Archaeological Heritage in Guatemala: Indigenous Perspectives on the Ruins of Iximche’

In Guatemala local perspectives on heritage often remain unheard. In this paper a case study is presented to show the complex relationship between the highland site of Iximche’ and Tecpán, an Indigenous community nearby. Although Iximche’ is of little importance to the local economy, its significance is derived from its role as a field for different kinds of social and religious interactions. Traces of a spiritual relationship to this place can be dated back to the colonial period and today Maya from all over Guatemala go there to perform ceremonies. The place has also become a focal point of identity constructions for locals, Pan Mayan activists and the nation itself. The ruins of Iximche’ play an important role in the construction of collective memory which also includes ideas coming from external players such as Christian churches, the national government, Mayan activists, and archaeologists as well.     

The Life and Poetry of Yun Sŏn-Do 尹善道, the Greatest Poet in the Sijo Form

Abstract

This essay, beginning with the proposition of Confucius being born with knowledge, aims to illustrate the sacred imagination Zhu Xi has on Confucius, as well as how the former utilizes specific hermeneutical strategies to maintain the image of the latter. The essay first places in order theories from scholars in the past, regarding “sages being born with knowledge,” then goes on to examine the exegesis Zhu had on the fact that Confucius has “Inborn Knowledge”; followed by a revelation on how Zhu has made use of the concept of “Expression of Modesty” to resolve textual conflicts caused by the affirmation of such knowledge. Finally, limitations of Zhu's hermeneutical strategies are critically examined, so as to exhibit the correlation between commentators of the Classics and the time they live in. The investigation can deepen our understanding on the hermeneutical tradition of Confucianism, hence producing a complementary effect on recent studies.     

Champaner‐Pavagadh Archaeological Park: A Design Approach

Champaner‐Pavagadh, like many other heritage sites in India, is both an historic and ethnographic landscape. It possesses a unique status as a medieval city—Champaner—frozen in time, more or less protected by its sudden abandonment 450 years ago. At the same time, it is a living sacred site—Pavagadh Hill—visited annually by millions, with a resident population. Efforts are underway to declare the hill and the remains of the medieval city at its foot an archaeological park, which will ensure protection and conservation of cultural and natural resources. The challenge in designing the site as an archaeological park lies in articulating the pastoral image conjured up by the term in a manner that does not belie complex issues of land ownership, varied use, and ecological integrity of the site. Working landscapes—farms, flower fields, orchards, and nurseries—can be employed as a landscape‐design typology to ensure sustainability and to preserve and frame sightlines to monuments. Garden archaeology is necessary to uncover the symbiotic relationship between buildings and gardens of medieval Champaner.     

Sovereign Bodies: Ancestor Cult and State Legitimacy among the Incas

The worship of dead Inca kings, because it aimed at preserving the deceased's bodily integrity, reveals constituent aspects of royal personhood. Underpinning these practices was the conception that the dead's agency was conveyed through corporeal substances, which therefore required constant acts of sustenance. This paper examines the bodily practices and material substances that shaped the king's physical person during his lifetime, as well as after his death. These data show that the royal body was made conspicuous through a series of ritual and symbolic actions devised to display the king's faculty to infuse vital force to all living creatures under his rule he thus stood as the source of prosperity for his subjects with which he was engaged in reciprocal obligations of life sustenance. I argue that these “embodied technologies of power” shaped a system of representations that legitimated the king's appropriation of state resources.     

The Field of Mars: heterotopias of territory and war

Territory is connected to war in different ways. This paper explores the ontological face of war, from a political and spatial perspective. Heterotopias, like the Roman Field of Mars and US National Cemeteries, are used to throw light on the relationships between war and territory. The paper first traces the origins of the importance of territory to war, following the Foucaltian revision of Clausewitz to suggest how politics is the continuation of war by other means. It then proceeds to analyze two key displacements constitutive of the current relation between territory and sovereignty: the substitution of the loyalty to king for the loyalty to territory, and the further replacement of territory by the “map”. In the second half of this paper, special attention is given to the post-Cold War hegemonic state practices that have changed the discourses of war and thus constituted a new, postmodern, Field of Mars. The paper shows how the new postmodern “virtuous wars”, fought outside Western Europe and North America, reconfigure the Western politics, territory and sovereignty, particularly in the United States.     

The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic

North Africa’s Phoenician city of Carthage was above all a logical place from which the well-informed maritime Phoenicians colonized and controlled the Western Mediterranean. The leading important factors affecting the founding of Carthage were mostly geographical: overall centrality along the southern coast of the Western Mediterranean; proximity to the island bridge of Italy via Sicily; nascent oceanographic knowledge of water currents and wind gyres as well as shoals such as the Gulf of Sidra and the shelter of the Gulf of Tunis itself; and important local topography and religious landmarks.     

