Abstract: Selections for sick and unfit prisoners and their murder through lethal injections or in gas chambers were characteristic of Nazi camps like Auschwitz. This article investigates the start of these murders through the lens of a system of forced labour camps for Eastern Upper Silesian Jews, so-called Schmelt camps, that did not form part of the usual concentration camp system. Their independent status gave Schmelt camps more leeway for experimenting with killing methods and they implemented respective policies to liquidate unfit prisoners several months before the concentration camps. However, they were also supervised by SS physicians from Auschwitz and began to send unfit prisoners to the camp's gas chambers from early 1942. In parallel, they developed despicable killing methods, primarily water-induced murders. These events are contextualized within Giorgio Agamben's concept of 'homo sacer.' The paper demonstrates that Fritz Todt, whose Reich Motorway Company utilized Jewish labour for construction work in Silesia, was a driving force behind Himmler's decision to eliminate 'unproductive' prisoners. It shows how civilian camp leaders collaborated in these crimes. Finally, it delineates the transformation of convalescent camps in Schmelt's system from places of recovery for lightly ill prisoners to killing centres and collection points for Auschwitz transports.

Abstract: The rapid digitization of large source collections in the humanities over the last three decades has comprehensively transformed the discipline: The accessibility of primary sources has improved drastically, the pre-processing of research data has been revolutionized in some areas, and new transdisciplinary approaches have emerged and become possible. However, the theoretical grounding of these developments has not kept pace with the changed realities of the research process in many respects: most critically, the concept of "information" — central to computer science and computational methods — has so far been insufficiently received and theorized within historical methodology. In this contribution, we employ a concept from Science and Technology Studies — Bruno Latour's "circulating reference" — to analyze and render describable the processes of historical research within a digitized research environment. Through three case studies — AI-supported segmentation of Habsburg cadastral maps (1817–1861), computational analysis of the Hof- und Staatsschematismus (1702–1918), and the datafication of the Munich Special Court archive inventory — we demonstrate how and at which specific points historical research benefits from this framework, and what new insights it enables.

Abstract: This study provides a rigorous examination of the early period of Diriyah's political history, spanning from Imam Mohammad ibn Saud taking power in 1727 CE through 1744 CE. The investigation starts with a key issue: even though Diriyah didn't expand much in size during this time, it still built a strong political and social system that helped it become a stable center in the chaotic environment of eighteenth-century Najd. Employing the analytical-historical method within a structuralist framework, the study explores the dialectical relationships among the regional political context, prevailing economic conditions, dominant patterns of political behavior, and the nature of political discourse during the period under examination. The analysis finds that from 1727 to 1744 CE, the emirate went through a calm but sensible founding period, focusing on careful strategies and building internal stability instead of rushing to expand or promote itself as exceptional. The findings affirm that the initial years under Imam Mohammad ibn Saud witnessed gradual institutional development and the progressive refinement of governance mechanisms, with emphasis placed on leveraging local resources and strengthening internal alliances while maintaining the tribal and social equilibria that prevailed across the Najd region. These policies contributed to achieving relative stability and laid the groundwork for the transformative developments that Diriyah would subsequently undergo. The significance of this phase resides in its establishment of a distinct political and administrative frame of reference for Diriyah, which shaped the administration of governance affairs and the formation of the emirate's identity. During this period, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud demonstrated an acute awareness of the necessity of avoiding internecine conflicts and steering clear of reckless expansionist ventures. As a result, looking closely at this time allows us to better understand how the First Saudi State began, highlighting the importance of wise leadership in creating the right political and social environment for the new political entity to form. In summation, the analysis of the first seventeen years of Imam Mohammad ibn Saud's rule constitutes an essential entry point for understanding the trajectory of political transformation in Najd. It shows how power was built and how the emirate's institutions were developed, confirming that choosing stability and taking things slowly were intentional strategies that helped Diriyah face challenges and maintain its history.

