Harvesting the Seashores in the Late Mesolithic of Northwestern Europe: A View From Brittany

The shell middens of Brittany provide the last evidence of a Mesolithic way of life along the French Atlantic façade. This is partly a result of Holocene marine transgressions that prevent easy access to earlier coastal settlements. Nevertheless, the dependence on the sea seen in the Late Mesolithic seems to be a consequence of a long-established exploitation system. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures in human bone reflect a dominance of marine protein, while the zooarchaeological components of shell middens show a high species richness of exploited marine resources. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction suggests that more or less the whole range of resources exploited was accessible in the immediate vicinity of the sites. Seasonal aspects of the utilised and potentially available subsistence resources, along with stable isotope and lithic data, raise the possibility of restricted mobility for these populations, within relatively limited territories. The impression of extreme dependence of these coastal populations on the seashore might have been a key factor in their final disappearance, whether this is viewed as replacement or acculturation. Indeed, the Mesolithic communities of Brittany could have been caught between rising sea-levels and the arrival of Neolithic communities from the east and the south.     

《徐文长文集》与《徐文长三集》的读者之争及其版本问题

本文通过考察《文集》与《三集》在万历后期的读者之争,得出了关于其版本关系及版本优劣的以下几个结论：1．二集在万历后期的读者之争中形成了互动的版本关系。2．钟氏《文集》最终压倒《三集》而成为最流行的版本,靠的不只是袁评,还有许多诸如定位得当等方面的自身优势。3.《文集》袁评是否出于伪托,目前尚无有力的证据,当以存疑为是。4．商氏《三集》忽视市场因素,定位失当,其在与《文集》的读者之争中一败再败,有其自身原因,大可不必迁怒《文集》。5．万历47年修改重印25卷本非残本,乃是商氏有意推出的两个“新”版本之一。     

《与同年诸翰林论文书》作者辨误

黄宗羲编选《明文海》、《明文授读》时,误将明代嘉靖至万历时期徐显卿所作的《与同年诸翰林论文书》一文置于成化至正德时期的徐祯卿名下,后来许多研究者便据此认为徐祯卿的诗文理论"充满悖论",并试图为他这种根本不存在的所谓"悖论"强行解释,这是不可能成立的。     

徐贞明《潞水客谈》研究——一部值得关注的明代西北水利著作

明万历四年,徐贞明撰写了<潞水客谈>,认为发展西北农田水利建设,就近解决京师及北方地区的粮食供应问题,缓解东南地区的经济压力,实属国家之大计、之急务,并对开发西北水利的具体措施进行了论述.徐贞明之所以撰写此书,既有现实的社会政治和经济原因,又与他的个人经历有关.     

徐承祖与中日长崎事件

1886年8月发生的“长崎事件”,是甲午战前中日两国之间的一次重要外交斗争。徐承祖作为清政府驻日本的最高代表,直接负责处理这一事件。他在处理伊始的献言,使交涉迅速走上了依托法律解决的正确轨道;“彼此抚恤、伤多恤重”方案的及时上呈,终使僵局得以化解,清政府尚能体面下台。“崎案”的结局助成了两国海军事业不同的发展方向,判定了甲午战争中日本中国一胜一败的前景。     

胶州湾事件前的中德交涉与许景澄“卖国”考（1895-1897)

胶州湾事件之前,中德就港口租借问题进行了长达两年的交涉。德国动用了各方人马,推进公私并进的多线外交。清政府倾向于联俄以自保,对德国的无理诉求一味机械回绝,并未足够重视。德国在所谓“和平外交”与“巴兰德—李鸿章”路线接连受挫后,武力占领港口呼声高涨,又值俾斯麦去职后大陆政策转向世界政策,对华外交日趋强硬。1897年的胶州湾事件,是这一连串交涉导向的结果。其间还留下了驻德公使许景澄主张德国武力占领港口之说,更由此揭示出德国对华新外交政策的内部博弈以及晚清驻外使馆外籍参赞僭越职权的普遍问题。     

《续资治通鉴长编拾补》点校疑误

本文就点校本《续资治通鉴长编拾补》中存在的标点疑误、史实校勘、排印等方面的错误进行商榷、勘正。     

Mussels and mongongo nuts: logistical visits to the Cape west coast,South Africa

Very large late Holocene shell middens (‘megamiddens’, some over 10 000 m³ in extent) along a 20 km section of the west coast of South Africa provide a particular interpretative challenge in determining whether they result from residential visits or from logistical processing of shellfish for transport and consumption elsewhere. The latter interpretation is preferred here and is consistent with stable carbon isotopic readings on coastal human burials and site contents that illustrate that groups visited specific localities, collected and dried black mussels and then transported and consumed the dried product inland. The sizes and contents of these large middens contrasts sharply with those of unquestionably residential residues from earlier and later time periods. This approach is supported with reference to the ethnographically described processing and consumption of mongongo nuts by 20th century San of the Kalahari.     

ZOOMORPHIC EFFIGY PENDANTS: AN EXAMINATION OF STYLE,MEDIUM, AND DISTRIBUTION IN THE CADDO AREA

Abstract

Caddo zoomorphic effigy pendants were crafted from a wide variety of raw material, such as freshwater mussel shell, Busycon perversum (whelk) marine shell, animal bone, and various types of soft stone. They have been documented at contemporaneous Late Caddo (A.D. 1400–1700) sites along the Red River in northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas, and northwest Louisiana; the Black Bayou, Big Cypress Bayou, and upper Sabine River basins in northeast Texas; the Ouachita River in south-central Arkansas; and the Arkansas River in central Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. This paper describes the development of a comprehensive corpus that investigates stylistic groups, differential raw material or medium utilized, and the spatial distribution of zoomorphic effigy pendants throughout the Caddo area. Results reveal north-south heterogeneity, suggesting the presence of broader traditional cultural narratives associated with a complex idea that is manifest regionally in distinct stylistic forms and linked to Caddo beliefs concerning Beneath World themes. Additionally, this stylistic and spatial analysis offers an additional dataset to further explore social, political, and economic linkages among and between contemporary Caddo groups around A.D. 1500.     

The Shell-Bearing Archaic in the Middle Cumberland River Valley

The Middle Cumberland River Valley (MCRV) of Tennessee comprises a unique regional environment that has continually supported human occupation along the natural river levees and adjacent terrace landforms since the Late Pleistocene. Over thousands of years Archaic period inhabitants of the MCRV harvested the invertebrate species that populated the streams and waterways of the region, using them for subsistence and raw materials and taking an active role in managing the riverine resources. The cumulative result of this process appears in the archaeological record as abundant and often-dense deposits of invertebrate zooarchaeological remains. However, few formal archaeological investigations have been conducted on Archaic shell-bearing sites in the region. In this field report we present initial results of site file analysis, radiocarbon dating, and species composition research in order to introduce the MCRV manifestation of the cultural phase traditionally known as the Shell Mound Archaic.