生计与风水:清代湘南地区的矿业开发与生态环境

湘南地区毗邻赣、粤、桂三省,地理位置特殊,是一个复杂的地理单元。及至清代,湘南地区已是湖南省乃至全国铜、铅、银等矿业生产的主要区域。长达数百年的矿产开采与冶炼,促进了地方社会的经济发展,也给当地的生态环境带来深远影响。由此,湘南官绅民各界对矿业开发引发的环境问题亦有因应,“坑冶十害论”和“九嶷山封禁案”即为其集中体现。开矿采砂本为解决贫民生计而采取的措施,但因破坏风水、污染水土等一系列影响环境的后果,以致出现开矿与禁矿之争,使得湘南地区矿业开发一度出现波折。这两例个案亦折射出在“重本抑末”的传统社会中地方官绅士民在生计与风水之间的离合关系。地方社会以保护风水为由严禁矿冶,在一定程度上遏止了生态环境的破坏与恶化,不过,其在环保方面发挥的作用也不宜被高估。     

历史时期塔里木盆地南缘交通线路变迁与环境的关系

通过对古遗址、古交通线路的多年考察以及沉积剖面分析,结合历史文献和考古资料,探讨了塔里木盆地南缘汉代以来在自然与人文环境影响下交通线路变迁的特点。历史上,在汉、唐两个最为兴盛的时期,气候湿润,国家统一,中央政府统辖西域军政事物。自然与人文环境有利于发展。塔里木盆地南缘各绿洲经济发达,社会稳定,交通往来频繁,线路稳定、通畅。在此两个时期之后的阶段,自然环境干燥少雨,中央政府衰败,难以顾及和控制西域,地方政权相互角逐争斗。绿洲受多种因素影响迁移、废弃或消失过程中,交通线路变迁快。空间上,东西向的交通线路在和田河与克里雅河之间向南移动了200km左右;克里雅河与车尔臣河之间向南移动了100km左右;和田河以西移动了10-50km;而车尔臣河以东变化不大。南北向的交通线路中,沿和田河的交通线路自古以来一直有人通行,而沿克里雅河的路古代也曾是连接盆地南北的主要通道。     

Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern africa: Marine shells and ostrich eggshell

The spatiotemporal distribution of seashells and ostrich eggshell in the Later Stone Age of southeastern southern Africa is used to infer several areas of social interaction. The inferred patterns are supported by comparisons with preferences for lithic raw materials and the distribution of bifacial stone arrows. Plusiers zones de l'interaction sociale sont déduites des distributions chronologiques et spatiales de la coquillage et de la coquille de'autruche de l'Age de la Pierre Récent au sud- est de l'Afrique australe. Ces distributions sont soutenues des préférences pour des matières premières lithiques et de la distribution des flèches bifaciales de la pierre. Provincial names and boundaries are as given on May 1, 1994     

Early iron age buffalo hunters on the Kadzi river, Zimbabwe

The faunal sample from Kadzi, an Early Iron Age site in the Zambezi Valley, is the first substantial sample for that period and region in Zimbabwe. The site appears to have been a permanent or semipermanent settlement. The sample consists mainly of bovid remains, dominated by buffalo as a single species, suggesting special hunting skills. The presence of some domestic animals proves that these animals were available to the inhabitants of the site. Their status in the community is, however, uncertain. Possible explanations for the small number of cattle fragments could be the result of paucity of livestock for environmental or other reasons, or may reflect differential disposal of cattle bones as part of ritual expression. Environmental conditions, particularly the possible presence of the tsetse fly, could also have been a factor in determining the distribution of livestock and herd sizes in the region. The faunal remains provide valuable insight into the subsistence strategies of the period. They also provide evidence about animals present in the region during the first millennium AD.

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Résumé  Des restes animaux provenant du Kadzi, un site de l’age du fer supérieur dans la vallée du Zambeze, fournissent pour la première fois des données pour cette période et cette région du Zimbabwe. Le site a été probablement occupée d’une manière permanente ou semipermanente. Les restes se composent principalement d’ossements bovins, dominés par le Buffle comme seule espèce, ce qui temoigne de techniques de chasse avancées. La présence (parmi les ossements) d’un certain nombre d’animaux domestiques indique qu’ils étaient disponibles pour les habitants du site, mais leur statut dans la communauté reste ambigu. Le nombre peu élève de fragments d’ossements de boeuf est peutêtre lié à la taille réduite du troupeau pour des raisons environnementales ou autres ou bien résulte de l’utilisation rituelle de certains ossements. Les conditions environnementales et plus particulièrement la présence probable de la mouche Tse Tse ont pu également être des facteurs determinant pour la repartition du boeuf dans la région et la taille du troupeau. Ces restes faunistiques fournissent ainsi des informations importantes aussi bien sur les stratégies de subsistance pour la période considérée que sur les animaux présents dans la région au cours du 1er millénaire AD.

