An eighth century hoard from Eastern Saudi Arabia

Editor's note. The article published here was completed on October 22, 1966. Although never published before, copies have long been on file in both the Dept. of Coins and Medals in the British Museum, and at the American Numismatic Society. The basic content of the hoard was reported on in Coin Hoards 1 (1975). In 1986, Robert W. Morris revised the text of his paper and sent me a copy. After the founding of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy , I asked him whether he would like to publish the paper, a suggestion to which he responded enthusiastically. On August 25, 1990, just ten days after I sent him a letter about my plans for preparing his text for publication, Robert W. Morris died from complications of myeloma. An avid amateur numismatist for many years, Morris was interested in the pre-Islamic and Islamic coinage of northeastern Arabia (where he had lived and worked for Aramco) right up until his death. It is hoped that, while there may be certain details in the paper which professional numismatists might wish to correct, the body of material presented here will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars concerned with the late pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods in eastern Arabia.     

Economic processes and urban change: an analysis of contemporary patterns of residential restructuring

This article examines questions of explanation in urban geography through consideration of the gentrification process. Particular attention is given to the problems of ‘structural’ analyses and the need to develop alternative political economy perspectives.     

Thinking about security in Africa

This article attempts to clarify some of the central questions and distinctions that provide the necessary backdrop for thinking in a sophisticated way about security in Africa. Drawing on the developing Critical Security Studies literature it suggests that an understanding of security based on people, justice and change offers the surest route to a stable future. It then sketches preliminary answers to some fundamental questions, namely: whose security should be prioritized? How have security dynamics in Africa been influenced by the wider processes driving world politics? What clusters of threats are the most salient? Where do such threats have the most pernicious effects? Which actors are best placed to alleviate those threats? And what sort of institutions should be built to assist in that process? The role of outsiders concerned with promoting security on the continent should be to try to ensure that as many Africans as possible are able to voice their opinions on these crucial issues.     

After Westgate: opportunities and challenges in the war against Al‐Shabaab

The attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 intensified international scrutiny of the war against Harakat Al‐Shabaab Mujahideen (Movement of the Warrior Youth). This article analyses the current state of affairs with reference to the three principal sets of actors in this war: Al‐Shabaab, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and its international partners, and the various actors currently involved in building the Somali Federal Government's security forces. It argues that although the newly reconfigured Al‐Shabaab poses a major tactical threat in Somalia and across the wider Horn of Africa, the movement is becoming a less important actor in Somalia's national politics. As Al‐Shabaab loses territory and its popularity among Somalis continues to dwindle, other clan‐ and region‐based actors will become more salient as national debates over federalism, the decentralization of governance mechanisms beyond Mogadishu and the place of clannism will occupy centre stage. As a consequence, AMISOM's principal roles should gradually shift from degrading Al‐Shabaab towards a broader stabilization agenda: encouraging a national consensus over how to build effective governance structures; developing an effective set of Somali National Security Forces; and ensuring that the Federal Government delivers services and effective governance to its citizens, especially beyond Mogadishu in the settlements recently captured from Al‐Shabaab. As it stands, however, AMISOM is not prepared to carry out these activities. More worryingly, nor is the Somali Federal Government.     

NON‐DESTRUCTIVE PORTABLE GAMMA RAY SPECTROMETRY USED IN PROVENANCING ROMAN GRANITOID COLUMNS FROM LEPTIS MAGNA,NORTH AFRICA*

Portable gamma ray spectrometry (PGRS) provides a non destructive means to analyst quantitatively large artefacts, such as building stones, for the radioelements K. U and Th. Nine Raman granitoid columns at the Leptis Magna Ruins in Windsor Great Park, London, were measured in situ by PGRS. Corrections for the environmental background contribution to the gamma ray flux measured, and for the shape and size of the columns, are described Comparison of the PGRS data with a radioelement data base for Roman granite sources indicates that most of the columns originated in the Troad area of Turkey. Two columns could not be unambiguously provenanced using PGRS alone because there is insufficient difference between radioelement concentrations in certain sources. However, non‐destructive measurements of magnetic susceptibility, used in conjunction with PGRS data, suggest that these two columns originated in the Kozak Daǧ, also in Turkey.