Nature and significance of the Howiesons Poort to post-Howiesons Poort transition at Klein Kliphuis rockshelter,South Africa

This paper considers the transition from Howiesons Poort to post-Howiesons Poort technologies at the rock shelter site of Klein Kliphuis, South Africa. The transition at this site is shown to be gradual, with incremental changes in material selection and in the size and shapes of flakes and cores. Implements which appear to blend characteristics of those distinctive of the earlier and later industries appear briefly at the mid-point of the transition. The results suggest that there is unlikely to have been an occupational hiatus between the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort. Explanations for the Howiesons Poort phrased in terms of population expansion and contraction are also difficult to support. Technological changes at this time may relate to environmental variation, though the limited nature of terrestrial archives documenting changes in resource productivity necessitate that any such suggestion be made with caution.     

试析中法战争中李鸿章态度转变始末

文章论述了中法战争前后战事主要参与者李鸿章对于战争态度的转变过程。从主观和客观两个方面分析了李鸿章“和战不决”的影响因素。笔者认为,李鸿章在中法战争中只是一个参与者,他的很多决策是直接受制于清政府中枢机构或者受到他们极大的影响,战争过程中所表现的犹豫和举棋不定是清政府和战态度以及战争形势变化的综合结果。     

五帝时代(距今6-4千年)中国的气候

历史学研究表明,古代文献如《史记》记载的五帝:黄帝、颛顼、帝喾、唐尧、虞舜,可能应该视为一个时代,而不局限于五个人。获得较多支持的观点是:这个时代约在6-4kaBP,而且也不限于华夏集团,至少还包括东夷集团、苗蛮集团等。因此,从地望上讲,也不限于中原地区,还包括东部沿海及长江中游。考古学研究表明,6-4kaBP正是新石器时代晚期,后期可称为铜石并用时代。从考古文化来看,中原地区为仰韶文化中、晚期到龙山文化。东部地区为大汶口文化及(山东)龙山文化。其中在3500BC是仰韶文化中、晚期的交界,以及大汶口文化早、中期的交界。环境考古研究表明,6-4kaBP是一个由湿润气候向干旱气候转变的过渡时期。特别6.0-5.6kaBP有湿润气候的证据。4kaBP前后则明显进入晚全新世的干旱期,在此期间还包括5.5kaBP和4.2-4.0kaBP两次气候突变。现代气候资料及模拟研究表明,由早、中全新世的湿润气候向晚全新世的干旱气候转变的主要原因为岁差变化。但是,5.5kaBP及4.2-4.0kaBP的两次冷干气候突变,则可能与热盐环流的突然减弱有关,而热盐环流减弱可能是太阳活动减弱的结果。     

The state of climate change adaptation in Canada's protected areas sector

L’adaptation aux changements climatiques dans les réseaux d’aires protégées du Canada : état des lieux La Commission mondiale des aires protégées a récemment laissé entendre que les actions en faveur de la conservation sont vouées à l’échec, à moins que ces dernières tiennent compte des changements climatiques. Pour ce faire, les organismes chargés des aires protégées doivent dès maintenant s’assurer de l’intégration des changements climatiques dans les politiques, les cadres de planification et les modes de gestion. Le présent article rend compte des résultats d’une enquête réalisée conjointement par l’Université de Waterloo et le Conseil canadien des aires écologiques. Celle‐ci vise à dresser un état des lieux sur l’adaptation aux changements climatiques dans tout le réseau d’aires protégées du Canada qui relève du palier fédéral, provincial ou territorial. Il se dégage de l’analyse plusieurs constats importants. Tout d’abord, sur l’ensemble des organismes chargés des aires protégées que nous avons interrogés, les trois quarts ont déclaré que les changements climatiques ont déjà des effets visibles sur leur réseau d’aires protégées. Ensuite, 94 pour cent des participants à l’enquête estiment qu’au cours des vingt‐cinq prochaines années, l’enjeu des changements climatiques sera au c?ur de la politique et de la planification des aires protégées. Finalement, malgré la perception voulant que les changements climatiques exercent une pression croissante, la portée des mesures politiques, de planification, de gestion ou de recherche mises de l’avant par la plupart des organismes jusqu’à maintenant demeure limitée. Si 91 pour cent des organismes indiquent ne pas disposer des capacités nécessaires en ce moment pour réagir de façon optimale aux changements climatiques, l’enquête a permis de mettre en évidence un écart significatif entre la perception de la gravité des changements climatiques et la capacité des organismes chargés des aires protégées de s’adapter. La faiblesse du financement, une capacité d’action limitée, et un manque de compréhension des changements climatiques et de leurs répercussions réelles ou potentielles comptent parmi les difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les organismes canadiens chargés des aires protégées. Il est impératif de les surmonter afin que ces organismes puissent exercer leurs mandats et être en mesure d’assumer leurs responsabilités concernant la protection et la biodiversité des aires, par exemple, la protection de l’intégrité du patrimoine naturel au Canada dans un contexte de changements climatiques accélérés.     

