No abstract

This chapter examines several “snapshots” from a recording by the legendary singer Kesar Bai Kerkar (1892–1977), in which the customary audience response to a concert of classical Hindustani music, in the form of appreciative verbal interjections, is clearly audible. These responses identify “special” moments in the performance, which can be considered particularly expressive. Praat software was used to generate pitch-lines, which elucidate what is happening in the performance at these selected moments. The analyses must be understood within the framework of the music being performed and the ideas about aesthetics of expression. A brief outline of expressivity in the context of Hindustani music is given. The recording is from one genre, a particular period, and one school, and the introductory sketch about expression of emotion and the role of raga in the context of Hindustani music is necessarily a brief synopsis of a vast subject.

Tabel 34: Aannames voor het opstellen van het ouderdomsdieptemodel (μ = mediaan). tabel 35: Passieve variabelen (kolom links) en categorische waarden (kolommen rechts) gebruikt bij correspondentieanalyse.

<p>Palaeohydrological studies usually focus on extreme events and long-term changes as observed from floodplain archives. As a consequence, the information that is obtained inheritely reflects palaeohydrological conditions from a specific compartment of the hydrological system only, namely the discharge area which acts as a drain for runoff and groundwater. In contrast, palaeohydrological conditions in recharge areas, outside the floodplains, are less well understood and documented.</p><p>Aeolian drift sands are a typical feature in the European sand belt, and reflect phases of human induced and climatically modulated Holocene landscape instability. As the European sand belt is characterised by shallow phreatic groundwater tables in climates with a precipitation surplus, we might theoretically expect aeolian activity to interfere with a fluctuating groundwater table and/or precipitation events. The aim of this presentation is to explore the possibilities and limitations of four types of palaeohydrological proxy that were retrieved from a variety of different sites in drift sand landscapes in NE Belgium (Campine area): (1) soil horizon morphology of buried podzols, (2) deflation surfaces, (3) drift sand depositional facies and (4) palaeobotanical remains in organic-rich sediment.</p><p>The palaeohydrological information that these proxies contain will be discussed according to various characteristics. These include the continuity of the archive (continuous or discontinuous), the resolution (high resolution or integrated proxy), and whether the proxy is indicative for outcropping groundwater or precipitation events.</p><p>Podzol soil horizon morphology is an indicator of the average highest groundwater table position over a time period of several thousands of years prior to landscape instability and sand drifting, and can thus be qualified as an integrated proxy. Overblown deflation surfaces can only be used as an upper limit of the highest palaeo-groundwater table in between podzolisation and drift sand deposition, and can be qualified as a discontinuous low-resolution proxy. Drift sand depositional facies is a highly discontinuous proxy but can be used to verify whether deposition took place in dry, wet or standing water environments, with or without the influence of significant precipitation events and/or running water. Undoubtedly, palaeobotanical remains (macrobotanical and pollen) in overblown peat and peaty sand from the deepest parts of the drift sand landscape offer the highest resolution in terms of chronology (century to decades) and highest reliability in terms of water source tracing (outcropping groundwater vs precipitation).</p><p>Proxy verification mainly relies on fragmentary historical information derived from maps covering the last 250 years. Most importantly, when different proxies are available at the same site, they usually show strong internal consistency. A good example is the presence of peat with aquatic palaeobotanical remains in the deepest parts of the landscape where the underlying podzol soil also shows hydromorphic features and the overlying drift sand contains elements that are typical for deposition in wet environments.</p><p>We conclude that the above outlined complementary set of palaeohydrological proxies is a promising tool to reconstruct past hydrology in drift sand landscapes from the European sand belt.</p>

Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assemblage, and comparison with two other pits showing similarities, provides strong indications of a closing deposit or another type of ‘site maintenance practice’. In the Low Countries, comparable contexts generally date from the Iron Age, suggesting that the finds from Aalst – Siesegemkouter represent early forerunners of this ritual practice. On top of this early date, the large volume of cremated animal bone represents an almost unique characteristic for which, until now, parallels from the Metal Ages have hardly been found, even on a Northwestern European scale. In general, the role played by organic remains in ritual contexts from these periods and regions is poorly understood, often due to bad preservation conditions or the lack of a multidisciplinary approach.