American Expedition Research Articles

Ancient iron and slags in Greenland

The bloomery iron production method, which was in general use in medieval time, is presented in some detail. It is discussed how slags are formed, and how production slags and purification slags may be distinguished. The slag-analytical method is introduced and is applied on a large number of iron objects from ancient Norse and Inuit sites. Particular emphasis is placed on scanning electron microscopy and microanalysis of the minute slag inclusions in the artefacts. It is shown that a major part of the iron objects on Norse sites was probably made from Norwegian iron ores, and arrived as finished products from Norway. The presence of a few purification slags in the Eastern and Western Settlements prove, however, that raw blooms were sometimes shipped from Norway and afterwards finished by smithing in Greenland. The present study does not support the theory that primary iron production took place in the Norse settlements. A number of iron tools on Inuit sites are shown to be of Walloon origin, having arrived on whaling and expedition ships since the late 16th century. It is argued that many of the harpoon heads and knives were forged by the ships' blacksmiths according to the desires of the Inuit. Walloon iron was also present in Haabetz Colonie in 1721 AD. Some puddled iron nails were identified in Washington Land. They are probably relics from some 19th century American expedition. Finally, the northernmost and largest iron meteorite tool ever found, a lancehead, was identified in Washington Land. Also, a meteoritic arrowhead was identified in the Western Settlement. The arrowhead was made from Cape York meteoritic iron and must have been traded to the Norsemen before 1350 AD.

Hellenistic and early Roman levels at Idalion: a change of identity?

Substantial parts of the Idalion city-kingdom site from the first millennium BCE were excavated under the direction of Dr Pamela Gaber from 1987 to 2017. These excavations revealed physical changes in the layout of parts of the ancient city that allow us to identify the cultural change that occurred in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The American expedition began excavations on the terrace of the eastern acropolis in a sacred grove that later became known as the “Adonis Temenos”, revealing late Hellenistic and early Roman structures just below the topsoil. These structures were oriented more or less N‑S / E‑W. When further excavation reached the underlying Hellenistic, Classical and Archaic levels, it revealed a different orientation. The earlier structures were oriented N‑W / S‑E. Excavations in the Lower City South “City Sanctuary” from 1998 to 2017 revealed a much more marked change in structural orientation. The question of when the transition took place became clear during the 2017 season of excavations in the “City Sanctuary,” Lower City South, revealing continuous occupation from Hellenistic to Roman levels, but a striking shift in orientation towards N‑S / E‑W structures in the 1st century BCE.

Facilitating Buddhism through Portable Absolution

Abstract This article is a study on the miniature clay Buddha tablets and stupas collected by the Ōtani Expedition presently at the National Museum of Korea. Similar examples were found in the Dunhuang cave temples, Buddhist stupas of Xi Xia, and through English and American expeditions of the early twentieth century. A comparative study establishes the functions and characteristics unique to the Ōtani clay tablets and stupas. Such artifacts were once believed to absolve the transgressions of the dead or commissioner, while also allowing one to accumulate merits for an improved afterlife. Well-suited for Buddhist missionary work, these tablets and stupas were produced in all regions where Buddhism was prevalent. Though small and made from a modest material, the miniature clay tablets and stupas represent an important genre of Buddhist art that expresses the universal role of religious art.

Diversity matters – Syphilis and related diseases in historical Europe

Diseases such as syphilis, yaws and bejel are making a comeback. We found an unprecedented diversity of these diseases, possibly pre-dating Columbus’ American expedition long claimed to have introduced syphilis to Europe. - submission by Verena J. Schuenemann, Kerttu Majander

Unsettling gender and sexuality at the Point Barrow, Alaska station of the First International Polar Year (1882–1883)

