Miocene molluscs and barnacles from Mont Rond,Kerguelen Islands

A sedimentary deposit discovered at Kerguelen Islands in 1988 is interbedded in the Cape MacLear cliffs, near Mont Rond (Ronarc'h Peninsula). The age of this oceanic deposit is considered to be lower to middle Miocene as indicated by isotopic dating of both the underlying and overlying basalts. This deposit yields a fauna essentially consisting of molluscs (bivalves, gastropods) and crustaceans (cirripedes). This fauna exhibits some similarities to Miocene to Recent austral faunas (New Zealand, Argentina) as a result of the establishment of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. However, it has no species in common with the extant Kerguelen fauna. The Mont Rond fossil assemblage is best compared with either of two types of extant communities developed on a bare sandy sea floor where infaunal species are dominant, but most likely to an opportunistic one in depths from approximately 10 to 80 m.     

Western Imperialism and Military Reform in Japan and China

This paper compares the initial efforts at military reform in China and Japan in the late nineteenth century. Changes in military organization and training are situated within a global process of military transformation represented by changes in the structure of the Prussian army. The Prussian staff system and planning program were imported into both Japan and China, but with quite different results. The paper contrasts centralization and standardization as typified by the new Japanese army with the decentered approaches in China. The paper argues that although there was substantive change in China, the Qing state was unable to impose a uniform plan for military Westernization. As a result, the new armies were never integrated into a common organization capable of defending the state from external aggression.     

留英学生与五四新文化运动——以《太平洋》杂志为中心

五四时期留英学生的思想活动鲜见论者讨论.本文以留英学生1917年初创刊于上海的<太平洋>杂志为中心,讨论其同人群体及其文化思想和教育主张.作为留英学界的一股知识力量,<太平洋>同人所提供的新思想观念,对于五四新文化运动具有积极推动和引导作用,这与以<新青年>作为运动的指导力量并无二致.但<太平洋>的思想背景有着浓厚的英伦调和主义色彩.     

创建荒野:印第安人的移徙与美国国家公园

当代环境保护运动是从美国对自然环境变化、全球工业化扩张与政治现代化过程的独特响应中发展起来的。从环保运动中涌现出了一种全新的自然观念,其中包含着基于种族移徙的荒野思想。这种荒野观允许白人为了娱乐消遣和静默冥想的目的而排他性地占用人迹杳然的荒野,并且将这种做法视为天经地义。把人类活动排除在外的荒野观对于美国和国际社会的国家公园和荒野区域的建立影响深远。当世界各地的土著居民们宣称拥有公园土地所有权和资源使用权时,前述荒野观便引发了诸多冲突。     

The Enigma of 'Aydhab: a Medieval Islamic Port on the Red Sea Coast

The medieval Islamic port of 'Aydhab played a major role in the hajj and in trade with Yemen, India and the Far East. A recent satellite image reveals the layout of the town in some detail, but there seems to be no trace of a viable harbour. Yet there was a fine secure harbour at Halaib, 20 km to the south. We tentatively suggest that the main port of 'Aydhab was separate from the town. This hypothesis can only be verified by fieldwork and our objective in this paper is draw attention to the problem rather than to resolve it.
© 2007 The Authors     

Swahili Cosmopolitanism in Africa and the Indian Ocean World, A.D. 600–1500

Coastal peoples who lived along the Eastern African seaboard in the first millennium A.D. onwards began converting to Islam in the mid-eighth century. Clearly rooted in and linked throughout to an indigenous regional Iron Age tradition, they created a marked difference between themselves and their regional neighbors through their active engagement with Islam and the expanding Indian Ocean world system. In this paper I explore three ways in which interrelated cultural norms—an aesthetic featuring imported ceramics, foods, and other items, Islamic practice, and a favoring of urban living—created and maintained this difference over many centuries. These qualities of their identity helped anchor those who became Swahili peoples as participants in the Indian Ocean system. Such characteristics also can be seen to have contributed to Swahili attractiveness as a place for ongoing small-scale settlement of Indian Ocean peoples on the African coast, and eventually, as a target for nineteenth-century Arab colonizers from the Persian Gulf. This paper examines the archaeology of these aspects of Swahili culture from its early centuries through ca. A.D. 1500.     

试论1949-1951年中国的印度政策与西藏的和平解放

新中国建立前夕 ,美国积极侵略西藏 ,独立后的印度也企图延续它从英国继承的西藏政策和在藏权益 ,西藏地方分裂分子在美印等国的支持下蠢蠢欲动 ,西藏面临更为严峻的形势。以毛泽东为首的中国领导人决定以军事力量为后盾和平解决西藏问题 ,他们精辟地分析了有关国家在西藏问题上的矛盾冲突 ,利用印度维持其在藏利益的政策 ,找出了外交上的突破口 ,在坚决反对其干涉内政的同时争取与之早日建交并修正此前的对印政策 ,有效地制约了美国对西藏的干涉 ,使西藏和平解放顺利实现。     

福建土著文化内涵中的海洋性

“中国文化”与“中原文化”的界限往往被人忽视,将“中国文化”等同于“中原文化”导致在人们的中华文明概念中很少有区域文化的成分。事实上“中原文化”只是“中国文化”的一部分,而不是全部。中国东南地区的百越文化也应是中国文化的重要组成部分,这在于“中国东南沿海自古即有一海洋文化圈”犤1犦,福建作为百越中闽越族的活动中心,以其显著的海洋性为中华文明做出了不可磨灭的贡献。     

Glass beads and pendants from Meroitic and Nobadian Lower Nubia,Sudan: Chemical compositional analysis using laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry

This paper presents a detailed elemental analysis of 64 glass beads and pendants dated to the Meroitic period (first–third centuries ad ) and the Nobadian period (fourth–sixth centuries) from burial sites in the Lower Nubian Nile Valley region. Laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) was used to determine the chemical composition of the glass and to gain knowledge about its origin. Four main glass types were identified: low‐alumina soda‐lime glass, high‐alumina glass, plant‐ash soda‐lime glass, and mixed‐alkali glass. Mineral soda‐lime glass (m‐Na‐Ca) of East Mediterranean/Egyptian provenance is dominant within the low‐alumina glass group from Meroitic and Nobadian periods. Mineral soda high‐alumina glass (m‐Na‐Al) appeared in the Nobadian bead assemblages, and the m‐Na‐Al 1 subtype was produced in Sri Lanka/South India. An initial insight into the origin of the glass beads in Nubia from the first to sixth centuries is described, indicating the first evidence for the presence of Asian objects in Nubia. The data obtained for the bead trade in North‐east Africa in this study has allowed a new light to be shed on the westward flow of Asian glass during a time of intensive maritime trade contacts with the wider Indian Ocean world.     

Marine Quaternary dinoflagellate cysts of Australia,Papua-New Guinea,New Zealand and the Southern Ocean: a review

Dinoflagellate cysts are widespread in Australian, Papua-New Guinea, New Zealand and Southern Ocean Pleistocene and Recent marine sediments. They occur in estuaries and deltas as well as on the continental shelf and in ocean basins. They have proven invaluable in palaeoecology for the interpretation of changing temperature, salinity and distance from shore in particular. These changes have also been used to examine climate change in Quaternary sequences. A small number of First Appearance Datums (FADs) and Last Appearance Datums (LADs) within this time period allows only limited biostratigraphic definition. LADs within the Pleistocene of southern Australia include Achomosphaera ramulifera and Spiniferites rubinus. Introduction within the past 50 years of several taxa, such as Gymnodinium catenatum and Gymnodinium microreticulatum, has been attributed to ballast water import.