David's 'Hatred' for the Lame and the Blind (2 Sam. 5.8A)

Abstract

Scholars have often dismissed the rendering of veyigga' batsinnor (2 Sam. 5.8) as 'get up the water shaft' or 'get up the water canal' on the grounds that it has no natural connection with David's expressed 'hatred' for 'the lame and the blind'. This article argues that such a dismissal is perhaps hasty, and that David's reference to the physically afflicted alludes to the custom of their gathering at pools and springs (which were widely held to possess healing powers).     

Tell el-Ful Revisited: The Assyrian and Hellenistic Periods (with a New Identification)

Abstract

This article deals with the settlement history of Tell el-Ful from the Iron Age until the Hellenistic period. The author rejects past theories that a great fortress was built at the site in the Iron I period and that the settlement was protected by a casemate wall in the Iron IIC. He also rejects the identification of Tell el-Ful as biblical Gibeah/Gibeah of Saul. The author proposes that the tower excavated by Albright and Lapp was first constructed in the Iron IIC as an Assyrian watchtower commanding the northern approach to Jerusalem, and that it was one link in a system of such forts around the capital of Judah. The author maintains that the building served as a Hellenistic fort in a later phase and suggests the possibility, however speculative, of identifying Tell el-Ful with Pharathon, mentioned as one of the forts constructed by Bacchides in Judea in the early 2nd century BCE, and with Perath/Parah of late-monarchic times.     

The Ice Trade and the Northern Economy, 1840–1914

Abstract

This article examines the opinions, arguments and actions which led to the foundation of universities in the North: in alphabetical order, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield. Among the topics discussed are: the availability of funding from private sources, the extent of local (especially aristocratic) support, the limited involvement of governments, the differing attitudes towards science and technology, and civic rivalries. Essential features of the ‘university movement’ are displayed, along with the assumptions and ambitions of the Victorians, locally and nationally.     

A Man of Property: Richard Sykes,Merchant and Alderman of Leeds

Abstract

The publication of many of the original returns of the 1851 Census of Religious Worship opens up new potentialities for research, especially when these are studied alongside other sources that illuminate variegated local patterns of religious activity. In 1851, in Yorkshire nearly two thirds of places of worship had been built or opened in the preceding half century, producing a religious climate that was highly competitive and pluralistic. The Census reveals the decline of Quakerism, the rapid growth of Roman Catholicism, and the partial recovery of the Church of England. Methodism was already entrenched almost everywhere in Yorkshire — in rural as well as urban areas — although the Wesleyan schism of 1850 led to significant short-term disruption in some districts. Case studies of the subdistricts of Huddersfield, Grassington and Easingwold illustrate the highly varied nature of local developments, contingent on factors of geography and personality. It is argued that the Census provides evidence of rechristianization, quite as much as secularization, and that long-term decline in English religious practice should neither be predated nor perceived as inevitable.     

2009 Cultural Heritage Legal Summary

Abstract

In 2009, nearly 55 years after the U.S. participated in the drafting of the first international convention to exclusively address the protection of cultural property, the U.S. ratified the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. New developments concerning the U.S.’ implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property through its legislation, the 1983 Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, continue to expand and test the parameters of the role of the U.S. in this international treaty regime. Finally, claims, recoveries, and restitution of looted, smuggled, and stolen cultural artifacts continued.     

Towards an Inclusive Archaeology in Jerusalem: The Case of Silwan/The City of David

Abstract

The village of Silwan, in East Jerusalem, contains the remains of most ancient Jerusalem, often termed “The City of David”. In recent years the excavation and presentation of the archaeology of Silwan has been placed in the hands of a Jewish settler non-governmental organization. Their incorporation of this site into the Jewish-Israeli narrative is multifaceted — mixing religious nationalism with theme-park tourism. As a result, conflict with local Palestinians occurs at the very basic level of existence, where the past is used to disenfranchise and displace people in the present. The volatile mix of history, religion and politics in the City of David/Silwan threatens any future reconciliation in Jerusalem, which must be based on the empowerment of local people and the adoption of a proactive inclusive archaeological stance in which the many voices of the past are heard.     

