China's prehistoric ages : how mythological texts and archaeological evidence can contour our understanding.

How mythological texts and archaeological evidence can contour our understanding

Change in the diet of sooty owls (Tyto tenebricosa) since European settlement: from terrestrial to arboreal prey and increased overlap with powerful owls

The current diet of the sooty owl (Tyto tenebricosa) was determined by analysing freshly regurgitated pellets collected beneath their roosting sites in East Gippsland, Victoria. Comparisons were then made with: (i) prehistoric and historic diet from bone deposits found in cave roosts, and (ii) diet of a sympatric owl species, the powerful owl (Ninox strenua). Sooty owls consumed a large array of terrestrial mammal species before European settlement, but only three terrestrial species were detected in their current diet, a reduction of at least eight species since European settlement. To compensate, sooty owls have increased their consumption of arboreal prey from 55% to 81% of their diet. Arboreal species are also a major component of the powerful owl diet and this prey shift by sooty owls has increased dietary overlap between these two species. Predation by foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and other feral species is likely to have reduced the amount of terrestrial prey available to sooty owls since European settlement. Investigation of changes in the diet of sooty owls may offer a unique monitoring system for evaluating the ability of fox-control strategies to influence increases in numbers of critical-weight-range mammals.

Stories from the stone age

An exploration of the revolutionary period of prehistory that began when humans abandoned the nomadic hunting and gathering existence they had known for millennia to take up a completely new way of life the decisive move to farming and herding the ration of permanent settlements and the discovery of metals setting the stage for the arrival of the worldʼs first civilisation. Stores from the Stone Age ask some intriguing questions. Why did some of our ancestors never become farmers at all? Why do some still continue hunting and gathering despite their contact with farming people and advanced technologies? How and why did our paths become uniquely shaped after emerging as a species from a single genetic family in Africa? Based on extensive research, Stories from the Stone Age takes us on a journey where we get to live alongside our ancestors as they cross between the Old and the New Worlds and into Civilisation. The series utilises detailed re-enactments and short interviews with key archaeological experts.

The Sawankhalok ceramic industry

A techno-historical study of a commercial initiative by 13th century Thai village potters to produce domestic stoneware ceramics. However their enterprise's success attracted the exploitative interest of regional trade entrepreneurs whose specialisation of the industry created a fatal lack of efficiency and flexibility.

Vessels of earth

Earth, water, wind and fire are the intrinsic elements which form the nucleus of life. These essential ingredients are fundamental to humankind as they are in making of pottery. In search for a complete scientific, philosophical or religious understanding, the melding and the transformation of the elements challenges thought and can conjure up abstract imagery. The focus of this paper is to provide an insight into the concept and the mystery surrounding the earthern substance, the vessel and the allegorical relationship that is shared with humankind. The connection between earth, the vessel and humankind involves a journey to rediscover our universal origins. I will expound the unifying conceptual links through my ceramics and an accompanying disseration.

Electrospinning of continuous nanofiber bundles and twisted nanofiber yarns

Spinning is a prehistoric technology in which endless filaments, shorter fibers or twisted fibers are put together to produce yarns that serve as key element to assemble multifarious structural designs for diverse functions. Electrospinning has been regarded as the most effective and versatile technology to produce nanofibers with controlled fiber morphology, dimension and functional components from various polymeric materials (Dersch et al., 2007, Frenot and Chronakis, 2003, Schreuder-Gibson et al., 2002). However, most electrospun fibers are produced in the form of randomly-oriented nonwoven fiber mats (Doshi and Reneker, 1995, Madhavamoorthi, 2005). The relatively low mechanical strength and difficulty in tailoring the fibrous structure have restricted their applications. With the rapid development in nanoscience and nanotechnology, yarns composed of nanofibers may uncover new opportunities for development of well-defined three dimensional nano fibrous architectures. This chapter focuses on recent research and advancement in electrospinning of nanofiber bundles and nanofiber yarns. The preparation, morphology, mechanical properties and potential applications of these fibrous materials are discussed in details.

Introduction : The complex and contested history of democracy

Democracy has never been more popular. It is successfully practiced today in a myriad of different ways by people across virtually every cultural, religious or socio-economic context. The forty-five essays collected in this companion suggest that the global popularity of democracy derives in part from its breadth and depth in the common history of human civilization. The chapters include exceptional accounts of democracy in ancient Greece and Rome, modern Europe and America, among peoples’ movements and national revolutions, and its triumph since the end of the Cold War. However, this book also includes alternative accounts of democracy’s history: its origins in prehistoric societies and early city-states, under-acknowledged contributions from China, Africa and the Islamic world, its familiarity to various Indigenous Australians and Native Americans, the various challenges it faces today in South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the latest democratic developments in light of globalization and new technologies, and potential future pathways to a more democratic world. Understanding where democracy comes from, where its greatest successes and most dismal failures lie, is central to democracy’s project of inventing ways to address the need of people everywhere to live in peace, freedom and with a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

The complex and contested history of democracy

Democracy has never been more popular. It is successfully practiced today in a myriad of different ways by people across virtually every cultural, religious or socio-economic context. The forty-five essays collected in this companion suggest that the global popularity of democracy derives in part from its breadth and depth in the common history of human civilization. The chapters include exceptional accounts of democracy in ancient Greece and Rome, modern Europe and America, among peoples’ movements and national revolutions, and its triumph since the end of the Cold War. However, this book also includes alternative accounts of democracy’s history: its origins in prehistoric societies and early city-states, under-acknowledged contributions from China, Africa and the Islamic world, its familiarity to various Indigenous Australians and Native Americans, the various challenges it faces today in South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the latest democratic developments in light of globalization and new technologies, and potential future pathways to a more democratic world. Understanding where democracy comes from, where its greatest successes and most dismal failures lie, is central to democracy’s project of inventing ways to address the need of people everywhere to live in peace, freedom and with a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

Reassembling a lost lowland carabid beetle assemblage (Coleoptera) from Kauai, Hawaiian Islands

A late Holocene but prehistoric carabid beetle fauna from the lowland Makauwahi Cave, Kauai, is characterised. Seven extinct species - Blackburnia burneyi, B. cryptipes, B. godzilla, B. menehune, B. mothra, B. ovata and B. rugosa, spp. nov. (tribe Platynini) - represent the first Hawaiian insect species to be newly described from subfossil specimens. Four extant Blackburnia spp. - B. aterrima (Sharp), B. bryophila Liebherr, B. pavida (Sharp), and B. posticata (Sharp) - and three extant species of tribe Bembidiini - Bembidion ignicola Blackburn, B. pacificum Sharp and Tachys oahuensis Blackburn - are also represented. All subfossil fragments are disarticulated, with physical dimensions and cladistic analysis used to associate the major somites - head, prothorax and elytra - for description of the new species. The seven new Makauwahi Cave species support recognition of a lowland area of endemism adjoining Haupu, a low-stature 700m elevation ridgeline in southern Kauai. Four of the extinct Blackburnia are adelphotaxa to extant species currently found at higher elevations in Kauai. Addition of these lowland specialists to the phylogenetic hypothesis undercuts applicability of the taxon cycle for interpreting evolutionary history of these taxa. Two of the extinct species are Kauai representatives in clades that subsequently colonised younger Hawaiian Islands, enhancing support for the progressive biogeographic colonisation of the archipelago by this lineage. And three of the extinct Blackburnia species comprised larger beetles than those of any extant Kauai Blackburnia, consistent with the evolution of island gigantism in the lowland habitats of Kauai.