Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns

Town walls have always played a critical role in shaping the identities and images of the communities they embrace. Today, the surviving fabric of urban defences is a feature of heritage holding great potential as a cultural resource but in management terms one that poses substantial challenges, both practical and philosophical. Town walls can be conceptualised as a ‘dissonant’ form of heritage whose value is contested between different interest groups and whose meanings are not static but can be rewritten. Evidence is gathered from walled towns across Europe, including member towns of the WTFC (Walled Towns Friendship Circle) and inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Sites, to explore the cyclical biographies of town walls in their transformation from civic monuments, through phases of neglect, decay and destruction to their current status as cherished cultural resources. To explore this area of interface between archaeology and tourism studies, the varying attitudes of populations and heritage agencies to walled heritage are reviewed through examination of policies of conservation, preservation, presentation and restoration. Areas of commonality and contrast are thus identified.     

Sustainable architectural conservation according to traditions of Islamic waqf: the World Heritage–listed Stone Town of Zanzibar

Sustainability in the conservation of architectural heritage is now more extensively considered than it was decades ago. The introduction of the concept of sustainability to the field marked hopes to overcome problems threatening heritage sites. There are general concepts guiding sustainable conservation. However, heritage specifics play important roles in achieving sustainability, and may direct the formulation of sustainable concepts to be applied. This paper is an attempt to add to the discourse of heritage sustainability by discussing buildings managed through a tradition of Islamic waqf in the World Heritage Stone Town of Zanzibar. It examines sustainability in terms of its financial, social, managerial, and environmental aspects. The relatively good survival rate of waqf buildings in the old town over several centuries suggests sustainable and transmissible ‘genes’ within the tradition. Waqf was found to elaborate ways to strike a balance between heritage consumption and use, avoiding gentrification, and enabling collective urban conservation. It further suggests that sustainable conservation cannot avoid monetary sacrifices, and if it is to be sustainable in the long term it should be inherent in the heritage itself.     

War Dead and the Restoration of Military Cemeteries in Eastern Europe

This article examines the rebuilding of World War II cemeteries and mass graves. It compares the cult of the war dead in Germany, Romania and Russia and analyses examples of restorations of war cemeteries by these countries in Moldova. This reveals how the former war allies and adversaries now collaborate, as well as their attempts to overcome the political and ideological divides of recent decades through the reburial and remembrance of the war dead. The search for the war dead occurred at a time when each of these countries was “coming to terms” with its recent totalitarian past and, at the same time, was looking for recognition in a new international context. The convergence of the private and the political in the remembrance of the dead led at times to reconciliatory discourses and at others to a restatement of the “sacredness” of the past or of exclusivist national ideals.     

The development of the longbow in late medieval England and ‘technological determinism’

Traditional understandings of the development of the medieval English longbow and its role in the fourteenth-century ‘infantry revolution’ have recently been challenged by historians. This article responds to the revisionists, arguing based on archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence that the proper longbow was a weapon of extraordinary power, and was qualitatively different from – and more effective than – the shorter self-bows that were the norm in England (and western Europe generally) before the fourteenth century. It is further argued that acknowledging the importance of the weapon as a necessary element of any credible explanation of English military successes in the era of the Hundred Years War does not constitute ‘technological determinism’.     

Techniques of seigneurial war in the fourteenth century

Despite the many studies devoted to medieval military history, most work has concentrated on royal wars, neglecting the petty seigneurial wars that made up most of the large-scale, organised violence of the middle ages. This article, based on judicial records for dozens of seigneurial wars waged in fourteenth-century southern France, shows that lords' tactics were not keeping up with those of royal commanders. Although royal wars increasingly involved large numbers of foot soldiers, large siege engines, and artillery, local lords' bureaucratic and financial limitations restricted their adoption of new techniques. As had been the case for centuries, most lords' wars were focused on causing economic damage and affective trauma through raiding. After the first phase of the Hundred Years War, local lords began to employ significant numbers of mercenaries, allowing them to wage war more frequently and perhaps making their wars more violent, a development which partly reflects the economic pressures of the period.     

The organisation of military religion in the armies of King Edward I of England (1272–1307)

King Edward I of England (1272–1307) was an exceptionally capable leader both on the battlefield and in the organisation of the bureaucratic institutions necessary for the successful pursuit of his military objectives. The military history of Edward’s reign has benefited from extensive scholarly attention, particularly with regard to matters such as military recruitment, battlefield strategy, and logistics. However, one major lacuna has been an examination of the pastoral care made available to soldiers serving the king in both peace and war. This study considers the means by which both professional fighting men and militia forces serving in the armies of Edward I were provided with the opportunity to obtain pastoral care. It considers in turn, soldiers attached to the royal household, the troops of the royal garrisons, militia forces drawn from the shires, and finally the contingents provided by men who held land from the king through military tenure.     

清代河南朱仙镇的商业--以山陕会馆碑刻资料为中心的考察

朱仙镇是清代著名商镇之一。其兴起约在明代中后期,康熙、雍正年间迅速发展,乾隆年间达到鼎盛,全镇商人商号数量超过千家。在该镇汇集的商品除相当部分供应省城开封之外,流通范围大致可覆盖河南北部的开封、归德、彰德、卫辉等府。     

中国与奠边府战役

50多年前的奠边府战役,是越南抗法战争中具有决定性意义的重大战役。中国对奠边府战役的胜利作出了重大贡献,主要表现在以下四个方面:在中国军事顾问的直接帮助下,越南人民军迅速发展壮大,初步具备了进行大规模攻坚战的能力;中共中央建议以越西北为主要战略方向并为越方采纳,这是越南人民军得以顺应敌情变化、举行奠边府战役的重要前提条件之一;中共中央、中央军委和中国军事顾问对奠边府战役的各个环节都提出过重要建议,对确保战役的胜利起了重大作用;由中国人民解放军帮助训练的越南炮兵、高射炮兵部队及时回国参加奠边府战役,中国援助的武器装备和其他军用、民用物资及时运到越南,满足了奠边府战役的需要。     

日本所藏有关夏圭的资料

本文介绍了日本美术界对夏圭绘画的研究现状,进而对日本收藏的《山水图》、《江城图》与台北故宫所藏的《溪山清远图》做了对比研究,指出了三图的相互关联与区别,为夏圭山水艺术与南宋宫廷绘画的进一步研究提供了新的资料。