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This essay focuses on the need for a comprehensively conscious conservation approach when dealing with ancient stone sculptures coming from historical collections, that is to say those antiquities that were collected from the Renaissance onwards and were thus sometimes radically modified due to restorations accomplished between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. In the last decades, after the abandonment of the destructive approach of ent-restaurierung (de-restoration) widely practiced during the twentieth century, the preservation of marble accretions has gradually acquired a recognized historical significance, but still today inadequate attention seems to be paid concerning cleaning and surface issues. As demonstrated both by written sources and material evidence, cleaning used to be a crucial and extensive component of historical conservation treatments, often resulting in a dramatic alteration of the ancient piece. Patination and surface applications were part of the historical treatments. As shown by the recent conservation and exhibition of the Torlonia marbles, newly performed treatments aiming at preserving the rich and multi-layered history that sculptures acquired over time should be more careful in considering such aspects, both in terms of treatments and in the exhibition of objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper arises from the authors' preparation of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture volume on Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. As in previous volumes, we have looked hard at the manner in which the middle- and late-Saxon tradition of erecting 'high crosses' at significant locations, or to mark significant graves, was continued beyond the Norman Conquest in what we have called a 'continuing tradition' of monument type and design. Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire's Anglo-Scandinavian stone sculpture is well known for its quantity, and this prolific local tradition of monument-making continued after the Norman Conquest. We focus here on five elaborately decorated Huntingdonshire 'high crosses' in the pre-Conquest tradition. They belong to two interrelated groups: two have a monastic context, three a secular one. Monuments at Fletton and Kings Ripton each marked significant points in the landscape. Whilst the monument at Hilton had an analogous function in perhaps marking a place of congregation, its date and use of architectural details also connects it with the pair of major monuments from Godmanchester and Tilbrook/Kimbolton, for which we suggest an additional political significance within the early cult of St Thomas of Canterbury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic presented complex challenges to public health research involving human subjects, necessitating creative thinking to maintain safe and productive qualitative data collection. In this paper, we describe how an interdisciplinary team overcame these challenges by translating in-person workshops into at-home design probes to explore connections between university students' climate change attitudes and their health. Probes were purposively designed to facilitate and focus participation during lockdown with two key interactional components: (1) participant ⇔ probe, and (2) participant ⇔ physical environment. Thematic analysis of 18 completed probes (replete with elicitive drawing, etched stone, mapping, and writing activities) revealed a rich spectrum of climate change perceptions, eco-emotions, and key areas of impact. This case study provides insight into how pandemic-imposed restrictions presented a novel opportunity to reconceptualize how we collect qualitative data in public health research and summarizes the unique benefits of integrating such design-based approaches into the field moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memorial landscapes are powerfully instructive. Cast in bronze or carved in stone, memorials speak to us of who and what we should admire and those characteristics we should aspire to emulate. As such, memorial landscapes are texts. However, memorial landscapes are equally about remembering and forgetting. Drawing upon a critical examination of the memorial landscape of Adelaide's cultural precinct this paper examines ongoing silences regarding Indigenous pre-history, the processes and impacts of British colonisation, and how these are remembered and/or silenced within this place. Framed by post-colonial literature, this paper reveals that notwithstanding movements towards reconciliation in Australia, Adelaide's cultural precinct firmly remains a settler landscape. Those few memorials raised to or acknowledging Indigenous people are pushed to the margins, poorly maintained, or framed through service to the Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, indigenous movements and rights-based struggle has become a focal point of research on resistance. In the context of India, Adivasi struggles in pre- and post- colonial times have been centered on the issues of jal, jangal and jameen (water, forest and land). In 2018, what became known as the Pathalgadi movement emerged in various villages in the state of Jharkhand. Pathalgadi, a traditional practice of erecting stone slabs for various purposes, was refurbished as a means to claim rights to local-level democracy and management of resources. This paper explores the strategies of resistance employed by the movement in Simdega district, where the raising of Pathalgadis primarily focused on claiming forest rights through existing legislations. The first section seeks to situate forest governance and struggle in the region, revisiting contributions from subaltern theories to shed light on the current and historical context of resistance. Based on four