Sceattas in Anglo-Saxon Graves

ANGLO-SAXON SILVER PENNIES (sceattas) are rare as gravegoods, but their provision was a regular element of burial practice in a small minority of later 7th-century-furnished inhumations and later burials. Although the number both of coins and burials is very small, they show patterns of deposition and treatment that have both a cultural and a broader chronological significance. This sample provides a window on social and symbolic attitudes to the coinages as elements of the broader material culture of contemporary society, and constitutes important corroborating evidence that the Primary Phase issues embodied a new degree of monetisation in 7th-century England.     

Rock art and social geography in the Upper Paleolithic. Contribution to the socio-cultural function of the Roc-aux-Sorciers rock-shelter (Angles-sur-l’Anglin,France) from the viewpoint of its sculpted frieze

This article is about the contribution of rock art to current studies on the social geography of European Paleolithic populations. The socio-cultural function of the Roc-aux-Sorciers decorated and occupied rock-shelter is considered through its monumental sculpted frieze. This approach is based on the intended audience, analyzed through the perception of this rock art and the archaeological context of the associated occupations. The site is also considered with regard to the other local decorated sites dated to the Middle Magdalenian with which it shares strong similarities (La Marche, Les Fadets, Réseau Guy Martin).     

Essay and Reflection: On the Nature of International History

This essay focuses on a previously under-explored facet of Churchill's life by analysing the autobiographical novel he created while reading literary classics as a young soldier suffering bouts of depression in a remote corner of the British Empire. It employs a combination of research strategies that include Churchill's correspondence, extracts from Savrola and related works, the social-scientific insights of Anthony Storr and Daniel Levinson, and an unpublished document in the Churchill Archives that links Churchill's capacity for heroism to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The author concludes that Savrola provided a means of self-diagnosis and treatment for Winston Churchill to extract some meaning in life and ultimately achieve political success.     

Uranium series dating reveals a long sequence of rock art at Altamira Cave (Santillana del Mar,Cantabria)

The rock art in Altamira Cave was the first ensemble of Palaeolithic parietal art to be identified scientifically (Sautuola, 1880). Due to the great thematic, technical and stylistic variety of the art in the cave, which constitutes one of the most complete Palaeolithic art ensembles, Altamira was listed as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1985. Uranium-series dating has recently been applied to figures on the decorated ceiling in the cave. Several motifs are partly covered by thin layers of calcite precipitates, whose formation process is datable by this method. The results provide the date when the calcite formed, which gives a minimum age for the underlying depictions. These results confirm that the parietal art at Altamira was produced during a prolonged period of time, at least 20,000 years (between 35,000 and 15,200 years ago), and that part of the ensemble corresponds to the Aurignacian period.     

Evaluating effects of chemical weathering and surface contamination on the in situ provenance analysis of building stones in the Cuzco region of Peru with portable XRF

As the only type of instrument capable of determining artifact geochemistry in a wide variety of settings, portable X-Ray Fluorescence (PXRF) may be frequently utilized as probably the best option for collecting data when removal of objects in part or in whole is unfeasible. However, using PXRF in circumstances where sample selection and preparation diverge from standards developed for lab-based instrumentation requires assessing the impact of new and potentially limiting factors to establish the validity of the method in these new contexts. Here we examine the effects of surface contamination and chemical weathering on the ability to assess provenance of igneous building stones used in the Cuzco region of Peru. Surface contamination was assessed through comparing low-impact cleaning methods on diorite and andesite blocks, and weathering was examined by comparing weathered vs. fresh surfaces of samples from two andesite quarries. In general, the lightest elements were most impacted by contamination and weathering while measurements of many of the heavier elements commonly used in provenance studies were relatively unaffected. Concentrations of Pb and Zn were problematic in the urban context of Cuzco because of pollution. Ability to determine provenance of building stones within those limitations (i.e., the validity of this application of PXRF) was demonstrated in a preliminary study by comparing measurements from uncleaned, exposed building stones in the region to fresh quarry samples.     

On Theme and Variation

Abstract

The ways in which the author, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, has made use of the ideas of D’Arcy Thompson are described. How Thompson showed that commonalities of form and pattern exist across the biological and abiotic realms is described, and the implications that physical constraints limit and sometimes dominate the capabilities of evolutionary natural selection are explored. Since we evolved in a world shaped in this manner, the likelihood that this palette of forms is one that carries strong psychological meanings and associations is examined, and the ways in which these forms are a rich source of inspiration and allusion for visual artists are discussed, hinting at the play of opposing tendencies, the dance between order and randomness, and the ways in which nature can derive variations on a theme.     

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Building American National Identity Through Art

ABSTRACT

Even though agonistic democratic theory espouses and celebrates competition, it seemingly lacks a coherent ethic for decent winning and losing in everyday political life. This article is an effort to fill this void by suggesting a practice-based, non-perfectionist ethic drawn from sport. Focusing on Xenophon's On Hunting, we argue that sport, properly defined, offers an appropriate experience with ponos (toil, suffering) that teaches citizens perseverance, humility, generosity, empathy, and stewardship. This sporting ethic, we argue, provides a more suitable model for winning and losing in public life than the martial basis of agonistic democratic theory.     

Theory and Practice As Responsibility

Abstract

Ralph Hancock's felicitous term “the responsibility of reason” opens a significant revision within political theory. It places primacy in practical reason and reminds us that theory is itself a mode of practice. He finds the deepest affirmation of this insight in Tocqueville's elevation of the art of association into the first principle of the science by which politics is comprehended. There is no science of politics apart from the exercise of responsibility itself.     

Heroes and Political Communities in John Ford's Westerns: The Role of Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine

Abstract

Widespread moral corruption, particularly of the sort fostered by their internal security agencies, was a key feature of communist regimes. The Lives of Others provides a dramatic portrayal of this phenomenon as it occurred in East Germany. The film can appear, given its central story of the moral redemption of a Stasi officer through his becoming intrigued by the lives of artists, to be an overly idealistic or audience-pleasing testament to the humanizing power of art. But the film also reveals the possible moral corruption of the artists. This essay provides a typology of the sorts of moral corruption exemplified by the situations of different characters in the film and shows that the main artist is actually saved from his impending corruption by the Stasi officer's actions. This reciprocal rescue is the key feature of the film's plot; it teaches that while art can undermine and resist totalitarian corruption, it is also susceptible to its snares—especially when it apolitically relies upon its own resources.     

Accommodating ‘design’: introducing the Western concept into Soviet art theory in the 1950s–60s

This article investigates the background of Soviet industrial design in Soviet art theory. Instead of considering design's interconnection with technology and science, or with consumption and everyday life, the author traces its conceptualisation as a new artistic phenomenon. Using archival records of professional discussions, polemical articles in the art press and design projects, the author looks at how industrial design was incorporated into the Soviet order of things. She concludes that accommodation of the Western model was the way to reform the system of socialism from inside, typical for the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s.