Journal articles on the topic 'Dramamacbeth , active 11th century'

Birchbark letters from Novgorod from the 11th and 12th centuries show distinctions in the use of the two perfective active participles in Old Russian, a distinction thought to have been lost very early. Examination of the use of these participles in chronicles shows that the loss of this distinction began in the South in the 11th century, became more prevalent there in the 12th, but did not affect the Novgorod Chronicle until the late 12th century, so the Birchbark data are not surprising.

Abstract Both medieval Arab historians and modern Byzantinists have generally ignored the Arabophone cultural life of Antioch during its period under Byzantine rule from 969–1084 CE, preferring to equate Christian rule with Greek culture. Nevertheless, lay intellectuals closely connected to the Melkite Patriarchate of Antioch were active in promoting the translation of Greek patristic works into Arabic during this period. This article examines the career of the deacon ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī, whose translations, compilations, and original works evince close familiarity with contemporary intellectual trends in Baghdad and a desire to produce translations of high literary quality. Moreover, in Ibn al-Faḍl’s criticisms of local philosophers who had strayed from Christian dogma, we find further evidence for Byzantine Antioch as a center of Arabic literary and philosophical activity.

The gradual Christianization of the major dynasties of so-called ‘Younger Europe’ resulted, among other things, in the activization of their matrimonial policy. Throughout Middle Ages, the most active in this regard were the Rurik and the Piast dynasties. The tradition of bilateral marriage relations among the ruling houses of Europe was established in the early 11th century and uninterruptedly continued into the mid-14th century. In the 11th century, there were registered 7 princely marriages; four of them, in Poland – three Ruthenian brides were given in marriage to the representatives of the Piast dynasty; besides, there was one case of concubinage. Two of the marriages were fertile: altogether, six children were born (five boys and a girl). One marriage proved to be infertile. On her way to her husband’s land, each Ruthenian bride was accompanied by an escort consisting chiefly of women; but there had to be some men too, a personal confessor and spiritual advisor in particular. Supposedly, their main function was to prepare the princesses for marriage; later, those persons composed their ladies’ own courts, varying in quantity and duration, within the greater courts of their husbands. In this article, I focus on the quest for probable Ruthenians within the inner circles of the Rurik dynasty princesses married into the Piast dynasty in the 11th century. The main challenges of the quest are the insufficiency of the 11th – the early 12th-century historical sources and the inaccuracy of the late medieval materials on the subject, whose evidence requires critical view and verification. Thus it appears to be almost impossible to establish the names of all those persons who accompanied the Ruthenian princesses to the Piasts’ lands, though their presence can be inferred from historical narratives.

SummaryThis paper examines the continuities and discontinuities in language teaching between the Middle Ages and the early modern era by drawing attention to the role of bilingual Latin-vernacular proverb collections in premodern education, a subject that has hitherto been neglected in the historiography of linguistics. The focus is on bilingual collections that are of Dutch origin. The paper aims to show that there was an active culture of teaching Latin through vernacular proverbs in Western Europe from the 11th century to the 17th century. After presenting some collections and surveying the arguments in favour of classroom use, it investigates the impact of humanism and the reformation on proverb-based teaching.

The purpose of the local research is to study historical situations and the social context which allows us to reveal the features of the historical development of the Norwegian Church and stone architecture in the 11th – 12th centuries. Church architecture in Norway developed under the influence of the Christian religion. Churches and cathedrals built at the request of the Norwegian kings strengthened the prestige of the monarch, singled out dioceses and indicated the triumph of a new religion in the country. In the second half of the 12th century the originality and uniqueness of the cathedrals erected by church order indicates the active position of the archbishops in relation to architecture.

In the second half of the 11th century, having completed the political conquest of England, William I undertook to establish control over the local church. To do this, he initiated a religious reform in his new possessions, which was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc (1070–1089) and his followers. This reform, directed against the “old” clergy, endangered the position of many religious centers associated with local cults. The reaction to it was the emergence of a wave of hagiographic literature, designed to legitimize both the cult itself and the status of the community representing the saint. The article is devoted to the analysis of the main features and assessment of the political role of hagiography of the late 11th — early 12th centuries, based on the case of the Lives of St. David and St. Beuno, which were directed against the reforms of both Lanfranc and his successors. From the beginning of the 12th to the beginning of the 13th century the appeal to the image of St. David and his Life were the main tools of the bishops of St. Davids in their struggle to gain the status of an archbishopric, which would remove the issue of the subordination of the Welsh clergy to Canterbury. Each stage of the confrontation was accompanied by the appearance of a new edition of the text. The Life of St. Beuno, which displayed signs of actualization at the beginning of the 12th century, expressed the fear of local religious communities to lose part of their income due to active hostilities in East of Wales. Despite all the efforts of the Welsh clergy, by the end of the 13th century the influence of the king of England and English church hierarchs on local dioceses was already unquestionable.

This paper analyses the extant pre-Romanesque sculpture from Biograd, classifying it into homogeneous groups based on stylistic and visualmorphological features, and attributing it to various stone-carving workshops active from the last decades of the 8th until the late 9th century. Most of the fragments have been associated with the recently identified atelier called “Workshop of the Plutei of the Zadar Cathedral” and dated approximately to the last decades of the 8th or the very beginning of the 9th century. Some of the remaining fragments have been linked to the stone-carving workshops active in the times of the Croatian dukes Trpimir and Branimir, and thus dated to the middle and the last quarter of the 9th century, respectively. As for the rest of the reliefs, it has only been possible to establish that they show features of mature pre-Romanesque style typical of the 9th century, with three interesting fragments dated to a somewhat later period based on their stylistic features: two of them to the mid-11th and the third to the first quarter of the 12th century. Finally, an analysis and attribution of three fragments of two pilasters that were later re-carved as an architrave, discovered in St Chrysogonus’ church in Zadar, has helped the author to establish a chronological distinction between two early stone-carving productions identified in the broader Zadar region. One of them is the “Workshop of the Plutei of the Zadar Cathedral”, which helps in dating the largest group of pre-Romanesque reliefs from Biograd with greater accuracy.

This paper illustrates the evolution of settlement types in a small territory between Antiquity and the Medieval period. During the Early and Mid Roman periods, the area was densely and uniformly covered by numerous modest rural estates, in a way that differs from the ‘classical’ villa pattern. Many of these remained active until the 4th c. During the 5th c., small villages of ‘Germanic’ type replaced scattered settlements. This clustering of rural population was accompanied by a change to a landscape consisting of clearings and uncultivated areas. In the new villages, Early Medieval properties, in which a quadrangular ditched enclosure contained scattered structures such as timber buildings, sunken huts, and storage pits, were not replaced by the type of dwelling associated with the ‘Medieval’ village until the 11th or 12th c.

Venantius Fortunatus was a Latin, Ravenna educated, semi-political rhetorical poet active in Merovingian Francia in the late 6th century. Arriving in Austrasia from the Alps in the spring of 566, he wrote three poems, not least an epithalamium publicly performed at the wedding of Sigibert and Brunhild. This literary genre, its structure and the three addressees of his poems can be seen as a surprisingly detailed template for the Norse poem Skírnismál. The value of Fortunatus’ poetry rests with his ability to amalgamate Germanic, Christian and Latin Roman culture in a period of transition from a pagan to a Christian society. Since these periods of transition are reoccurring, it is possible to see an education in the 10th–11th century as the background for the Norse Skírnismál author, who probably must have read Fortunatus in order to compose his Norse wedding entertainment. Skírnismál is thus neither a purely Norse nor a purely oral composition.

<p>This paper presents the virtual reconstruction of the Islamic palace of Onda (Castellón), a site where recent excavations have brought to light an important set of structures dating from the 11th century. Its poor state of preservation allowed a fairly complete reading of the palace plan but there was no hard evidence regarding its elevations. In the context of an ongoing study of the site, a virtual reconstruction of the palace was undertaken in order to facilitate the process of trial and error involved in figuring out its original configuration. A method devised to test reconstructive hypotheses on an active archaeological site is presented, followed by a discussion of results that encompasses the architecture and the urban and regional context of the site.</p>

Abstract In the 11th century, the dissemination of Buddhism in the territories of Northern Song 北宋 dynasty (960–1127) China, Khitan 契丹 Liao 遼 (907/916–1125), and Xixia 西夏 (Tangut 党項, 1038–1227) kingdoms each reached a peak. What united the learned peoples of these three kingdoms in terms of religious and intellectual development was the comparatively widespread study and adoption of the teachings of Huayan Buddhism, or studies of and commentaries to the translations of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra into Chinese in 60-, 80-, and 40-rolls (Huayan jing 華嚴經, esp. T nos. 278, 279, 293). In this article I address some of my earlier research concerning two treatises composed by Bensong 本嵩 (active ca. 1083–1085), the Huayan guan tongxuan ji 華嚴觀通玄記 (Record of the Profundities of Total Meditative Insight [or Contemplation] of the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra Flower Garland Sūtra) and Fajie guan sanshimen song 法界觀三十門頌 (Verses Praising the Thirty Contemplative Approaches or Gates presented in the Gaṇḍavyūha Chapter on Entry into the Realm of Reality), among other examples from the period, to illustrate how these Huayan teachings were actually the product of Huayan and Chan Buddhist ideological frameworks, which fruitfully can be called Huayan-Chan. In order to demonstrate why the rubric ‘Huayan-Chan’ can be productive, I examine a range of commentarial Buddhist texts in Chinese to show who the patriarchs of Huayan-Chan were considered to be during the 11th century across the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of Northern China, and bring to the fore what some of these key teachings were. My main goal is to present the specific circumstances within which Huayan-Chan developed within the three kingdoms of Northern Song China, the Khitan Liao, and the Tangut Xixia.

Research article is devoted to the research of philosophical terms “Miscellany (Izbornik) of 1073” – Old Slavic handwritten book of the 11th century. In contrast to the frequently studied fragment called “philosophical treatise” (B. Peichev) as part of “Miscellany”, the author draws attention to another fragment, namely to the chapter called “Joseph of the Maccabees”, which is a translation from Greek of certain fragments of the 4 Maccabees. Since the fragment is devoted to the issue – how passions can be guided by reflection, in addition to epistemological terms, it contains a large number of ethical terms, such as “pleasure”, “suffering”, “rationality”, “courage”, “prudence”, “justice”, etc. In fact, the fragment represents the very first attempt of translation into Slavic of the Greek ethical categories such as “φρόνησις”, “ἀνδρεία”, “σωφροσύνη”, “δικαιοσύνη”, “ἡδονὴ”, “πόνος”. Using this fragment as an example, the author of the research article shows how the Christian influences were introduced by the Slavic translator into the Platonic and Aristotelian terminological matrix, which was the basis of the fragment. Further, analysis of another group of ethical terms associated with “types of passions” (“lust”, “joy”, “fear”, “sadness”, “contempt”, “blasphemy”, “greed”, “vanity”, “grumpiness“, “envy”, etc.) shows that some of the words selected by early translator, subsequently introduced into the literary Ukrainian, can be successfully used even by a modern researcher or translator. The research made shows also an active process of incorporation of ancient philosophical ideas into native culture back in the 11th century, in particular, the Greek doctrine of the four virtues (“ἀρετή”) in Plato's interpretation with Aristotle’s modifications, the idea of leading role of reflection in the human soul, the Aristotelian doctrine on the types of passions and the like. It gives us the opportunity to evaluate the presence of philosophical component in the Kyivan Rus’ culture at the earliest period of its formation and development in a different way.

Abstract. The medieval city of Vlaardingen (the Netherlands) was strategically located on the confluence of three rivers, the Maas, the Merwede, and the Vlaarding. A church of the early 8th century AD was already located here. In a short period of time, Vlaardingen developed in the 11th century AD into an international trading place and into one of the most important places in the former county of Holland. Starting from the 11th century AD, the river Maas repeatedly threatened to flood the settlement. The flood dynamics were registered in Fluvisol archives and were recognised in a multidisciplinary sedimentary analysis of these archives. To secure the future of these vulnerable soil archives an extensive interdisciplinary research effort (76 mechanical drill holes, grain size analysis (GSA), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), archaeological remains, soil analysis, dating methods, micromorphology, and microfauna) started in 2011 to gain knowledge on the sedimentological and pedological subsurface of the settlement mound as well as on the well-preserved nature of the archaeological evidence. Pedogenic features are recorded with soil description, micromorphological, and geochemical (XRF – X-ray fluorescence) analysis. The soil sequence of 5 m thickness exhibits a complex mix of "natural" as well as "anthropogenic" layering and initial soil formation that enables us to make a distinction between relatively stable periods and periods with active sedimentation. In this paper the results of this interdisciplinary project are demonstrated in a number of cross-sections with interrelated geological, pedological, and archaeological stratification. A distinction between natural and anthropogenic layering is made on the basis of the occurrence of the chemical elements phosphor and potassium. A series of four stratigraphic and sedimentary units record the period before and after the flooding disaster. Given the many archaeological remnants and features present in the lower units, in geological terms it is assumed that the medieval landscape was submerged while it was inhabited in the 12th century AD. In reaction to a final submersion phase in the late 12th century AD, the inhabitants started to raise the surface of the settlement. Within archaeological terms the boundary between natural and anthropogenic layers is stratigraphically lower, so that in the interpretation of archaeologists, the living ground was dry during the 12th and the 13th centuries AD. In this discussion, the geological interpretation will be compared with alternative archaeological scenarios.

