The Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland (ca. 800 B.C. to A.D. 100): An overview

Those communities that lived in Britain and Ireland ca. 800 B.C. to A.D. 100 represent particularly well-researched examples of the complex agrarian, nonurban, societies with high population densities that characterize the Pre-Roman Iron Age across temperate Europe. This paper provides a critical introduction to the extensive recent literature on the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland. Evidence from the large number of salvage excavations and surveys, the application of a wide range of analytical techniques, and important changes in interpretative frameworks are transforming understandings of this period. After reviewing these developments, a chronological account of the period is outlined which attempts to integrate these new results. This suggests that current interpretations of social processes across Iron Age Europe in terms of state formation, urbanization, and core-periphery relations with Mediterranean civilization need revision.     

丽水胡椒坑畲族祖图

畲族是中国现存的较古老的民族之一,具有悠久的历史和独特的传统,其中各支族自行绘制的祖图是最富特色的民族文化遗存之一。本文以丽水联城镇胡椒坑村现存的绘制于清光绪四年(1878)的祖图为例,介绍完整的一套畲族祖图所包含的主要内容,以及它在祭祀仪式上的使用情况等相关问题。     

In Praise of the Ordinary Man: Popular Media,Social Hierarchy and Identity in a North Indian Text

This article recounts a story found in a popular genre of religious literature known as vrat katha[ritual storytelling]. The narrative is of an “ordinary” low-caste man and his everyday struggles. It tells of the social and economic suffering experienced by the poor man upon encountering god (called Trilokinath/Vishnu) and receiving his blessing, mediated through a series of miraculous events. However, the transformative power of the events and fortunes that follow is undermined by a Brahmin who refuses to acknowledge the poor devotee, rebuffing his ritual gift [prasad] as polluted and considering him untouchable. The ambiguous nature of the gift and the ideology and practice of devotion [Bhakti] present an intriguing and complex picture of Hinduism, revealed in the multiple social roles and social contexts in which subalterns operate in the course of their day-to-day lives.

?I offer a critical reading of this fascinating story. What seems like a straightforward, standardised ritual text is analysed in terms of its competing and sometimes subversive views of “dominant” Hinduism. By examining the tensions and ambivalence in the text I argue for a more nuanced rendition of subaltern power and agency which cannot be reduced to that of resistance and opposition alone.     

Deficiencies and challenges in the study of ancient tuberculosis DNA

We explore the standards of research and reporting needed to justify the destructive analysis of archaeological human bone for biomolecular studies of ancient tuberculosis (TB). Acceptable standards in osteological interpretation have been met in some biomolecular papers, but there are also cases where insufficient care has been taken in distinguishing between pathognomonic lesions and those that are ‘consistent with’ a diagnosis of TB. Some biomolecular studies have failed to recognize that archaeological bones might be contaminated with environmental mycobacteria whose DNA could give rise to false positives in polymerase chain reactions directed at members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. The difficulties of applying spoligotyping to ancient DNA have also been underestimated and conclusions drawn from such analyses are often weakly supported. Assumptions that mycobacterial DNA preserves better than human DNA, and that contamination with modern DNA is less of a problem, has led in some cases to a laxity in research standards with insufficient attention paid to the need to authenticate ancient DNA results. We illustrate our concerns by reference to a recent paper reporting biomolecular detection of ancient TB DNA in skeletons from the eastern Mediterranean Neolithic settlement of Atlit-Yam. We are unconvinced that the skeletal evidence presented in this paper gives sufficient indication of TB to warrant destructive analysis, and we are concerned that during the biomolecular part of the project inadequate attention was paid to the possibility that results might be due to laboratory cross-contamination or to amplification of environmental mycobacterial DNA present in the bones.     

上海中外银钱业联合会筹建述论(1921～1929)

中外银钱业联合会是1920年代上海中外银钱业三方共同组建的一个金融合作组织。中外银钱业的三个同业公会为筹建该联合会进行了长期交涉。该联合会虽在组织制度上使外国银行得益较多,但它的成立也为本国银行拓展外汇业务提供了有利条件。考察中外银钱业联合会的筹建过程,可为揭示近代上海中外银钱业在三足鼎立格局中的互动关系提供一个直接例证。     

谈士山盘铭文的“服”字义

本文从唐兰先生旧说出发,讨论新见士山盘铭文“服”字含义,认为其相当于《左传》、《国语》中所见的“职贡”一词,具体包括职事与贡赋两个方面。另外提出士山盘铭之方国“履”应即金文所见的“眉敖”之“眉”。最后指出士山盘铭对于探讨西周恭王时期的政治和先秦服制都具有重要意义。