Intramural Burials of Children at Bronze Age Sites in the Southern Urals (Early 2nd Millennium Bc)*

Intramural child burials are rare in Bronze Age settlements of the Southern Urals. The study addresses this type of burial at sites associated with the Sintashta and Petrovka traditions. Their analysis generates two interpretations: one related to fertility and ancestor worship, the other to family relationships and the mentality of the people living in the Bronze Age.     

The Taliban,Public Space,and Terror in Pakistan

Two UK-based specialists on terrorism in Pakistan use empirical evidence to document and analyze the Pakistani Taliban's (Tehrik-e-Taliban) practice of targeting spaces of public interaction for terrorism intended to suppress expressions of public unity and restrict venues for open discussion. In tracing the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan, the authors review the country's history of state and civil society formation, its relations with Afghanistan, and U.S. and Western policy in the region. The authors present timely information and insights that enhance understanding of the recent surge in terrorist attacks on civilians in Pakistan and its ties to the eastward spread of conflict from neighboring Afghanistan.     

Historical Perspectives on Pre-Colonial Irrigation in Southern Africa

Abstract

One of the basic areas of interaction between water as natural resource and human societies as agents of cultural transformation is the technology of irrigation. In Africa at least 66 per cent of the available water is used for purposes of irrigation. For more than 4 000 years irrigation has secured food supplies for humans on a continent that is noted for its relative shortage of sufficient natural water supplies.

There is a remarkable hidden power of water in the history of southern Africa. This is particularly the case when we consider the development of early irrigation technologies of Iron Age farmers. The small irrigation furrow of the subsistence farmer was just as important to an insular community of Bantu-speaking people in pre-colonial times, as is the sophisticated irrigation technology in present-day South Africa. Currently there is a paucity of information about pre-colonial indigenous irrigation technology. This can be ascribed to a number of factors of which the invasion of modern Western traditions in the nineteenth century is perhaps the most important. A number of other factors for the apparent blind-spot is also presented in this study.

In southern Africa there are traces of indigenous pre-colonial irrigation works at sites such as Nyanga in Zimbabwe; the Limpopo River Valley; Mpumalanga; and South Africa's eastern Highveld. Reference is also made in this article to specific strategies of irrigation used by Iron Age communities, prior to the advent of a colonial presence. Finally, attention is also drawn to pre-colonial land tenure and state formation against the backdrop of Wittfogel's theories on hydraulic society.     

清代“烟瘴缺”制度演变考——以两广所属文官为中心的探讨

烟瘴缺是清廷于烟瘴地区设立的特殊官缺。在烟瘴缺选人条件方面,经历了从严格限定到逐渐宽泛的过程。选人方式方面,康熙时地方督抚题补阶段为掣签,雍正以降,改为督抚、两司"会商",其实质为地方督抚对题补缺人事权形成垄断。再者,乾隆初年确立了以保障烟瘴缺官员生命健康为核心的五省籍贯制度,该制为两广部分烟瘴缺所特有,他省未见此制。烟瘴缺俸满升迁方面,由起初列于即升班内,转为部分留于本省升用,说明督抚在烟瘴缺题补中分割吏部对官员任命权的同时,也被迫承担了原本由吏部承担的责任,呈现出权力与责任趋向成正比的态势。乾隆中期以降,烟瘴缺制度未有大的变动,说明其时清廷边疆治理体系已相对成熟稳定。     

西周时期的“南国”、“南土”范围刍议

“南国”与“南土”是两个并不等同的概念,“南土”或为周王直接控制的位于王畿南部的区域．在其南部边城地区甚至设有“侯”之类具有军事防卫职能的长官。而“南国”却位于“南土”之外,远离王畿,王朝对该地区的控制强弱视王朝的实力而定。     

Doing is Learning: Analysis of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Adapt TEK/IK Methodology to Norwegian Sámi Circumstances

