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Chronological thinking is an indispensable tool to structure a historical narrative and to give meaning to a sequence of events. It is not a natural skill, so the conscious inclusion of tasks stimulating that skill in teaching is crucial. It is important to appropriately test students' chronological skills by means of well--constructed examination tasks administered at the conclusion of subsequent stages of education. The authors discuss tasks that assess chronological thinking included in contemporary exam papers in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Russia, the USA and the United Kingdom. The tasks included in Polish arts and humanities exam papers at the lower secondary school level in the years 2002-2011 and the first history paper (2012) are then analysed. The final section presents the results of a survey to test the chronological thinking of lower secondary school students carried out by the Educational Research Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reports on new research into the timing and nature of post-glacial environmental change at Lake Flixton (North Yorkshire, UK). Previous investigations indicate a succession of wetland environments during the early Holocene, ultimately infilling the basin by ca 7,000 cal bp. The expansion of wetland environments, along with early Holocene woodland development, has been linked to changes in the human occupation of this landscape during the Mesolithic (ca 11,300–6,000 cal bp). However, our understanding of the timing and nature of environmental change within the palaeolake is poor, making it difficult to correlate to known patterns of Mesolithic activity. This paper provides a new record for both the chronology and character of environmental change within Lake Flixton, and discusses the implications for the Mesolithic occupation of the surrounding landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Select Committee Report of 1817 states that the New Land Pattern Musket has 'a lock so tallying in all its parts, that any part of one lock may fit another'. This is the earliest claim of interchangeability to have been found for Board of Ordnance firearms. It has focussed the authors' attention on understanding the British efforts in the interchangeable manufacturing of firearms in the early 19th century, and more specifically on the manufacture of the lock of the New Land Pattern Muskets. This has also necessitated and included some work to unravel the story of the development of the New Land Pattern Musket and its variants, and to appreciate the contemporary use of lock jiggers by the East India Company (EIC) and others. Our approach has blended multiple iterations of archival research, object study, analysis of musket lock 'Types', and experimental evaluations of interchangeability. The methods used have allowed a comparison with contemporary American achievements at the Springfield and Harpers Ferry National Armories. This paper reports our results, including those of a close study of 35 New Land Pattern Muskets; the generation of a typology identifying three distinct variants of New Land Pattern Musket locks and a chronology of key aspects of their design, manufacture and supply; a five-lock component exchange experiment with 20 potential interchanges and other supplementary interchange tests; and an experimental evaluation of the use of two surviving EIC lock jiggers (i.e. gauges). These demonstrate that Great Britain had made significant strides in the interchangeable manufacturing of musket locks by 1817, but that these achievements, based upon the use of gauges and other similar tooling, were limited by their use of manual methods, chiefly filing by hand. They also show that Henry Nock, Ezekiel Baker and others contributed to the design of the variants of the musket, the lock and the tooling. The work also indicates that Britain was attempting interchangeable lock manufacturing in more than one geographical location, at the workshops of key suppliers in Birmingham and the Black Country (the metal working district to the West and North West of Birmingham), the London trade and the new Royal Manufactory in Lewisham. This multiple site approach would have been particularly challenging, and it is also important to note that much of this work was carried out in time of war. These British innovations may have influenced others through the transfer of technology by former Ordnance artificers, including at the Imperial Manufactory at Tula in Russia via John Jones, father and son. The experimental comparison with contemporary American achievements shows that the British were realising levels of interchangeability at least equivalent to those at US National Armories, but that whilst the dimensional control sought in Britain may have been less demanding it was being attempted at many more sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2020 is the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of a unified profession of social work across the United Kingdom and of the creation of integrated personal social services in each of the four UK countries. This paper reflects on the genesis of these changes, tracks developments over the past fifty years, and comments on the current state of social work and the personal social services in England and throughout the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an emerging