This paper is about the food names used in Izumishikibu Waka. Izumishikibu was a poetess who was active in Japan in the 11th century. It is very difficult to find scenes of eating food in literary works at that time. In the background, it was recognized that depicting a meal scene was far from the trend of the times when aesthetic sense was important. The reason is that he recognized that depicting meal scenes was far from the trend of the times when aesthetic sense was emphasized. Exceptions are made when food has meaning as a formal ritual, but these usages are concentrated on essays and monogatari. However, Izumishikibu is unique because it has written poems that include the name of the food. In this study, it was confirmed that Izumishikibu's aspect as a lyricist was expressed even in waka with common food names, and I tried to understand one side of Izumishikibu waka's characteristics through food names.

Iberian Alborada. The Woman’s Song at the Dawn, 11th-17th Century The aim of the article is to define the genre of alborada, referring to its oldest Iberian forms, Mozarabic and Portuguese, and showing its evolution in the Early Modern Castilian poetry. This study will therefore serve as a basis for delineating the genre, which was present also in other European literatures, i.a. Polish from Renaissance to Romanticism. Iberian songs discussed here display a clear structure established in a long tradition and exploit the theme of lovers meeting at dawn, originating in the folk tradition, and implemented in Medieval formal courtly genres of kharja, cantiga de amigo (examples of Pero Meogo and Dom Dinis), and in 15th-century villancico, and entering other genres, most prominently sonnets, during the Renaissance. These multiple formal changes result in a gradual evolution of the lyrical subject of the alborada - the original complaint of a girl in love, a girl who is active and fighting for her happiness, has been transformed into a song of adoration and regret of a he-lover who serenades at nights for a lady who is mute and confined to the frame of her window. By this token, the history of the lyrical genre reflects the gradual removal of voices and subjectivity from women.

In a manuscript which is being studied here for the first time, al-Samaw'al (12th century) quotes a paragraph from al-Bīrūnī (11th century) which shows that the latter knew not only of Brahmagupta's method of quadratic interpolation, but also of another Indian method (called sankalt). Al-Samaw'al examines these methods, as well as linear interpolation, compares them, and evaluates their respective results. He also tries to improve them. In this article the author shows that al-Bīrūnī had used four methods of interpolation, two of which were of Indian origin; and that al-Samaw'al explicitly introduced a new way of evaluating these different methods. He also throws light on the active movement of research on numerical methods that constitutes the background to al-Bīrūmī's and al-Samaw'al's work, and uses modern means to evaluate the different methods and to justify the mathematicians' choices. The author has edited and translated al-Samaw'al's text in order to make it available to historians of Arabic and Indian mathematics. This allows them to follow the history and the mathematical arguments, and deepens our understanding of the importance to the development of mathematics of certain astronomical work. It also highlights the contribution of Indian mathematicians to the development of Arabic mathematics.

This research aims to reconstruct the childhood diets (aged 9–10 years) of the individuals buried during the active years of the Pictish monastic community (hereafter referred to as PMC) from early medieval (7th–11th century) Portmahomack in north-east Scotland, using 13C and 15N isotopes. Dietary reconstructions were achieved by isotope analysis of δ13C and δ15N on the tooth root apex from permanent first molars (M1) of 26 adult male individuals. The results indicate that the indi-viduals in PMC predominantly consumed terrestrial C3 resources during childhood, with a rich terrestrial protein diet and some marine resource consumption. Statistically significant differences were observed between childhood and adulthood diets (the latter derived from previous research), suggesting that when these individuals were children, they consumed more marine protein than in later years as adults. This is true for all individuals, whether or not they spent significant time in Portmahomack during their childhoods. This is the most extensive study of the childhood diet of in-dividuals from the PMC and so makes a significant contribution to augmenting information on diet and lifestyles in Pictish Scotland.

In this paper I would like to concentrate on strategies and methods that were guiding Alexios I and Andronikos I of the Komnenos dynasty during the process of gaining and consolidating their power in the Byzantine Empire. Between these two emperors, who belonged to the same family, there exist many analogies in the way of carrying out a coup and constructing the authority based on a group of faithful aristocrats. It is crucial to highlight the active family politics which characterized both the emperors, as it was the main strategy aimed at ensuring the durability of the freshly acquired power. Between Andronikos’ and his grandfather’s coups passed almost exactly one hundred years. The completely different social and political situation of the Byzantine Empire in the late 12th century forced Andronikos to take a different approach. The most striking change was in the way of eliminating potential threats from the circles of Constantinopolitan aristocracy, especially when it comes to his relatives. Such a comparative analysis leads to some important observations concerning the social changes in the late 11th and 12th centuries, as well as mechanisms of seniority and precedence of power in the Komnenos family.

The article discusses the first stages in the formation of an ethnopolitical community on the territory of the Belarusian Dvina, known from the annals as «Polochane». Using basic principles developed by the Vienna School of Historical Ethnography, the author identifies significant socio-political changes in the early medieval (9th–10th centuries) history of Eastern Europe due to the emergence of new elites. The formation of stable ethnopolitical communities is associated with the emergence of these elite groups . The absence of particular artifacts of northern European origin in Polotsk and the Polotsk okrug in the 9th – the first half of the 10th century suggests the independent formation of this center on the basis of local social structures. Significant socio-political changes in Eastern Europe arose during the Viking era (9th–10th centuries), and penetration of the North European military-trade groups into the territory of the Middle Dvina was associated with the beginnings of the active functioning of the West-Dvina branch of the Baltic-Black Sea route (the trade route «from the Varangians to the Greeks»). The development of this route became the main reason why Scandinavian leader Rogvolod came to the Polotsk region and formed a territorial and political organization, conditionally referred to as the «Rogvolod Polity». After the middle to the second half of the 10th century, a social transformation took place on the territory of the Middle Dvina, associated with the formation of elite military-trade groups and the formation of a brigade culture. The Rogvolod Polity, as the first stable territorial and political organization in the Dvina basin, created the institutional foundations for the subsequent consolidating ideology (the «core of tradition» according to R. Wenskus), embodied in the 11th century Polotsk princes Rogvolodovichi in the formation of the ethno-political community «Polochane».

In 2017 the archaeological exploration in the zone of construction of the transmission line in the Makariv district of Kyiv region took place. Three sites — Nalyvaikivka 1 (second half of the 10th — 11th, 12th—13th centuries), Farm 2 (2nd—1st millennium BC) and Farm 3 (11th century) were excavated. The total area of excavation was 165 m2. The settlement Nalyvaykivka 1 is located in the area with high wetlands and had the necessary conditions for the extraction of iron and forestry — extraction of tar, charcoal and harvesting. The site Nalivaykivka 1 was the Medieval industrial rural settlements. The site Nalyvaykivka 1 contains a lot of artifacts related to iron production. They represent the different stages of the metallurgical process. Fragments of furnace for iron production have been found. The specific design of the metallurgical furnace was ascertained. The location near ore deposits (the iron-mining center in the Kolonshchyna region) and near the powerful product market (Kyiv) led to the craft character of the settlement. Probably it was part of the group of settlements pecialized in the production and primary processing of iron. The materials of the Ferma 3 settlement confirm the high economic level of the rural district of Kyiv region in comparison with the material culture of the Old Rus cities. There were no any archaeological objects excavated at the settlement. But in the cultural layer the interesting finds were recorded: the bi-conical shape whorl made of pink shale; the small iron knife with a straight back, the blade separated from the shank ledge; the anvil (?) will slip; the iron arrowhead with broken edge; iron bits; bronze vessel; metallurgical slag; shale fragment of pink; iron awl. The presence of Byzantine amphorae, glass bracelets, bronze vessels, items of military or hunting equipment testifies to the active trade and craft relations of rural and urban population of Kyiv Rus.

This paper aims to examine funerary contexts of sites in mainland Greece and compare them with sites on the island of Crete in Ancient Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, in the period of circa the 11th until the 8th centuries BC. From an integrative approach to the analysis and interpretation of material culture from funerary contexts allow us to understand aspects of the space of the dead, aspects of mortuary practices and their role in the configuration of the historical context of the rise and formation of the polis, especially during the 8th century BC. The comparative analyses also provide a better understanding about contact and interactions in the Mediterranean. This requires us to analyze and consider on the different nature of material culture from funerary contexts, such as types of treatment and deposition/disposal/placement of the body of the dead, the construction of funerary architecture, grave goods, and the agency of the space of the dead in the construction of the funerary topography (funerary landscape). Cultural interactions are material expressions resulting from the exchange of ideas, know-how, technique and technology, beliefs, customs, and behaviors, both from objects and from the movement of people. They constitute a prospective field to address mortuary archaeological data as an active part of death and of the social process of dying. Funerary behaviors assign meanings, build memories and identities to biological death. They bring life to the transition of an active person in the “world of the living” into a passive “material thing” in the “world of the dead”. Thus, the dead, become the “walking dead” and “come to life”. Cultural interactions during the Early Iron Age constitute a fundamental element in the configuration of a new historical structure, the polis, which characterizes the Greek world as a unit – not homogeneous but consisting of heterogeneous and idiosyncratic aspects. Mortuary practices integrate this world of simultaneously standardized and peculiar actions and have crucial roles in the hellenic identity and in the identity particularities of its polis in Greek mainland and Crete.

Frankincense essential oils from Boswellia sacra have been commonly used to treat microbial infections from as early as the 11th century. The main feature of the plant is its gum resin, from which it is possible to obtain essential oils. In the present study, we focused on the comparative study of the oils extracted from the resins of three different Boswellia sacra cultivars (Najdi, Sahli and Houjri). From each of frankincense resin three successive essential oil samples (Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3) were obtained. Houjri gum resin gave the lowest percentage (5%) of total essential oil content but showed the maximum number of volatile components in all three grades. Najdi Grade 2 essential oil showed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 52 mg/mL toward relevant pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and samples from Grade 2 of Sahily and Houjiri were particularly active against a dermatological strain Propionibacterium acnes, displaying MIC values of 0.264 and 0.66 mg/mL, respectively. Data obtained from in vitro studies showed that all essential oils had a significant antifungal effect against Candida albicans and Malassezia furfur, showing MIC values ranging from 54.56 to 0.246 mg/mL. This work aims to increase the number of substances available in the fight against pathogens and to combat the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, encouraging the use of alternative resources, especially in non-clinical settings (farms, food processing, etc.).

The Çukurova Delta Complex, formed by the Seyhan, Ceyhan, and Berdan rivers, is the second-largest delta system in the Mediterranean. The delta complex is a major depocenter that contains sediments transported from the Taurus Mountain belt since the Miocene. Studies on the Quaternary landscape evolution of the Çukurova Delta Complex are scarce, and in particular, the Holocene evolution of the Seyhan Delta section of the Çukurova Delta Complex has been poorly understood. Sedimentological analysis, high-resolution digital elevation models derived using structure from motion, and optically stimulated luminescence dating of the foredune ridges in the Seyhan Delta help define the lesser-known nature of Late-Holocene paleoenvironmental and landscape evolution of the Seyhan section of the Çukurova Delta Complex. The foredune ridges provide evidence that the Akyatan Lagoon, one of Turkey’s largest lagoon, formed at the beginning of the last millennium. The ridges bordering the north and south of Tuzla Lagoon show that the lagoon completed its formation between the 11th and 14th centuries when the ancient delta was to the east. The Seyhan River flowed 10 km east from its current course until at least the 16th Century, and its ancient delta was active until that time. After the 16th Century, the Seyhan River shifted to its current course in the west and began to build the modern delta and the youngest foredune ridges were formed by a combination of aeolian and littoral processes. The contemporary delta continued to prograde until the construction of the Seyhan Dam in AD 1956. Since the construction of the Seyhan Dam, the delta shoreline at the river mouth retreated drastically and foredune formation stopped. In the past few decades, most of the foredune ridges have been eroded away by coastal processes and agricultural activities.

Lifelong learning is one of the most important skills in the 21st century. The main purpose of lifelong learning is active citizenship which is important in terms of connecting individuals to the structures of social and economic activity in both local and global contexts. Lifelong learning is high on the agenda in the education sector around the world. It has been an important part of many education policies and part of Thailand’s National Education Act since 2012. Skills’ development for lifelong learning has been emphasized within the 11th National Economic and Social Development Plan (B.E 2555-2559). Online learning included MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) such as edX, Coursera and other online course platforms such as Khan Academy, Udemy, etc. These all are efficient, time-effective and cost-effective tools supporting lifelong learning. Many research studies have already provided recommendations on how to accelerate the implementation of lifelong learning supported by online learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate higher education student awareness about lifelong learning and online learning. Universities need to take responsibility for preparing students for lifelong learning. Thus, the participants in this study were the students at International College, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (Bangkok, Thailand); they were selected through random sampling. This study has applied quantitative research methods, namely, an online survey to collect data. The results of this study can be used to improve lifelong learning skills among university students in other countries as well.

This research discusses the ancient tombs in Kota Rentang: history and tombstone variations. The focus of the research is how the history is related to the site in Kota Rentang, how to shape the tombstones, and what the various tombstones in the town explain. The research method used is the historical method, including the stages of data collection through heuristics, verification, interpretation, and historiography. A qualitative approach is used to understand the subject in depth. Data collection techniques include observation, interview, and documentation. Direct observation was conducted by visiting the village in North Sumatra and the archaeological center, interviews were conducted with informants from the North Sumatra archaeological center and the Kota Rentang village community. Documentation is done by studying document sources in the form of manuscripts, photographs, and others. The results showed that the site was a very active trading port around the 11th to 15th centuries AD in the administrative area of Rentang Village, Perak District, Deli Serdang Regency. The history associated with this area is the Aru/Haru Kingdom as mentioned in the Sulalatus Salatin records. Artifacts found date from the 12th to 15th centuries AD, including ancient tombs with headstones from Pasai. Other finds include celadon, pottery and other fragments. The tombs were found in the city's communal cemetery and the scattered tombstones are thought to date back to the 14th century AD and are believed to reflect the morphology of modern tombstones today.

