Turquoise Mine and Artefact Correlation for Some Bronze Age Archaeological Sites in Hubei Province,China

In China, there are places that are rich in gem‐quality turquoise resources, including north‐west Hubei Province and the nearby Baihe County in Shaanxi Province, and many ancient mining sites, although the mining history remains a mystery. Based on the compositional data from reference samples of known deposits, a comparison of the major and trace element contents of archaeological turquoise may help with determination of artefact provenance. This paper discusses new evidence of provenance‐tracking of turquoise in this area, obtained from geochemical analyses using REE and other trace elements of 22 turquoises and their surrounding rock samples from six ancient mines and three archaeological sites. The results indicate that the three archaeological turquoises from the tomb of the Middle Spring and Autumn Period (580–560 bc ) and the Warring States Period (476–221 bc ) in Hubei Province were made of raw material from north‐west Hubei Province and the nearby Baihe County in Shaanxi Province. [Correction added on 29 October 2014, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, the correct dates for the Middle Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States Period have been added]     

Investigation of Organic Materials From the ‘Royal’ Burials of Xiongnu (Noin‐Ula,Mongolia) by Srxrf and XAFS Methods

The burials of famous Xiongnu people are a unique source of information about Xiongnu culture, due to the variety of organic findings. SRXRF analysis of hair, clay, bones, teeth and woollen cloth was carried out. An anomalously high copper content was observed in all hair samples, whereas the levels of copper in bone and clay were low. To define the hair morphology and the elemental distribution in the hair cross‐section, high‐resolution X‐ray computed tomography (HRXCT) and energy‐dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used. The X‐ray absorption fine‐structure method (XAFS) was applied to determine the local copper environment. The majority of the copper species in the hair and enamel samples are present as Cu²⁺ cations in a distorted octahedral (4 + 2) coordination, surrounded by light ligands (oxygen/nitrogen). A similar distorted octahedral coordination is typical for both inorganic mixed oxide/hydroxide Cu nanosystems and metal–organic Cu complexes (with oxygen/nitrogen).     

The Role of Pattern‐Welding in Historical Swords—Mechanical Testing of Materials Used in Their Manufacture

Pattern‐welding is a well‐known technique that was widely employed in the manufacture of swords. While the decorative effect of genuine pattern‐welding (employing phosphoric iron) is indisputable, to date its reinforcing effect is rather unclear. In order to understand this issue better, wrought iron, phosphoric iron, steel and various pattern‐welded samples were prepared and mechanically tested, and the results obtained are discussed in detail. Both the mechanical testing and the long‐term metallographic investigation of medieval swords suggest that pattern‐welding does not have any significant positive effect on the mechanical properties of swords and we should consider it a primarily decorative technique.     

Tell Abraq during the second and first millennia BC: site layout,spatial organisation,and economy

Research recommenced at Tell Abraq in 2007, carried out by Bryn Mawr College with an international team in co‐operation with the Sharjah Archaeology Authority. Between 2007 and 2010 fieldwork was limited to documenting sections of the previous excavations and one small sounding while our attention focused mainly on the nearby shell‐midden site of Hamriya and the fortified Iron Age settlement site of Muweilah. Since 2010, large‐scale excavations have been conducted which have fundamentally altered our understanding of the layout of the settlement and its economic relations during the second and first millennia BC. In this report, we detail the results of this work and present preliminary interpretations.     

The Negative Effects of Insufficient Support Systems on Kuwaiti Mothers of Children with Disabilities

Parents raising a child with a physical or cognitive disability are often faced with the negative stigma against disabilities that exist in several Arab countries. This puts extra pressure on the parents and can lead to negative outcomes for the children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of parenting stress and varying levels of support for mothers of children with disabilities and the effects of these pressures on their relationship with their disabled child. We surveyed 85 Kuwaiti mothers of children with disabilities. The participants filled out an online survey with questions regarding parenting related stress, perceived social support, feelings of social isolation, self‐efficacy, and attachment to their child. Results indicate that mothers who feel unsupported by their families, community, and government experience more parenting stress and greater social isolation. These in turn lead them to feel less competent in their parenting abilities, and ultimately they feel less emotionally connected to their child. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Identity and social solidarity: an ignored connection. A historical perspective on the state of Europe and its nations

