Pile-dwellings of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age in Switzerland. Long-term research and future tasks

Swiss lake-side settlements dating between 4300 and 800 BC were first recognized in the early 19th century and between 1854 and 1880 early research boomed due to the first scientific studies and the artificial lowering of lakes in Western Switzerland. In the 20th century underwater and wetland archaeology experienced an enormous surge not only because of large rescue excavations, due to extensive motorway construction projects but also due to the evolution of modern IT technology in the 1970s. For the first time huge quantities of ancient wooden structures could be dated by dendrochronology. This produced a quantum leap in the 150 years of pile-dwelling research. In 2011, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee recognized the outstanding universal value of these sites. This article presents an overview about Swiss pile-dwellings of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age and the results of two recent diploma works (case study Sutz-Lattrigen Haupstation innen and case study Seedorf Lobsigensee) as examples of research and cooperation between universities and government agencies for cultural heritage management.

Hochwasser-«Katastrophen» in Basel vom 13. bis 21. Jahrhundert Rekonstruktion, Deutung und Lerneffekte

Magnitudes of peak discharges of 43 non-instrumentally measured Rhine river floods at Basel were reconstructed. The methodology is based on a range of different historic sources, containing flood information (including traditional urban inundation reference points from flood reports of medieval and early modern period chroniclers as well as 19th century journalists, flood marks, paintings and drawings, town maps, longitudinal and cross profiles etc.). These traditional pre-instrumental “flood information systems” still existed in the 19th century, when in 1808 the first instrumental hydrological measurements started. They thus could be calibrated with instrumental measurements in the 19th century overlapping period. The result is a 743 year long quantified Rhine river flood series. Floods of both periods (pre-instrumental as well as instrumental) can thus be directly compared for the very first time. The long-range consequences of rivers Kander and Aare deviations in 1714 and 1878 are reflected in a distinct change of magnitudes of peak discharges in Basel. A clear flood “disaster gap” appears in the 20th century. The lack of any extreme floods for such a long time is completely unique during the 743-year period of analysis. This result will influence the statistical assessment of once-in-a-century events, which might be of great interest for insurance campanies.

Rhyming the National Spirit: Taras Shevchenko and Ilia Chavchavadze

The paper is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818-1861) as national poets and anti-colonial (anti-Tsarist) intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century) both Ukraine and Georgia were under Tsarist imperial rule, albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian empire history. Through their major works, each called on their communities to ‘awaken’ and ‘revolt’ against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by Tsarist subjugation and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. The non-acceptance of present and belief in an independent future was one of the dominant themes in the poetry and prose of both. Their contemporary importance is illustrated in political discourse both after Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004), and Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003) where both poets are referred “as founding fathers of national ideology”, the history textbooks alluding to them as “symbols of anti-colonial resistance”. To this day, however, there has been surprisingly little academic writing in the West endeavoring to compare the works and activities of the two poets and their impact on national mobilization in Tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, even though their countries are often mentioned in a same breath by commentators on contemporary culture and politics. The paper attempts to fill this gap and tries to understand the relationship between literature and social mobilization in 19th century Russian Empire. By reflecting on Taras Shevchenko’s and Ilia Chavchavadze’s poetry, prose and social activism, I will try to explain how in different periods of Russian imperial history, the two poets helped to develop a modern form of political belonging among their compatriots and stimulated an anti-colonial mobilization with different political outcomes. To theorize on the role of poets and novelists in anti-colonial national movement, I will reflect on the writings of Benedict Anderson (1991), John Hutchinson (1994; 1999), Rory Finnin (2005; 2011) and problematize Miroslav Hroch’s (1996) three phase model of the development of national movements. Overall, the paper would aim to show the importance of, what John Hutchinson called, ‘cultural nationalists’ in understanding contemporary nationalist discourse in Georgian and Ukrainian societies.