Abstract: Perfumery is often described as an art, yet it rests on well-defined technological foundations involving extraction chemistry, carrier systems, and sensory performance. In such domains, nomenclature is not merely descriptive; it structures scientific classification, market organisation, and cultural memory. In contemporary India, the term “attar/ittar” has undergone pronounced semantic degradation. Once associated with a specific natural, oil-based fragrance technology, it is now applied indiscriminately to chemically and technologically incompatible products. This loss of predictive meaning has weakened consumer trust, obscured artisanal legitimacy, and compromised scholarly and regulatory clarity. This paper reconstructs the historical trajectory of fragrance-oil technology to explain how this degradation occurred. Drawing on archaeology, history of science, and perfumery chemistry, it traces early Indian aromatic practices, subsequent scholarly refinement in Persia and the Arab world, westward transmission to Europe through medieval translation networks, and the later divergence that produced alcohol-based perfumery as a parallel technological architecture rather than a linear evolution. It further shows that the term “attar” re-entered India during the Persianate and Mughal period as a prestigious lexical label rather than as a marker of technological origin, and that colonial disruption subsequently severed the term from institutional standards, accelerating semantic collapse within India. Against this background, the paper argues that terminological renewal is necessary in the Indian context. It proposes JWALE as a contemporary category name to denote natural Indian fragrance oils produced through traditional vapour-mediated technologies, ideally exemplified by the deg–bhapka hydro-distillation system. Derived from the Indic root jval (“to glow”), the term encodes the defining behavioural characteristics of such fragrances: gradual release, skin-proximal presence, and persistence. By restoring semantic precision, the proposal seeks to support scientific clarity, truthful market signalling, artisanal protection, and future standard-setting, without contesting the legitimacy of oil-based perfumery traditions in other cultural contexts.

Abstract: History attempts to make sense of disparate information trying to create a discourse that lays a series of events with crisp cause-effect relationships in a sequence. Epochal shifts, such as the change from Antiquity to Middle Ages, are especially complex since they involve a large number of economic, political and even religious factors which occur over long periods and that might overlap and interact through reciprocal feedback mechanisms, making this cause-effects sequence difficult to establish. In this research we adopt a data-driven and well-established methodology to identify, with quantifiable statistical precision, the moment when this shift happened, and from there arrive at its possible causes. We will use historical coin hoard data to find out whether such a shift is detected in a peripheral part of the Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula. To do so, we will apply different changepoint analysis methods to a time series of trade links created from that data, and conduct a retrospective analysis based on that result, analyzing the structure of the trade networks before and after the link. Thus, we progress from identifying when the shift happened to identifying where it took place, which in turn allows us to get to investigate why it happened; namely, historical events that could have caused it. This methodology can be used to analyze epochal changes in several steps using time-stamped network data, possibly finding disregarded causes or cause-effect links that could have been overlooked by qualitative methods; in this case, we have applied it to a dataset of coin hoards either found in the Iberian Peninsula or including coins minted there, finding a changepoint in the early 5th century, which, through network analysis, has been linked to a loss of trade with the area of Britain.

