John Marshall Harlan's Political Memoir

Near the end of his life, John Marshall Harlan wrote a number of biographical essays, presumably at the request of his children. Most of the essays relate to his experiences in the Civil War. The essay reprinted here instead recounts Harlan's political career before he joined the Supreme Court. Although he rarely won any elections and only held a couple of offices, Harlan's political odyssey is significant in that it shows how his social views were formed. Harlan's transformation from a staunch anti‐abolitionist to a civil‐rights advocate can be viewed as a series of reactions against various opponents as he struggled to find his political identity after the collapse of the Whig party in the 1850s.     

Rationality and Decision-making in Australian Federal Government

The predominant view is that decision-making in Australian government is based on politics rather than rationality. This paper argues that while decisionmaking continues to exemplify incremental analysis, it does not for the most part exemplify incremental politics, that is, acts of negotiation, compromise and bargaining or 'partisan mutual adjustment'. This is the case for three reasons: decision-making conforms to models of rationality; the technical nature of most policy issues is amendable to rationality; and relationships between departments have grown more consensual since the 1970s.     

CONSTRUCTION OF THE KHOJA ZAYNUDDIN MOSQUE: USE OF ANIMAL GLUE MODIFIED WITH URINE*

As part of an ongoing project at the World Heritage Site of Bukhara, we investigated the glue used in the construction of the Khoja Zaynuddin mosque. Analysis by a range of techniques confirmed that it consisted of a collagen‐based glue. However, the glue contained many non‐protein constituents. The presence of lipid material suggests that the glue was produced by a relatively unsophisticated process. More surprisingly, various marker compounds of urine were found. Study of the viscosity of a mixture of a modern collagen‐based glue and urea showed that the presence of urea at a concentration typical of human urine reduced the viscosity of the glue, thus improving its spreading characteristics and enabling its use at a lower temperature. Whilst the advantages of adding urea to glue were known to craftsmen in Europe and America in the 19th century, it would appear that the builders of Bukhara were aware of the technique, using less pure components, at a significantly earlier date.     

RADIOCARBON MEASUREMENTS ON A FLOATING TREE-RING CHRONOLOGY FROM NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND

Radiocarbon measurements have been performed on a 250 year ‘floating’ tree-ring section recovered from an archaeological site in north-east Scotland. Short term fluctuations in atmospheric concentration appear to be superimposed on a general trend of decreasing ambient ¹⁴Cparallel with tree growth. The most significant finding is the range of dates obtained from the sequence, namely 400 years, since it implies that the error on a single radiocarbon date is considerably greater than at present accepted on the basis of analytical precision alone.     

A Powerful Place of Pictland: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Power Centre of the 4th to 6th Centuries ad

OUR UNDERSTANDING of the nature of late and post-Roman central places of northern Britain has been hindered by the lack of historical sources and the limited scale of archaeological investigation. New work at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (NJ 49749 26345), has begun to redress this through extensive excavation and landscape survey. This has revealed a Pictish central place of the 4th to 6th centuries ad that has European connections through material culture, iconography and site character. In addition to reviewing the place-name and historical context, this article outlines preliminary reflections on five seasons of excavation and survey in the Rhynie landscape. The article also provides a detailed consideration of chronology, including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical analysis. The results reveal the multi-faceted nature of a major, non-hillfort elite complex of Pictland that comprised a high-status residence with cult dimensions, a major centre for production and exchange, and a contemporary cemetery. A series of sculptured stones stood in association with the settlement and cemetery and the iconography of the stones, along with the wider archaeological evidence, provides a rich dataset for a renewed consideration of the central places of early medieval northern Britain with broader implications for the nature of power and rulership in late and post-Roman Europe.     

TORCS IN EARLY HISTORIC SCOTLAND

Summary Torcs are a prominent element in the Gododdin poem from Early Historic Scotland. This is intriguing as the archaeological evidence for torcs is much earlier. Examination of references to torcs in the poem shows that they were important status symbols worn by the entire war band. Archaeological evidence shows that gold torcs were worn in this area during the Iron Age, and in the early Roman period torcs occur on both native and Roman military sites. Some examples on Roman sites seem to be linked to the ala Petriana, an elite cavalry unit. As the poem is concerned with another elite cavalry group whose ancestors interacted with the ala Petriana the poetic prominence of torcs was probably influenced by this. Sculptural and hoard evidence confirms the use of torcs in Early Historic Scotland and reinforces both the idea of Roman influence and the link with cavalry.