need for redefining religious literacy for teachers in mainstream secondary schools in the United Kingdom (UK) where Religious Studies is part of the core curriculum. The research study draws upon careful observation and analysis of UK mainstream secondary school curricula about Islam and on the qualitative pieces of evidence from teaching the Institute of Ismaili Studies' (IIS) secondary curriculum in religious education classes for learners within the Shi'a Imami Ismaili Muslim community. A novel three-dimensional pyramid approach is proposed for those who teach Islam in UK secondary mainstream schools that aims to provide a holistic understanding of Islam using inclusivist and multifaceted perspectives. The dimensions of the approach include religious situatedness, social connection, and chronological evolution. The findings from implementing this approach show that situating religion within a humanistic realm helps learners gain insights into the nuances of dynamic forces that are at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the Bayesian statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic late Mesolithic rod microliths from England and Wales. These date estimates are compared with results for the earliest evidence for Neolithic material culture and practices in Britain (Whittle et al. 2011; Griffiths 2011; 2014; forthcoming). The chronology of some rod microlith sites indicates a potential overlap between the earliest Neolithic and latest Mesolithic material culture and practices, in the first three centuries of the fourth millennium cal BC across England and Wales. The locations of late Mesolithic sites suggest regional processes of 'neolithization' may have occurred. In the region where we have the best chronological evidence for late Mesolithic sites - in Yorkshire - the location of the very latest Mesolithic sites suggests these lifeways may have persisted in landscapes which had been foci of hunter-gatherer activity for hundreds of years, and which might have been understood as 'ancestral' or 'persistent' places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the previously neglected history of Lancaster's Crimean War monument, dedicated in November 1860. It connects the monument to two key features of the town's mid-century history: Tory paternalism and a resurgent popular patriotism linked to the contemporary 'Volunteer Movement'. It also establishes the broader significance of the structure, especially in terms of British approaches to war commemoration. In particular, it argues that a key feature of the monument—it carries the names of nineteen of the town's servicemen, all rank and file—complicates the generally accepted chronology of when interest in commemorating the 'common soldier' first emerged in Britain. In this sense, Lancaster's Crimean War monument is one of several mid- and late-Victorian monuments, as the Boer War took place in the later Victorian period, that anticipated the defining quality of war remembrance in the post-1918 period, what Thomas Laqueur has called 'necronominalism' (that is, the naming of the dead, regardless of class or status). The monument is thus indicative of Lancaster's mid-century social politics and it also nuances, usefully, key details regarding the history of British war commemoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have employed anthropogenic radionuclides deposited in accumulating sediments to derive chronologies for use in investigations of geomorphological processes and in reconstructing temporal trends in contaminant deposition. However, relatively few have interrogated their use in systems that erode as well as accrete sediment, or have addressed limitations in their applicability in systems that experience variable rates of accumulation. This paper examines the utility of Sellafield-derived radionuclides for reconstructing sedimentary processes in two contrasting saltmarsh systems in the south-west of Scotland. Sedimentation rates and patterns derived from the radionuclide chronologies are outlined and compared to results established through conventional geomorphological methods. The results confirm that the vertical distribution of anthropogenic radionuclides can be useful in determining sedimentation rates, but that these cannot always be used as indicators of contemporary processes, particularly where erosion is occurring. Their use is also limited unless profiles are obtained from spatially diverse geomorphological units. Integrating the use of chronologies with other independent methods secures more robust data for assessing both marsh sustainability and their longevity as radionuclide sinks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The British Isles lack long high-precision and independent chronologies to reconstruct Holocene environmental and climatic conditions at sub-decadal timescales. This paper reports the first Holocene varved chronology for the lacustrine sediment record of Diss Mere in the UK. The record of Diss Mere is 15 m long, and shows 4.2 m of finely-laminated sediments, which are present between ca. 9 and 13 m of core depth. The microfacies analysis identified three major seasonal patterns of deposition (microfacies 1–3), which corroborate the annual nature of sedimentation throughout the whole interval. The sediments are diatomaceous organic and carbonate varves with an average thickness of 0.45 mm. Microfacies 1 consists