The Russian Steel Industry, 1990-2009

A noted specialist on Russia's industries surveys the restructuring of Russia's steel industry in response to the challenging conditions of the 1990s (collapsing domestic markets, the nonpayments crisis, and insider privatization) and its subsequent stabilization during the early years of the 21^st century due to effective implementation of a "survival model" at many plants. The author examines the major elements of that model, namely an export orientation made possible by relatively low labor and energy costs, reliable access to basic raw materials, a focus on crude (rather than specialty) steel, not inconsequential investment in process modernization, and effective control exercised by new private ownership. The paper's concluding section explores the new challenges faced by the industry due to the global financial crisis of late 2008-2009, and particularly the decline in world steel and company share prices, the extreme tightening of credit, the difficulties of servicing existing levels of debt, and provisions of a government assistance program that appear to preclude major capacity closures as a means of reducing costs. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D290, L610, O140, P230. 3 figures, 1 table, 97 references.     

Locality,Mobility and Governmentality in Colonial/Postcolonial New Caledonia: The case of the Kouare tribe (xûâ Xârâgwii), Thio (Cöö)

The colonial history of New Caledonia has been one of dispossession, alienation, and racial segregation. Indigenous people did not experience a life of all‐embracing confinement and immobility. Instead, Kanak localities were historically shaped by the interplay of colonial projects, ideas, tensions, power relations, practices, representations, values, norms, and emotions. Based on the example of Thio, located on the south‐east coast of New Caledonia, this article explores these transformations, focusing on processes of localization and mobility in the colonial and postcolonial eras. The first section focuses on the encounter with and the interplay between different organisations in Thio: the missionary, mining, pastoral, and administrative frontiers. The second section explores the multilayered history of the landscape and settlement patterns in Xârâgwii/Kouare (a tribe located in the mountainous part of Thio), and the third section analyses the interplay of locality and mobility since World War II. The final section examines the ‘invention’ of the tribe as part of colonial governmental projects. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the meaning of this evolving dialectic in the current context of decolonization.     

Scaling ceramic provenience at Lydian Sardis,Western Turkey

We present a multistage strategy to define the scale and geographic distribution of ‘local’ ceramic production at Lydian Sardis based on geochemical analysis (NAA) of a large diverse ceramic sample (n = 281). Within the sphere of local ceramic production, our results demonstrate an unusual pattern of reliance on a single resource relative to other contemporary Iron Age centers. When our NAA results are combined with legacy NAA provenience data for production centers in Western Anatolia, we can differentiate ceramic emulation from exchange, establish probable proveniences for the non-local component of the dataset, and define new non-local groups with as yet no known provenience.     

明清临清贡砖生产及其社会影响

明清两代修建北京皇宫各大殿和紫禁城城墙,以及皇家陵寝所用大青砖,绝大部分是山东临清州烧造。从明初到清末的四五百年中,临清因京杭大运河的贯通而成为北方重要的工商业城市和漕运咽喉,又因其便利的交通和适宜的土质等特殊优势成为明清两朝的贡砖烧造基地。临清的贡砖生产虽间有停废,但一直受到朝廷的严格掌控,形成了一套系统的管理制度和生产方式。大规模的贡砖烧造一方面促进了临清工商业的繁荣和生产结构的改变,同时也加重了民众和漕运官军负担,对明清时期的临清社会带来了巨大的影响。     

《达·芬奇密码》与“后福特式”生产

美国畅销小说《达·芬奇密码》在全球的热销不仅取决于小说自身“逼真性”的营造、新奇的情节,还依赖于小说“后福特式”生产的策略。在迎合了消费文化和“雅皮士”情趣的前提下,小说打了一场作品本身、电影及周边产品的“三维立体战”,依托网络、媒体、现代的传播方式极大地促进了小说文本的价值,从而使小说取得了极大的成功。     

Identifying archaeological wood stack charcoal production sites using geophysical prospection: magnetic characteristics from a modern wood stack charcoal burn site

Charcoal making was a common process in the woodlands of Britain for many centuries. However, historic ‘wood stack’ production sites are difficult to identify. This paper tests the hypothesis that geophysical survey is an appropriate method for the discovery and identification of archaeological charcoal making sites. A traditional wood stack charcoal kiln was constructed in Low Staindale, Dalby Forest, near Pickering, North Yorkshire, to investigate the charcoaling process and the effect of low-temperature carbonisation on the magnetic properties of the soil underlying the kiln. The results from temperature monitoring (within and beneath the charcoal stack) throughout the charcoaling process, geophysical surveys across the charcoal kiln platform, and laboratory analysis of soil and ash samples, are presented. The degree to which the magnetic properties of the ground beneath the charcoal kiln had been enhanced as a consequence of this low-temperature process is discussed. Whilst some magnetic enhancement to the soil beneath the kiln platform was recorded, enhancement appears to be the result of contamination from the wood stack sealing material rather than the effect of heat transfer resulting from the charcoaling process. The results suggest that whilst historic wood stack charcoal production sites are likely to remain an enigmatic and under-reported feature in the archaeological landscape, geophysical prospection does have the potential for identification of these sites.     

