Translations at the Court of Hákon Hákonarson: a well planned and highly selective programme

This article deals with the translations of Old French works completed at the court of Hákon Hákonarson, king of Norway. The first one was probably completed in 1226 and some 40 followed: translations of epic poems, courtly romances and lais, adventure romances and a fabliau. In all cases, we ought to speak of adaptations and not of word-for-word translations.

Together, these literary works form an outstanding corpus, elaborated mainly for didactical purposes and in order to support Hákon Hákonarson's project to build a monarchy à l'européenne. For that, some literary works were selected and – in their adaptations – some ethical and social values promoted while some others were not; and some great literary works were intentionally ignored and remained untranslated.     

Together in the field: interdisciplinary work in Kebara and Hayonim caves (Israel)

The authors present an example of close field collaboration among prehistorians and researchers from different disciplines (particularly the geosciences), within the context of a long program of interdisciplinary research at the caves of Kebara and Hayonim (Israel). We outline the benefits brought about by the presence of different specialists being in the field during the excavation over long periods. Specifically, daily collaboration in the field during the excavation brings about: (1) A consensus of choice of strategic areas to excavate, either at the beginning of the project or during successive field campaigns, while taking into account the needs and goals of different specialists and their needs in taking samples; (2) A meeting of different points of view with many discussions of stratigraphy and site formation processes, which in caves are quite complex; (3) A unification of specialized vocabulary and jargon specific to each discipline by constant interaction in the field, which in turn facilitates communication among specialists; (4) A positive didactic element in training doctoral students in the field. This interdisciplinary strategy is more or less widespread now, but it was not the case in the early 1980s, and actual integration of results from the sciences (particularly the geosciences) came about only fairly recently. Without doubt, the awareness of the importance of such interdisciplinary archaeological data for discussing archaeological issues has ultimately paved the way for active interdisciplinary collaboration sprouting from the fieldwork, and has led to the generation of more robust and accurate interpretations.     

« Techno-Esthétique » de L’Économie Smithienne Valeur et Fonctionnalité des Objets dans L’Angleterre des Lumières

From The Theory of Moral Sentiments to his essay on The Nature of that Imitation Which Takes Place in What Are Called the Imitative Arts, Adam Smith offered a vision of aesthetics combining beauty and utility. An echo of exchange value as the “ability to buy other goods” — the “power” to organize and achieve one’s goals — his definition of beauty was premised on the “aptness” of things, that is, the fact that they were also useful. Sustained by the commodification of products, a kind of “techno-aesthetics” thus emerged in England in the 18^th century, one that implied designing, adapting, reducing and showcasing the means of production.     

Les techniques dans l'espace public

In this article, we intend to study the cultural transformations fostered by the commercialisation of inventions, a major process in the growth of markets and consumption in the XVIII^th century. Inventors' commercial strategies were based on intense mediatisation, combining visual languages (public shows, experiments, exhibitions) and print resources: advertisements, posters, tracts, how-to leaflets and users' books. Technical information and useful knowledge played a major part in the building of markets for inventions. This demension has seldom been stressed neither by historians of consumption nor by historians of technology. Yet, this literature that aimed to emancipate consumers and to develop their participative talents as m means to convince them to buy, expressed the success of knowledge in action, of operative sciences, based on gestures and verbs, on purposive action and projects. Whereas technological science (technologie) in the Enlightenment developed in treatises and dictionaries, it was also stemming from useful literature and commercial ephemeras that allowed appropriations.     

Art as research: an interview with Liliane Lijn by Barry Miles

ABSTRACT

In conversation with the biographer and author Barry Miles, the artist and poet Liliane Lijn talks about her early influences as a young American artist living and working in Paris, Athens and New York and the development of her practice between 1959 and 1970. She recalls her encounters with prominent surrealists, poets and artists of the Beat generation: André Breton, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and her enduring friendship with Greek sculptor Takis. Inspired by the experimental nature of their works, Lijn explains how her own work focused on research and invention. She describes her Poem Machines as ‘seeing sound’ and explains her growing interest in science and, in particular, light. Lijn details the long and complex gestation of Liquid Reflections, her most well-known cosmic work of the late 1960s, and how working with industry and technology allowed her to increase both the scale and complexity of her oeuvre.     

Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, France): A mousterian reindeer hunting camp?

The site of Les Pradelles has an important mousterian stratigraphic sequence. In the lower levels, the very low density of artefacts as well as the carnivores scavenging of carcasses abandoned by the neanderthals point to short-term human occupations; the introduction of finished tools (made on non-local, good quality flint) later highly curated, together with an expedient strategy on strictly local flint, suggest a task-specific location, within a low mobility pattern. The large faunal sample (mainly reindeer) underlines the preponderance of hunting activities. A range of butchering activities took place on the site and the abundance of filleting marks may be an indication of the processing of meat for transport to another settlement. The hypothesis of “specialized hunting” during Middle Palaeolithic is assessed with this new data set.