A Microfacies Toolkit for Revealing Linkages Between Cultural Discontinuities and Exceptional Geogenic Events: the Tell Da’de Case Study (NE Syria)

High-resolution multi-archive studies have been promoted to reveal abrupt discontinuities that would express rapid social reactions (days to decades) to sudden exceptional geogenic phenomena (climatic, volcanic, tectonic, geomorphic, or cosmic). We expose here how we have adopted this approach for examining the causal linkages between a series of cultural discontinuities encountered through the cultural deposits of Da’de (Syria) and cosmic airbursts. Cosmic events, known to be rare, erratic, and unpredictable, are traced by exceptional debris that formed from aerosols when violently compressed during entry through the earth atmosphere of hypervelocity cosmic collider. They consist of singular organo-mineral materials in the form of volatile-rich hydrocarbon fuel with resistant metal-rich carbonaceous composites and colorful polymers. The archaeological sequence comprises Da’de phases 0 to III that represent a nearly continuous accumulation for 1,000 years during the Pre-pottery Neolithic period (ca. 9,900–8,900 years bp) and two short-term occupation phases during the pre-Halaf (Da’de IV) and early Bronze Age periods (Da’de V). Study of the exceptional debris in virgin soils and occupation deposits at Da’de has allowed to distinguish an intact debris assemblage that pulverized at the ground following an airburst (type 1 natural singular signal) with the ones that have been processed by humans (type 2 anthropic singular signal). Type 1 singular organo-mineral materials were found intact at the contact of the virgin soil with the earliest Pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) occupation layers (Da’de phase 0, area [SB]), at the top part of the virgin soil with the PPNA occupation layers (Da’de phase Ia, area [B]) and just under the lower slabs of the EB III/IV burials (Da’de phase V, area [SB]). This has allowed to establish a strict contemporaneity between cosmic airbursts and remarkable historical events: initial settlement at phase 0, establishment of the magnificent communal building at phase 1, EBIII/IV cemetery after a long period of abandonment. Evidence for the collection of the singular materials (type 2) and meticulous processing of the related hydrocarbon fuel in occupation floors, earthen construction, coloring materials, and objects have been traced from the initial settlement (phase 0) through the successive cultural periods. This correlation has revealed a long-lasting transmission of the value of memorial natural resources which were only available from time to time in the surroundings. The close timing between changes in the use of the singular organo-mineral materials (preparation techniques, types of by-products) and cultural phases has enabled us to identify social discontinuities which correlate to distinctive geogenic events and search of the related exceptional resources. Based on the long-term record from Da’de, cosmic airbursts are suggested to be considered as a new class of dual-discontinuous signal of historical dimension, which have led to sudden (days to months) geogenic shifts in the availability of singular fuel resources and, simultaneously, to rapid cultural responses in their exploitation and use, depending on reactivity of local landscapes to the induced changes at short time scales (decades).     

Clay‐shoveler's fracture: an uncommon diagnosis in palaeopathology

An archaeological case of clay‐shoveler's fracture was observed in an adult male exhumed from a Roman necropolis dated to the 1st–3rd century AD and located in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Clay‐shoveler's fracture is a breakage of a lower cervical or upper thoracic spinous process as a result of mechanical stress. Different mechanisms have been related to this injury, generally in labour‐related contexts. This paper reviews the literature concerning this uncommon finding, focusing especially on its mechanism and on activity‐related lesions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

South American camelid palaeopathologies: examples from Loma Alta (Catamarca,Argentina)

This paper summarises the results of an osteological analysis of two pathologically afflicted South American camelid second phalanges. These come from the occupation level at Loma Alta archaeological site (Catamarca, Argentina) assigned to the local Formative Period (ca. 500 BC–AD 600). Analyses were performed in order to identify the elements to species level and their degree of pathological affliction. A discussion on the probable origin of these pathologies is given. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book reviews

Empire and Order. The Concept of Empire, 800–1800 by James Muldoon. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.viii + 209. £42.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–65013–1.

The Ideological Origins of the British Empire by David Armitage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 239. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59081–7; 0–521–78978–8.

England's Maritime Empire: Seapower, Commerce and Policy, 1490–1690 by David Loades. Harlow: Longman, 2000. Pp.xi + 277, maps. £50.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–35622–6; 0–582–35628–8.