ABSTRACT The American expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska to establish a station for the First International Polar Year (IPY) in 1881 was shaped by familiar gendered and sexualised settler colonial discourses about the North as secretive, unknown, and ethereal, yet knowable by techniques of scientific observation. The First IPY (1882–1883) was a significant moment in colonial scientific exploration and research, as the largest coordinated international effort to gather scientific data about the Arctic and Antarctic related to meteorology, geomagnetism, and auroral observation. This essay looks at the relationship between the Americans and Iñupiaq, and specifically at settler fantasies about race, gender and sexuality that circulate in the documents of the expedition. This analysis focuses on how Iñupiaq women operate as a reference point from which to construct Iñupiaq masculinity as deficient and American masculinity as superior. This ‘failure’ to conform to settler norms of gender and sexuality supported the pervasive settler narrative of Indigenous peoples as a ‘vanishing race’ declining as a result of a natural process, rather than due to settler colonialism. I then situate the Point Barrow expedition in relation to literature on polar exploration in other sites – for example, the North Pole and Antarctica – to contextualise this expedition and its implications for settler colonial studies.

„Stachura en cuarto menguante”. Nowe ustanowienie Edwarda Stachury i Amereidy

This paper proposes a geopoetic interpretation of an unknown thread of Edward Stachura’s biography, related to the Polish writer’s stay in Paris, where he met, among others, the poets Michel Deguy and Edison Simons, participants of the expedition of the so-called traves´ıa de Amereida (1965). The starting point of the discussion is the analysis of a sentence from a Latin American poem Amereida (1967) “hoy soy todos los mendigos / a cuerpo de rey / con / stachura en cuarto menguante” [today I am all the beggars / with the body of a king / with / stachura in the last quarter]. The author interprets the surprising fact of finding “stachura” in a text written during a South American expedition, when a group of poets, architects, and sculptors led by Godofredo Iommi (Godo) explored the unknown “inner sea”. She also draws attention to the role of Juan Pablo Iommi Amunátegui, Godo’s son, in the last years of Stachura’s life. The following interpretation is inspired by the concept proposed by Vinciane Despret. She calls them the dead ”geographers” who establish other places, routes, and stories. It is part of the research on the manifestations of the complicated relations of the living and the dead.

Voices from the Roof of the World

Glacier-based mountain water systems are the water towers of the world, and billions are dependent on the vital services they provide. In an effort to better understand the effects of climate change on the glaciers of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya, National Geographic and Tribhuvan University conducted a multidisciplinary expedition to Mount Everest. These are the voices from that journey.

La cooperación inolvidable de Aimé Bonpland y Alexander von Humboldt

El artículo analiza el papel de Aimé Bonpland durante su expedición americana con Alexander von Humboldt (1799 a 1804). Este papel fue mucho más importante de lo que se suponía, así como también el trabajo posterior de Bonpland en América Latina. Bonpland realizó allí valiosas investigaciones botánicas, zoológicas y geológicas. Sobre todo, prestó excelentes servicios a la agricultura de la zona con nuevos métodos de cultivo y cría, especialmente en el cultivo de la yerba mate. En sus últimos años Bonpland inició un proyecto para transferir plantas útiles para la agricultura de Argentina a la entonces colonia francesa de Argelia. De 1855 hasta su muerte (a los 85 años) en 1858, Bonpland trabajó como primer director para el museo de ciencias naturales en Corrientes. Es uno de los museos más antiguos de Argentina y el primero en ser institucionalizado en el interior del país. Bonpland describió todo esto en una detallada correspondencia con Alexander von Humboldt. El artículo también analiza los tres informes contradictorios del médico y escritor de viajes alemán Robert Avé-Lallemant, quien visitó a Bonpland en Santa Ana poco antes de su muerte. Al hacerlo, dibujó un cuadro negativo del investigador que aún hoy influye en la historiografía. Se necesita urgentemente una corrección.

