Pests in an ancient Egyptian harbor

Our investigations combine detailed identification and interpretation of plant remains and associated fauna and their mode of arrival in one of the rock-cut galleries, Cave 3, at the site of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The site served as a staging area and harbor from which Middle Kingdom pharaohs launched seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt in the early second millennium BC. Quantities of wood, including ship timbers, fastenings, debris related to ship dismantling and reworking, and charcoal were excavated and analyzed. Evidence of marine mollusk infestation (shipworm) was abundant in Cave 3, as were the remains of insect pests of stored foods. We also report on a unique find of a plaster “spill” that preserved the floor of Cave 3 as it was when people worked in the gallery ca. 3800 years ago. The plaster spill created a sealed deposit of plant and insect remains with a diagnostic ceramic fragment, allowing us to securely associate insect remains and “hollow” spikelets of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) recovered from the gallery. An impression of the beetle Trachyderma hispida and its associated exoskeleton fragments provide new evidence of this species as a potential pest not yet reported from an archaeological grain storage site in Egypt. The finding of Tenebroides mauritanicus from the same deposit is the earliest known association of this pest with stored grains. These unique finds shed new light on the risks associated with preserving food supplies, combating pest infestation, and dealing with marine organisms on land and at sea in the pharaonic harbor.     

由模糊到清晰——历史时期对红水河流域地理认识的演进

红水河在历史时期有多种称谓。本文认为,一方面,其名称的演变,实际上反映了中原人士对红水河流域地理环境的认识,有一个由模糊到清晰的演进过程。另一方面,红水河名称的最终确定,又与流域所经的滇东、黔西南与桂西北三省交界地区人类活动导致的环境变迁有着极为密切的关系。     

Red ochre decorations in Spanish Neolithic ceramics: a mineralogical and technological study

Some Neolithic ceramics from south-eastern Spain have red to brown external decorations called “almagras” (red ochre). The pigment layer is essentially composed of a mixture of clay and iron oxides: haematite (red) and maghemite (brown). It is suggested that maghemite was formed during the firing process of ceramic in a reducing atmosphere. Several laboratory tests have been carried out to obtain maghemite by adding charcoal or pinewood sawdust to similar ceramic pastes. In fact, maghemite was formed, even when the piece was simply covered with pinewood sawdust before firing. The diverse original red colours are due to variations in iron oxide (or calcite) content and to redox conditions in the firing procedure. Brown- coloured ceramics owe their colour to maghemite and must be considered as a “fabrication defect”, due to the position of the ceramic piece in a zone where a reducing atmosphere prevailed in the course of firing.     

首长负责制与民主集中制关系的学理探讨

民主集中制是党和国家的根本领导制度。首长负责制是针对原有领导体制和工作机制中出现的弊端而提出的一种以部门首长为核心的政府和企事业单位的领导制度。本从两种领导制度存有的弊端方面分析了首长负责制与民主集中制的关系,认为把首长负责制理解为国家机构的领导体制和工作机制,是对民主集中制根本领导制度的健全和完善,对于贯彻党的十六届四中全会精神、改革和完善党和国家的领导制度具有重要意义。     

The Red Cross and the Establishment of Maternal and Infant Welfare in the 1930s Gold Coast

In 1932 the Gold Coast Branch of the British Red Cross Society was inaugurated in Accra. Its central, stated purpose was to maintain and expand health and welfare services for women and children. This article examines closely the work of the Red Cross as it set up and ran clinics, fundraising campaigns and building programmes in the Gold Coast. It asks how a humanitarian organisation became so integrated into services for mothers and infants in the course of the 1930s. In so doing, it contributes to a burgeoning area of historiography that looks at humanitarianism as a key component of Empire. During the 1930s, as the British Empire became subject to oversight by new international networks that the League of Nations sat at the heart of. In this context, the colonial government was under pressure to provide welfare for African subjects, particularly mothers and babies. This article argues that state, mission and eventually humanitarian organisation – the Red Cross – were interdependent in providing these services. The Red Cross became politicised as it shored up the colonial state’s health infrastructure, intervening as a solution to dilemmas over who was responsible for maternal and infant health.     

