Churchill's Cold War: The Search for a Summit Meeting

Klaus Larres , Churchill's Cold War: The Politics of Personal Diplomacy . Yale University Press : New Haven and London , 2002 . 608 pp. $ .     

NEUTRON TOMOGRAPHY AS A VALUABLE TOOL FOR THE NON‐DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL BRONZE SCULPTURES

This paper explains, with the example of a Roman object (the ‘Mars from Oberweningen’, Switzerland), why neutrons can be used preferentially for the non‐destructive analysis of metallic objects of relatively large size. This method is superior to the conventional X‐ray tomography method due to the higher penetration ability in metals such as copper, tin and even lead. With this method, differing materials can also easily be differentiated. In this way, the inner and outer structures of objects can be observed with the help of tools based on mathematical algorithms. Slices at arbitrary positions and segmentation of different material clusters aid the understanding of manufacturing processes and can describe the present preservation status. This helps in selecting optimal and additional conservation measures in museums for further preservation. Beside the qualitative overview on structure and inner properties of the objects, quantitative information can be derived about material content and composition. This method and the subsequently needed facilities for this method are available at PSI for similar studies on demand.     

Down and Out in Leiden and London: The Later Careers of Venceslaus Clemens (1589–1637), and Jan Sictor (1593–1652), Bohemian Exiles and Failing Poets

This paper addresses the later careers of two almost entirely forgotten Bohemian Neo-Latin poets, Venceslaus Clemens (1589-1637), and Jan Sictor (1593-1652). These men were among the many Protestant academics displaced by the Thirty Years War, but unlike some of their better-known contemporaries, Clemens and Sictor were abject failures. Nevertheless, their failure illustrates the miserable lot of the displaced continental academic in the period, unable to adapt fully to new and challenging circumstances. This aspect of the literary and intellectual impact of the Thirty Years War has been understandably underplayed, but stories of failure are nevertheless instructive and indeed essential for a balanced picture of the intellectual impact of war. This study employs archival and bibliographical evidence to reconstruct the biographies and fortunes of these two men as they tried their luck, with very limited success, in the Low Countries and England in the 1630s.     

AN UPPER PALAEOLITHIC FLINT AND CHERT ASSEMBLAGE FROM HOWBURN FARM,SOUTH LANARKSHIRE,SCOTLAND: FIRST RESULTS

This paper describes the discovery of the first open‐air Upper Palaeolithic site to be found in Scotland, at Howburn, near Biggar in South Lanarkshire. An account is given of the composition and distribution of the lithic assemblage, which is discussed in terms of its British and north‐west European context. Provisional parallels drawn are with the Late Hamburgian (Havelte) sites and assemblages of southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Netherlands. There is no absolute dating evidence for the site, but an age in the region of 12,000 ¹⁴C yr BP, towards the end of the earlier (Bølling) Lateglacial Interstadial stage, is proposed on the basis of the lithic artefacts.