Logos on Everest: Commercial Sponsorship of American Expeditions, 1950–2000

In the 1950s, outdoor retailer Eddie Bauer donated down jackets to American mountaineers embarking on climbing expeditions in the Himalayas. In the 1990s, chemical manufacturer W. L. Gore & Associates donated both goods and $2 million to an expedition in Antarctica. The funds dedicated to sponsorship by the end of the twentieth century reflect a shift in how companies saw expeditions as useful to their marketing goals. This article uses two archives previously unexplored by historians that offer an unprecedented chance to compare sponsorship relationships in a single industry across decades. Commercial sponsorship of American expeditions and athletes has undergone three dramatic changes since 1950, and these shifts help explain how sponsorship as a form of marketing became so popular. Sponsorship contracts shifted from vague to specific as a result of decades of unsatisfying results for corporate sponsors. Sponsored athletes became business partners and began taking an active role in promoting the companies that provided them cash or donations in-kind. Finally, companies developed strategies for leveraging their sponsorship deals. The changing landscape of the business of expeditions ultimately reveals how the most long-lasting legacies of these extreme adventures happened far from the trail and much closer to company boardrooms, sponsorship managers’ offices and retail stores where consumers learned to engage with the narratives companies and athletes had crafted together.

Long-term spaceflight and the cardiovascular system.

While early investigations into the physiological effects of spaceflight suggest the body's ability to reversibly adapt, the corresponding effects of long-term spaceflight (>6 months) are much less conclusive. Prolonged exposure to microgravity and radiation yields profound effects on the cardiovascular system, including a massive cephalad fluid translocation and altered arterial pressure, which attenuate blood pressure regulatory mechanisms and increase cardiac output. Also, central venous pressure decreases as a result of the loss of venous compression. The stimulation of baroreceptors by the cephalad shift results in an approximately 10%–15% reduction in plasma volume, with fluid translocating from the vascular lumen to the interstitium. Despite possible increases in cardiac workload, myocyte atrophy and notable, yet unexplained, alterations in hematocrit have been observed. Atrophy is postulated to result from shunting of protein synthesis from the endoplasmic reticulum to the mitochondria via mortalin-mediated action. While data are scarce regarding their causative agents, arrhythmias have been frequently reported, albeit sublethal, during both Russian and American expeditions, with QT interval prolongation observed in long, but not short duration, spaceflight. Exposure of the heart to the proton and heavy ion radiation of deep space has also been shown to result in coronary artery degeneration, aortic stiffness, carotid intima thickening via collagen-mediated action, accelerated atherosclerosis, and induction of a pro-inflammatory state. Upon return, long-term spaceflight frequently results in orthostatic intolerance and altered sympathetic responses, which can prove hazardous should any rapid mobilization or evacuation be required, and indicates that these cardiac risks should be especially monitored for future missions.

Multiproxy evidence for rapid and enduring anthropogenic vegetation change during the Late Holocene from an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River, Wapanocca Bayou, Arkansas, USA

AbstractGeoarchaeological cores from an infilling channel within the meander belt of the Central Mississippi Valley recovered multiproxy evidence of vegetation changes during the Late Holocene. The sampling site, Wapanocca Bayou (Crittenden County, Arkansas), is flanked by levees that supported settlements of prehistoric Late Woodland and Mississippian farm sites, villages, and towns (AD 300–1650). These settlements include the Bradley site (3CT7), which was potentially the capital of a powerful Native American chiefdom visited by Hernando De Soto's North American expedition in 1541. Age‐depth modeling of radiocarbon dates from a 10+ meter core indicates continuous infilling of the channel since at least 2,450 cal BP. Palynological records preserve diachronic and patterned shifts in vegetation reflecting significant disturbances in these dynamic meander‐belt settings. Coeval trends in soil phosphorus, organic matter, charcoal concentrations, and magnetic susceptibility combined with archaeological evidence for increasingly intense landuse practices support our argument that vegetation changes along Wapanocca Bayou were caused by prehistoric anthropogenic disturbances, rather than natural processes associated with oxbow infilling and terrestrialization. With time the role of the natural vegetation succession receded in relative importance as local ecosystems were progressively modified by prehistoric Native Americans. This change was then sustained by intensified historical agricultural practices.

