Raw Material Availability and Technological Choice: Modified Metapodia from an Early Bronze Age Site in Central Israel

This paper explores the incongruous relationship between bone raw material availability and technological choice at the Early Bronze Age site of Horvat 'Illin Tahtit (HIT) in central Israel. At HIT, the worked bone assemblage is mostly comprised of minimally modified sheep and goat metapodia whose function(s) are enigmatic. Most specimens have longitudinally oriented scraping abrasions on at least one face, and of these, some have bilaterally symmetrical drilled perforations on the distal–posterior face. Furthermore, the distal epiphyseal plates of almost all worked metapodia are unfused, whereas unfused epiphyses are nearly absent from the general faunal assemblage. Worked goat metacarpals are significantly more common than sheep metacarpals or metatarsals of either species, despite the greater abundance of sheep over goat in the general faunal assemblage. This paper proposes that the desire to express specific visible attributes of the bone raw material was the key motivation in choosing unfused goat metacarpals over similar, more abundant choices. The analysis considers material properties such as bone mineral density and natural morphology and concludes that material properties between various choices were equivocal. This result suggests that social meanings attributed to specific animals and specific skeletal elements structured bone raw material procurement decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

潮湿环境下土遗址加固保护材料筛选研究——以福建昙石山遗址为例

长期以来,由于土遗址保存环境的复杂性和特殊性,潮湿环境下的土遗址保护一直是困扰我国文物保护和考古界的难点,至今尚没有成熟的规范可以参考.福建省昙石山遗址作为我国东南沿海地区典型潮湿环境下的土遗址,近年来在遗址加固保护过程中,通过大量室内和现场试验,在适用材料的筛选研究等方面取得了一定经验和成效,是对我国潮湿环境下土遗址保护工作的一次有益尝试和探索.     

Fragments of the Modern City: Material Culture and the Rhythms of Everyday Life in Victorian London

This essay analyses the influence of Charles Baudelaire's and Théophile Gautier's fetishist poetics on the early works of Algernon Charles Swinburne. If the crucial role played by the Victorian poet as a cultural ‘passeur’ between France and England has often been highlighted in recent criticism, his aesthetic delight in certain forms of sexual deviance such as podophilia has rarely been explored in relation to the verse of his French mentors. Swinburne, Gautier, and Baudelaire may have indeed shared this erotic fascination with feet: this is a fascination that was partly grounded in these poets' common interest in antique literary models, in particular in Sappho's poetry. Rather than extolling the Hellenic ‘sweetness and light’ which some of his contemporaries set so high, Swinburne indulged in dangerously eroticised Dionysian aesthetics which were perceived as both ‘too Hellenic’ and ‘too French’. I argue that the fetishism of the poetic foot may be read as one of the keys to the Victorian poet's subversive shift away from the serenity often associated with Victorian neoclassicism in favour of a Dionysian energy that anticipates Friedrich Nietzsche's works.     

The ethnic versus the economic frontiers of Poland

The soil which has developed at any given location is considered to be the result of five interacting factors: parent material, time, climate, topography and biotic factors. This paper discusses the role of these factors in the development of Scottish soils, which fall into three broad categories: leached soils, gley soils and organic soils. The intention is to provide a context for the case studies that follow in later papers.     

Global standards and deficit childhoods: the contested meaning of children's participation

In recent years a discursive voice-based form of children's participation has become a global standard. This has rendered more material children's practices particularly in less-affluent regions as deviant forms of participation. Drawing on the case of child labour, I critically examine the dominance of a discursive model of participation in terms of international policy statements. I argue for a more inclusive notion of children's participation incorporating children's economic as well as discursive contributions within their families, communities and schools. At the same time a more nuanced view potentially shifts the policy focus towards the legitimation of child labour rather than its condemnation.     

关于清代的苏钟

“苏钟”是清代苏州所制钟表的简称,一般认为,苏州地区钟表制造的起源甚早.水平很高。但以往对苏钟的研究推测演绎成份居多,影响了我们对苏钟乃至中国钟表史的整体认识。本文即在前人研究之基础上,从文献和实物等方面对苏钟历史进行重新考察,从而获得对苏钟历史较为客观的描述,纠正了以往研究者对苏钟认识的偏颇之处。     

Report on Finds from the Saint-Quay-Portrieux Wreck, France

In 1987, some divers discovered the cargo of a merchant ship which was wrecked off the rocks of the Saint-Quay Islands in Brittany. Several expeditions were conducted by the discoverer, DRASSM and the Art and History Museum of Saint-Brieuc on the site between 1987 and 2003 but the wreck remains unidentified. The ship is believed to have traded with Africa in the first part of the 18th century. Though no remains of the ship's structure were found, the artefacts recovered, including trading goods, ship's equipment, and domestic utensils, allow comparisons to be made with other contemporary materials.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

说《旧唐书》的“比事”

《旧唐书》纪、传部分在“比事”方面下了很大工夫,用比较隐晦的方式对一些事关重大的唐代史事及人物进行贬斥,体现出了纂修者在书中贯彻“春秋笔法”的意图。最为典型的例子,一为效仿沈约《宋书·二凶传》的数字记日方式;二是上承班固《汉书·高后纪》及《王莽传》的成例,于《则天皇后纪》中记事非常简约。研究这一现象对更加深入地理解我国古代历史编纂思想有一定的帮助作用。     

中国明代木质古建西安鼓楼彩绘的分析研究

鉴于有关中国木质古建彩绘材料及技术的研究报道较少,本工作通过光学显微镜、扫描电镜能谱(SEMEDX)、X射线衍射及气相色谱质谱(GC/MS)分析方法,对建于公元1380年的中国西安明代鼓楼木建表面彩绘样品进行了科学检测研究,分析了其中的无机材料组成及彩绘所用粘合剂,并收集了所涉及到的相关历史资料。分析结果表明,木建表面彩绘的材料组成和制作技术与历史调查获得的信息完全吻合。地仗层主要由粘土、石灰、干性油(桐油)及纤维织物组成,且地仗层保持最初的原材料。颜料分析结果显示,尽管修复时所使用的粘合剂与最初建造时的粘合剂完全相同,但目前彩绘的颜料即有原来使用的材料,也有十八世纪修复时所使用的材料。     

潮湿环境考古发掘现场挥发性固型材料的比较研究

在考古发掘现场,要将极脆弱的文物安全提取并搬迁到实验室具有一定难度,首先必须对文物进行临时加固,然后才能搬迁。近几年来,一类革命性的挥发性临时固型材料已被成功应用于发掘现场文物的提取,例如薄荷醇、环十二烷等。但是,这些材料是否能用于潮湿的考古发掘现场?它们的工作性能如何?这些问题都需要研究。为此,本研究选用薄荷醇、香豆素、乙基麦芽酚三种天然香料和环十二烷作为研究对象,从材料的工作性能、施工工艺和对文物的安全性三方面进行了定量测定,并在浙江省文物考古研究所良渚工作站进行了现场小实验。研究结果可以为考古或保护工作者在潮湿发掘现场提取脆弱文物时选择合适的临时固型材料提供参考。