Western Mediterranean sand deposits as a raw material for Roman glass production

During the Late Roman and Byzantine period, natron glass was made from its raw materials in a limited number of primary production centres in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. For the earlier Hellenistic and Roman period, no primary furnaces have been found and the location of primary production during this era remains unclear. Ancient authors such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder suggest that glassmaking sands were found near the River Belus (Israel), in Egypt, near the mouth of the Volturno River (Italy) and also in Spain and France. However, primary production in the western part of the Mediterranean is not supported by any direct archaeological evidence and possible sand raw materials from these regions have never been evaluated for their suitability to produce glass.     

Ceramic Technology of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Asurini do Xingu,Brazil</Emphasis>: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Artifact Variability

This article presents some of the results of ethnoarchaeological research on ceramic technology I have conducted among the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous population inhabiting a village in the margins of the Xingu River, Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, presented throughout the article, I discuss the reasons behind the formal, quantitative, spatial and relational variability of the Asurini ceramic vessels. This work will demonstrate that these distinct dimensions of variability are related to the potters’ technological choices during the vessels’ production process, the ceramic teaching-learning structure, and the type, frequency, method and context of use of the same vessels. I try to make clear the different practical and symbolic aspects that may influence the production, use, reuse, storage and discard processes of the vessels. Furthermore, I compare the Asurini context with other ethnographic contexts and try to distinguish regularities that may serve as interpretative references to the study of archaeological ceramic assemblages.

Using neutron activation analysis to identify scales of interaction at Kinet Höyük,Turkey

We use NAA to characterize a relatively large archaeological ceramic sample from the Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic phases of Kinet Höyük, a coastal Turkish site in the Gulf of Iskenderun at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. The geographic extent of local Kinet wares (how local is local?) is established through comparison with sediment samples across the Kinet hinterland. Four major compositional groups are identified: local and locally imported wares, imports from Cypriot, and presumed Western Anatolian and Aegean centers, and imports that appear relatively homogenous elementally but comprise typologically diverse ceramics with attributions that range from Cyprus to the coastal mainland. Comparison with other published NAA studies for this site reinforces the elemental evidence for local production, and underlines the need for caution when assuming local production always equates with local clays particularly for coastal sites. We propose that the chronological distribution of the local and non-local groups provides a useful political economic proxy. The study indicates systemic and widespread political disruption and marginalization at the transition to the Late Iron Age in this region.     

The widespread occurrence of Celtic field systems in the central part of the Netherlands

The detailed elevation model based on airborne laser altimetry (AHN) proved to be a reliable tool to detect well-developed Celtic field systems, characteristic arable plots of the Iron Age. They were detected in the central part of the Netherlands, where only a limited number of Celtic field systems have been recognized in the past. Most of these previously detected systems were identified in the northern part of the Netherlands or in the southern part, but not in this zone. About 1200 ha of well-developed systems could be identified by AHN in the central part of the Netherlands, of which only 136 ha were registered as an archaeological monument. Another 335 ha of archaeologically identified Celtic field systems were not accepted or recognized by AHN, because they were morphologically less well-developed. Most of the around 1050 ha new discoveries occur in rough vegetations and forested areas, and can hardly be identified with previously used geodetic methods and aerial photography. Less well-developed or preserved systems were even more extensive and remnants were traced as fossil arable layers below plaggen soils or on lower slopes incorporated in mediaeval reclamations. The newly identified Celtic field systems, therefore, can be considered as remnants of much larger areas once covered with these arable plots. In the central part of the Netherlands, the estimated area once covered was at least around 4500 ha, more than enough to supply 10,000 people with cereals. Well-developed Celtic field systems started to develop in the late Iron Age with formation intensifying during the early Roman Period. The central part of the Netherlands is situated just north of the river Rhine, the former boundary of the Roman Empire, the Limes. The newly discovered extent of Celtic field systems will have influenced the interaction between different cultures on the border of the Roman Empire in the early Roman Period, about which very little is known. This perspective underscores the need for an integrated conservation policy and in-depth research through excavations in the near future.