Liturgy and devotion in the crusader states: introduction

ABSTRACT

This special issue contains eight essays on the liturgy celebrated in the Latin East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The papers as a whole demonstrate how the study of the liturgy can open up the religious and cultural history of the crusades and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, reveal crusade spirituality and practice, and trace how the Latins of Outremer expressed through their liturgy their historical consciousness and awareness of contemporary realities.     

Qadhat—a comparative study of ancient and new lime mortar from the Marib province/Yemen

Qadhat is the name for a lime mortar in Southern Arabia. Its usage has a long tradition. This work describes physical and mineralogical properties of ancient, historical and new samples, which seem to have been produced the same way. XRD, thin sections and SEM analyses show the similarity of the material. It consists of aggregates of volcanic material that are rich in volcanic glass and lime as binder. The production process includes several hours of crushing the material, which produces fine-grained splinters of aggregates in the binder matrix and gives the mortar a high stability. A weathering test with sodium sulphate on different samples confirms that the stability of this mortar is the result of the production process.     

Archaeopedological analyses around a Neolithic hearth and the beginning of Sabaean irrigation in the oasis of Ma'rib (Ramlat as-Sab'atayn,Yemen)

Archaeopedological analyses in the oasis of Ma'rib (Yemen) yield new information of Neolithic land use, Bronze Age soil formation, and Sabaean irrigation. The AMS radiocarbon age of a Neolithic fireplace buried under Sabaean irrigation sediments in the Southern oasis indicates Pre-Sabaean human activities in Wadi Dhana about 5600 years ago. The associated Mid-Holocene palaeosol, developed in fluvial sediments of Wadi Dhana and also in the filling of the hearth, marks the Bronze Age-land surface before it was covered with irrigation sediments. Based on AMS radiocarbon data from charcoal in reservoir sediments of the “Great Dam” and an estimated time span of pedogenesis of the Mid-Holocene palaeosol in this region, we propose the beginning of the irrigation in Ma'rib in the period of 2500–1000 cal yr BC.     

艳遇那些事

当人们提到“艳遇”这个词时,总会透露出暖昧的情愫。然而,抛开附加在上的香艳色彩,艳遇只是在特定的场合,由于费洛蒙作崇,与意中人发生的一段奇妙感情。远在异国他乡,想品尝一下如此刺激的爱情？赶快随世界播客一起到访那些特定场合,偶遇你的意中人。     

努鲁尔·伊曼皇宫与文莱苏丹亲密接触

想进皇宫？没那么容易 伊斯兰教先知穆罕默德认为。新月代表一种新生力量,从新月到月圆,标志着伊斯兰教摧枯拉朽、战胜黑暗、光明世界。文莱是典型的伊斯兰教国家,我此行幸运地赶上了开斋节——开斋节过后,新月升起,文莱王室将在3天内敞开皇宫大门,接见平民百姓。也就是说,我有机会进入皇宫,见到文莱苏丹。     

日本迎接自由行时代

随着日本自由行政策的推动,自由自在逛日本将不再是梦!本期跟随《世界》的步伐,了解日本自由行的方方面面,保证让你即将到来的赴日旅程更加个性化、自由化、多样化。     

Big Philosophical Questions: Why They Matter and Why They Are Still Around

Big philosophical questions—about the mind, the idea of the good, justice, beauty, knowledge—have been the prime interest of philosophers ever since Plato first raised them in his dialogues. However, regardless of how hard philosophers have been trying to find answers to them, it seems that all they have ever managed to do was to find reasons for disagreements, and, on the whole, to have failed to reach a consensus on pretty much anything. Some philosophers now claim that there hasn’t been much progress in philosophy, especially when compared to the sciences. I take up this verdict and try to refute it, first by offering an alternative view on what counts as progress, and then by analyzing big philosophical questions and their relevance for our intellectual and practical pursuits. I argue that, due to the distinctive nature of philosophical curiosity, coming up with answers to the big philosophical questions is an ideal that can hardly be met, but that philosophy nevertheless delivers various benefits, intellectual and practical, which the proponents of the No-Progress View tend to ignore.     

Red Vienna and municipal socialism in Tel Aviv 1925–1928

Urban development and the formation of urban social landscapes are not simply the outcome of market forces and localised political decisions. Social ideologies constituted major factors in city development and the formation of urban society in both Vienna and Tel-Aviv. The model of municipal socialism practiced in Vienna, based on an egalitarian, progressive, allocation of municipal services, left a deep impression in Vienna's urban landscape. The duplication of this model in Tel-Aviv of the 1920s resulted from an attempt at viewing the city in Palestine as being part of the formation of the pioneering settlement map. The application of the model to Tel-Aviv was not overtly successful, partly because of the lack of support shown by the Mandate Administration and legal system for Palestine's workers, and partly because of the weakness of the worker's urban movement.     

Cold War heritage and the planned community: Woomera Village in outback Australia

The heritage of the Cold War is attracting increasing international interest. Much of that revolves around technological legacies; less attention has been paid to the community infrastructure which supported defence research, weapons testing and military installations. Security and operational logistics meant that research and development was conducted not only in restricted settings but also in often geographically remote situations. An archetypal example is the Woomera Rocket Range in outback South Australia, where long-range weapons were trialled from 1947 under a joint project between the British and Australian governments. Woomera Village, established as a planned residential facility to support personnel employed on the Range, survives today in a similar role, but with a population greatly diminished from its late-1960s heyday. This paper introduces the Village against the backdrop of Cold War heritage and spatial planning ideology, surveys its raison d’être and growth as a Cold War town, and considers its modern-day status as a heritage place and sustainable community.