Abstract

This article describes a case where an attempt was made to introduce TEK/IK into a conflict between Sámi reindeer owners and environmental institutions. The conflict was brought on by the establishment of a national park in Southern Sámi areas in Norway. At first, the Sámi were in favour of the park, but later on their attitudes changed as the content of planned national park developed. The reindeer owners discovered that the size of the park would be reduced, leaving out what they thought were significant areas in need of protection. They saw the encouragement of increased tourism activities as a threat to reindeer herding and felt alienated by the number of representatives they received in the park management structures. On the basis of these observations reindeer owners protested, but were ignored. As researchers well-established in the Southern Sámi area, we were brought into conversations regarding the park as the local reindeer owners searched for ways of bringing new arguments into the process. At this point we thought TEK/IK represented an opportunity to add weight to Sámi perspectives. As the title of this article indicates, as push came to shove we did not succeed in making room for local participation in our TEK/IK project, despite these existing on-going relations. The article attempts to understand what happened. Our analysis is based upon a perception of TEK/IK as not one, but at least two co-constituted knowledge practices. The premise is that research failures are as important to publish as successes. Our joint ethnographic experience has methodological implications for future TEK/IK research.     

Einige Überlegungen Zu Dem Brief Der Kaiserinwitwe Helena/Xiaozheng Der SÜdlichen Ming an Papst Innozenz X. Aus Dem Jahre 1650

Abstract

After the downfall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, parts of the Imperial family fled to the south establishing short-lived imperial regimes competing for power. The Jesuit missionaries Xavier Koffler and Micha? Boym joined the court of the Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming where in the year 1647, eventually, members of the Imperial family converted to Christianity. One of them was the Dowager-Empress Xiaozheng who adopted the Name Helena after christening. In 1650 she wrote a letter to Pope Innocent X. asking for spiritual support and help in the dynasty's struggle for survival. This letter, for the first time translated into German, and the circumstances leading to its composition will be the focal points of this article.     

Dating the Trollesgave site and the Bromme culture – chronological fix-points for the Lateglacial settlement of Southern Scandinavia

The Bromme culture belongs to the Lateglacial, the period when people settled in the recently deglaciated Southern Scandinavia. Until now there have been only a few imprecise fix-points relating to the chronological position of this archaeological culture. This situation can now be improved with the aid of research results from a Bromme culture settlement at Trollesgave in SE Denmark. Using pollen and plant macrofossil data, Lateglacial lacustrine deposits containing waste material from the settlement can be assigned to the end of the climatically mild Allerød period. A series of ¹⁴C dates establishes the age of the settlement as c. 10 826 ± 49 ¹⁴C years BP (12 871–12 590 cal yr BP). By correlation with climate data from the Greenland ice cores, the occupation can be assigned to the early part of the cold climatic zone GS-1, thus demonstrating that the global ice-core climate zones are not absolutely synchronous with the regional division into biozones.     

Early astogeny in the Catenicellidae (Bryozoa,Cheilostomata)

Examples of early astogeny in the species Carinatocella harmeri (Stach), Costaticella hastata (Busk) and Claviporella aurita (Busk) are discussed. The primary zoid differs in each species and if found fossil, only in C. hastata could this zoid be recognised as a bryozoan fragment. Analogous development in other Bryozoa is discussed.     

A Risk Assessment for Cultural Heritage in Southern Iraq: Framing Drivers,Threats and Actions Affecting Archaeological Sites

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a classification of the risks threatening archaeological sites in southern Iraq and suggests some possible remediation to better preserve them. This has been possible thanks to a research methodology that combines remote sensing and ground control on a sample of 558 sites documented by the Iraqi-Italian QADIS survey project. A three-tier typological framework has been created illustrating the risks jeopardising the cultural heritage of the region. This research showed that the most impacting risks are the ones caused by agricultural activity, despite current narratives which mainly focus on looting and violent destruction. To get at the root of the problem, current laws protecting cultural heritage in Iraq are analysed, as well as how the cultural authorities are organised on the ground. Improving the organisation of the SBAH, engaging the local communities towards the issue of sites’ protection and introducing preventive archaeology are among the solutions proposed.