of a pale layer of authigenic calcite crystals and diatom frustules, and a dark layer composed of a planktonic diatoms and filaments of organic matter. Microfacies 2 is similar but includes a mono-specific diatom bloom layer preceding the calcite layer. Microfacies 3 consists of varves with an occasional very thin calcite layer and mono-specific diatom blooms in spring and autumn. A total of 8473 varves were counted with maximum counting error of up to 40 varves by the bottom of the varved sequence. To tie the resulting floating varve chronology to the IntCal20 radiocarbon timescale, we used a Bayesian Deposition model (P_Sequence with outlier detection) on all available chronological data from the core. The data included five radiocarbon dates, two known tephra layers (Glen Garry and OMH-185) with calendar ages based on Bayesian modelling of sequences of radiocarbon ages, and the relative varve counts between dated points. The resulting age-depth model (DISSV-2020) dates the varved sequence between ca. 2100 and 10,300 cal BP and age uncertainties are decadal in scale. The immediate implication of this new UK Holocene chronology is the updated precise ages for the Glen Garry tephra at 2073 ± 39 cal BP and the OMH-185 tephra at 2617 ± 29 cal BP. DISSV-2020 will also enable Holocene research at high time resolution and comparisons to other annually-resolved records on absolute timescales supporting climatic investigations at the regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the emergence and development of Romano-British glass bangles in southern Britain by providing a fresh analysis of finds that also considers recent theoretical and historical advances in interpreting the transition from the late Iron Age to the Roman period. By analysing the emergence of bangles in terms of technological and stylistic transfer, it suggests that the technology used in their production and their visual elements have continental lineage. It also situates bangles amid indigenous developments in bodily adornments in southern Britain before a.d. 43. By reconnecting British bangles with their continental European counterparts and contextualising them within political, social and cultural processes in south-western England during the late pre-Roman Iron Age, the article argues that the emergence of bangles in Britain did not occur in a vacuum after the Claudian invasion in a.d. 43 but formed an integral part of globalising networks of cross-Channel trade and connections with the European mainland in the early first century a.d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ukrainian Historical Journal / Ukraïnsʹkij Ìstoričnij Žurnal is the property of Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While existing disciplinary histories of political science focus on areas such as the development of research agendas, establishment of chairs and the founding of subject associations, little work has been undertaken on the history of teaching and learning. Based on extensive archival work and use of contemporaneous documents and surveys, it combines data sources, which have not previously been used in writing the history of political science. These are used to construct a history of the taught discipline which traces the development of courses and curricula within UK universities during the 20th century. In doing so, it makes a significant contribution to the history of political science, challenging existing accounts and chronologies of the development of politics in UK universities, through a more comprehensive account of its diverse origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the comparison of the English and the Dutch primary history curriculum regarding the understanding of historical time. We compare different aspects of both curricula that can apply to other subjects as well, for example the question ‘what age would be appropriate to start a subject in primary school?’ Here, we emphasize that exposure to different learning processes is more important than pupils’ age and maturity. Drawing on analyses of curriculum documents, surveys (n?=?128) and interviews (n?=?25), we explored how the understanding of historical time is addressed in the intended and the implemented primary curricula for history. The analysis of the data indicates that teachers in both countries do not teach all objectives of the understanding of historical time. Although in England the history curriculum starts earlier, the episodic structure of the curriculum is not very helpful to support pupils’ understanding of historical time. In the Netherlands the framework of 10 eras is mostly taught chronologically; however, neither the sequence nor the dates of historical periods are explicitly taught. Apparently, the teaching and learning of historical time in both countries needs improvement and we conclude with some suggestions to accomplish this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article brings new evidence to bear on the Western Rebellion—the popular insurrection which convulsed Devon, Cornwall and areas of West Somerset during the summer of 1549 and which is today more commonly known as the ‘Prayer Book Rebellion’. The article argues that, while the rising is one of the most famous mass protests to have occurred during the Tudor period and has been very widely written about and discussed, the standard narrative of events—which was first laid down by Frances