Accommodating the Lodger: The Domestic Arrangements of Lodgers in Working-Class Dwellings in a Victorian Provincial Town

Recent research using coroners' inquests (both the original records and ensuing newspaper reports) has opened the door on the domestic arrangements of the Victorian working classes and the lives of the inhabitants therein, including that of the lodger. It is widely acknowledged that the majority of lodgers in Victorian England's towns and cities resided in private working-class dwellings and, while the census reveals the types of households that took in lodgers, we know little of these lodgers – beyond their age and occupation – or how they were accommodated. This article begins to address this lacuna by bringing the lodger to the forefront of the household. Drawing upon a number of coroners' inquest reports, it explores the lodger and the domestic arrangements of lodgers accommodated in working-class dwellings in the town of Ipswich, asking: (1) What were individuals' reasons for taking up lodgings? (2) What length of time did they spend in lodgings? (3) How and what did they pay for? (4) What was their relationship to those with whom they lodged and what were their daily interactions? and, crucially, (5) How were they accommodated? The findings reveal that the domestic arrangements of lodgers, including where they slept, varied widely. The article demonstrates that we need to reappraise our understanding of the lodger and their place in the home.     

Middle pleistocene adaptations in Central Europe

The biological evolution documented in the fossil and archaeological record of Central Europe between about 700,000 and 100,000 years ago reflects the transition fromHomo erectus to the earliestHomo sapiens. These populations created different types of industries, ranging from assemblages of small artifacts and industries with simple pebble tools to standardized units such as the Evolved Acheulean and the Early Mousterian. The industries of the Last Interglacial (Taubachian) show some regression in technological standardization and a reappearance of small artifacts. Other aspects of cultural adaptation (settlements, dwellings, hunting activity, symbolic and aesthetic expressions) are also summarized. It is suggested that the impact of climate and climatic changes on human settlement and behavior was greater in Central Europe (where two glaciations advanced from both north and south) than in the Mediterranean and Western Europe. The general trend of cultural veolution was toward greater technological and social complexity, but its course was not unilinear.     

Erosion Hazards and Efficient Preservation Measures in Prehistoric Cultural Layers in the Littoral of Lake Constance (Germany,Switzerland)

Many Neolithic and Bronze Age cultural layers and pile fields embedded in sediments at the shorelines of pre-alpine lakes in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy (in part UNESCO World Heritage Sites), are threatened by littoral erosion which is partly caused by human agency. Based on measurements of the wave field at four prehistoric sites on Lake Constance (Germany, Switzerland) we discuss the role of passenger ship navigation. We also review the stability and ecological compatibility of archaeological preservation control fills on the littoral platform of Lake Constance, and we make some recommendations for future preservation measures.     

Historic settlements and pastoralism in the Arctic and Tibetan Plateau: towards a comparison

Historic settlement processes of, respectively, the Northern Sámi and Western Tibetan pastoralists have so far not been subjected to any comparative social science analyses. This study contributes to such a conceptual platform, drawing on the constructs dwelling, settlement, herding unit, pastoral landscape and the labour–animal–pasture triangle. Ethnographic and archival evidence of transitions from sedentary/semi-sedentary to full-fledged pastoralist societies and transitions from a pastoral adaptation to sedentary and semi-sedentary life are analysed and debated in light of the influential theoretical proposition of a categorical difference between a nomad’s and a farmer’s dwelling. At the core of this, comparative inquiry is two highly dynamic pastoral herding societies. It is argued that a comparative approach to the study of settlements requires a theoretical and analytical reframing – informed by a more adequate comprehension of the dwelling–settlement nexus. This preliminary scrutiny of dwelling designs and settlement practices of Sámi and Tibetan pastoralists indicates that nomads in both regions internalized and activated different spatial models and inventively mediated between different spatial models according to seasonal or irreversible shifts of leaving the nomadic adaptation altogether. Further rigorous empirical inquiry into accommodation, innovation and possible failures to mediate gaps in the making/remaking of dwellings and settlements are called for.     

试论安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址半地穴式建筑群的性质及相关问题

本文通过对安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址半地穴式建筑群整体特征的分析,对比殷墟遗址的房基建筑,指出,这种房屋建筑形式在殷墟遗址已不是当时的主要建筑形式。半地穴式房基生活遗迹与遗物表现出与殷墟文化的不同,说明其房屋的主人与殷人有所不同。虽然这种建筑方式可能是殷商自身的传统,但在殷墟遗址内,大量聚集出现这种形式建筑群,结合分析出土陶器特征,认为其主人最大可能是来自于西北方或西方的不同族群。     

The 18th-Century Baraccato of L’Aquila

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to describe a particular form of baraccata house, found in L’Aquila, Italy. The differences between this form of baraccato and the Italian traditional timber-framed (T-F) structures, the baraccato borbonico and the baraccato alla beneventana, are shown. In the upper valley of the Aterno river (Abruzzo, Italy), a few kilometers far from L’Aquila, wonderful 18^th-century examples of T-F masonry structures are present. The use of wood pervades both the poor and noble buildings. In this article, the documentary and functional features of this peculiar anti-seismic timber-based building technique, which is widespread in L’Aquila and the neighboring areas, is described. After a comparative analysis of the technique’s features, the case of three T-F buildings, belonging to three different social classes is reported, the first is the Ricci palace in Mopolino di Montereale, the second is a middle-class building, and the third is a rural one. The 1703 earthquake, which affected the upper valley of the Aterno river and the nearby city of L’Aquila, gave rise to an ante litteram anti-seismic culture. Timber was not seen as an obstacle to durability but a material to be exploited to protect buildings from earthquakes.