Tracking local dwelling changes in the Chittagong Hills: perspectives on vernacular architecture

Historically, geographers, anthropologists and colonial British administrators (1860–1947) frequently mentioned two ethno-geographical categories – khoungtha and toungtha – when referring to the tribal groups in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. Some of these early works considered the livelihood patterns of these groups and the nature of their social and economic interactions. However, a discussion of the changes to their vernacular built environment has escaped any serious investigation. Using empirical findings, this article examines the changes to architectural practices of lowland and highland groups in the socially and ethnically complex region of the Chittagong Hills. Narrowing the discussion to the toungtha Mru ethnic group, this article also examines religious patterns, building techniques and spatial changes in a remotely placed, relatively inaccessible part of the hills where the built environment is still a strong cultural priority.     

Monitoring the 1997 flood in the Red River Valley using hydrologic regimes and RADARSAT imagery

In this study, we attempt to relate hydrologic regimes of the 1997 flood in the Red River Valley to the areal extent of flooding, determined from RADARSAT imagery. We obtained ten scenes of RADARSAT imagery, from 27 April to 1 July, including bitmaps delineating flooded areas for each date, from the Manitoba Centre of Remote Sensing. These images were co-registered using an image-to-image registration process. By overlaying these flood maps in chronological order, we compared the areal extent of flooding with the hydrologic regimes of the Red River, expressed as relative depths of flooding above the bankful stage at selected gauging stations. The results of the study indicated that the area of flooding on 4 May (1,984 km ² ) corresponded well with the highest flood levels at several gauging stations. A previous scene on 27 April showed a larger area under water, but visual inspection of the processed imagery indicated a lack of conformity between flood level regimes and the areal extent of flooding on this date due to surface detention of pre-flood storm runoff. Thus, the RADARSAT imagery represented the flood regimes adequately only when its interpretations were combined with hydrologic analysis and visual inspection of surface characteristics of the floodplain.     

Exceptional preservation of a prehistoric human brain from Heslington,Yorkshire, UK

Archaeological work in advance of construction at a site on the edge of York, UK, yielded human remains of prehistoric to Romano-British date. Amongst these was a mandible and cranium, the intra-cranial space of which contained shrunken but macroscopically recognizable remains of a brain. Although the distinctive surface morphology of the organ is preserved, little recognizable brain histology survives. Though rare, the survival of brain tissue in otherwise skeletalised human remains from wet burial environments is not unique. A survey of the literature shows that similar brain masses have been previously reported in diverse circumstances. We argue for a greater awareness of these brain masses and for more attention to be paid to their detection and identification in order to improve the reporting rate and to allow a more comprehensive study of this rare archaeological survival.