Studying the process of enamel powder preparation for émail champlevé by colour measurements and μ‐X‐ray mappings

Colour measurements and non‐destructive μ‐X‐ray mappings have been used for the first time in a comprehensive study of medieval émail champlevé works from different production areas in France and Germany. This approach has given a new insight into the enamel powder preparation process of the glass material used for enamelling. Colour measurements demonstrated that all production centres used glass of very similar hues, but with large differences in colour saturation. The μ‐X‐ray mapping results of blue enamels are described by a semi‐qualitative approach. Significant variations in oxide contents of lead, cobalt, manganese and antimony oxides were found. The variations suggest that more than one glass material was used to prepare the powder for enamelling. The variations in antimony and cobalt show that glass had different degrees of opacity and colour depth. The manganese and lead contents, which do not correlate with the cobalt or antimony contents, indicate that probably glass of different base compositions was used to prepare the enamel powder for one champlevé field.     

NEW ANALYSIS OF CYLINDRICAL AND OVOID JARS (‘ARCHIVE JARS') FROM SOUTHERN JUDEA

This paper presents new compositional analysis of 26 fragments of the much‐debated cylindrical and ovoid jars, a vessel type first defined at Khirbet Qumran and associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The new samples include 15 examples from Tel ?evron, a site which yielded a pottery workshop and that carries certain similarities with Khirbet Qumran during the Early Roman period, as well as several examples from Jericho and Masada. According to the new as well as previous analyses, many of these jars were produced in the ?evron area; another source may be located in the northern Dead Sea area. The actual function of these jars, and whether they ever contained scrolls, is still unclear.     

La rivière Romaine en chantier : Transformations contemporaines des territorialités des Innus d'Ekuanitshit

Since 2009, Innu members of the community of Ekuanitshit have faced a major hydroelectric project on the Romaine River, an integral part of the Nitassinan, their ancestral territory. In this paper, we study the project's impacts on the material and ideational relationship the Innu have with the river. We explore the idea that the project transforms the traditional relationship to territory into a more pragmatic one, marked by economic and political interests. Our analysis reveals that the Innu's territorialities, though partly transformed by increased contact—and sometimes conflict—with hegemonic non‐indigenous society, remain anchored in a strong cultural heritage and a deep identification with territory. We argue that these seemingly differentiated conceptualizations, of traditions on the one hand and development on the other, are not incompatible. These conceptualizations comprise dynamic cultural, social, and political territorialities which are thus internal and external, ancestral and contemporary.     

Indigenous Bioregionalisms (Love Mother Earth) Relationship,Creation, Ethics,Love

Indigenous Bioregionalisms (Love Mother Earth) are identities, methods, and philosophies defining our relationships between beloved Home Land Place and all Living Beings (written here as Home/Land/Place). Indigenous Bioregionalisms actively creates, maintains, and ensures the continuance and thrive‐ance of all Beings. It proposes a way to understand Indigenous belonging to and with Home/Land/Place—the expansive physical, natural, and SuperNatural source of life, transformance, and regeneration—of every Being.     

Frontiers of Urban Control: Lawlessness on the City Edge and Forms of Clientalist Statecraft in Zimbabwe

This article develops the concept of “urban frontier” to explore conflicts over state regularisation of city edge informal settlements in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. It conceptualises the presence of “lawless” urban frontiers and “illegal” territorial authorities in capital cities as expressions of a permissive form of central statecraft. In so doing, the article takes forward debates over the politics shaping the margins of Africa’s rapidly expanding cities, redressing scholars’ tendency to neglect central party‐state strategic calculations and party politics in their analyses of unregulated settlements. Dominant interpretations generally hinge on state absence or weakness and emphasise localised influences. The case of Harare’s highly politicised city‐edge informal settlements reveals the inadequacy of apolitical approaches particularly clearly, as all were controlled by the ruling ZANUPF party. The conflicts provoked by regularisation provide a lens on disputes within the ruling party, which we interpret as disputes over different forms of clientalist statecraft. Analyses of urban frontiers can thus help move away from generic one‐size‐fits‐all explanations of informality and patronage politics in Africa’s expanding cities.     