조선후기 면제갑주(綿製甲冑) 문양에 대한 연구 II : 문양의 상징적 의미와 해석을 중심으로

This study is a follow-up study to “A study of the pattern stamped on the Cotton Armor and Helmet of the late Joseon period: Analysis and restoration of the stamp patterns” (Lee, Park, & An, 2019). It examines the origin and the meaning of the stamp patterns on the Cotton Armor and Helmet of the late Joseon period. The body armor which is the only remaining part of the Cotton Armor of the late Joseon period (Registered Cultural Property No. 459) in Korea has been considered as “the world’s first scientific bulletproof armor” or an “uncivilized heavy armor” reflecting either emphasizing superlative achievement or a defeatist attitude by scholars or the press. However, by focusing on the historical and symbolic value of the stamp patterns, different aspects of the armor and helmet are revealed. As a result, the patterns are classified into three categories: the Om Mani Padme Hum, the icons of the Five Great Mountains, and the Nine Stars and Eight Doors talisman. These magical and superstitious patterns reveal to be the national, military, and cosmic patterns reflecting the Neo-Confucian worldview of the Joseon Dynasty. These symbols provide a hint to assume that the Cotton Armors and Helmets were originated in the 18th century as an armor for the artillery before they appeared in the wars such as French campaign against Korea in 1866 and American expedition in 1871.

Representativeness of European clinical trial populations in mild Alzheimer\u2019s disease dementia: a comparison of 18-month outcomes with real-world data from the GERAS observational study

BackgroundComparison of disease progression between placebo-group patients from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world patients can aid in assessing the generalisability of RCT outcomes. This analysis compared outcomes between community-dwelling patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia from two RCTs (pooled European (EU) data from EXPEDITION and EXPEDITION 2) and similar patients from the EU GERAS observational study.MethodsData from placebo-group patients with mild AD dementia from the RCTs (EU countries only) were compared with data from GERAS patients with mild AD dementia. Between-group differences for changes over 18 months were analysed for cognition, functioning, neuropsychiatric symptoms, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and caregiver time using propensity score-adjusted models. A sensitivity analysis compared EU/North American (EU/NA) EXPEDITION patients with GERAS patients.ResultsEU EXPEDITION patients (n = 168) were younger than GERAS patients (n = 566) (mean (standard deviation, SD) age 71.9 (7.4) versus 77.3 (6.9) years; p < 0.001) and were more likely to use AD treatment (95% versus 84%; p < 0.001). Cognitive performance was similar at baseline in both populations, although GERAS patients showed greater functional impairment (p = 0.005) and lower HRQoL (p < 0.05). At 18 months, no statistically significant differences between EXPEDITION (n = 133) and GERAS (n = 417) patients were observed for changes in cognitive, functional, neuropsychiatric and HRQoL outcomes. Least squares mean (95% confidence interval) change in caregiver time (hours/month) spent on instrumental activities of daily living (iADL; 29.22 (19.16, 39.27) versus 3.20 (−11.89, 18.28), p = 0.001) and supervision (66.59 (47.49, 85.69) versus 3.04 (−25.39, 31.48), p < 0.001) showed greater increases in GERAS than EXPEDITION. In the sensitivity analysis, changes in neuropsychiatric and HRQoL scores and caregiver time spent on basic ADL were also significantly greater in GERAS than in EU/NA EXPEDITION patients.ConclusionsPatients with mild AD dementia participating in the EU EXPEDITION RCTs and the GERAS observational study showed a similar decline in cognitive, functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms over 18 months, whereas changes in caregiver time measures were significantly greater in GERAS. Results indicate the importance of using similar regions when comparing real-world and RCT data.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00905372 EXPEDITION. Registered 18 May 2009.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00904683 EXPEDITION 2. Registered 18 May 2009.

Popping-a-Squat and Other Bits of Ephemera

This project posits the practice of scrapbooking as an arts-based, performative autoethnographic method of inquiry that allows me to interrogate my experiences teaching a tourism course grounded in critical performative pedagogy. Teaching American Expedition was sublime and, in its sublimity, it resists linear, dispassionate analysis. Choosing an arts-based method of inquiry, such as scrapbooking, opens up possibilities of thinking and understanding beyond the limitations of language, of honoring bodied experiences that are not easily or necessarily speakable, and of exploring how care is enacted in and through the practice of my pedagogy.