Errors of Fact and Errors of Representation: Response to Shepherd and Haber's Critique of the World Archaeological Congress

Abstract

The llisu dam in the Kurdish region of Turkey, if built, would displace up to 78,000 women, children and men, causing immense destruction of culture, past and present. The article outlines some major issues arising as a result of work by an archaeologist to examine the dam's cultural impacts, work that has supported villagers opposing the dam and aiming to contribute to campaigns in Europe. Some of the work was part of the successful campaigning from 2000–2002 that resulted in the collapse of the consortium of companies then planning to build the dam. As a new consortium revives the project, an assessment is needed: where archaeologists are working with grassroots communities who are fighting for survival, mutual accountability is required. But how difficult is this to achieve? In particular, women's case against the dam is shown to be vital in an approach that requires both objectivity and commitment from archaeologists.     

The Impact of the Franco-Prussian War on Veterans: The Company-Level Career Patterns of the French Army 1870–1895

Abstract

The German Army generally failed to capitalize on early developments in mechanization and armoured vehicles during the second half of the First World War. This article argues that, while the German military was certainly not technophobic nor resistant to change, the developments in 'machine warfare' were fundamentally inimical to the dominant cultural assumptions held by German officers concerning the nature of war, and that this goes a long way in explaining the decision not to mass-produce armoured vehicles.     

‘As Poor as Church Mice’: Bishops,Finances, Posts,and Civil Duties in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807–13

Abstract

Relations between the Catholic Church and the secular authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw were characterized by the one’s efforts to maintain its old privileges, and the other’s modernization of the law in a Josephist spirit. Cooperation and compromise between Church and state were possible, but their relations were full of tension, which sometimes erupted into open confl ict. This article presents a wider range of problems than has hitherto been noted in the historiography. From the beginning of 1807, the Catholic clergy was expected to fulfi l new duties, because of the shortage of administrative staff. Confl icts arose over the duties of patrons, payments for the clergy, their taxes, the government’s prohibition on plural holding of benefi ces cum cura animarum, and over ecclesiastical organization in general. The place of the Church was more clearly outlined in the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807), but the concept of the ’state religion’ was seen by some clergymen as an opportunity to spread the Church’s infl uence. Further changes opened the higher ecclesiastical ranks to commoners. The civil government and the episcopate also differed on the role of religious orders, with the former looking to employ nuns and monks in social welfare and education. Bishops complained of ministers and offi cials who did not pay priests’ salaries punctually, if at all, but some episcopal interventions led to the authorities releasing the orders from fi nancial obligations and taxes. The Civil Code, introduced in 1808, assigned the duties of registrars to priests. Insofar as divorces and civil marriages were concerned, this role could place priests in contravention of canon law, although in practice almost no such cases occurred. Despite the work undertaken by representatives of the clergy and the civil authorities, no concordat, which would have resolved these issues, was agreed with the Holy See. As a result, the period of the Duchy brought the Catholic clergy great insecurity, alongside their hopes for the Polish nation.     

Imperial Nationality Policy and the Russian Version of the History of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article analyses how changes in Russian nationality policy after the 1830–31 Uprising in Poland and Lithuania led to the initiative of an historical project that sought to prove the Russian nature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It focuses on the tender organized by the Ministry of Education in the 1830s for the publication of a history textbook, which was to form the canon of Russian interpretations of the history of the Grand Duchy. The most important creator of this narrative was Nikolai Ustrialov. According to Ustrialov, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was just as much a Russian state as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, with the sole caveat that the tiny Lithuanian nation had played a part in creating it. Territorial rivalry between these two states was a mere ‘family quarrel’ over which dynasty would prevail. The supremacy of the Lithuanian dynasty did not mean the victory of an alien power since the Lithuanian princes were closely related to Russian princes and moreover, a considerable number of them belonged to the Eastern (Orthodox) Church. Russians could regard therefore them as their own. The last part of this article is devoted to the changes in nationality policy after the 1863–64 Uprising and the requirement for a new interpretation of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.