Cartographies of supranationalism: Creating and silencing territories in the “Arab Homeland”

In the predominately Arab states of north Africa and southwest Asia, a geopolitical entity exists that is rather uncommon elsewhere in the world. The “Arab Homeland,” as it is referred, is a readily accepted cartographic discourse throughout much of this extensive region. The construction of this entity emerged at the same time as the pan-Arab movement of the mid-twentieth century, which was fueled and motivated by 20th century geopolitical conflicts between Arabs and European imperialists, and between Arabs and Israelis. Through a critical reading of its cartographic construction since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1919, I provide unique insights into the numerous, complex, and even contradictory geopolitics of the construction of the Arab Homeland. My analysis of several hundred maps produced in eight different states of the Arab Homeland reveals that from the mid 1950s onward that the Arab Homeland was not only commonplace, but also how this supranational territorial entity confused and at times defied generally accepted divisions of the world. Expanding upon literature on supranational entities and the state, I show that territory is not only still important in our globalized world, but that it also has a complex and at times contradictory relationship with the concepts and scales of the state and the supranational. In emphasizing the role of territory in its construction, I also inject the importance of geography and territory for the pan-Arab movement, which is a factor that has been greatly under-theorized.     

The Linguistic and Rhetorical Legacy of the Prague Spring: Reading the Czechoslovak Communist Party Daily,Rudé právo,from the Late 1980s

This study uses a corpus-informed lexicological approach to analyse texts published in the Czechoslovak Communist Party daily Rudé právo during the final years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. The analysis aims to uncover how far such texts represented a departure from or a reaffirmation of the norms of the pre-Gorbachev era and, in particular, the role that they played in the Party’s attempt to control interpretations of the 1968 Prague Spring. The investigation also considers ways in which the texts sought to construct a ‘new’ reality in the light of the changes in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. The article maintains that the ‘authoritative discourse’ model represents an especially useful analytical framework for evaluating the impact of ideological language in the context of the Communist system. The model both helps to explain the relative acquiescence of most of the population, and also to track the extent to which the ‘coded’ message of the approved discourse was successful in slowing the demise of the regime.     

The politics of area conservation in Cairo

The historic core of the Arab‐Islamic city has always played an integral role in the formation of the identity of the contemporary Arab city. It serves as the reference for the city’s character. This is especially so in Cairo, where historic quarters still act as the city’s most influential social and cultural source of inspiration. Today, many forces of neglect and deterioration have diminished this role. While attempts have been launched to confront this situation, they have focused mainly on restoring the historic city of Cairo, itself a World Heritage Site. This paper probes the actual reasons for the deterioration of the historic core of Cairo, as well as those that dominate the current efforts for revitalisation. In these processes it is the political dimension that is the most influential in the decision‐making affecting the proposed urban changes in historic Cairo.1 The present inquiry was supported by a workshop organised by the author to examine the attitude of the professionals representing different organisations involved in conservation in historic Cairo. This workshop was held on 12 and 13 September 2001 at the Italian Archaeological Centre in Cairo as part of the empirical work of the author’s PhD research.      

大冶五里界春秋城址及周围遗址考古的主要收获

为配合武汉至九江铁路提速工程建设,湖北省物考古研究所于2003年6月至2004年4月重点对大冶市五里界城进行了考古调查、勘探、发掘。按事先设计的方案,这次工作在课题思想指导下,还对五里界城周围的21处遗址和大冶市境内的鄂王城、草王嘴城进行了详细调查与勘探。本重点介绍了五里界城址考古工作的主要收获,并对城址的时代、功能、废弃原因和与周边遗址的关系提出了看法。     

春秋时期祭祖范围研究

祭祀祖先的范围,即仪典中祭祀哪些祖先,不但是祖先崇拜的基本问题,并且还折射出生者与祖先之间的关系,以及人们对家族、血缘的认知等等。春秋时期是社会变动较为剧烈的时期,在这一变化的时代,祭祀对象发生若干变化,祖先崇拜也展现出新的特点。总体而言,春秋时人重视近祖,也注重远祖,在选择所祭对象时,春秋时人以满足现实需求为目的,祭祀祖先有其灵活的一面而并无统一的标准。可堪注意的是,春秋时人擅于追溯远祖,春秋金文中出现了对祝融、成汤等远祖的追记,而不再如西周时人一般只将祖先追踪至文王武王时代。此外,春秋时人对于英雄祖先十分崇拜,并将这一风尚提升至礼的高度予以阐述。春秋时人追忆远祖,对儒家"慎终追远"的观念有深刻的影响;春秋时人崇拜英雄祖先,对于这一时期人们创造出共同的英雄祖先有直接的影响。     

