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Love suicide was a situation lavishly employed by playwrights in early modern England. We generally regard as tragic heroes the dramatic star-crossed lovers who kill themselves onstage and we see their death as the sensationally pathetic climax of the play. On the other hand, in Elizabethan and early Stuart society, suicide, or, as it was called, ‘self-slaughter’ or ‘self-murder’, was considered both as a crime and as one of the most dreadful sins a Christian could possibly commit. I would suggest that the tension between these two conflicting views on suicide had a relevant emotional impact on the audiences to whom these plays were originally addressed. In order to prove this, I wish to analyse in particular domestic plays which stage the range of responses elicited within a community that has to cope with the suicide of one of its members.

Unless they are luxurious, one rarely stares at cars. Unless they are broken, one rarely reflects about them. Cars pass by. They are driven. They take us from A to B and back. The car, because it is such a habitual vehicle, surrounding us with its unremarkable ubiquity, seems like an obvious metaphor for ordinary life.

Abstract Salmonids, especially Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) and trout ( Salmo trutta sspp.), are ubiquitous throughout the European Upper Paleolithic archaeological context; however, as these species are morphologically similar, species identification can be difficult. Here we present (I) a species classification rate for the two species using modern reference specimens, and (II) an application on archaeological vertebrae of Salmo sp. recovered from the cave of Le Taillis des Coteaux (Vienne, France). This cave contains a rich archaeological sequence with an exceptionally well preserved stratigraphy, encompassing the Upper Paleolithic from the Aurignacian to the Middle Magdalenian. To discriminate both species, we used a geometric morphometric approach to analyse vertebral form using landmarks and sliding semi-landmarks, coupled with k-Nearest Neighbour classification method. Other quantitative approaches like Principal Component Analyses exist, but the k-NN method increases the power of these analyses. Linear Discriminant Analysis was also used; however, the k-NN method provided better results. This study presents the initial results of geometric morphometric discrimination of European salmonid bones. The success rate of reassigning these to the modern reference specimens ranged from 84 to 100%, depending on the vertebrae studied, with the data indicating that S. trutta sspp. were the dominant taxon on site. This study provides clear evidence that vertebrae morphology can be used to differentiate salmonid species, allowing archaeological specimens, even partially broken, to be identified.

Abstract: This short contribution presents faunal data from new fieldwork at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France). This important sequence continues to serve as both a reference sequence to which other Western European Middle Palaeolithic sites are often compared and the basis of several models of Neanderthal subsistence and environmental context. However, several researchers have highlighted the likelihood that skeletal part profiles were biased as a consequence of the incomplete recovery methods used during previous excavations at Combe-Grenal. A comparison of faunal remains recovered during new excavations with data from the original collections allows recovery bias induced by previous excavation protocols to be quantified. The unreliability of the original skeletal part profiles is confirmed by our study, while, more importantly and unexpectedly, radical biases in species frequencies were equally identified. These results cast doubts on several interpretive models held to account for variability in Mousterian industries, the evolution of Neanderthal hunting strategies, as well as Pleistocene environmental changes. Furthermore, Combe-Grenal provides an instructive example to archaeologists working on sites with less than ideal recovery methods of faunal material. In such cases, recovery biases may be so substantial than even basic faunal data, such as species lists, prove unreliable.

This article transcripts and analyzes two hitherto unpublished letters by David Ricardo. The first one (6 December 1812), was addressed to Leonard Horner. In the second one (3 March 1813), Ricardo thanked Samuel Tertius Galton for having sent him the pamphlet on monetary questions Galton had just published. This second letter was very useful to identify the work discussed by Ricardo in the first letter. Indeed, in his writing to Horner, Ricardo commented extensively on Galton’s manuscript. He dealt with important monetary issues such as the distinction between a deteriorated and a depreciated currency, the determination of the par of exchange between countries admitting two different monetary standards, and the distinction between an increased issue of notes by the Bank of England and an increased quantity of money in circulation.

We present here a reappraisal of the tectonic setting, stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the central part of the Sivas Basin from Palaeocene to late Miocene. The Sivas Basin is located in the collision zone between the Pontides (southern Eurasia) and Anatolia (a continental block rifted from Gondwana). The basin overlies ophiolites that were obducted onto Anatolia from Tethys to the north. The Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex (CACC) experienced similar ophiolite obduction during Campanian time, followed by exhumation and thrusting onto previously emplaced units during Maastrichtian time. To the east, crustal extension related to exhumation of the CACC created grabens during the early Tertiary, including the Sivas Basin. The Sivas Basin underwent several tectonic events during Paleogene-Neogene. The basin fill varies, with several sub-basins, each being characterised by a distinctive sequence, especially during Oligocene and Miocene. Evaporite deposition in the central part of the basin during early Oligocene was followed by mid-late Oligocene fluvio-lacustrine deposition. The weight of overlying fluvial sediments triggered salt tectonics and salt diapir formation. Lacustrine layers that are interbedded within the fluviatile sediments have locally yielded charophytes of late Oligocene age. Emergent areas including the pre-existing Sivas Basin and neighbouring areas were then flooded from the east by a shallow sea, giving rise to a range of open-marine sub-basins, coralgal reef barriers and subsiding, restricted-marine sub-basins. Utilising new data from foraminifera, molluscs, corals and nannoplankton, the age of the marine transgression is reassessed as Aquitanian. Specifically, age-diagnostic nannoplankton assemblages of classical type occur at the base of the transgressive sequence. However, classical stratigraphic markers have not been found within the planktic foraminiferal assemblages, even in the open-marine settings. In the restricted-marine sediments, there are rich planktic foraminiferal assemblages of classical type but these are of little use in stratigraphy. In contrast, the gastropod fauna indicate a Burdigalian age. Sediment reworking in the restricted-marine environments precludes stratigraphic determination. In such environments, micro- and nano-organisms experienced atypical developmental conditions. The small benthic foraminifera and associated ostracod assemblages are good indicators of salinity which varied considerably within the restricted-marine sub-basins. Some of the corals within the coralgal reefs barriers are also dated as Aquitanian. A combination of the salt tectonics and the late Miocene north-westward-verging thrusting created the present basin complexity. The board of the DARIUS Programme is kindly acknowledged for its support of our research proposals during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. We also thank Prof. J.P.Callot (Universite de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour) and our colleagues from the University Cumhuriyet in Sivas for their help during the fieldwork in the Sivas Basin. Profs. C. Goncuoglu and S. Sen and an anonymous reviewer are acknowledged for their comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. We especially thank Prof. A.H.F. Robertson for editing the manuscript. board of the DARIUS Programme WOS: 000368178700015

Contribution on Baron Edouard Descamps, President of the Advisory Committee of Jurists (ACJ) which drafted the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice for the League of Nations.