‘The Darroch affair’: Assemblage lines,components, and transformations

This article examines the underresearched role of lines and components in recomposing geopolitical assemblages. It does so by focusing on a single body at the middle of an event to show how its lines of assembling conditioned wider transformations. The event in question – the leaking of confidential diplomatic materials in July 2019 as part of the so-called “Darroch Affair” – opened a massive rift between governing and bureaucratic arms of the UK state. Set in the context of ongoing struggles to recode the transatlantic diplomatic assemblage (TADA) by US and UK governments, Sir Kim Darroch, British Ambassador to the US, was at front and centre of the resulting leaks imbroglio. Using assemblage thinking, I offer an alternative conceptualisation of Darroch's body as distributed across the TADA via structurally complex lines of assembling. I argue the historical trajectories of these lines accelerated assemblage recompositions as the excessiveness of events led to Darroch's body occupying more and more possibility spaces across the TADA. The article considers how the linear complexity of Darroch's body arose, and the consequences of the resulting recompositions of the TADA for its nested diplomatic worlds.     

Chemical analysis of white porcelains from the Ding Kiln site, Hebei Province, China

The Ding kilns were some of the most famous early kilns of medieval China, producing huge quantities of white and cream-white porcelains of outstanding technical and aesthetic quality. Since 1949 they have been excavated three times, in 1965, in 1987, and in 2009 respectively. In this latest study 69 white porcelain sherds from assured contexts and from the 2009 excavations were analyzed using laser ablation techniques (ICP-AES). The samples date from Five Dynasties, Northern Song and Jin Dynasties respectively (early 10^th to early 13^th C CE). The results show that Ding wares of different times show different characteristics that can be demonstrated through chemical composition. During the early phase of production the Ding ware bodies consisted largely of high firing kaolinitic clays with predominantly calcareous materials as fluxes. After the early Northern Song Dynasty, some calcareous material was replaced by a more potassic material. The compositions of the glazes show a parallel evolution to the bodies. However, because the glazes are very low in titania it seems unlikely that the main clay ingredients of the bodies could have been used in the glaze recipes. For much of the kiln site’s history the glazes appear to have been made mainly from the same siliceous flux-rich materials that had been blended with the main body-clays used to make the Ding ware porcelains, plus some extra calcareous material. The P₂O₅ contents of the glazes suggest that wood ash may have been one source of CaO in the glaze recipes.     

Integrated geological,petrologic and geochemical approach to establish source material and technology of Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White ware ceramics

Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White Wheelmade ware samples from several Cypriot excavation sites and the northern Canaanite coast were studied to ascertain their production centres and details of their manufacturing processes and post-depositional alteration. The investigation of the ceramics, using combined geoscientific analytical techniques (XRF, ICP-MS, XRD and EPMA) allowed four groups of pottery to be distinguished based on their common raw-material sources and/or technological analogies. Sediments that were sampled in East Cyprus (eastern Mesaoria Plain) for comparative purposes indicated that most of the investigated ceramics were produced from raw materials available around the ancient settlement of Enkomi. Appraising technological variations and discriminative raw-material characteristics, several pottery producing workshops in ancient Enkomi (Eastern Cypriot coast) have been identified that merchandised their commodities on Cyprus and, in all probability, also overseas.     

基于造纸原料分析中国手工造纸术的传承特点

对古代中国主要造纸原料发展脉络进行了梳理,并分析目前我国手工纸造纸原料现状,最后对古今中国传统手工造纸原料进行比较研究,可知当今中国传统手工纸在原料种类、比例、处理方式等方面与古代相比较,还是发生一定的变化,正是由于这样一些变化,导致手工纸质量参差不齐,很难保持其原有的特性。     

Lithic production,site formation and Middle Palaeolithic palimpsest analysis: in search of human occupation episodes at Abric del Pastor Stratigraphic Unit IV (Alicante,Spain)

We present the results of an exercise in Middle Palaeolithic palimpsest analysis geared toward the identification of human occupation episodes. It is based on a combined reading of the archaeosedimentary deposit and the archaeological record of Stratigraphic Unit IV from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Alicante, Spain), chronologically framed within MIS 4–5. A study of site formation processes coupled with archaeostratigraphic analysis of the lithic record incorporating Raw Material Units (RMU) and refits, as well as with combustion features and faunal remains enabled identification a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 human occupation episodes within lithostratigraphic units IVa, IVb and IVc. Through our data it reaches a high resolution temporal frame close to the ethnographic time scale, which constitutes a significant contribution for the knowledge of human occupations types and landscape use in the Mediterranean rim of the Iberian Peninsula during Middle Palaeolithic.     

试谈当前高校中的中国古典舞身韵教学

本文从古典舞身韵教学的基本要点、课程特点、如何教学以及作为高校教师所应注意的要点四个方面来详细阐述和分析当前高校中的中国古典舞身韵教学。作为一个学科的建设,中国古典舞已经走向成熟,而身韵教学是这一学科建设在舞蹈本体观、舞蹈方法论方面成熟的标志。     

中共第三代领导集体建设高素质干部队伍重要思想论析

中共第三代领导集体建设高素质干部队伍的重要思想 ,紧紧围绕全面提高干部素质这一主题 ,分三个层次、六个方面构筑了新时期建设高素质干部队伍的思想体系 ,无论是从宏观的战略思考 ,还是从具体的内容要求上 ,都在坚持马列主义、毛泽东思想和邓小平理论关于干部队伍建设思想的基础上 ,进行了一系列新的理论概括和创新 ,丰富和发展了党的干部建设理论     

Lithic raw material physical properties and use-wear accrual

Understanding the nature of the physical properties of lithic raw materials is a pre-requisite for developing more reliable interpretations of use-wear evidence and tool function. We use nanoindentation and use-wear experimentation as a way to measure differences in raw material surface hardness and roughness in order to show that differences in lithic material properties have implications for rates of use-wear accrual.     

田猎卜辞新缀五则

本文介绍了作者新缀合的五版甲骨,发现了新的同文卜辞,校正了前人字体分类中的错误,为十二版甲骨形态的确定提供了详实的论据,为商代田猎历史的复原研究提供了新材料。     

Raw material economy in Salento (Apulia, Italy): new perspectives on Neanderthal mobility patterns

This paper presents a case study that questions the behavioral model of a “non-modern” provisioning of raw materials by Neanderthals. The Salento is a peninsula in south eastern Italy rich in Mousterian sites and Neanderthal remains. This region is particularly suitable for raw material economy studies, for its peninsular status and the scarceness of good raw materials. Surveys made in 2006 showed the pattern of utilization of different local raw materials (limestone, siliceous limestone) and the absence of good quality raw materials, that are present in archaeological record. A very long distance provisioning is supposed to be at the origin of their presence in Mousterian Salento sites.