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Stored under optimal conditions, paper can last for hundreds of years; however, paper is also susceptible to numerous agents of deterioration as it is primarily made of cellulose fibre derived from plant cell walls. Paper is especially vulnerable under conditions with high temperature and humidity, which together can encourage mould growth and foster insect pests. Pest infestation is a common type of deterioration responsible for significant damage to paper and books. Endsheets prepared with red lead and sewn into traditional Chinese bookbindings are a historical method used to minimise insect damage to books in southern China. Samples of red-coloured papers from the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong were assessed. Two types of so called wan nian hong papers (萬年紅紙), (1) damaged and (2) undamaged by insects, were analysed with a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence detector. The chemical analyses reveal high concentrations of red lead (lead tetroxide, Pb3O4) in the undamaged papers, and only very few traces of lead in the damaged papers. The orange papers with insect feeding tunnels seem to have been only coloured in orange, and not treated with red lead as a biocide. These results are discussed and compared with modern treatment methods in the integrated pest management of books, archive, and library materials in (a) Europe and (b) Asia.

Rubie Watson, the Williarn and Muriel Howells Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, has put together an excellent little volume covering the history of the opening of the Peabody Museum ofArchaeology and Ethnology.

Irving has done an excellent job in describing Childe's political journey and mapping it onto his prehistoric archaeological scholarship in a way that enhances both. While many of Childe's specific proposals about European history have either been amended or have evolved to the point where he no longer remains a touchstone, European archaeology still operates in the framework largely created by Childe's grand syntheses. After this Childe found work as private secretary to John Storey, NSW Labor member for Balmain, first in opposition and then in government, Storey becoming Premier in 1920. [Extracted from the article]

This annual bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society is a unique contribution specifically focused upon the history of Texas archaeology in a format that no others have done previously. The volume contains 150 pages, the majority of which consists of interviews (146 pages) conducted by the first State Archaeologist of Texas, Curtis Tunnell. In 1968 Tunnell conceived of the idea of obtaining personal interviews from individuals whom he considered his heroes for their pioneering efforts in Texas archeology. This volume entails the first publication of such information, but more will certainly follow. The remaining four pages comprise two different reviews of other publications important in their own right to those interested in Southern Plains archeology of Texas. These two reviews by Timothy K Pertulla and David T. Hughes, respectively, are of The Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva: The 1540·1542 Route Across the Southwest by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing flint, and GaffCreek: Artifact Collection Strategy and Occupation Prehistory on the Southern High Plains, Texas County. Oklahoma. The section by Tunnell titled "In Their Own Words: Stories from Some Pioneer Texas Archeologists" contains numerous previously unpublished photographs of people, sites and artifacts referred to the texts.

The Royal Archaeological Institute is inviting researchers, academics, and professionals in the field of archaeology to submit original research for publication in The Archaeological Journal. The Journal, which has been published since 1844, welcomes articles, reports, and analyses on all periods of human history, with a focus on England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. The Journal is known for its high-quality academic publications and its ability to publish both shorter research articles and larger reports and studies. All submitted manuscripts undergo initial appraisal by the Editor and are then subject to double-blind peer review. The print version of the journal is published annually, but all papers are made available online shortly after acceptance. [Extracted from the article]

There is growing interest in the incorporation of digital games as part of the suite of offerings in museum education in heritage environments. Digital games are seen as ways of recreating historic worlds, affording empathetic and affective engagement, and increasing interest in and understanding of historical periods or processes, working in complementarity with material exhibitions and artefacts on display. Stakeholders engaged in the development of digital games, however, may have different views of what constitutes significant knowledge and priorities. This paper reports on findings from a pilot study that investigated key concerns for three groups involved in designing a game -- museum educators, maritime archaeologists and games designers -- that foregrounded the construction of history, history as constructed and processes of historical research. The paper explores the differing values and priorities underlying the perspectives of each group, and the implications of these for museum education, and the design of the game.

