Twelfth-century Italian confraternities as institutions of pastoral care

When studied through canon law and scholastic pastoralia produced in the universities in the thirteenth century and beyond, medieval pastoral care comes across as spiritual care, more specifically the administration of sacraments and preaching, provided by the clergy for the faithful. This article complicates that view by arguing that in the twelfth century, the laity alongside the clergy was active in the provision and organisation of pastoral care. The sources examined are the surviving statutes of five religious confraternities – along with the obituaries and sermons in two cases – in Italy that flourished in the twelfth century and before. Each of these confraternities was centred around a church, established after an apostolic ideal, included laymen and women and local pastoral clergy of all levels, met regularly to celebrate the Eucharist, prayed for the dead members and made public confessions. Members prayed for and attended to the corporal needs of each other in case of sickness. In the final analysis, these twelfth-century confraternities appear as transitional institutions between the early medieval monastic confraternities focusing on prayer and the late medieval and renaissance confraternities focusing on charity. Their study opens a window onto the lay expectations of and contribution to pastoral care in medieval Italy.     

New evidence of adhesive as hafting material on Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from Gura Cheii-Râşnov Cave (Romania)

Making use of analytical, chemical and mineralogical methods, this paper focuses on the analysis of inclusions in order to address the question of the provenance of prehistoric artefacts excavated in Gura Cheii-Râ?nov Cave (Romania). The study represents the first discovery of bitumen on lithic tools belonging to the Upper and Middle Palaeolithic in Europe. The material was identified through several analytical procedures, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).     

Staging the Transnistrian Identity Within the Heritage of Soviet Holidays

This article focuses on the performance of three national holidays in Transnistria in the context of the ongoing consolidation of Transnistrian society since 1991. Transnistrian leaders play a key role in the construction of a distinct Transnistrian regional identity; hence this paper pays close attention to the speeches of Transnistrian leaders as reported in the mass media. In addition, I also base my conclusions on interviews with the residents of Rybnita. I was able to observe and describe the official commemorations of the anniversary of the October Revolution, May Day and Victory Day, all key Soviet holidays which are still celebrated in Transnistria, mostly by the older generation and members of the Communist Party. The theoretical framework of the article, therefore, relies on a constructivist approach to the nation-building process through the manipulation of public opinion by elites.     

From home to city: gender segregation,homosociality and publicness in Istanbul

This article examines the complex and tangled relationships between home, city, and gender in Bagcilar, a municipality in Istanbul governed by Islamist-oriented political parties since 1992. Focusing on women’s spatial experiences at the intersection of the private and the public, the traditional and the modern, the secular and the religious, this article argues that home provides a medium through which gendered forms of governance and publicness are produced in the city. Home as a domestic sphere confines women’s roles to those of motherhood and wifehood, but also functions as a place of sociability for women. The municipality’s Islamic political discourse, combined with secular urban practices, mobilizes women through familial norms, gender-segregated events, and women-only sites in Bagcilar, where home and urban space are mutually constructed, regulated, and legitimized. Thus, women’s publicness, which derives from but goes beyond domesticity, also enables intimate same-sex sociality in urban spaces. Although this creates only conditional access to the city for women, their agency and engagement with the city emanate from such publicness.     

History and Characteristics of Construction Techniques Used in Traditional Timber Ottoman Houses

The aim of this article is to make a comprehensive review of the traditional timber house constructions in Turkey, which constitutes the majority of the existing Ottoman architectural legacy. After a short historical background focused on the Ottoman territory, the first section explores regional differences in the housing tradition, developed according to local features and defined by architectural features, material characteristics, and availability of materials. Derived from these regional differences, in the second section diversity in traditional timber construction systems in Turkey is described with special emphasis on the Ottoman h?m?? system. In this part, besides the discussion of the h?m?? technique which spread over Ottoman lands from the Balkans to Syria, the timber masonry and frame systems of the Eastern Black Sea Region and Thrace are presented in detail with visual support.     

Decay of Limestone Statues at Mount Nemrut (Adiyaman,Turkey)

Mount Nemrut is a 2,206 m high mountain located in Adiyaman, Turkey. A number of monumental statues, a 50-m high tumulus, and a lion horoscope were constructed at the top of the mountain by King Antiochos I (69–36 bc) of the Commagene Kingdom. The site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987 due to its unique character. However, the limestone statues located on both the east and the west terraces of the site are getting deteriorated. This study investigates the weathering of the limestone at Mount Nemrut based on field and laboratory studies. It is found that the dissolution occurs along microcracks developed in the limestone during geological time. It is more pronounced in the east terrace where freezing-thawing cycles are more than the west terrace. Furthermore, dissolution is more effective for the faces of the statues exposed to direct atmospheric contact. Due to harsh atmospheric conditions with dominant wetting-drying and freezing-thawing processes at the site, it is recommended that direct rain and snow contact with the statues should be minimized.     

Infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) properties of natural aluminum corrosion

In this paper, the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) property of naturally corroded aluminum and its possible applications in retrospective dosimetry have been briefly studied. Results are interesting, in particular with regard to the efforts of finding new and widely available materials for accident dosimetry. For aluminum corrosion, the dose response was found to be approximately linear between 2–80 Gy and to reach saturation before 300 Gy. The signal also showed good repro-ducibility without significant fading over storage durations of up to four mounts at room temperature. In addition to the luminescence, the corrosion samples were also analysed by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD), but conclusive identification of the luminescent phase could not be made. It is concluded that the IRSL signals of this material can be favourable for dosimetry research.     

Geography,GIS and employability in Turkey

Although higher education in Turkey does not have especially well-advanced systems and resources for addressing graduate employability, two developments are making it particularly important for Turkish geography departments to give increased priority to this agenda. One is the country’s new Higher Education Qualifications Framework and the other is a major increase in geography student numbers, which means that geographers seeking school teaching posts (traditionally seen as the natural career pathway) now hugely outnumber the posts available. Against this background, this paper proceeds to explore the potential of geographic information systems (GIS) to contribute to geographers’ employability in Turkey through a study involving the views and experiences of academic staff, students and employers. The paper reveals a mixed picture of both opportunities and challenges. It ends with a series of employability recommendations for geography and GIS in Turkey, a number of which could also be of wider relevance elsewhere.