Networks of Speculation: Making Land Markets on Myanmar Facebook

Digital platforms have changed how property is sold and valued in the Global North, yet little is known about digital tools in emerging land markets. Drawing on in situ and digital ethnography, we argue that Facebook plays a key role in making a new kind of market in Myanmar, one in which land is transformed into a speculative asset, exchanged across ever-expanding networks. While commodification is familiar within longer histories of capitalism, this case highlights the significance of digital platforms to the contemporary remaking of property relations. Unlike classic cases of market-making enabled by active state regulation, Myanmar’s digital land markets were forged in the context of state absence by brokers who harnessed the technological affordances of social media to increase the scale, scope and speed of transactions. This creative re-appropriation of the platform forged new, unregulated digital markets that ultimately accumulated corporate profits and intensified participant risk.     

Wardens of Civilisation: The Political Ecology of Australian Far-Right Civilisationism

The notion of a superior “civilisation” has been a hallmark of the politics of Western institutions and fringe white supremacists alike. Known ideologically as “civilisationism”, it has occupied a prominent position in the ideology of the Australian far-right. Paying tribute to their settler-colonial origins, the far-right has consistently promoted “white civilisation”, even inspiring terrorist attacks. Despite this propensity for violence, far-right civilisationism remains largely unexplored. Through investigating a dataset of Australian far-right content, this paper reveals civilisationism as a significant part of their ideology, an ideology which relies on the idealisation of European technologies and environments to render Indigenous land and people uncivilised. A critical narrative analysis of the data illustrates the ways that these ecological factors are drawn into narrative to articulate Australian far-right civilisationism, an ideology inseparable from the political ecology of European history and colonialism, that today represents a particularly virulent version of its legacy.     

Mortars in context: An integrated study of mortars and plasters from the so-called Ginnasio in Solunto (Sicily,Italy)

This paper presents a multipronged scientific study of mortars and plasters of the so-called Ginnasio in the Hellenistic–Roman city of Solunto (Sicily, Italy). A selection of 16 well-contextualized samples was collected to represent different functions and building phases of this private house. The results show that a variety of locally available raw materials was used as aggregates and to produce binders. The diversity of raw materials’ sources and production techniques identified in this study reveals the advanced technological knowledge of the builders of Solunto, indicating a complex relationship between the settlement's cityscape and its surrounding landscape.     

Comparison of four ballistic and thrusting target materials: An experimental and Bayesian approach using static testing of stone and steel arrow tips

Researchers use a variety of target materials, and sometimes combinations of materials, in their archaeological experiments to examine thrust-spear or projectile penetration, impact angle, durability, and other issues involving prehistoric hunting weaponry. This variety of target materials is beneficial to archaeological science in several ways, but it may also hinder the comparison of results because many of these target materials do not necessarily share similar physical properties. Here, we assess the penetration properties of four different target materials—store-bought meat, clay, and two types of gelatin—via static penetration tests of a modern broadhead-tipped arrow and a stone-tipped projectile attached to an Instron Universal Materials Tester. Our analyses of load-deflection curves, peak load, and work energy demonstrate how the four target materials are similar in some ways but different in others, which suggests that researchers may strategically employ one or several depending on the question asked or hypothesis tested.     

浅谈3D打印技术在陶瓷类文物修复和复制中的应用

3D打印技术已在多领域证明其高效性以及便捷性,成为社会热点。由于3D打印带有非接触式扫描的特点,这对于文物修复工作者而言,是在复制和修复过程中,为保护材质脆弱、价值珍贵的陶瓷类文物的可引进的新手段。在简单介绍3D打印技术复制陶器的主要过程之后,通过实例细致地了解每一个具体步骤,分析液化打印、粉末打印等不同打印技术的优缺点,如何在不同需求下进行选择;并且介绍在得到3D打印复制件后,通过复制件表面上色、纹饰加工处理等步骤完成整个复制品。3D打印技术不仅可被运用于文物复制,而且能以其与传统修复手法相比之下的无损、快速、精确等特点,在文物修复中发挥作用。     