Rose-Troup a century ago—is in need of fundamental revision, particularly in so far as it pertains to Cornwall. More specifically, it argues that the orthodox view which holds that the insurrection began in Cornwall on 6 June, that the Cornish rebel forces quickly suppressed all resistance in their own county, and that they then marched into Devon just a few days later, is almost certainly wrong. Instead, it is suggested here that rebellion did not break out in Cornwall until some time subsequent to 26 June; that at least one loyalist garrison in the county remained stubbornly defiant thereafter; and that the Cornish rebel host did not advance across the Tamar until early to mid-July—a full month later than the standard interpretation suggests. The article concludes by casting fresh light on the government’s defeat of the insurrectionists in August, and by considering some of the wider implications of the revised chronology of events which has been put forward here. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present an annually resolved reconstruction of spring-summer precipitation variability in East Anglia, UK (52-53°N, 0-2°E) for the period AD 900-2009. A continuous regional network of 723 living (AD 1590-2009) and historical (AD 781-1790) oak ( Quercus sp.) ring-width series has been constructed and shown to display significant sensitivity to precipitation variability during the March-July season. The existence of a coherent common growth signal is demonstrated in oaks growing across East Anglia, containing evidence of near-decadal aperiodic variability in precipitation throughout the last millennium. Positive correlations are established between oak growth and precipitation variability across a large region of northwest Europe, although climate-growth relationships appear time transgressive with correlations significantly weakening during the early twentieth century. Examination of the relationship between oak growth, precipitation, and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), reveals no evidence that the NAO plays any significant role in the control of precipitation or tree growth in this region. Using Regional Curve Standardisation to preserve evidence of low-frequency growth variability in the East Anglian oak chronology, we produce a millennial length reconstruction that is capable of explaining 32-35% of annual-to-decadal regional-scale precipitation variance during 1901-2009. The full length reconstruction indicates statistically significant anomalous dry conditions during AD 900-1100 and circa-1800. An apparent prolonged wetter phase is estimated for the twelfth and thirteen centuries, whilst precipitation fluctuates between wetter and drier phases at near centennial timescales throughout the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. Above average precipitation reconstructed for the twenty-first century is comparable with that reproduced for the 1600s. The main estimated wet and dry phases reconstructed here appear largely coherent with an independent tree-ring reconstruction for southern-central England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2007, the Higher Education Academy's Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology commissioned a detailed survey of how and where contemporary history is taught in UK higher education institutions and further education institutions offering degree-level courses. The aim was to establish where contemporary history is taught in UK higher education departments and to understand chronologies used by departments; the resources used in its teaching; how learning is assessed; and the distinctiveness of contemporary history. The survey, based on analysis of university and further education college websites and answers to a questionnaire, resulted in a report which was presented at the Subject Centre's annual conference in 2008. The findings of the survey revealed some interesting comment from those involved in contemporary history teaching in higher education in the UK, feeding into wider issues and ongoing debates about the scope and meaning of contemporary history. The following article discusses the results of the survey in detail and outlines concerns raised. It is intended as a platform for further discussion and to aid fuller understanding of contemporary history teaching generally at higher education level in the UK. It is hoped that this initial investigation and discussion will spark ongoing interest in how the subject is taught in the future and will provide groundwork for enhancing the subject and its further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the keen interest in electrical timekeeping in Great Britain from 1880 to 1925. Time concerns in the city of London; Problems of time distribution and the electrical timekeeping industry; Demonstration that it was only in the early 20th century that accurate timekeeping and its distribution became a reality; People's search for uniformity in timekeeping in order to coordinate tasks and modernize the economy; Emergence of various forms of relativistic thinking in the wider culture.

Presents several chronological conferences during the 2002 in Great Britain. Number of delegates hosted by Castle Studies Group; Subject of coins and lectured by Philip Wise and Martin for Finds Research Group; Coverage of buildings, settlements, field systems and industry by the Medieval Settlement Research Group.