The article examines the development of the new views of humans, Homo rationalis, in the Ukrainian educational thought of the 17th-18th century. The study is based on the example of translated from Latin philosophical disciplines taught in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. It was found that new ideas were connected to the strengthening of rationalist tendencies in all spheres of public life as well as in the practice of educational institutions, which deployed their activity at that period. Rationalist manifestations were clearly evident in teaching of human-oriented disciplines, in particular in Ethics. Ethics studies were a response to the social demands of the era, which called for a new individual – educated and active, who would direct their knowledge and skills to build a harmonious society, organized on a rational basis. Similar ideas and goals were dominant at the Ethics courses where the issues of freedom of will, the highest good, the purpose of human life and the possibilities of achieving happiness in real earthly life were developed. National Ethics taught during the described period became the platform for discussing the issues of the role of education and upbringing and possibility for people to realize their skills and abilities. Those courses emphasized the idea that a person, homo rationalis, armed with advanced scientific knowledge, guided by personal experience and cognitive abilities based on sensory perception and laws of thinking, can explore the world, and then, driven by rationalist principles, control and improve it. Ethics studies of the outlined epoch presented a combination of the achievements of rationalist Western European philosophical thought with its own irrational mental traditions dating back to the 10–11th, 12–15th centuries. The educational heritage presented in the courses of Kyiv Ethics of the 17–18th centuries deserves to be creatively used in the context of forming the life program of a person of the 21st century. Keywords: Ukrainian educational space, rationalist tradition, philosophical courses, Aristotelianism, ethics, freedom of will, higher good, happiness, person.

The personality of Catholicos Nerses III the Builder (641–661) is characterized by Armenian chronicles variously. As an active conductor of the Byzantine policy and Orthodoxy in Arme-nia, Nerses tried in all possible ways to strengthen the political and ecclesiastical ties of Ar-menians and Romans, and this resulted in the treaty of 652. Both, Armenians-Monophisites and Armenians-Chalcedonians fought for the welfare and development of the Armenian state. The difference was only in the details of the political vision of the latter during the 7th century. The Armenian-Byzantine alliance became evident already in the 9th century, when Armenia established new relations with Byzantium, as well as in the 10th–11th and 13th centuries, when the Orthodox community and culture reached their heyday in Armenia. Nerses III was the initiator and patron of a number of wonderful church buildings, which largely determined the architectural and artistic image of the epoch. Catholicos Nerses re-built the cathedral in Dvin, erected the churches in Khor Virap, the Holy Zion in Garni, the Holy Sign near the mountain Varaga, as well as the churches in Bagavan and Vagharshakert (Valarshakert). The most outstanding building of Catholicos Nerses is Zvartnots, or the church of the Vigilant Power, which had its replicas in the architecture of Armenia and South Caucasus. Nerses paid much attention to the Christianization of Armenia. All his buildings were some-how connected with this historical event. Moreover, he implemented the program of hieroto-pia – the transferring of the topography of the Holy Land to Armenia: Zvartnots repeated the form of the Holy Sepulcher, the cathedral in Dvin reproduced the composition of the Ba-silica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the small church in Khor Virap interpreted one of the Palestine Shrines. Nerses III repeated his grandiose idea in his birthplace, in Tayk, erected the churches in Ishkhan, Banak and Oltu (Ukhteats). The historical portrait of Catholicos Nerses III perfectly reflected his era, very bright and unprecedented in the context of the history of medieval Armenia.

AbstractThe Amstel river is located in the peat-covered coastal plain of the Netherlands and gives Amsterdam its name (Amstel dam). It is a small secondary branch of the repeatedly bifurcating Rhine delta system. Historically, the Amstel debouched into the peat-fringed former Oer-IJ estuary, which was connected to the North Sea, but after the closure of this inlet the estuary was transformed into an inland sea (IJ) due to erosion of the adjacent peat. The Amstel river was active between 3000 BP and 1122 AD after which time the supply water from the Rhine was stopped due to the construction of a dam far upstream near Wijk bij Duurstede. On the basis of borehole data from various sources, four cross-sections were constructed in the Amstel branch to study the unknown lithology and lithostratigraphy of the Amstel sediments in the Amsterdam area. The deposits show the Amstel was a low-energy river which carried mainly clay. The cross-sections reveal that the Amstel in its downstream part was flanked by two lithologically identical layers of overbank clay, intercalated by a peat layer. The lowermost overbank clay was deposited from 3000 BP to about 1000 AD. The intercalated peat layer is estimated to have developed between the 11th and 12th centuries AD, indicating a decreased sediment supply in the Amstel, and rise of water level in the downstream river caused by Zuiderzee influences such as storms and tide. The uppermost overbank clay was deposited during major storm surges such as those documented in 1164 and 1170 AD, and was derived from the brackish Zuiderzee; it has been traced upstream along the Amstel for over 10 km. Near the mouth of the Amstel channel in the Oer-IJ estuary its bottom has been scoured by estuarine processes to a lower level. On the basis of archaeological and geological data it is argued that the Amstel channel of medieval Amsterdam had a water depth of about 6 m before the construction of a dam in the 13th century. Soil scientists, historical geographers and historians have argued that the Amstel once consisted of two separate rivers: a northern Oer-IJ connected channel draining from the Amsterdam Stopera to the north, and a southern peat draining channel draining from the Amsterdam-Watergraafsmeer to the south. The relatively straight stretch of the present-day Amstel now positioned within the urban area has been hypothesised to be man-made between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. In this paper, on the basis of geological arguments such as channel depths, overbank clays, peat composition and other characteristics, it is concluded that the Amstel had a natural channel in the Amsterdam area.

Contemporary sport is a complex phenomenon with a rich multicultural historical tradition, its universal principles, such as peaceful and institutionalised competition included in the rules of individual fi tness professions, as well as ethos, ceremonial and ideology, are the work of many epochs and nations. The particular contribution of English culture to sport is well-known, from the promotion of its fi nal name (from the Old French desporte, which came to England in the 11th century with the Normans), through the promotion of physical education by eminent educators and philosophers such as John Locke, Herbert Spencer and Thomas Arnold, to the creation and dissemination of many sports, including football, rugby, tennis, cricket and golf. In the article, I refer to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, signifi cantly infl uencing the shape of modern concepts regarding natural rights, articulating, inter alia, the inalienable right of every human being to freely use his/her body to maintain health through physical activity. Hobbes based his anthropology on the mechanistic philosophy of motion, which he used to explain not only physical activity and functional fi tness of the body, but it also became a premise for the development of the psychology of human aff ects and desires, the culmination of which was the image of the sports race as a metaphor of human life. Hobbes did not limit himself to discussing in-offi ce deliberati, he was very active throughout his life, implementing the movement directive he proposed by performing sports, recreation, practicing preventive health treatments and taking numerous trips. The article is part of the history of ideas - it is a presentation of the concept of movement by the English modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), supplemented with a new element in doxographic studies linking the mechanicism of the Leviathan author with the existential motif regarding the idea of the life as a sport competition.

The article is devoted to the problem of evaluating an act in the light of Ismaili teaching. In the first part of the article, a pair of meta-categories of the Arab-Muslim reflective tradition “explicit-hidden” is considered, which is reflected in all theoretical disciplines of Islamic culture. An act is understood as an action (external) connected with an intention (internal). A person can perform actions on two levels: at the level of relationship with God and at the level of relationship with society. Due to the absolute transcendence of God, the relationship with God is transformed into reverence and worship, but at the same time there is an active development and sacralization of relationships at the level of man and society. The second part of the article begins with an analysis of the role of the imam, compensating for the “lack” of divine providence and participation in the Ismaili view of the world. The Imam is endowed with divine knowledge, he knows the “hidden” meanings of Revelation. At the same time, Ismaili philosophers emphasized the need to observe the “explicit” meanings expressed in the laws of Sharia. The third part of the article is devoted to the consideration of the Ismaili society as a place of connection of the “explicit” and “hidden”. The full realization of the “explicit” and “hidden” generates “truth”. To take his place in the Ismaili society is the goal and obligation of a person within the framework of human – andhuman relationships: only by taking his place can he reveal his own dichotomy as much as possible – to become both a “benefit taker” and a “benefit giver”. Moreover, the Ismaili philosophers endowed the correct behavior and relationships of a person in the Ismaili society with a global meaning: a person became a co-creator of the universe, since the development of higher spiritual entities depended on the knowledge he received from the Ismaili imam of the time. The readers are offered a fragment of a treatise of the 11th century Ismaili philosopher Nasir Khusraw “Six Chapters” (Shish fasl), dedicated to the need for the guidance of the imam and explaining the meaning of the Ismaili hierarchy.

The above text examines the 11th Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) organised in the People’s Republic of Poland in September of 1975 upon the initiative of Professor Juliusz Starzyński, who was the head of the organisation’s Polish Section. The congress, whose offi cial theme was “Art – Science – Technology as Elements of the Development of our Epoch”, marked the second AICA event in history to be held in Poland, and while Starzyński himself did not live to see the result of his efforts, the intent to commission a number of collateral exhibitions across the country – meant to serve as surveys of Polish art – was successful. Those attending the congress had the occasion to visit the cities of Cracow, Łódź, Warsaw, and Wrocław. The text takes a closer look at two of these exhibitions: Voir et Conçevoir (Widzieć i rozumieć) which was developed for Cracow’s historic Cloth Hall, a part of the city’s National Museum, by Mieczysław Porębski in collaboration with Andrzej Pawłowski, and the exhibition that came to be known as Critics’ Picks (Krytycy sztuki proponują), which was held at the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions, known as the Zachęta, in Warsaw. The concept of each, it is argued, was driven by a need for experiment. While the former exhibition came to be remembered as an innovative, if not radical, way of engaging the permanent museum display in which the highlights of Polish 19th-century art were juxtaposed with several new commissions by contemporary artists, the latter – the result of no less an experimental concept in which a group presentation was based on a survey conducted among local critics – remains largely forgotten – the upshot of a series of compromises, largely enforced by the political situation of the time. Exploring Voir et Conçevoir and Critics’ Picks as exhibitions in state institutions within the context of an international event, the paper seeks to shed light on the intersection of offi cial artistic practices and politics in the People’s Republic of Poland in the mid-1970s in an attempt to identify the key agents that were active in the fi eld as well as the defi ning conditions of their activity – or, in other words, to ask the question as to what kind of offi cial statements were made possible at the time and how they were motivated.