中国古代采矿工程技术史研究的几个问题

采用矿山考古、模拟实验等方法,对中国古代采矿技术的起源与发展进行系统论证后,得出三个论点：一是关于中国古代采矿工程技术的历史进程,可分为萌芽期(史前时期)、形成期(商代中期)、初步发展期(西周时期)、创新期(春秋至战国中期)、充实提高期(秦汉至元代)、全面发展期(明清时期)这六个发展阶段。二是中国古代采矿工程技术有着浓重的中国特色并具独特的发展体系,其多种技术的配合,在很大程度上基于中国古代各种社会要素的综合。三是中国古代采矿技术观是一种有机的、整体和综合的“和”的技术观,“和”明白地表述了采矿技术观的本质特征。     

当代法国田野考古发掘方法与技术

本文以在法国具体从事田野考古发掘和室内整理的工作实践为基础,结合相关国外考古书籍,对目前法国所流行的考古发掘方法与技术作一概括性介绍,并与中国当代田野考古发掘方法与技术进行了对比研究。     

制度背后的技术、环境与政治:以清代柴塘岁修专项银设立为中心

清代两浙大规模从柴塘改建为石塘开始于乾隆第五次南巡。乾隆希望通过河工、海塘来成就不朽功勋,谕令在并不需要改建的柴塘中伺机改建石塘,强调以柴塘作坦水且不必岁修,这违背了石塘需要间接护岸工程的技术要求。乾隆深知如果新建石塘仍建设与维护间接护岸工程,将无疑说明其决策失误。当臣工谈到新修石塘需修筑坦水或者岁修作为石塘外护的柴塘,他的反应是: 反复声称柴塘作为石塘外护不需岁修,把决策失误责任推卸给相关臣工,隐晦或者露骨暗示钦差大员把责任推卸给相关人员。即使皇帝极力维护自己决策正确,但客观技术要求终使他批准了柴塘岁修专项银制度,也从侧面说明了其决策不当。整个过程充分说明,在涉及古代大型公共水利工程的制度问题时,技术与环境因素往往要让位于政治,在制度、技术、环境和政治因素的复杂交织中,历史的复杂性得以凸显。     

以糯米灰浆为代表的中国传统有机-无机复合灰浆研究进展和新发现

在中国数千年的建筑实践中,已发现许多具有中国特色的创造,其中以糯米灰浆为代表的中国传统有机-无机复合灰浆就是其中的一类。本文综述了自2007年以来相关研究的进展,包括：针对传统灰浆中有机残留物的化学检测和免疫分析技术的创新发展;全国252处古建筑遗址的1149个灰浆样品的检测结果及解读;糯米灰浆和桐油灰浆等传统胶凝材料固化作用机理及效果的实验验证;糯米灰浆研究成果对世界的影响及在世界复合材料历史上的地位;最近在新石器时代“白灰面”中新发现的有机添加物及相关溯源;传统糯米灰浆的改良研究及在文物保护工程中的应用情况等。这一系列的探索性研究不仅可为古建筑保护提供材料和技术,也为弘扬中华文明提供了鲜活的案例。     

Matchlocks, Flintlocks, and Saltpetre: The Chronological Implications for the Use of Matchlock Muskets among Ottoman-Period Bedouin in the Southern Levant

This paper examines the chronological implications for the prolonged use of matchlock muskets by the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period (1453–1918). Although the technology behind the matchlock ignition system is from the fifteenth century, this weapon was used by many Bedouin until the beginning of the twentieth century. As a result, the presence of gun parts from matchlock muskets poses a potential problem for identifying Bedouin occupations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the southern Levant and in northern Arabia. This issue is heightened by the paucity of diagnostic artifacts found at archaeological sites associated with the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period.