A 600 years warm-season temperature record from varved sediments of Lago Plomo, Northern Patagonia, Chile (47°S)

High-resolution records of calibrated proxy data for the past millennium are fundamental to place current changes into the context of pre-industrial natural forced and unforced variability. Although the need for regional spatially-explicit comprehensive reconstructions is widely recognized, the proxy data sources are still scarce, particularly for the Southern Hemisphere and especially for South America. We present a 600-year long warm season temperature record from varved sediments of Lago Plomo, a proglacial lake of the Northern Patagonian Ice field in Southern Chile (46°59′S, 72°52′W, 203 m a.s.l.). The thickness of the bright summer sediment layer relative to the dark winter layer (measured as total brightness; % reflectance 400–730 nm) is calibrated against warm season SONDJF temperature (1900–2009; r = 0.58, p(aut) = 0.056, RE = 0.52; CE = 0.15, RMSEP = 0.28 °C; five-year triangular filtered data). In Lago Plomo, warm summer temperatures lead to enhanced glacier melt and suspended sediment transport, which results in thicker light summer layers and to brighter sediments. Although Patagonia shows pronounced regional differences in decadal temperature trends and variability, the 600 years temperature reconstruction from Lago Plomo compares favourably with other regional/continental temperature records, but also emphasizes significant regional differences for which no data and information existed so far. These regional differences seem to be real as they are also reflected in modern climate data sets (1900–2010). The reconstruction shows pronounced subdecadal – multidecadal variability with cold phases during parts of the Little Ice Age (16th and 18th centuries) and in the beginning of the 20th century. The most prominent warm phase is the 19th century which is as warm as the second half of the 20th century. The exceptional summer warmth AD 1780–1810 is also found in other archives of Northern Patagonia and Central Chile. Our record shows the delayed 20th century warming in the Southern Hemisphere. The comparison between winter precipitation and summer temperature (inter-seasonal coupling) from Lago Plomo reveals alternating phases with parallel and contrasting decadal trends of winter precipitation and summer temperature (positive and negative running correlations Rwinter PP; summer TT). This observation from the sediment proxy data is also confirmed by two sets of reanalysis data for the 20th century. Reanalysis data show that phases with negative correlations between winter precipitation and summer temperature (e.g., dry winters and warm summers) at Lago Plomo are characteristic for periods when circumpolar Westerly flow is displaced southward and enhanced around 60°S.

The Rise and Fall of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

This talk will outline the history of the doctor-patient relationship in the West. It will touch briefly on medicine in Greek and Roman antiquity, using key texts from Hippocrates and Galen. It will also sketch the changing balance of the religious and the secular in medieval medicine. Finally, it will outline the rise of the modern personal doctor-patient relationship in the 18th century and analyze the chronic dissatisfaction that settled over relations between doctors and patients in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Stable isotope ratios and chemistry on corals from the Caribbean Sea

