The Marausa Wreck,Sicily: interim report on a boat built in the Western Imperial Roman tradition

In 1991, the wreck of a late 3rd–early 4th century AD Roman merchant vessel was discovered on the west coast of Sicily that had carried North African amphora, tubuli, and other ceramics. The hull was dismantled and raised in 2011, including a keel hook‐scarfed to stem and sternposts, 39 pegged mortise‐and‐tenon joined planks, 43 frames with an irregular pattern of floor‐timbers, half‐timbers, and futtocks fastened to the planking with treenails and copper nails, sister‐keelsons and evidence of two stringers, 36 ceiling strakes, and the base of a bilge pump. Many repairs are indicated. The fairly flat bottom and round bilges, mortise‐and‐tenons, sister‐keelsons and lack of a coherent framing pattern, place the boat in the Western Imperial tradition.     

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.     

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.     

明代御用监造漆器的款识及伪款辨识

庋藏于故宫博物院的明代漆器是国内收藏之最。作者利用在故宫文物库房工作的有利条件,用十几年的时间,将故宫及世界各地博物馆、私人收藏的明代官造漆器的款识,特别是对伪款的类型进行排比与研究,去伪存真,试图解决明代官造漆器中真假款并存的问题,为深入研究明代漆器的专家学者提供参考。     

The Wire: Progress,Paradox, and Disaster in the Strategic Networking of China, 1881–1901

This study of the introduction of telegraphy to China in the late-nineteenth century tells three interrelated stories: China’s pursuit of telegraphic sovereignty with its strategic networking of the empire in the period 1881–99; the functioning of China’s hybrid express courier-telegraphic communications infrastructure; and the international communications crisis during the Boxer Uprising and the “Siege of the Legations” in 1900. The material reality of two inter-connected networks—the privately owned Imperial Telegraph Administration network and the government-run telegraph network—allowed Qing-era Beijing and its provincial governors to communicate with much greater speed. The materiality of these networks—how this new communications technology affected the practical realities of government communications, including the ease of lateral communications between provincial governors—is explored in the context of the communications crisis of 1900. In May and June of 1900 all telegraph lines to Beijing, and throughout much of North China, were cut or otherwise destroyed. While these blinded Western governments are no longer able to exchange telegrams with their Beijing-based envoys, the Qing express courier system continued to operate. Moreover, both the court and provincial officials quickly improvised ad hoc telegraphic communication protocols through the use of “transfer telegrams” (zhuandian) that relied on mounted express couriers between Beijing and those North China telegraph stations with working network connections. This assessment of real-time secret imperial communications between the Qing court and the provinces is based on the documentary register Suishou dengji (Records of [documents] at hand) maintained by communications managers in the Grand Council. China lost its telegraphic sovereignty in the capital region when Allied troops occupied the Beijing-Tianjin line of communications in the summer and fall of 1900. Moreover, Western dreams of laying, landing, and controlling submarine cables on the China coast were finally realized in North China by the end of 1900. The British, therefore, were able to add a critical section to their planned global network of secure telegraphic communications. China’s recognition of the Western and Japanese right of protecting the Beijing-Tianjin line of communications was codified in Article 9 of the Boxer Protocol of September 1901. These losses of China’s telegraphic sovereignty would not be completely reversed until after 1949.     

大朝国师印考

西藏自治区文管会珍藏的“大朝国师统领诸国僧尼中兴释教之印”是具有极高历史价值的国宝级文物。但是,它长期被误读,并认为是复制品而遭到冷落。实际上“大朝”是忽必烈正式建国号“大元”之前的蒙古汗国国号,国师是当时最高僧官,具有“统领诸国僧尼中兴释教”的职权。此印是蒙哥大汗赐予那摩国师的封印。本文揭示了该印重要的历史价值和文物价值,对于元史、蒙古史的研究都有重要的参考价值。     

事有定数:明人对科举功名的认识

自隋、唐以降,伴随着科举制的创立、发展与完善,科举入仕成为社会普遍追求的理想人生模式, 以科举制度、科举人物、科举故事为核心内容的科举文化是中国传统文化的一个独特的构成部分。观照明人关于科举人物、科举故事的诸多记载和议论,基本上可以认为,命定、风水、报应等传统思想,因其理论上的包容性和阐释中的灵活性,是明人解释科举功名现象的主要理论依据。这种现象的生成,既是科场激烈竞争所引发的焦虑与无奈的结果,也是明人对社会、自然整体认知局限的自白。