     

The Levant Company under Attack in Parliament, 1720–53

Parliamentary debates concerning the British chartered companies in the 18th century are an important resource which can provide a range of insights into the fate of the companies, the concerns of British economic policy, and the process of political decision making on economic issues. Of all the parliamentary debates concerning chartered companies in the 18th century, those concerning the Levant Company have received the least scholarly attention. This article examines a series of debates involving the Levant Company during the period 1720–53. These debates saw the company increasingly put on the defensive. By the middle of the century, there was, in the words of the duke of Bedford, ‘a very great outcry against companies of all kinds’. However, the debates concerning the Levant Company did not turn on competing views regarding political economy. War was an influence on the timing of the debates, but it was the economic impact of the company's deteriorating competitive position on its woollen cloth suppliers from the west country which was crucial. As French competition gained momentum, cloth exports fell and the political pressure on the company intensified. In the face of this, the company was far from defenceless in parliament. It had influential supporters and did not hesitate to pander to fears about the potential domination of its trade by jewish merchants. The company was forced to lower its admission fee in 1753, but survived and continued to operate into the 19th century.     

Royal authority versus corporate sovereignty: the Levant Company and the ambiguities of early Stuart statecraft

The ambassadorship of Thomas Bendish (1646–1660) to the Ottoman Porte was a period of turmoil that saw the arrest and imprisonment of his predecessor, Sackville Crowe, and the arrest and subsequent beheading of a usurper, Henry Hyde. This crisis in Turkey coincided with the domestic crisis of the English Civil War, which plunged the English state into chaos. This article uses the Bendish/Crowe/Hyde affair to analyse the relationship between state and trading company in order to gain a deeper understanding of how the early modern economic and state-building system of mercantilism was made. The article will show that mercantilism was, in the words of Phil Stern, an “awkward alliance” where merchant and state required one another while remaining suspicious of the other’s motives and authority.     

土墩墓研究中的几个问题

"土墩墓"的研究是长江下游地区吴文化考古研究中的一项重要内容,是探讨吴国历史发展脉络的重要途径之一。随着考古发掘工作进展,有助于我们对"土墩墓"进行深入的研究。"土墩墓"研究中有些问题必须首先加以明确,才能确保研究走上正轨。文章从"土墩墓"的名称问题、"一墩一墓"与"一墩多墓"问题、"土墩墓"研究中的"分研究区"问题等等诸方面,对土墩墓这一特殊的遗迹现象进行了探讨,最后对"土墩墓"的一般特点进行了探索性的概括。     

Southwest and northwest: Recent research at the juncture of the United States and Mexico

Research within the last 3 to 5 years is summarized for the southern part of the southwestern United States and adjacent northwest Mexico. In an effort to identify important new sources of information, the literature of contract archaeology is cited, along with more widely available journal and book publications. Topics considered include Late Archaic farmers, early ceramic villages, subsistence and agricultural technology, settlement stability and residential mobility, community organization, and developments of the late prehistoric period sociopolitical complexity.     

Ohalo II man—unusual findings in the anterior rib cage and shoulder girdle of a 19000-year-old specimen

The analysis of the skeletal remains of Ohalo II man, aged 30–40 years at death and dated to 19 000 years BP, shows advanced and highly unusual ossification of the lower costosternal cartilage; the right humerus is morphologically larger and considerably more robust than the left; degenerative changes were noted unilaterally in the right glenohumeral, acromioclavicular and claviculosternal joints. There is a marked asymmetry of the atlas, axis and occipital condyles. The changes in the costochondral area of the lower anterior rib cage are considered to represent an infectious chronic osteomyelitic process. The marked discrepancy in size between the left and right shoulder girdles and humeri, and the evidence of degenerative disease exclusively on one side only may be the result of a traumatic brachial plexus nerve palsy. The asymmetrical atlas and axis are most probably anatomical variants that do not reflect clinical pathology.     

Bioarchaeological Analysis of Iron Age Human Skeletons from Zambia

The Ingombe Ilede and Isamu Pati Iron Age sites in Zambia provide 47 human burials for analyses. Our new study provides demographic information (sex and age), evidence of trauma, infectious diseases as well as physiological and mechanical indicators of stress. We found a high mortality rate for infants and children. Most of the sample (65%) lacked indications of stress or infectious diseases, but a few had cribra orbitalia, osteoarthritis, osteophytosis and various dental pathologies. These conditions are known to be caused by diet, food processing, nutritional intake and cultural systems. In addition, there were low levels of degenerative joint disease and no evidence of trauma. The stature and body mass estimates show that these Iron Age people were similar in size and shape compared with contemporary South Africans. These data indicate a relatively healthy population with a well‐balanced diet and low afflictions of infectious and parasitic diseases. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.