Characterizations of palace lantern tassels preserved in The Palace Museum,Beijing, by UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF

Palace lanterns were important and highly visible decorations in the imperial palace in Beijing, China, during the Qing dynasty (1636–1912). Most lanterns had colourful tassels made of fibres. The study performed a comprehensive investigation of the materials and dyes used for palace lantern tassels preserved in The Palace Museum, Beijing. Eight samples with different colours, including yellow, green and red, from five palace lanterns were analysed. By using ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the compositions of the dyes were identified quickly, and thus the dyes' origins were explored. A X-ray fluorescence spectrometer assisted in the detection of whether a mordant was used during the dyeing process. As a result, the tassels were all made of silk, discovered through the use of microscopic observation and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analysis. Different dyeing techniques were found in these tassels: yellow tassels were dyed by cork tree or turmeric by a direct dyeing method; greens were dyed by pagoda bud with an iron mordant, or by the combination of cork tree and indigo using multi-dyeing method; and red tassels were coloured with different acid red industrial dyes. These results provide valuable data for the conservation of ancient textile tassels and contribute to the investigation of other hanging tags.     

Neoliberalising Education: New Geographies of Private Tuition,Class Privilege,and Minority Ethnic Advancement

Geographic research on neoliberalism has explored the restructuring of educational landscapes wrought through marketisation of preschool, school and higher-education provision and considered the responsibilisation of parents and children for educational outcomes. This study develops understanding of the contingent emergence of neoliberal educational reform, and its progressive and regressive impacts, through an examination of the burgeoning private tuition market in England and Wales. The paper outlines the contours of the previously hidden supplementary education industry, demonstrating that it reinforces regional and classed inequalities, while opening possibilities for ethnic minority advancement. Conceptually, the paper advances debate about socio-spatial specificity in neoliberal change, showing that the intersection of policy, free markets and consumer behaviour reshapes the educational landscape in ways that extend beyond state intention and control. Through these processes, contingent market forms are produced that offer social mobility for some, but ensure the social reproduction of enduring regimes of power.     

Life in the Woods: Tree-throws, 'Settlement' and Forest Cognition

The deposition of Early Neolithic material within tree-throw hollows in described, and the possible role of fallen trunks as places of occupation, settlement foci and landscape markers is discussed. Having implications for the interpretation of ubiquitous later Mesolithic pit dwellings, the evidence suggests a continuity of forest 'identity'. Accordingly, patterns of clearances are also explored in relationship to modes of occupation, and the employment of 'big wood' in Neolithic monuments discussed.     

ROMAN STYLE BUILDINGS IN BARBARICUM (MORAVIA AND SW SLOVAKIA)

Summary. Recent archaeological work has thrown fresh light on the region of Moravia and SW Slovakia (ČSSR) at the time of the Roman Empire. It is now apparent that, as on other frontiers, Roman influence extended far beyond the Danubian Limes . This paper describes six sites with Roman-style masonry buildings; one of the sites, Mušov, has produced evidence of Roman military occupation and is associated with the Marcomannic Wars of Marcus Aurelius; the other five, however, are of civilian character with an interesting admixture of Roman and German structures and artefacts. These sites provide us with an insight into the relationship of the client kingdom of the Quadi with Rome.     

Empires and resources: Central Anatolian obsidian at Urkesh (Tell Mozan,Syria) during the Akkadian period

Almost all of the obsidian used to craft stone tools in the Near East from the Palaeolithic onward originated from volcanoes in two geographic regions: Central Anatolia and Eastern Anatolia. Five decades of obsidian sourcing has led to the view that Central Anatolian obsidians largely followed the Mediterranean coast and rarely reached farther east than the Middle Euphrates, whereas Eastern Anatolian sources almost exclusively supplied sites east of the Euphrates. This paper discusses the identification of Central Anatolian obsidian artefacts at the Bronze-Age site of Tell Mozan (Urkesh) in northeastern Syria. Most of the obsidians at Tell Mozan (97%) came from the Eastern Anatolian sources, as expected from established distribution models. Artefacts of Central Anatolian obsidian, however, were excavated from one well-constrained context: the deposits on a palace courtyard that date to the height of the Akkadian empire's influence at this third-millennium Hurrian religious and political centre. In particular, the obsidian came from the Kömürcü source of Göllü Da?. Potential explanations for this exotic obsidian are discussed. This obsidian might have “piggybacked” on the distribution of Central Anatolian metals or arrived at this city as royal gifts or prestige items. Other discussed mechanisms include Akkadian-linked changes in either territoriality involving pastoral nomads responsible for the arrival of Eastern Anatolian obsidians or identity construction of elites based on involvement in Central Anatolian economic and political networks.