新见三件“叔休”器及相关问题

本文通过研究追缴回来的三件"叔休器"和见于著录的五件"叔休器",判断目前所见所有"叔休器"均属同一器主。叔休可能为春秋早期管理当地盐业贸易的职官,身份地位均较重要。同时结合铭文内容等认为"叔休器"可能来源于淮河流域信阳一带的周代诸侯小国"冠"。冠、番、樊等可能是被淮河以外诸国称"繁"的不同小国,它们位于淮河流域信阳一带,在商周时期盐铜贸易环节发挥了重要作用,逐渐形成盐铜交易枢纽"繁阳"。     

An Arab Chariot Monument at Umm al-Jimāl

ABSTRACT

This article deals with unpublished fragments of sculpture in basalt found at Umm al-Jimāl, a site of a ruined Nabataean-Roman to Byzantine settlement in northern Jordan, six kilometers south of the border with Syria. The sculptures are typical for the southern Syrian volcanic zone of the Hawrān. The site is located at the extreme southern outcrop of this area, today part of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The fragments are contemporary with a better-preserved corpus of similar sculptures investigated by the authors in the basalt desert of al-Ledjā, ancient Trachon(itis). At Umm al-Jimāl, an analogous chariot group driven by deities can be identified by a wheel block with traces of the tail hairs of animals in harness. The assembled figures in human shape with drapery are parallel to the Sahr al-Ledjā statuary. Taking all extant evidence into account, the authors propose recognizing the sculptural remnants from Umm al-Jimāl as testimony of a strongly Hellenistic-Romanized embellishment of a hitherto little-known Arab-Nabataean sanctuary dating to the first or second century AD. This shrine together with its sculptures had most probably been destroyed by the Palmyrenean Campaign in the later third century AD.     

Heritage erasure and heritage transformation: how heritage is created by destruction in Bahrain

This article suggests that heritage erasure is also heritage transformation. The article is an analysis of alternative contemporary heritage processes in the Arab Gulf state Bahrain. I use three cases to illustrate the diversity of what heritage means in Bahrain and how heritage is transformed through erasure. First, I discuss the vast burial mound fields of ancient Dilmun, which in the process of their destruction due to modern development have been appropriated as some of the most significant national heritage of the Bahrain state. Secondly, I point to a heritage allegedly neglected by the state, the religious shrines of the Shia community, which to this group signify an alternative heritage and history of the islands. Finally, I discuss a potential heritage of the future, based on the recent destruction by Bahraini authorities of the Pearl Monument, which was the centre of the 2011 uprising in Bahrain as part of the so-called Arab Spring. Besides their political differences, the three cases are three different modes of engaging the past, either as past preserved, as a living past in the present or as a past that will change the future.     

陕西韩城梁带村芮国墓地西区发掘简报

简报首次披露了梁带村墓地西区2007年发掘的10座中小型墓的信息,据出土玉器的纹饰特征等推断,这些墓葬年代为春秋早期偏晚阶段。这批等级较低的墓葬普遍有棺椁或单棺作葬具,但均不随葬陶器,而有少量玉器的现象在其他地区同时期的墓地是非常少见的,从另一层面揭示了周代芮国墓葬的突出特点。中型墓多有铜翣及串饰也较有特色,是研究周代墓葬制度的重要资料。M18出土铸有"虢季"字样铭文的铜鼎,则反映出芮国与虢国的联系交流情况,或可印证有关文献的记载。     

Delmephialmas and Sircorcor: Gasparo Balbi, Dalmâ, Julfâr and a problem of transliteration

Gasparo Balbi, the state jeweller of the Venetian Republic, visited the eastern Arabian coast in c. 1580 and recorded many of the places in the modern United Arab Emirates for the first time, giving them the names by which we know them today, albeit in sixteenth-century Italian transliteration. While some places are readily recognizable, Balbi's terms Delmephialmas and Sircorcor present problems. It is suggested that Delmephialmas is the island of Dalmâ off the coast of Abu Dhabi but with an additional phrase as a suffix, giving a meaning approximating to Dalmâ, fî-hâ mâ' , i.e. 'Dalmâ, there is water there'. The absence of any reference to so major a port as Julfâr in modern Ra's al-Khaima by Balbi is remarkable. It is suggested that Balbi's term Sircorcor is an eliding of al-Sirr as a synonym for Julfâr combined in error with Khawr al-Khuwayr to the north of Julfâr.