New Light on the Medieval Gough Map of Britain

Remarkably little is known about the earliest surviving separate-sheet medieval map of Britain that takes its name from its former owner, Richard Gough (1735–1809), and that has been variously dated to between 1300 and 1400, and later. It presents a sophisticated cartographical image at a time when detailed maps of individual regions were almost unknown in Europe, yet nothing is agreed about its possible origins, context (ecclesiastical or secular), or why and how it was compiled. In the belief that historical interpretation has to stem from an intimate knowledge of the map as artefact—the state of the parchment, nature of the inks, palaeography—as well as image, an informal study group of historians and scientists (the Gough Map Panel) was convened in 2012 to examine the map through high resolution digital reproduction, hyperspectral analysis, three-dimensional analysis and Raman pigment analysis. Although the study is still ongoing, much that is new has been discovered, notably about the way features were marked on the map, Gough’s application to the map of a damaging reagent to render place-names readable, and the extent to which the original map (now dated to c.1400), although never completed, was nonetheless reworked on two different occasions in the fifteenth century, effectively creating two further maps. These and other findings are summarized here to encourage the further study of the map’s features that is needed before it can be fully understood.     

干旱区流域下游绿洲环境变化及其成因分析——以甘肃省河西地区石羊河流域下游民勤县为例

本文主要根据社会调查结果资料分析了甘肃省河西地区石羊河流域下游民勤县的环境变化趋势及其成因,认为中国西部干旱区各流域下游几乎都存在环境恶化趋势。20世纪50年代以来,该地区地下水位迅速下降,沙漠化、土壤盐渍化、植被衰退过程加快,农业生产受到很大影响。造成环境变化的人文原因主要是全流域人口增长过快所引致的耕地扩张所造成的农业用水需求无节制的增长,导致中上游截留下游淡水资源,使得下游地下水利用规模逐年扩张引致地下水位快速下降和水质迅速恶化。后者又导致盐渍化过程加剧以及农业产量的急剧下降。农业产量下降又成为盲目开垦荒地的主导因素之一。这些都导致了植被衰退和破坏,共同造成了生态环境的灾难性突变。     

Testing micro-regional variability in the Holocene shaping of high mountain cultural landscapes: a palaeoenvironmental case-study in the eastern Pyrenees

Previous research acknowledges the ancient and complex land-use history of European mountainous areas, which are characterised by a remarkable regional variability in terms of human practices and patterns of occupation during the Holocene. However, the combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological study of highland human management at a micro-regional scale remains a largely unexplored research field, especially in the Pyrenees. A combined pollen, stomata, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and macrocharcoal study was carried out at three nearby alpine and subalpine peat basins from a relatively small territory (ca.1700 ha) at the Madriu valley (Andorra, eastern Pyrenees), following a fine spatial-resolution strategy. The purpose was to test the suitability of high altitudinal palaeoecological sequences when reconstructing past small-scale land-use variability. The palaeoecological results of those peat records are compared and further integrated with archaeological local data, and together underline the marked complexity of high mountain land-use system over the Holocene period. Main phases of micro-regional land-use and landscape variability can be distinguished from the middle Neolithic to the early Bronze Age and from the Roman Period to the Modern Era. Conversely, several phases of homogeneous landscape management are distinguishable during the early Neolithic, and from the late Bronze to the late Iron Age. Results drawn from this study show that landscape variability is not necessarily connected to topographic or climatic parameters, and underline the role of social, economical and cultural parameters in the land-use organisation and the landscape shaping of high mountain spaces since Prehistory.     

The National Sample from the 1851 Census of Great Britain an Interim Report on Methods and Progress

Abstract

In the last years, the use of geographical information systems has been common in many historical and geographical studies. Perhaps one of the least known applications is network analysis, a series of functions related to hydrology and mobility. Since 1994, researchers have used network analyses to understand costs and time expenditure in transportation in Roman times, with the aim of modeling commercial routes. Archaeological objects were employed to confirm those commercial distributions whose quantities were related basically to transport costs. The present articles go far beyond and attempt to understand decisions in building a transport network based on time series. It seems that not all Roman decisions in transport infrastructure were due to economic reasons; some parts of Roman roads were built basically for political reasons and affected later developments.     

