The Life and Career of Sir William Plumpton from 1404 to 1480

Abstract

Plumpton, an ardent Lancastrian, received protection and patronage from the Percies and was loyal to them throughout his life. He enjoyed exceptional local power from 1438 to 1460 as steward of the Honour of Knaresborough. He served as a JP, an MP, sheriff, and steward of Northumberland's Spofforth and other estates in Yorkshire, as well as overseeing his own lands in four counties. Detailed study of the Knaresborough court rolls and Duchy of Lancaster records led to a re-examination of the dating and interpretation of his officeholding and career, particularly in the 1460s and 1470s. He did not regain the stewardship in 1460s, as was believed, but was re-instated in 1471; he was replaced within a few years, probably because of corruption. Principal officeholders at Knaresborough, 1438–1500, are listed, and further unpublished material includes cases which the litigious Plumpton initiated in King's Bench from 1461. His attitudes, often cheating and ruthless, to friends and family, are examined, and his career compared with those of other members of the gentry; Plumpton's status is examined, this being aided by the findings from a rare unpublished fifteenth-century subsidy roll.     

Pre-Columbian Ring Ditches along the Yacuma and Rapulo Rivers,Beni, Bolivia: A Preliminary Review

Abstract

Pre-Columbian farmers built a variety of earthworks in the Llanos de Mojos, part of the Bolivian Amazon. Raised fields, canals, causeways, and mounds of various types in this region date to ca. 800 B.C.–A.D. 1600. In central Mojos, archaeological work was carried out along the Yacuma, a large west-bank tributary of the Mamoré River. Four ring ditches and two areas of associated raised agricultural fields were mapped. The Global Positioning System was used to document earthworks under the forest canopy which were analyzed within a Geographic Information System. Ceramic evidence is also included. The ring ditches in this study expand the known range of such earthworks in Mojos by 200 km. This revised distribution of ring ditches changes interpretations of the long-term history of Arawak speakers in Mojos and throughout Amazonia. While earthworks in Mojos clearly represent systems of intensive agriculture, they cannot be associated only with Arawak speakers or with Arawak languages.     

试论外国军舰驻华特权制度的形成与发展——以顾盛使华为中心

鸦片战争后签订的一系列不平等条约对军舰驻华特权制度给予了明确的规定。《虎门条约》是外国侵略者＂合法＂获取军舰驻华特权的开始。美、法等国通过《望厦条约》、《黄埔条约》使这一特权制度日趋完善。在攫取军舰驻泊权的过程中,美国人顾盛使外国军舰驻华特权条款扩展到几乎可以被人任意解释的地步,为日后列强军舰任意游弋中国内水埋下了祸根。通过第一批不平等条约,西方有约国家获得了军舰驻泊特权。第二次鸦片战争中,列强在这一问题上获得了较大突破,此后该制度逐步走向完善。     

‘Where the F… is Vuotso?’: heritage of Second World War forced movement and destruction in a Sámi reindeer herding community in Finnish Lapland

In this paper we discuss the heritage of the WWII evacuation and the so-called ‘burning of Lapland’ within a Sámi reindeer herding community, and assess how these wartime experiences have moulded, and continue to mould, the ways people memorialise and engage with the WWII material remains. Our focus is on the village of Vuotso, which is home to the southernmost Sámi community in Finland. The Nazi German troops established a large military base there in 1941, and the Germans and the villagers lived as close neighbours for several years. In 1944 the villagers were evacuated before the outbreak of the Finno-German ‘Lapland War’ of 1944–1945, in which the German troops annihilated their military installations and the civilian infrastructure. Today the ruins of demolished German military installations persist around the village as vivid reminders, and act for the villagers as important active agents in memorising this vital phase in Lapland’s recent past. They also appear to facilitate nostalgia for the more independent days before traditional Sámi lifeways were ruptured by stronger Finnish State intervention in the post-war decades.     

Farmer-fishermen: interior lake fishing and inter-cultural and intra-cultural relations among coastal and interior Sámi communities in northern Sweden AD 1200–1600

Although the productive fishing grounds had long attracted the Crown and the Church to northern Sweden, it was not until the sixteenth century that the judicial and fiscal powers of the Swedish Crown were exercised in full. Records show that the regular fishing in interior lakes formed a prominent enterprise among coastal farmer communities. This paper examines the social and economic context of farmers engaged in interior fishing with respect to the internal organization of village communities, principles of private and collective ownership, land-use strategies and inter-community relations. There are no a-priori assumptions about the coastal population being “Swedish”. Instead of applying ethnonyms, the terms “farmer” and “coastal” are used throughout the paper. The main area of investigation includes the coastal area of northernmost Sweden and the western parts of Finnish Lapland. The study shows that interior lakes fitted into village resource areas, long sanctioned by usage, and that usufruct belonged to village members collectively. A large part of the fishing lakes are situated in interior Sámi territory. Fishermen were internalizing Sámi place names, implying close relations between the groups. Archeological investigations point to subsistence strategies including systemic interior lake fishing being established before AD 1200. The authors propose that coastal and interior communities should be perceived as two economic strategies representing indigenous and pre-colonial land-use schemes.     

