A COMBINED MULTI‐ANALYTICAL APPROACH FOR THE STUDY OF ROMAN GLASS FROM SOUTH‐WEST IBERIA: SYNCHROTRON μ‐XRF,EXTERNAL‐PIXE/PIGE AND BSEM–EDS

An integrated, multi‐analytical approach combining the high sensitivity of SR‐μXRF, the light element capability of PIXE/PIGE under a helium flux and the spatial resolution of BSEM + EDS was used to characterize chemical composition and corrosion of glass samples (first to fourth centuries ad ) from an important, but scarcely investigated, Roman region of south‐west Iberia (southern Portugal). The geochemical trends and associations of major, minor and trace elements were investigated to shed light on production techniques, the provenance of raw materials and decay mechanisms. The results, while confirming a production technique common to Roman glasses throughout the Empire—that is, a silica‐soda‐lime low‐Mg, low‐K composition, with glass additives as colouring and/or decolouring agents (Fe, Cu, Mn, Sb)—show at one site high Zr–Ti contents, suggesting a more precise dating for these glasses to the second half of the fourth century. The Ti–Fe–Zr–Nb geochemical correlations in the pristine glass indicate the presence of minerals such as ilmenite, zircon, Ti‐rich Fe oxides and columbite in the sands used as raw materials for the glass former: these minerals are typical of granitic‐type source rocks. The unusually high K content in the corrosion layers is consistent with burial conditions in K‐rich soils derived from the alteration of 2:1 clays in K‐bearing rock sequences.     

Time‐bubbles of nationalism: dynamics of solidarity ritual in lived time

The growth of modern nationalism can be attributed to structural causes, especially the growth of the strong bureaucratic state that penetrates society, creating cultural uniformity and national identity. But structurally based nationalism need not be very intense, or constant; even when institutionalised in periodic formal rituals, it can be routine, low in emotion – even boring. We need to explain sudden upsurges in popular nationalism, but also their persistence and fading in medium‐length periods of time. Nationalist surges are connected with geopolitical rises and falls in the power‐prestige of states: strong and expanding states absorb smaller particularistic identities into a prestigious whole; weaker and defeated states suffer delegitimation of the dominant nationality and fragment in sudden upsurges of localising nationalities. Passing from macro‐patterns to micro‐sociological mechanisms, conflict producing solidarity is a key mechanism: dramatic events focus widespread attention and assemble crowds into spontaneous ‘natural rituals’ – mass‐participation interaction rituals, as distinct from formal rituals. Evidence from public assemblies and the display of national symbols following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) shows an intense period of three months, then gradual return to normal internal divisions by around six months. Spontaneous rituals of national solidarity are produced not only by external conflict but by internal uprisings, where an emotional upsurge of national identity is used to legitimate insurgent crowds and discredit regimes. Although participants experience momentary feelings of historic shifts, conflict‐mobilised national solidarity lives in a 3–6‐month time‐bubble, and needs to institutionalise its successes rapidly to have long‐term effects.     

Joint controlled fluid flow patterns and iron mass transfer in Jurassic Navajo Sandstone,Southern Utah,USA

The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM), Utah, exhibits a broad range of iron oxide/oxyhydroxide concretionary geometries that record a complex paragenetic history of the reservoir. The concretionary geometries are as follows: (i) common macroconcretions (>5 mm in diameter), (ii) ubiquitous microconcretions (<5 mm in diameter), (iii) localized iron oxide/oxyhydroxide‐lined northeast‐striking joints, and (iv) loopy asymmetrical mineralization and banded precipitation patterns (Liesegang bands) associated with the joints. Spheroidal concretion geometries typically indicate diffusive mass transfer, whereas asymmetrical mineralization represents advective directional flow. Liesegang bands parallel to asymmetrical mineralization denote a diffusive mass transfer component perpendicular to the principal flow direction. Careful study of concretionary geometries and their cross‐cutting relationships establishes a relative timing of precipitation and mobilization events. Macroconcretions formed post‐Laramide (<55 Ma), prior to and independent of the Miocene joints. The joints provided conduits for later oxidizing fluids that precipitated iron oxide/oxyhydroxide lining on the joint faces. Advective mass transfer overprinted the area with preferentially cemented flow lines (asymmetrical mineralization) less than 10 Ma, coincident with development of a hydraulic low to the southeast of the region (Colorado River downcutting). Certain trace elements are genetically tied to concretion formation, and evaluation of trace elements establishes precursor mineral phases. Enriched uranium concentrations in concretions (relative to the host rock) and low/undetectable sulfur concentrations in both host rock and concretions suggest that iron oxyhydroxide was a primary precipitate rather than a reduced iron mineral (i.e., pyrite or siderite) that later oxidized. Enrichment of Ni and As in concretions functions as fingerprints for diagenetic concretion formation when determining genesis of ambiguous iron oxide/oxyhydroxide spherules such as the remotely sensed ‘blueberries’ on Mars. Similarities between Mars and Utah spherules such as geometry, in situ spacing and volumetric density suggest that Mars spherules precipitated via a geochemically self‐organized nucleation pattern in diffusive chemical reaction fronts.     