TamdrupRoyal residence and memorial church in a new light Tamdrup has been shrouded in a degree of mystery in recent times. The solitary church located on a moraine hill west of Horsens is visible from afar and has attracted attention for centuries. On the face of it, it resembles an ordinary parish church, but on closer examination it is found to be unusually large, and on entering one discovers that hidden beneath one roof is a three-aisled construction, which originally was a Romanesque basilica. Why was such a large church built in this particular place? What were the prevailing circumstances in the Early Middle Ages when the foundation stone was laid? The mystery of Tamdrup has been addressed and discussed before. In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeological excavations were carried out which revealed traces of a magnate’s farm or a royal residence from the Late Viking Age or Early Middle Ages located on the field to the west of the church (fig. 4), and in 1991, the book Tamdrup – Kirke og gård was published. Now, by way of metal-detector finds, new information has been added. These new finds provide several answers, but also give rise to several new questions and problems. In recent years, a considerable number of metal finds recovered by metal detector at Tamdrup have been submitted to Horsens Museum. Since 2012, 207 artefacts have been recorded, primarily coins, brooches, weights and fittings from such as harness, dating from the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. Further to these, a coin hoard dating from the time of Svein Estridson was excavated in 2013. The museum has processed the submitted finds, which have been recorded and passed on for treasure trove evaluation. As resources were not available for a more detailed assessment of the artefacts, in 2014 the museum formulated a research project that received funding from the Danish Agency for Culture, enabling the finds to be examined in greater depth. The aim of the research project was to study the metal-detector finds and the excavation findings, partly through an analysis of the total finds assemblage, partly by digitalisation of the earlier excavation plans so these could be compared with each other and with the new excavation data. This was intended to lead on to a new analysis, new interpretations and a new, overall evaluation of Tamdrup’s function, role and significance in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages.Old excavations – new interpretationsIn 1983, on the eastern part of the field, a trial excavation trench was laid out running north-south (d). This resulted in two trenches (a, b) and a further three trial trenches being opened up in 1984 (fig. 6). In the northern trench, a longhouse, a fence and a pit-house were discovered (fig. 8). The interpretation of the longhouse (fig. 4) still stands, in so far as we are dealing with a longhouse with curved walls. The western end of the house appears unequivocal, but there could be some doubt about its eastern end. An alternative interpretation is a 17.5 m long building (fig. 8), from which the easternmost set of roof-bearing posts are excluded. Instead, another posthole is included as the northernmost post in the gable to the east. This gives a house with regularly curved walls, though with the eastern gable (4.3 m) narrower than the western (5.3 m). North of the trench (a) containing the longhouse, a trial trench (c) was also laid out, revealing a number of features. Similarly, there were also several features in the northern part of the middle trial trench (e). A pit in trial trench c was found to contain both a fragment of a bit branch and a bronze key. There was neither time nor resources to permit the excavation of these areas in 1984, but it seems very likely that there are traces of one or more houses here (fig. 9). Here we have a potential site for a possible main dwelling house or hall. In August 1990, on the basis of an evaluation, an excavation trench (h) was opened up to the west of the 1984 excavation (fig. 7). Here, traces were found of two buildings, which lay parallel to each other, oriented east-west. These were interpreted as small auxiliary buildings associated with the same magnate’s farm as the longhouse found in the 1984 excavation. The northern building was 4 m wide and the southern building was 5.5 m. Both buildings were considered to be c. 7 m long and with an open eastern gable. The southern building had one set of internal roof-bearing posts. The excavation of the two buildings in 1990 represented the art of the possible, as no great resources were available. Aerial photos from the time show that the trial trench from the evaluation was back-filled when the excavation was completed. Today, we have a comprehensive understanding of the trial trenches and excavation trenches thanks to the digitalised plans. Here, it becomes apparent that some postholes recorded during the evaluation belong to the southernmost of the two buildings, but these were unfortunately not relocated during the actual excavation. As these postholes, accordingly, did not form part of the interpretation, it was assumed that the building was 7 m in length (fig. 10). When these postholes from the evaluation are included, a ground plan emerges that can be interpreted as the remains of a Trelleborg house (fig. 11). The original 7 m long building constitutes the western end of this characteristic house, while the remainder of the south wall was found in the trial trench. Part of the north wall is apparently missing, but the rest of the building appears so convincing that the missing postholes must be attributed to poor conditions for preservation and observation. The northeastern part of the house has not been uncovered, which means that it is not possible to say with certainty whether the house was 19 or 25 m in length, minus its buttress posts. On the basis of the excavations undertaken in 1984 and 1990, it was assumed that the site represented a magnate’s farm from the Late Viking Age. It was presumed that the excavated buildings stood furthest to the north on the toft and that the farm’s main dwelling – in the best-case scenario the royal residence – should be sought in the area to the south between the excavated buildings. Six north-south-oriented trial trenches were therefore laid out in this area (figs. 6, 7 and 13 – trial trenches o, p, q, r, s and t). The results were, according to the excavation report, disappointing: No trace was found of Harold Bluetooth’s hall. It was concluded that there were no structures and features that could be linked together to give a larger entity such as the presumed magnate’s farm. After digitalisation of the excavation plans from 1991, we now have an overview of the trial trenches to a degree that was not possible previously (fig. 13). It is clear that there is a remarkable concentration of structures in the central and northern parts of the two middle trial trenches (q, r) and in part also in the second (p) and fourth (s) trial trenches from the west, as well as in the northern parts of the two easternmost trial trenches (s, t). An actual archaeological excavation would definitely be recommended here if a corresponding intensity of structures were to be encountered in an evaluation today (anno 2016). Now that all the plans have been digitalised, it is obvious to look at the trial trenches from 1990 and 1991 together. Although some account has to be taken of uncertainties in the digitalisation, this nevertheless confirms the picture of a high density of structures, especially in the middle of the 1991 trial trenches. The collective interpretation from the 1990 and 1991 investigations is that there are strong indications of settlement in the area of the middle 1991 trial trenches. It is also definitely a possibility that these represent the remains of a longhouse, which could constitute the main dwelling house. It can therefore be concluded that it is apparently possible to confirm the interpretation of the site as a potential royal residence, even though this is still subject to some uncertainty in the absence of new excavations. The archaeologists were disappointed following the evaluation undertaken in 1991, but the overview which modern technology is able to provide means that the interpretation is now rather more encouraging. There are strong indications of the presence of a royal residence. FindsThe perception of the area by Tamdrup church gained a completely new dimension when the first metal finds recovered by metal detector arrived at Horsens Museum in the autumn of 2011. With time, as the finds were submitted, considerations of the significance and function of the locality in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages were subjected to revision. The interpretation as a magnate’s farm was, of course, common knowledge, but at Horsens Museum there was an awareness that this interpretation was in some doubt following the results of the 1991 investigations. The many new finds removed any trace of this doubt while, at the same time, giving cause to attribute yet further functions to the site. Was it also a trading place or a central place in conjunction with the farm? And was it active earlier than previously assumed? The 207 metal finds comprise 52 coins (whole, hack and fragments), 34 fittings (harness, belt fittings etc.), 28 brooches (enamelled disc brooches, Urnes fibulas and bird brooches), 21 weights, 15 pieces of silver (bars, hack and casting dead heads), 12 figures (pendants, small horses), nine distaff whorls, eight bronze keys, four lead amulets, three bronze bars, two fragments of folding scales and a number of other artefacts, the most spectacular of which included a gold ring and a bronze seal ring. In dating terms, most of the finds can be assigned to the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. The largest artefact group consists of the coins, of which 52 have been found – either whole or as fragments. To these can be added the coin hoard, which was excavated in 2013 (fig. 12) and which primarily consists of coins minted under Svein Estridson. The other, non-hoard coins comprise: 13 Svein Estridson (figs. 15, 16), five Otto-Adelheid, five Arabic dirhams, three Sancta Colonia, one Canute the Great, one Edward the Confessor, one Theodorich II, one Heinrich II, one Rand pfennig, one Roman denarius (with drilled hole) and nine unidentified silver coins, of which some appear however to be German and others Danish/Anglo-Saxon. Most of the single coins date from the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The next-largest category of finds from Tamdrup are the fittings, which comprise 34 items. This category does, however, cover a broad diversity of finds, of which the dominant types are belt/strap fittings of various kinds and fittings associated with horse harness (figs. 17-24). In total, ten fittings have been found by metal detector that are thought to belong to harness. In addition to these is a single example from the excavation in 1984. The majority of these fittings are interpreted as parts of curb bits, headgear and stirrups. One particularly expressive figure was found at Tamdrup: a strap fitting from a stirrup, formed in a very characteristic way and depicting the face of a Viking (fig. 20). The fitting has been fixed on the stirrup strap at the point where the sides meet. Individual stirrup strap fittings are known by the hundred from England and are considered stylistically to be Anglo-Scandinavian. The fitting from Tamdrup is dated to the 11th century and is an example of a Williams’ Class B, Type 4, East Anglian type face mount. A special category of artefacts is represented by the brooches/fibulas, and enamel brooches are most conspicuous among the finds from Tamdrup. Of the total of 28 examples, 11 are enamel brooches. The most unusual is a large enamel disc brooch of a type that probably has not been found in Denmark previously (fig. 24). Its size alone (5.1 cm in diameter) is unusual. The centre of the brooch is raised relative to the rim and furnished with a pattern of apparently detached figures. On the rim are some alternating sail-shaped triangles on a base line which forms four crown-like motifs and defines a cruciform shape. Between the crowns are suggestions of small pits that probably were filled with enamel. Parallels to this type are found in central Europe, and the one that approaches closest stylistically is a brooch from Komjatice in western Slovakia, found in a grave (fig. 25). This brooch has a more or less identical crown motif, and even though the other elements are not quite the same, the similarity is striking. It is dated to the second half of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th century. The other enamel brooches are well-known types of small Carolingian and Ottonian brooches. There are four circular enamel cross-motif brooches (fig. 26a), two stellate disc brooches with central casing (fig. 26b), one stepped brooch with a cruciform motif, one cruciform fibula with five square casings and two disc-shaped brooches. In addition to the enamel brooches there are ten examples that can definitely be identified as animal brooches. Nine of these are of bronze, while one is of silver. The motifs are birds or dragons in Nordic animal styles from the Late Viking Age, Urnes and Ringerike styles, and simpler, more naturalistic forms of bird fibulas from the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. Accordingly, the date for all the animal brooches is the 11th and 12th centuries. A total of 21 weights of various shapes and forms have been found at Tamdrup: spherical, bipolar spherical, disc-shaped, conical, square and facetted in various ways. Rather more than half are of lead, with the remainder being of bronze, including a couple of examples with an iron core and a mantle of bronze (so-called ørtug weights), where the iron has exploded out through the bronze mantle. One of the bipolar spheres (fig. 28) has ornamentation in the form of small pits on its base. Weights are primarily associated with trade, where it was important to be able to weigh an agreed amount of silver. Weights were, however, also used in the metal workshops, where it was crucial to be able to weigh a particular amount of metal for a specific cast in order to achieve the correct proportions between the different metals in an alloy. Eight bronze keys have been found, all dated broadly to the Viking Age (fig. 29). Most are fragmentarily preserved pieces of relatively small keys of a very simple type that must be seen as being for caskets or small chests. Keys became relatively widespread during the course of the Viking Age. Many were of iron and a good number of bronze. Nevertheless, the number of keys found at Tamdrup is impressive. A further group of artefacts that will be briefly mentioned are the distaff whorls. This is an artefact group which appears in many places and which was exceptionally common in the Viking Age. In archaeological excavations, examples are often found in fired clay, while metal distaff whorls – most commonly of lead – are found in particular by metal detector. Nine distaff whorls have been found at Tamdrup, all of lead. The finest and absolutely most prestigious artefact is a gold ring, which was found c. 60 m southwest of house 1. The ring consists of a 2 mm wide, very thin gold band, while the fittings comprise a central casing surrounded by originally eight small circular casings. In the middle sits a red stone, presumably a garnet, mounted in five rings. In a circle around the stone are the original eight small, circular mounts, of which six are preserved. The mounts, from which the stones are missing, alternate with three small gold spheres. The edges of the mounts have fine cable ornamentation. The dating is rather uncertain and is therefore not ascribed great diagnostic value. In the treasure trove description, the ring is dated to the Late Middle Ages/Renaissance, but it could presumably also date from the Early Middle Ages as it has features reminiscent of the magnificent brooch found at Østergård, which is dated to 1050. Two other spectacular artefacts were found in the form of some small four-legged animals, probably horses, cast in bronze. These figures are known from the Slav area and have presumably had a pre-Christian, symbolic function. Common to both of them are an elongated body, long neck and very short legs. Finally, mention should be made of four lead amulets. These are of a type where, on a long strip of lead, a text has been written in runes or Latin characters. Typically, these are Christian invocations intended to protect the wearer. The lead amulets are folded together and therefore do not take up much space. They are dated to the Middle Ages (1100-1400) and will therefore not be dealt with in further detail here. What the artefacts tell usWhat do the artefacts tell us? They help to provide a dating frame for the site, they tell us something about what has taken place there, they give an indication of which social classes/strata were represented, and, finally, they give us an insight into which foreign contacts could have existed, which influences people were under and which networks they were part of. Most of the artefacts date from the period 900-1000, and this is also the dating frame for the site as a whole. There is a slight tendency for the 10th century finds to be more evenly distributed across the site than those from the 11th century, which tend to be concentrated in the eastern part. A number of the finds are associated with tangible activities, for example the weights and, especially, the distaff whorls. Others also had practical functions but are, at the same time, associated with the upper echelons of society. Of the material from Tamdrup, the latter include the harness fittings and the keys, while the many brooches/fibulas and pendants also belong to artefact groups to which people from the higher strata of society had access. Some of the harness fittings and brooches suggest links with England. The stirrup-strap fitting and the cruciform strap fitting in Anglo-Scandinavian style have clear parallels in the English archaeological record. The coins, on the other hand, point towards Germany. There are a number of German coins from the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century, but the occurrence of Otto-Adelheid pennies and other German coins is not necessarily an indication of a direct German connection. From the second half of the 11th century, Svein Estridson coins dominate, but they are primarily Danish. Other artefacts that indicate contacts with western Europe are the enamelled brooches in Carolingian-Ottonian style. A number of objects suggest some degree of trade. Here again, it is the coins and the hack silver, and also the relatively large number of lead weights, that must be considered as relatively reliable indicators of trade, at least when their number is taken into consideration. In the light of the metal-detector finds it can, in conclusion, be stated that this was a locality inhabited by people of middle to high status. Many objects are foreign or show foreign inspiration and suggest therefore that Tamdrup was part of an international network. The artefacts support the interpretation of Tamdrup as a magnate’s farm and a royal residence. ConclusionTamdrup was located high up in the landscape, withdrawn from the coast, but nevertheless with quick and easy access to Horsens Fjord. Tamdrup could be approached from the fjord via Nørrestrand and the river Hansted Å on a northern route, or by the river Bygholm Å on a southern route (fig. 33). A withdrawn loca­tion was not atypical in the Viking Age and the Early Middle Ages. At that time there were also sites directly on the coast and at the heads of fjords, where early urbanisation materialised through the establishment of the first market towns, while the king’s residences had apparently to be located in places rather less accessible by boat and ship. As withdrawn but central, regional hubs and markers between land and sea. One must imagine that Tamdrup had a high status in the 10th and 11th centuries, when the king had a residence and a wooden church there. A place of great importance, culminating in the construction of a Romanesque basilica to commemorate the Christianisation of Denmark. Tamdrup appears to have lost its significance for the monarchy shortly after the stone church was completed, which could fit with King Niels, as the last of Svein Estridson’s sons, being killed in 1134, and another branch of the royal family taking over power. At the same time as Tamdrup lost its importance, Horsens flourished as a town and became of such great importance for the Crown that both Svein Grathe and Valdemar the Great had coins minted there. Tamdrup must have been a central element of the local topography in the Viking Age, when Horsens functioned as a landing place, perhaps with seasonal trading. In the long term, Horsens came out strongest, but it must be assumed that Tamdrup had the highest status between AD 900 and 1100.Lars PaghHorsens Museum

Theory (as attested by the military manuals) and practice prove that attrition warfare and the associated military tactics of deception and surprise played an important role in the byzantine military history. The paper studies cases of attrition warfare and surprise attacks exercised by the Byzantines from 11th till 13th century. Important military leaders such as Alexios I Komnenos were masters of attrition warfare and used skillfully that strategy whenever an open battle against a strong opponent was very precarious. The Byzantines took advantage of the Balkan and Asia Minor mountainous terrain as well as the recruitment of foreign fast moving troops armed with long range shooting weapons that facilitated the exercise of tactics of deception and surprise. These military tactics were mostly successful against the Latins while were occasionally successful against the Seljuks and the Turkomans. The paper concludes that attrition warfare and the tactics of deception and surprise were more often applied during the 13th century –a period that Byzantium’s military resources and capabilities diminished– thus being a distinctive byzantine method of warfare and gave rise to an active role of the infantry who under special circumstances could threaten the western cavalry.