Vulnerability to Bushfire Risk at Melbourne's Urban Fringe: The Failure of Regulatory Land Use Planning

The 7 February 2009 bushfires in the peri‐urban region to the north of metropolitan Melbourne heralded what many have called an entirely new epoch in terms of weather‐related disasters in Australia. A total of 173 people and 2000 properties were destroyed and, as with the 1939 fires in Victoria, a Royal Commission was subsequently instituted to inquire into the causes and responses to the fire. The Royal Commission has heard much evidence about alleged failings of fire response, communication and administration. It also considered land use planning issues and the associated regulatory framework. Using the Shire of Murrindindi as a case study, this paper argues that the location of population growth, and associated regulatory failure, are contributory, yet under‐researched, factors associated with life and property losses. The adoption of more robust planning tools which incorporate climate change considerations, we argue, is essential to anticipate and minimise the impacts of disastrous natural events such as bushfires. In the latter part of the paper, attention is drawn to a recent Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision which is groundbreaking in its use of the precautionary principle to prevent dwelling construction in an ‘inappropriate’ location as well as to some major inconsistencies between planning for flood and bushfire threats.     

Green Allies: Speculative Realism,Evangelical Christianity,and Political Pluralism

This essay addresses the question of how to build political coalitions to address global warming. For speculative realists such as Levi Bryant, responding to climate change demands materialist ontologies that recognize the efficacy of things themselves, e.g. fossil fuels. And yet, I argue, Bryant does not sufficiently address the political assignment of building political coalitions with people who endorse different ontologies. To illuminate this possibility, I show how the American evangelical David Gushee arrives at similar conclusions by a different route. The essay encourages speculative realists to fold modesty into their political thinking for the sake of building coalitions with theists about matters of common concern.     

New challenges for old commons: The role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces

In Scotland, as elsewhere in Western Europe, many examples of historical common land have endured to the present day, but are under major pressure from the economic restructuring, socio-cultural recomposition and changing policy context that characterise contemporary rural change. For the crofting common grazings of Scotland, two particular challenges have arisen in the form of: (1) the growing difficulty of gaining sufficient livelihood contributions from traditional agriculturally-based activities; and (2) the increasing heterogeneity of rights-holders. This paper elaborates the findings of a recent survey, which sought to identify the main implications of these challenges for common grazings use and governance. An overall decline in levels of use of common grazings was identified, as well as decreasing involvement and investment in associated local institutions. This informs a discussion of the factors shaping the role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces, an area neglected in the common property literature.     

Multidisciplinary approaches to defining historic period coastal and fluvial changes at Dunglass Burn,South East Scotland

An exceptionally thick (>2.5 m) fluvial and colluvial valley fill is described from the coastal reach of the Dunglass Burn, draining the Lammermuir Hills in south east Scotland. Buried by the valley fill is a series of charcoal accumulations interpreted as beacons to guide fishing boats, and an assemblage of large mammal bones. Radiocarbon assays on charcoal associated with these elements show them to be of early Medieval age. The onset of this extraordinary fluvial and colluvial sediment aggradation is considered to have begun at c. 1100 AD, although causation cannot be closely defined. The relations between the valley fill and securely dated built structures (buildings, bridges), an approach very infrequently explored, allow the cessation of aggradation to be dated to before the mid‐16th century AD. After c. 1600 AD incision has occurred to the present. The development of this valley fill is likely to have extensively altered the configuration of the coastline in the Medieval and early modern periods. The analyses emphasise the large magnitude of very recent landscape changes.     

Ways In and Out of Vulnerability to Climate Change: Abandoning the Mubarak Project in the Northern Nile Delta,Egypt

Abstract: Climate change is already exerting significant pressure on humanity, but some people have the resources to cope, while others do not. What, then, determines vulnerability to climate change? This article presents a case study of one site of vulnerability in Egypt, known as the Mubarak Project villages on the shores of the Mediterranean. The soil of these villages is now undergoing rapid salinization, forcing farmers to apply sand to “elevate” their fields above the rising salty water table—but not all farmers can afford to buy the requisite sand. Accumulation by dispossession under the Mubarak regime has pushed some people towards the frontline of climate change, while at the same time denying them the resources to stay there. Using our case, we explore the connection between accumulation by dispossession and vulnerability to climate change and ask if an end to the former could reduce the latter in Egypt.     

From site formation to social structure in prehistoric Thailand

Abstract

The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation of early states in the mid-first millennium a.d. is built on excavations in mounded settlements that incorporate habitation, industrial, and mortuary remains. For most sites, formation processes are not readily identified. have presented a new view of the social organization of the Southeast Asian “metal age” based on a reinterpretation of mortuary and settlement data, founded on their premise that the dead were interred in, under, or in conjunction with domestic residences rather than dedicated cemeteries. They argue that such house societies were instruments for remarkably long-term occupation of individual settlements by heterarchic, non-violent supravillage affiliative social groupings. A detailed examination of the evidence for such residential burial suggests a lack of convincing evidence until the Iron Age. Moreover, new dating programs have shortened the prehistoric sequence, leading to more rapid and intense social changes than hitherto suspected.