Nation and state building in Italy: recent historiographical interpretations (1989–1997), I: Unification to Fascism

Abstract

This is the first part of a general historiographical review of recent studies on the formation of the modern Italian nation and national identities. The review is organized chronologically and the first part covers literature on the development of the Italian state and society to the end of the nineteenth century.     

Skeletal analysis and mortuary practice in an Early Roman chamber tomb at Kenchreai,Greece

Recent exploration of the site of Kenchreai, the eastern port of Corinth in southern Greece, has focussed on a cemetery of subterranean chamber tombs dating chiefly to the Early Roman period (middle‐late 1st to 3rd centuries AD). The copious but fragmentary human bones and teeth found in Tomb 10 have been disturbed since burial by natural processes, including bedrock erosion and the infiltration of moisture, roots and basic sediment, and by destructive looters. Nonetheless, the remains furnish considerable information about the mortuary practices of wealthy residents. Analysis of the remains in their archaeological and taphonomic contexts reveals that Tomb 10 contained at least 23 individuals, 15 inhumed in loculi and 8 cremated and placed in niches, sometimes in urns. The identification of males, females and subadults among the burned and unburned bones and teeth suggests that spouses, parents and children probably from several generations of the same lineage or household were buried here. The nature of the cremated fragments reflects a laborious process during which mourners burned bodies on substantial pyres at extremely high temperatures for a long time. Then they carefully extracted a representative sample of small fragments from throughout the reduced skeleton for burial at the tomb. This study contributes to a better understanding of mortuary practices in the Roman East, particularly the Greek world, where the chamber tomb was a common sepulchral type. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making time: ‘Living floors’, ‘palimpsests’ and site formation processes – A perspective from the open-air Lower Paleolithic site of Revadim Quarry, Israel

The recognition of the dynamic role of site formation processes led archaeologists to recognize a behavioral dichotomy between ‘living floors’ and palimpsests’, Yet the archaeological proxies of ‘living floor’ and ‘palimpsest’ were never defined formally, and therefore have been used variably. We use archaeological criteria mentioned in the archaeological literature to model types of formation processes. The case study of the Lower Paleolithic open-air site of Revadim Quarry, Israel is used to test the model. Two types of palimpsests, differing in the rate of accumulation and thus in their effects on the anthropogenic remains, were discerned. Based on these results we review some other Lower Paleolithic instances. A sliding scale of formation processes provides a much needed middle ground between the scales of coarse, time-averaged formation processes and short, “near real-life” behavioral episodes and is an appropriate archaeological frame of reference.     

Managing a Monitor — the Case of HMVS Cerberus in Port Phillip Bay: Integration of Corrosion Measurements with Site Management Strategies

Abstract

The hull of the former HMVS Cerberus (1926) collapsed two metres during gales in December 1993, leaving the vessel half-submerged. Sunk as a breakwater in 1926, the vessel is one of the few remaining and accessible twin-turret Monitor-style warships from the 1870s. This paper presents the complex history of attempts to stabilize the site and to preserve the wreck. A series of in situ corrosion studies of corrosion potentials, pH, and residual metal thickness have provided a special insight into the processes of decay and have paved the way for future site stabilization. Removal of the four 16-tonne 10 inch Armstrong rifled muzzle loading guns and their in situ treatment alongside the wreck have assisted in relieving some of the stress on the remaining structure. The paper reports on correlations between the corrosion rate and the formation of concretions and how to determine the end point of an in situ treatment for cannon.     

Paleoclimate,Geology, Geomorphology,and Middle Holocene Settlement Systems in the Delice Valley of North-Central Anatolia

The Delice Valley in north-central Anatolia is one of the regions where Hatti societies lived during the Early Bronze Age. This region has rarely been explored in terms of its geology, geomorphology, and human-environment interactions throughout the Bronze Age. The focus of the Delice Valley Survey is to build a holistic approach to assess complex socio-ecological dynamics in the region from the perspective of the longue durée. This paper examines the paleoclimatic conditions, the settlement systems, the production capacity of agropastoral systems, and the changes in the political economy in the Delice Valley during the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The results of the first season of fieldwork suggest that the Delice Valley was settled intensively only during certain periods. Although paleoclimatically suitable for denser settlement, the area showed significantly lighter settlement patterns during the Middle and Late Bronze ages.     

Lithic production,site formation and Middle Palaeolithic palimpsest analysis: in search of human occupation episodes at Abric del Pastor Stratigraphic Unit IV (Alicante,Spain)

We present the results of an exercise in Middle Palaeolithic palimpsest analysis geared toward the identification of human occupation episodes. It is based on a combined reading of the archaeosedimentary deposit and the archaeological record of Stratigraphic Unit IV from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Alicante, Spain), chronologically framed within MIS 4–5. A study of site formation processes coupled with archaeostratigraphic analysis of the lithic record incorporating Raw Material Units (RMU) and refits, as well as with combustion features and faunal remains enabled identification a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 human occupation episodes within lithostratigraphic units IVa, IVb and IVc. Through our data it reaches a high resolution temporal frame close to the ethnographic time scale, which constitutes a significant contribution for the knowledge of human occupations types and landscape use in the Mediterranean rim of the Iberian Peninsula during Middle Palaeolithic.     

Statistical means for identifying hunter–gatherer residential features in a lithic landscape

Techniques are described for extracting circular rock features from landscapes dominated by clasts of the same type from which cultural features are composed, using as a test case a large stone circle residential site in western Wyoming, USA. Methods consist of point plotting all relevantly-sized culturally and naturally-deposited clasts in the field and identifying potential cultural features using point density analyses tools in ArcGIS. Potential rings are either accepted or rejected as cultural features by comparing clast frequency, density and distribution in internal, feature-ring, and external spatial buffers to ethnoarchaeological data recording stone circle size and morphology and to similar data generated from a control sample of off-site, naturally-occurring clasts. The results of the analysis are used to discuss group size, mobility type, and duration of site occupation and to explore problems of assessing such at surface archaeological sites resulting from palimpsest-type site formation processes.     

Hits,Misses and Close Calls: An Image Essay on Pattern Formation in On Growth and Form

Abstract

The second edition of D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form was written only shortly before the advent of computers made it possible to develop more sophisticated mathematical models of processes of growth, morphogenesis and pattern formation in nature. It also predates the blossoming of several branches of science with the conceptual tools to investigate complex phenomena such as self-organization, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, fractal geometry and self-organization. As a result, Thompson’s aspirations sometimes fall short of his means — and occasionally he sets out on the wrong path. This image essay explores some of the instances in which Thompson surpassed his limitations or, alternatively, was constrained by them. In either circumstance, it illustrates how his themes remain areas of significant scientific activity today.     

基于文化地理学视角的秦腔文化起源与扩散

秦腔起源于古代陕甘一带民间歌舞,流行于陕、甘、青、宁、新等地。本文从文化地理学的角度,采用文化扩散和整合的思维着重分析了秦腔文化形成的自然地理与社会原因,系统探讨了不同时期和地区秦腔文化的扩散类型、传播路径与整合特征。结果认为,秦腔文化扩散的主要方式是人口迁移与艺人游走,特点是多级化。秦腔文化景观反映当地发展史,是多种地域文化要素相互作用的产物,传播时的屏障作用具有正负双重影响。未来秦腔文化的发展要根植于群众并植入现代元素,以实现秦腔文化新的繁荣。