In the article five illuminated manuscripts created in various periods of Byzantine history are analyzed as evidences of the attitude of the society and primarily its intellectual elite towards images and book culture, as it was reflected in the subjects and style of the miniatures and generally in the design of the codices. The Vienna Dioscorides manuscript, created in 512–513 for the imperial princess Juliana Anicia in order to express the gratitude of the inhabitants of the suburb of Honoratae for the construction of the church, was endowed with miniatures painted mainly in classical artistic manner apparently harking back to ancient herbaria. The codex is a testimony of preservation of many elements of the ancient culture in the Byzantine life of that time. In the miniatures of the marginal psalters written about the mid-9th century there are a few images related to the just finished iconoclasm, e.g. those of the Patriarch Nicephorus and his opponent iconoclast John the Grammarian. At the same time, we do not find there images of Theod ore the Studite, abbot of the Studious monastery in Constantinople, active defender of sacred images. His depictions appear in the marginal psalters and liturgical roll soon after the mid-11th century when the memory of the famous abbot was re-evoked owing to the discussions of studious monks with western theologians in the time of the Great Schism. The Tetraevangelion in the Russian National Library (gr. 801) represents a real masterpiece of the book culture typical of the second half of the 11th — early 12th century. In that time a book was probably considered not only as a source of knowledge but as a work of art and a sign of prestige of its owner. The Tetraevangelion of Karahissar written and illustrated soon after the mid-12th century reflects a different situation: the purpose of its creation seems purely utilitarian — transmission of the text and its decoration mostly with concise and artistically simple images. Miniatures of the Sinai Psalter (Saint Catherine’s monastery, cod. 38), a fragment of which is preserved in the Russian National library in Saint Petersburg (gr. 269), copied in the late 13th century from those of the famous Paris manuscript (BnF, gr. 139) of the mid-10th century demonstrate an interest to the art of Antiquity refracted through the prism of another conception of an image that is conceived as ideal and absolutely immaterial. Significant interest to the classical art always marks a cultural efflorescence, and copying of the miniatures of the Paris Psalter and of some other codices of the mid-10th century in the late 13th — early 14th century characterizes such a moment in the history of Byzantine society.

The subject of this research is an unknown Slavic translation of Sermon 5 John of Sinaya’s Scala Paradisi (Lestvica) in a Serbian Menaion and Triodion Panagyric, rewritten from an old Bulgarian antigraph which has preserved the archaic grammatical traits of the prototranslation. In the sermon’s text, forms of asigmatic aorist and first sigmatic aorist with a preserved “s” are being registered, as well as non-contrahered forms for imperfect, forms of past active I participle formed with suffix -ьш- from verbs with a base ending on -и-, possessive adjectives as a translation of the Greek genitive case for possession, usage of a local prepositionless, excessive prepositionless usage of ablative case, descriptive future with a preponderance of forms of хотѣти + infinitive, dual number forms, non-contrahered forms of complex (determinative) adjectives, etc. The translation of the sermon of the transcript in NHM24 includes rare lexemes that attribute it to the early translations of Cyril and Methodius. It demonstrates similarities to the Glagolitic translations of the hand-written cannon of 10th–11th century.

With the theme “Technology Refresh,” editor Susan Groenke offers articles that speak both to our philosophical (and often conflicted) path toward the integration of technology in the classroom and our practical approaches to incorporating it into meaningful and engaging instruction. Kesha Campbell and Karen Schramm show how English teachers are using some of the newest, latest, and greatest 21st-century technologies to promote literacy learning—but only with the help of good teachers. Rob Wallace and Monica DiVito remind us that technology can help us see our students in new ways and can promote reflection about our own teaching and student learning. Melissa Rosloniec, an 11th-grade English teacher, shows how teachers can use powerful young adult literature to encourage today’s “screenagers” to think more critically about the role technology plays in their lives. In addition, this issue introduces a new feature—the CEL Member Profile—in which an active CEL member addresses the theme from an experienced vantage point. This month, we welcome Heather Rocco, who talks about publishing student work online.

Introduction. Infectious diseases have been a threat during all periods of human existence. Primary measures to protect against extremely dangerous pathogens included quarantine, observation and vaccination. Vaccination was crucial in the fight against smallpox - the only disease, which was eradicated on a global scale. The aim of the work was to identify the main stages of development and application of vaccines for the protection against extremely dangerous infections (EDI) and the contribution of Ukrainian scientists in the development of vaccines for EDI. Methods. An analysis using the Search Strategy of narrative reviews of literary sources and Internet resource was conducted to systematize data about the application of immunobiological preparations to create an active immunity against several actual EDI. The participation of scientists with Ukrainian roots in the creation of vaccines against this group of diseases is indicated. Results. Smallpox (variolation in China in the 11th century) is known as the first disease against which specific protection was created. Until the 20s century, the first five vaccines against EDI were developed: smallpox, rabies, anthrax, cholera, and plague. In the 20s century, the list was supplemented by vaccines against typhus, yellow fever, tick-borne encephalitis, tularemia, brucellosis, coxiellosis (Q-fever), hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The introduction of new technologies in the 21st century allowed improving existing preparations and creating new ones against Ebola viral disease (EVD), COVID-19 as EDIs relevant ones for the pandemic potential. Outstanding scientists with Ukrainian roots contributed to the creation of vaccines against EDI: V. Khavkin, D. Samoilovich, V. Zhdanov. Conclusion. Protection of the population against EDIs is limited by the number of available effective vaccines. The development of vaccines against COVID-19 has improved the prognosis for containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Традиционно армянская историография освещала события правления царя Гагика II (1041-1045) на основе информации Аристакеса Ластиверци. Цель данной статьи – показать, что в середине XI века существовала и другая традиция освещения правления Гагика II, во многом отличающаяся от Ластиверци. В частности, сведения поздних авторов (Самуел Анеци, «Видение» Ованнеса Козерна) позволяют предположить наличие идейных разногласий между Ластиверци и представителями другой традиции. Если Ластиверци был представителем «патриотической» партии, то существовала также историческая традиция, связанная с так называемой «провизантийской» партией. Вероятно, источником этой традиции был утерянный исторический труд Ованнеса Козерна. Идеологическая борьба «патриотической» и «провизантийской» партии нашла свое отражение и в Киликии. For a long time, Armenian historiography has interpreted the rule of Gagik II (1041-1045) through the lens of the History of Aristakes Lastivertsi. This article aims to show that in the 11th century, an alternative historiographical tradition emerged that significantly contrasted with Lastivertsi. We can trace its main tenets through a careful analysis of later sources at our disposal (Samuel Anetsi, Apocalypse of Hovannes Kozern). In short, the two historiographical traditions interpreted the events of Bagratid decline in light of the partisan confrontation active at that time, with Lastivertsi leaning to the so-called “patriotic” party, while the other tradition being more sympathetic to the Byzantine perspective. Most probably, this other source was the now-lost History of Hovahnnes Kozern. It is also worth noting that the ideological struggle between the “patriotic” and “pro-Byzantine” parties eventually “migrated” with the Armenian society into Cilicia.

