'National Antiquities' and the Law

National museums, housing â??national antiquities', were a nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon throughout Europe. In the United Kingdom, they afforded the Treasury a means of preserving relics of antiquity claimed as treasure trove. While satisfying the desire of the scientific community for the preservation of archaeological finds, and national sentiment in Scotland and Ireland, Treasury practice undermined the British Museum's eponymous mission. This paper traces the development and legal consequences of the Treasury policy of national allocation of treasure trove, including the discussion in the Museums Committee of 1898â??99 of the â??nationality' of objects and artefacts, and considers the potential wider significance of â??national antiquity' in the context of changing constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom in the 1920s, and in the future.

Long-term mass balance of perennial firn and ice in an Alpine cave (Austria):Constraints from radiocarbon-dated wood fragments

Hundsalm ice cave located at 1520 m altitude in a karst region of western Austria contains up to 7-m-thick deposits of snow, firn and congelation ice. Wood fragments exposed in the lower parts of an ice and firn wall were radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dated. Although the local stratigraphy is complex, the 19 individual dates - the largest currently available radiocarbon dataset for an Alpine ice cave - allow to place constraints on the accumulation and ablation history of the cave ice. Most of the cave was either ice free or contained only a small firn and ice body during the 'Roman Warm Period'; dates of three wood fragments mark the onset of firn and ice build-up in the 6th and 7th century ad. In the central part of the cave, the oldest samples date back to the 13th century and record ice growth coeval with the onset of the 'Little Ice Age'. The majority of the ice and firn deposit, albeit compromised by a disturbed stratigraphy, appears to have been formed during the subsequent centuries, supported by wood samples from the 15th to the 17th century. The oldest wood remains found so far inside the ice is from the end of the Bronze Age and implies that local relics of prehistoric ice may be preserved in this cave. The wood record from Hundsalm ice cave shows parallels to the Alpine glacier history of the last three millennia, for example, the lack of preserved wood remains during periods of known glacier minima, and underscores the potential of firn and ice in karst cavities as a long-term palaeoclimate archive, which has been degrading at an alarming rate in recent years. © The Author(s) 2013.

Captain Mellish's Visit

During his visit to Canada in June of 1965, Captain Michael Mellish of Guernsey - O. B. E. Secretary, A. D. C. to the Lieutenant-Governor, and great nephew of Isaac Brock - donated a special photographic album containing various photos of the relics of Sir Isaac Brock. Pictured here from left to right are: Ed Mitchelson and Captain Mellish.

Débat inexistant ou paroles persistantes : la théologie des reliques au Moyen Âge, autour du De pigneribus sanctorum de Guibert de Nogent

Les reliques sont des objets associés aux saints, ou au Christ. Une relique est porteuse d’une puissance spirituelle, une virtus, source de miracles. Depuis l’Antiquité et surtout le Moyen Âge, les reliques ont joué un rôle essentiel dans la vie des sociétés chrétiennes. Il n’en reste pas moins que les théologiens semblent n’avoir réservé au culte des reliques qu’une faible part de leurs écrits, au point d’être considéré par l’historiographie actuelle comme ayant eu « une élaboration théorique inversement proportionnelle à son importance ». Le présent mémoire se propose d’étudier, à travers les différents témoignages laissés sur le culte des reliques, durant l’Antiquité et le Moyen Âge, quelles ont pu être les conceptions, croyances et controverses autour du culte des reliques. L’hypothèse par conséquent proposée est celle d’un « problème des reliques », intimement lié aux évolutions du culte des saints et aux conceptions sur l’eucharistie tout au long du Moyen Âge. Un glissement se produit au cours du Moyen Âge, d’une critique jugée hérétique du culte en lui-même, à un refus des abus et du flou entourant ce culte au nom de l’orthodoxie. Ces paroles persistantes, à défaut d’un débat, sur la validité, les mécanismes mystiques et les abus d’un tel culte se sont ainsi cristallisées au XIIe siècle chez plusieurs auteurs contemporains, tels Thiofrid d’Echternach et surtout Guibert de Nogent, soulignant le besoin d’une élaboration théorique et d’une codification de ces pratiques.

Les pèlerines, la religion vécue et la Roumanie postcommuniste

À la fin de l’année 1989, la Roumanie entamait son chemin vers la démocratie. Depuis, le pays a connu de nombreux changements dont une « revitalisation religieuse ». L’attrait pour la religion en Roumanie a suscité l’intérêt des chercheurs qui ont tenté de rendre compte de comportements qu’ils jugeaient contraires aux thèses des théories de la sécularisation et de la modernisation. Ma thèse part d’une critique de ces études qui, concentrées sur ces théories, omettent trop souvent l’action des individus dans la vie de tous les jours. Dans la présente recherche, j’utilise l’approche de la religion vécue pour me pencher sur des individus et leur manière de comprendre, d’exprimer, de pratiquer et d’expérimenter la religion au jour le jour. D’une manière réflexive, ma thèse examine la religion vécue dans la Roumanie postcommuniste à partir de pèlerinages réalisés durant le printemps et l’automne 2012 dans des monastères réputés pour leurs miracles, leurs confesseurs charismatiques ou leurs reliques. En raison de leur présence nombreuse dans les pèlerinages, les femmes se sont imposées comme les artisanes de la religion vécue en Roumanie. Elles sont au centre de ma thèse. En observant leurs croyances et leurs pratiques — et sans omettre la religion vécue des « porteurs de la religion officielle » —, j’explore des thèmes qui constituent autant de facettes de la religion vécue : le sort, le charisme, la matérialité et les reliques. Ma thèse propose deux contributions à la recherche. 1) L’étude de la pratique de la religion des pèlerines nous renseigne sur la manière dont la religion est comprise et pratiquée dans un contexte orthodoxe. Elle laisse également entrevoir les conséquences de cette pratique dans la Roumanie postcommuniste : en effet, la religion vécue s’avère un véhicule de valeurs qui s’opposent au discours démocratique officiel. 2) L’étude propose une contribution théorique et méthodologique à l’approche de la religion vécue. Le matériau empirique sur lequel elle repose indique que la religion vécue prend racine dans l’Église pour ensuite circuler entre les femmes et les représentants de l’institution. Dans ce mouvement de va-et-vient, la religion vécue appartient aux pèlerines, mais aussi aux « porteurs de la religion officielle ».

