METHODOLOGICAL WORKSHOPS OF USSR CENTRAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL AGENCIES AS A PLATFORM FOR DISCUSSIONS (the problem of thematic content of reports in the 1960s - early 1970s)

С конца 1950-х гг. в центральных советских археологических учреждениях - в Институте археологии и в Ленинградском отделении Института археологии АН СССР функционировали методологические семинары. История их деятельности в 1960-е - начале 1970-х гг. до сих пор остается малоизученной. На основе архивных материалов и публикаций была установлена тематика докладов, обсуждавшихся в этот период на заседаниях методсеминаров обоих институтов. Темы данных докладов могут быть отнесены к следующим категориям: проблемы первобытности; проблемы социоисторических реконструкций; проблемы палеоэкологии в археологии; идеологические представления древних обществ; проблемы этносоциальных реконструкций. Эта проблематика соответствует перечню наиболее актуальных тем, упомянутых в передовых статьях журнала «Советская археология». Методологические семинары, хоть и имели первоначальное идеологическое назначение, однако использовались как площадка для дискуссий по актуальным проблемам археологии того времени, а в 1970-е -1980-е гг. - также и для апробации новейших теоретических концепций. Methodo1ogica1 workshops were oгgaшzed in central Soviet archaeo1ogica1 адепслех such as the Institute of Archaeo1ogy and the Leningrad Ьranch of the Institute of Archaeology, USSR Academy of Sciences, starting from the late 1950s. Their history in the 1960s - early 1970s is still understudied. The examination of archival materials and publications established topics of the papers discussed at the methodological workshops in both institutes at that time such as issues of prehistory; issues of social and historical reconstructions; issues of paleoecology in archaeology; ideological concepts of the earliest societies; issues of ethnosocial reconstructions. These thematical areas are in line with the most relevant topics mentioned in leading papers published by Soviet Archaeology. While initially methodological workshops pursued an ideological aim, over time they turned into a platform for discussing relevant issues of archaeology and even testing most advanced theoretical concepts in the 1970s-1980s.

The Quest for Japanese Fascism: A Historiographical Overview

‘Japanese fascism’ is a historiographical construct rather than a historical reality. Whether Japan’s sociopolitical developments in the 1930s and early 1940s can be legitimately and authoritatively defined as ‘fascist’ depends on the triangulation of three axes of analysis: historical reconstructions of institutional, political, social, and ideological processes; historiographical surveys of the palimpsest of interpretations historians have given to this period of Japanese history; and metahistorical analyses of the cognitive legitimacy of the category of ‘fascism’. This essay focuses on the second axis, offering a historical survey of the historiographical debate on ‘Japanese fascism’ worldwide.

A CONSPIRACY TO MURDER SENNACHERIB? A REVISION OF SAA 18 100 IN THE LIGHT OF A RECENT JOIN

SAA 18 100 (ABL 1091) is a cuneiform text that has been at the heart of historical reconstructions of the assassination of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, since it was first properly studied by S. Parpola in 1979. In 2005, J. C. Fincke discovered a new fragment of the document (28-3-23 [K.21923]) and joined it to the then known fragment (80-7-19, 28). Fincke's join offers the opportunity to study the tablet anew. We present the first full scholarly edition of the fragments and a new historical interpretation of the text that challenges the accepted understanding of its date, nature, content, and the information it provides on the assassination of Sennacherib. SAA 18 100 appears to be an archival copy of a letter originally sent to Nineveh that reported on matters concerning the Assyrian court heard in Babylonia. The best-preserved report concerns a supposed plot looking to frame the king's son, Urdu-Mullissu, in a conspiracy, and might be a product of the pro-Esarhaddon machinations of the royal court during the final years of Sennacherib's reign.

20th century cooling of the deep ocean contributed to delayed acceleration of Earth’s energy imbalance

The historical evolution of Earth’s energy imbalance can be quantified by changes in the global ocean heat content. However, historical reconstructions of ocean heat content often neglect a large volume of the deep ocean, due to sparse observations of ocean temperatures below 2000 m. Here, we provide a global reconstruction of historical changes in full-depth ocean heat content based on interpolated subsurface temperature data using an autoregressive artificial neural network, providing estimates of total ocean warming for the period 1946-2019. We find that cooling of the deep ocean and a small heat gain in the upper ocean led to no robust trend in global ocean heat content from 1960-1990, implying a roughly balanced Earth energy budget within −0.16 to 0.06 W m−2 over most of the latter half of the 20th century. However, the past three decades have seen a rapid acceleration in ocean warming, with the entire ocean warming from top to bottom at a rate of 0.63 ± 0.13 W m−2. These results suggest a delayed onset of a positive Earth energy imbalance relative to previous estimates, although large uncertainties remain.