Instrumental climate data are limited in length and only available with low spatial coverage before the middle of the 20th century. This is too short to reliably determine and interpret decadal and longer scale climate variability and to understand the underlying mechanisms with sufficient accuracy. A proper knowledge of past variability of the climate system is needed to assess the anthropogenic impact on climate and ecosystems, and also important with regard to long-range climate forecasting. Highly-resolved records of past climate variations that extend beyond pre-industrial times can significantly help to understand long-term climate changes and trends. Indirect information on past environmental and climatic conditions can be deduced from climate-sensitive proxies. Large colonies of massive growing tropical reef corals have been proven to sensitively monitor changes in ambient seawater. Rapid skeletal growth, typically ranging between several millimeters to centimeters per year, allows the development of proxy records at sub-seasonal resolution. Stable oxygen isotopic composition and trace elemental ratios incorporated in the aragonitic coral skeleton can reveal a detailed history of past environmental conditions, e.g., sea surface temperature (SST). In general, coral-based reconstructions from the tropical Atlantic region have lagged behind the extensive work published using coral records from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Difficulties in the analysis of previously utilized coral archives from the Atlantic, typically corals of the genera Montastrea and Siderastrea, have so far exacerbated the production of long-term high-resolution proxy records. The objective of this study is the evaluation of massive fast-growing corals of the species Diploria strigosa as a new marine archive for climate reconstructions from the tropical Atlantic region. For this purpose, coral records from two study sites in the eastern Caribbean Sea (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles; and Archipelago Los Roques, Venezuela) were examined. At Guadeloupe, a century-long monthly resolved multi-proxy coral record was generated. Results present the first d18O (Sr/Ca)-SST calibration equations for the Atlantic braincoral Diploria strigosa, that are robust and consistent with previously published values using other coral species from different regions. Both proxies reflect local variability of SST on a sub-seasonal scale, which is a precondition for studying seasonally phase-locked climate variations, as well as track variability on a larger spatial scale (i.e., in the Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic). Coral Sr/Ca reliably records local annual to interannual temperature variations and is higher correlated to in-situ air temperature than to grid-SST. The warming calculated from coral Sr/Ca is concurrent with the strong surface temperature increase at the study site during the past decades. Proxy data show a close relationship to major climate signals from the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic (the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)) affecting the seasonal cycle of SST in the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA). Coral oxygen isotopes are also influenced by seawater d18O (d18Osw) which is linked to the hydrological cycle, and capture large-scale climate variability in the NTA region better than Sr/Ca. Results from a quantitative comparison between extreme events in the two most prominent modes of external forcing, namely the ENSO and NAO, and respective events recorded in seasonal coral d18O imply that SST variability at the study site is highly linked to Pacific and North Atlantic variability, by this means supporting the assumptions of observational- and model-based studies which suggest a strong impact of ENSO and NAO forcings onto the NTA region through a modulation of trade wind strength in winter. Results from different spectral analysis tools suggest that interannual climate variability recorded by the coral proxies is II largely dictated by Pacific ENSO forcing, whereas at decadal and longer timescales the influence of the NAO is dominan. tThe Archipelago Los Roques is situated in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, north of the Venezuelan coast. Year-to-year variations in monthly resolved coral d18O of a nearcentury- long Diploria strigosa record are significantly correlated with SST and show pronounced multidecadal variations. About half of the variance in coral d18O can be explained by variations in seawater d18O, which can be estimated by calculating the d18Oresidual via subtracting the SST component from measured coral d18O. The d18Oresidual and a regional precipitation index are highly correlated at low frequencies, suggesting that d18Osw variations are primarily atmospheric-driven. Warmer SSTs at Los Roques broadly coincide with higher precipitation in the southeastern Caribbean at multidecadal time scales, effectively strengthening the climate signal in the coral d18O record. The Los Roques coral d18O record displays a strong and statistically significant relationship to different indices of hurricane activity during the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season in boreal summer and is a particularly good indicator of decadal-multidecadal swings in the latter indices. In general, the detection of long-term changes and trends in Atlantic hurricane activity is hampered due to the limited length of the reliable instrumental record and the known inhomogeneity in the observational databases which result from changes in observing practice and technology over the years. The results suggest that coral-derived proxy data from Los Roques can be used to infer changes in past hurricane activity on timescales that extend well beyond the reliable record. In addition, the coral record exhibits a clear negative trend superimposed on the decadal to multidecadal cycles, indicating a significant warming and freshening of surface waters in the genesis region of tropical cyclones during the past decades. The presented coral d18O time series provides the first and, so far, longest continuous coral-based record of hurricane activity. It appears that the combination of both signals (SST and d18Osw) in coral d18O leads to an amplification of large-scale climate signals in the record, and makes coral d18O even a better proxy for hurricane activity than SST alone. Atlantic hurricane activity naturally exhibits strong multidecadal variations that are associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the major mode of lowfrequency variability in the North Atlantic Ocean. However, the mechanisms underlying this multidecadal variability remain controversial, primarily because of the limited instrumental record. The Los Roques coral d18O displays strong multidecadal variability with a period of approximately 60 years that is closely related to the AMO, making the Archipelago Los Roques a very sensitive location for studying low-frequency climate variability in the Atlantic Ocean. In summary, the coral records presented in this thesis capture different key climate variables in the north tropical Atlantic region very well, indicating that fast-growing Diploria strigosa corals represent a promising marine archive for further proxy-based reconstructions of past climate variability on a range of time scales.

El tipo chalet californiano en la arquitectura doméstica del noroeste argentino : Tucumán y Salta, 1930- 1950

Este trabajo tiene como objeto de estudio a las viviendas que se realizaron en Tucumán y Salta en el período 1930-1955 siguiendo al tipo chalet californiano. Este tipo constituye uno de los modelos habitacionales que más aceptación ha tenido en el país, pudiendo ser considerado un tipo emblemático de la cultura arquitectónica de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Este trabajo pretende comprender los mecanismos de introducción del tipo en la región, a la vez que analizar cómo se realizaron las apropiaciones locales a este modelo foráneo: ¿Cómo el modelo, originalmente rural o suburbano, se adaptó a un medio urbano? ¿Cuáles fueron las interpretaciones formales y simbólicas que los diferentes actores realizaron? Para ello se analizaron cualitativamente ejemplos claves y se cotejaron con los principales rasgos del tipo original. Finalmente el trabajo reflexiona sobre la impronta de este tipo en el patrimonio doméstico de Tucumán y Salta hoy.

