The titles of Petra in the sixth century: the evidence from the Petra papyri

Since their discovery in 1993, the Petra papyri have drawn the attention of both historians and archaeologists because of the amount of information they contain. The content of the papyri essentially deals with the property inheritance and transaction of a certain Theodoros son of Obodianos and his family in Petra and its vicinity, in the period between AD 537 and 593. The present paper focuses on the titles of Petra mentioned in these papyri and on their importance for the understanding of Petra in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Petra's full titles are: ‘Imperial Colony Antoniana, Distinguished, Holy (?), Mother of the Colonies, Hadriana Petra, and Metropolis of [the Province] Tertia Palaestina Salutaris’. The main components of these titles are attested elsewhere, but they appear in their entirety in the Petra papyri for the first time. The various titles of Petra as they appear in the papyri concerned clearly indicate that Petra continued to style itself as an important place in the Byzantine Empire. The picture that emerges from Petra's titles and other evidence from the papyri is that, in the sixth century Petra was still a place inhabited by relatively wealthy people, which had a major role in the economy of the Byzantine Empire.     

“They hate pigs,Chinese farmers … everything!” Beastly Racialization in Multiethnic Malaysia

Abstract: This paper details the construction of the pig and the pig industry in Malaysia. It argues that a pattern of “animal‐linked racialization” continually polices the boundary between the dominant, elite Malay‐Muslim hegemony and the comparatively less powerful Chinese pig farmers. Often subtle and implicit, such beastly racialization, drawing frequently from religious and nationalist tropes, renders visible the taboo subjects of race and racism in Malaysia. While a simplistic form of beastly racialization in relation to the pig industry is held by the political elites and non‐Chinese community, one cannot say that such a racialization has produced or sustained distinct racisms. Nonetheless, it is through the process of beastly racialization that we unravel the seemingly random acts of coercive policies that, taken in their entirety, threaten to stymie the future viability of the industry and continue to accentuate the visible social‐cultural disjuncture between the two biggest ethnic groups in Malaysia.     

“钟离氏”族姓考

钟离国为嬴姓,以国为氏称钟离氏,于是有赢姓钟离氏。伯州犁奔楚后,楚以钟离邑为其采邑。伯州犁之后以其采邑为氏亦称钟离氏,于是有子姓钟离氏。子姓钟离氏与嬴姓钟离氏迥异,断不可混为一谈。     

Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008

Two noted specialists on the agricultural economies of the former Soviet Union examine the effects of land reform on agricultural production and the income of rural house-holds in Tajikistan. The authors utilize official government statistics to discern trends of agricultural output at the national level, and the results of three extensive surveys conducted in 2007-2008 (N > 2,000) and one in 2003 (N = 4,000 respondents) by international organizations (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank) to identify household-level changes. They also review the legislative framework for agrarian reform in the country; examine national-level trends in farm structure and organization, livestock production, farm productivity, and cropping patterns; and analyze shifts in size of land holdings and rural family incomes at the household level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D130, O130, P320, Q150. 11 figures, 10 tables, 42 references.     

Food Security and Russia's 2010 Drought

An American specialist on Russia's agricultural sector examines the progression and impact of that country's 2010 drought (the worst in a half-century), leading to a grain harvest one-third smaller than originally forecast. A particular focus is on the country's grain reserves and the government's response to drought in such areas as grain export policy and maintaining the size of the domestic livestock herd, responses which the author argues are conditioned by the drive for food security, a concept that has dominated the political discourse in tandem with resurgent economic nationalism during the post-Soviet period.     

The Historical Geographies of Showing Livestock: a Case Study of the Perth Royal Show,Western Australia

This paper examines changes in the entries of livestock to competitions at the Perth Royal Show in the course of the twentieth century. It identifies trends in the showing of animals at the Show and explains these with reference to the wider geographies of state and national agricultural change in Western Australia (WA). In doing so, it provides a longitudinal perspective on the socioeconomic contexts of farming in WA and identifies some of the key cultural and economic drivers that have influenced livestock farming in that locality. In turn, these findings contribute to wider understandings of the global countryside and of the imagined ruralities that exist within and beyond the spaces of showgrounds.     