General Groves and the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Part II)

Die Entscheidung für den Bau der Atombombe fiel in den Vereinigten Staaten aus der Befürchtung heraus, daß deutsche Wissenschaftler und Ingenieure die (in deutschen Laboratorien gemachte) Entdeckung der Urankernspaltung waffentechnisch verwerten würden. Aber sobald die U.S.A. sich einmal entschieden hatte, den Bau einer Atombombe ernsthaft zu betreiben, entwickelte das Unternehmen eine Eigendynamik. In dem Bestreben, das Projekt zu finanzieren, ohne daß die Öffentlichkeit etwas bemerkt, wurde es dem Army Corps of Engineers übertragen, in dessen beträchtlichem Kriegsetat die Ausgaben versteckt werden konnten. Das Projekt erhielt den Namen Manhattan Engineer District, um den Anschein zu erwecken, es handle sich um die lokale Abteilung irgendeines anderen Pionierkorps – was später abgekürzt wurde zu Manhattan Project –, und General Leslie R. Groves, bekannt dafür, Dinge in die Hand zu nehmen und zu Ende zu führen, wurde die Leitung übertragen. Die Beiträge der Wissenschaftler waren zwar entscheidend, doch hatten sie wenig Verständnis dafür, was erforderlich war, um ihre Labor-Experimente in den Maßstab industrieller Fertigung zu überführen; darin war aber General Groves ein Meister. Auf dem Höhepunkt des Vorhabens im Sommer 1944 beschäftigte das Projekt in großen und kleinen Einrichtungen überall in den U.S.A. und in Kanada über 160000 Menschen; und es kann als Zeichen für die Effektivität des Sicherheitssystems angesehen werden, daß die meisten der am Projekt Arbeitenden nichts über den wahren Zweck ihrer Tätigkeit wußten und daß die meisten Amerikaner erst durch die Meldung des Bombenabwurfs über Hiroshima vom 6. August 1945 eine vage Vorstellung von dem Projekt erhielten. General Groves war nicht nur für die Konstruktion der Bombe verantwortlich, er übernahm auch die Verantwortung für die Planung des Abwurfs der Bomben in Japan, und er gab – was weniger bekannt ist – auch die Befehle, welche die Bomben auf ihren Weg nach Hiroshima und Nagasaki schickten. Er war von Anfang an entschlossen sicherzustellen, daß sowohl die Plutonium-als auch die Uranbombe noch vor dem Kriegsende in japanischen Städten Verwendung fänden.     

公路汽车振动对晋祠圣母殿宋代彩塑影响研究

为了研究公路的交通振动对彩塑损伤状况,对山西省晋祠圣母殿内彩塑进行了脉动和汽车振动测试。脉动测试与分析得到了彩塑基频自振周期、阻尼比及传递函数;单车公路汽车振动测试及利用传递函数进行的多车振动数值计算分析,得到了彩塑在单车行走下的最大位移为3.40×10-2μm,五车纵列行走振动最大位移为1.32×10-1μm,及在不同汽车流下的振动位移。根据彩塑残损情况和振动最大位移角2.24×10-7rad,提出了瞬时振动对晋祠泥质彩塑影响的判定等级和准则;根据疲劳损伤理论和振动测试结果,提出了持久振动对晋祠泥质彩塑损伤的判定准则;根据晋祠泥质彩塑的现状损伤和其在振动时的瞬时位移极限角,提出了不同等级公路应有的避让距离分别为3200m、2400m、1800m、1200m、800m,并对晋祠周围的公路状况进行了判定。     

Perimortem mutilation of human remains in an early village in the American Southwest: A case for ethnic violence

Recent excavations at the Sacred Ridge Site, just south of the town of Durango, Colorado, have uncovered the single largest deposit (to date) of mutilated and processed human remains in the American Southwest. This deposit dates to the very late eighth or very early ninth century A.D. and therefore represents an incidence of large-scale violence and perimortem mutilation dating to the Pueblo I period (A.D. 700–900), when initial village formation occurred in the northern San Juan Region of the Southwest. Expectations for various interpretations for the Sacred Ridge assemblage are generated based on previous research and cross-cultural data on cannibalism, warfare, and human bone processing. Based on a lack of fit with previous models developed to account for extreme processing (EP) events, including starvation cannibalism, warfare and social intimidation, and witch-craft accusations, it is proposed that the Sacred Ridge massacre was the result of ethnic conflict during the Pueblo I period.