The use of dental crown heights for constructing age profiles of red deer and similar species in archaeological samples

The analysis of dental crown heights in a sample of known-age American Red deer (known in America as “elk”) has permitted the derivation of formulae for the prediction of age from crown height. The ages predicted from crown heights closely approximate true ages, when both predicted and true ages are grouped into broad, but still useful age classes. At least for the Red deer or “elk” dP₄, M₂ and M₃, age prediction formulae very similar to the empirically derived ones may be constructed by making certain hypothetical assumptions about the nature and rate of crown attrition. This suggests that these assumptions may be used to construct age prediction formulae in situations where an empirical relationship between age and crown height has not been or cannot be established. With certain provisos noted in the text, the age prediction formulae that result will probably provide reasonably reliable age profiles for the numerous ungulate species whose teeth are similar in structure to those of Red deer or “elk” and at least as hypsodont.     

Soviet children of occupation in Austria: The historical,political and social background and its consequences

Soviet children of occupation were born between late 1945 and mid-1956 in Austria, some following voluntary sexual relations between local women and Red Army soldiers, others as a result of rape. They were considered by many to be ‘children of the enemy’ and encountered various forms of discrimination and stigmatisation. The children involved were largely a ‘fatherless’ group of war children. By the time of their births even fathers who wanted to stay in touch had generally either been sent home or transferred to another barracks in line with the Kremlin's view that intimate relations between Soviet soldiers and Austrians were politically and ideologically reprehensible. Even after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty and the end of the occupation in 1955, the political situation largely ruled out further contact. This situation was exacerbated by the onset of the Cold War. In many cases, the children of occupation were hemmed in by a wall of silence that in some cases persists to this day. This has led to widespread questions about personal identity and searches for their ‘roots’. Against this background, the article analyses the impact of the specific historical, political and social background of the lives of Soviet occupation children.     

Early Opacifiers In The Glaze Industry Of First Millennium bc Persia: Persepolis And Tepe Rabat

This study characterizes the opacifiers and colouring agents used in the glazed bricks of Persepolis (mid‐first millennium bc ) and the Mannean site of Tepe Rabat in north‐western Iran (eighth to seventh centuries bc ). Various analytical studies show that lead antimonate and brizziite (NaSbO₃) were used as the yellow and white opacifiers in the glazes of Persepolis and Tepe Rabat. Brizziite is shown to be incorporated in the white, green and turquoise glazes, and is also associated with lead antimonate and CaSb₂O₆ in some yellow and white opacifiers. The simultaneous formation of these opacifiers in one glaze might have been accidental. A possible connection between the Achaemenid glaze industry and the Mannean glaze production at Tepe Rabat is discussed.     

Skeletal Lead Burden of the British Royal Navy in Colonial Antigua

Lead (Pb) has been known to be a cause of human poisoning since ancient times, but despite this, it was a widely used metal in the European colonial period. In this study, the relationship between Pb exposure and the demographic variables ancestry and age was explored by comparing the bone Pb levels of individuals that were of either African or European ancestry, excavated from a British Royal Navy hospital cemetery (1793–1822 CE) at English Harbour in Antigua, West Indies. More direct comparisons of Pb levels between the two ancestral groups were possible in this study because of the unsegregated nature of this cemetery. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to determine bulk Pb levels in cortical bone samples from the fibular diaphyses of 23 male individuals. No significant difference was found between the distributions of the Pb levels of the ancestral groups (p  = 0.94). Further, no positive correlations or significant differences were found in relation to the individuals' ages and their Pb levels (p  = 0.24). Levels of Ba, Ca and rare earth elements support a largely biogenic origin of lead. This is bolstered by Pb deposition patterns, generated by synchrotron X‐ray fluorescence imaging for another study. The data suggest that naval personnel, regardless of ancestry at English Harbour, had very similar experiences with regard to Pb exposure. Their exposure to the toxic metal was likely not consistent over time as steady exposure would have resulted in accumulation of Pb with age. This study contributes to addressing historical questions regarding the prevalence of Pb poisoning within the British Royal Navy during the colonial period. © 2017 The Authors International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Evidence for Indo-Roman Trade from Bet Dwarka Waters, West Coast of India

India had a very active maritime trade contact with the Roman world between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. In this context recent finds of stone anchors, potsherds, lead anchors and a lead ingot from 5 to 8 m water-depth near Bet Dwarka jetty is significant. The sherds include amphoras, jars, bowls and lids. Archaeological finds along the Indian coast and comparison between amphoras from Bet Dwarka and the Mediterranean suggest that the artefacts from Bet Dwarka may be datable to between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. The numbers of stone anchors suggests that this was an ancient anchorage.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society