Modern roads as UNESCO World Heritage sites: framework and proposals

There has been noticeable development in the protection of linear infrastructure by UNESCO, whether on its cultural, technological or historical merits. However, with the exception of other means of transport incorporated within the field of industrial archaeology or recognised by the CIIC under the category of cultural routes, little or no consideration has been given to roads built from the mid-eighteenth century to the early part of the twentieth century. In view of this situation, this paper has the following aims. Firstly, to define the concept of ‘modern road’ and provide a brief analysis of the historical development and current situation of the same. Secondly, to assess the main contributions made to date regarding the heritage dimension of modern roads. Thirdly, to reconstruct the process of defining linear cultural landscapes, historic transportation corridors, cultural routes and heritage canals, railways and roads, in accordance with the considerations raised by ICOMOS and UNESCO. Finally, to contribute to the debate on the definition, characterisation and assessment of modern roads as world heritage assets, both intrinsically and in relation to established heritage categories.     

Eye in the sky: visual geographies and emotional topographies of First World War airmen

Although the First World War highlighted human vulnerability through the terrors of a mechanised warfare ravaging the male body in new ways, it also fostered moments of intimacy and tenderness that privileged commonality, mutuality, and generosity, and encouraged friendship and comradeship as cornerstones of martial masculinities. This article explores such intimacies through analysis of letters and diaries written by British Royal Flying Corps airmen during combat on the Western Front. Informed by history of emotions approaches, I discuss the ways the sensual geographies of aerial combat and their promise of mastery and expanded vision shaped the emotional topographies of airmen’s combat lives. Following Santanu Das’s scholarship on the claustrophobic haptic geographies of trench warfare, this article addresses the following question: If the claustrophobia of the trenches and the impoverishment of visual experience facilitated certain geographies of senses that shaped male intimacies, what might similar emotional terrains look like for airmen exposed to more expansive visual practices?     

Obstruction as Power: Rethinking Britain's Caucasus Occupation 1918–20

This article draws on French and British archival sources to rethink the history of Britain's 1918--1920 occupation of the Caucasus. The extant historiography casts London as eager to reinvigorate the region's oil exports in order to buoy its own supplies, but this article suggests that various elements within and close to the British administration sought to obstruct oil exports. Preventing Caucasus oil from reaching global markets seems to have helped parts of the British administration reach their aims during negotiations with the French government and Royal Dutch Shell. It also improved the viability of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company by denying valuable oil supplies to rival firms. Acknowledging the British oil interests that steered state policies during this period allows a richer story to unfold, one that demonstrates how imperial power in the wake of the Great War could be brought to serve the aims of, and even adopt the methods of, transnational oil companies operating in an emerging global fuel market.     

“Nobody’s children?”: the Ministry of Pensions and the treatment of disabled Great War veterans in the Irish Free State, 1921–1939

This article analyses the treatment and rehabilitation of disabled Irish Great War veterans who lived in the Irish Free State. To do so, it utilises the records of the Ministry of Pensions, the British governmental department, that was charged with assisting these men. This research argues that the Irish Free State was a particularly challenging society for disabled ex-servicemen to reside. Yet, whilst the social and governmental reception on offer to disabled Great War veterans was less favourable in the Free State than their similarly afflicted former comrades in Britain, they were better able to benefit from substantial assistance from the Ministry of Pensions. The department lived up to its billing as an “imperial obligation” in the newly formed state.     

A trade balance: litigation and negotiation in the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement system

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been widely accepted as representing the legalisation of world trading rules. However, it is important to reflect on the limits of this legalisation thesis in terms of the interface between international and domestic policy processes. By locating trading disputes in a political analysis of policy implementation, it is argued that it is difficult to establish conceptually how the WTO dispute settlement system could have authority separate from and above the conventional international politics of trade policy relations. Instead, the article argues that case outcomes should be expected to be largely the product of domestic political institutions and policy processes, and how these intersect with developments in the WTO dispute settlement system. Brief studies of the Australian government's dispute settlement strategy and two high-profile WTO disputes—the US upland cotton and European Union sugar cases—serve to suggest that the authority of international trade law is not as significant as assumed by the legalisation thesis. Rather, domestic politics and institutions have an important impact on the outcome of trade disputes.     

What Can Be Learned from Shell Fragments? Examples from World War II Battlefields in the Maritime Alps

Shells were the most deadly weapon used during the conflicts of the twentieth century involving industrialized nations. Astronomical numbers of them were produced and fired, making shell fragments the most common artefact to be found on modern battlefields. An understanding of shell fragments can therefore be useful to the battlefield archaeologist. This paper discusses the three main components of artillery shells and mortar shells: the body, the fuse and the rotating band for artillery shells or the tail-fin assembly for mortars. Analysing the fragments of these components can provide important information, including nationalities, types, and calibres of shells used in an area. Body fragments are the least useful, but can prove helpful if they are large, or contain markings, threads, or fragments of band seat. Rotating band fragments are extremely characteristic as well as easy to find, and a single fragment is usually sufficient to determine the exact type of shell it came from. Tail-fin assemblies are also specific of the mortar shell they were used on. Fuses are typically covered with highly informative markings such as dates of manufacture, lot numbers, or factory codes. Because the information derived from the analysis of various shell fragments is a cheap and relatively easy way to help maximize the understanding of a battlefield that is being investigated, any archaeologist working on a modern battlefield should familiarize themselves with this topic.     

GIS技术在萨拉乌苏考古遗址公园规划设计中的应用

传统规划设计工作的技术平台多以计算机辅助设计(CAD)为主,本工作以内蒙古自治区鄂尔多斯萨拉乌苏考古遗址公园规划为例,将Arc GIS Desktop作为技术平台应用到公园的规划设计工作中。首先,通过对规划区的实地踏勘,采集相关数据和资料,进行规划区数据库建设;其次,在数据库建设的基础上,通过GIS技术构建与现实环境对应的虚拟地理信息空间,实现规划区景观的三维可视化;最后,利用三维景观模型对现实地理环境进行模拟、分析及虚拟场景飞行。不同于传统CAD的二维工作平台,本工作借助GIS对空间数据和属性数据的强大处理功能及其三维景观可视化模块,为实现内蒙古鄂尔多斯萨拉乌苏考古遗址公园的科学规划提供辅助。     

New World States and Empires: Economic and Social Organization

We take a critical perspective in discussing recent publications on the archaeological study of the ancient state-level societies of Latin America. For some topics, such as intensive agriculture and exchange, data are far ahead of theory, whereas for others (e.g., gender and ethnicity), theory has outstripped data. Craft production, a topic that has achieved a good balance of data and theory, is one of the success stories of recent Latin American archaeology. After a discussion of sources of data, we review these and other topics (e.g., consumption patterns, household studies, social organization) in terms of both data and theory. In a second review article, we cover the topics of politics, religion, urbanism, and the processes of change.