10,000 years of human predation and size changes in the owl limpet (Lottia gigantea) on San Miguel Island,California

To investigate potential human impacts on California Channel Island shellfish stocks over the past 10,000 years, we measured 1718 owl limpet shells from 19 archaeological components on San Miguel Island. Inhabiting the middle intertidal zone of Pacific Coast rocky shores, owl limpets are slow-growing mollusks that can live for 30 years and reach lengths of over 100 mm. Recent ecological studies indicate that owl limpets are highly susceptible to heavy human predation, which results in reduced mean shell sizes among Lottia populations along the coasts of Alta and Baja California. On San Miguel Island, we identified a significant trans-Holocene reduction in mean owl limpet size, beginning more than 6500 years ago and accelerating at least 4400 years ago. Fluctuations in limpet size show no clear correlation with changes in sea surface temperature and marine productivity, suggesting that increased predation by growing human populations was primarily responsible for the reduction in Lottia size over time. Our results provide further evidence that prehistoric peoples significantly influenced nearshore fisheries long before the development of the commercial and industrialized fisheries of historic times.     

再论唐六胡州城址的定位问题——兼谈历史地理学研究方法

六胡州是唐初为安置突厥降户而设置的鲁、丽、含、塞、依、契六个羁縻州府,由于其在历史研究上的重要意义,一直受到学术界关注,并取得诸多进展。但六胡州城址地望长期以来完全处于悬而不决的状态。近年来部分综合交叉研究在定位六胡州城址上取得了创建性成果,同时也引发了一些学术争议。本文拟通过历史文献考证与野外实地考察相结合的研究方法,运用城市地理学原理和3S技术手段,对相关争论进行梳理,并对其中一些城址进行了再次定位。研究认为,六胡州中鲁州确应在今宁夏盐池兴武营城址处;而匡州城址、故宥州城址和兰池都督府均处于查干巴拉嘎素古城所在,且沿用的是六胡州中的丽州或契州。     

考古信息解读与遗址博物馆展示——以南越王宫博物馆为例

南越王宫博物馆是一座依托于南越国宫署遗址建设而成的遗址博物馆。博物馆的陈列展示分为现场遗址展示和室内文物展示两部分,其中遗址展示是主体,室内展示起到对遗址解释说明的辅助作用。陈列人员在室内陈列的过程中,从突出遗址特点、确立陈列主题和风格、将展品的劣势转化为优势、深化研究成果、创新陈展方式等方面,层级化、直观化、多角度、动态化地解读考古信息,为遗址博物馆的展示作出了有益的尝试。     

科学史学乎?“科学古学”乎?——傅斯年“史学便是史料学”之思想渊源新探

在现代中国史学史上,傅斯年以其"史学便是史料学"的口号,成为所谓"史料学派"的代表人物。而"史料学派"之推动历史研究的科学化,又常与德国兰克学派的理论和实践相比仿。不过傅氏虽然曾留学德国,但从他的藏书和其它资料来看,其实他在留学期间,对兰克学派及其德国的历史研究,并没有太多接触。相反,傅氏对西方博古主义或古学运动对古典文化的研究,颇有兴趣。他在回国以后所开展的一系列工作,也显示出他之强调史料的扩充和整理,并由此来推广科学史学的做法,介乎于科学主义和博古主义之间。     

硅酸酯低聚体在石材保护中的应用研究

石质文物是中华民族的灿烂文明,是无价的不可再生的文化遗产和旅游资源,对其进行必要的保护势在必行。现阶段封护材料主要是有机高分子和一些在位聚合低聚体材料,高分子封护剂由于渗透性差、固化应力大等原因应用已被限制,低聚体以其良好的渗透性,无固化应力,与石材相容性好等原因受到更多的应用。研究了一类以甲基三乙氧基硅烷(MTEOS)、正硅酸乙酯等为单体、溶液缩聚的硅酸酯低聚体石质文物封护材料。探讨了单体用量对硅酸酯封护材料性能的影响,进行了硅酸酯封护材料的附着力、憎水性、透气性、耐可溶性盐、耐酸碱老化以及耐紫外光老化等分析测试,还进行了红外、扫描电镜等分析。通过试验分析表明,聚合过程中,MTEOS用量控制在40%(wt)时附着力及接触角达到最佳。封护后试样的耐酸碱性、耐可溶性盐、耐紫外光、透气性和抗冻融性均有不同程度的提高,结果表明研究的硅酸酯低聚体材料能够满足石质文物的封护要求。     

