Small nation,big ships winter navigation and technological nationalism in a peripheral country, 1878–1978

Finland is the only country in the world where all ports freeze over during a typical winter. Over the century 1878–1978, Finland developed a winter-seafaring system that broke the winter isolation and eliminated seasonal variation in shipping. By using diverse archival sources, we deconstruct the dominant narrative of Finnish winter seafaring through which national as well as technological development is often presented as natural, inevitable and straightforward. We reinterpret the Finnish winter navigation system as a tangible, historical experience and show that technological solutions in this domain cannot be understood outside the context of a decades-long process of nation-building. Finally, we argue that winter navigation became a central imaginary for Finland as a western, industrial and modern nation. As such, the Finnish winter-seafaring system presents a case of technological nationalism in which a small, peripheral country sought to integrate itself into a modern international order.     

The Experimental Study of Palaeolithic Heat‐Treatment Technology: A Case from the Shuidonggou Rock Resources,North‐West China

The application of heat‐treatment technology on lithic raw materials is an important feature of early modern human behaviour. The evidence of heat‐treated stone artefacts discovered at Localities 2 and 12 of the Shuidonggou Late Palaeolithic site, North‐West China, provides an important example for studying this technology among ancient humans in Asia during the Late Palaeolithic. The mechanism and effects of heat treatment on raw materials and the role of this technology in producing stone tools were studied by means of a simulation experiment and related analytical methods. These facilitated an in‐depth analysis of the heat‐treatment activities of the Shuidonggou occupants and their implications for cognitive ability and survival strategies of human populations at that time.     

Simulation of adsorption of gold nanoparticles carried by gas ascending from the Earth’s interior in alluvial cover of the middle–lower reaches of the Yangtze River

The adsorption onto other minerals of charged gold nanoparticles, carried by gas ascending from the Earth’s interior, is an important component of their transport and deposition in surficial cover such as alluvial, aeolian, and glacial sediments. To simulate the adsorption of these particles, an experiment was conducted in which a flow of air that contained gold nanoparticles was passed upward through a sample of alluvium from the middle–lower reaches of the Yangtze River. These experiments showed that gold nanoparticles are adsorbed on kaolinite, halloysite, goethite, and hematite in the alluvial cover. Both the gold nanoparticles and minerals (i.e., kaolinite, halloysite, goethite, and hematite) carry surface charges that provide them with excellent adsorption properties. This study showed that the specific mineral composition of surficial alluvial cover affects the concentration of gold nanoparticles in the ascending gas. This phenomenon may plausibly be used in exploration for concealed gold, copper–gold, and silver–gold deposits in areas of thick alluvial cover. Geofluids (2010) 10 , 438–446     

Bighorn hunting,resource depression,and rock art in the Coso Range,eastern California: a computer simulation model

The extraordinary record of prehistoric rock art depicting tens of thousands of animal images in the Coso Range of eastern California provides an opportunity to study the relationship between aboriginal hunting, forager ecology, bighorn prey population levels, and the production of rock art. We review archaeofaunal evidence that the Coso desert bighorn sheep population was strongly depleted during the Newberry era after 1500 B.C. We discuss the dating of the rock art and show a correlation between bighorn depletion and increased rock art production. These data are consistent with the arrival of Numic foragers ca. A.D. 600 who competed with the Coso Pre-Numics and eventually terminated the Coso rock art tradition. An ecological predator-prey computer simulation of the human populations (Numic and Pre-Numics), the sheep population, and the rock art “population”, demonstrates these proposed interconnections and gives a reasonable fit to the observed rock art production rate.     

Geology and lithic procurement in Upper Palaeolithic Europe: a weights-of-evidence based GIS model of lithic resource potential

In this paper we examine ways to predict the distribution of siliceous rock in Europe, using a Bayesian technique known as ‘Weights-of-Evidence’. We use the technique to classify bedrock geological formations in terms of their likelihood of yielding tool-quality lithic raw materials, and we use the results to re-examine possible causes of a west–east cline in maximum lithic raw material transfer distances observed when comparing sites in both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Europe. It is evident from our results that there is a decline in abundance of geological formations highly predictive of tool-quality rock along a west–east cline, predominantly reflecting a decrease in abundance of Jurassic and Cretaceous chert-bearing sedimentaries. Our results are consistent with an interpretation of the Upper Palaeolithic record of transfer distances as indicating special-purpose procurement.     