empirically driven categories of resistance, the second section brings forward an analysis of the movement, demonstrating how resistance occurred primarily through legal means, with strong discursive elements. As such, the Pathalgadi movement is seen to be working within the letter of the law, merely claiming rights previously granted through legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C. G. Jung carved a memorial stone in Chinese for Toni Wolff after her death in 1953. Why he carved a memorial stone in Chinese for his "spiritual wife" is unknown. Efforts at deciphering Jung's intentions in the Chinese characters he chose, in particular, one that is a novel character of Jung's own creation, have been inconclusive. This study offers a new interpretation of Toni's Stone in the light of Chinese linguistics as well as Wolff and Jung's knowledge of Kundalini yoga, Tibetan mysticism, synchronicity, Goethe, alchemy, and the Philosophers' Stone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Her name was Flavia Thalassia and she came from Ephesus. She won the stadion (200 meter footrace) for parthenoi at the Isolympic Sebasta Games in Naples during Domitian's reign in the late 1st c. CE. The evidence is carved in stone and clear for all to see in the recently excavated victors' lists from the games. The existence of footraces for unmarried females is well-known in the history of Greek athletics, indeed the event at Olympia that came to be called the Heraia may have been founded simultaneously with men's events there. But Flavia's case, specifically the fact that she came all the way from Ephesus and had her name engraved in stone alongside the male victors, raises new questions about ancient female athletics. What was the social purpose of these races? What virtues did the athletes display? And how were they imagined by the women who discussed them? I will attempt to explain the significance of Flavia's victory using mythology, iconography, history, literature, and philosophy. I will examine not only the Hellenic past of female footraces, but also their purpose in the context of the Roman Empire. Finally, I will comment on its significance for women's sports today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Reflectance Transformation Imaging (V-RTI) is a hybrid method that combines 3D, Virtual Reality (VR) and 2D+ technologies into a rapid, lightweight, and user-friendly method of recording archaeological monuments in the field. The resultant image file can be interactively lit from various positions to highlight surface texture and detail not generally visible to the naked eye. In this article, we describe the V-RTI method and critically compare it to the current standard Highlight (H-RTI) method. We present results of a field trial of V-RTI in a challenging urban environment that yielded a new inscription, new readings, and epigraphic palimpsests that significantly change our understanding of the ancient Lycian city of Telmessos. We conclude that V-RTI is a valuable new tool for recording at-risk heritage worldwide and should be considered a default recording tool for field survey and conservation for many different classes of field monument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nimrud Rescue Project is a collaborative project to recover fragments of Neo-Assyrian sculptures bombed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2015–2016, and to develop a long-term plan for the preservation and use of the site and its architectural remains through capacity-building and support of Iraqi heritage professionals. The Smithsonian Institution has been working with colleagues from the Nineveh Provincial Office of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) since early 2017. The project is one of many managed through a partnership with the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage (IICAH) in Erbil, Iraq. The Smithsonian has approached recovery and preservation of the site in partnership with Iraqi stewards. Together with the SBAH Nineveh Directorate, the Smithsonian worked to define site needs and develop the skills required by the cadre of local archaeologists (called the 'Nimrud Rescue Team', or NRT) to recover and protect stone sculpture fragments scattered across the site. A purpose-built storage facility has been completed and the NRT has begun the process of recovery using the 'First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis' (FAC) methodology developed by ICCROM and others for organized recovery of cultural heritage objects after a disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Yungang Grottoes (Datong, Shanxi province, China), particularly the earliest Five Caves of Tan Yao (dated to 460–465 CE), outside the much-studied Buddhist narrative. Proponents of the iconographic scheme have decoded the five larger than life-sized stone Buddha sculptures carved out of a low mountain range as embodying the family cult of the Northern Wei (386–534 CE) Tuoba ruling household in its design. Advancing on the notion proposed by the Northern Wei clergy of venerating the emperor as 'the coming Buddha Maitreya', I aim to explore how the visual scheme of the Five Caves of Tan Yao created a 'presence' of the emperor at the Wuzhou Mountain to elicit different types of perceptual response from its contemporary audience. The materiality of the stone sculptures was meant to awe the viewer into submission, as the 'presence' of the emperor, instead of his words, demanded obeisance from all his subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on Mesoamerican spolia. Topics discussed here include embedding of pre-Hispanic decorated carved stones into the facades of colonial Mexican churches, incorporation of earlier decorated stones known as spolia in Europe into later architecture, and Catholic churches in the viceroyalty.

