Ancient Celtic Place-Names in Europe and Asia Minor: Publications of the Philological Society, 39

Sims-Williams, P. (2006). Ancient Celtic Place-Names in Europe and Asia Minor: Publications of the Philological Society, 39. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. RAE2008

Kulturowy charakter czasu i przestrzeni. Analiza średniowiecznego i wczesnorenesansowego elitarnego budownictwa mieszkalnego i obronnego w Irlandii

Wydział Historyczny: Instytut Prahistorii

Badania archeologiczne a obrazowanie wizualne przeszłości

One can say that our times are dominated by visual communication. Usually all day long we have been faced by various pictures, visual forms and symbols. According to the subject of the book 'Archaeology-Culture-Ideologies' I found it interesting to pay attention to the problem of visual representation, or better say visual symbols in nowadays communication and culture, their meaning and importance. From this point of view I would like to show the role of archaeologists who discover, interpret or even create some of them. The subject is not new of course, but the most often it is taken into consideration by the scholars who practice in social anthropology or philosophy and quite rarely it appear in studies of archaeologies, especially in Polish tradition. In my opinion the subject concerning visual symbols communication and archaeology arise several important questions that are also valid for the theme of book 'Archaeology-Culture-Ideologies'. The first is socio-cultural role of our discipline, next the danger of political and propaganda misuse of the results of archaeological research and then also commercialisation of the archaeological activities. The problem of visualisation and visual-communication can be the matter of various studies. In my paper from the beginning I would like to present the general view concerning visual symbols and figural motifs and the main ideas and approaches to study them from different humanistic perspectives. Then in my presentation I am going to discuss the question why in our culture the visual symbols and representations became so popular – compare to other ways of human expression, for example verbal symbol communication. I would like to see the problem in historical perspective as well. There are a lot of evidences, which support the statement about the power of visual symbols in history. In ancient times for example Horace in 'Ars Poetica' suggested that human mind usually is much more impressed by eyes than by ears. In my opinion that is quite often in human culture that visual impression is before mental one. Visual representations and symbols are very powerful, they can show and communicate various phenomena, they act immediately and quite often in easily way they can associate. So for archaeological research it could be very important to make some studies concerning the ancient symbols and general iconography and also it would be grateful to make some attempts for the study what kind of potential meaning could have visual symbols. In my paper I can only make some general statement about it. But the most important for the topic is reflection on prehistoric and ancient visual symbols and representation and their presence in contemporary culture. So after some general statements concerning the visual symbols examined from various perspectives finally I would like to point out with support of some examples how ancient and prehistoric visual symbols and images are still used and captured by contemporary culture and what is or should be the role of archaeologists activity concerning this matter.

O naruszaniu podstawowych zasad postępowania naukowego. “Wzgórze przeznaczenia archeologii” górą skandalu

„We are paying a high price for the increasingly unequivocal equation drawn between knowledge and science and ordinary market product. The ideal of perfectly unrestrained cognition, the true mother of science, is threatened by the mass drive towards practical use and application of knowledge, a looming departure into nothingness. Politicians and managers of scientific life are guilty of considerable contribution in corrupting respectable university structures, and thus undermining culture of science and scholarly ethics. (…). Acquisition of funds, sponsorship, media presence, popularisation or even striving for commercial gain are recognised by politicians and scientific consultants, but most of all they are accepted by the university management as objectives worthy of effort, not to say the foremost goals of science. University rectors are nowadays interested primarily in the amounts of acquired moneys. The outcomes of research thus financed is subject to virtually no control, nor does it arouse any interest, unless it turns out to be fit to be announced in the media as a sensation, thereby serving the ‘prestige’ of the university”.

William F. Albright Papers

This file contains a finding aid for the William F. Albright Collection. To access the collection, please contact the archivist (asorarch@bu.edu) at the American Schools of Oriental Research, located at Boston University.

Monasticism and its limits: rematerialising monastic space in early medieval Ireland

This thesis creates a multi-faceted archaeological context for early Irish monasticism, so as to ‘rematerialise’ a phenomenon that has been neglected by recent archaeological scholarship. Following revision of earlier models of the early Irish Church, archaeologists are now faced with redefining monasticism and distinguishing it from other diverse forms of Christian lifestyle. This research addresses this challenge, exploring the ways in which material limits can be set on the monastic phenomenon. The evidence for early Irish monasticism does not always conform to modern expectations of its character, and monastic space must be examined as culturally unique in its own right - though this thesis demonstrates that early Irish monasticism was by no means as unorthodox in its contemporary European setting as has previously been suggested. The research is informed by theories of the body, habitus and space, drawing on a wide body of archaeological, religious, sociological and anthropological thought. The data-set comprises evidences gathered through field-survey, reassessment of archaeological scholarship, historical research and cartographic research, enabling consideration of the ways in which early Irish monastics engaged with their environments. A sample of thirty-one early Irish ecclesiastical sites plus Iona forms the basis for discussion of the location and layout of monastic space, the ways in which monastics used buildings and space in their daily lives, the relationship of monasticism and material culture, the setting of mental and physical limits on monastic space and monastic bodies, and the variety of monastic lifestyles that pertained in early medieval Ireland. The study then examines the Christian landscapes of two case-studies in mid-Western Ireland in order to illustrate how monasticism functioned on the ground in these areas. As this research shows, the material complexities of early Irish monastic life are capable of archaeological definition in terms of both communal and personal lived experience.