As lavouras de grãos como atividades de desenvolvimento e integração da Região da Grande Dourados ao circuito produtivo nacional

Led to become a national productive Center, the Great Dourados Region, which consists of 40 cities located in the south of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul - Brazil, emerged as a grain productive region from the middle of the 1970s in the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. Using modern agricultural techniques, the land organization in this region was ruled by a development policy which was not concerned with the socio environmental aspects of the area. In this context, the present work aims to analyze the development process of the Great Dourados region, through soybean production and its relation to the confinement of the indigenous people present in the Area. This integration happened due to the money and for it, inserting this Region into a national productive pattern which guided the farmers to modern crops, mainly soybean. The land cultivation was not the only productive activity that granted the Region an economic integration, to both the national and international market. From the end of the Paraguay War (1870) to the middle of the 70s, there were at least two other ways to the regional economic integration. One of them happened with the traditional activities of cattle raising and the extraction of the Paraguay tea (maté/ Yerba Mate) from 1870 to 1937, which divided the regional territory into large farmlands focused on the external market. The other way happened with the need to create a market for the agricultural production and for the demand for manufactured goods, which reorganized the regional territory into small farmlands, as a result of colonization projects from 1943 to 1956. Since 1976, with the creation of the Special Program for the Development of the Great Dourados Region (Prodegran), the capitalist relations of production, which were consolidated in the area, were not ruled almost exclusively by the traditional activities of cattle raising and the extraction of the Paraguay tea, in order to create a new accumulation center connected to the modern crops. As this new accumulation center was created, the Region was led to a selective and dependent integration process, in which many farmers changed their accumulation centers to modern grain crops, causing environmental degradation, productive exclusion and ethnical-cultural conflicts with the indigenous community

La "manía cultural" por el dios griego Pan en el período eduardiano : El caso de Peter Pan

En este trabajo nos proponemos analizar descripciones que se hacen del personaje Peter Pan, como recreación eduardiana del arquetipo del dios griego Pan, para ver de qué manera dialogan esas construcciones con los diferentes sentidos que esta deidad fue connotando en contextos diversos en los que ocurrió su figura (desde obras de la literatura clásica, atravesadas por las lecturas, re-lecturas y re-escrituras de la tradición literaria británica). Veremos que Peter Pan, en los textos que el escritor escocés James M. Barrie escribió sobre él en un lapso de alrededor de treinta años, oficia "como Pan", en una dimensión alegórica, de nexo/puente entre dos conceptos que se presentan como opuestos: la Naturaleza y la Civilización. La primera aparece como el lugar donde se encuentran los dominios del dios/niño eterno, a los que solo pueden ingresar algunos pocos elegidos, y es símbolo de una nostalgia por una esencia perdida que, a su vez, se asocia con el concepto de infancia. La segunda representa negativamente el modelo de sociedad capitalista moderna que impone reglas que se contraponen a ese yo «natural». En este sentido, esa Arcadia se conecta con la literatura para niños, ya que son ellos "junto con los poetas" quienes tienen todavía permitido el acceso a ese lugar, y la capacidad de oír el «llamado» que Peter hace con la música de su flauta, del mismo modo en que son ellos quienes pueden disfrutar de esas lecturas y a quienes estas están dirigidas. Esta oposición de Naturaleza vs. Civilización conforma la «estructura del sentir» de la cultura de principios del siglo XX en Gran Bretaña, de la cual la literatura para niños es parte fundamental

La "manía cultural" por el dios griego Pan en el período eduardiano : El caso de Peter Pan