Food Rituals and Their Social Significance in the Mid‐Second Millennium BC in the Southern Levant: A View From Megiddo

Ceremonies involving intentional burial of animals with humans are acknowledged to bear religious, social and political connotations, and we explored both the ritual activity and the social trajectory of these activities. To date, these ceremonies have rarely been examined within the context of nearby daily activities. We studied faunal remains associated with intramural burials in comparison with contemporaneous daily life in the midsecond millennium bc at Tel Megiddo, as well as comparison with concomitant extramural burials and locations of public feasts. Our study highlights the human interaction with animals that are not often treated as bearing social meaning or having interrelationships with human, the livestock animals. We demonstrate that livestock animals in the second millennium bc had a significant social role as well as economic value. The choice of animals consumed and sacrificed in these rituals is strongly related to the animal's symbolic potency and is based on the desired social message that the population aims to convey. Finally, the form of luxury food that is found in the Megiddo funerary rituals supports the hypothesis regarding the intramural burials' role in creating and enhancing social family bonds. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

南越国宫署土遗址防风化加固材料的效果比较

南越国宫署遗址为大型土遗址类型,1996年11月国务院公布为全国重点文物保护单位,由于挖掘时间较长,遗址场地条件有限,已经出现了不同程度的风化、粉化、开裂、局部坍塌等严重病害。为此本课题组经过前期分析测试研究,采用有机硅改性丙烯酸、PS材料、有机硅改性硅酸盐、硅酸酯类和无机-有机复合材料等几种常用土遗址防风化加固材料,对南越国宫署土遗址样块进行了加固效果对比测试,研究了加固前后土样各种性能的变化情况。研究发现:硅酸酯类和无机-有机复合材料加固土体具有很好的耐水性,耐盐破坏能力,抗压强度也有提高,并且不影响土体的外观和透气性;PS材料加固土体后透气性和渗透性虽好,但耐水性能较差,加固强度低,而且容易泛白;有机硅改性丙烯酸和有机硅改性硅酸盐材料加固后土样强度适中,但透气性、耐盐性和耐水性较差。可以看出硅酸酯类和无机-有机复合材料加固南越国宫署土样的效果较好,建议可进入现场试验评估阶段。     

The identification of the medieval church of St Sabas in Jerusalem in the light of new documentary evidence

ABSTRACT

For over a century the church that the Greek monks of Dayr Mar Saba are known to have possessed inside the walls of Jerusalem in the twelfth century has usually been associated with a chapel surviving inside the Disy family house opposite the police barracks south of the Citadel, while the Zāwiyyat al-Shaykh Ya?qūb (Ya?qūbiyya), on the east side of Christ Church, has been identified as having originally been built in the twelfth century, possibly by Monophysites, as a church dedicated to St James the Persian, or the ‘Cut-up’ (Intercisus). New documentary research, however, now makes it appear more likely that Mujīr al-Dīn was correct in attributing the building of the Ya?qūbiyya to the Greeks and that it was also the church referred to by pilgrims in the twelfth century as that of St Sabas. This means that the identity of the church in Dār Disy, if indeed it was a church, remains to be determined.     

明代宁夏畜牧业的经营类型与地域分布

明代宁夏的畜牧业, 从经营方式上可分为官办监苑畜牧业、军卫畜牧业、藩王畜牧业、民间畜牧业 4种。军卫畜牧业和民间畜牧业在宁夏南、北皆有分布, 而官办监苑畜牧业和藩王畜牧业主要分布在宁夏南部, 且呈犬牙交错的状态。宁夏镇的畜牧业是以军事卫所畜牧业为主, 民间畜牧业为辅。而宁夏南部的畜牧业, 在明前期是以藩王畜牧业和官办监苑畜牧业为主, 民间畜牧业为辅; 至明后期, 则以藩王畜牧业为主, 民间畜牧业部分替代了官办监苑畜牧业的位置。