Iron IIA slag-tempered pottery in the Negev Highlands,Israel

The article presents results of a petrographic investigation of pottery from Iron IIA settlements in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel. It focuses on a group of almost exclusively handmade wares that are tempered with crushed slag. The polarizing and electron microscopes explicitly identify these inclusions as copper smelting slag. Based on the slag as well as certain rock inclusions, the slag-tempered wares can be sourced to the copper districts in the Wadi Arabah, and hence for the first time provide a link between the Negev Highlands and the Arabah copper production centers in the period under review. More specifically, they demonstrate direct involvement of at least part of the pastoral-nomadic Negev Highlands population in the copper extraction system.     

A Fresh Look at the Egyptian Environment of the Pharaonic Period

Abstract

The article deals with the territorial history of the southern steppe areas of the Levant in the period between ca. 1050–750 BCE. In the early days of the Iron Age, until the mid-9^th century BCE, parts of them, were ruled by local desert entities: in the late Iron I a Moabite polity and in the early Iron IIA and the early years of the late Iron IIA the Tel Masos-Beer-Sheba-Negev Highlands Highlands entity. This situation changed in the later years of the Iron IIA as a result of Damascus' rise to hegemony in the Levant. In the second half of the 9^th century BCE Judah, under Damascene domination, expanded for the first time into the Beer-Sheba Valley. In the first half of the eighth century BCE, with the revival of Assyrian power in the days of Adad-nirari III, Damascene authority was replaced by north Israelite domination in the south.     

New books

The Highest Andes. A Record of the first Ascent of Aconcagua and Tupungato in Argentina and the Exploration of the surrounding Valleys. By E. A. FitzGerald. London : Methuen and Co., 1899. Pp. 390. Price 30s. net.

In Dwarf Land and Cannibal Country. By A. B. Lloyd. London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1899. Price 21s. net.

The Redemption of Egypt. By W. Basil Worsfold, M.A. London : George Allen, 1899. Pp. 333. Price 25s. net.

Alaska and the Klondike. By Angelo Heilprin, F.R.G.S., F.G.S.A. London : C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, 1899. Pp. 315. Price 7s. 6d.

Tunisia and the Modern Barbary Pirates. By Herbert Vivian, M.A., author of Servia, The Poor Man's Paradise, etc. etc. Illustrated with Photographs and a Map. London : C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, 1899. Pp. xvi + 341. Price 15s.

In a Corner of Asia. By Hugh Clifford. ("The Over‐Seas Library.”) London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899. Pp. 279. Price 1s. 6d.

Admiral Phillip. By Louis Becke and Walter Jeffert. ("The Builders of Greater Britain” Series.) London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899. Pp. xx + 336. Price 5s.

Von Kap zum Nil. Eeise‐Erinnerungen aus Sü'd‐, Ost‐ und Nordafrika. With Illustrations. By Dr. Karl Dove. 2nd edition. Berlin : Allgemeiner Verein für Deutsche Litteratur, 1898. Pp. 319.

Die Republik San Marino. Eine Studie. Von Carl Amico. Augsburg : A. Himmer, 1899. Pp. 159.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. By David Livingstone, M.D. With Notes by Frederick Stanley Arnot. London : John Murray, 1899. Pp. xiv + 447. Price 5s.

Cities and Sights of Spain. A Handbook for Tourists. By E. Main. London: George Bell and Sons, 1899. Pp. 214.

Hazell's Annual for 1900: a Cyclopædic Record of Men and Topics of the Day. Edited by W. Palmer, B.A. (Lond.). London : Hazell, Watson, and Viney, 1900. Pp. 702.

Statistical Year‐Booh of Canada for 1898. Issued by the Department of Agriculture. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1899. Pp. 606.

Aarbog for Dansh Kulturhistorie. Udgiven af Poul Bjerge. København : Lehmann og Stage, 1899. Pp. 192. Price 2 Kr.

Illustrated Guide for Tourists to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Darjeeling. 1896. Pp. 46.

Nedbøriagttagelser i Norge. Udgivet af det Norske Meteorologiske Institut. Aargang 1, ii. og iii., 1895 Juli, 1897 December. Kristiania : W. C. Fabricius og Sønner, 1899.     

New towns — the Indian experience

Recent government policy has enacted significant changes in the approach to training both north and south of the Border. In April 1991 the establishment of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, along with a network of Local Enterprise Companies, marked a shift in the direction to employer‐led and locally delivered training programmes. The importance of tourism to Scotland has attracted government attention and, in anticipation of the new training network, a Tourism Training Initiative has been set up to expand the take‐up of training opportunities. This area‐based approach is welcomed but it is argued that tourist businesses, especially the small accommodation sector, have particular characteristics that have made the uptake of training traditionally a low priority. The absence of consideration of these characteristics in the design of the new employment strategies is argued to be a significant weakness.     

Social geographies of rural mental health: experiencing inclusions and exclusions

A dominant urban focus in previous research on the social geographies of mental health has obscured the experiences of people with mental health problems living in rural localities. Critiquing this urban focus, we report on research conducted in the rural and remote Scottish Highlands. Evidence derived from in-depth interviews with over 100 users of psychiatric services in the Highlands is deployed to investigate the complex socio-spatial dynamics of inclusion and exclusion experienced by these users on a daily basis. A discussion of the explanations that users themselves offer of their experiences is accompanied by a theoretical framing of these issues pivoting on relations of proximity–distance and intimacy–repulsion.     

Upland agriculture and environmental risk: a new model of upland land-use based on high spatial-resolution palynological data from West Affric, NW Scotland

Marginality and climatic determinism are common themes in upland archaeology, particularly in northern Britain, but there is increasing evidence to challenge these assumptions, notably in the palynological record. An alternative model for land-use in a highland valley is developed using three high spatial-resolution pollen sequences from north-west Scotland. In spatial terms, land-use was shaped by the landscape but also structured to make the most productive use of the small, fragmented areas of better soil in a peat-dominated environment. Climate change alone provides an inadequate explanation for land-use dynamics. A combination of careful site selection, resource management, and social interactions buffered farmers from risks posed by upland conditions, whilst allowing the flexibility to respond to opportunities created by environmental and socio-economic change, particularly during the early Bronze Age, Bronze Age/Iron Age transition, Iron Age and ‘Little Ice Age’. Implications for the perception of upland farming, for the prediction of responses to environmental risk, and for the expected character and survival of archaeological evidence for past upland and mountain-farming systems are evaluated.     

A petroglyph of a smiting pharaoh in the Negev

A petroglyph of a smiting pharaoh located in the Central Negev may offer new evidence of contact with pharaonic Egypt. With a schematic enemy, the pharaoh is the centre of the composition emphasising the message of strength and dominance.