Comparing the Old and New: Traditional Building Materials and the Uch Monument Complex,Pakistan

Abstract

The supposition that modern traditionally produced building materials are inherently similar to original building fabric is common in Pakistan. Laboratory analysis on historic and modern samples of fired brick, mud brick, and mud mortars was undertaken for the first time in the region to investigate similarities in basic physical properties and composition of the materials. Simple analytical techniques were used to determine porosity, density, particle size distribution, plastic limit and other properties, as well as chemical composition of the samples. Further analytical methods were used to confirm the results of simpler analyses and further characterize materials. Results indicate that modern locally produced materials were in many ways comparable to their historic counterparts and may be used as intervention materials within the buildings of the Uch Monument Complex. This information will inform the choice and manufacture of proposed intervention materials, while providing preliminary quantitative evidence for continuing traditions.     

Inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy and Postclassic Petén slipped pottery: an examination of pottery wares,social identity and trade*

ICP–ES analysis of the clay pastes of Postclassic (c. ad 850–1524) slipped pottery from the central Petén lakes region establishes chemical composition groups that provide information concerning manufacturing traditions and trading patterns. These data demonstrate that manufacturing traditions and trading patterns change throughout the Postclassic period, reflecting possible socio‐political alliances as different ethnic groups migrated to and from the Yucatán peninsula into the central Petén lakes region. The chemical composition groups also demonstrate that some manufacturing traditions imitate those from the Late Classic period and that some clay sources were used throughout the Postclassic period for multiple ceramic groups.     

The Poor Law,the Parish Apprentice,and the Textile Industries in the North of England, 1780–1830

Abstract

This article combines evidence from a variety of Poor Law sources, including apprenticeship registers and indentures, and minutes of discussions of parish officials, and information from business records, to assess the relationship between textile entrepreneurs and Poor Law officialdom in the development of the early textile factory labour force in the North of England, of which parish children formed an important component. It reveals the distribution of parish apprentices over long and short distances to the early northern textile mills. The impact of such labour on textile manufacturing in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries will be considered; and finally the experience of parish children as they became accustomed to novel working conditions will be explored. The analysis of Poor Law and business documentation reveals a meticulous record-keeping process, and a formality of procedure not previously acknowledged. It has been possible to trace apprentice children, both individually and in groups, from their parish of origin through their years of apprenticeship to adult employment. Reports of factory visits and correspondence between parish officials and employers are examined to analyse the relationship between parish and employer through the course of the apprenticeship term. It concludes that parish children were more important to the formation of the early textile factory workforce than conventionally believed, and that their apprenticeship enhanced their longer term employability.