Icebreakers in Anglo-Russian Relations (1914–21)

Foreign supply to Russia in the First World War is familiar terrain, but although the present paper engages to some degree with the military, diplomatic, and especially economic aspects of the subject, its primary affiliations lie elsewhere. Its principal purpose is to discuss the icebreakers on which it concentrates not only just before but also just after Russia's withdrawal from the First World War, with a view to contrasting the first phase of the ships' history with the second and so highlighting the perennially ambivalent character of the Anglo-Russian relationship. On the way, it touches on questions of geography, English local history, environmental history, the history of technology, and, even, towards the end, Russian literary history.     

Determination of a kinship system using ancient DNA,mortuary practice,and historic records in an upper Canadian pioneer cemetery

Recovered and amplified ancient DNA (aDNA), from a historically documented 19th century Upper Canadian pioneer cemetery produced genotypes that were used to infer a past societal kinship system. While the results from multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) amplifications showed an unreliable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product, a single locus HUMTH01 analysis yielded reproducible data and an allelic frequency pattern not statistically different from modern populations. Mitochondrial (mt) DNA HVR II data showed that a combined cemetery database exhibited reduced haplotype diversity indicators, as well as clusters of probable maternally related burials. The chronological persistence and replacement of mtDNA clusters approximately every two generations suggests a patrilineal/patrilocal kinship structure from a virilocal burial program for the Harmony Road cemetery. Through the integration of the aDNA analysis with archaeological material culture, historic records, and other ethnohistoric sources of information, this conclusion is supported. In this study persisting patrilineally inherited surnames act as a surrogate for aDNA Y‐chromosome haplotype analysis. These results suggest that aDNA applications on aggregate skeletal collections where sparse, or no ethnological or historical documentation exists, may result in incorrect population history inferences if the presence of a kinship interment bias is not considered. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optical Coherence Tomography for the non-invasive investigation of the microstructure of ancient Egyptian faience

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive subsurface 3D imaging technique based on the Michelson interferometer. The non-invasive nature of OCT and its speed of acquisition makes it possible to image large volumes of intact objects to yield a complete overview of the microstructure. The production methods for ancient Egyptian faience were first investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging of the microstructure in polished sections and microprobe analysis of the composition of the glass phases. These studies were based on original Egyptian faience objects and laboratory reproductions of faience beads made using three different production methods. The microstructure of the same laboratory samples and the Egyptian faience objects from the British Museum Research Laboratory Collection are re-examined using OCT. It is found that OCT virtual cross-section images can be used to group ancient faience objects into three categories on the basis of the morphology of the surface glaze layer and the glaze/core interaction layer. The OCT images correspond well with SEM images of polished sections of ancient faience objects and laboratory reproductions. The virtual cross-sections produced by OCT are somewhat limited by the penetration depth, which is affected by the high absorption coefficient of the material and, therefore, cannot always provide information on the presence or absence of interparticle glass that binds together the quartz particles in the core. Nevertheless, the top two layers are well imaged and since OCT images can be obtained rapidly and without the necessity of removing a sample, the method can be applied to a very much wider range of ancient faience objects than is possible by SEM examination of polished cross-sections. In summary, this paper examines to what extent OCT can assist the investigation of the production techniques of ancient Egyptian faience.     

Excavations in the Church of St Augustine's Abbey,Canterbury 1955–58

THE EXCAVATION of Anglo-Saxon structures below the W. end of the 11th to 12th-century nave of the church of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, occupied three seasons between and 1957. Further, small-scale, excavation took place subsequently on the site of the pre-Conquest church of Sts Peter and Paul to test particular points. The need for the excavations in 1955 arose unexpectedly out of routine consolidation of the upstanding remains (which are in the care of what is now the Department of the Environment), when there were discovered by chance the voussoirs of an arch a few inches below ground level in the ill-defined mass of masonry at the extreme SW. corner of the Norman church.     

W. W. deLacy's 1865 map of the territory of Montana

Abstract

The Topographical Survey of the Orange Free State, executed by the British War Office between 1905 and 1911, was not only one of the first but also one of the finest topographical surveys to be undertaken in British colonial Africa. The motivation for this undertaking stemmed from three sources: the personal interest of Sir David Gill (H.M. Astronomer at the Cape) in the measurement of the arc of the 30th meridian; Britain's imperialistic intervention in South Africa which resulted in the South African War (1899–1902) against the Boer Republics and which stressed the need for reliable military maps for warfare as well as for the general defence of the new colonies; and the need for accurate maps for purposes of colonial administration and land tenure. The survey took five and a half years to complete, and the 1: 125,000 series (G.S.G.S. 2230) that was compiled represented the only accurate maps of this part of the continent for almost seven decades.