Bureaucrats and managers,peasants and pastoralists,imperialists and traders: Research on the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods in Mesopotamia

In recent decades the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods of the fourth millennium B. C. in Mesopotamia have been the subject of considerable research by scholars of the ancient Near East. Interests in and interpretations of these periods have focused on their credentials as early states, urban societies, and the immediate antecedents of Sumerian civilization. In this overview, I first present a brief historical background on the study of these periods, followed by a critical review of recent approaches that have had significant impacts on current directions of research and understanding of the fourth millennium. Finally, I suggest some research avenues currently being tentatively explored that may be especially appropriate for developing further our understandings of these periods.     

青海古代文化遗址时空分布特征

本文对青海古代各历史时期的文化遗址及文物进行了分析与探讨,提出了青海古代文化遗址有着分布的集中性、石器时代的完整性以及多元结构的民族文化特点;论证了以上特点是由地理环境及历史的各民族文化活动所致。     

Theorising the anti-nation: George Woodcock,anarchism, and Canadian nationalism

George Woodcock was anarchism's most influential historian and an important public intellectual in Canada. This article focuses on his engagement with Canadian nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. It argues that a ‘philosophical anarchism’ was at the heart of his intellectual project, and this informed his reading of Canadian cultural development and subsequent political challenge to Pierre Elliott Trudeau's civic nationalism. Woodcock decoupled the concepts of ‘nation’ and ‘state’ in order to develop a radically different model for Canada—the ‘anti-nation’—defined by regionalism, federalism and direct democracy. His reading of Canada's cultural history supporting this position was therefore part of a strategy to repurpose nationalist rhetoric towards anti-state ends.     

聚醋酸乙烯酯乳液的表征、性能及其在彩绘类文物保护中的应用

聚醋酸乙烯酯(PVAc)乳液是常见的彩绘类文物保护材料。采用激光粒度仪、热重/差热分析、红外光谱、X-射线衍射、扫描电镜、透射电镜等表征了PVAc乳液的粒径以及胶膜的热稳定性、结构和形貌;采用粘度计、表面张力仪、pH计、电导率仪等研究了乳液浓度与其粘度、表面张力、pH、电导率的关系;通过冻融、室温-高温放置、离心分离研究了乳液的稳定性;同时用PVAc乳液对模拟起甲和酥碱的壁画进行了修复。结果表明,PVAc乳液粒径呈双峰分布,小粒子的平均粒径为380 nm,大粒子的平均粒径为5.85μm;乳液胶膜为非结晶物质,胶膜热重的最终质量残留为1.54%,335℃出现放热峰。PVAc乳液的电导率随浓度的增大而增大,pH随浓度的增大而下降;相同温度下表面张力随浓度的增大而基本呈现低浓度下降,高浓度上升的趋势。相同浓度下,表面张力随温度升高而无显著变化,表明PVAc乳液的表面张力受温度变化影响不大。相同温度下,乳液粘度随浓度的增大而增大;相同浓度下,乳液的粘度随温度的升高而降低。冻融、离心分离和不同温度下静置发现,该乳液出现分层。用该乳液对模拟起甲和酥碱壁画修复后,再分别老化20个循环和12个循环,发现颜料层再次空鼓、起甲。综合分析,说明实验中所使用的该种PVAc稳定性和抗老化能力较弱,在修复彩绘类文物中应慎重选择PVAc的种类,综合考虑PVAc的使用浓度、环境因素对其性能的影响,以达到最佳使用效果。     

慈利白公城遗址出土木材种属的鉴定研究

慈利白公城遗址历史悠久,具有重要的考古价值。该遗址出土了大量木质井壁及少量其他木质文物,为了解这些木材的特点,以及为木材保护提供相关的参考,通过徒手切片,并利用光学显微镜对该遗址出土的10件木质样品进行鉴定。结果表明其中1件为无患子(Sapindus. mukorossi Gaertn.),1件为冷杉(Abies fabri(Mast.)Craib),2件为湖南杨桐(Adinandra. acutifolia Hand.-Mazz.),2件为香椿(Toona sinensis A. Juss.),4件为润楠(Machilus pingii Cheng ex Yang)。通过实验结果,初步推测井壁的制作在当时是比较重要的工作,此时已经在选择性地使用木质井壁原料。从树种适宜生长的环境上看,同时期该遗址附近可能是以阔叶材为主的针阔叶混交林,气候温暖湿润。     

