The Port‐Vendres 4 Shipwreck Cargo: evidence of the Roman wine trade in the western Mediterranean

The Port‐Vendres 4 shipwreck is evidence of coastal export trade between Hispania Citerior and Narbonne in 40/30 BC. The cargo is made up of a particular assemblage of Roman wine amphoras (Pascual 1, Dressel 1B and Lamboglia 2) destined for Gallic markets. Archaeological and archaeometric analyses conducted on a selection of the amphoras allowed the provenance of the cargo to be identified as Hispania Citerior and the central‐southern Tyrrhenian coast of Italy. Iluro and/or Baetulo are proposed as the ports of departure, enabling the reconstruction of the trade route and the historical and economic significance of this shipwreck.     

City as province in China: the territorial urbanization of Chongqing

Chongqing is a province-level city region in China’s interior with a land area larger than many small countries. Limited scholarship tends to treat Chongqing as a new jurisdiction formed in relation to development of the Three Gorges Dam and reform of historic state-planned industry from the Mao era. This analysis turns to the complex process of land redistricting in a process of “territorial urbanization” that has also simultaneously reshaped the economy of Chongqing. By conceptualizing Chongqing as a dynamic administrative territory, this analysis defines changes in the relational configuration of its administrative divisions (xingzheng quhua) as a multi-faceted state strategy of governing land use change and the fiscal regime to realize infrastructure development. Especially by establishing districts in Chongqing, territorial urbanization works to enhance the funding capacity of the Chongqing government to develop larger, expansive infrastructure projects. This urban transformation of Chongqing demonstrates how processes of land use change and government funding, materializing in the built environment, are directly related to changes in state territorial configuration.     

How electoral integrity affects voter turnout in democracies

Does electoral integrity affect turnout? And if so, how? We analysed some variables that are closely related to electoral integrity – government actions, opposition actions, and the context in which the election is held – and find significant impact on turnout. We argue that higher turnout is often found in elections with higher electoral integrity. We tested our claims using data for over 700 elections covering 85 democracies for the 1950–2008 period. Results reveal that both boycott and election-related violence decrease turnout, but the effect of the former is substantially higher. We also find that, contrary to initial expectations, governments’ harassment of the opposition and the occasional banning of parties actually increases turnout.     

The Nice Musical Chairs Model: Exploring the Role of Competition and Cooperation Between Farming and Herding in the Formation of Land Use Patterns in Arid Afro-Eurasia

Following a strictly theory-building approach, we developed an agent-based simulation model, the Nice Musical Chairs model, to represent the competition between groups of stakeholders of farming and herding activities in the arid Afro-Eurasia. The model deepens the questions raised by the results of our former model, the Musical Chairs model, and further introduces three socio-economic mechanisms, which modulate the behavior and performance of stakeholders and their groups. First, we define land use pairing as the awarding, regarding productivity, of any direct cooperation between farming and herding within a group. Second, group management is modeled as the prerogative of a group leadership to manage stakeholders to pursue a particular proportion between farming and herding. Third, we introduce restricted access to pasture as the engagement in territorial control of rangelands in opposition to an open access regime. An exhaustive exploration of scenarios and parameters placed the control over rangelands as the most significant factor in the formation of land use patterns, followed by land use management. While the effect of land use pairing is mild in comparison, it is still a significant factor in group selection and thus in the persistence of particular land use patterns in the long run.     

Les «yeux d’Argos» et les «étoiles d’Astrée» pour mesurer l’univers les jésuites italiens et la science nouvelle

As what happened for thenova in 1604 and for the three comets which appeared in 1618 starting the debate between Galileo and the Jesuits of the Roman College, even the comet of 1644 enhanced the curiosity and expectations in astrometers’ and astrologers’ minds. This work focuses on some aspects of the European debate, by fixing our attention on the Bolognese observatory school of Santa-Lucia in particular, where Giovan Battista Riccioli and his socios had started an experimental activity which was known and appreciated for its accuracy all over Europe. It also closely examines the revaluation of the «medium sciences», such as geography and hydrometry, to point out the sociocultural conditions that originated the growth of new professional characters like engineers and technicians in Bologna.     

The Archaeology of the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado,Buenos Aires Province,Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents the results of research carried out for more than a decade at Vuelta de Obligado, San Pedro, north-east of Buenos Aires province. The objectives were to understand the dynamics of the strategy followed on the 1845 battlefield by the two groups who fought (Anglo-French and Argentine), and to assess the impact of formation processes on the results produced. This has been achieved through the use of several sources of information: the archaeological record, written documents, Argentine and European plans and sketches, as well as data provided by the current population.     

Land Use Patterns in Central Asia. Step 1: The Musical Chairs Model

Herding and farming coexisted in Central Asia for several thousand years as main options of preindustrial economic production. The relationship between people practicing different variants of these modes of subsistence is known to have been dynamic. Among the many possible explanations, we explore this dynamic by modeling mechanisms that connect aggregate decisions to land use patterns. Within the framework of the SimulPast project, we show here the results from step 1 of our modeling program: the Musical Chairs Model. This abstract agent-based model describes a mechanism of competition for land use between farming and herding. The aim is the exploration of how mobility, intensity, and interdependence of activities can influence land use pattern. After performing a set of experiments within the framework of this model, we compare the implications of each condition for the corroboration of specific land use patterns. Some historical and archaeological implications are also discussed. We suggest that the overall extension of farming in oases can be explained by the competition for land use between farming and herding, assuming that it develops with little or no interference of climatic, geographical, and historical contingencies.     

Ancient Egyptian Pottery from the Subsurface Floodplain of the Saqqara–Memphis Area: Its Mineralogical and Geochemical Implications*

Potsherds recovered from the Saqqara–Memphis floodplain in Egypt, dated according to their typology and radiocarbon dating of the included sediments, are analysed geochemically and mineralogically to identify source materials and fabrication characteristics. Pottery layers were identified and potsherds were recovered from several settlement levels. Sherd typology was used to identify sherds from four periods (the Old and New Kingdoms, and from the Late Period to the Ptolemaic). The Pharaonic pieces were found at depths of between 8 and 12 m and the later material was between 6 and 3 m. Chemical analyses of the potsherds revealed three main source materials: local Nile silt, marl clay and mixed Nile silt–marl. Two marl clay types were recognized: marl clay from Upper Cretaceous marine sediment and another one from Late Pliocene deltaic sediments. The mineralogical composition of the pottery samples shows that the estimated firing temperature was about 850–900°C. No consistent differences in sherd mineralogy and geochemistry were found according to pottery types, so that the ancient Egyptian potters used essentially the same materials throughout the Pharaonic period. However, this initial study has revealed the existence of extensive pottery‐rich occupation sites buried within the Nile floodplain deposits between Memphis and Saqqara.