Theatre and Empire: Great Britain on the London Stages under James VI and I by Tristan Marshall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.viii + 211. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7190–5748–5.

Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673–1800 by Eric Hinderaker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 and 2000. Pp.xii + 293. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–56333‐X; 0–521–66345–8.

Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 by Timothy J. Shannon. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 263. No price given (hardback). ISBN 0–8014–3657–5

An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Pp.xviii + 357, maps, tables, illus. $55.00/£41.00 (hardback); $22.50/£17.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–8122–3558–4; 0–8122–1732–2.

A Voyage round the World by George Forster, edited by Nicholas Thomas and Oliver Berghof assisted by Jennifer Newell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 2 vols. Pp.xlvii + 860, illus., maps. ISBN 0–8248–2091–6.

General History of the Caribbean, Volume VI: Methodology and Historiography of the Caribbean edited by B.W. Higman. London and Oxford: Unesco Publishing/Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xxii + 948, illus. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–72460–7; 0–333–72461–5.

The Cultural Politics of Sugar: Caribbean Slavery and Narratives of Colonialism by Keith A. Sandiford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.221. £37.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–64233–7.

History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770–1822 by Pier M. Larson. Portsmouth, NH, Oxford, and Cape Town: Heinemann, James Currey and David Philip. Pp.xxxii + 414, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £16.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–689–6; 0–85255–639‐X.

West Indians in West Africa, 1808–1880: The African Diaspora in Reverse by Nemata Amelia Blyden. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 258. $75.00/£50.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–58046–0461.

A Concise History of Australia by Stuart Macintyre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 320, maps, illus. £30.00 (hardback); £10.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–62359–6; 0–521–62577–7.

Ships, Furs, and Sandalwood: A Yankee Trader in Hawai'i, 1823–1825 by Charles H. Hammatt, edited by Sandra Wagner‐Wright. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. Pp.xxxii + 96. $39.00 (hardback); $18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8248–2258–7 (pb).

Mission und Gewalt: Der Umgang christlicher Missionen mit Gewalt und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in Afrika und Asien in der Zeit von 1792 bis 1918/19 (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, vol. 6) edited by Ulrich van der Heyden and Jürgen Becher. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.557. DM 160,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–515–07624–7.

Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism by Richard H. Grove. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xiv + 540. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–40385–5.

Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and South East Asia edited by Richard H. Grove, Vanita Damodaran, and Satpal Sangwan. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 1,036. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–195–63896–4.

Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400–1940 by Richard H. Grove. Knapwell: White Horse Press, 1997. Pp.237. No price given. ISBN 1–874267–18–9 (hb). 1–874267–19–7 (pb).

Weltmacht oder Untergang: Die Weltreichslehre im Zeitalter des Imperialismus by Sönke Neitzel. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2000. Pp.453. DM 98,‐(paperback). ISBN 3–506–76102–1.

The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492–1962 by Arthur Charles Dayfoot. Kingston, Jamaica: University Press of the West Indies, 1999; Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. Pp.xvii + 360, maps, illus. US$30.00 (paperback); US$49.95 (hardback). ISBN 976–640–061‐X (paperback); 0–8130–1626–6 (hardback).

Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809–1885 by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III. Madison and London: Associated University Presses, 1998. Pp.197. £27.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8386–3729–9.

Negotiating India in the Nineteenth‐Century Media edited by David Finkelstein and Douglas M. Peers. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.xi + 285. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–71146–7.

Cultures of Empire: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A Reader edited by Catherine Hall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 390, photographs. £47.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5857–0; 0–7190–5858–9.

Indians in Britain: Anglo‐Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880–1930 by Shompa Lahiri. London: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.xviii + 249. £42.50 (hardback); £17.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4986–4; 0–7146–8049–4.

Bausteine eines zukünftigen deutschen Mittelafrika: Deutscher Imperialismus und die portugiesischen Kolonien by Rolf Peter Tschapek. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.475. DM 144,‐ (paperback). ISBN 3–515–07592–5.

The Treasury and British Public Policy, 1906–1959 by G.C. Peden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 581. £65.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–820707–7.

Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914: Ein Handbuch edited by Hermann Joseph Hiery. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2001. Pp.880. DM 198,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–506–73912–3.