En este trabajo nos proponemos analizar descripciones que se hacen del personaje Peter Pan, como recreación eduardiana del arquetipo del dios griego Pan, para ver de qué manera dialogan esas construcciones con los diferentes sentidos que esta deidad fue connotando en contextos diversos en los que ocurrió su figura (desde obras de la literatura clásica, atravesadas por las lecturas, re-lecturas y re-escrituras de la tradición literaria británica). Veremos que Peter Pan, en los textos que el escritor escocés James M. Barrie escribió sobre él en un lapso de alrededor de treinta años, oficia "como Pan", en una dimensión alegórica, de nexo/puente entre dos conceptos que se presentan como opuestos: la Naturaleza y la Civilización. La primera aparece como el lugar donde se encuentran los dominios del dios/niño eterno, a los que solo pueden ingresar algunos pocos elegidos, y es símbolo de una nostalgia por una esencia perdida que, a su vez, se asocia con el concepto de infancia. La segunda representa negativamente el modelo de sociedad capitalista moderna que impone reglas que se contraponen a ese yo «natural». En este sentido, esa Arcadia se conecta con la literatura para niños, ya que son ellos "junto con los poetas" quienes tienen todavía permitido el acceso a ese lugar, y la capacidad de oír el «llamado» que Peter hace con la música de su flauta, del mismo modo en que son ellos quienes pueden disfrutar de esas lecturas y a quienes estas están dirigidas. Esta oposición de Naturaleza vs. Civilización conforma la «estructura del sentir» de la cultura de principios del siglo XX en Gran Bretaña, de la cual la literatura para niños es parte fundamental

Crítica y poesía. Elementos para una tradición

Este ensayo estudia las operaciones epistemológicas actuantes en la crítica argentina contemporánea de poesía, tomando en cuenta el estatuto teórico-filosófico de su discurso. Para ello, postula una tradición emergente en las últimas décadas del siglo XX, desde la constitución de un texto fundacional: el ensayo de Noé Jitrik titulado "Alturas de Machu Picchu. Una marcha piramidal a través de un discurso poético incesante". Posteriormente, se muestra en dos críticos destacados de una promoción posterior -Cristina Piña y Daniel Freidemberg- la coexistencia de tendencias opuestas en las elecciones estéticas, propias de las poéticas de los años sesenta y prolongadas hasta los ochenta, pero con la común característica del productivo procesamiento de la moderna teoría literaria.

Vaivenes de un temprano intento de sustitución de importaciones : La producción de ácido tartárico en Mendoza en los comienzos de la especialización vitivinícola

El trabajo se refiere a las primeras experiencias para producir ácido tartárico en Mendoza, al comenzar el siglo XX. El ácido tartárico, elaborado a partir de los propios residuos de la vinificación, es esencial para corregir la baja acidez de los mostos obtenidos en la región vitivinícola argentina. El objetivo es abordar las condiciones que condujeron a la producción regional del insumo, el desempeño de actores sociales regionales y extra-regionales y algunos de los problemas que debió enfrentar la iniciativa empresarial. Se parte de la hipótesis de que, además de las industrias "inducidas" (metalurgia, tonelería), la vitivinicultura moderna provocó en Mendoza la puesta en marcha y el desarrollo de industrias "derivadas", como la que se analiza.

Leer la ciudad. Itinerarios, mapas y paisajes urbanos en la novela argentina de 1880

Este trabajo reconstruye los diferentes mapas de la ciudad que se van trazando a partir de los itinerarios, las localizaciones y los vínculos de los personajes en algunas novelas argentinas aparecidas en la década de 1880, con el objeto de demostrar que esta cartografía urbana es el emergente de una estructura de sentimiento legitimadora de la hegemonía de una clase y que se conecta, a su vez, con la necesidad de reducir y simplificar las relaciones sociales cada vez más problemáticas de la ciudad moderna.

Barroco y modernidad : De Maravall a Lezama Lima

En las décadas de 1960 y 1970 convergen varias de las líneas que, desde principios del siglo XX, habían centrado las discusiones en torno del Barroco. Tanto en Europa como en América, y desde diversas disciplinas -filología, ensayo literario, retórica, historia, filosofía, psicoanálisis- el Barroco es visto como un punto de partida de la cultura moderna. En 1975 José Antonio Maravall publica La cultura del Barroco, definida como un concepto histórico, en oposición a la teoría de los eones y las constantes desarrollada por Eugenio d'Ors. Para Maravall el Barroco vincula a España con el surgimiento de la modernidad. Años antes, el cubano José Lezama Lima ve en el Barroco el puente que establece la continuidad entre la cultura española y la americana, lanzándola hacia el futuro. Y en el París de la década de 1970, Severo Sarduy introduce el barroco y neobarroco entre los conceptos que circulan en el intenso intercambio intelectual del momento. Proponemos un abordaje de la cuestión en el cruce de esas líneas diversas