基于环境监测的三星堆遗址祭祀坑考古现场预防性保护

目前考古现场保护主要以应急保护技术与临时加固材料的研究和应用为主,而关于考古现场预防性保护少有报道。本次三星堆遗址祭祀坑发掘保护构建了由考古舱、考古舱环境调控系统、空气质量监测系统、土遗址监测系统、区域气象站、预防性保护措施、监测信息智能管理平台组成的预防性保护体系。发掘前,通过土遗址监测系统和区域气象站获取文物埋藏环境信息和区域气象信息,为考古舱内环境设置提供了依据。发掘过程中,采取舱内温湿度调控、保湿、空气杀菌净化、控制舱内人数与新风换气等预防性保护措施,达到控制考古舱温湿度、减少细菌和真菌总数、降低舱内CO_(2)浓度,减缓象牙等文物失水速度的目的,有效控制了出土文物开裂、酥粉、霉菌暴发等病害发生,为考古发掘与保护赢得了时间。三星堆祭祀坑考古现场预防性保护的创新探索与实践为以后重要遗址的现场保护指引了方向、提供了可借鉴经验。     

Prehistoric Bird Watching in Southern Iberia? The Rock Art of Tajo de las Figuras Reconsidered

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the relationship between humans and birds in the recent prehistory of the Southern Iberian Peninsula. With its high number of bird, mammal, and anthropomorphic paintings, a small rock shelter –Tajo de las Figuras– provides an excellent case study to address this topic. The cave is situated in an ecosystem that, as we will argue, favoured human-bird interactions and enabled prehistoric groups to engage with a diverse and rich bird community at particular times of the year. Even though the recorded depictions can generally be integrated into the wider ‘Schematic’ style regime characterising the recent prehistory of the region, they exhibit some outstanding features including a highly distinct naturalism. This naturalism enables us to identify the represented birds, not only at the family but also at the species level. Our contribution describes these pictorial data and contextualises them with the ecology, archaeology, and archaeozoology of the area. We intend to show that the singularity of the image-corpus registered at Tajo de las Figuras mirrors the unique conditions of human-bird interactions at the time. We suggest that the significance of the images derives from the special location of the cave in the wider landscape encouraging early practices of bird watching.     

‘The Conscience of the Community’: the Au Vaine of Rarotonga

ABSTRACT

The Au Vaine (‘several women’ in Cook Islands Māori), grassroots women’s committees, worked to promote agricultural efforts and food security in Rarotonga during the 1920s and 1930s. A unique organization, the Au Vaine actively encouraged the growing of commercial crops alongside subsistence plantings at a time when women were being pushed towards the home and hearth, and men pulled to wage labour jobs. These women illustrate the powerful and often unheard voices Pacific women retained throughout this period, as well as the critical role of food in Pacific history. In this article I examine the context within which the Au Vaine emerged, discuss what distinguished them from other women’s committees in Polynesia, highlight their purpose and impact on Cook Islands foodways, and explore some of the reasons they declined by the 1940s.     

They say ‘kids with asthma don’t play sports’: geographies of asthma

ABSTRACT

Asthma is common among children worldwide. Although complex, physical activity participation is important in asthma management, to decrease chronic disease risk, and to facilitate healthy lifestyles for children. Team sport participation is a common way for children to engage in physical activity, but the spaces in which team sport is experienced can present social, physical and emotional challenges for children with asthma. This research aims to understand elements of the environment, broadly defined, that impact experiences of asthma in sport. In-depth interviews were conducted with youth team sport athletes (n?=?11) diagnosed with asthma, and youth team sport coaches (n?=?18) in Ontario, Canada. Results suggest that understanding the physical and social needs of child and youth athletes, and ensuring well-controlled asthma, are critical to maximizing performance and improving quality of life for asthmatic athletes.     

Tianshui’s three treasures: water and soil conservation in wartime northwest China

ABSTRACT

In addition to examining how wartime imperatives shaped the agricultural research, demonstration, and extension programs undertaken by the Nationalist government’s Tianshui Water and Soil Conservation Experiment Area (the Experiment Area) after its founding in 1942, this article assesses the rural populace’s responses to these conservation measures. While the Experiment Area’s plans to construct terraces and ditches were not well suited to the socioeconomic and environmental conditions that existed in rural Gansu during the 1940s, its introduction of non-native tree and grass species to check water and soil loss met with an enthusiastic response from Tianshui’s populace. Water and soil conservation specialists aspired to rationalize human interactions with the environment as part of wartime efforts to develop the northwest, but to realize these goals they had to take socioecological realities in the region and the needs of rural residents into account. Wartime conservation’s environmental legacies, the article also shows, extended into the period after 1949.     