Echoes of Gravitational Waves

The myth-histories scientists tell tend to be collages of heroes pasted together to evoke an irrefutable scientific foundation of progress. Students consuming these narratives are not introduced to a realistic portrayal of scientific practice; they are fed an idealized form of science based on tropes that are effectively impossible to follow. How does this affect our students? We assume it gives them positive, ideal role models, but is this so? Studies show that students’ motivation is not homogeneous. Some may feel disenfranchised and unmotivated by myth-historical reconstructions of people from circumstances wildly different from their own. Chapter 4 examines one of the clearest examples of this idealization, myth-historical narratives constructed in communicating the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015–16. These narratives cast Albert Einstein as a clear and unambiguous scientific hero. They also engage in an ex post facto transformation of physicist Joseph Weber from scientific pariah to hero.

About Determining the Meaning of the Ethnonyms “Sauromatians” and “Sarmatians”

The tendency to transfer the early names of peoples to the later inhabitants of same places was characteristic for the historical and geographical genres of ancient literature, regardless of the kinship between them. In that way the ethnonym “Sauromatians” was used to name certain groups of the Eastern European steppes nomads until the first centuries AD, although an analysis of all the sources, including archaeological ones, suggests that Sauromatians cease to exist as an independent ethno political formation since the middle of 4th century BC, perhaps a little earlier. The reason for that was the migration of the South Ural nomads who had occupied the territory that previously belonged to the Sauromatians. Simultaneously with that process, a new ethnonym “Sirmati”, associated with Tanais (Don), appears in the works of ancient authors. The names “Sarmatia” and “Sarmatians” start to be mentioned increasingly since the 3rd century BC in written sources, including epigraphic ones. I believe, that indicates emerging of a new nomadic unity led by the Sarmatians east of the Don, located in the Volga-Ural steppes, existed before the beginning or middle of the 2nd century BC. Its disintegration is associated with the migrations of the first half – middle of the 2nd century BC, with the epicenter in Central Asia. These events led to significant changes in the ethnic composition of the population between Caspian Sea and the Dnieper, recorded by Strabo. Separate ethno-tribal associations were located here: Aors, Siraks, Roksolans, later Yazygs, Alans, with their own history and destiny, but all of them were often continued to be called Sarmatians in written sources. All this should be taken into account by modern researchers, since uncritical approach to the ancient authors often leads to incorrect historical reconstructions.

(Mis)Identifying Teachers in Late Antique Gaul

Mamertus Claudianus, a priest in Vienne in the mid-fifth century, has been identified by some scholars as a professional teacher of Latin rhetoric. This article contests this classification, arguing that Claudianus was an active member of learned Christian literary circles and leader of philosophical and theological ‘literary salons’. It demonstrates the importance of correctly identifying teachers in the prosopography and illustrates the potential of incorrect identifications to produce flawed and distorted historical reconstructions of the cultural transformations of the late antique west. A close reading of the sources for Claudianus, coupled with a firm understanding of the cultural and educational realities of late antique Gaul, sheds light on the evolution of an increasingly Christian intellectual culture among the Gallo-Roman litterati of the fifth century, and contributes to a better understanding of the transformation of educational practices in this period and after the ‘fall’ of Rome.

Ratmansky

This chapter explores how the work of post-Soviet choreographer Alexei Ratmansky pursues what he calls “a brilliant development that wasn’t actually fulfilled.” With a paradoxical faith in historical continuity (given the Stalin-era “interruption”), this Russian émigré takes up not only where early Soviet ballet left off in the mid-1930s but even before, with Marius Petipa before twentieth-century gigantism got its hands on him. Whether through the relaxed posture, the dizzying but nonchalant steps, the crosshatched steps, or the corps in relation to the soloist, Ratmansky’s ballets bring out what an authoritarian system—of nation, ballet troupe, or ballet—represses. This applies to all his work: the original creations, adaptations, and historical reconstructions. The chapter treats a wide swath of his ballets, with particular attention to Swan Lake, Russian Seasons, and The Shostakovich Trilogy.