More than two hundred monumental, carved stone crosses survive from medieval Ireland. Art historians have cast them either as romantic survivals from an exotic, pagan past or as scientific specimens requiring classification and categorization by an objective, detached observer. Shifting to focus on the whole iconographic program and drawing from phenomenological methodologies resituate the tenth-century cross of the scriptures at Clonmacnoise within a living, dynamic world, demonstrating how changing perspectives, audiences, times of day, seasons, weathers, viewing pathways, and proximity to the beholder elicit a series of encounters with a polymorphic, performative object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Viking-Age Cross-Slab "Kirk Andreas MM 128" and its Iconography: By Dirk H Steinforth. As Steinforth himself acknowledges: "it is neither the purpose nor the intention of this book" to present 'indisputable facts regarding the interpretation of the imagery of Kirk Andreas MM 128'. The subject of this book, "Thorvald's Cross" (Kirk Andreas MM 128), is a fragment of an incised stone cross-slab from Andreas Parish in the Isle of Man that dates to the 10th century, one of several such Manx stones carved in a "Hiberno-Norse" cultural milieu. [Extracted from the article]

The Yangtze River and the Yellow River are located in the south and north of China respectively. They are considered the two sources of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, the cultures of the two river basins have merged, thus forming the five thousand years of Chinese civilization. Despite this long integration, the two cultures have maintained their distinct personality. Vernacular dwellings are no exception. This paper researches the architectural decoration of traditional vernacular dwellings in these two basins. After field investigations, a total of 308 examples of traditional vernacular dwellings have been selected from the two regions. 186 examples are located in the Yangtze River basin and 122 examples in the Yellow River basin. The architectural decoration of these traditional vernacular dwellings is examined from the aspects of brick carvings, wood carvings, stone carvings, oil paintings and colour paintings. The focus of this study is the identification of decorative variances in the architectural decoration of these traditional vernacular dwellings due to regional influences. Attempts were made to ascertain the reasons for these differences, in terms of geography, climate, politics, technology and folk customs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While generations of scholars have recorded the rock-cut inscriptions found on the walls of southeast Indian temples, not until recently has attention been given to the inclusion of text in murals of the same region and locations. Epigraphists and historians of all stripes have focused mainly on the semantic content of text, largely ignoring the materiality, placement, and legibility of the inscriptions themselves. However, a more recent turn to the study of materiality has refocused attention on these issues. Emerging from an art historical perspective, this essay argues that the study of murals can methodologically enrich a reading of inscriptions, no matter their medium. This essay argues that the images and texts that adorn temple walls, both carved in stone and painted in murals, may be best understood within a larger matrix of aesthetic experience that neither reduces them to their materiality nor removes them from a contextually-specific reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lintels of Yaxchilan Structure 23 are among the most famous of all Maya monuments. Dedicated by Ix K'abal Xook in 726 CE, while her husband Itzamnaaj Bahlam III was the ruler of Yaxchilan, these sculptures are both a tour de force of carving and a powerful demonstration of ancient women's agency. Yet in their original context, the lintels were hard to see, raising questions about the nature and dynamics of Maya vision. It emerges that the lintels should be read as a cohesive program, guiding a performative engagement with the building at the moment of its dedication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vigny's major poem, 'La maison du berger' (first published in 1844), has long been seen as a celebration of the provinces and a denunciation of the alien setting of the modern city. But his relationship with the characteristic spaces of modernity, including land that he himself owned in the countryside, is more complex. Here, we map how Vigny's shifting assessment of boundaries, including those marked out by stones placed in the ground, can shed light on his unsettling reappraisal of the the human relationship with