THE LIMITS OF OTTOMAN PRAGMATISM

In this paper I reflect critically on the concept of pragmatism as it is used in Ottoman historiography. Pragmatism has gained increasing currency over the last ten to fifteen years as one of the defining features of the Ottoman polity. I argue that unless it is properly defined from a theoretical‐philosophical perspective, and carefully contextualized from a historical perspective, pragmatism cannot be used as an explanatory or comparative category. When used as a framework of explanation for historical change, pragmatism blurs more than it clarifies an essential aspect of the Ottoman polity that it seeks to define, namely, the political. It is essential to reflect on the difference between the political and politics because whereas the political refers to the configuration of the power relations that organize a society as a legitimate entity, politics refers to the strategies, practices, institutions, or discourses whose purpose is to construct and retain hegemony within a polity. Through an analysis of the concept of pragmatism in Ottoman historiography, I show that for most proponents of Ottoman pragmatism, pragmatism pertains to politics rather than to the political. From a perspective rigorously confined to political theory, I argue that much like the discourse of modern tolerance, pragmatism in Ottoman historiography posits a problematic periodization, relegates the political to the background, and depoliticizes essential power relations.     

The Possible Advantage of Living in Turf Houses on Settlement Mounds

Abstract

Before timber and stone houses were introduced to northern regions, varieties of turf houses were the most commonly used architecture. These houses had a wooden structure encapsulated in a shell constructed of grass turf. The different ethnic groups of the north built their houses in different styles and constructions, but the general principle was the same. The Norse of North Norway and also on the North Atlantic islands had a tendency to build their houses on top of the ruins of previous houses. After a few centuries this arrangement produced a settlement mound of highly organic soil. In the research literature, both the turf architecture and the settlement mounds have been described as adaptations to and a function of marginality and lack of timber. This paper reports an effort to test the idea that turf houses on top of settlement mounds may have been a finely tuned ecological system that made use of the capacity of organic soil to produce heat.     

A Mississippian Mace at Iroquoia's Southern Door

Abstract

This paper documents a Mississippian chipped stone mace, found by Lyle Edger, an amateur collector, in an agricultural field in Nichols, NY, along the Susquehanna River. This crown-form mace is made out of Dover chert and was probably produced by Mississippian people who lived in Middle Tennessee, circa A.D. 1200–1400. We argue that the Nichols Mace could have been acquired by Iroquoian people as the result of either a gift or diplomatic negotiations. We conclude that the meanings the mace held for Iroquoian people were likely tied to how they acquired it.     

Inferring attitudes from behavior

Abstract

The Middle East has long been a conflict zone; the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been a persistent factor for decades, and there have been wars over natural resources, ideological causes, and national or religious cleavages as well. How does a historian begin to compile a documentary record of such a struggle? At the beginning of my research stay in the Middle East in 2007, I decided to keep a diary about my experiences and assessments in the field. In this article, I recount and reflect about those experiences in order to propose potential solutions to the problem of on-site research in unstable areas. While field research generally requires a particular kind of preparation, and always faces obstacles and challenges, the success of fieldwork under difficult and hostile research settings is dependent on the skills of the researcher, and his or her ability and preparedness for the problems the nature of the research inevitably will bring forward.     

Radial route systems and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent: New discoveries from western Syria and southwestern Iran

Radial systems of spoke-like pathways, often termed “hollow ways,” are frequently found surrounding mounded tell sites in northern Mesopotamia and have been explained as the product of a particular set of land use practices involving dry-farming agriculture and intensive ovicaprid pastoralism. Yet while similar subsistence strategies were very common across the Near East throughout much of the Holocene, classic hollow ways have only been previously documented in a small region and articulate almost exclusively with sites of the third millennium BC. This paper presents newly discovered hollow ways in western Syria and southwestern Iran, made possible through analysis of an online database of declassified, Cold War-era CORONA satellite imagery. The association of these previously undocumented ancient roads with archaeological sites dating to the Iron Age, Roman/late Roman and early medieval periods, suggests that the land use practices which produced radial route systems may have been quite widespread. Taking into account the wide geographic and temporal distribution of hollow ways, analysis explores various aspects of the agro-pastoral systems that disparate communities may have shared. Results confirm some aspects existing models of hollow way formation, while offering some refinements in terms of the roles that settlement organization, agricultural land use and pastoral strategies play.     

