Between science and empire: the diplomatic struggle over Mesopotamian antiquities in Lisbon (1914–1926)

A powerful curiosity to discover the ancient world – reaching its peak in the nineteenth century – led to British, French, and German museums to enhance their collections with a great number of Mesopotamian antiquities. Most of these were the product of excavation work, which took years, followed by a shipping process fraught with hurdles and delays – much as when Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities were stranded in Portugal over the period 1914–26. In that case Portuguese officials seized the hoard of Babylonian and Assyrian items due to be sent to Germany at the beginning of the First World War by the German Oriental Society, which had carried out excavation works in Ottoman territories in the name of Kaiser II Wilhelm. The extensive British efforts and diplomatic exchanges aimed at bringing the pieces to London after the war, presents us with important clues regarding ownership disputes over antiquities, and the imperial struggle to acquire the cultural heritage of the near east. This study reveals that, under the existing legal framework, the items eventually taken to Berlin actually belonged to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, and analyzes the discourse of ‘scientific concern’ constructed by British diplomacy.     

论皇权传承规范对西汉帝陵布局的制约

先秦社会的氏族残余比较浓厚,昭穆制度影响较大。秦汉时期,皇权取得了独尊地位,"父子相传"的皇统传承规范成为制约帝陵布局的重要因素。西汉葬于渭北祖陵区的皇帝有八位与其前任皇帝属父子关系,而文帝因为平辈冲突,宣帝因为代际缺环,均未入葬祖陵区。平帝虽与哀帝同辈,但西汉后期以来,"为人后"原则日渐成为皇权传承的补充条款,王莽本着这个原则,葬平帝于渭北。     

故宫学的明清庙堂政治文化视域

故宫学是运用历史学、博物馆学、历史文献学、建筑考古学等学科的理论方法,对明清时代北京皇宫之物化和精神遗存,以及以该皇宫为中心展开的后续文博收藏进行综合研究的专门学科。一般意义上的明清史中有大量内容与故宫学中历史类研究重合,故如欲使故宫学的史类研究具有不可替代之特殊意义,需要在方法论意义上凸显故宫作为一个特殊政治文化场域这一视角。由此视角出发,可见故宫作为明清庙堂政治的核心场域,其内大量事物具有符号象征意义,其规制、理念、行为方式和惯性构成独一无二的政治文化语境,与庙堂之外的政治、文化、社会、民生产生差异、关联和互动,若能在具体层面切实推进研究,故宫学的历史类研究即有不可替代的学术意义。     

Imperial nostalgia: mythologizing Habsburg Trieste

This article reviews three recently published books on Habsburg Trieste, inquiring into the reasons for increased interest in this topic. The author suggests that this represents a type of 'imperial nostalgia' for the world we have lost, in particular for a political experiment in religious and ethnic diversity (as embodied by the flourishing of imperial Trieste's Jewish community) outside of the nation-state form. This nostalgia, in turn, reflects current concerns with identity, including scholarly attempts to theorize the contemporary situation in which the power of the nation state has been transformed. The analysis reveals that certain authors misread the realities of imperial Trieste through the lens of contemporary meanings of cosmopolitanism and tolerance. As an alternative, the article sketches out what the 'actually existing cosmo­politanism' of the Habsburg city consisted in.     

档案管理工作中电子信息的利用和开发

对于电子信息只有根据信息的类别进行管理,同时要符合保密、真实和完整的要求,才能确保电子信息的完整性和安全性。本文从存档电子信息的收集、保存、提供等角度,探讨了电子信息在现代档案管理中应该注意的问题。     

档案信息资源利用可持续发展探析

档案事业,是中国特色社会主义事业的重要组成部分。文章认为必须充分认识档案事业的重要性,深刻把握发展档案事业面临的新情况新问题,认真贯彻落实“科教兴档”的战略部署,努力培育和发展档案事业发展的新的生长点,力争实现档案信息资源可持续发展。     

从法国档案审视清末国家认同的重建——以“苏报案”交涉为例

甲午战争后,清政府遭遇了自太平天国运动以来最为严重的一场国家信任危机。为了重塑其政治权威,清政府采取了比以往更为积极的举措,围绕"苏报案"与列强的"争锋相对"正是这一心态的典型体现。本文通过对法国外交部馆藏《1903-1904年"苏报事件"》档案的解读,借助跨文化视角实现对"苏报案"的历史重构,以期对清政府希图通过融入当时国际体系以重建国家认同这一设想的审视,从中可以得出一个结论,即国家独立是重建国家认同的首要条件。     

The Courage of their Convictions: Creating Cultural Landscapes in 1930s Western Australia

Building a cultural landscape involves deep political and social processes. Discussions relating to decisions about preservation reveal cultural values at a particular moment and explain the character of the surviving landscape. This study analyses how one community in Western Australia defined its sense of place and identity. In the 1930s, on a wave of historical consciousness, Western Australians sought to enshrine the desire to preserve a range of historical materials in legislation, and conducted debates about the very survival of the buildings and documents. This paper investigates why legislation to preserve buildings and documents failed, and how the community understood the relationship between these two forms of heritage. Bringing together the two series of discussions, about the values inherent in and surrounding documents and buildings, highlights the way in which meanings are invested in places and things, and the values and processes through which the cultural landscape is shaped.     

Measuring Learning Outcomes in Museums,Archives and Libraries: The Learning Impact Research Project (LIRP)

There has been legislation in place since the 1970s in Canada's largest province, Ontario, that encourages the identification of significant heritage buildings and is supposed to provide them with at least a degree of protection. Both heritage recognition and most other land use decisions, however, are exercised at the local government level. W'hile conservation of heritage structures has been successful in some places, an alarming number of significant historic buildings in the province continue to be lost. Relying on dozens of volunteers, this study examined thousands of buildings in over twenty Ontario communities and sought to establish how many heritage buildings had been demolished and to determine why these losses were occurring. It was discovered that in the municipalities surveyed over 400 historically recognised buildings had been lost in the last sixteen years. Recommendations for how to deal with this problem are included in the study.     

Canada and the British Empire

Britain attempted to create an informal empire in the Middle East and used the British Middle East Office to sponsor development work precisely to attain a significant influence in the region, one that would salvage a fair share of rapidly declining imperial power. Environmental initiatives, many of them focusing on forestry, composed a key element of this programme. However an informal empire did not ensue. This led the Foreign Office, and many historians, to overlook the importance of the BMEO. This article explores how the environmental reforms proposed by British advisers radically changed land use in the Middle East between 1946 and 1970, and left behind a remarkable legacy of conservation.