Current archaeological research in the Middle Atlantic region of the eastern united states

A major theme of current archaeological research in the Middle Atlantic region of Eastern North America is the recognition of cultural variability across space and through time. The most significant culture change experienced during the entire time frame of regional prehistory occurred ca. 5000 B.P., when there were major changes in regional environments. Before 5000 B.P., adaptations were characterized by small groups of mobile hunters and gatherers. After 5000 B.P., there were continued growth in regional populations and increases in sedentism, intensive use of a limited range of food resources, social group size, and social complexity.     

The prehistory of Cyprus: Problems and prospects

The archaeological record of prehistoric Cyprus is rich, diverse, well-published, and frequently enigmatic. Regarded by many as a bridge between western Asia and the Aegean, Cyprus and its past are frequently seen from scholarly perspectives prevalent in one of those two cultural areas. Its material culture, however, differs radically from that of either area. Apart from the early colonization episodes on the island (perhaps three during the pre-Neolithic and Neolithic), evidence of foreign contact remains limited until the Bronze Age (post-2500 B. C.). This study seeks to present the prehistory of Cyprus from an indigenous perspective, and to examine a series of archaeological problems that foreground Cyprus within its eastern Mediterranean context. The study begins with an overview of time, place, and the nature of fieldwork on the island, continues with a presentation and discussion of several significant issues in Cypriot prehistory (e.g., insularity, colonization, subsistence, regionalism, interaction, social complexity, economic diversity), and concludes with a brief discussion of prospects for the archaeology of Cyprus up to and beyond 2000.     

Reflections on North American Pacific Coast prehistory

The Pacific Coast of North America was occupied by many distinctive groups of coastal hunter-gatherers at the times of early contacts with Europeans. Despite significant cultural diversity, Pacific Coast peoples shared lifeways oriented toward generally similar marine, nearshore, littoral, and estuarine habitats. In this paper, we examine some major issues that guide much of the archaeology done along the Pacific Coast, then discuss some of the theoretical and methodological problems that limit the efficacy of archaeological reconstructions. Most archaeological research conducted on North America's Pacific Coast has been oriented toward the search for the origins and development of a variety of cultural patterns. A comparative review of California and Northwest Coast sequences provides interesting parallels and discrepancies in the approaches taken in studying some of the major issues in Pacific Coast prehistory.     

Patterns of exchange and the social production of pigs in highland new guinea: Their relevance to questions about the origins and evolution of agriculture

In recent years, cultural anthropologists have made notable progress in understanding the bewildering variety of material exchange transactions found among the aboriginal populations of highland New Guinea. One of the major findings of this work is that competitive exchange behavior may bring in its wake alterations in agronomic practices involving an intensification of production. That intensification is primarily a product of social behavior, rather than an adaptation to climate change or population pressure, is a significant conclusion that should influence the thinking of archaeologists as they investigate past episodes of agronomic change, including the origins of agriculture.     

Tales of the Unexpected: Exploring Car Boot Sales as Marginal Spaces of Contemporary Consumption

Marginal and/or resistant consumption practices have been neglected in current geographical debates on consumption and retailing. This has resulted in partial and skewed theorizations of exchange within contemporary consumption. Consumption spaces such as car boot sales represent sites in which the conventions of the marketplace are suspended or abandoned, and replaced by forms of sourcing, commodity circulation, transaction codes, pricing mechanisms and value quite different from those which typify more conventional retail malls and department stores. Drawing on the anthropological literature on traditional and peasant markets, we argue that exchange within the car boot sale is socially, culturally and geographically embedded and we emphasize the intrinsic importance of fun and sociality to such activities. Marginal spaces such as the car boot sale offer both some important clues into the potential for rethinking marketplace dynamics, notably with respect to our understandings of value, and some intriguing possibilities for consumer politics.