近二十年来三国史与《三国志》研究现状的定量分析

近二十年来三国史与《三国志》研究取得了许多成绩．但目前还没有形成严格意义上的核心作者群,平均发文量还比较低,文摘率也普遍偏低。其主要原因是全力研究《三国志》的专家还非常少。研究水平的升降在很大程度上受到社会政治生活等非学术因素的影响。研究成果的分布极不均匀,缺少整体布局。今后的三国志研究任重道远,在史料整理和专题研究等方面还有许多工作要做。     

The composition of the soda-rich and mixed alkali plant ashes used in the production of glass

Soda-rich plant ashes have been used in the Near East and Egypt in the production of glass and faience from the 4th millennium BC onwards, and mixed alkali plant ashes have been similarly used in western Europe during the 2nd and first half of the 1st millennia BC. In the production of these ashes, the plants of interest are salt resistant, halophytic plants of the Chenopodiaceae family, growing in coastal, salt marsh and desert regions. A primary criterion in selecting ashes for glass and faience production is that the alkalis are predominantly in the form of carbonates, bicarbonates and hydroxides rather than either chlorides or sulphates. In the current paper, previously published data for such ashes are brought together and re-assessed, and new analytical data are presented for ashes produced from plants collected in Egypt, Greece and the UK. For the ashes produced from Salsola kali plants collected from Greece and the UK, the soda to potash ratios (0.3–1.8) do not show any systematic differences between the regions in which the plant was growing, but instead reflect the fact that this species favours the accumulation of K⁺ over Na⁺ ions. Further, the results suggest that S. kali could have been the source of the mixed alkali ashes used in western Europe, if the ashes had first been treated in some way in order to reduce their lime-plus-magnesia contents.     

Lead‐Glazed Rustiques Figulines (Rustic Ceramics) of Bernard Palissy (1510–90) and his Followers

The glaze chemistry of a group of rustiques figulines attributed to the renowned French potter Bernard Palissy (1510–90), or to his followers and imitators, has been determined non‐destructively using PIXE and PIGE analyses. The glazes are all lead silicates, the colourants being transition metal oxides—CuO, CoO, MnO and Fe₂O₃—with a small addition of SnO₂ to some of the glazes being common. Some distinction can be made between the various fabricated objects based on details of the overall composition and on the concentrations of the various colourants. The presence of B₂O₃ in any glaze, even in quantities as small as 0.1–0.3%, indicates a post‐16th century production. Additionally, B₂O₃ in larger quantities, a few per cent or greater, very probably indicates an 18th–19th century production. However, at least one object known to be of 19th century production contains no B₂O₃.     

The medieval iron market in Ariège (France). Multidisciplinary analytical approach and multivariate analyses

The medieval iron market in Ariège (French Pyrenees) is characterised by its complexity leading to many questions regarding the ore used in relation to the artefacts encountered in archaeological settings. Despite the conclusive study of the treaty that regulated iron vs. coal exchanges from the 14th to the 19th c. by Verna et al., many questions remain unanswered concerning provenance and circulation of ores and products. Based on a combination of trace elemental analysis and multivariate statistical methods (discriminant analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis), we propose to follow an elemental-based signature from ore to artefacts, suited to the direct iron process, to clarify provenance hypotheses. We define the chemical signature of the Ariège area and compare it to that of slag inclusions in artefacts uncovered in several main archaeological sites from the Ariège area but also outside of this region. The results from this study are consistent with prior knowledge from historical sources. In the Ariège region, results highlight the multiple origins of products encountered at Montréal-de-Sos, a site close to known trade routes, whereas the isolated Castel-Minier site primarily contained objects from local ores and most objects retrieved from the Mirabat castle (Couserans) are coming from outside Ariège, possibly an indirect consequence from the exchange treaty. The presence of pins made of Ariegean ores is also demonstrated in the far more distant Capestang collegiate (near Narbonne, outside Ariège). This opens the way to finer studies in the politico-economical control of the iron supply for the building of medieval monuments in Southern France.     

How Risk Perceptions Influence Evacuations from Hurricanes and Compliance with Government Directives

In this study we present evidence supporting the view that people's perceived risk of hurricane‐related hazards can be reduced to a single seriousness score that spans different hurricane‐induced risk types and that compliant behavior with official advisories is strongly dependent on whether one perceives a high risk with respect to any type of hurricane‐related hazards. Our analysis suggests that people are less sensitive to risk type than they are to the general seriousness of the risks. Using this single seriousness score, representing a composite risk measure, emergency managers can be informed about the severity of the public's risk perceptions to impending hurricane hazards and might better craft their public directives in ways that minimize disruptive evacuations and achieve greater compliance with government directives.