Archaeologies of Slavery and Freedom in the Caribbean: Exploring the Spaces in Between: edited by Lynsey A. Bates, John M. Chenoweth, and James A. Delle, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 2016. ix, 358 pp., ill., maps. The volume concludes with remarks by Laurie Wilkie (Chapter 14) who draws on her own deep experience with plantation archaeology in both the Bahamas and the southeastern United States, to synthesize the preceding chapters and reflect on which "spaces in between" remain understudied. Seiter points out how on many small islands, sugar monoculture was slow to develop as the climate, challenging topography, and political instability were impediments to sugar cultivation and plantation slavery. [Extracted from the article]

Following the discussions of how to define a city, in Chapter 4 Storey guides the reader through case studies of primary cities. In his primer on ancient urbanism, Glenn Storey provides an introductory text that encompasses many crucial topics across a range of past urban sites. Storey classifies cities into "hyper" and "hypo" cities, which are compact high-density or physically large areas of with low-density populations, respectively. [Extracted from the article]

Thoughtful members of the broader anthropological and archaeological community will recognize many of the themes of Kehoe's work and appreciate the resonance with current challenges and discussions in the academic community. Kehoe mentions a few times throughout her memoir her recent project working on a book titled I Archaeologies of Listening i (Peter R. Schmidt and Alice B. Kehoe, editors). I Girl Archaeologist: Sisterhood in a Sexist Profession i is Alice Beck Kehoe's memoir - it recounts her explorations in archaeology (broadly defined) and the changes she experienced and witnessed in the profession. [Extracted from the article]

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These two useful and beautifully-produced sets of conference and associated papers span 1200 years of theology and church archaeology in these islands and beyond. The volumes are complementary, comprising a thematic Venn diagram on the rood, its screen and the Reformation afterlife of screens. The area of Venn intersection around screens points to a missing fourth theme of great importance, which I will add to the rich store of data presented by the sixteen essayists, all of whose contributions are worthwhile in their own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential for using practice-based assessments in higher education in preparing humanities and social sciences specialists. The authors tested a set of innovative methodologies for practice-based summative assessment of the progress made in learning certain disciplines by students majoring in Law, International Law, and History and Archaeology at Sumy State University (Ukraine). To assess the effectiveness of practice-based assessments, the authors employed anonymous surveying, tested students' level of mastery of key theoretical concepts, and carried out a comparative analysis of the performance of students who took part in practice-based assessments and those who took exams in a traditional way. The conducted pedagogical experiment indicates the advisability of employing practice-based assessments as part of teaching humanities and social sciences disciplines. It revealed a significant increase in the level of preparation of students on subjects summative assessment around which was based on practical assignments. Having students train their practical skills can help them assimilate theoretical knowledge better and for a longer time and become more confident in their preparedness for their future profession. Practice-based assessments can also serve as a yardstick for gauging the effectiveness of instructors' teaching methods and stimulate the quest for new ways of teaching and learning that can help meet the needs of the labor market and the interests of students pursuing a higher education as much as possible.

This paper conceptualises practice in the space between and beyond Art & Archaeology as a zone where disciplinary certainties and known practices are unsettled, expanded and re-cast. We will outline our current thinking about heritage landscapes as places and temporalities for engagement in the practice of what Henk Slager calls the para-archive. For us, landscape functions as a kind of living archive, however, following Jacques Derrida, we are sceptical of the privileged relation between archive, law and authority. Therefore, in this paper we will think through our interdisciplinary research in the context of the development of creative para-archives, which facilitate new, affective ways of thinking and making by bringing together the previously unimagined. Responding to the challenge of the SARS-CoV-2 discomfort zone, we seek to surface creative practices, activate archival disruptions and expand pedagogical approaches to the articulation of uncomfortable archival landscapes. The pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need to re-conceptualise visions of space, experiences of place and archival practices. During a virtual fieldtrip students accessed a range of materials from Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment. We aimed to enable the co-design and co-production of a virtual fieldtrip, followed by discussions about our collective conceptualisations of landscapes of discomfort. The archaeological fieldwork in the virtual realm provides a context for students to engage in desirology as a catalyst for deranging, re-associating and re-imagining the archive in creative ways.

