Cultural Horizons Research Articles

The late Gravettian of Borshevo 5 in the context of the Kostenki-Borshevo sites (Don basin, Russia)

The multilayered site Borshevo 5 is one of the recently excavated Upper Paleolithic settlements in the Kostenki-Borshevo location (Russia). Borshevo 5 has been investigated over a total area of 130 m2 since 2002. Five habitation levels of the Upper Paleolithic were established. The uppermost first cultural layer was associated with the Gravettian 14C dated 22–20 ka BP uncal.It was discovered in the excavation area 2009–2010 that the first cultural layer upslope was split in two separate cultural horizons divided by a sterile loam. Horizons 1a and 1b were associated with two different paleosols. Both of the horizons yielded almost typologically identical stone assemblages.The stone industry was based on the exploitation of mainly Cretaceous and some Carboniferous flints as well as quartzite, sandstone, and slate raw materials. According to the typology of tools, 1a and 1b assemblages of Borshevo 5 have analogies in the neighboring Gravettian sites Kostenki 9 and Kostenki 4. A clear feature of the assemblages is the occurrence of slate and dolomite artifacts treated by polishing. It seems that this kind of culture had no relations with the typical Eastern Gravettian Kostenki-Avdejevo culture. According to the features in knapping (wedge cores and small blades size), as well as tool composition (Gravette and Vachon points), Borshevo 5 should be called late Gravettian or early Epigravettian. The cultural roots of these communities may originate from the Central European context such as Milovice (upper layer), with similar 14C dates and stone industries.

Unearthing the nation: modern geology and nationalism in republican China

Questions of national identity have long dominated China's political, social, and cultural horizons. So in the early 1900s, when diverse groups in China began to covet foreign science in the name of new technology and modernization, questions of nationhood came to the fore. In Unearthing the Nation, Grace Yen Shen uses the development of modern geology to explore this complex relationship between science and nationalism in Republican China. Shen shows that Chinese geologists-in battling growing Western and Japanese encroachment of Chinese sovereignty-faced two ongoing challenges: how to develop objective, internationally recognized scientific authority without effacing native identity, and how to serve China when China was still searching for a stable national form. Shen argues that Chinese geologists overcame these obstacles by experimenting with different ways to associate the subjects of their scientific study, the land and its features, with the object of their political and cultural loyalities. This, in turn, led them to link national survival with the establishment of scientific authority in Chinese society. The first major history of modern Chinese geology, Unearthing the Nation introduces the key figures in the rise of the field, as well as several key organizations, such as the Geological Society of China, and explains how they helped bring Chinese geology onto the world stage.

Becoming independent through au pair migration: self-making and social re-positioning among young Filipinas in Denmark

Over the past decade, growing numbers of young Filipinas have entered Denmark on the au pair scheme. While its official aim is to broaden the cultural horizons of youth, researchers generally view Filipina au pairing as a form of labour migration using au pairs as inexpensive domestic workers. This article argues that, despite this critique, au pairing does play an important formative role for young Filipinas because it opens up for experiences abroad that enable them to be recognised as independent adults in Philippine society. Rather than autonomy, however, au pairs define their independence in terms of their capacity to assume responsibility for others, thereby achieving a position of social respect. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark and the Philippines, this article explores how young Filipinas use the social, economic, and cultural resources they gain from their au pair stay abroad to re-position themselves vis-à-vis family and friends at home.

Vernacular Bible Translations and the Roman Inquisition in Italian History between the xvi and xviii Centuries

Recent studies highlight the methods by which inquisitorial censorship permanently modified the production and diffusion of Italian culture, as well as knowledge and circulation of the Bible in Italy. The present article intends to analyze these studies, which consider the impact of the Bible’s disappearance from Catholics’ spiritual and cultural horizons, particularly those of Italian-speaking Catholics. Reconstruction of the circumstances that resulted in the decision approved in the Index of 1596, which prohibited even partial translations of the Bible, has sparked a lively debate. Those choices were partially corrected during Benedict XIV - Lambertini’s pontificate (1740-58). The Index of 1758 rendered the translation of all, or part, of the Scripture possible but this change, as the caution and ambiguity highlighted by the decision- making process show, was introduced to encourage the highest possible fidelity to the 1596 Index, in line with the concrete conditions of the censorship operation of the 18th century. The article is divided into three parts: the first addresses the current debate; the second analyzes the reasons and context that led to the decision to ban all vernacular translations of the Bible, from the 1559 Index to the 1596 Index; and the third analyzes the reasons and context for the elimination of the Rule IV on Bible translation in the 1758 Index.