ALL WRITTEN UP

This edited collection of conference papers moves historiographical debate beyond the cultural, linguistic, subjective, and archival “turns,” and beyond historiographical questions asked from the “postcolony,” to consider the historian's role as writer and in relationship to his or her (dead) subjects. Wider cultural appropriations of the Holocaust frame several contributions and underpin the ethics of historical reconstruction discussed. This review of Unsettling History considers “raising the dead” as a paradigmatic activity of Western social historians, first articulated in the European nineteenth century. Using the perspective of its editors and contributors, it argues for a yet more detailed attention to historians' acts and performances of writing.     

Topographies/topologies of the camp: Auschwitz as a spatial threshold

This paper, largely inspired by Giorgio Agamben’s conceptualization of the camp, reflects on the relationship between the ‘topographical’ and the ‘topological’ in reference to Auschwitz-Birkenau and its spatialities. After having discussed the concept of soglia (threshold), we briefly introduce the ways in which the historiographical literature on the Holocaust treats the relationship between modernity, rationality, and Nazism. The second part of the paper is dedicated to an attempt to read ‘geographically’ the entanglements between the camp, Nazi spatial planning, bureaucratic rationalities, and the Holocaust. The notion of the camp-as-a-spazio-soglia is central to this interpretation. Auschwitz, conceived as a metaphorical and real space of exception, is contextualized within the broader regional geography planned by the Nazis for that part of Poland; while ‘Mexico’, a specific compound within the camp, is described as a key threshold in the reproduction of those very geographies. The aim is to show how the topological spatialities of the camp were a constitutive element of the overall biopolitical Nazi project of ‘protective custody’ and extermination and that, for this reason, they deserve further investigation and need to be discussed in the relation to the crude calculative and topographical aspirations of that same project.     

Applying the H/V Method to Dense Cities. A Case Study of Valencia City

The aim of this study was to apply Nakamura's technique to Valencia city center, after some preliminary tests in Barcelona. Previous studies of Barcelona had measured periods in restrictive conditions and in various types of material ranging from very soft soil (with a predominant period of approximately 2 s) to rock (0.3 s), and under different measurement conditions. The Valencia city center measurements were taken by using the distance from buildings and car and pedestrian traffic to construct a measurement grid that was as regular as possible. We also estimated possible soil-structure interaction to detect potential vulnerability.     

Delayed Asian Transitions to Adulthood

Korea witnessed a steady increase in women marrying younger men from 8.5 per cent in 1993 to 14.3 per cent in 2009. This study examines those women marrying younger men in Korea through an empirical analysis using a large and reliable data set of more than 5 million observations collected from marriage register reports from 1993 to 2009. The results indicated that an increase in Older-Women/Younger-Men Marriages (OWYMMs) in Korea was mainly due to a steady increase in the woman’s age at marriage and show that women with a higher level of education and/or income than men were more likely to choose the OWYMM. That is, the incidence of OWYMMs was related more to the gap in the level of education or income between spouses than to the absolute level of education or income of individual spouses. In this sense, the results provide empirical support for exchange theory.     

“Punching Above its Weight”. The Mafikeng Anti-Repression Forum (Maref) and the Fall of Bophuthatswana

Abstract

This article traces the history of the Mafikeng Anti-Repression Forum (Maref) that operated in the former homeland of Bophuthatswana from early 1990 to late 1994. It was the only human rights organisation in Bophuthatswana. Maref's work was in five areas. Firstly, it monitored human rights abuses as a consequence of political repression in the homeland. Secondly, it responded to these abuses by means of disseminating the facts behind them. Thirdly, it attempted to defend the interests of the victims by means of seeking legal redress and relief from suffering and deprivation. Fourthly, it agitated for political change in Bophuthatswana in accordance with the changing nature of political reform in South Africa as a whole. Lastly it collated and published the information that formed an essential component of the negotiations that led to the new dispensation in 1994. For these activities, Maref members were severely harassed. The role the organisation played generally has received little analysis or comment, and is deserving of a place in the annals of human rights activities and activists during this period of transformation and upheaval in South Africa.     

Building economies from the bottom up: (mis)representations of poverty in the rural American Northwest

This paper examines interconnected processes of economic restructuring and representations of poor subjects that rely on imaginaries of race, ethnicity, class and rural space. We argue that poverty and privilege are mutually produced and so we focus on the representational practices of White leaders in persistently poor counties across the American Northwest. We draw from case study research to understand region-wide material and discursive processes that are contributing to economic distress and social marginalization. We interrogate the range of representational practices that White leaders employ to explain, deny and/or racialize poverty in their communities. We also draw attention to how poverty emerges from the intersection of political, economic and cultural processes operating across a range of scales and sites. We further analyze how representations of the poor and poverty rest on a host of imaginary landscapes about who belongs, who is an outsider and who has a right to a place and its services. We argue that these representations serve to invigorate neoliberal policies and silence a more critical debate about poverty in the USA.