Notices—notes de lecture

Inventing the barbarian. Greek self‐definition through tragedy, Edith HALL, Oxford, 1989, paperback 1991, 277 + xvi pages ISBN 0–19–314895‐X

Mithra et le mithriacisme, Robert TURCAN, Paris, Les Belles Lettres Histoire, 1993, 100 FF.

Les Exempla médiévaux. Introduction à la recherche suivie des tables critiques de l'Index exemplorum de Frederic C. Tubach, Jacques BERUOZ et Marie Anne POLO DE BEAUUEU éds, Carcassonne, 1993. Avant‐propos de Claude BREMOND, Jacques LE COFF. et Jean‐Claude SCHMITT

La Royauté sacrée dans le monde chrétien, Alain BOUREAU et Claudio Sergio INCERFLOM éds, Paris (Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), 1992, 165 pages avec illustrations, 230 FF (collection “L'Histoire et ses représentations”, 3) ISBN 2–7132–0973–0

Court and Culture. Dutch Literature 1350–1450, Frits Pieter VAN'OOSTROM, University of California Press, Berkeley and Oxford, 1992, ISBN 0–520–06777–0

Het hof van Gelre. Cultuur ten tijde van de hertogen uit het Gulikse en Egmondse huis (1371–1473), Gerard NIJSTEN, Kok Agora, Kampen 1992. 503 p., ill, Zusammenfassung, ISBN 90–391–00578. fl.89,‐

Richelieu and his Age, Joseph BERG1N et Laurence BROCKUSS éds, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992, xvii + 288 p.

Recent verleden. De geschiedenis van Nederland in de twintigste eeuw, J.J. WOLTJER, Amsterdam, Balans. 1992, 568 pp., fl. 59,50. ISBN 90–5018–152‐X.

Past and Present—Special ‘Europe’ Edition, No. 137. November 1992, edited by Joanna INNES and Paul SLACK.     

Cold War landscapes: towards an environmental history of US development programmes in the 1950s and 1960s

This essay examines the environmental history of US development programs during the early Cold War. The first part of the essay revisits Point Four programs, arguing that resource development was an essential, but now frequently overlooked component. The rest of the article reviews several recent scholarly works about development to examine changes in three crucial parts of the global environment: river systems, agriculture, and human health. These recent works show how central environmental manipulations were to American development programs. I stress the importance of looking not just at the ideas behind a project, but also what happens ‘on the ground,’ especially the meanings local residents attach to environmental changes.     

Genocide and frontier violence in Australia

Did frontier conflict in Australia amount to genocide? Answers to this question have revolved around topics such as contemporary understandings of the conflict, intent, the applicability of the term to Australian history and considerations of Indigenous agency. In this historiographical article, we argue that ‘genocide’ is a useful framework with which to understand the frontier experience in the Australian colonies. From that perspective, we provide a critical review of the literature up to the present.     

Archaeogenetic study of prehistoric rice remains from Thailand and India: evidence of early <Emphasis Type="Italic">japonica</Emphasis> in South and Southeast Asia

We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryza sativa) from six archaeological sites, including two from India and four from Thailand, ranging in age from ca. 2500 to 1500 BP. In total, 221 archaeological grains were processed by PCR amplification and primary-targeted fragments were sequenced for comparison with modern sequences generated from 112 modern rice populations, including crop and wild varieties. Our results include the genetic sequences from both the chloroplast and the nuclear genomes, based on four markers from the chloroplast and six from the nuclear genome. These markers allow differentiation of indica rice from japonica rice, the two major subspecies of Asian rice (O. sativa) considered to have separate geographical origins. One nuclear marker differentiates tropical and temperate forms of subspecies japonica. Other markers relate to phenotypic variation selected for under domestication, such as non-shattering, grain stickiness (waxy starch) and pericarp colour. Recovery and identification of sequences from nuclear markers was generally poor, whereas recovery of chloroplast sequences was successful, with at least one of four markers recovered in 61 % of archaeological grains. This allowed for successful differentiation of indica or japonica subspecies variety, with japonica identified in all the Thai material and a mixture of indica and japonica chloroplasts in the two Indian assemblages. Rice subspecies was also assessed through conventional archaeobotanical methods relying on grain metrics, based on measurements from 13 modern populations and 499 archaeological grains. Grain metrics also suggest a predominance of japonica-type grains in the Southeast Asian sites and a mixture of japonica and indica in the Indian sites with indica in the minority. The similar results of grain metrics and ancient DNA (aDNA) affirm that grain measurements have some degree of reliability in rice subspecies identification. The study also highlights the great potential of ancient DNA recovery from archaeological rice. The data generated in the present study adds support to the model of rice evolution that includes hybridization between japonica and proto-indica.     

The study of spatiotemporal patterns integrating temporal uncertainty in late prehistoric settlements in northeastern Spain

This paper explores the integration of two variables that are typically difficult to use in spatial analysis: time and uncertainty. A framework is constructed to analyse mid- and long-term variation in settlement dynamics during late prehistory in northeastern Spain. Following previous proposals, an aoristic model is built with ceramic dating to feed a Monte Carlo simulation that explores the case study using a discrete time-step approach. At the same time, available radiometric dating is used to validate the accuracy of the simulation results. Departing from the static analysis of spatial variables, the model proposes a new approach by which researchers can address temporal uncertainty. The results show that patterns detected by classical spatial analysis can be produced by artefacts derived from the division of time in chronological units instead of discrete time periods. The model is also used to compare a priori identical variations whose rate of change, when analysed with this approach, is revealed to be completely different.     

Millet,the late comer: on the tracks of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panicum miliaceum</Emphasis> in prehistoric Greece

Archaebotanical evidence for Panicum miliaceum is reviewed for prehistoric Greece including published and unpublished recent finds, providing a basis for exploring the context of the appearance of millet in Greece, the timing of its introduction and cultivation, and its significance in terms of contacts, movement of people, and cultural identity as expressed through culinary practice and food consumption. To this end, the archaeobotanical record is examined together with human isotopic, archaeozoological, and artefactual evidence. Millet is introduced to the northern part of Greece sometime during the end of the 3rd millennium bc and established as a widely used crop during the Late Bronze Age. Isotopic evidence suggests that millet consumption during the Late Bronze Age was not widespread but confined to certain regions, settlements, or individuals. Millet is suggested to reach Greece from the north after its spread westwards from China through Central Asia and the steppes of Eurasia. The timing of the introduction of millet and the horse in northern Greece coincide; the possibility therefore that they are both introduced through contacts with horse breeding cultures cultivating millet in the north and/or northeast is raised. Intensified contact networks during the Bronze Age, linking prehistoric northern Greece to central Europe and the Pontic Steppes, would have opened the way to the introduction of millet, overland via river valleys leading to the Danube, or via maritime routes, linking the Black Sea to the north Aegean. Alternatively, millet could have been introduced by millet-consuming populations, moving southwards from the Eurasian steppes.