Excavations at Basing Grange, Basing House, Hampshire, 1999–2006

This report describes excavations at Basing Grange, Basing House, Hampshire, between 1999 and 2006. It embraces the 'Time Team' investigations in Grange Field, adjacent to the Great Barn, which were superseded and amplified by the work of the Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society, supervised by David Allen. This revealed the foundations of a 'hunting lodge' or mansion built in the 1670s and demolished, and effectively 'lost', in the mid-18th century. Beneath this residence were the remains of agricultural buildings, earlier than and contemporary with the nearby Great Barn, which were destroyed during the English Civil War. The report contains a detailed appraisal of the pottery, glass and clay tobacco pipes from the site and draws attention to the remarkable window leads that provide a clue to the mansion's date of construction. It also explores a probable link with what was taking place on the Basing House site in the late 17th and early 18th century.

Excavating Magic

The process of locating and evaluating the chosen archaeological sites for this work is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of any artifacts with potential for magical interpretation. Issues of archaeological recordation and site formation processes are discussed to explain the paucity of the chosen site type. Five New England sites met the appropriate criteria for consideration: Chadbourne site, John Alden site, Jireh Bull Garrison House, Greene Farm Archaeology Project, and John Howland House site. Each site’s history and any potential magical symbolism and artifacts are discussed. Additionally, two common types of archaeologically recovered intentionally concealed objects (witch bottles and shoes) are discussed to question why examples were not located at the five sites reviewed here.

Analysis of Land Use in Jining City

Jining City is a typical area with complex and diverse landforms, developed water systems and rich mineral resources. Research on its land use changes will be of great significance in terms of sustainable development and ecological protection. This paper is based on the four LANDSAT remote sensing image data in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, using RS, GIS, mathematical statistics and other methods, mainly analyze the land use of Jining City from 2000 to 2015 from three aspects: land use structure, land use characteristics and problems, land use area and structure changes. The results show that: (1) Jining City has the largest area of dry land, which is widely distributed in various regions; followed by construction land, water, grass, woodland, paddy field, and unutilized land. (2) The land use characteristics of Jining City are: high arable land rate, high land utilization rate, large proportion of water area, abundant surface water resources, and obvious regional differences in land use; the problems are that the land use structure is unreasonable, per capita land resources are few, and the contradiction between people and land has become increasingly prominent. (3) On the whole, land use changes in Jining City are relatively complex. The town house area has been showing an increasing trend; the grass area has shown a continuous decreasing trend; the fluctuations of dry land, paddy field, woodland, house-site in the countryside, water, and unutilized land area fluctuations are obvious. During the 15 years from 2000 to 2015, the largest change in the land use structure of Jining City was town house, followed by paddy field, house-site in the countryside, dry land, grass, woodland, unutilized land, and water. The area of town house, dry land, forest land, and water has increased, while the area of paddy field, house-site in the countryside, grass, and unutilized land has decreased.

Development of a concept of an energy-efficient house for an environmentally friendly settlement in the South Ural

Creation of comfortable housing for the population meeting the modern requirements of ecology, aesthetics, economical energy consumption and healthy lifestyle is a strategic task of any state. The world’s leading countries have achieved significant results in this direction. In the context of economic sanctions, Russia will not be able to take advantage of the scientific achievements of foreign countries. In addition, our country has its own climatic features. Therefore, this strategic direction of development should be implemented independently. The project should go through several stages of development. At the first stage, all the necessary scientific research should be carried out. In the second stage, these scientific studies should find their engineering solutions. At the third stage, an industry for the production of such settlements should be established. This article attempts to formulate the basic requirements for the house, site and the most ecological settlement. The authors of the project consider this to be a very important initial stage of the project development.