Gladstone’s Land: the changing face of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile

SUMMARY: This paper presents the results of recent archaeological research into the building known as Gladstone’s Land on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. The aim of the research was to examine to what extent historical fabric had survived in light of extensive historical intervention. The building is a surviving example of Edinburgh’s Old Town urban architecture, which is characterized by tall structures with a shop front and densely occupied residential spaces. The paper presents evidence of the development of the building from the 16th century to its conservation in the 20th century. This development involved the replacement of formerly timber elements in stone and the creation of ornate painted interiors. The history of the building and the archaeological evidence embedded within it offer evidence of the life and changing architectural trends of Scotland’s capital. It also adds to our current understanding of heritage practice in the 20th century, raising issues of authenticity and the social construction of visitor-oriented heritage.     

The Political Slogan in Communist Czechoslovakia (1948–89)

This article employs an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate the role of the political slogan in Communist Czechoslovakia, with reference to Bakhtin’s concept of hierarchically superior texts, as developed by Alexei Yurchak and Michal Pullmann. It argues that the slogan performed a much wider range of temporally specific functions than has been generally recognized, and that its repetitive and ritualistic character had a major psychological effect on people’s memory and perception of reality (see C. Atkinson and R.M. Shiffrin, and David I. Kertzer). A clear distinction is drawn between denotative and connotative meaning, with detailed attention paid to J.L. Austin’s speech act theory, as elaborated by John R. Searle. The first two sections of the article define the concept and the functions of the ‘political slogan’, with special significance accorded to the use of language to establish a binary opposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (à la John B. Thompson’s notion of fragmentation). The third part identifies the sources and methodology adopted, and lists the principal word tokens identified. Following a brief contextualization of the slogan in the next section, the main body of the study uses corpus-assisted statistical analysis to evaluate the development of different thematic, lexical and semantic referents over three broad time spans (1948 to the mid-1950s, the mid-1950s to 1968, and 1969 to 1989).     

The Newshot Island Boat Graveyard: an assemblage of 19th‐century vessels on the Clyde

A project by SCAPE, NAS, and local volunteers at Newshot Island on the Clyde near Glasgow has documented an important ships graveyard dating to the early 20th century. The vessels tell the story of the creation of the Clyde Navigation, represent a significant aspect of the river's history, and exemplify the technological and industrial development of the region. The survey and research revealed that the remains on site include the earliest diving support vessel known to have been recorded, and has resulted in the designation of the remains as a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland.     

Archaeological applications of polynomial texture mapping: analysis,conservation and representation

Polynomial Texture Mapping is an image capture and processing technique that was developed by HP Labs in 2000. It enables the recording and representation of subtle surface details using a standard digital camera and lighting, and software that is free for non-commercial use. Cultural heritage applications have been associated with the technology from its earliest stages, including examples in areas such as cuneiform, numismatics, rock art, lithics and Byzantine art. The paper begins by outlining the technical principles involved. It then brings together the extant work in the field. Through examples developed by the University of Southampton in partnership with a range of UK and international bodies it demonstrates the benefits of the technology in the areas of archaeological analysis, conservation and representation. Finally it considers the future possibilities of this technology and ongoing developments.     

Lower Pecos and Coahuila peyote: new radiocarbon dates

Peyote, a psychoactive cactus native to the Chihuahuan Desert, has been preserved from excavations at only two archaeological sites: Shumla Caves in the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas and shelter CM-79 near Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila, Mexico. We determined three indistinguishable radiocarbon ages of 5160 ± 45, 5200 ± 35, and 5210 ± 35 ¹⁴C years BP, yielding a mean age of 5195 ± 20 ¹⁴C years BP for the three specimens from Shumla Caves. For one of the Cuatro Ciénegas specimens we obtained the first direct radiocarbon date of 835 ± 35 ¹⁴C years BP. This study demonstrates the use of peyote by inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region of the Chihuahuan Desert about 6000 calendar years ago, and confirms its use by inhabitants of the Cuatro Ciénegas region of the Chihuahuan Desert in Late Prehistoric times. The Shumla Caves' specimens are composed of an aggregate of ground peyote mixed with other plant material, i.e., they appear to be manufactured peyote effigies, and are definitely not intact peyote buttons.