Two Approvals from the 1931 Athens Conference: Anastylosis and International Collaboration for Architectural Conservation: New Evidence

The Athens Conference was an international meeting on architectural conservation, organized by the International Museums Office, an institution that belonged to the League of Nations, in October 1931. The discovery of official documents, such as the minutes and statements of participants, clarifies discussions for all nine sessions. This study addresses approvals of the restoration measure, anastylosis, and the worldwide safeguard for historic monuments. Furthermore, it argues that the Athens Conference was the first global meeting in the twentieth century to frame modern conservation principals in terms of a role model for archaeological interventions and global aids for architectural protection.     

Combined pollen and macrofossil data as a source for reconstructing mosaic patterns of the early medieval urban habitats – a case study from Gdańsk,N. Poland

Plant macrofossils, pollen, fungal spores and other non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), were analyzed in three archaeological exposures established in a small area in the oldest part of the historic city of Gdańsk. One of the aims was to investigate how precisely the combined pollen and macrofossil data may reflect the diversity of local habitats within an urban archaeological site and to compare the range of information obtained using each of the methods separately. The other aim of the study was to reconstruct the environmental conditions in the earliest occupied area of the historic centre of Gdańsk. The repeatable composition and, in many points, consistency among pollen and macrofossil data in all three profiles strongly suggest that the apparently biased structure of these fossil remains in fact reflects a mosaic pattern of the vegetation in the area of the site. The combined pollen and macrofossil data enabled separation of local elements from those transported to the site by different means. The results show that already at the beginning of the 12th c., the area was almost totally deforested, but up to the mid-13th c. the settlement organization was still relatively loose, resembling a rather rural structure with well-developed ruderal plant communities and patches of semi-natural vegetation. At the coring area, strongly eutrophic riparian vegetation was bordering patches of dry grassland on a sandy holm. The large proportion of pollen of various entomophilous plants mostly from meadows and pastures is explained as a result of the presence of dung, as confirmed by the abundances of coprophilous fungal spores. The study indicates that parallel pollen and macrofossil analysis is essential for correct interpretation of fossil assemblages. Application of both methods enables broadening of the range of remains representing various organisms and obtaining more precise tools for environmental reconstruction and better understanding of the taphonomic processes at the archaeological site.     

甘肃古代羌语地名探讨

本文利用文献记载,通过实地考察,结合古老的羌族所遗留下来的语言、习俗、宗教信仰等,对甘肃境内诸多羌语地名进行了探讨。     

A Multidisciplinary Study of a Group of Post‐Classical Cameos from the National Museum in Krakow,Poland

A group of 18 cameos dated from the 16th to 19th centuries (bearing motifs of Roman emperors and female members of their families) from the Constantine Schmidt‐Ci??yński collection was investigated with gemmological analyses, supported by non‐destructive mineralogical methods such as X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and micro‐Raman spectroscopy (RS) to ascertain the material used. Although there is no scientific method to date the specimens precisely, the mineralogical data supported by archaeological analyses enabled the estimation of the possible timing of the manufacture of the gems. As a result, the cameos were divided into four basic chronological groups: (1) Renaissance, (2) Baroque, (3) uncertain and (4) Classical and Neoclassical.     

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND URBAN ABANDONMENT: CASE STUDIES AND TYPOLOGICAL ISSUES

The article discusses the phenomenon of urban abandonment as a result of environmental hazards. Seen as an outcome of environmental drivers, the underlying assumption is that a characteristic of environmental hazards is their spatial and temporal constancy of impact, whereby processes and phenomena having taken place in the past have their analogies in the present. In order to generate insights for future research and policy development, there is a need to pay greater attention to the precarious relationship between humans and the natural environment, not least by drawing lessons from the past through the study of historical cases. The article clarifies the dynamic interactions of drivers and their progression through various stages of urban abandonment. This is done by recourse to an analysis of some general trends and an in‐depth examination of three selected case studies from Poland. It has two objectives. The first is to identify the historical role of environmental drivers in the process of urban abandonment, while the second one is to contribute to the typology of environmentally related processes of urban abandonment in order to better identify future calamities. With respect to the former, the findings reveal that the relation between environmental hazards and urban abandonment is pertinent in regions with specific geographic conditions and pertains only to certain categories of urban settlements. With respect to the latter, by drawing on these findings, we propose some alterations and amendments to McLeman's comprehensive model of settlement abandonment in the context of global environmental change.