Sagrados monumentos - relíquias de mártires e de santos em Portugal

Neste estudo, o autor propõe-se avaliar a problemática, centrada na realidade histórica de Portugal, das práticas devocionais em torno das relíquias de mártires e de santos.Depois de se propor uma síntese global sobre a evolução, em tempos medievais, deste universo religioso, passa-se à avaliação de um caso, o do Convento de Jesus de Setúbal, de monjas colectinas, em pleno século XVII, através da exploração de um tipo de recursos geralmente ignorado pelos historiadores: as notícias descritivas dos relicários produzidas em mosteiros e santuários nacionais dessa época. Constituindo uma expressão de devoção religiosa extremamente popular, nesses séculos, nem por isso deixam de merecer a mais profunda adesão das elites clericais e nobiliárquicas católicas.

Os proto-mártires de Marrocos da Ordem de São Francisco : muy suave odor de sancto martyrio

O compromisso evangélico assumido por um grupo de cinco frades menores da Ordem de São Francisco, no primeiro quartel do século XIII, como principal objectivo de anunciar o Evangelho às comunidades islâmicas do Norte de África, fortaleceu a acção missionária cristã após o fatídico episódio do martírio registado.Indissociável das compassivas manifestações daqueles que entregaram a sua vida por Cristo, o culto desenvolvido em torno dos Proto-Mártires de Marrocos rapidamente proporcionou a efectivação de múltiplas e fervorosas práticas devocionais por toda a Cristandade, alcançando um maior impacto nas casas religiosas onde viriam a ser depositadas as suas relíquias.

The social life of ruins: sites of memory and the politics of a Zimbabwean periphery

This article explores conflicts over a series of ruins located within Zimbabwe's flagship National Park. The relics have long been regarded as sacred places by local African communities evicted from their vicinity, and have come to be seen as their ethnic heritage. Local intellectuals' promotion of this heritage was an important aspect of a defensive mobilization of cultural difference on the part of a marginalized minority group. I explore both indigenous and colonial ideas about the ruins, the different social movements with which they have been associated and the changing social life they have given the stone relics. Although African and European ideas sometimes came into violent confrontation - as in the context of colonial era evictions - there were also mutual influences in emergent ideas about tribe, heritage and history. The article engages with Pierre Nora's notion of 'sites of memory', which has usefully drawn attention to the way in which ideas of the past are rooted and reproduced in representations of particular places. But it criticizes Nora's tendency to romanticize pre-modern 'memory', suppress narrative and depoliticize traditional connections with the past. Thus, the article highlights the historicity of traditional means of relating to the past, highlighting the often bitter and divisive politics of traditional ritual, myth, kinship, descent and 'being first'. It also emphasizes the entanglement of modern and traditional ideas, inadequately captured by Nora's implied opposition between history and memory. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Injecting early years teaching with a strong dose of multiliteracies

Tech-savvy children elaborately dance through a myriad of informal and formal school and out-of-school literacy practices, sometimes leaving the adults who teach and care for them feeling like relics of yesterday. How can we harness what students bring to learning and reconcile that with what we have traditionally taught this age group? How do we leave our comfort zones and design meaningful experiences which transform learners (both young and not so young)?

Pappadums in paradise? : journeys of Indian migrant women to Australia

The blue glass is always the hardest to find. On the beach you catch the waves bringing back the glass from forgotten tossed bottles, frosted green, clear, or mottled pale brown. But the blue glass - that's the real thing. I search for days without finding any. Sometimes there are slivers; other days, small chunks. Like a beachcomber, I comb the sands for it. I take the glass home and make some into jewellery and touchstones for people to hang on to; pour essential oils on others so the scents waft heavenward and meld together with the glass to form a bond. Words are like that. They can fuse with each other and ignite, or just quietly combine, On sunny days, I take my books with me to the beach. I toss words back and forth in my mind, like churning waves. I cobble them together, A phrase here. A sentence there. The water. The sun. The sand. The glass. The words. The paper. The Connection. I find myself enveloped in it all. The glass is from bottles tossed into the surf by unthinking people - picnickers, vacationers, those who don't have to return here and live with the remnants of their actions. Over time, the broken glass is ground and moulded by the action of the waves; the sharp edges are softened and etched by the sand and water, The sea glass is washed up on shore and picked up by beachcombers. Some recycle it for other uses like me; others just keep it as a reminder of a day at the beach. The words I sift through as I sit on the sand are measured in the sea glass. I pick each word up and look through it to see how much light shines through. What use do 1 have for it? A poem? An essay? A fragment of a sentence, for something to be said in the future? I watch the sun rest uneasily on its bed of water and slide slowly, farther down. I know the hot summer is coming to a close and I am loath to let go of the closeness I feel with nature. I live to find the blue glass, and sometimes it just happens. My search for Indian migrant women was like my quest for the blue glass. It was not an easy task. It became a process of rummaging through other people's lives, searching for fragments and relics. Eventually I was able to fit pieces together to form a mosaic of their lives in that other time, that other place. And also in this present time, in this place they now call home, Australia.