The remaining essays in I The Archaeology of Death i are organized geographically (Etruria [107-213], South Italy [217-329] and Sicily [333-95]), chronologically (Prehistory [399-453], Roman Italy [257-503] and Post Antique [507-39]) and under the topic, "New Methods and Technologies" (543-605). Edited by Edward Herring and Eóin O'Donoghue (Papers in Italian Archaeology VII). Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, April 16-18, 2016: Edited by Edward Herring and Eóin O'Donoghue (Papers in Italian Archaeology VII). [Extracted from the article]

Introduction: This paper analyses the work practices and perspectives of professionals working with archaeological archives and the social organization of archaeological archiving and information management in Sweden. Method: The paper is based on an interview study of Swedish actors in the field of archaeological archiving (N = 16). Analysis: The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analysed using close reading. Results: We identified eight major work roles of archiving and managing archaeological information. Analysis of the recorded interviews show that there are multiple technical, legislative, conceptual and structural factors that influence and complicate the building, management and use of archaeological archives. Conclusions: Results show that the central challenge of archiving archaeology is the lack of efforts to influence and control the process by the involved actors. A mutual effort to be more explicit about concerns, needs and wishes of all participating organizations would help them to prioritise their work, take other actors' concerns into account and develop their work practices to support more effectively the preservation of archaeological information.

However, the comprehensive exposition and discussions of the merits/shortcomings of proxies, methodologies, etc., should be regarded as essential reading for student and professional alike, particularly given the easy narrative writing style of the authors. They illustrate how settlement area may not be the best population proxy in all settlement scenarios (for Chifeng, although statistically significant, it is a comparatively poor proxy). Determining the best practice for elucidating settlement demography as an integral part of cultural reconstruction clearly requires thoughtful planning in the data-collection phase and an understanding of the differential merits of the material culture for meaningfully reconstructing the settlement landscape. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this study is to apply "…a new theory of space syntax developed by architects..." to the analysis of "…Zuni settlements occupied between the Spanish Entrado of 1540 and the 1980s" (p. xiii). The goal of this research is a better understanding of the change in Zuni society, as seen through change in Zuni architecture. The results are mixed. Ferguson concludes that space syntax is a useful way to analyze space, but that its theoretical base needs further development (p. 152).

As an imprint of Confucian culture, China's education intersects state governance in making and governing educational subjects as 'talent', an official translation of the Chinese term 'rencai' (literally, human-talent). Whereas the English word 'talent' itself denotes '[people with] natural aptitude or skill', 'talent' is currently mobilized in China not only as a globalized discourse that speaks to the most aspired educational subjects for the 21st century but also as a re-invoked cultural notion that relates to Confucian wisdom. Drawing upon Foucault's biopower hypothesis and Confucian thought, this paper leverages upon China's unique manipulation of 'talent' as certain skills and human subjects, both cultivable through education, to problematize China's talent making and governing in two dimensions. First, it unpacks the various technologies of power entangled in China's talent making and governing within its 'state governance' paradigm. Second, it unpacks Confucian thought as an archaeological prototype for China's present talent appeal, meanwhile explicating their divergences in defining 'human', 'talent', and the human-talent interpellation. In so doing, this paper makes two arguments. First, the linguistic notion of 'talent' functions as a Foucauldian apparatus of biopower, making (up) new kinds of people and normalizing a certain population as the objective/object of China's state governance. Second, CPC's re-invocation of Confucian talent discourses is more of a rhetorical strategy than an authentic cultural renaissance gesture.