KHAT EXPANSION AND FOREST DECLINE IN WONDO GENET, ETHIOPIA

This study analyses the expansion of khat production in relation to forest decline in the Wondo Genet area in south-central Ethiopia. By assessing spatial variables and social factors, and using remote sensing and social survey techniques, the extent to which this new cash crop contributes to deforestation is explored.
The results indicate that khat has expanded rapidly in terms of land area used for its production at forest frontiers, in isolated forest patches and within farmland since the mid-1980s. This is mainly due to high economic advantage, high market demand and favourable means of transport as well as the existence of a cohesive trade network. Moreover, the properties of the crop also facilitate expansion. The increased production of khat appears to be a result of conscious choice and rational decisions made by male farmers, regardless of religious, cultural and policy discouragement and despite khat's possible negative impact on livelihood security.
Although it is found that khat expansion does not explain forest decline in the study area per se, it plays an important role in enhancing multifaceted interaction between people and forest. The expansion influences forest decline directly by conversion, and indirectly through increased human activity in proximity to forests. The conversion has resulted in a reduction of forest area, resilience and regeneration. Khat production has changed human settlement patterns, suppressed production of other crops and influenced women's income negatively. These aspects increase the demand for wood and it renders the forest an important source of supplementary incomes. Khat production may create tension, resulting from a conflict in interest between sustaining the native forests, with subsequent environmental benefits for the larger social group, and the economically driven choice land use made by khat farmers.     

The Environment and Subsistence of the Early Neolithic Settlement Area at Těšetice-Kyjovice,Czech Republic

This paper presents a reconstruction of environmental conditions and subsistence strategies in the Early Neolithic (6th Millenium BC) settlement area at Tě?etice-Kyjovice (Czech Republic). Our detailed reconstruction of the environment contributes to the unravelling of the genesis and spread of steppes and the formation of secondary anthropogenic forest-free areas in the Holocene in eastern-Central Europe. Mollusc shells, charcoals and plant macroremains were used as on-site evidence of a settlement environment. A relatively warm and dry anthropogenic forest-free area is reconstructed for the immediate vicinity of the Early Neolithic settlement. Communities of mixed deciduous forests are recorded in the surroundings of the settlement. Plant macroremains reflect the characteristic Neolithic range of cultivated plants (e.g. Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccon, Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum). Papaver somniferum seeds were also found, possibly constituting the oldest evidence of its presence and cultivation in the territory of the Czech Republic.     

Local Forest Protection, Gender and Caste—Dhani Hill, Orissa, India

A questionnaire survey covering 35% of all households in five villages was conducted in a local forest protection group in Orissa, India. The aim was to study dependency, involvement and attitude towards forest protection based on gender and caste. A conceptual model indicating differences between the groups was used as a base. Women experienced more problems of restrictions caused by the protection and more threats associated with the forest than did men. Voting in meetings and a wish for more plantations was of greater importance for women than for men, while men emphasised importance of co-operation with government. Direct involvement was very low among women, even though they were well informed about forest issues. Tribal groups were the main contributers of labour, while general caste had been involved for considerably longer in forest protection than other groups. The tribal groups also wanted more plantations and had a good understanding of the ecosystem. For example, they indicated the value of a growing forest. Men and general caste tended to be more outspoken in this type of questionnaire situation compared to women and scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The general attitude towards Dhani Hill, however, was positive and could be linked to daily use and future optimism. This optimism and the involvement of all the different groups should be considered as crucial in the timing of local forest management interventions. This should be seen together with the diversified opinions and ways of expressing such opinions depending on gender and caste.     

ENERGY,ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: THE EBRD'S ACTIVITIES IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

This article examines the relationship between the EBRD's project portfolio in the Western Balkan energy sector, and the region's main energy and environment problems. It argues in favour of geographically centred appraisals of the environmental sustainability of multilateral energy investment. Empirical analyses have been placed within the context of this bank's broader policy mandate to support the reconstruction and development of, among other aspects, energy operations in the post‐socialist states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while promoting environmental sustainability. The article categorizes the Western Balkans' energy and environment problems into two main groups: the failure to shift away from carbon‐emitting sources of energy, and the inability to introduce efficient technologies in the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy. It investigates the level to which these issues have been represented in the Bank's energy investment activities in the region. The EBRD's ability to fund energy and environment projects has been affected by, among other factors, the decision‐making process within the relevant governments and the Bank itself. These processes are related to the structural legacies of central planning and the organizational cultures embedded within the EBRD at its inception.     

主观感知的城市环境对居民健康的影响研究——基于全国60个县市的大样本调查

在“健康中国”战略推进和健康城市建设背景下，关注城市建成环境对公共健康影响的研究日益增加。目前相关研究主要纳入了客观测量的城市环境变量，而主观感知的城市环境变量能够体现出客观测量的城市环境变量难以捕捉的健康影响效应，具体作用有待深入探究。本研究建立了个体、社区和城市三个层面的分析框架，基于中国社会科学院社会发展战略研究院于2016年开展的“社会态度与社会发展状况”全国大样本问卷调研数据，探究主观感知的城市物质环境和服务环境对居民自评健康的影响作用并识别显著影响要素。研究发现：感知的城市环境对居民自评健康具有显著影响，其中居民对城市绿化、基础设施状况、住房保障和医疗服务的感知是影响自评健康较为主要的环境感知因素。最后本研究基于定量分析结果讨论对健康城市评价和研究的启示，推动健康城市的发展。