Captain Everill’s Error: Mapping the Upper Strickland River in Papua and New Guinea, 1885–1979

An error dating from 1885 in mapping the upper Strickland River, Papua New Guinea, was reinforced and extended by government officer Charles Karius in 1929 when reporting results from a lengthy exploratory patrol. Detailed maps produced by the US Army and the Royal Australian Survey Corps in, respectively, 1942 and 1966 perpetuated these errors. It was not until 1979, with release of a series of 1:100,000 topographic maps, that long-standing errors were finally put to rest. Throughout these years, the contributions of well-informed people tended to be ignored in favour of the opinions of those whose status implied authority.     

Analysis of Heavy Metals in Smoke Deposits in the Limewash of the Royal Artillery Factory of Seville (17th Century): Contributions to the Location of the Furnaces

The Royal Artillery Factory of Seville in Spain originated from pre‐existing private bronze foundries dating from the 16th century. The paper analyses the stratigraphy of wall cladding in the areas traditionally known as the ‘Old Foundry’ and the ‘New Foundry’, through its characterization by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry (SEM‐EDX), micro‐X‐ray fluorescence (μ‐XRF) and micro‐X‐ray diffraction (μ‐XRD), in order to analyse the metal deposits that have accumulated since the 17th century. The data obtained allowed the verification of the available historiographical information and the location of the original bronze smelting furnaces. The analysis of patinas deposited on the overlapping layers of lime also confirmed that neither the raw materials nor the composition of the alloys used presented any substantial changes.     

A Technocratic Vision of Empire: Lord Montagu and the Origins of British Air Power

This article advances the existing literature on British imperial aeronautics by explaining how Lord John Montagu’s extensive collaboration with military and government officials during the first decades of powered flight expanded the global distribution of the air forces and anticipated their important later role in facilitating international communication and security. In reconsidering problems of conquest and governance through an aeronautical perspective, Montagu strengthened critical junctures between British civil and military affairs, while his innovative employment of the new technology also complicated divisions between the metropolis and periphery in ways that would intensify the destructiveness of modern warfare across the planet.     

Losing the Blanket,Building a Fence: Australian Anxiety and the End of Military Colonialism in Malaysia

From 1955 to 1988, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) maintained a large airbase in Northern Malaysia. For the first 15 years of its existence, RAAF Butterworth had a modest and incomplete perimeter fence. With the end of British military colonialism in Malaysia and Singapore following the implementation of the ‘East of Suez’ policy, the Australians became preoccupied with their physical security and the role of the perimeter fence. By exploring the adoption of practices of exclusion via physical barriers in the wake of British withdrawal, this paper argues that the changing psychological outlook of Australian military officials reflected broader Australian anxieties about their own sense of ‘Britishness’ and the nation’s place in a decolonising Asia. As the Australians lost their British ‘blanket’ they built a fence.     

Be Part of the Story: A popular geopolitics of war comics aesthetics and Royal Air Force recruitment

This paper provides an analysis of images associated with the British Royal Air Force's recent ‘Be Part of the Story’ war comic-styled military recruiting campaign. Set around literatures in popular geopolitics, the paper builds on the concept of comic book visualities to suggest that the ‘Be Part of the Story’ images reproduce longstanding war comics conventions, and coherently represent the complex, relational and spatially disparate battlespaces of the present. The paper, firstly, provides a detailed history of war comics as they have mediated war to publics, and argues that war comics should figure more strongly in future studies of popular geopolitics. Secondly, it argues that more than simply part of a pervasive ‘cultural condition’ of militarization, military recruitment is a vital medium through which states and militaries view, and choose to represent their role in the world. Lastly, it demonstrates that ‘Be Part of the Story’ reproduces the violent visions, metaphors and cultural designations integral to state-centric narratives of global politics, and specifically, spatial principles inherent to network-centric warfare.     

Mediterranean port cities: Cosmopolitanism reconsidered

This article considers two intimately related claims about Mediterranean port cities. First, that their citizens felt more affinity with each other than they did with the inhabitants of non‐port cities. And second that they were the scenes of liberal cosmopolitanism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It discusses the concept of “cosmopolitanism”, and briefly reviews the case of Izmir as an exemplar and compares it to the cities of Alexandria and Trieste. The article argues for a more careful and differential use of the notion of “cosmopolitanism”, and suggests questions for further anthropological and historical research.     

河口港城市形态演变的分析研究——兼论宁波城市形态的历史演变及发展

该文在对港口城市形态的影响因素的分析基础上,提出了港口城市形态的演变机制和河口港城市形态的演变规律。并且通过对宁波城市形态历史演变的实证分析,结合宁波城市发展的战略目标,提出了宁波城市形态的合理发展趋势。     

崔骃、班固赋、颂作年献疑

陆侃如先生<中古文学系年>将崔驷<大将军临洛观赋>系于永元四年四月初,认为崔驷<西征赋>系<北征颂>之误,值得商榷.通过对这两篇作品的探讨,还可对傅毅卒年、崔驷离开窦宪军幕返乡时间作出相对明确的断定.通过考察影日藏弘仁本<文馆词林>中所收崔驷<四巡颂>中<南巡颂>,可得出崔驷<南巡颂>与班固<南巡颂>的作年相同的结论.在此基础上,又可进一步推定班固丁忧去官的大致时间.     

The siege of Barbastro 1064–65: a reassessment

In 1064 a large army of foreign troops, especially Normans and Catalans, fought against the Muslims at the fortress city of Barbastro, located in Zaragoza. The siege of Barbastro is, for several reasons, one of the most controversial battles of the early reconquest in Spain. Some of the problems that historians of the crusades and the reconquest have struggled with are: the indulgence letter that Alexander II allegedly granted to the soldiers at Barbastro and whether this makes Barbastro the ‘First’ crusade preceding the one called by Pope Urban II. In addition, the extent of involvement by Pope Alexander and the Cluniacs in propagating the ‘crusade’ has been debated. Equally problematic has been the identification of the leader of the Christian soldiers. Candidates chosen for the enigmatic leader have been Duke William VIII of Aquitaine, William of Montreuil, and the Norman, Robert Crispin. A review of the secondary and primary sources reveals that many long-held conclusions are in need of re-evaluation. A complete reassessment of these and other related problems is the intent of this study.     

Aviation Archaeology Offshore: The Recovery of a Rare Ju88 Aircraft Wreck during Work for the New London Gateway Port

Abstract

During dredging works for the new London Gateway Port in 2011, fragments of a German Ju 88 bomber were recovered from the Thames Estuary. Subsequent archaeological investigation by Wessex Archaeology, using geophysical survey and divers, resulted in the location of the wreck site and its subsequent recovery under licence in 2012. Post-recovery analysis has enabled it to be identified as a very rare prototype Ju 88T. The aircraft, flown by men of the secretive Luftwaffe special operations unit VOdL, was lost during a reconnaissance mission to record bomb damage at Chelmsford in 1943. The Norwegian fighter ace who shot it down, Marius Eriksen, subsequently achieved fame as a Norwegian skiing champion and actor. The recovery was unusual in that it was carried out as a staged archaeological investigation and in the context of offshore development, where ‘avoidance’ is the usual strategy.