The article comments on the ongoing de‐Europeanisation and re‐nationalisation of Europe from a historical perspective. The article argues that the building of national community from the 1870s onwards focused on the problem of social integration where the development of emotional feelings of belonging and solidarity was linked to the building of institutions for social politics in mutually reinforcing dynamics. The social question emerged in the wake of the spread of industrial capitalism. Its role is underexplored in the study of the building of national and European communities. The social question draws attention to the institutional capacity of nation states rather than nations based on emotions. Nationalism did not only mean the building of friend‐ enemy distinctions through ethnicity but also national socialism as a conservative reform strategy against class struggle socialism. This contention between two approaches to the problem of social integration moulded together national communities through emotions and institutions without deploying the concept of identity. The article outlines this development, culminating in the (West) European welfare states as nation– states in the strong sense of the merger of these two terms, and how it came to an end in the 1970s when a reverse development began towards social disintegration at the end accompanied by accelerating nationalism and xenophobia. The identity concept was mobilised in 1973 as a tool in the European integration project to compensate for the erosion of social institutions by means of emotions. It was taken over and politicised from having been a technical term in mathematics and psychoanalysis. The politicisation of the identity concept was an indication of a deep identity crisis in Europe and its nations. The identity therapy failed, and the identity crisis remains, accompanied by an ever louder nationalistic and xenophobic vocabulary. Emotions replace institutions. The methodological focus of the article is on the semantics around key concepts such as social politics, solidarity and identity in their historical context as forward‐looking and action‐oriented concepts in the construction of community. This approach with a focus on past futures is an alternative to the application of the retrospective analytical concepts of ethnic and civic nationalism outlining present pasts.     

ANIMAL HISTORY

This review reflects on animal history as a subfield of the discipline of history and presents its main arguments and future tasks. Its main goal is to identify the new research prospects and potentials proposed by the book edited by Susan Nance, The Historical Animal. These include such topics as the problem of “the animal's point of view,” animal agency (animals understood as “historical” agents and actors), the problem of identifying traces of animal actions in “anthropocentric” archives and searching for new historical sources (including animals’ testimonies). It also explores methodological difficulties, especially with the idea of the historicization of animals and the possible merger of the humanities and social sciences with the natural and life sciences. The review considers how studying animals forces scholars to rethink to its foundations history as a discipline. It claims that the most progressive proposals are coming from scholars (many of whom are historians) who advocate radical interdisciplinarity. The authors are not only interested in merging history with specific sciences (such as animal psychology, ecology, ethology, evolutionary biology, and zoology), but also question basic assumptions of the discipline: the epistemic authority claimed by historians for building knowledge of the past as well as the human epistemic authority for creating such knowledge. In this context several questions emerge: can we achieve “interspecies competence” (Erica Fudge's term) for creating a multispecies knowledge of the past? Can research on animals’ perception of change help us to develop nonhistorical approaches to the past? Can we imagine accounts of the past based on multispecies co‐authorship?     

The Evolution of Neoliberal Urbanism in Moscow, 1992–2015

This article examines the urban development of Moscow from 1992 to 2015, arguing that the city's recent transformation from grey asphalt jungle to a “city comfortable for life” is driven by a process of neoliberal restructuring. In particular, the study finds that a set of multi‐scalar dynamics—namely, the global financial crisis, the rise of a local protest movement, and an intensified rivalry between federal and Muscovite elites—were the key driving forces behind Moscow's current evolution. The work advances a conceptual framework of neoliberal urbanisation that enhances the literature on post‐socialist cities and, more generally, the broader debate on actually existing neoliberalism.     

The Right to the World

The global number of refugees, asylum seekers, and those displaced within their countries are at record levels in the post‐World War II era. Meanwhile, efforts by relatively wealthy and powerful nation‐states to exclude unwanted migrants through enhanced territorial control have reached unprecedented heights, producing great harm–most notably premature death–for many. The factors driving out‐migration from homelands made unviable, coupled with multiple forms of violence experienced by migrants, demonstrate the need for an expansion of rights–conceived of as both entitlements and sites of struggle. So, herein, I assert the need for “the right to the world”–specifically a right to mobility and a just share of the Earth's resources–to help realize the promise of a dignified life for all. In making the case for such, the article offers a critical analysis of the contemporary human rights regime and of the “right to the city”.