nature and in turn on the emergence of an acute, if troubled, ecological awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the study of four late to middle to late Tang Dynasty (781–907 CE) and one Song Dynasty (907–1279 CE) Buddhist sites which are set within a kilometre of one another to the south of the ancient centre of Rongxian (荣县), Zigong, Sichuan. The question addressed is whether these five religious sites could have existed as distinct entities, or if over time they became part of a unified whole. Traditionally such sites are considered as independent works of art divorced from their landscape and social context. Since the connections demonstrated in this paper indicate a unity of purpose we suggest that a more holistic approach to the study of such monuments is worthwhile. This paper proposes that although these sites were originally distinct entities during the Tang, they came to be connected by a pilgrimage route defined by the construction of a pagoda in the Song Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A RECENT DISCOVERY of pieces from a major pre-Conquest cross at Louth in east Lincolnshire has prompted not just a description and assessment of the stone sculpture, but exploration of the evolution of the early monastery and town itself. It is suggested that the monument was erected as an emblematic market cross, which marked the bishop of Lindsey’s mid-10th-century promotion of a market and market town at Louth, as part of his effort to re-establish himself in the region after the Viking land-taking and its English reconquest. Our analysis has wider significance than the art history of the sculpture alone, and demonstrates the potential of the large body of early stone sculpture now made more accessible through the publication of corpora in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A Romanesque double-springer and five voussoirs, decorated with foliate carving and pellet, have been reused as a door-head in the ground floor of Church House, Gloucester Cathedral. The carved stones are illustrated, together with a reconstruction of the original double arch, which may have come from an early 12th- century pulpitum screen or the arcade of the first Norman cloister. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the making of an art piece combining stone sculpture and virtual water. The motivation for this art piece was to enrich the usual static format of a stone sculpture with a dynamic dimension. The dynamic dimension is attained with virtual water droplets running over the stone surface which behave as real water droplets. The 3-D surface of a specially carved stone sculpture is during an exhibition continuously captured by the Kinect sensor. Each water drop out of many thousands, which are introduced into the installation as evenly distributed rain drops, falling over the sculpture, are simulated individually to run over the stone surface following the largest slope. These simulated water drops are projected with a video projector as light points on the surface of the sculpture. An observer can enjoy simultaneously the haptic experience of touching the stone and observing a digitally generated but physically grounded animation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the stone carving works of artists Andreas Kunert and Naomi Kunert. Topics discussed include collection of stones and marble blocks from places like Italy, Madagascar and Brazil; taking into consideration that the art is safe, beautiful, and intriguing when working with design professionals such as landscape architects and structural engineers; and incorporation of mosaic in carving stone pieces.

And not surprisingly, the institutions prospectus intimates that it is "to contain within it a memory of the ancient Nalanda University."[6] In his 2018 essay "Ïndia, Magadha, Nalanda: Ecology and a Premodern World", Rick was supportive of a new Nalanda university. Anjana Sharma (Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018) 63. 4 Asher, 62. 5 Asher, 62. 6 Asher, 67. 7 Asher, 67. 8 Asher, 67. 9 Asher, 67. 10 Asher 68. Professor Frederick [Rick] Asher's passing away in 2021 was a big loss for scholarship on South Asia. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the practice on conserving Leizhou stone dogs, a type of stone carving native to Leizhou, Guangdong, China. Topics include details on the ethnographic and cultural significance of stone dogs, details on the Leizhou Museum's collection of stone dogs, mention of stone dogs prevalence in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, details on the role of stone dogs being carved in basalt, details on the importance of preservation of these stone artifacts, and research on the deterioration of stone dogs.

