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.     

Commercial conflict resolution across the religious divide in the thirteenth-century Mediterranean

Commercial conflict resolution in the medieval Mediterranean has been treated by a number of scholars in recent years, notably through the use of documents from the Cairo Geniza and the archives of the Italian port of Genoa. Recent research on this subject, and more specifically on contract enforcement, has focused on contract reinforcement within the Mediterranean Jewish community, largely because of the sources available. Parallels drawn with medieval Italian mechanisms of conflict resolution emphasize differences between public- vs. private-order responses, that is, the reliance on personalized groups in the Islamic world rather than on public institutions typical of the Italian port-cities. These studies do not, however, examine how commercial conflicts were resolved across religious and political lines, despite the growing role of Italian merchants in the trade networks of Islamic North Africa, a role that inevitably led to trade disputes and occasional uncollected payments. Through close textual analysis of 14 Latin and Arabic letters exchanged between Islamic Almohad Tunis and Christian Italian Pisa, this article explores how Almohad commercial agents and governmental authorities sought to maintain positive trade relations across the religious divide while protecting the interests of their own clients and citizens when disputes arose over commercial payments and debt collection. Rather than relying on commercial conflict resolution methods specific to one culture or the other, these documents reveal a middle ground of borrowed vocabulary and procedures. Through these letters, Almohad merchants and officials attempted to negotiate through the bonds of personal trust and reputation established with their Italian counterparts. However, they also appealed to Italian sensibilities with hybridized methods recognizable by the legal and public institutions of both cultures.     

沧州铁狮子健康监测数据采集系统的研究与应用

沧州铁狮子是世界上现存的最大铸铁狮子,其重要地位和所处的环境要求必须对其健康状况进行实时地监测和预警。针对其基础组成部分一沧州铁狮子健康监测数据采集系统进行了研究开发,首先分析了铁狮子传感器选型的影响因素并结合传感器自身的适用标准进行了具体的选型,然后进行了基于所选定传感器的硬件系统设计,运用Labview平台结合沧州铁狮子自身特点开发了一套采集软件系统,形成了一套完整的基于虚拟仪器技术的沧州铁狮子健康监测数据采集系统,最后成功将该系统应用于沧州铁狮子结构健康监测系统测试试验,证明了本套系统可为将来沧州铁狮子健康监测系统的实现提供重要支持。     

MICRO-CREDIT AND DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN VIETNAM

Geographical development economics as reflected in the recent report by World Bank (2009) Reshaping Economic Geography (henceforth WDR-2009) and Sachs' (2005) End of Poverty has placed geographical factors of distance and density at the core of economic development. However, development geography has largely moved beyond a paradigm of modernity. This article seeks to narrow the above disciplinary divide and suggests that explanations of distance and density are not irrelevant but will need to be better integrated to local knowledge, practices and power relations in development schemes which are valued by development geographers. The latter is examined in the context of micro-credit programmes in two lagging areas, Soc Son and Vinh Loc, in northern Vietnam. Drawing from interviews and surveys of 160 female participants, we show that micro-credit, WDR-2009 and Sachs' geographical variables significantly affect poverty levels. However, qualitative interviews also reveal that the effects of distance, density and micro-credit schemes are constituted differently in the two areas. Relative to their Vinh Loc counterparts, Soc Son's participants experience less distance and density problems but are confronted with greater vulnerability to coercive relations of rule. In contrast, the approach to rule in the more geographically distressed area of Vinh Loc is underscored by flexibility and compromise which seek to cultivate conditions that sustain local livelihoods.     

The Balkan Wars and the rise of the reactionary modernist utopia in young Turk thought and the journal Türk Yurdu [Turkish Homeland]

The article examines the rise of the ‘reactionary modernist’ project that developed after the devastating defeat of the Balkan Wars and which was promoted by the Young Turks by means of articles published in Turkish Homeland, the intellectual platform of the Young Turks. The article argues that the outlines of this project to a large extent shaped the contours of Turkish nationalism then, and that they have hence been constitutive of Turkish nationalism ever since.     

云南横断山区的多样性与可持续发展的案例研究

横断山区是我国自然环境、生物、民族社会、文化、经济最为复杂多样的区域。多样性是国家和民族的财富。人类的持续发展离不开多样性。自然生物多样性和民族社会文化多样性各具特色。横断山区的多样性要采取开发性保护和保护性的开发。在民族地区要开发民族文化力,建立既能固守文化传统,又能适应现代化道路的民族文化发展模式。通过民族文化力来协调人与地的关系。保证横断山区多样性永存和社会经济的持续发展。     

Beyond the buildings: Formation processes of ancient Maya houselots and methods for the study of non-architectural space

The success of activity areas research in domestic contexts has highlighted the need for archaeologists working in the tropics to explore both indoor and outdoor spaces. The preservation of houselot boundaries at ancient Chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico, provides an ideal environment to explore methods for the investigation of broad spaces beyond buildings, to test ethnoarchaeological models of activity areas and refuse disposal, and to demonstrate the importance of open spaces to understanding ancient economic organization. The results of methodological experiments reported in this paper favor the use of systematic subsurface sampling (as opposed to surface collections) for characterizing specific uses of space around houses. Formation processes dictate that soil chemistry, paleoethnobotany, and other laboratory techniques should supplement excavations. Our explorations of three houselots suggest that ethnoarchaeological models of the use of space in contemporary houselots serve as successful templates for interpreting the use of space in ancient times. Post-abandonment deposition within houselots, however, can confuse these interpretations. This paper therefore reports a new ethnoarchaeological study that helps illuminate the nature of post-abandonment discard. After resolving critical issues of methodology and formation processes, this paper assesses the economic contribution of houselot activities. Given Chunchucmil’s agricultural marginality, such home economics played an important role in the subsistence needs of this urban center.