First report of "Cotoneaster pannosus" Franch. ("Rosaceae") in Tarragona Province, and updated distribution area in Spain

Cotoneaster pannosus (Rosaceae), an ornamental shrub native to China, is reported for the first time in Tarragona Province (Catalonia, Spain). Data on demography and accompanying species for the new locality are provided, in addition to a chrorological update at nation level.

Development and application of a high resolution liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of complex pigment distributions

Ternary and binary gradient systems have been developed for the high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of complex pigment distributions typical of natural samples. Improved chromatographic resolution reveals significantly more pigment components in extracts from a sediment (Priest Pot, Cumbria, UK), a microbial mat (les Salines de la Trinital, South Catalonia, Spain) and a culture (C. phaeobacteroides) including novel bacteriochlorophyll derivatives. The methods developed are directly suited to LC–MS analysis and the automated acquisition of MS/MS data for pigments.

“Islands” in Holocene forests: implications for forest openness, landscape clearance and “culture-steppe” species

Human activity has undoubtedly had a major impact on Holocene forested ecosystems, with the concurrent expansion of plants and animals associated with cleared landscapes and pasture, also known as 'culture-steppe'. However, this anthropogenic perspective may have underestimated the contribution of autogenic disturbance (e.g. wind-throw, fire), or a mixture of autogenic and anthropogenic processes, within early Holocene forests. Entomologists have long argued that the north European primary forest was probably similar in structure to pasture woodland. This idea has received support from the conservation biologist Frans Vera, who has recently strongly argued that the role of large herbivores in maintaining open forests in the primeval landscapes of Europe has been seriously underestimated. This paper reviews this debate from a fossil invertebrate perspective and looks at several early Holocene insect assemblages. Although wood taxa are indeed important during this period, species typical of open areas and grassland and dung beetles, usually associated with the dung of grazing animals, are persistent presences in many early woodland faunas. We also suggest that fire and other natural disturbance agents appear to have played an important ecological role in some of these forests, maintaining open areas and creating open vegetation islands within these systems. More work, however, is required to ascertain the role of grazing animals, but we conclude that fossil insects have a significant contribution to make to this debate. This evidence has fundamental implications in terms of how the palaeoecological record is interpreted, particularly by environmental archaeologists and palaeoecologists who may be more interested in identifying human-environment interactions rather than the ecological processes which may be preserved within palaeoecological records.

Factores determinantes del uso de Internet en la comercialización del aceite de oliva. Análisis del sector en Cataluña

Las cooperativas son entidades con una gran presencia económica y social en España, y tienen una gran influencia en la economía rural de las zonas donde están ubicadas. El principal objetivo del presente trabajo es el análisis del uso de las nuevas tecnologías por parte de las cooperativas agroalimentarias, centrándose en las productoras de aceite de oliva para determinar los principales factores que condicionan su comportamiento en la Red. En el presente estudio se analizan sus sitios web y se determina qué tipo de información aporta, tanto datos generales como datos de comercialización. A partir de los resultados obtenidos, se busca la relación que pueda existir entre el tamaño de la cooperativa, su actividad exportadora o la actividad de comercio electrónico con la presencia online, mediante una regresión logística. De esta manera podremos conocer si realmente la implantación de nuevas tecnologías en las cooperativas permite desarrollar una óptima actividad económica.

Neolithic Diet at the Brochtorff Circle Malta

Richards, M., Hedges, R., Walton, I; Stoddart, S., Malone, C.,

Confirming the Existence of Gaps and Depletions in the Irish Oak Tree-Ring Record

In the course of building the 7000 year Belfast long oak chronology a series of depletion problems were encountered. These problems were overcome by 1984 when the completion of the long chronology was announced. The solution to the bridging of the various ‘gaps’ in the Irish chronology lay in the use of long sections of oak chronology from Britain. Now that a quarter of a century has elapsed and large numbers of additional oak samples, and site assemblages, have been accumulated it seems reasonable to review the ‘gaps’ in order to see if the Irish chronology could now be constructed without the use of British material. That is, are the depletion periods in the Irish chronology still evident, and if so, what might they imply about past conditions and human populations? The perhaps surprising conclusion is that the original depletions are still evident after 25 years of quasi-random sampling by archaeologists and palaeoecologists throughout Ireland.

Folklore’s Timeless Past, Ireland’s Present Past, and the Perception of Rural Houses in Early Historic Ireland

This study examines how the archaeology of historic Ireland has been interpreted. Two approaches to the history and archaeology of Ireland are identified. The first, the timeless past, has its roots in a neo-Lamarckian view of the past. This perspective was particularly developed in the work of geographer and ethnographer, Estyn Evans. The second view, associated in particular with a nationalist approach to Ireland’s past, looked to the west of the country where it was believed the culture had been preserved largely unchanged and in its purest form. The continuing impact of these frameworks upon the interpretation of rural settlement in the period 1200– 1700 is examined. It is argued that historians and archaeologists alike have underestimated the quality of buildings.