Flint tools exhibiting modified patinated surfaces ("double patina", or post-patination flaked items) provide a glimpse into Paleolithic lithic recycling, stone economy, and human choices. Different life cycles of such items are visually evident by the presence of fresh new modified surfaces alongside old patinated ones (according to color and texture differences). New modifications testify to a gap in time between the previous life cycle of the patinated flaked item and its new one. The aim of the current study is to reconstruct the functional properties and life cycles of a sample of modified patinated flaked tools from Late Acheulian Revadim, Israel by applying use-wear and residue analyses. The results of the functional study allow a better understanding of the practical reasoning behind the collection and recycling of old flint tools, while additional inputs from theoretical and methodological advancements assist in reconstructing their probable role in the worldviews of the site's inhabitants., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The Department of Archaeology, Cambridge University (England), has done a great service to scholars interested in the history of archaeology by issuing Occasional Paper 1 under its umbrella publication the Archaeological Review from Cambridge. This compact volume contains a number of short articles by some of the leading archaeological figures at Cambridge on doctoral work and the intellectual climates in which students did their from work from 1922-1984. Articles in the volume include the introduction to the volume by SJ. Taylor, "Early Days in the Development of Postgraduate Research in Prehistorical Archaeology at Cambridge:" and by J.G.D. Clark; "Postgraduate Research in Prehistorical Archaeology at Cambridge 1950- 1970," by C.F.W. Higham; "Advice and Consent: Archaeological Research at Cambridge in the 1970s and 1980s, " by Ian Hodder; "The Development of African Archaeology in Cambridge," by J. Alexander; and "Cambridge Archaeology Before the Tripos: The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology" by D.W. Phillipson. In addition the volume contains a listing of the graduate students at the doctoral level and their dissertation titles from 1922-1987.

This well-produced volume honors Stephen Williams, recently retired Peabody Professor of American Archaeology at Harvard University. Section one, on Williams' life, career, and publications, is of most interest to readers of BHA. Chapter 1, by James B. Griffin details Williams' career in teaching, in museum management, and southeastern archaeology and ethnohistory. Williams served as chairman of at least 25 doctoral committees and is credited with chairing more women's committees than any other Harvard archaeologist (Claassen 1994:7). Except for mention of his recent book, Fantastic Archaeology, neither this chapter or any other provides information on Williams' interest in and contributions to the history of archaeology. Chapter 2 provides his twin brother, Philip's, perception of their early life together and divergence once they reached college. Philip seems to have had the initial interest in archaeology and both brothers went to Lloyd Wilford's 1947 summer field school in Minnesota, but Philip ended up in business while Stephen went on in archaeology.

City plans symbolizing cosmologies have long been recognized as a defining element of Mesoamerican civilizations. The origins of formal spatial configurations are thus the key to understanding early civilizations in the region. Assessment of this issue, however, has been hindered by the lack of systematic studies of site plans over broad areas. Here, we report the identification of 478 formal rectangular and square complexes, probably dating from 1,050 to 400 BC, through a lidar (laser imaging, detection and ranging) survey across the Olmec region and the western Maya lowlands. Our analysis of lidar data also revealed that the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo had a central rectangular space, which possibly provided the spatial template for later sites. This format was probably formalized and spread after the decline of San Lorenzo through intensive interaction across various regions. These observations highlight the legacy of San Lorenzo and the critical role of inter-regional interaction., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Plant wax biomarkers are an innovative proxy for reconstructing vegetation composition and structure, rainfall intensity, temperature, and other climatic and environmental dynamics. Traditionally used in earth sciences and climate studies from "off-site" ocean and lake records, biomarker research is now incorporated in archeology and paleoanthropology to answer questions relating to past human-environment interactions and human evolution. Biomarker research is generating new and exciting information on the ecological context in which Homo and its closest relatives evolved, adapted, and invented stone tool technologies. In this review, we examine plant wax biomarkers and their use in reconstructing past plant landscapes and hydroclimates. We summarize the applications of plant wax molecular proxies in archeological research, assess challenges relating to taphonomy, consider the role of modern plant ecosystems in interpreting ancient habitats, and examine case studies conducted at key paleoanthropological locations in eastern and southern Africa and Europe., (© 2021 The Authors. Evolutionary Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)