The New ‘Coimbra Method’: A Biologically Appropriate Method for Recording Specific Features of Fibrocartilaginous Entheseal Changes

This paper presents a revised version of the Coimbra method for recording fibrocartilaginous entheses. The method itself is the only biologically appropriate recording method for fibrocartilaginous entheses that scores features separately, thereby ensuring that the aetiology of individual features can be studied. The method divides the enthesis into two zones, scoring the relevant features in each zone. These features represent either bone formation or bone destruction and include erosive lesions, fine and macro‐porosity, and cavitations. The revised method includes a new feature, textural change, which is scored as absent or present when it involves 50% or more of the surface. All other features are now scored as zero (absent), one or two with the higher score representing greater expression of the feature. This change in scoring has led to the reduction of inter‐observer error with approximately 80% agreement for overall feature scores for both the common extensor origin and subscapularis insertion. The simplification of the scores and the reduction in inter‐observer error mean that the method is now recommended for widespread use. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

European Pond Turtles from Obříství (Bohemia,Czech Republic)

The paper describes and analyses recent finds of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) from the archaeological sites at Obříství (Mělník District, at the confluence of the Elbe and Moldau rivers in the Bohemian Basin, Czech Republic). Turtle remains were found in three sunken features dated to the Late Bronze Age or to the Hallstatt period, and in one feature dated to the Neolithic. The high number of osteological finds, particularly the number of individuals found in one place, is unique within Bohemia and very rare for the Bronze Age to Iron Age in Europe. A large number of shell remains were identified, from at least 12 individuals in feature 1480, and from at least 5 individuals in feature 1483. The high numbers support the hypothesis that the European pond turtle was once a regular feature of the local fauna, even though the Bohemian basin is surrounded by mountains, which will have presented difficulties for the process of postglacial recolonization by semiaquatic thermophilous reptiles. The findings from Obříství show evidence of the exploitation of turtles for food. Signs of culinary procedures and the human consumption of turtles include anthropogenic chop marks, signs of burning and the apparently intentional segmentation of the turtle bodies. The quantity of turtle bones is still negligible, however, compared with those of mammals. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Image‐Based Modelling from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Photogrammetry: An Effective,Low‐Cost Tool for Archaeological Applications

The recording and 3D modelling of complex archaeological sites is usually associated with high capital and logistical costs, because the data acquisition must be performed by specialists using expensive surveying sensors (i.e., terrestrial laser scanners, robotic total stations and/or ground‐penetrating radar). This paper presents a novel, low‐cost, user‐friendly photogrammetric tool for generating high‐resolution and scaled 3D models of complex sites. The results obtained with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry of an archaeological site indicate that this approach is semi‐automatic, inexpensive and effective, and that it guarantees quality.     

Identification of Green Pigment Used in Persian Wall Paintings (ad 1501–1736) Using PLM,FT–IR,SEM/EDX and GC–MS Techniques

The technique of oil painting was introduced to Iran via a cultural exchange with Europe in the Safavid period (ad 1501–1736). Since the first attempt at scientific conservation of wall paintings in Iran in the 1960s, the nature of green pigment used in Persian wall paintings has not been clear, although work on contemporary miniature paintings has identified malachite and verdigris. PLM, FT–IR, SEM/EDX, GC–MS and the study of contemporary historical treatises of the Safavid period were the main tools used in the present study to identify the green pigments in Persian (oil‐based) wall paintings. Eight samples taken from the two famous Safavid buildings, Chehel Sotoon Palace and the Sukias House in Isfahan, were analysed. Here, the identification of copper‐based pigment and of verdigris in oil as oleate amends the existing knowledge of the green pigment used in these paintings. It also suggests that oleate was introduced to Persian artists via the European influence on Persian painting as a result of cultural exchange in the Safavid period, when the technique of Persian painting changed from tempera to oil painting. However, as verdigris in oil and resin can appear as oleate over time, it is unknown whether the Persian artists did this deliberately or accidentally.     

Playing Politics with Sex Offender Laws: An Event History Analysis of the Initial Community Notification Laws across American States

Despite a decline in crime rates, the 1990s witnessed extensive media coverage of several high‐profile stranger abductions and murders of children. State legislators' swift response to the public's growing fear of sex offenders with the adoption of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws raises questions about the role of politics. Punctuated equilibrium theory and the diffusion of innovation jointly provide a context to conduct an event history analysis to assess the extent to which politics enhanced legislative responsiveness to public opinion in SORN policymaking. Contrary to the commonly held belief that attributes legislative interest in SORN to salient crimes against children, the results suggest that factors such as the percentage of a conservative population, district‐level competition, and state innovativeness accelerated the diffusion of innovation of the laws.     