Dental Palaeopathological Analysis of the Eneolithic-early Iron Age Populations from the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia: Palaeodietary Implications

Here we present the attempt to reconstruct the dietary habits of the five major cultural horizons in Southern Siberia (Afanasyevo, Okunev, Andronovo, Karasuk and Tagar cultures, N ind = 214) over a time period spanning three millennia (25th–1st centuries BC) through the assessment of the dental palaeopathology of the people. The data has been compared with the results of earlier stable isotope analysis. The results indicate that (a) the major shifts happened in the dental condition of the Karasuk and Tagar populations, and these only partly correspond with the isotopic data; (b) the inverse relation between frequency of calculus and caries through the populations is possibly related to the consumption of less animal protein and the greater reliance on cereals by the Tagar and Karasuk people; (c) the frequency of metabolic stress, associated with dental enamel hypoplasia, gradually deteriorated from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, which is possibly related to millet adoption in the Minusinsk Basin in the 14th century BC; (d) in all cases, the oral health of individuals deteriorated with age; and (e) in most cases males had higher percentages of various diseases, which does not correlate with the associated isotopic data.

Some Results of Studying the Ancient History of Kazakhstan

In the Republic of Kazakhstan 2004 was accepted the large-scale unique State program named “Cultural heritage”. The first stage (2004-2006) of the program ended, in 2007 the second stage began. According to this program Expedition on studying of monuments of the Stone Age of Kazakhstan (the head – Taymagambetov Zh.K.) the above-named complexes Koshkurgan and Shoktas as a result of which additional materials are received were investigated. To number of special merits of this expedition Maybulak in Zhetysu (Semirechye) in field seasons of 2004-2006 as a result of researches is researches of the stratified parking 3 cultural horizons were allocated. The general collection of stone products makes more than 2 thousand units. The analysis of stone stock of parking Maybulak allowed researchers to make a number of conclusions, for example, technical characteristics of the industry of parking have the following features: in primary splitting special development was received by levallua equipment of processing nucleuses.

Scandal and military mediatization

Mediated responses to reports of abuse during the Global War on Terror are puzzling. Few of the many revelations of abuse prompted concerted reactions (e.g. scandals), and those that did were often very similar to reports that were ignored. This article draws from empirical research into responses to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib to develop new concepts that help untangle the mediatization of American wars. Feedback helps to model the variety of polemical interventions that are adopted in public discussions as a result of a scandal. The concept of feedforward, introduced here, enables us to model polemical interventions that develop within an organization in response to such feedback. Together, these concepts encourage greater sensitivity to the cultural horizon of mediated events. Further, they point to a new theoretical focus for mediatization research, namely the cycles of feedback and feedforward that help shape new forms of understanding and behaving within organizations.

Cultural convergence in the Neolithic of the Nile Valley: a prehistoric perspective on Egypt's place in Africa

The African origins of Egyptian civilisation lie in an important cultural horizon, the ‘primary pastoral community’, which emerged in both the Egyptian and Sudanese parts of the Nile Valley in the fifth millennium BC. A re-examination of the chronology, assisted by new AMS determinations from Neolithic sites in Middle Egypt, has charted the detailed development of these new kinds of society. The resulting picture challenges recent studies that emphasise climate change and environmental stress as drivers of cultural adaptation in north-east Africa. It also emphasises the crucial role of funerary practices and body decoration.

Maria Luisa Ardizzone Dante: Il paradigma intellettuale; Un’“inventio” degli anni fiorentiniDante: Il paradigma intellettuale; Un’“inventio” degli anni fiorentini. Maria Luisa Ardizzone. Florence: Olschki, 2011. Pp. xxvi+264.

<i>Maria Luisa Ardizzone</i> Dante: Il paradigma intellettuale; Un’“inventio” degli anni fiorentini<i>Dante: Il paradigma intellettuale; Un’“inventio” degli anni fiorentini</i>. Maria Luisa Ardizzone. Florence: Olschki, 2011. Pp. xxvi+264.

Contemporary Spanish Animated Films: Between the Temptation of the Mainstream and the Consolidation of a National Cinema

This article examines the production of animated feature films in Spain in the last ten years, where it is possible to detect the presence of two principal trends. The first can be identified with mainstream cinema, represented by Hollywood movies, with an industrial character and a clear globalizing mission; the second trend is that of independent cinema, with a more art-house quality and with limited international impact. We analyse the conditions of production, distribution, and exhibition of two films that are representative of each, as well as their main expressive and narrative features: on the one hand, Las aventuras de Tadeo Jones by Enrique Gato (2012), classifiable in the mainstream category, and, on the other, Arrugas by Ignacio Ferreras (2011), closer to the cultural horizons of national cinema.