Diabetes Mellitus has been becoming a disease of the century, and disease incidence is still rising worldwide. It causes many serious complications, especially in the eye, heart, kidneys, brain, and vascular system, such as diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, liver fa­ilure, etc. Moreover, the process of controlling this disease is complicated. Meanwhile, the antidiabetic drugs on the market are facing some problems with a wide range of adverse reactions. Therefore, finding new drugs to treat diabetes has always been a topic that many researchers are interested in, especially drugs derived from nature like microorganisms and medicinal plants. This review is to provide knowledge concerning the effects of α-glucosidase inhibitors, which are oral antidiabetic drugs commonly used for diabetes mellitus type 2. 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Cultural Studies has tended to prioritise the domain of leisure and consumption over work as an area for meaning making, in many ways defining everyday life in opposition to work. Greg Noble, a cultural researcher who examined work in the context of the early computerisation of Australian universities made the point that "discussions of everyday life often make the mistake of assuming that everyday life equates with home and family life, or leisure" (87). This article argues for the need within Cultural Studies to focus on work and media as a research area of everyday life. With the growth of flexible and creative labour and the widespread uptake of an array of new media technologies used for work, traditional ways to identify and measure the space and time of work have become increasingly flawed, with implications for how we account for work and negotiate its boundaries. New approaches are needed to address the complex media environments and technological practices that are an increasing part of contemporary working life. Cultural Studies can make a significant impact towards this research agenda by offering new ways to analyse the complex interrelations of space, time and technology in everyday work practice. To further this goal, a new material practices account of work termed Officing is introduced, developed through my doctoral research on professionals' daily use of information and communication technology (ICT). This approach builds on the key cultural concepts of "bricolage" and "appropriation" combined with the idea of "articulation work" proposed by Anselm Strauss, to support the analysis of the office workplace as a contingent and provisional arrangement or process. Officing has a number of benefits as a framework for analysing the nature of work in a highly mediated world. Highlighting the labour that goes into stabilising work platforms makes it possible to assess the claims of productivity and improved work-life balance brought about by new mobile media technologies; to identify previously unidentified sources of time pressure, overwork and intensification and ultimately, to contribute to the design of more sustainable work environments. The Turn Away from Work Work held a central position in social and cultural analysis in the first half of the twentieth century but as Strangleman observed, there was a marked shift away from the study of work from the mid 1970s (3.1). Much of the impulse for this shift came from critiques of the over-emphasis on relations of production and the workplace as the main source of meaning and value (5.1). In line with this position, feminist researchers challenged the traditional division of labour into paid and unpaid work, arguing that this division sustained the false perception of domestic work as non-productive (cf. Delphy; Folbre). Accompanying these critiques were significant changes in work itself, as traditional jobs literally began to disappear with the decline of manufacturing in industrialised countries (6.1). With the turn away from work in academia and the changes in the nature of work, attention shifted to the realm of the market and consumption. One of the important contributions of Cultural Studies has been the focus on the role of the consumer in driving social and technological change and processes of identity formation. Yet, it is a major problem that work is largely marginalised in cultural research of everyday life, especially since, in most industrialised nations, we are working in new ways, in rapidly changing conditions and more than ever before. Research shows that in Australia there has been a steady increase in the average hours of paid work and Australians are working harder (cf. Watson, Buchanan, Campbell and Briggs; Edwards and Wajcman). In the 2008 Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) Skinner and Pocock found around 55 per cent of employees frequently felt rushed or pressed for time and this was associated with long working hours, work overload and an overall poor work–life interaction (8). These trends have coincided with long-term changes in the type and location of work. In Australia, like many other developed countries, information-based occupations have taken over manufacturing jobs and there has been an increase in part-time and casual work (cf. Watson et al.). Many employees now conduct work outside of the traditional workplace, with the ABS reporting that in 2008, 24 per cent of employees worked at least some hours at home. Many social analysts have explained the rise of casual and flexible labour as related to the transition to global capitalism driven by the expansion of networked information processes (cf. Castells; Van Dijk). This shift is not simply that more workers are producing ideas and information but that the previously separated spheres of production and consumption have blurred (cf. Ritzer and Jurgenson). With this, entirely new industries have sprung up, predicated on the often unpaid for creative labour of individuals, including users of media technologies. A growing chorus of writers are now pointing out that a fragmented, polarised and complex picture is emerging of this so-called "new economy", with significant implications for the quality of work (cf. Edwards and Wajcman; Fudge and Owens; Huws). Indeed, some claim that new conditions of insecure and poor quality employment or "precarious work" are fast becoming the norm. Moreover, this longer-term pattern runs parallel to the production of a multitude of new mobile media technologies, first taken up by professionals and then by the mainstream, challenging the notion that activities are bound to any particular place or time. Reinvigorating Work in Social and Cultural Analysis There are moves to reposition social and cultural analysis to respond to these various trends. Work-life balance is an example of a research and policy area that has emerged since the 1990s. The boundary between the household and the outside world has also been subject to scrutiny by cultural researchers, and these critically examine the intersection between work and consumption, gender and care (cf. Nippert-Eng; Sorenson and Lie; Noble and Lupton, "Consuming" and "Mine"; Lally). These responses are examples of a shift away from what Urry has dubbed "structures and stable organisations" to a concern with flows, movements and the blurring of boundaries between life spheres (5). In a similar vein, researchers recently have proposed alternative ways to describe the changing times and places of employment. In their study of UK professionals, Felstead, Jewson and Walters proposed a model of "plural workscapes" to explain a major shift in the spatial organisation of work (23). Mobility theorists Sheller and Urry have called for the need to "develop a more dynamic conceptualisation of the fluidities and mobilities that have increasingly hybridised the public and private" (113). All of this literature has reinforced a growing concern that in the face of new patterns of production and consumption and with the rise of complex media environments, traditional models and measures of space and time are inadequate to account for contemporary work. Analyses that rely on conventional measures of work based on hourly units clearly point to an increase in the volume of work, the speed of work and to the collision (cf. Pocock) of work and life but fall down in accounting for the complex and often contradictory role of technology. Media technologies are "Janus-faced" as Michael Arnold has suggested, referring to the two-faced Roman god to foreground the contradictory effects at the centre of all technologies (232). Wajcman notes this paradox in her research on mobile media and time, pointing out that mobile phones are just as likely to "save" time as to "consume" it (15). It was precisely this problematic of the complex interactions of the space, time and technology of work that was at stake in my research on the daily use of ICT by professional workers. In the context of changes to the location, activity and meaning of work, and with the multiplying array of old and new media technologies used by workers, how can the boundary and scope of work be determined? What are the implications of these shifting grounds for the experience and quality of work? Officing: A Material Practices Account of Office Work In the remaining article I introduce some of the key ideas and principles of a material practices account developed in my PhD, Officing: Professionals' Daily ICT Use and the Changing Space and Time of Work. This research took place between 2006 and 2007 focusing in-depth on the daily technology practices of twenty professional workers in a municipal council in Sydney and a unit of a global telecommunication company taking part in a trial of a new smart phone. Officing builds on efforts to develop a more accurate account of the space and time of work bringing into play the complex and highly mediated environment in which work takes place. It extends more recent practice-based, actor-network and cultural approaches that have, for some time, been moving towards a more co-constitutive and process-oriented approach to media and technology in society. Turning first to "bricolage" from the French bricole meaning something small and handmade, bricolage refers to the ways that individuals and groups borrow from existing cultural forms and meanings to create new uses, meanings and identities. Initially proposed by Levi-Strauss and then taken up by de Certeau, bricolage has been a useful concept within subculture and lifestyle studies to reveal the creative work performed on signs and meaning systems in forming cultural identities (cf. O'Sullivan et al.). Bricolage is also an important concept for understanding how meanings and uses are inscribed into forms in use rather than being read or activated off their design. This is the process of appropriation, through which both the object and the person are mutually shaped and users gain a sense of control and ownership (cf. Noble and Lupton; Lally; Silverstone and Haddon). The concept of bricolage highlights the improvisational qualities of appropriation and its status as work. A bricoleur is thus a person who constructs new meanings and forms by drawing on and assembling a wide range of resources at hand, sourced from multiple spheres of life. One of the problems with how bricolage and appropriation has been applied to date, notwithstanding the priority given to the domestic sphere, is the tendency to grant individuals and collectives too much control to stabilise the meanings and purposes of technologies. This problem is evident in the research drawing on the framework of "domestication" (cf. Silverstone and Haddon). In practice, the sheer volume of technologically-related issues encountered on a daily basis and the accompanying sense of frustration indicates there is no inevitable drift towards stability, nor are problems merely aberrational or trivial. Instead, daily limits to agency and attempts to overcome these are points at which meanings as well as uses are re-articulated and potentially re-invented. This is where "articulation work" comes in. Initially put forward by Anselm Strauss in 1985, articulation work has become an established analytical tool for informing technology design processes in such fields as Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Workplace Studies. In these, articulation work is narrowly defined to refer to the real time activities of cooperative work. It includes dealing with contingencies, keeping technologies and systems working and making adjustments to accommodate for problems (Suchman "Supporting", 407). In combination with naturalistic investigations, this concept has facilitated engagement with the increasingly complex technological and media environments of work. It has been a powerful tool for highlighting practices deemed unimportant but which are nevertheless crucial for getting work done. Articulation work, however, has the potential to be applied in a broader sense to explain the significance of the instability of technologies and the efforts to overcome these as transformative in themselves, part of the ongoing process of appropriation that goes well beyond individual tasks or technologies. With clear correspondences to actor-network theory, this expanded definition provides the basis for a new understanding of the office as a temporary and provisional condition of stability achieved through the daily creative and improvisational activities of workers. The office, then, is dependent on and inextricably bound up in its ongoing articulation and crucially, is not bound to a particular place or time. In the context of the large-scale transformations in work already discussed, this expanded definition of articulation work helps to; firstly, address how work is re-organised and re-rationalised through changes to the material conditions of work; secondly, identify the ongoing articulations that this entails and thirdly; understand the role of these articulations in the construction of the space and time of work. This expanded definition is achieved in the newly developed concept of officing. Officing describes a form of labour directed towards the production of a stable office platform. Significantly, one of the main characteristics of this work is that it often goes undetected by organisations as well as by the workers that perform it. As explained later, its "invisibility" is in part a function of its embodiment but also relates to the boundless nature of officing, taking place both inside and outside the workplace, in or out of work time. Officing is made up of a set of interwoven activities of three main types: connecting, synchronising and configuring. Connecting can be understood as aligning technical and social relations for the performance of work at a set time. Synchronising brings together and coordinates different times and temporal demands, for example, the time of "work" with "life" or the time "out in the field" with time "in the workplace". Configuring prepares the space of work, making a single technology or media environment work to some planned action or existing pattern of activity. To give an example of connecting: in the Citizens' Service Centre of the Council, Danielle's morning rituals involved a series of connections even before her work of advising customers begins: My day: get in, sit down, turn on the computer and then slowly open each software program that I will need to use…turn on the phone, key in my password, turn on the headphones and sit there and wait for the calls! (Humphry Officing, 123) These connections not only set up and initiate the performance of work but also mark Danielle's presence in her office. Through these activities, which in practice overlap and blur, the space and time of the office comes to appear as a somewhat separate and mostly invisible structure or infrastructure. The work that goes into making the office stable takes place around the boundary of work with implications for how this boundary is constituted. These efforts do not cluster around boundaries in any simple sense but become part of the process of boundary making, contributing to the construction of categories such as "work" and "life". So, for example, for staff in the smart phone trial, the phone had become their main source of information and communication. Turning their smart phone off, or losing connectivity had ramifications that cascaded throughout their lifeworld. On the one hand, this lead to the breakdown of the distinction between "work" and "life" and a sense of "ever-presence", requiring constant and vigilant "boundary work" (cf. Nippert-Eng). On the other hand, this same state also enabled workers to respond to demands in their own time and across multiple boundaries, giving workers a sense of flexibility, control and of being "in sync". Connecting, configuring and synchronising are activities performed by bodies, producing an embodied transformation. In the tradition of phenomenology, most notably in the works of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and more recently Ihde, embodiment is used to explain the relationship between subjects and objects. This concept has since been developed to be understood as not residing in the body but as spread through social, material and discursive arrangements (cf. Haraway, "Situated" and Simians; Henke; Suchman, "Figuring"). Tracing efforts towards making the office stable is thus a way of uncovering how the body, as a constitutive part of a larger arrangement or network, is formed through embodiment, how it gains its competencies, social meanings and ultimately, how workers gain a sense of what it means to be a professional. So, in the smart phone trial, staff managed their connections by replying immediately to their voice, text and data messages. This immediacy not only acted as proof of their presence in the office. It also signalled their commitment to their office: their active participation and value to the organisation and their readiness to perform when called on. Importantly, this embodied transformation also helps to explain how officing becomes an example of "invisible work" (cf. Star and Strauss). Acts of connecting, synchronising and configuring become constituted and forgotten in and through bodies, spaces and times. Through their repeated performance these acts become habits, a transparent means through which the environment of work is navigated in the form of skills and techniques, configurations and routines. In conclusion, researching work in contemporary societies means confronting its marginalisation within cultural research and developing ways to comprehend and measure the interaction of space, time and the ever-multiplying array of media technologies. Officing provides a way to do this by shifting to an understanding of the workplace as a contingent product of work itself. The strength of this approach is that it highlights the creative and ongoing work of individuals on their media infrastructures. It also helps to identify and describe work activities that are not neatly contained in a workplace, thus adding to their invisibility. The invisibility of these practices can have significant impacts on workers: magnifying feelings of time pressure and a need to work faster, longer and harder even as discrete technologies are utilised to save time. In this way, officing exposes some of the additional contributions to the changing experience and quality of work as well as to the construction of everyday domains. Officing supports an evaluation of claims of productivity and work-life balance in relation to new media technologies. In the smart phone trial, contrary to an assumed increase in productivity, mobility of work was achieved at the expense of productivity. Making the mobile office stable—getting it up and running, keeping it working in changing environments and meeting expectations of speed and connectivity—took up time, resulting in an overall productivity loss and demanding more "boundary work". In spite of their adaptability and flexibility, staff tended to overwork to counteract this loss. This represented a major shift in the burden of effort in the production of office forms away from the organisation and towards the individual. Finally, though not addressed here in any detail, officing could conceivably have practical uses for designing more sustainable office environments that better support the work process and the balance of work and life. Thus, by accounting more accurately for the resource requirements of work, organisations can reduce the daily effort, space and time taken up by employees on their work environments. In any case, what is clear, is the ongoing need to continue a cultural research agenda on work—to address the connections between transformations in work and the myriad material practices that individuals perform in going about their daily work. References Arnold, Michael. "On the Phenomenology of Technology: The 'Janus-Faces' of Mobile Phones." Information and Organization 13.4 (2003): 231–56. