Avorio d'ogni ragione: the supply of elephant ivory to northern Europe in the Gothic era

This article accounts for the hitherto unexplained increase in the availability of ivory in mid-thirteenth-century France through an alteration in the medieval trade routes that brought elephant tusks from Africa to northern Europe. A newly-opened passage through the Straits of Gibraltar allowed a small amount of luxury goods to be shipped together with bulk materials necessary to the flourishing textile industries of northern Europe.     

Nouvelles antiquités sudarabiques de la collection Moussaieff

This article contains the publication of eight South Arabian antiquities from the collection of Mr Sh. Moussaieff.     

略论河湟曲艺在青海民间的繁荣与发展

戏剧自元代以来,三起三落,每一次衰落的主要原因都是它从“俗”走向“雅”的过程中形成的“贵族”气息,致使戏剧脱离了趣味凡俗的大众。但在牡丹凋谢的时候,民间的苔花却在遍地开放。在青海民间,“此花落彼花开”的艺术规律也非常明显,秦腔大戏在青海退潮之后,河湟曲艺欣欣向荣。     

Computing geochemical mass transfer and water/rock ratios in submarine hydrothermal systems: implications for estimating the vigour of convection

A method of calculating chemical water/rock ratios is presented that enables the estimation of fluid velocities in open, flow‐through hydrologic systems. The approach is based on relating the gain/loss of a chemical species per kilogram of solid phase to the loss/gain of that species in the fluid phase, integrated across a specified length of the flowpath. After examining the underlying approximations of the approach using a one‐dimensional model of seawater moving through a basalt under nonisothermal conditions, the method is applied to representative zones within a two‐dimensional hydrothermal convective system. The method requires that regions within the flow system can be identified in which the direction of flow is steady for an extended period of time. Estimates of fluid velocity are spatial and temporal averages for the length of the flowpath used in the calculation. The location within the flow system and the nature of the alteration reactions determine which species can provide reliable values of the chemical water/rock ratio and useful estimates of fluid velocities. Over the length of the flowpath considered, the calculation of water/rock ratios works best when a species is controlled by a single reaction. Accurate estimates are favoured if the concentration profile of a species along the flowpath increases or decreases monotonically. If the length of the flowpath extends over more than one reaction zone, then erroneous estimates of the water/rock ratio and fluid velocity are more likely. Model calculations suggest that the quartz/silica system should provide reliable estimates for fluid velocity under a wide range of temperature and flow conditions, in particular in those regions of a system at or near quartz equilibrium, so that the aqueous silica concentration is buffered by quartz and correlated with the temperature distribution.     

珠海宝镜湾岩画年代的界定

珠海宝镜湾岩画年代从其刻凿内容、刻凿手法以及户外摩崖的选择与遗址出土玉石、陶器等形态的比较中,推论距今约4200年～4500年之间。     

明末清初江南艺术市场与艺术交易人

明末清初,江南地区商业经济的繁荣,催生出艺术市场的繁荣,徽商收藏家和书画交易人的活动空前活跃。一时间,苏州、嘉兴、杭州等地成为江南地区艺术品集散的重要地区。尤其徽州地区,由于经济实力的增长,至明末及清初形成了较为成熟的艺术市场。艺术市场的繁盛,自然催生出了一批徽商收藏家,也由此诞生了一批书画交易人。江南地区的有些书画交易人同时也是北方鉴藏家的眼目,这样也使得南北艺术品交流逐渐频繁起来。     

Valuing the Arts: Theorising and Realising Cultural Capital in an Australian City

For those who make and admire artistic works, there is no question of their value. However, for others interested in economic development, the value of the arts is often more tangential, contested and questionable. While the post‐modern world of consumption and spectacle suggests to some academics and governments that the arts and cultural industries are the way of the future, others remain sceptical about their social and economic value. This is a theoretical as well as a practical issue this paper explores by offering a reconceptualisation of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital as a way of re‐assessing the value of the arts. The paper then applies this framework to quantify and qualify the value of the arts in one regional city in Australia – Geelong in Victoria – focusing on the work of two artists. The aim is to describe the interconnected processes by which the arts generate cultural capital in the form of confidence, image, individual well‐being, social cohesion and economic viability. The analysis also highlights the ongoing power relations which prescribe artistic production, circulation and valuation. The implications of such a rethinking and application go well beyond one city and region to other places grappling with the relationship between artistic production and urban well being. By focusing on the broad‐ranging process by which artistic value is created for individuals, groups, professionals, communities and governments, a model becomes available for other places to use in realising their cultural capital.     

From A Paleolithic Art to Pleistocene Visual Cultures (Introduction to two Special Issues on ‘Advances in the Study of Pleistocene Imagery and Symbol Use’)

This paper serves as an introduction to two special issues on advances in the method and theory of Pleistocene imagery and symbol use. In order to contextualize the contributions that comprise these two issues, this paper defines the temporal and geographic scope of Pleistocene imagery, outlines the contexts in which the images are found, briefly reviews the history of interpretation of the images and discusses some of the current trends and future directions of the field.     

Southern African San Rock Painting as Social Intervention: A Study of Rain-Control Images

Many aspects of southern African San rock art images can be understood in the light of nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnography. San beliefs about different kinds of rain-animals and the secrecy that attended rain-control rites informed different kinds of social relations between rain-controllers themselves and between them and other people. San communities were less egalitarian than is often supposed, though ongrounds that are commonly overlooked. These points are made in reference to a hitherto unknown painted site.De nombreux aspects de lart rupestre sud-africain peuvent être compris à la lumière de documents ethnographiques des dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles. La croyance des San en différentes sortes danimaux de pluie et le secret environnant les rites de contrôle de lapluie ont révélé plusieurs types de relations sociales entre les faiseurs de pluie eux-mêmes, ainsi quentreceux-ci et les autres personnes. Les communautés san étaient moins égalitaires quon le suppose souvent, bien que cela napparaisse que sur des bases généralement négligées. Ces points sont développés en référence à un site orné jusquà présent inconnu.