early part of the fifth century and as such is one of the last known production centres of the Roman Nene valley pottery industry. The site is significant in that it probably represents a near complete and typical industrial pottery production unit within a major pottery production area of the province and represents an important aspect of the late Roman economy.     

The history of the United States cent revealed through copper isotope fractionation

Copper isotope fractionation in United States cents traces changes in the source of copper and identifies historical events. Application of copper isotopes as a geochemical tracer requires consistent isotopic signatures of the ores and refined metals. Overlapping isotopic signatures of crushed ores, chalcocite and refined metal extracted from Morenci, Arizona indicate modern mining processes that produce distinguishable single ore deposit geochemical signatures. The coincidence of copper isotope ratios in metals and ore deposits also exists within the United States cents analyzed here. Specifically, historical records confirm two different sources for copper in cents from 1800 through 1867. The copper isotope composition of the 1828, 1830, 1836, 1838 and 1843 cents coincides with the Cornwall ores of England, and cents post 1850 (1859, 1862) correspond with the Michigan ores of the United States. Three of the thirty-six post 1867 cents measured possess fractionated copper isotope ratios and indicate the change in source of copper for the United States cent.     

From Rosa Luxemburg to Hannah Arendt: Socialism,Barbarism and the Extermination Camps

The relationship between Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt has occasionally been noted but rarely systematically discussed. In fact, there is a profound sense in which Arendt's continuing preoccupation with the significance of the extermination camps owes much to Luxemburg's earlier expressed concern that barbarism was a real possibility. Luxemburg first raised this in the context of the First World War, which she saw as a catastrophe marking a fundamental break with the past and opening the way to terrible new possibilities. The terms that Luxemburg used to describe this catastrophe apply better to subsequent events that Arendt was to analyse, particularly the extermination camps (“hell” on earth). In explaining how barbarism could occur, Arendt drew extensively on Luxemburg, emphasising the impact of world wars, imperialism and nationalism, though she was of course then to go further in analysing what barbarism meant when it took place.     

Compositional Analysis by p‐XRF and SEM–EDX of Medieval Window Glass from Elgin Cathedral,Northern Scotland

Thirty shards of medieval window glass from Elgin Cathedral in north‐east Scotland have been subjected to compositional analysis by portable X‐ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy – energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy. Comparison with previous analytical studies suggests that the majority of the glass was probably produced in France, while a smaller group may have been made in Germany. Significant differences in base glass composition were observed between colours. Two distinct blue glasses compositions were identified. The composition of the grisaille paint differs from paint on the continent, providing the first evidence that it was made using local Scottish lead and iron pigments. This work represents the largest analytical study of Scottish medieval window glass yet undertaken and presents insights into the transfer of medieval materials, technologies and trade routes.     

'Proactive fast-tracking' diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade

Supermarkets have spread extremely rapidly in developing countriesafter the ‘take-off’ in the early to mid-1990s.Former analyses of supermarket diffusion have not adequatelyexplained the sudden burst and then exponential diffusion ofsupermarkets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We argue thatrather than taking demand and market institutional and organizationalconditions as ‘exogenous’, as former analyses havetended to do, modern food retailers instead have treated localconditions as substantially ‘endogenous’. To enabletheir rapid growth, supermarkets undertake ‘proactivefast-tracking strategies’ to alter the ‘enablingconditions’ of entry and growth. Beside the retail investmentsthat have been extensively treated in recent literature, theseproactive strategies focus on improving the ‘enablingconditions’ via (i) procurement system modernization and(ii) local supply chain development. One important strategyretailers have used to facilitate (i) and (ii) is to form symbioticrelationships with modern wholesale, logistics and processingfirms. An example we address is ‘follow sourcing’,where a transnational retailer encourages transnational logisticsand wholesale firms with whom the retailer is working in homemarkets, to locate to the developing country. This is a spurto globalization of services in support of retail. Follow-sourcinghas been treated for example in the automobile manufacturessector (follow-sourcing from spare parts manufacturers)—butnot in the food sector. A second important strategy is thatof multi-network-sourcing, in which supermarkets source fromnational, regional and global networks. We analyze that strategyhere, adding to the literature which to date has touched onthis theme only scantly, and for the first time identify typicalpaths, present preliminary evidence (from Central America andIndonesia) concerning this multi-sourcing-network strategy anddiscuss trade implications. One of these is the move to primacyof South–South trade in supermarket sourcing—a newdimension of globalization. By introducing this link of retailertransformation and trade into the literature, we hope to spura new line of research that is timely in light of the trade,development and globalization debates in developing countries.