The pre-AD 585 extension of the U.S. Southwest archaeomagnetic reference curve

A set of 104 independently dated archaeomagnetic directions was used to extend the U.S. Southwest reference curve back to 375 cal BC and to calculate isolated mean VGPs centered on 960 cal BC and 2390 cal BC. Prior to this study, most U.S. Southwest reference curves extended to only ca. AD 585. This study employed Sternberg’s moving window technique with variably sized windows, rather than fixed windows, to smooth the dataset into a continuous curve. The size of each averaging window was determined by the density of data captured by the window, such that each window had a minimum data density of 5.0 and a minimum window size of 50 years. This approach differs from previous studies in the U.S. Southwest, which have applied a uniformly sized averaging window to a dataset regardless of the temporal distribution of the data.     

False,cheap and degraded: when history,economy and environment collided at Cades Cove,Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created in 1934 after decades of popular activism. The National Park Service initially planned to restore wildness to all formerly settled lands through the process of secondary succession, but did not in a valley in the northwest corner of the park, Cades Cove. Transforming the 1200-ha agricultural setting into forest would have eliminated the visual charm highly prized by the tourists who had long come there. Additionally, experts promoted the preservation of Cades Cove's historic–cultural landscape because they falsely perceived the local culture to be a relic of the past. The Park Service acceded, but its commitment to historic preservation was tempered by a concern to minimize its expenses. Consequently, an agricultural permit system was adopted in 1945, which allowed modern farmers to operate on the historic landscape, keeping it open. This cheap method kept open the beautiful vistas of Cades Cove. Unfortunately, the agency's commitment to beauty and economy led to decades of ecological degradation, including water pollution and species extirpation. Only in the last two decades, has park management moved away from its focus on a low-cost, attractive landscape to embrace one that is also ecologically healthy, and thus more sustainable.     

产业结构转型与区域经济复兴的个案研究 --《美国中西部经济:面向未来的历史回顾》述评

无论在重要性还是典型性上,美国中西部在世界区域经济中的地位都是不可小觑的。由美联储发起的研究项目《美国中西部经济：面向未来的历史回顾》,对中西部经济的转型和复兴进行了一番全面的审视和总结。数据翔实,观点颇具权威性,有其独特的研究价值和参考价值。本文概括其内容,并略加评论,以便于我们更准确把握美国老工业区产业结构转型和经济复兴的现状和发展趋势,为我国的老工业区改造提供借鉴。     

COMPLETION OF THE SEISMIC REFRACTION SURVEY TO LOCATE THE VALLUM AT VINDOBALA,HADRIAN'S WALL*

The vallum is a major earthwork along the south side of Hadrian's Wall. All surface traces of it have been obliterated over a 500-m-long stretch past the fort of Vindobala at Rudchester, Northumberland. To the west of the fort, the vallum's course had previously been delineated by running shear-wave seismic refraction lines to obtain depth profiles of rockhead. We have now run more seismic refraction lines, using both shear waves and compressional waves, to the south-west and south of the fort, and thereby located the complete course of the vallum at Vindobala. The seismic refraction technique is successful at this site because the glacial drift cover is thin, so the vallum ditch was cut down into bedrock. During the second phase of seismic work, compressional waves gave better results than shear waves. Previously, test profiles using compressional waves had failed to locate the vallum ditch west of the fort where the surface elevation is lower; we now interpret that failure as being due to a shallow water table within the drift, which would have eliminated the compressional-wave velocity anomaly. Although the vallum does not pre-date the fort at Vindobala, its asymmetrical course around the fort suggests that it may already have been under construction to the west when the decision to build the fort was taken.     

美国中央情报局对中国西藏的准军事行动(1949-1969)

1949至1969年间美国中央情报局向西藏分裂势力提供了一系列准军事援助。该援助行动的实质是为美国远东战略利益服务,其目标是利用西藏分裂势力遏制与分裂中国,具体内容主要包括：为西藏叛乱分子提供情报和准军事训练技术;在西藏实施公路袭扰和破坏行动;为达赖集团提供军事物资和活动经费;与印度情报机构开展针对中国的情报合作等等。