Poésie, Sciences Et Politique Une Génération D’Intellectuels Italiens (1290–1330)

Nothing is more false than the image of Dante as an isolated genius standing out against his epoch. On the contrary he belongs to a very caracteristic generation of italian intellectuals: laymen, often active in more than one domain, practicing abundantly poetic expression, engaged in political action, these scholar-citizens share equally a strong historical conscience. Their inventivity is manifested in philosophy, in medecine and in law, as well as in literary expression. Aside from these endogenous factors, a key to this phenomenon is linked to the active reception of the naturalistic knowledge elaborated in Paris, which is read in Italy outside of the control of theologians. The parallel journeys of a dozen uncommon personalities show the necessity of enlarging the habitual frames of medieval intellectual history.     

Le Travail Intellectuel au Moyen Âge

Sans résumé étienne Anheim est ma?tre de conférences en histoire médiévale à l’Université de Versailles/Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Ses recherches portent sur les formes de la culture savante (peinture, musique, littérature) à la fin du Moyen ?ge, et sur leurs relations avec les cours. Il a récemment publié ?La Chambre du Cerf. Image, savoir et nature à Avignon au milieu du xiv ^e siècle ? (Micrologus, vol. XVI, 2008, p. 57–124). Sylvain Piron est ma?tre de conférences à l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales. Ses recherches portent sur différents aspects de l’histoire intellectuelle du Moyen ?ge central, de la pensée économique des scolastiques à l’ecclésiologie des franciscains spirituels. Il vient de publier ?Le poète et le théologien: une rencontre dans le studium de Santa Croce ?, dans Jo?l Biard et Fosca Mariani Ziani, éd, Ut philosophia poesis. Questions philosophiques dans l’écriture de Dante, Pétrarque, Bocacce (Paris, Vrin, 2008, p. 73–112).     

Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave

It has been suggested that between 80 and 35 ka the Middle Stone Age record of South Africa reveals episodes of inventiveness and innovation, punctuated by apparent returns to more conventional technologies. One such episode is the Howiesons Poort (HP). The appearance of a range of small geometric forms, apparently used as insets in multi-component tools, has been considered as evidence of improved hunting weapons, with possible social and symbolic connotations. On the basis of evidence such as backed tool production, small blade technology, the occurrence of typical end-scrapers and burins similar to those encountered in the European Upper Paleolithic, long-distance transport of fine-grained raw materials, and non-lithic novelties, the HP is associated with increased levels of technological efficiency and with behavioral innovations that could have allowed the expansion of African populations to other regions. Yet our knowledge of HP technology and tool production is limited to the analysis of Klasies River Main site by Singer and Wymer and Sarah Wurz, and a few preliminary reports from other sites. This is why we present here a detailed technological and typological analysis of several HP and post-HP assemblages from the well-excavated, well-dated and well-stratified site of Rose Cottage. Our analysis shows: (a) that the HP blade production was a real technical innovation, but was not based on indirect percussion, as often suggested; (b) that blade production was based on the use of marginal percussion which does not occur in the blade production of the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic; (c) that the tool kit was dominated by backed pieces, but not all can be considered as hunting weapons; (d) that neither end-scrapers nor burins are typical of this industry and are no more an antecedent to the European Upper Paleolithic than the end-scrapers and burins of the Middle Paleolithic; (e) that patterns of raw material procurement do not conform to models based on evidence from Klasies; (f) that diachronic changes within the Rose Cottage sequence indicate slow, gradual abandonment of the technological style of the HP; (g) that the post-HP assemblages are of MSA character and are typologically and technologically quite similar to the European Middle Paleolithic; (h) that the lack of persistence of the HP innovations is in need of an explanation. The HP is not a monolithic entity. Implications for the symbolic interpretations of the HP phenomenon are discussed.     

Sur Une Falsification Historiographique

Sans résumé à propos de Sylvain Gouguenheim, Aristote au Mont-Saint-Michel. Les racines grecques de l’Europe chrétienne, Paris, Le Seuil (L’univers historique), 2008, 280 p. Sylvain Piron est ma?tre de conférences à l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales. Ses recherches portent sur différents aspects de l’histoire intellectuelle du Moyen ?ge central, de la pensée économique des scolastiques à l’ecclésiologie des franciscains spirituels. Il vient de publier ?Le poète et le théologien: une rencontre dans le studium de Santa Croce ?, dans Jo?l Biard et Fosca Mariani Ziani, éd., Ut philosophia poesis. Questions philosophiques dans l’écriture de Dante, Pétrarque, Bocacce (Paris, Vrin, 2008, p. 73–112).     

SEM-EDS characterization of western Mediterranean obsidians and the Neolithic site of A Fuata (Corsica)

During the Neolithic, obsidians of the Monte Arci (Sardinia) volcanic complex were by far more used in the northern Tyrrhenian area than those of the three other source-islands (Lipari, Palmarola, Pantelleria) in the western Mediterranean. It is shown that merely determinations of content for six major elements with a scanning electron microscope by energy dispersion spectrometry (SEM-EDS) are sufficient to distinguish the four types of Monte Arci obsidians. Because of the compositional similarities between these obsidian types, a multivariate analysis is recommended in provenance studies. Although SEM-EDS, electron microprobe-wavelength dispersion spectrometry (EMP-WDS) and particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) give essentially concordant results in the determination of these six element contents, subtle technique-related biases prevent the combination of SEM-EDS, EMP-WDS and PIXE data on source samples for provenance purposes. An SEM-EDS test-study reveals the first occurrence of obsidians of Lipari for the A Fuata Middle to Late Neolithic site of NW Corsica (north of Sardinia), in addition to the usual Monte Arci obsidians. Similar to EMP-WDS, the SEM-EDS technique requires only millimeter-sized fragments.     

Diversification,Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500

Journal of World Prehistory - Many societal and environmental changes occurred between the 2nd millennium BC and the middle of the 2nd millennium AD in western Africa. Key amongst these were...