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 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IntroductionOn 4 December 2016, a man entered a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor armed with an AR-15 assault rifle in an attempt to save the victims of an alleged satanic pedophilia ring run by prominent members of the Democratic Party. While the story had already been discredited (LaCapria), at the time of the incident, nearly half of Trump voters were found to give a measure of credence to the same rumors that had apparently inspired the gunman (Frankovic). Was we will discuss here, the bizarre conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate" had in fact originated a month earlier on 4chan/pol/, a message forum whose very raison d’être is to protest against “political correctness” of the liberal establishment, and which had recently become a hub for “loose coordination” amongst members the insurgent US ‘alt-right’ movement (Hawley 48). Over a period of 25 hours beginning on 3 November 2016, contributors to the /pol/ forum combed through a cache of private e-mails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, obtained by Russian hackers (Franceschi-Bicchierai) and leaked by Julian Assange (Wikileaks). In this short time period contributors to the forum thus constructed the basic elements of a narrative that would be amplified by a newly formed “right-wing media network”, in which the “repetition, variation, and circulation” of “repeated falsehoods” may be understood as an “important driver towards a ‘post-truth’ world” (Benkler et al). Heavily promoted by a new class of right-wing pundits on Twitter (Wendling), the case of Pizzagate prompts us to reconsider the presumed progressive valence of social media protest (Zuckerman).While there is literature, both popular and academic, on earlier protest movements associated with 4chan (Stryker; Olson; Coleman; Phillips), there is still a relative paucity of empirical research into the newer forms of alt-right collective action that have emerged from 4chan. And while there have been journalistic exposés tracing the dissemination of the Pizzagate rumors across social media as well as deconstructing its bizarre narrative (Fisher et al.; Aisch; Robb), as of yet there has been no rigorous analysis of the provenance of this particular story. This article thus provides an empirical study of how the Pizzagate conspiracy theory developed out of a particular set of collective action techniques that were in turn shaped by the material affordances of 4chan’s most active message board, the notorious and highly offensive /pol/.Grammatised Collective ActionOur empirical approach is partially inspired by the limited data-scientific literature of 4chan (Bernstein et al.; Hine et al.; Zannettou et al.), and combines close and distant reading techniques to study how the technical design of 4chan ‘grammatises’ new forms of collective action. Our coinage of grammatised collective action is based on the notion of “grammars of action” from the field of critical information studies, which posits the radical idea that innovations in computational systems can also be understood as “ontological advances” (Agre 749), insofar as computation tends to break the flux of human activity into discrete elements. By introducing this concept our intent is not to minimise individual agency, but rather to emphasise the ways in which computational systems can be conceptualised in terms of an individ­ual-milieu dyad where the “individual carries with it a certain inheritance […] animated by all the potentials that characterise [...] the structure of a physical system” (Simondon 306). Our argument is that grammatisation may be thought to create new kinds of niches, or affordances, for new forms of sociality and, crucially, new forms of collective action — in the case of 4chan/pol/, how anonymity and ephemerality may be thought to afford a kind of post-truth protest.Affordance was initially proposed as a means by which to overcome the dualistic tendency, inherited from phenomenology, to bracket the subject from its environment. Thus, affordance is a relational concept “equally a fact of the environment and a fact of behaviour” (Gibson 129). While, in the strictly materialist sense affordances are “always there” (Gibson 132), their capacity to shape action depends upon their discovery and exploitation by particular forms of life that are capable of perceiving them. It is axiomatic within ethology that forms of life can be understood to thrive in their own dynamic, yet in some real sense ontologically distinct, lifeworlds (von Uexküll). Departing from this axiom, affordances can thus be defined, somewhat confusingly but accurately, as an “invariant combination of variables” (Gibson 134). In the case of new media, the same technological object may afford different actions for specific users — for instance, the uses of an online platform appears differently from the perspective of the individual users, businesses, or a developer (Gillespie). Recent literature within the field of new media has sought to engage with this concept of affordance as the methodological basis for attending to “the specificity of platforms” (Bucher and Helmond 242), for example by focussing on how a platform’s affordances may be used as a "mechanism of governance" (Crawford and Gillespie 411), how they may "foster democratic deliberation" (Halpern and Gibbs 1159), and be implicated in the "production of normativity" (Stanfill 1061).As an anonymous and essentially ephemeral peer-produced image-board, 4chan has a quite simple technical design when compared with the dominant social media platforms discussed in the new media literature on affordances. Paradoxically however in the simplicity of their design 4chan boards may be understood to afford rather complex forms of self-expression and of coordinated action amongst their dedicated users, whom refer to themselves as "anons". It has been noted, for example, that the production of provocative Internet memes on 4chan’s /b/ board — the birthplace of Rickrolling — could be understood as a type of "contested cultural capital", whose “media literate” usage allows anons to demonstrate their in-group status in the absence of any persistent reputational capital (Nissenbaum and Shiffman). In order to appreciate how 4chan grammatises action it is thus useful to study its characteristic affordances, the most notable of which is its renowned anonymity. We should thus begin by noting how the design of the site allows anyone to post anything virtually anonymously so long as comments remain on topic for the given board. Indeed, it was this particular affordance that informed the emergence of the collective identity of the hacktivist group “Anonymous”, some ten years before 4chan became publicly associated with the rise of the alt-right.In addition to anonymity the other affordance that makes 4chan particularly unique is ephemerality. As stated, the design of 4chan is quite straightforward. Anons post comments to ongoing threaded discussions, which start with an original post. Threads with the most recent comments appear first in order at the top of a given board, which result in the previous threads getting pushed down the page. Even in the case of the most popular threads 4chan boards only allow a finite number of comments before threads must be purged. As a result of this design, no matter how popular a discussion might be, once having reached the bump-limit threads expire, moving down the front page onto the second and third page either to be temporarily catalogued or else to disappear from the site altogether (see Image 1 for how popular threads on /pol/, represented in red, are purged after reaching the bump-limit).Image 1: 55 minutes of all 4chan/pol/ threads and their positions, sampled every 2 minutes (Hagen)Adding to this ephemerality, general discussion on 4chan is also governed by moderators — this in spite of 4chan’s anarchic reputation — who are uniquely empowered with the ability to effectively kill a thread, or a series of threads. Autosaging, one of the possible techniques available to moderators, is usually only exerted in instances when the discussion is deemed as being off-topic or inappropriate. As a result of the combined affordances, discussions can be extremely rapid and intense — in the case of the creation of Pizzagate, this process took 25 hours (see Tokmetzis for an account based on our research).The combination of 4chan’s unique affordances of anonymity and ephemerality brings us to a third factor that is crucial in order to understand how it is that 4chan anons cooked-up the Pizzagate story: the general thread. This process involves anons combing through previous discussion threads in order to create a new thread that compiles all the salient details on a given topic often archiving this data with services like Pastebin — an online content hosting service usually used to share snippets of code — or Google Docs since the latter tend to be less ephemeral than 4chan.In addition to keeping a conversation alive after a thread has been purged, in the case of Pizzagate we noticed that general threads were crucial to the process of framing those discussions going forward. While multiple general threads might emerge on a given topic, only one will consolidate the ongoing conversation thereby affording significant authority to a single author (as opposed to the anonymous mass) in terms of deciding on which parts of a prior thread to include or exclude. While general threads occur relatively commonly in 4chan, in the case of Pizzagate, this process seemed to take on the form of a real-time collective research effort that we will refer to as bullshit accumulation.The analytic philosopher Harry Frankfurt argues that bullshit is form of knowledge-production that appears unconcerned with objective truth, and as such can be distinguished from misinformation. Frankfurt sees bullshit as “more ambitious” than misinformation defining it as “panoramic rather than particular” since it is also prepared to “fake the context”, which in his estimation makes bullshit a “greater enemy of the truth” than lies (62, 52). Through an investigation into the origins of Pizzagate on /pol/, we thus are able to understand how grammatised collective action assists in the accumulation of bullshit in the service of a kind of post-truth political protest.Bullshit Accumulation4chan has a pragmatic and paradoxical relationship with belief that has be characterised in terms of kind of quasi-religious ironic collectivism (Burton). Because of this "weaponizing [of] irony" (Wilson) it is difficult to objectively determine to what extent anons actually believed that Pizzagate was real, and in a sense it is beside the point. In combination then with the site’s aforementioned affordances, it is this peculiar relationship with the truth which thus makes /pol/ so uniquely productive of bullshit. Image 2: Original pizzagate post on 4chan/pol/When #Pizzagate started trending on Twitter on 4 November 2017, it became clear that much of the narrative, and in particular the ‘pizza connection’, was based on arcane (if not simply ridiculous) interpretations of a cache of e-mails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta released by Wikileaks during the final weeks of the campaign. While many of the subsequent journalistic exposé would claim that Pizzagate began on 4chan, they did not explore its origins, perhaps because of the fact that 4chan does not consistently archive its threads. Our analysis overcame this obstacle by using a third party archive, Archive4plebs, which allowed us to pinpoint the first instance of a thread (/pol/) that discussed a connection between the keyword “pizza” and the leaked e-mails (Image 2).Image 3: 4chan/pol/ Pizzagate general threadsStarting with the timestamp of the first thread, we identified a total of 18 additional general threads related to the topic of Pizzagate (see Image 3). This establishes a 25-hour timeframe in which the Pizzagate narrative was formed (from Wednesday 2 November 2016, 22:17:20, until Thursday 3 November 2016, 23:24:01). We developed a timeline (Image 4) identifying 13 key moments in the development of the Pizzagate story such as the first attempts at disseminating the narrative to other platforms such as the Reddit forum r/The_Donald a popular forum whose reactionary politics had arguably set the broader tone for the Trump campaign (Heikkila).Image 4: timeline of the birth of Pizzagate. Design by Elena Aversa, information design student at Density Design Lab.The association between the Clinton campaign and pedophilia came from another narrative on 4chan known as ‘Orgy Island’, which alleged the Clintons flew to a secret island for sex tourism aboard a private jet called "Lolita Express" owned by Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier who had served 13 months in prison for soliciting an underage prostitute. As with the Pizzagate story, this narrative also appears to have developed through the shared infrastructure of Pastebin links included in general posts (Pastebin) often alongside Wikileaks links.Image 5: Clues about “pizza” being investigatedOrgy Island and other stories were thus combined together with ‘clues’, many of which were found in the leaked Podesta e-mails, in order to imagine the connections between pedophila and pizza. It was noticed that several of Podesta’s e-mails, for example, mentioned the phrase ‘cheese pizza’ (see Image 5), which on 4chan had long been used as a code word for ‘child pornography’ , the latter which is banned from the site.Image 6: leaked Podesta e-mail from Marina AbramovicIn another leaked e-mail, for example, sent to Podesta from the renowned performance artist Marina Abramovich (see Image 6), a reference to one of her art projects, entitled ‘Spirit Cooking’ — an oblique reference to the mid-century English occultist Aleister Crowley — was interpreted as evidence of Clinton’s involvement in satanic rituals (see Image 7). In the course of this one-day period then, many if not most of the coordinates for the Pizzagate narrative were thus put into place subsequently to be amplified by a new breed of populist social media activists in protest against a corrupt Democratic establishment.Image 7: /pol/ anon’s reaction to the e-mail in Image 6During its initial inception on /pol/, there was the apparent need for visualisations in order make sense of all the data. Quite early on in the process, for example, one anon posted:my brain is exploding trying to organize the connections. Anyone have diagrams of these connections?In response, anons produced numerous conspiratorial visualisations, such as a map featuring all the child-related businesses in the neighbourhood of the D.C. pizza parlor — owned by the boyfriend of the prominent Democratic strategist David Brock — which seemed to have logos of the same general shape as the symbols apparently used by pedophiles, and whose locations seems furthermore to line up in the shape of a satanic pentagram (see Image 8). Such visualisations appear to have served three purposes: they helped anons to identify connections, they helped them circumvent 4chan’s purging process — indeed they were often hosted on third-party sites such as Imgur — and finally they helped anons to ultimately communicate the Pizzagate narrative to a broader audience.Image 8. Anonymously authored Pizzagate map revealing a secret pedophilia network in D.C.By using an inductive approach to categorise the comments in the general threads a set of non-exclusive codes emerged, which can be grouped into five overarching categories: researching, interpreting, soliciting, archiving and publishing. As visualised in Image 9, the techniques used by anons in the genesis of Pizzagate appears as a kind of vernacular rendition of many of the same “digital methods” that we use as Internet researchers. An analysis of these techniques thus helps us to understanding how a grammatised form of collective action arises out of anons’ negotiations with the affordances of 4chan — most notably the constant purging of threads — and how, in special circumstances, this can lead to bullshit accumulation.Image 9: vernacular digital methods on /pol/ ConclusionWhat this analysis ultimately reveals is how 4chan/pol/’s ephemerality affordance contributed to an environment that is remarkably productive of bullshit. As a type of knowledge-accumulation, bullshit confirms preconceived biases through appealing to emotion — this at the expense of the broader shared epistemic principles, an objective notion of “truth” that arguably forms the foundation for public reason in large and complex liberal societies (Lynch). In this sense, the bullshit of Pizzagate resonates with Hannah Arendt’s analysis of totalitarian discourse which nurtures a conspiratorial redefining of emotional truth as “whatever respectable society had hypocritically passed over, or covered with corruption" (49).As right-wing populism establishes itself evermore firmly in many countries in which technocratic liberalism had formerly held sway, the demand for emotionally satisfying post-truth, will surely keep the new online bullshit factories like /pol/ in business. Yet, while the same figures who initially assiduously sought to promote Pizzagate have subsequently tried to distance themselves from the story (Doubeck; Colbourn), Pizzagate continues to live on in certain ‘alternative facts’ communities (Voat).If we conceptualise the notion of a ‘public’ as a local and transient entity that is, above all, defined by its active engagement with a given ‘issue’ (Marres), then perhaps we should consider Pizzagate as representing a new post-truth species of issue-public. Indeed, one could go so far as to argue that, in the era of post-truth, the very ‘reality’ of contemporary issues-publics are increasingly becoming a function of their what communities want to believe. Such a neopragmatist theory might even be used to support the post-truth claim — as produced by the grammatised collective actions of 4chan anons in the course of a single day — that Pizzagate is real!References Agre, Phillip E. “Surveillance and Capture.” The New Media Reader. Eds. 