考古发掘虚拟仿真实验的建设与思考——以体素模型应用为中心

随着信息科学的快速发展,虚拟仿真技术在田野考古以及文化遗产保护工作中已得到广泛的应用并展现出巨大的价值。基于虚拟仿真技术开发的数字化实验,也成为理论与实践之外,高校人才培养的一种创新性教学方式。此前以考古发掘为内容的虚拟仿真工作中往往只能提供某一特定状态下的静态展示,无法全面反映古遗址整体的堆积情况,而据此开发的考古发掘实验中也难以实现对发掘工作过程的模拟。究其原因,三维模型是虚拟仿真工作的核心基础,而传统建模方法一般只能得到模拟建模对象外表面特征的"面模型",却缺失内部数据,因此难以实现对古遗址等内部结构复杂对象的模拟,也难以实现高水平的仿真互动以模拟考古发掘工作过程。体素模型,也称三维栅格模型,是通过三维空间中一系列连续排列的基元矩阵实现对立体对象的表达。这些基元被称为体素,如同海量的像素有序排列可以构成精细的二维图像,当海量的体素如积木般被拼搭起来则可以最大限度还原立体对象的整体特征。近年来,体素模型已开始应用于考古发掘虚拟仿真实验的开发。相关工作充分展示出体素模型技术在考古发掘实验领域的技术优势:首先,体素模型可以实现对空间实体由表及里的整体模拟,所以在表达如古遗址等非均质对象复杂的内部结构关系时,在仿真度方面具有显著优势。其次,通过对体素单元的编辑,可以实现模型分解、重塑等面模型无法支持的互动操作,从而满足模型根据用户的随机操作实时呈现非预设的高自由度变化的效果。应用体素模型技术,以真实田野考古发掘工作数据为基础,郑州大学历史学院开发的"田野考古发掘虚拟仿真实验"通过精细的遗址模型设计与操作设计,实现了对地层堆积情况较为复杂的古代遗址的高准确度模拟以及对于考古发掘工作过程与技术要点的高仿真度模拟。该实验已经应用于考古文博等专业的人才培养,作为传统实验教学模式的补充,可以有效提升教学质量。而该实验通过网络平台向全社会开放,也可成为公众考古宣传的新途径。     

文物建筑保护工程中的勘察设计——以北大红楼等三个文物建筑为例

文物建筑勘察的目的是掌握现状文物的真实状态和危险程度,进而为制定科学合理的保护方案提供重要依据和支撑。为此,探讨了文物建筑保护工程勘察设计的特点和内涵,结合实际案例,归纳总结了文物建筑勘察设计四个基本特点:在强调文物真实性的同时,要求勘察内容的完备性和详实性;强调病害机理分析与病害成因的数值仿真验证;关注文物本体的抗震性能研究;强调以最小的干预获取最真实的情况。阐述论证了建立文物防灾减灾体系的必要性和重要性,点明了文物建筑勘察设计未来的发展方向必然和防患于未然的防灾减灾体系相联系,作为该体系下的技术支撑而长期发展。     

上海元代水闸遗址出土木构件无损冻干初探

传统的冷冻脱水过程通常需要将电阻温度传感器(RTD)插入到物料中以监测温度变化从而确定干燥终点,这种方式对于处理木质文物来说具有一定的破坏性,无法做到无损或微损。本研究尝试采用无损方式对定型加固剂浸渍液即时浓度进行分析,并对冷冻干燥终点进行预测。采用这种无损技术成功地对志丹苑元代水闸遗址出土的30件木构件进行真空冷冻脱水定型处理,既达到了预期的定型保护效果,又确保了木构件的安全。     

Australia–Indonesia cooperation on asylum-seekers: a case of ‘incentivised policy transfer’

Australia and Indonesia have engaged in cooperation on asylum policy since the late 1990s, bilaterally on immigration detention and people-smuggling agreements, and multilaterally through the Bali Process. Seen from a global perspective, this form of cooperation is one of many such bilateral and multilateral agreements that stymie the ability of asylum-seekers to gain effective and durable protection. This article argues that policy transfer theory can explain how these agreements are achieved, their political implications, and their outcome for the refugee regime and the asylum-seekers reliant on the regime for protection. In the case study of Australia and Indonesia, the authors argue that the cooperation is best understood as a form of ‘incentivised policy transfer’, whereby Australia has provided substantial financial and diplomatic incentives to Indonesia to adopt policies consistent with Australia's own. The implications for asylum-seekers in the Asia-Pacific region are substantial, and include an increase in the use of immigration detention in Indonesia and the introduction of border security measures that restrict the ability of asylum-seekers to reach territory where they may claim protection under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.