Imaginative Mobilities

This issue of Departures in Critical Qualitative Research ( DCQR ) takes up the theme and issue of travel in complex and compelling forms. The pieces in the collection take us on the American Expedition travel-study course in Yosemite National Park, CA; a series of Voodoo Tours in the heart of New Orleans, LA; a Youth Experience Tour in Masada National Park, Israel; to, through, and into roadside and digital tourism in the Irish Hills of Michigan; and an electronic dance music festival on the beaches of Goa, India. The authors use scrapbooking, performative autoethnography, touring and curation, and experimental writing to suggest the affective experience, texture, and dialogic critique generated by encounters in and through each of these sites. Each of the essays charts the confluence of bodies, languages, stories, and the materiality of the artifacts we make and carry through our encounters with geographic spaces. …

Science in an extreme environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest expedition

Science in an extreme environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest expedition

Indigenous travelers and knowledge production in the Pacific: The case of Kadu and Ludwig Choris

AbstractStudies of early modern knowledge production have recently shifted the focus away from Europe as a singular center of intellectual power and Europeans as the sole contributors to Enlightenment thought. In the late 18th century, the Pacific Ocean became a vast and diverse arena of scientific and cultural exploration, a waterscape in which European and American expeditions encountered indigenous groups as well as new sites for the study of nature and humanity. The Russian expedition of the Rurik (1815–1818) demonstrates many aspects of knowledge production in a Pacific maritime setting, including the stunning visual representation of indigenous communities by the artist Ludwig Choris, the active collaboration of an indigenous Marshall Islander named Kadu, and the researches of two naturalists on board the Rurik. For an expedition that failed in its stated mission to discover the Northeast Passage, the work of these individuals reveal the process and surprising outcome of intelligence gathering in an ocean world far from Europe.

Seafaring in Ancient Egypt

For more than 40 years, Abdel Moneim Abdel Halim Sayed sought evidence to expand our knowledge of ancient Egyptian seafaring in texts, images, and along the Red Sea coast. His work in this area provided the first, and for many years, the only physical evidence of a second millennium BCE presence on the Red Sea and inspired a number of students and scholars to further explore questions related to the nature of Egyptian voyages on the Great Green. This brief contribution assesses the impact of Professor Sayed’s discoveries at Marsa Gawasis on our understanding of the business of going to sea in the Middle Kingdom through an evaluation of relevant finds from the joint Italian–American expedition at Gawasis currently directed by Rodolfo Fattovich of the University of Naples l’Orientale and Kathryn Bard of Boston University.

Chapter 2. The historical geography of an archipelago of polar explorers

An outline of the rationale for a workshop, held in Oslo, Norway, from 12-13 May 2015, to discuss the historic place names of the High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land. The islands contain hundreds of place names that amount to a virtual catalog of polar exploration and explorers of the mid- to late-19th Century. As an example, three American expeditions spent seven years there between 1898-1905, in failed attempts to try to reach the geographic North Pole. However, in the process, they left behind a record of the American Gilded Age that survived even 70 years of Soviet Communism.

The place names of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa: the Wellman polar expedition, 1898–1899

ABSTRACTIn 1898–1899, the first American polar expedition to Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land], under the leadership of journalist Walter Wellman, added at least forty place names to the islands, of which many survive on modern charts. These include the main discovery of the expedition, the large island named for Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell, then president of the National Geographic Society, along with numerous smaller islands, capes and waterways. The origins of several of these names are now confirmed using recently discovered notes in the papers of Wellman's brother and business manager, Arthur Wellman. They demonstrate the close relationship between Walter Wellman and the political, financial and scientific elites of turn-of-the-century Chicago, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and the state of Ohio, associations derived from Wellman's profession as a Washington correspondent for Chicago newspapers.