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For seven months in 1999/2000, six-year old Cuban Elián González was embroiled in a family feud plotted along rival national and ideological lines, and relayed televisually as soap opera across the planet. In Miami, apparitions of the Virgin Mary were reported after Elián’s arrival; adherents of Afro-Cuban santería similarly regarded Elián as divinely touched. In Cuba, Elián’s “kidnapping” briefly reinvigorated a torpid revolutionary project. He was hailed by Fidel Castro as the symbolic descendant of José Martí and Che Guevara, and of the patriotic rigour they embodied. Cubans massed to demand his return. In the U.S.A., Elián’s case was arbitrated at every level of the juridical system. The “Save Elián” campaign generated widespread debate about godless versus godly family values, the contours of the American Dream, and consumerist excess. By the end of 2000 Elián had generated the second largest volume of TV news coverage to that date in U.S. history, surpassed only by the O. J. Simpson case (Fasulo). After Fidel Castro, and perhaps the geriatric music ensemble manufactured by Ry Cooder, the Buena Vista Social Club, Elián became the most famous Cuban of our era. Elián also emerged as the unlikeliest of popular-cultural icons, the focus and subject of cyber-sites, books, films, talk-back radio programs, art exhibits, murals, statues, documentaries, a South Park episode, poetry, songs, t-shirts, posters, newspaper editorials in dozens of languages, demonstrations, speeches, political cartoons, letters, legal writs, U.S. Congress records, opinion polls, prayers, and, on both sides of the Florida Strait, museums consecrated in his memory. Confronted by Elián’s extraordinary renown and historical impact, John Carlos Rowe suggests that the Elián story confirms the need for a post-national and transdisciplinary American Studies, one whose practitioners “will have to be attentive to the strange intersections of politics, law, mass media, popular folklore, literary rhetoric, history, and economics that allow such events to be understood.” (204). I share Rowe’s reading of Elián’s story and the clear challenges it presents to analysis of “America,” to which I would add “Cuba” as well. But Elián’s story is also significant for the ways it challenges critical understandings of fame and its construction. No longer, to paraphrase Leo Braudy (566), definable as an accidental hostage of the mass-mediated eye, Elián’s fame has no certain relation to the child at its discursive centre. Elián’s story is not about an individuated, conscious, performing, desiring, and ambivalently rewarded ego. Elián was never what P. David Marshall calls “part of the public sphere, essentially an actor or, … a player” in it (19). The living/breathing Elián is absent from what I call the virtualizing drives that famously reproduced him. As a result of this virtualization, while one Elián now attends school in Cuba, many other Eliáns continue to populate myriad popular-cultural texts and to proliferate away from the states that tried to contain him. According to Jerry Everard, “States are above all cultural artefacts” that emerge, virtually, “as information produced by and through practices of signification,” as bits, bites, networks, and flows (7). All of us, he claims, reside in “virtual states,” in “legal fictions” based on the elusive and contested capacity to generate national identities in an imaginary bounded space (152). Cuba, the origin of Elián, is a virtual case in point. To augment Nicole Stenger’s definition of cyberspace, Cuba, like “Cyberspace, is like Oz — it is, we get there, but it has no location” (53). As a no-place, Cuba emerges in signifying terms as an illusion with the potential to produce and host Cubanness, as well as rival ideals of nation that can be accessed intact, at will, and ready for ideological deployment. Crude dichotomies of antagonism — Cuba/U.S.A., home/exile, democracy/communism, freedom/tyranny, North/South, godlessness/blessedness, consumption/want — characterize the hegemonic struggle over the Cuban nowhere. Split and splintered, hypersensitive and labyrinthine, guarded and hysterical, and always active elsewhere, the Cuban cultural artefact — an “atmospheric depression in history” (Stenger 56) — very much conforms to the logics that guide the appeal, and danger, of cyberspace. Cuba occupies an inexhaustible “ontological time … that can be reintegrated at any time” (Stenger 55), but it is always haunted by the prospect of ontological stalling and proliferation. The cyber-like struggle over reintegration, of course, evokes the Elián González affair, which began on 25 November 1999, when five-year old Elián set foot on U.S. soil, and ended on 28 June 2000, when Elián, age six, returned to Cuba with his father. Elián left one Cuba and found himself in another Cuba, in the U.S.A., each national claimant asserting virtuously that its other was a no-place and therefore illegitimate. For many exiles, Elián’s arrival in Miami confirmed that Castro’s Cuba is on the point of collapse and hence on the virtual verge of reintegration into the democratic fold as determined by the true upholders of the nation, the exile community. It was also argued that Elián’s biological father could never be the boy’s true father because he was a mere emasculated puppet of Castro himself. The Cuban state, then, had forfeited its claims to generate and host Cubanness. Succoured by this logic, the “Save Elián” campaign began, with organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) bankrolling protests, leaflet and poster production, and official “Elián” websites, providing financial assistance to and arranging employment for some of Elián’s Miami relatives, lobbying the U.S. Congress and the Florida legislature, and contributing funds to the legal challenges on behalf of Elián at state and federal levels. (Founded in 1981, the CANF is the largest and most powerful Cuban exile organization, and one that regards itself as the virtual government-in-waiting. CANF emerged with the backing of the Reagan administration and the C.I.A. as a “private sector initiative” to support U.S. efforts against its long-time ideological adversary across the Florida Strait [Arboleya 224-5].) While the “Save Elián” campaign failed, the result of a Cuban American misreading of public opinion and overestimation of the community’s lobbying power with the Clinton administration, the struggle continues in cyberspace. CANF.net.org registers its central role in this intense period with silence; but many of the “Save Elián” websites constructed after November 1999 continue to function as sad memento moris of Elián’s shipwreck in U.S. virtual space. (The CANF website does provide links to articles and opinion pieces about Elián from the U.S. media, but its own editorializing on the Elián affair has disappeared. Two keys to this silence were the election of George W. Bush, and the events of 11 Sep. 2001, which have enabled a revision of the Elián saga as a mere temporary setback on the Cuban-exile historical horizon. Indeed, since 9/11, the CANF website has altered the terms of its campaign against Castro, posting photos of Castro with Arab leaders and implicating him in a world-wide web of terrorism. Elián’s return to Cuba may thus be viewed retrospectively as an act that galvanized Cuban-exile support for the Republican Party and their disdain for the Democratic rival, and this support became pivotal in the Republican electoral victory in Florida and in the U.S.A. as a whole.) For many months after Elián’s return to Cuba, the official Liberty for Elián site, established in April 2000, was urging visitors to make a donation, volunteer for the Save Elián taskforce, send email petitions, and “invite a friend to help Elián.” (Since I last accessed “Liberty for Elián” in March 2004 it has become a gambling site.) Another site, Elian’s Home Page, still implores visitors to pray for Elián. Some of the links no longer function, and imperatives to “Click here” lead to that dead zone called “URL not found on this server.” A similar stalling of the exile aspirations invested in Elián is evident on most remaining Elián websites, official and unofficial, the latter including The Sad Saga of Elian Gonzalez, which exhorts “Cuban Exiles! Now You Can Save Elián!” In these sites, a U.S. resident Elián lives on as an archival curiosity, a sign of pathos, and a reminder of what was, for a time, a Cuban-exile PR disaster. If such cybersites confirm the shipwrecked coordinates of Elián’s fame, the “Save Elián” campaign also provided a focus for unrestrained criticism of the Cuban exile community’s imbrication in U.S. foreign policy initiatives and its embrace of American Dream logics. Within weeks of Elián’s arrival in Florida, cyberspace was hosting myriad Eliáns on sites unbeholden to Cuban-U.S. antagonisms, thus consolidating Elián’s function as a disputed icon of virtualized celebrity and focus for parody. A sense of this carnivalesque proliferation can be gained from the many doctored versions of the now iconic photograph of Elián’s seizure by the INS. Still posted, the jpegs and flashes — Elián and Michael Jackson, Elián and Homer Simpson, Elián and Darth Vader, among others (these and other doctored versions are archived on Hypercenter.com) — confirm the extraordinary domestication of Elián in local pop-cultural terms that also resonate as parodies of U.S. consumerist and voyeuristic excess. Indeed, the parodic responses to Elián’s fame set the virtual tone in cyberspace where ostensibly serious sites can themselves be approached as send ups. One example is Lois Rodden’s Astrodatabank, which, since early 2000, has asked visitors to assist in interpreting Elián’s astrological chart in order to confirm whether or not he will remain in the U.S.A. To this end the site provides Elián’s astro-biography and birth chart — a Sagittarius with a Virgo moon, Elián’s planetary alignments form a bucket — and conveys such information as “To the people of Little Havana [Miami], Elian has achieved mystical status as a ‘miracle child.’” (An aside: Elián and I share the same birthday.) Elián’s virtual reputation for divinely sanctioned “blessedness” within a Cuban exile-meets-American Dream typology provided Tom Tomorrow with the target in his 31 January 2000, cartoon, This Modern World, on Salon.com. Here, six-year old Arkansas resident Allen Consalis loses his mother on the New York subway. His relatives decide to take care of him since “New York has much more to offer him than Arkansas! I mean get real!” A custody battle ensues in which Allan’s heavily Arkansas-accented father requires translation, and the case inspires heated debate: “can we really condemn him to a life in Arkansas?” The cartoon ends with the relatives tempting Allan with the delights offered by the Disney Store, a sign of Elián’s contested insertion into an American Dreamscape that not only promises an endless supply of consumer goods but provides a purportedly safe venue for the alternative Cuban nation. The illusory virtuality of that nation also animates a futuristic scenario, written in Spanish by Camilo Hernández, and circulated via email in May 2000. In this text, Elián sparks a corporate battle between Firestone and Goodyear to claim credit for his inner-tubed survival. Cuban Americans regard Elián as the Messiah come to lead them to the promised land. His ability to walk on water is scientifically tested: he sinks and has to be rescued again. In the ensuing custody battle, Cuban state-run demonstrations allow mothers of lesbians and of children who fail maths to have their say on Elián. Andrew Lloyd Weber wins awards for “Elián the Musical,” and for the film version, Madonna plays the role of the dolphin that saved Elián. Laws are enacted to punish people who mispronounce “Elián” but these do not help Elián’s family. All legal avenues exhausted, the entire exile community moves to Canada, and then to North Dakota where a full-scale replica of Cuba has been built. Visa problems spark another migration; the exiles are welcomed by Israel, thus inspiring a new Intifada that impels their return to the U.S.A. Things settle down by 2014, when Elián, his wife and daughter celebrate his 21st birthday as guests of the Kennedys. The text ends in 2062, when the great-great-grandson of Ry Cooder encounters an elderly Elián in Wyoming, thus providing Elián with his second fifteen minutes of fame. Hernández’s text confirms the impatience with which the Cuban-exile community was regarded by other U.S. Latino sectors, and exemplifies the loss of control over Elián experienced by both sides in the righteous Cuban “moral crusade” to save or repatriate Elián (Fernández xv). (Many Chicanos, for example, were angered at Cuban-exile arguments that Elián should remain in the U.S.A. when, in 1999 alone, 8,000 Mexican children were repatriated to Mexico (Ramos 126), statistical confirmation of the favored status that Cubans enjoy, and Mexicans do not, vis-à-vis U.S. immigration policy. Tom Tomorrow’s cartoon and Camilo Hernández’s email text are part of what I call the “What-if?” sub-genre of Elián representations. Another example is “If Elián Gonzalez was Jewish,” archived on Lori’s Mishmash Humor page, in which Eliat Ginsburg is rescued after floating on a giant matzoh in the Florida Strait, and his Florida relatives fight to prevent his return to Israel, where “he had no freedom, no rights, no tennis lessons”.) Nonetheless, that “moral crusade” has continued in the Cuban state. During the custody battle, Elián was virtualized into a hero of national sovereignty, an embodied fix for a revolutionary project in strain due to the U.S. embargo, the collapse of Soviet socialism, and the symbolic threat posed by the virtual Cuban nation-in-waiting in Florida. Indeed, for the Castro regime, the exile wing of the national family is virtual precisely because it conveniently overlooks two facts: the continued survival of the Cuban state itself; and the exile community’s forty-plus-year slide into permanent U.S. residency as one migrant sector among many. Such rhetoric has not faded since Elián’s return. On December 5, 2003, Castro visited Cárdenas for Elián’s tenth birthday celebration and a quick tour of the Museo a la batalla de ideas (Museum for the Battle of Ideas), the museum dedicated to Elián’s “victory” over U.S. imperialism and opened by Castro on July 14, 2001. At Elián’s school Castro gave a speech in which he recalled the struggle to save “that little boy, whose absence caused everyone, and the whole people of Cuba, so much sorrow and such determination to struggle.” The conflation of Cuban state rhetoric and an Elián mnemonic in Cárdenas is repeated in Havana’s “Plaza de Elián,” or more formally Tribuna Anti-imperialista José Martí, where a statue of José Martí, the nineteenth-century Cuban nationalist, holds Elián in his arms while pointing to Florida. Meanwhile, in Little Havana, Miami, a sun-faded set of photographs and hand-painted signs, which insist God will save Elián yet, hang along the front fence of the house — now also a museum and site of pilgrimage — where Elián once lived in a state of siege. While Elián’s centrality in a struggle between virtuality and virtue continues on both sides of the Florida Strait, the Cuban nowhere could not contain Elián. During his U.S. sojourn many commentators noted that his travails were relayed in serial fashion to an international audience that also claimed intimate knowledge of the boy. Coming after the O.J. Simpson saga and the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the Elián story confirmed journalist Rick Kushman’s identification of a ceaseless, restless U.S. media attention shift from one story to the next, generating an “übercoverage” that engulfs the country “in mini-hysteria” (Calvert 107). But In Elián’s case, the voyeuristic media-machine attained unprecedented intensity because it met and worked with the virtualities of the Cuban nowhere, part of it in the U.S.A. Thus, a transnational surfeit of Elián-narrative options was guaranteed for participants, audiences and commentators alike, wherever they resided. In Cuba, Elián was hailed as the child-hero of the Revolution. In Miami he was a savior sent by God, the proof supplied by the dolphins that saved him from sharks, and the Virgins who appeared in Little Havana after his arrival (De La Torre 3-5). Along the U.S.A.-Mexico border in 2000, Elián’s name was given to hundreds of Mexican babies whose parents thought the gesture would guarantee their sons a U.S. future. Day by day, Elián’s story was propelled across the globe by melodramatic plot devices familiar to viewers of soap opera: doubtful paternities; familial crimes; identity secrets and their revelation; conflicts of good over evil; the reuniting of long-lost relatives; and the operations of chance and its attendant “hand of Destiny, arcane and vaguely supernatural, transcending probability of doubt” (Welsh 22). Those devices were also favored by the amateur author, whose narratives confirm that the delirious parameters of cyberspace are easily matched in the worldly text. In Michael John’s self-published “history,” Betrayal of Elian Gonzalez, Elián is cast as the victim of a conspiracy traceable back to the hydra-headed monster of Castro-Clinton and the world media: “Elian’s case was MANIPULATED to achieve THEIR OVER-ALL AGENDA. Only time will bear that out” (143). His book is now out of print, and the last time I looked (August 2004) one copy was being offered on Amazon.com for US$186.30 (original price, $9.95). Guyana-born, Canadian-resident Frank Senauth’s eccentric novel, A Cry for Help: The Fantastic Adventures of Elian Gonzalez, joins his other ventures into vanity publishing: To Save the Titanic from Disaster I and II; To Save Flight 608 From Disaster; A Wish to Die – A Will to Live; A Time to Live, A Time to Die; and A Day of Terror: The Sagas of 11th September, 2001. In A Cry for Help, Rachel, a white witch and student of writing, travels back in time in order to save Elián’s mother and her fellow travelers from drowning in the Florida Strait. As Senauth says, “I was only able to write this dramatic story because of my gift for seeing things as they really are and sharing my mystic imagination with you the public” (25). As such texts confirm, Elián González is an aberrant addition to the traditional U.S.-sponsored celebrity roll-call. He had no ontological capacity to take advantage of, intervene in, comment on, or be known outside, the parallel narrative universe into which he was cast and remade. He was cast adrift as a mere proper name that impelled numerous authors to supply the boy with the biography he purportedly lacked. Resident of an “atmospheric depression in history” (Stenger 56), Elián was battled over by virtualized national rivals, mass-mediated, and laid bare for endless signification. Even before his return to Cuba, one commentator noted that Elián had been consumed, denied corporeality, and condemned to “live out his life in hyper-space” (Buzachero). That space includes the infamous episode of South Park from May 2000, in which Kenny, simulating Elián, is killed off as per the show’s episodic protocols. Symptomatic of Elián’s narrative dispersal, the Kenny-Elián simulation keeps on living and dying whenever the episode is re-broadcast on TV sets across the world. Appropriated and relocated to strange and estranging narrative terrain, one Elián now lives out his multiple existences in the Cuban-U.S. “atmosphere in history,” and the Elián icon continues to proliferate virtually anywhere. References Arboleya, Jesús. The Cuban Counter-Revolution. Trans. Rafael Betancourt. Research in International Studies, Latin America Series no. 33. Athens, OH: Ohio Center for International Studies, 2000. Braudy, Leo. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. Buzachero, Chris. “Elian Gonzalez in Hyper-Space.” Ctheory.net 24 May 2000. 19 Aug. 2004: http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=222>. Calvert, Clay. Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture. Boulder: Westview, 2000. 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