Technological successions in the Middle Stone Age sequence of Diepkloof Rock Shelter,Western Cape,South Africa

The southern African MSA comprises a series of phases of unique technological innovations that fuel current models on the evolutionary processes of Anatomically Modern Humans. However, the nature and variability of these technological phases remain poorly documented. This study reports on the previously unpublished sequence of Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa) and investigates the main technological changes therein, particularly emphasizing the emergence, succession and disappearance of the Still Bay (SB) and the Howiesons Poort (HP). We argue for technological change that occurred at different rates and under the influence of variable driving factors. Our model implies that the SB and the HP are not related to the influx of new populations but have regionally specific origins. Unlike the other techno-complexes, the HP at Diepkloof is subdivided into different phases (Early, Intermediate and Late) but only the upper phases resemble the so-called “classic” HP. Finally, the technological sequence of Diepkloof questions the homogeneous picture which has been so far assumed for the southern African MSA and places emphasis on the importance of exploring long regional sequences.     

Neandertal foraging during the late Mousterian in the Pyrenees: new insights based on faunal remains from Gatzarria Cave

This article presents the initial results of a new study of faunal remains from Gatzarria Cave, a Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition site the Pyrenees of southwestern France (department of the Pyrénées Atlantiques). This study attempts to document diet breadth during the late Mousterian, while paying due attention to recently identified problems regarding the stratigraphic context of the assemblages. The faunal analysis focuses on a subset of late Mousterian faunal remains from layer Cj at the site. Taphonomic analysis suggests that humans were the primary bone accumulators. The assemblage is dominated by a single large-bodied species, red deer; smaller-bodied ungulates are poorly represented. Skeletal part representation indicates that within-bone nutrients contained in marrow were probably a key resource for these foragers. The overall pattern of remains is interpreted as evidence of narrow-spectrum foraging, a pattern which appears to be repeated at other Mousterian sites in the Pyrenees region. This may mean that local Neandertal populations existed at relatively low densities. However, this suggestion must be tempered by the fact that settlement patterns, including occupation seasonalities and site functions, are not yet well understood for this region.     

A new approach to Corystospermales based on Triassic permineralized stems from Argentina

Anatomically preserved mature stems of late Middle Triassic corystosperms from the Paramillo Formation of Argentina are described and assigned to Cuneumxylon spallettii gen. nov. et sp. nov. The silicified specimens show features of the pith, primary xylem and successive rings of secondary xylem and phloem. The most striking characteristic is the anomalous secondary growth, represented by secondary xylem bounded by arcs of secondary phloem probably derived from successive repositioned cambia. Cuneumxylon has two kinds of unusual centrifugal secondary growth. The first shows unequal activity of different portions of the cambium on the circumference of the axes; the consequent restriction of cambial activity to certain restricted areas develops wedged stems, which often split. The second produces polyxylic stems following supernumerary cambial activity. As in extant plants growing in arid regions, the included phloem and the associated parenchyma may have had functional value avoiding desiccation of the outer tissues of the stem during droughts. Anatomical features of other Corystospermaceae were used to determine systematic affinities and to establish relationships among medullosans, corystosperms and cycads.     

Two new Middle Jurassic species of orthophlebiids (Insecta: Mecoptera) from Inner Mongolia,China

QIAO, X., SHIH, C.K. & REN, D., December 2012. Two new Middle Jurassic species of orthophlebiids (Insecta: Mecoptera) from Inner Mongolia, China. Alcheringa 36, 467–472. ISSN 0311-5518.

Two new species of the extinct family Orthophlebiidae, Orthophlebia nervulosa sp. nov. and Orthophlebia stigmosa sp. nov., are described and illustrated. These well-preserved specimens were collected from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation near Daohugou Village, Inner Mongolia, China. Morphological characters shown in these well-preserved specimens highlight the diversity of orthophlebiids during the Middle Jurassic and provide data for future phylogenetic studies of orthophlebiids.     

The oldest root-eating beetle from the Middle Jurassic of China (Coleoptera,Monotomidae)

Cai, C.-Y., ?lipiński, A. & Huang, D.-Y., 31.3.2015. The oldest root-eating beetle from the Middle Jurassic of China (Coleoptera, Monotomidae). Alcheringa 39,488–493. ISSN 0311-5518.

Jurorhizophagus alienus gen. et sp. nov., a new fossil root-eating beetle, is described and figured based on an exceptionally well-preserved impression fossil from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou beds (ca 165 Ma), Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. It represents the earliest fossil Monotomidae known to date. Jurorhizophagus can not be assigned to either of two subfamilies Monotominae or Rhizophaginae based on the unique combination of many unusual characters, including an 11-segmented antenna with a 3-segmented club, the presence of a distinct frontoclypeal suture and transverse pronotum with a median longitudinal groove. The discovery of a new genus from the Middle Jurassic highlights the antiquity of Monotomidae and provides new information about the phylogenetic relationships between Monotomidae and its allied families.

Chen-Yang Cai [caichenyang1988@163.com], Di-Ying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn] (corresponding author), State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China; Adam ?lipiński [adam.slipinski@csiro.au], Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Collections Australia, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.