THE PUZZLE OF THE BANQUET HALL OF THE DUKES: THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF SWEDISH HISTORICAL RESEARCH STUDIED THROUGH LUDWIK FLECK'S “THOUGHT COLLECTIVE” AND “THOUGHT STYLE”

In 1312, the Swedish dukes Erik and Valdemar Magnusson married the Norwegian princesses Ingeborg Haakonsdaughter and Ingeborg Eriksdaughter at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. In 1313, the two couples were reunited at a purpose-built banquet hall, believed to have been located in the medieval Swedish town of Lödöse. The main source of information concerning these events is the Swedish medieval rhyme chronicle The Chronicle of Duke Erik. However, a closer reading of the chronicle reveals that Lödöse is never mentioned in relation to the banquet hall. The article discusses the passing down of knowledge through generations of the same professional collective, in this case the professional collective of Swedish historians during the twentieth century, and demonstrates how the validity of once-established prescientific knowledge persists. To achieve its goal, the article applies Ludwik Fleck's terms “thought collective,” “thought style,” and “tenacity in science,” as well as Thomas Kuhn's concept of the “paradigm,” to a historiographical case study of how the proto-idea of the banquet hall being located at Lödöse has survived to become an established scientific fact. The location of the banquet hall concerns but a minor detail in the turbulent political situation of the Swedish kingdom during the first decades of the fourteenth century. However, the continuing reiteration of this minor detail is evidence of a larger phenomenon, namely how contemporary historical research is influenced by scholars in the prescientific past.     

Performing space across time: a 520-year anniversary in a western Ukrainian village

Abstract

Festivals and celebrations have special significance for the foundation of community and collective memory. They are part of social practice and, at the same, also reveal much about current and historical social structures, traditions and rituals. Festivals contrast with everyday life, taking participants away from it; celebrations, conversely, celebrate and reinforce social hierarchies, the role of individuals in the community and the characteristics of the community. This is clearly demonstrated in this contribution on the example of the festivities of two western Ukrainian village communities celebrating 520 years of existence. The communities’ notable peculiarity lies in the fact that they were founded as a single village. Due the partitioning of Poland along the Zbru? River, however, the two sides were situated in Austria-Hungary and Russia, respectively. In the interwar period, they were located in Poland and the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Second World War, they were part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Although they did not have borders for the first time in 150 years, they nevertheless continued to exist as independent villages. Given this starting point, a celebration of the 520th anniversary of the founding of these communities obviously has very complex historical contexts within different past state regimes. The following analysis of the village festival will first demonstrate how such a celebration was achieved. Further, it will examine the extent to which a socio-spatial demarcation was reproduced just as efforts were simultaneously made to eliminate it. The village is a striking example of the manifestation of the experience and perception, design and imagination of present and past spaces.     

Images of Rabbi Uziel and their place in his commemoration

The article examines changes in the commemoration work and memorial discourse surrounding the first Sephardi Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, Rabbi Ben-Tzion Meir Hai Uziel. While commemoration work in the public sphere in Israel has dwindled over the years, there has been a revival of memory discourse in recent years, especially amongst Religious Zionists. The article proposes reasons for this resurgence, including a response to processes of Haredization of the Sephardi spiritual leadership in Israel and a quest for a source of inspiration for a moderate, Zionist Orthodox rabbinate.     

“江苏省兴化、东台市蒋庄遗址考古成果专家论证会”会议纪要

2016年2月"江苏省兴化、东台市蒋庄遗址考古成果专家论证会"对位于江苏兴化、东台的蒋庄遗址进行了实地考察并就相关问题展开讨论。专家们认为:大规模的良渚文化墓地是蒋庄遗址最重要的发现,说明了良渚文化已经扩张到长江以北,有助于学界更新对良渚文化的认识;蒋庄遗址葬制葬俗多样、人骨保存完好、随葬玉器等级较高,为良渚文化的研究提供了新的实物资料。蒋庄墓地的年代框架还需要通过进一步的科研工作来确认,未来的遗址保护工作还需要地方政府给予积极的配合。     

江苏淮安王庄村汉墓群发掘简报

2013年淮安市博物馆发掘淮安王庄村汉墓群,共清理汉墓97座。墓葬形制多样,排列有序,共同位于一大型土墩之下,与淮安地区传统族葬墓有明显的区别。墓葬随葬器物丰富多样,器物组合时代特征明确。从出土器物和墓葬形制及排列情况分析,墓葬时代在西汉早期至东汉时期,墓葬之间在年代上有明显的承继关系,是一处大型汉代土墩墓。该墓地的发掘为研究淮安乃至苏北地区汉代墓葬特别是汉代土墩墓类型提供了极其重要的新材料。     

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Teeth from a Female Burial in Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov,Northwestern Russia (c. 6200 cal BC) – Local Rarities or Transported Goods?