Avoiding Blame—A Comprehensive Framework and the Australian Home Insulation Program Fiasco

It is widely acknowledged in the literature that the study of blame avoidance behavior (BAB) exhibited by public officials is scattered and unconcentrated, and that, for the most part, it neglects both contextual factors and comparative research. These deficits inhibit the production of the kind of generalized findings necessary to better understand potential consequences for the policy process and the workings of political systems. We address these deficits by developing a framework that takes stock of blame avoidance research, clarifies the explanatory potential of contextual factors, and allows for a systematic context‐sensitive cross‐case analysis. For illustrative purposes, the framework is applied to the Home Insulation Program in Australia as a critical case. This case reveals the explanatory potential of contextual factors for the understanding of BAB and the consequences thereof. We conclude by stating the advantages of our framework and explain how it can be used for comparative research.     

The provenance and distribution of Early Bronze ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain,central Zagros,Iran

Within Iran, there is little archaeological evidence for relationships between newly arrived Early Trans-Caucasian (ETC) or Kura-Araxes settlers and earlier inhabitants and contact with neighbouring cultures, or for their apparently abrupt end. Based on the evidence, the Iranian Kura-Araxes was not a simple ‘copy' of the Caucasian Kura-Araxes package. Ceramic traditions show local peculiarities, and all are elements suggesting that the Kura-Araxes traditions went through processes of adaptation, change and re-elaboration according to local tastes and technologies. In this study, an archaeometric approach to ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain of central Zagros contributes to the discussion of contact and exchange between indigenous communities and several cultural spheres of influence on the Early Bronze Age (beginning in the fourth millennium bce ). Morphological data, as well as the mineralogical and chemical composition of ceramics, were applied to determine the major and trace elements of the pottery shards. Based on the trace element profiles, it can be suggested that all the pottery shards are in the same group and they strongly are local products. The ceramic provenance indicates the same patterns of material interactions during the ETC or Kura-Araxes in all the sites within the Kolyaei Plain.     

宫殿而林壑——乾隆皇帝乐寿堂与颐和轩的陈设理念

根据档案记载,紫禁城内乐寿堂院中设有山子,山子仿清漪园乐寿堂前的"青芝岫",园林中的陈设被搬到了宫殿里。本文以此为出发点,对乐寿堂陈设及其理念作了详细考证,此外作者对乐寿堂和颐和轩的对联加以深入分析,厘清了春与仁、与寿、与山之间的关系。揭示了乾隆皇帝意图通过宫殿园林化实现长寿的终极目的。     

Classifying Like a State: Land Dispossession on Eastern Crete’s Contested Mountains

Despite the widespread attention to capital investments in land and property around the globe, the active re-regulating role of the neoliberal state in processes of “accumulation by dispossession” remains underexplored. Through an in-depth look at the dispossession of highly fragmented and loosely regulated private land for windfarm investments on Crete’s eastern corner, Sitia, this paper re-affirms the political nature of the forcible appropriation of land for large-scale investments; dissects the specific mechanisms in which the state dispossesses land on behalf of investors and promotes the forcible appropriation of land from below; and problematises the dialectic relationship of both rupture and continuity between crisis and inherited, path-dependent relations embedded in land. The transformation of Sitia’s loosely regulated, informal relations on land is made possible through the mobilisation of the state’s bureaucratic and normalising powers, which redefine the concept of forest and dispossess through classifying land as such.     

Governing a Liminal Land Deal: The Biopolitics and Necropolitics of Gender

Over the past decade, there has been a surge in large-scale land acquisitions around the world. Yet, increasing evidence suggests that many of the prominent land deals signed during the global land rush are struggling to materialise. This emergent pattern of liminality has important implications for understanding the everyday, contingent, and gendered processes of land deal governance and subject formation. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article examines the gendered governance of a “liminal” land deal in coastal Tanzania, through a case of the EcoEnergy Sugar Project. It shows how the project's prolonged delay has given rise, over time, to two contradistinctive sets of actors and mechanisms of control: biopolitical interventions of international development consultants focused on livelihood improvements, and necropolitical interventions of district paramilitary forces focused on surveillance and violence. While seemingly contradictory, I argue that both enactments of power fundamentally relied on and reproduced normative gender in rural Tanzania.