Een katholiek die de Bijbel las - Nederlandse vertalers en recensenten over de religieuze dimensie van Silvio Pellico’s Le mie prigioni en Dei doveri (1833-1906)

Silvio Pellico’s prison memoirs, Le mie prigioni (1832), and his moral lessons for the youth, Dei doveri degli uomini (1834), are mainly remembered for their implicit political influence as an inspiration for the Italian Risorgimento and for the intimate description of the most difficult years in Pellico’s life. However, the religious dimension of both books and the description of the rediscovery of the Catholic faith were considered more important by Pellico himself. This article puts this religious aspect centre stage. It analyses the reception of the Dutch translations of these works within the cultural and religious debates that took place in the confessionally divided Netherlands of the nineteenth-century. A national-liberal interpretation can be identified alongside more Orthodox-Protestant and Catholic ones, each emphasising aspects in Pellico’s work that could fit their specific cultural agendas. This polemic confirms that nineteenth-century literary debates in the Netherlands were more influenced by ideology than aesthetics. The debate around Le mie prigioni and Dei doveri faded away around 1840 without a clear conclusion in favour of a specific interpretation. Two new translations of Le mie prigioni followed in 1896 and 1906 but they did not provoke much discussion, not even in Catholic periodicals, although they were the work of Catholic translators. After 1906, Pellico – and certainly his religious message – mostly disappeared from the cultural horizon of the general public. By then, he had already been included in a Dutch Catholic canon.

Towards a Methodology of the Intercultural Teaching of Hungarian Literature to Speakers of Hungarian as a Second/Foreign Language

Although there are many Hungarian Studies scholars teaching literature to Hungarian language learners around the world, there are practically no resources available about what is happening in these classes, and what linguistic, literary and cultural challenges they pose for students and teachers. In her study, Györgyi Horváth discusses her ten-year teaching experience as a teacher of Hungarian literature to Hungarian language learners within the Hungarian Studies Program, a one-year off-site university program offered to international students, accredited by the University of Pécs, and hosted by the Balassi Institute, Budapest. She discusses the institutional and program framework she worked in, gives a detailed account of the linguistic, literary and especially the cultural competencies that were in play in these courses, and also formulates some general methodological insights about teaching Hungarian literature to language learners. Horváth concludes that teaching literature cross-culturally widens the cultural horizons of students as well as of their teachers, offering them a space for increased cultural awareness and self-reflection.

H. Tsuchiya, Christianity in Japanese Society and the Horizons of Religion and Culture

H. Tsuchiya, Christianity in Japanese Society and the Horizons of Religion and Culture

Cronología radiocarbónica de Las Lunas (Yuncler, Toledo), un gran poblado de fines de la Prehistoria en la Meseta Sur

We present five radiocarbon dates for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age phases of Las Lunas (Yuncler, Toledo) site. Three of them correspond to the initial moments of the settlement –which is associated with an important bronze hoard– and another two to the final moments of the prehistoric occupation of the village. The coincidence of the first three dates allow us to place fairly accurately the bronze hoard in the mid-tenth century BC, providing interesting information for the study of long-distance contacts in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula during this period. The set of dating evidence shows the existence of large sites in a cultural horizon after Cogotas I and before the Early Iron Age. This horizon is virtually unknown in the region.

Middle Palaeolithic cultural levels from Middle and Late Pleistocene sediments of Biśnik Cave, Poland

Biśnik Cave is situated in the limestone rock, 6 m above the bottom of the currently dry Wodąca valley. It is located in the Smoleń–Niegowonice Range, in the southern part of the Częstochowa Upland (Poland). The stratigraphic sequence, which encompasses middle and upper Pleistocene sediments, is unique in Central Europe. It enabled the reconstruction of changes occurring in the Middle Palaeolithic in the Polish Jura. Middle Palaeolithic cultural levels at the Biśnik Cave are discussed in the context of spatial analysis of the site's utility zones, with regard to hearths in particular phases of cave inhabitation. The results were linked with typological and use wear analysis of separate assemblages of artefacts.Microstratigraphic analysis revealed a far more complex character of settlement processes, especially with reference to older cultural horizons (A6-A5). Several sub-levels have been distinguished, phases of inhabitation in each layer. It was possible to indicate tendencies in the location of hearths in “cool” and “warm” layers, as well as point to a steady tendency of the shift of the site's utility space towards the entrance of the cave. The functions of particular zones of the site have been determined whenever possible, with the help of the results of traseological analysis. It was possible to characterise the technology and typology of assemblages found in particular layers and provide the description of their cultural character against the background of other Middle Palaeolithic sites in central-eastern Europe.