Several letters are presented between the London, England-based artist Jeremy Hutchison and Liv Zhao, the manager of a China-based marble factory, regarding Hutchison's desire to have one of the workers at the marble factory complete a self portrait. A letter from Hutchison to the periodical "Third Text" is also presented.

Based on the development of very specific lithic tools and the use of flat and covering retouch, the Solutrean has traditionally been envisioned as a unified cultural complex, representing a clear break from the preceding Gravettian technologies. As a consequence, migratory episodes have been proposed to explain the appearance of the particular characteristics of Solutrean lithic points. Here we present an assemblage with Vale Comprido points discovered at Marseillon in south-western France. The lithic industry is consistent with the definition of the Protosolutrean in Portugal, an industry in an intermediate stratigraphic position between the Late Gravettian and the Solutrean. Its description is followed by a discussion on the formation of the Solutrean and on the articulation between the Protosolutrean with Vale Comprido points and the classic Lower Solutrean with pointes à face plane. According to this evidence, the Solutrean would have emerged from industries having strong typological and technological analogies over its entire zone of distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stone tools emerged at least 2.5 mya in Africa and were manufactured continuously by early Homo species through the emergence of cognitively modern Homo sapiens. Aspects of hominin cognitive evolution, reflected in hominin intentions, may therefore be preserved in this durable aspect of the archaeological record. Stoneworking design space is cellular in structure and two levels of hominin intentions are apparent in modifying stone: the intention to remove a single flake and the higher-order intentions reflected in the ways that flakes are combined to produce effects. Archaeologists have traditionally interpreted early hominin intentions using the higher-order skills and experiences of modern knappers as analogues, an approach that is epistemologically flawed. Further, the tightly constrained structure of design space could have led early hominins inadvertently to produce what appear to be highly-designed tools or tool attributes in the absence of an intention to do so. Controlled experimental research is necessary to provide an empirical baseline for identifying higher-order intentions in the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizable throughout the world, the stone statues (moai) of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) represent the largest monolithic architecture produced in Polynesia. The exquisitely carved and finished head and torso of each statue testifies to a skill in stone carving and dressing unmatched throughout the Pacific. Yet, approximately one thousand 'classic' statues were produced at the quarries within a few hundred years. What was the ritual status of the quarry and the labour necessary to produce the numbers of statues that allowed Heyerdahl to declare that the 'whole mountain massif has been reshaped, the volcano has been greedily cut up' (1958: 83)? What was it like to go to work at Rano Raraku? By drawing on a range of evidence we argue that walking to and labouring at Rano Raraku represented a spatial and temporal journey to a place of highly dangerous forces, a cosmogonic centre where prehistoric Rapa Nui people came face to face with their ancestors and the Polynesian gods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carved stone fragment from Ingleby in Derbyshire has attracted little attention in the scholarly literature on medieval sculpture, largely because the question of its date has been considered particularly unclear. It thus raises interesting questions about dating, about the nature of the models lying behind the carving, and about its iconographic significances, the relevance of which extend far beyond Derbyshire. Here the piece is examined in the light of Anglo-Saxon art, and situated within the context of the later 9th and 10th century, but produced under the influence of artistic conventions dating back to the preceding century in the Insular world and Carolingian Gaul, which in turn look back to the art of late antiquity. The article argues for the influence of visual traditions in its illustration of agricultural tools rather than that of objects perhaps familiar in Anglo-Saxon England, and suggests that the unusual depiction of harvesting, which is perhaps only paralleled elsewhere in art from the South-West, is best considered in the light of the trees set in a rocky and watered landscape, also featured on the stone, and overall presents a set of eschatological iconographic references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three fragments of stone sculpture — from Dewsbury and Otley in West Yorkshire, and Halton in Lancashire — preserve images of an angel and attendant figure, perhaps a monk or mass-priest. All three fragments apparently belonged to monuments including further figural images with clear pastoral resonance: narrative images of the life and ministry of Christ, or