Not About Land,Not Quite a Grab: Dispersed Dispossession in Rural Russia

In most literature in geography and agrarian studies, rural dispossession is neatly related to land rights or access, a trend that increased with debates about the recent wave of farmland investments worldwide. Drawing on long‐term fieldwork in rural Russia, this paper critiques that focus and the assumed nexus between rural dispossession and farmland, as is prevents an understanding of more dispersed stakes, modes and temporalities of dispossession. I introduce the concept of dispersed dispossession which advances our understanding of social and relational objects of dispossession beyond natural resources (such as sustaining institutions and infrastructures), and the tangled, complex, often slow and silent modes and temporalities of dispossession beyond spectacular events. I show how the concept sheds new light on current agrarian change in Russia, and how it contributes to debates on (rural) dispossession and “land grabs” more generally.     

‘M GLOW BLUE’: ARCHAEOMETRIC RESEARCH AT MICHIGAN'S FORD NUCLEAR REACTOR

The Ford Nuclear Reactor operated from 1957 to 2003 on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over its 45‐year lifespan, the facility played a key role in archaeometric research, fostering early methodological studies using INAA and supporting archaeological materials science investigations of lithics, ceramics, metals and bone. One small part of the FNR's abundant legacy was the initiation of trace‐element studies of Oaxacan ceramics, which are now beginning to shed light on early exchange interactions and the origin of the Monte Albán state in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, between 500 bce and 200 ce .     

Wissenschaftsstädte – Zur Bedeutung des Topos der ‘kreativen Stadt’ für die Wissensproduktion

Science Cities: What the Concept of the Creative City Means for Knowledge Production. – The article aims to show that the relationship of science and the city has changed since the 1970s in the context of the knowledgeable society. While cities have principally been regarded as the typical space of science, of new ideas and innovation for centuries, since the 1960s and 1970s universities, research institutes as well as industrial research institutes have relocated to the periphery of cities. There, however, these sites of knowledge have been organized in an ‘urban mode’. That means that the concept of the city as a place of science and innovation has determined the architectural, spatial, and social organization of these sites on the periphery of cities. Certain features of the city have been copied, such as social infrastructures, places of communication, restaurants, cafes etc., while others have been left out – housing, cinema, theatre etc. An ‘urban mode of knowledge production’ in the sense of a very stylized model of the city has become a tool to enhance the production of scientific and technological knowledge. – The article exemplifies this by focusing on a case study, namely of the so‐called ‘Science City’ of the Siemens Company in Munich‐Neuperlach.     

Knowledge,Morality and ‘Kastom’: SikAIDS among Young Yupno People,Finisterre Range,Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the extent of knowledge about HIV/AIDS among young Yupno women and men. Local understanding of sikAIDS is shaped by cultural, moral and religious concepts and processes that are based on social values and practices. Difficulties these young people face in accessing information about HIV/AIDS and using it to implement preventative measures — for example by obtaining condoms — have to be seen in the framework of ‘kastom’ and a moral discourse coined and influenced by the Lutheran Church. As the research shows, there is an urgent need for a broad and contextually sensitive approach to sexual health, including information about conception, family planning methods, and sexually transmitted diseases when planning awareness campaigns for teenagers in rural regions.     

Analysis of adhering organic residues of two “coupes-à-socles” from the Neolithic funerary site “La Hougue Bie” in Jersey: evidences of birch bark tar utilisation

The “coupes-à-socle” (footed cups) are ceramics which can be found in domestic Neolithic contexts in Brittany (Castellic, Auzay-Sandun), but more generally in non-domestic areas. Their ceremonial function has often been evoked, in particular as a perfume burner. The analysis by GC and GC/MS of two samples from the “Hougue Bie” (Jersey) passage graves showed the presence of vegetable fatty acids, degraded n-alkanes and terpenoïds, biomarkers of birch bark tar. The presence of such substances could be explained either by the use of the “coupes-à-socle” for burning birch bark tar as an odoriferous product or their use as an everyday vessel for heating and increasing tar plasticity. However, the limited occurrence of this type of ceramic in habitat sites supports the former utilisation. This first report of the presence of birch bark tar in “coupes-à-socle” thus suggests use of this tar as an odoriferous product, in addition to its numerous, previously recognised, more technical uses.