Religious transformations in the Middle Ages: towards a new archaeological agenda

The study of religious change in Europe between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology but has been riven by period, denominational and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting a holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, comparative perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives

The sustainability of changes in agricultural technology:The carbon, economic and labour implications of mechanisation and synthetic fertiliser use

New agricultural technologies bring multiple impacts which are hard to predict. Two changes taking place in Indian agriculture are a transition from bullocks to tractors and an associated replacement of manure with synthetic fertilisers. This paper uses primary data to model social, environmental and economic impacts of these transitions in South India. It compares ploughing by bullocks or tractors and the provision of nitrogen from manure or synthetic urea for irrigated rice from the greenhouse gas (GHG), economic and labour perspective. Tractors plough nine times faster than bullocks, use substantially less labour, with no significant difference in GHG emissions. Tractors are twice as costly as bullocks yet remain more popular to hire. The GHG emissions from manure-N paddy are 30 % higher than for urea-N, largely due to the organic matter in manure driving methane emissions. Labour use is significantly higher for manure, and the gender balance is more equal. Manure is substantially more expensive as a source of nutrients compared to synthetic nutrients, yet remains popular when available. This paper demonstrates the need to take a broad approach to analysing the sustainability impacts of new technologies, as trade-offs between different metrics are common

The 'long' 16th century : a key period of animal husbandry change in England

Although many historians have extensively discussed the agricultural history of England between the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Era, this period of crucial changes has received less attention by archaeologists. In this paper, zooarchaeological evidence dated between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is analysed to investigate changes in animal husbandry during the ‘long’ sixteenth century. The size and shape of the main domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pig and chicken) is explored through biometrical data and discussed in line with evidence of taxonomic frequencies, ageing and sex ratios. Data from 12 sites with relevant chronologies and located in different areas of the country are considered. The results show that, although a remarkable size increase of animals occurred in England throughout the post-medieval period, much of this improvement occurred as early as the sixteenth century. The nature and causes of such improvement are discussed, with the aim of understanding the development of Early Modern farming and the foundations of the so-called Agricultural Revolution

Autoreactive T cell responses show proinflammatory polarization in diabetes but a regulatory phenotype in health

According to the quality of response they mediate, autoreactive T cells recognizing islet β cell peptides could represent both disease effectors in the development of type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and directors of tolerance in nondiabetic individuals or those undergoing preventative immunotherapy. A combination of the rarity of these cells, inadequate technology, and poorly defined epitopes, however, has hampered examination of this paradigm. We have identified a panel of naturally processed islet epitopes by direct elution from APCs bearing HLA-DR4. Employing these epitopes in a sensitive, novel cytokine enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay, we show that the quality of autoreactive T cells in patients with T1DM exhibits extreme polarization toward a proinflammatory Th1 phenotype. Furthermore, we demonstrate that rather than being unresponsive, the majority of nondiabetic, HLA-matched control subjects also manifest a response against islet peptides, but one that shows extreme T regulatory cell (Treg, IL-10–secreting) bias. We conclude that development of T1DM depends on the balance of autoreactive Th1 and Treg cells, which may be open to favorable manipulation by immune intervention