images of the evangelists or apostles. While an absolute date cannot be supplied for the production of these monuments, the Otley monument seems to belong to the period 780–800, and the Dewsbury and Halton monuments seem to belong to the early 9th century. Previous discussions of these angel images have not provided a convincing identification. Here it is proposed that the sculptors were adapting contemporary models depicting an angel and attendant figure in order to draw attention to the connections between Old and New Testament narratives of angel veneration. It is argued that these images reflect and promote the angelology of Gregory the Great, who considered angels ideal exemplars for the contemplative preacher. If so, then the monuments may have been produced in response to two broader historical trends. First, the instability of kingship in Northumbria, which prompted Alcuin to promote the Roman and Christian authority of the Church and to propose ecclesiastical reform. Second, a gradual shift from mixed communities including monks, towards communities composed exclusively of priests, which may have required a defence of the role of contemplatives in society. Finally, it is suggested that these images therefore have an important implication for debates about the pastoral organisation of the early Anglo-Saxon Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines a stone slab inscription of Indian ruler Mahendrapāla at the British Museum in London, England. It describes the large plate, containing forty lines on the obverse and thirty-three lines on the reverse. According to the author, the writing script is in siddhamātrkā and the text is composed in Sanskrit verse and prose. In the inscription, the ruler is introduced as the son of Devapā, described as a devout Buddhist and the great worshipful one.

The article highlights various significant stone images from Uttaranchal, India. These include the first three-headed Hari-Hara, made of soapstone, which was discovered in the village of Paithani; the Indra Vaikuntha, an image of a three-faced god standing in Samapāda sthānaka mudrā which was found in Bhagirathri Valley; and, lastly, a rare image of the love-god Kamadeva, which was discovered in Katyura valley. Detailed descriptions of the images are also provided.

A small number of Pictish symbol stones demonstrate evidence for multiple lives within the Early Historic Period. These stones are reviewed together with their implications for how we view the wider corpus of Pictish stones. The idea that the stones are burial markers is rejected. Instead, it is suggested that they were created in response to, and as a rejection of, Christian missionary activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keizo Ushio is a leading international stone sculptor whose work has introduced split tori and Möbius bands to the world on a grand scale. Starting with a simple circular torus or with more elaborate twisting bands, he drills a large number of closely spaced holes to form two strands, which may or may not be connected, depending on the overall rotation of the cutting void. In the case of a torus with a 360-degree rotation of the cut, he obtains two twisted, tangled loops, which can be re-arranged in an ingenious way to form a dramatic figure-of-eight configuration. Keizo's split loop sculptures are reviewed and classified by the topological and geometrical rules that govern how toroidal structures can be split in a regular way. The basic concepts related to these shapes are clarified and explained with computer-generated renderings and through stylized plastic maquettes built on a rapid prototyping machine. These models are also used to explore possible generalizations of the underlying splitting paradigm and to realize configurations that could not easily be carved from stone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE SCULPTED STONES of Scotland have been used as a means of exploring Early-medieval art and ideology. Archaeological studies have also considered stone monuments within their physical setting, using landscapes to inform their social and political meanings. The following study looks at carved monuments in the context of their distribution and the relative amount of investment involved in their production. To understand the latter, a system of assessing relative investment in sculpture is devised and tested in three regional studies: Argyll and Bute, southern Pictland and Dumfries and Galloway. The resulting patterns and concentrations of investment in sculpture are then examined for underlying changes in structures of power. The patterns emphasise smaller units of power and combinations of secular and ecclesiastic control, and highlight the dynamic nature of power structures in Early-historic Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes two decorated stones excavated from the open air site of Zemono in southwestern Slovenia. The first stone is a piece of slate with geometric patterns delicately incised on both sides. The patterns are eight zigzag lines on one side and a ladder motif and a long line with smaller perpendicular ones on the other side. A much simpler pattern, composed of parallel and perpendicular lines, can be found on the second stone.

