‘Spreading grace’ in post‐Soviet Russia (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The article addresses the revival of Russian Orthodoxy as a prominent domain in the lives of many Russians. The six authors are interested in the underlying question: What makes Russian Orthodoxy a relevent and modern source of morality and identity? The circumstances of this branch of Christianity significantly differ from what has been discussed in recent years as ‘the anthropology of Christianity’. The article proposes a thematic approach in order to connect the exploration of Russian Orthodoxy to the study of other denominations. A key‐area is the disctinctive articulation between continuity and change, which is crucial to the understanding of some branches of Protestantism as well.     

Age and the palaeoenvironment of the West Ukrainian palaeolithic: the case of Velykyi Glybochok multi-cultural site

The Velykyi Glybochok Palaeolithic site near Ternopil town (Podolia Upland) contains a set of cultural layers in a sequence of loess and fossil soils. Beside the archaeological study of stone assemblages, the profile was investigated using lithological, palaeopedological and geochemical methods, including stable carbon and oxygen isotopes composition of pedogenic carbonates, soils micromorphology and TL dating. Remnants of vertebrates' bones and mollusc shells were also distinguished. The oldest cultural layer III documented the presence of Palaeolithic people during the Penultimate Interglacial represented by fossil soil – cambisol in type, developed under dense vegetation cover. The cultural layer III B is connected with initial cambisol originated in a short period of open landscape vegetation with shrubs development, dated to the climatic amelioration during the time of Penultimate Glaciation. The Last Interglacial is represented by luvisol formation with two stages of illuviation, which shows forest type of vegetation. Materials of the cultural layer III A were dispersed in the soil irregularly and mixed with artifacts of cultural layer II. Artifacts of III, III A and III B cultural layers represent the Middle Palaeolithic “Dniesterian Mousterian culture with Levalloisian technique”. These of assemblage II represent the Upper Palaeolithic. Inside the recent soil at the top of the sequence, the Mesolithic cultural layer I is present. Velykyi Glybochok is the only multilayer site in Podolia with detailed information about geological position of particular cultural layers.     

COULD YOU TAKE A PICTURE OF MY BOAT,PLEASE? THE USE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITERRANEAN SHIP REPRESENTATIONS

Representations of ships, sailors and seafarers are common in many ancient societies. They were carved, drawn or painted on a great variety of raw materials – stone, wood, metal, textiles and pottery – and can be found in settings such as caves, tombs or royal palaces. Their presence at these sites raises the possibility that these images of maritime life have symbolic or ritual connotations. This paper presents examples of representations of Phoenician and Punic ships from the first millennium BC, in an attempt to understand the role of both their creators and their audiences. These images are subsequently analysed in more detail, focusing on their technical features and their historical contexts. This paper concludes with a consideration of the social and religious aspects of ancient Mediterranean navigation.     

Communicative and participatory paradigm in the European territorial policies. A discourse analysis

Communicative planning has been widely criticized for having little to do with the official legal procedures and for low-quality spatial solutions. It has also been blamed to be an empty concept, referring to an action that in itself has no content. This critique gives ground to the question: what is actually the role of the communicative and participatory paradigm in contemporary territorial policies? In this paper, we adopt discourse analysis methods to study the European documents on spatial planning in their three characteristic strands: smart city, integrated planning and multilevel governance. By extracting eight core principles (governance, sustainability, communication, participation, resilience, innovation, cooperation and coordination), we measure the importance of the communicative and participatory paradigm in the current planning discourse in Europe. We find that despite critique it remains one of the fundamental building-blocks of the European territorial policy. Communicative planning principles are visibly present in all the analysed strands of spatial planning in Europe.     

The results of thermoluminescence dating in the Halych IIC (Ukraine) profile as the expression of the conditions of mineral material deposition

Many studies conducted in the last few years in Poland indicate that the results of thermoluminescence dating of loess are reliable and correspond well to their geological ages. They can form the basis for determination of the chronology of changes of palaeoenvironmental conditions. In this paper we report dating results from the Halych IIC profile (Halych Prydnistrov’ja region, Ukraine). Thermoluminescence dating of this profile gives new information about the influence of local conditions on the results of TL analysis. As much as 75% of the obtained results are distinctly overestimated, even by several hundred per cent, that is untypical of regional loess profiles. However, in the Halych Prydnistrov’ja region it is the second loess site in which such incompatibility of the expected age and thermoluminescence age is found. This fact indicates how this region is unique among the loess areas of SE Poland and NW Ukraine in respect of the conditions of mineral material transport and deposition. Further investigations are necessary to identify the reasons for regular overestimating of the TL results obtained for loess deposits of the Halych Prydnistrov’ja region.     

Experimental Studies on Buried Barrel Vaults

The paper concerns an interaction problem between soil and masonry vaults in historic buildings. A particular emphasis was placed on the influence of finishing method of vaults extrados and fill material properties on the behavior of masonry vaults. The results of experimental studies on barrel vaults with and without backfill are presented. During the experiments three finishing methods of vaults extrados and three fill materials were investigated. The results of the experiments show that the presence of backfill and type of vaults extrados finish affect the behavior and load-carrying capacity of tested elements. Moreover, tests were performed on vaults without fill for comparative purposes. The comparison of experimental results obtained for specimens with and without fill shows that the presence of backfill in vault haunches modifies the failure mechanism and increases load capacity of the analysed models. The presented results confirm the importance of backfill as a structural element of vaulted structures.     

From Formal to Semi-formal and Informal Communication in Urban Planning. Insights from Polish Municipalities

Abstract

The communicative turn within planning theory results in a high diversity of planning forms, adapted to particular spatial and social contexts. The degree of their embedment in the official planning law is varied, therefore a precise definition of what is “formal”, “semi-formal” or “informal” may be a difficult task. Nevertheless, such attempts need to be made if we want to achieve a general conceptual and normative order in planning theory. In this study, 18 Polish municipalities experiencing a relatively fast growth in urban planning in recent years were examined. The analysis of the emerging new forms of public communication gave the following results: all the information produced within the planning process is perceived as public, though not all is publicly available; formal planning procedures are usually extended by the multiplication of statutory communication channels; the list of actors taking part in planning is dominated by landlords, developers and entrepreneurs, which affects plan formulation with an overbalance of economic factors. A general conclusion is that we may be witnessing a gradual shift from the traditional, hierarchical mentality in Polish planning towards a more communicative model.     

Problems of TL dating of the Mesopleistocene loess deposits in the Podillya and Pokuttya regions (Ukraine)

In many papers different authors was described problem of systematic underestimation of TL ages for sediments older then 100 ka. We presented the results which probably are not significantly rejuvenated. This is another example of the TL dates made in Lublin laboratory which are likely in agreement with the stratigraphic interpretation. In 2002 Kusiak et al. published the TL ages ranging from 200 to 800 ka for the Zahvizdja loess profile in Ukraine. These first promising results of TL dating of so old deposits encouraged us to undertake further studies. In next years were discovered other Ukrainian loess profiles with the Middle and Lower Pleistocene deposits, among others in the Skala Podils’ka, Mamalyha and Vendychany sites. The thermoluminescence dating made for these profiles in the Lublin laboratory gave the next, after Zahvizdja, series of 15 TL ages ranging from 200 to 700 ka. This way we confirmed the possibility of TL dating of the deposits older than 400 ka BP.