An Economic History of Malaysia, c. 1800–1990: The Transition to Modern Economic Growth by John H. Drabble. Basingstoke: Macmillan (in association with the Australian National University), Canberra, 2000. Pp.xxiii + 316. £19.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–55300–4.

The Making of Modern Burma by Thant Myint‐U. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp.284. £45.00 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–78021–7; 0–521–79914–7.

East African Doctors: A History of the Medical Profession by John Iliffe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.336. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–63272–2.

India's Prisoner: A Biography of Edward John Thompson 1886–1946 by Mary Lago. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Pp.xi + 388, illus. $39.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–8262–1299–9.

Kuwait, 1950–1965: Britain, the al‐Sabah, and Oil by Simon C. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1999. Pp.167, map, illus. £20.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–726197–3

The Business of Decolonization: British Business Strategies in the Gold Coast by Sarah Stockwell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Pp.ix + 265. £48.00. ISBN 0–19–820848–0.

Defence and Decolonisation in Southeast Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore 1941–68 by Karl Hack. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000. Pp.xiv + 341. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7007–1303–4.

British Documents on the End of Empire, Series A, Volume 4: The Conservative Government and the End of Empire, 1957–64, Parts I and II, edited by Ronald Hyam and Wm. Roger Louis. London: The Stationery Office, 2000. Pp.cix + 825 (Part I); Pp.xxxvii + 811pp (Part II). £80.00 each (hardback). ISBN 011–290578–1 (Part I) and 011–290579‐X (Part II).

Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit edited by Steve Clark. London: Zed Books, 1999. Pp.viii + 264. £45.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85649–627–9; 1–85649–628–7.     

The identification of cultivated pearl millet (Pennisetum) amongst plant impressions on pottery from Oued Chebbi (Dhar Oualata,Mauritania)

The majority of the neolithic pottery from Dhar Tichitt and Oualata bears abundant plant impressions on its surface. The present study involves direct examination of these impressions and comparsion with a control series in the laboratory. The criteria for differentiation between impressions made by wild and cultivatedPennisetum are clearly defined. In the pottery from Oued Chebbi (Dhar Oualata), the existence of many many impressions of pearl millet (Pennisetum), including both wild and cultivated strains, is confirmed. It is concluded that the area around Dhar Tichitt and Oualata belongs to a non-centre zone of origin (Harlan 1975) and that,ca 3000 bp, its inhabitants knew how to use cultivated strains in an area where wild strains were also found in some abundance.

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Résumé La céramique néolithique des dhars Tichitt et Oualata présente une abondance d'empreintes végétales en surface. La présente étude—basée sur la lecture directe des empreintes sur la céramique—s'appuye sur une série de référence fabriquée en laboratoire. Les critères de différenciation, dans le genrePennisetum, des empreintes de formes sauvages et de formes cultivées sont clairement précisées. L'existence, dans les céramiques de Oued Chebbi, de nombreuses empreintes de mil du genrePennisetum et, parmi celles-ci, de formes cultivées, est affirmée. Les différentes analyses d'empreintes permettent de penser que le secteure des dhars Tichitt et Oualata appartient à la zone d'origine non-centre définie par J. Harlan (1975) et qu'aux alentours de 3000 ans bp, ses habitants savaient exploiter des formes cultivées dans un cadre où les populations de forme sauvage avaient une certaine abondance.

     

Austro–Hungarian refugee soldiers in China

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the problem of the Austro–Hungarian prisoners of war in World War I who were captured by the Russian Army and who then escaped from Siberian detention camps and ultimately found asylum in China. The Tianjin German Relief Fund (Tientsin Hilfsaktion) was a leading nongovernmental charitable organization that provided aid for these captives and refugees. It operated successfully in China until that country’s decision to join the war on the side of the Allied Powers forced the organization to close. A local network of German and Austro–Hungarian civilian middlemen also helped the refugee soldiers passing through, and the Chinese authorities set up camps in Manchuria for these soldiers, where they were interned until their repatriation after the war. This paper also introduces some individual cases to show how certain Austro–Hungarian POWs attempted to deal with their life in China. The author argues that China had a role and agency in World War I, that the refugee soldier question was the last episode of the nineteenth-century-style Concert of Europe, and that the POWs had a role and agency in shaping their own destinies.