TELL AFIS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY b.c.e.: Under the Rule of the Hittites

Three letters in Hittite language found at Tell Afis (thirteenth century b.c.e.) prove that Northwest Syria (east of the Ugaritic state) was under the direct control of a “Lord of the Country” residing at Alalakh (the capital of the Antioch plain) who was, in turn, under the authority of the Hittite central administration (Hattusa). Excavations on the western slope of the acropolis have given a stratigraphical sequence covering the whole Late Bronze Age. The tablets have been found in Building F, exposed for approximately 400 m2. While the cultural horizon of this phase is representative of an inner Syrian Late Bronze II context, a lugged axe and pithoi with marks point to a connection with Central Anatolia. Six other tablets in Akkadian were written by the local administrative office. The individuals' names are mostly Hurrian, in agreement with the situation in Alalakh.

Carta encíclica Fe y Razón o "Al rescate de realidad perdida"

En el horizonte cultural de la actualidad prevalece la inseguridad del verdadero alcance del conocimiento. El papa Juan Pablo II llama a este estado: crisis al rededor de la verdad. Fides et ratio ofrece las llaves que permitirán al hombre abandonar su seria situación.

New geoarcheological studies at the Middle Paleolithic sites of Khotylevo I and Betovo (Bryansk oblast, Russia): Some preliminary results

The paper presents and discusses the evidence obtained as a result of recent fieldwork at the Middle Paleolithic sites of Khotylevo 1 and Betovo in the Upper Desna river basin, Bryansk oblast of Russia. The stone industries of both sites are based on local tabular good quality flint and contain more (Khotylevo 1) or less (Betovo) representative bifacial components, as well as varying quantities of Levallois products. Previously, all the Middle Paleolithic assemblages of Khotylevo 1 were thought to occur in a redeposited alluvial context dated by different authors to either early Late or even late Middle Pleistocene. The materials of Betovo were thought (mainly on typological grounds) to postdate those of Khotylevo 1. The new stratigraphic observations, supplemented with the results of sedimentological analyses, show that Khotylevo 1 is a multilayered site with some cultural horizons displaying few or no signs of post-depositional dislocation. Coupled with the results of paleomagnetic studies and a radiocarbon date, this data seems to suggest that the formation of the deposits enclosing the known Middle Paleolithic assemblages at both sites might have taken place during the first half of the Middle Valdai megainterstadial (MIS 3).

Exploring Cultural Horizons

The need for Australian school students to develop a strong understanding of Asian culture has been recognised in the cross-curriculum priority, Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia, of the Australian Curriculum. School students in rural and remote Australia have limited opportunities to engage with Asians and learn about their culture. The Australia-Korea ConneXion (AKC) Program digitally connects Australian and Korean schools to develop cultural exchange. In particular, lessons incorporating videoconferencing enable interactions that enhance the cultural values and attitudes of the students involved. While recognising the potential of videoconferencing to enrich their students‘ experiences of other cultures, teachers in rural and remote schools may not feel confident in the practicalities of incorporating videoconferencing into lessons to connect their students with students in other countries. This paper aims to inform teachers on the analysis of AKC Program lessons utilising videoconferencing. Although there is a cultural focus, each pair of teachers has flexibility in the choice of lesson content. Guidance is provided for teachers who might want to begin videoconferencing with classes in another country, including steps from making first contact with the teacher to planning the learning, setting up the technology and finally facilitating the lessons. As part of research evaluating this program, a rubric was developed to code the quality of a videoconferencing lesson. Analysis of data from lessons between four pairs of schools provides insight into the videoconferencing lessons and a range of pedagogical and technological advice to assist teachers to improve the quality of their future use of videoconferencing to connect students and allow them to explore new cultural horizons.

New radiocarbon data from Micoquian layers of the Kůlna Cave (Czech Republic)

The Kůlna Cave is a significant site due to the stratigraphic sequence documenting the development of Palaeolithic in the Central European territory. Despite large-scale interdisciplinary research, the chronological classification of the individual Middle Palaeolithic cultural horizons is unsatisfactory. Within a new grant project, 43 samples were taken for dating with a preference for bones with anthropic impact and a documented exact position of each sample. To a certain extent this enabled control of possible contamination, and at the same time diminished the negative impact of carnivores linked with the deposition of bones in the cave. Radiocarbon data were obtained for the upper layers of the Middle Palaeolithic sequence that contains Micoquian artefacts, corroborating the former chronological position of layer 7a in spite of a large quantity of ante quem data. Layer 6a, which is of key significance for the solution of issues relating to the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition, falls before the Hengelo Interstadial, and therefore it is older than the known EUP industries in Moravia.