The Copàn Hieroglyphic Stairway, one of the most important monuments of the Mayan culture, was excavated at the end of the 1800s. After a few decades it was extensively attacked by mosses and lichens. Different biocide treatments were applied in the late 1970s, and consolidation and stabilization works were carried out in the 1980s and 90s; a tarp was installed in 1985 over the Stairway for protection from rain. The present investigation shows an almost total death of lichens and a heavy reduction of the biodeterioration phenomena on the stone surfaces of this monument. The most frequent species presently growing are cyanobacteria and a few green algae. Notwithstanding this relatively low level of superficial colonization, cross-section staining and SEM analyses at times revealed a heavy biological growth just below the surface. The main structures found were exo-polymeric substances, fungal hyphae and moss protonema. Through a comparative analysis of the biodeteriorative phenomena of other monuments at the site, and with historical records, the relationships between the main ecological factors (water and light) and the biological colonization at the Copàn archaeological site are described. The ecological analysis and the changes that seem to have occurred in the biodeterioration of the Stairway provide useful information for planning future conservative interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of sculpture continues to be transforming. The emotional interchanges as the author moves back and forth between molding clay and carving stone identify that which is possible and that which is not possible. It integrates fantasy and reality. For the author, sculpture is a mixture of representations-one transforming the other. The sculptor-the sculpture. The stone-the clay. All acting and reacting as creator and creation. Creating sculpture has become a process of self-analysis in which the author continuously reflect and modulate her anxiety-a constant reminder to balance aggression with holding and soothing. As the author looks around her studio and observe her stone carvings, many seem to her good enough as when first created. Others rouse occasional nagging itches to pick up the hammer and chisel, and rework them. The author does not, for they symbolize what felt finished to her at that time in my life. The author view himself somewhat like an art collection-an on-going exhibition of sculptures which reflect a never-ending development of her emerging self. More importantly, her sculptures furnish a subtle anxious reminder to live more peacefully with and honor that part of her that continues to remain unfinished.

Focuses on complex stone configurations of the Highland Malay communities of southern Sumatra. Relation of the objects to the contemporary cult of the ancestor Bitter Tongue; Ways in which the objects are conceived of as complementary and part of a coherent topological network of meanings; Place-lore associated with the objects; Meaning of the objects for Sumatran cultures.

The vibrant artistic traditions of America's Pacific Northwest Coast peoples are well documented in the ethnographic literature. Far less numerous, but equally fascinating, are the artworks which survive from a prehistoric period lasting at least 10,000 years. One little known collection of 136 stone artefacts from this area was brought together for exhibition in 1975. The striking and often explicit sexual imagery of these artefacts prompted anthropologist Wilson Duff to offer an unconventional, and therefore also controversial reading of their meaning in his book images stone b.c. In reading images stone b.c. through the lens of queer theory this paper suggests that the radical potential of Wilson Duff's ideas, and his vision of these artefacts in particular, was far greater than he was able to realize before his untimely death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Olmec site of La Venta, located on Mexico's Gulf Coast, has intrigued archaeologists with its stone sculptures, ceremonial caches, and massive earthen constructions for seven decades. Only in the last twenty years have conditions emerged that allow archaeologists to investigate readily the settlement and subsistence patterns that sustained the rise of the La Venta urban center. Recent studies at the site of Isla Alor demonstrate that a wide range of useful data can be recovered from domestic sites that formed the base of the regional settlement hierarchy of the La Venta hinterland. Isla Alor provides primary evidence of household activities, including ceramics, obsidian tools, and subsistence resources. This research suggests that regional site formation processes probably favor the preservation of many sites such as Isla Alor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the significance of a carved stone ball (CSB) in interpreting material culture in Scotland. Cultural biography and history of CSB; Debate on the functional uses of CSB; Importance of the sensory study on CSB; Significance of CSB in recognizing role of artefacts.