Writing imperial history in the age of high nationalism: imperial historians on the fringes of the Habsburg monarchy

For a long time, the late period of the Habsburg Monarchy has been characterized as a battlefield of nation-building elites who employed historical scholarship (among other means) to promote nationalistic ideas. More recent studies, however, have examined and called attention to the powerful structures which held this monarchy together. In the age of historicism, the Habsburg Monarchy also needed a plausible historical narrative on which it could base claims of the legitimacy of its rule. This narrative was created first and foremost by Viennese historians. Yet there were historians in the Habsburg Monarchy’s regional centres who made significant contributions to the development of concepts of an imperial history, too. In this article, the author examines their efforts. Until around 1900, supranationalism and regionalism were the dominant concepts in the historical writings of the authors in the Military Frontier and Bukovina and also in the works of the renowned Prague historian Anton Gindely. Loyal to Vienna, some Hungarian historians reassessed national history in order to reconcile it with the imperial past. Transnational history was also a method of demonstrating the congruity of national and imperial interests. In the age of high nationalism, historians thus contributed to both national and imperial cohesion.     

HISTORIOGRAPHY: A FIELD IN SEARCH OF A HISTORIAN?

Richard Kirkendall's collection of essays, The Organization of American Historians and the Writing and Teaching of American History, examines the history of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) from its founding to the present, using that history to illuminate how the writing of American history has changed over the last hundred years. The book provides coverage of all the major dimensions of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association's (MVHA) and the OAH's activities, ranging from the work of its scholarly publications, the Mississippi Historical Valley Review and the Journal of American History, to its role in promoting the teaching of American history. Overall, the essays in the volume tell a story of the organization's progress toward greater inclusion and democracy, falling prey to a Whig interpretation of historiography. In doing so, the book is part of a larger tendency in the way that historians have approached historiography, which in turn reflects their ambivalence about their relationship to the historical process. Thus, even as the very enterprise of historiography is premised on the recognition of how historians are themselves the products of the historical process, historians have revealed the limits to that recognition in their approach to the subject. This essay shows how deeply rooted this duality has been in the study of American historiography and illuminates some of its sources by placing Kirkendall's book in the context of how the MVHA and the OAH have treated historiography over the course of the organization's history.     

Spinning Yarns: The Archaeological Evidence for Hand Spinning and its Social Implications,c ad 1200–1500

THIS PAPER EXAMINES the archaeological evidence for hand spinning in medieval Britain from c 1200 to c 1500. Ceramic, stone and baked clay spindle whorls have dominated the excavated finds, but a new corpus of lead-alloy spindle whorls, recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Scottish Treasure Trove, is presented here. Analysis of the metal whorls’ distribution, manufacture, dating and decoration is provided, illuminating the wide social and economic contexts in which they were used. From memento mori of pious spinners to sexually potent objects representative of lubricious gossips, the ubiquitous spindle whorl was a universal tool that had a powerful agency. The artefacts are small finds embodying daily life but also tie into the wider national economy of the High and Late Middle Ages.     

The medieval to early modern transition in a digital age: new developments relevant to the study of domestic buildings

SUMMARY: Transitions in the archaeological and historical record are difficult to discuss and frequently avoided. The authors briefly outline here how this topic has been studied, particularly in Post-Medieval Archaeology, reviewing differences of approach between European-based archaeologists, who stress continuities with medieval times, and archaeologists in the USA and elsewhere, who commence their studies with the arrival of Europeans. This outline is then used to explore how this earliest formative era of the post-medieval period can be studied via modern digital techniques, using a case study drawing on the study of buildings archaeology to further understanding of the transition. This 50th-anniversary contribution therefore intentionally bridges the old and the new.