Tooth pendants of European elk, Eurasian beaver and brown bear are the most common artefact type in graves at Late Mesolithic Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov on Lake Onega, northwestern Russia. In one burial of a 20-35-year-old woman, 18 fragments of wild boar tooth pendants from at least five individuals were found. Wild boar was not a regular part of local fauna in the Mesolithic, and if these wild boars were hunted locally, they were very unusual game. These wild boar tooth pendants may also represent imported goods that came to Onega from a more southern area via exchange. It is also possible that the woman was not local but came from a region where wild boars were abundant and common game for Mesolithic people.     

Grave‐goods from the long chamber tomb “Dibba 76/1” (Fujairah,UAE): a first inventory

The aim of this paper is to present the rich set of finds collected inside the grave Dibba 76/1, in the Emirate of Fujairah, during a season of rescue excavation conducted under the direction of S. Ali Hassan in 1994. The recovered grave‐goods include pottery, soft‐stone vessels, metal finds, personal ornaments, coins, and other items. Although comparable with other corpuses of material excavated in south‐eastern Arabia, the material of Dibba 76/1 stands out for the inner variety of the different artefacts’ classes and their remarkable chronological heterogeneity. The study of the grave‐goods suggests that Dibba 76/1 was reused over several centuries, showing a strong continuity in the funerary destination of this specific place from the end of the Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC) to the first phases of the late pre‐Islamic period (250 BC–AD 400), and the full integration of the area of Dibba in the succession of the various cultural facies known during this long time span.     

Taphonomy of Burnt Burials: Spatial Analysis of Bone Fragments in Their Secondary Deposition

Examining recently excavated burnt burials, we explore the potential of spatial analysis to contribute to the understanding of changes that human body goes through during burning and relocation to the place of secondary deposition. Artificial heat decomposition of a body is a complex process that consists of several stages of intentional manipulation with the body. Each stage can be biased by several accidental factors which then significantly change the final archaeological record. We focussed on the post‐burning stage, especially the pathways of bone fragments to secondary deposition. We investigated spatial distribution and weight of bones in urns and pits and asked whether it is possible to observe their intentional arrangement. The trend of bone arrangement could be distinguished in most cases. Bones of peripheral parts of body were typically situated at the bottom; skull bones were usually concentrated in the upper part. However, the weight underrepresentation of all investigated burials was apparent. Deposition of selected burnt bones suggests their careful collection from the pyre and complex post‐mortem manipulation. Our detailed analysis aims to reconstruct particular steps executed during funeral rites of past populations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eneolithic Cattle Burials from Aljmaš‐Podunavlje and Osijek‐Retfala,Croatia

Two single bovine burials and one mixed animal burial (containing bovine and canid skeletal remains) have been unearthed at two Baden culture sites, Aljmaš‐Podunavlje and Osijek‐Retfala located in Eastern Croatia. Zooarchaeological analysis attributed the faunal remains to domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) and in one case a dog (Canis familiaris). Almost complete and articulated skeletons of subadult or adult cows were found in all three examined features, while pit 59/60 from Aljmaš also contained a skull belonging to an adult‐domesticated cattle and a skeleton of a very young dog, 2–3 months old. All of the skeletons are well preserved and display no evidence of carcass processing indicating that the animals were buried intentionally. Consideration of the positions in which these animals were interred and their relationship with nearby deposits enables discussion of potential animal burial strategies and possible connections with certain ritual practices in which cows and in one case a dog played important roles. The described burials represent the southernmost known distribution of the rite discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Past under the Shadow of the Present: The Case of the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History

The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, which opened in 2012, has been the focus of a heated controversy between the progressive and conservative camps over the “proper” ways to represent South Korea’s turbulent history. I build on the relationship between heritage, collective memory and national identity, and argue that the division that typifies South Korean society has implications that extend beyond socio-political issues. Anchored within a broader discursive context, the museum became an important memory carrier involved in the process of debating the issue of national identity. Although no agreement has been reached regarding the “proper” historical narrative the site should exhibit, the museum has nevertheless offered an opportunity to shape a form of national identity that can embrace a more complex perspective on the country’s contemporary history. At present, though, this contentious site has demonstrated the extent to which the legacy of the conservative–progressive divide remains deep. I offer a discursive context that is useful for the study of current debates over heritage sites in South Korea, while the overall analysis illuminates the idea that the “present-centred” management of heritage in national museums can, potentially, play a part in the process of forming more intricate notions of national identity.