Khirbat al‐Mana‘iyya: an early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba,Jordan

Recent excavations in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba in Jordan have revealed the first early Islamic‐period copper‐smelting site known in the eastern side of the valley, which extends south of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba. Five test pits were excavated in 2012 at Khirbat al–Mana‘iyya, a prominent copper‐smelting camp in south‐eastern Wadi ‘Araba, Jordan. The results of these excavations demonstrate that the site was primarily active in the seventh–ninth century AD. Its distance from the copper sources of south‐west ‘Araba suggests that its location was chosen based on proximity to wood and water resources, rather than copper ore deposits. The discovery that the site dates to the early Islamic period has implications for previous and future work in south‐east ‘Araba. In particular, it challenges the common—until now—view of the region as virtually devoid of settlement during this period.     

The White Marble of the Arch of Augustus (Susa,North‐Western Italy): Mineralogical and Petrographic Analysis for the Definition of its Origin

The Arch of Augustus in Susa (north‐western Italy) was built in 9–8 bc by King Cottius, to celebrate the treaty between the Romans and the Gauls. It is made of white marble, which was considered for a long time to be locally extracted, but no archaeometric studies have been performed up to now. Therefore, a multi‐analytical study based on petrographic (optical and scanning electron microscopy), electron microprobe and stable isotope analyses was carried out on the marble from the arch and from reference samples, with the aim of defining the provenance. All the data confirmed that white marble belonging to the metamorphosed carbonate cover of the Dora Maira Massif, known as Foresto marble, was used for the Susa Arch. This choice was probably made for economic reasons, but also due to the relative independence of the ruling family of the Alpes Cottiae, which was obviously interested in promoting a local marble.     

“Inhabitants of rustic parts of the world”: John Locke’s collection of drawings and the Dutch Empire in ethnographic types

This article analyses a collection of 26 watercolour drawings which portray ethnographic types from the Americas, Asia, and Africa. These drawings, presently kept at the British Library, were made for John Locke by his servant Sylvester Brounower during Locke’s exile in the Netherlands in the 1680s.     

A TREASURE TROVE OF CHRONOLOGICAL LEARNING

The recent facsimile edition of Henricus Glareanus's Chronology of Livy, prepared by Anthony T. Grafton and Urs B. Leu, provides access to a primary source that is unique from the point of view of the history of science and scholarship and of the book and reading. The basis of the edition, a copy of Chronologia annotated by Glareanus's disciple Gabriel Hummelberg II, now preserved at the Princeton University Library, serves scholars both as a point of departure for outlining hypotheses on the teaching methods of early modern humanists as well as the role of chronology in the humanist curriculum. My reading of their edition is based on three points. First, I put the primary source of their choice in a context that includes provincial early modern educational centers as I believe that their enterprise could clear the way for future narratives on forgotten scholars who dealt with the issues of technical chronology. Second, I show the importance of Grafton and Leu's thesis on the procedures of transmission of teachers’ commentary, which, according to them, is documented by the Princeton copy of Chronologia. Third, I argue that the seemingly conservative decision to publish a paper edition of an annotated volume at the moment when state‐of‐the‐art digital tools for such editions are being tailored through the alliance of scholars and IT specialists should open a discussion among historians of the book and reading, science, and education that would lead to the determination of standards for scholarly editions of libri annotati.     

Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy

Summary

The issue which I wish to address in this paper is the widespread tendency in Anglophone philosophy to insist on a separation between the history of philosophy and the history of ideas or intellectual history. This separation reflects an anxiety on the part of philosophers lest the special character of philosophy will be dissolved into something else in the hands of historians. And it is borne of a fundamental tension between those who think of philosophy's past as a source of ideas and arguments of interest to the present, and those who hold that the philosophy of the past should be studied on its own terms, in relation to its immediate context, without reference to the present. The challenge, then, is to re-historicise the history of philosophy, and to keep the philosophers onside.     

The Street Corps of Changsha around 1920

The Changsha Street Corps originated in the local militia during the period of the Taiping Rebellion, and it played an important part in Changsha’s urban social management at the grassroots level. However, the role and influence of the street corps underwent changes during the process of modernization and the building of the modern nation–state. By 1920, although the street corps of Changsha still worked as the agent of the state at the grassroots level, its autonomy had been curtailed, and its social influence weakened. In the new social environment, even the maintenance of neighborhood interests became a challenge for the street corps. This article illustrates the readjustments in geopolitical and industrial relations during the process of urban modernization. It also illustrates how a new form of state power, namely the police, infiltrated the social management system, affected the traditional social structure, and complicated the interaction between modern state and society.     

唐代前期都督府探讨

有鉴于前人对唐代都督府认识的分歧,本文从文献的角度论证了今人观念下的都督府自唐代建立至安史之乱的不同职能,即军政职能、民政职能、监察职能。并重点阐述了前两种职能所依据的社会背景,二者之间的相互转化,以及三种职能下都督府与常州之关系,力图解决困扰都督府研究的一些问题。     

10世纪前中国西北边疆发展的几个特点

10世纪前的中国西北边疆经历了开拓、稳定和演变等过程,构成了一个相对完整的发展阶段,边疆发展的各种形态与主要特点尽皆呈现。南农北牧既是西北边疆的基本经济形态,也是历史上中原农业王朝与北方游牧民族角逐态势延伸的主要依据;在作为边疆主体的中原或内地王朝、客体的西域地区和旁体的北方游牧民族等三个主要因素的共同作用下,西北边疆的政治地理范围时有伸缩,而多种统治体制并存、边疆问题与民族问题一体化等特点也贯穿于这一时期西北边疆发展的整个过程。     

马克思、恩格斯文明理论与中国"早期文明"

在中国文明发展史上,夏、商、西周文明是一个特殊阶段,这个阶段的文明,从国家形态的角度看,与西方文明具有明显的不同。