Abstract: Fish and shellfish are nutritionally important foods, yet consumption in many high-income countries remains low and concentrated on a narrow set of environmentally costly species. In the United Kingdom, fish consumption is dominated by a small group of fish—the so-called “Big Five”—which is often treated as an inevitable outcome of supply, convenience and ingrained consumer preferences. However, little empirical evidence exists on how and when such preferences emerged, or whether present-day patterns reflect historical continuity or cultural loss. This limits our ability to interpret current consumer behaviour and to design socially and culturally grounded interventions aimed at diversifying fish consumption. Here, I use published recipes sourced from a British domestic magazine, as a consumer-facing archive, to reconstruct long-term shifts in the cultural visibility of fish. While not a measure of consumption, popular media is widely understood to reflect and reinforce prevailing cultural norms, in this case, assumptions about which fish species were considered available and familiar to domestic cooks. I analyse 1,192 fish and shellfish recipes published between 1923 and 2025, documenting changes in species prominence, diversity, and composition. Sixty-six species were recorded, yet representation became increasingly concentrated over time. From the 1970s onwards, the ‘Big Five’ accounted for more than 60% of all species mentions, coinciding with a statistically significant decline in diversity of species representation and a marked restructuring of species composition. Flatfish, herring, and oysters—once culturally prominent—declined substantially, while salmon, prawns, and tuna became entrenched. Although species richness declined only weakly, diversity fell significantly, indicating increasing homogenisation rather than simple loss of species. These findings demonstrate that contemporary UK fish preferences are historically contingent, shaped by interacting changes in supply, trade, policy, and cultural norms, rather than fixed consumer tastes. By linking supply-side transformations to domestic food cultures, this study reveals how ecological and market changes becomes normalised in everyday consumption. More broadly, it shows how historical perspectives derived from cultural sources can inform strategies to diversify diets, revive under-utilised species, and align future seafood consumption with health and environmental sustainability goals.

Abstract: This paper publishes 735,000 historical passenger entries from the German North Sea port of Bremen, created between 1830 and 1939, and now structured, enriched, and processed into a research-ready database. It provides an overview of the original archival documents and their datafication, beginning with a historical account of why the passenger lists were created and which information they recorded. Building on extensive prior work—largely carried out by family researchers—the lists were transcribed manually and first made available online in 2003. To enhance their analytical value, we computationally post-processed these data through: (1) data cleaning, especially addressing spelling variants and transcription errors; (2) data normalisation, including conversion into standardised formats; and (3) data augmentation by adding identifiers, geographic information, and multiple classifications. Finally, we discuss limitations of the resulting dataset as well as its analytical potential.

Abstract: In recent years, numerous studies have been carried out on the landscape of the 5th-15th centuries in Catalonia. When studying settlement, we will assess research on the morphogenesis of villages and highlight differences across regions. We will also see the characteristics of the hamlets of the Early Middle Ages and those of the Pyrenean lands. Farmsteads, which were made up of a house and some land that depended on it, were a fundamental element of the landscape of many regions of Catalonia. To understand the characteristics of the agricultural areas, we will be interested in the concentric shapes or coaxial strips. Furthermore, to understand the landscape of the regions of Lleida and Tortosa, we must understand the transformations that occurred in the Islamic era and the diffusion of ditches and irrigated spaces. Likewise, we will examine the relationship we discover between the coombs and the first medieval settlements and necropolises. It is also important to determine when and why the terraces were built. This study will address the evolution of the landscape throughout Catalonia, with special emphasis on the most recent contributions relating to the regions of Barcelona and Lleida.

Abstract: The nationalization of De Javasche Bank (DJB) into Bank Indonesia (BI) via Law No. 11 of 1953 was fundamental to establishing Indonesia's monetary sovereignty. This study argues that the success of this high-stakes political decision was critically dependent on the micro-level administrative competence realized at strategically vital regional nodes. Focusing on the DJB Surabaya branch—the principal clearing center for Eastern Java—we utilize a qualitative historical methodology employing both macro-level institutional reports and localized archival sources to trace the implementation process. Our analysis posits that the swift and non-disruptive integration of the branch was a defining expression of professional patriotism, where national dedication was channeled into bureaucratic efficiency rather than military action. This success was executed through three synchronized strategic maneuvers: (1) Physical Asset Securitization and Symbolic Repurposing (securing reserves and rebranding the colonial structure); (2) Systemic Operational Continuity (seamlessly maintaining the regional credit clearing mechanism); and crucially, (3) Rapid Human Resource Decolonization (accelerated promotion and technical training of indigenous staff). The Surabaya case provides empirical validation of the newly independent Republic’s state capacity to manage complex central banking operations, underscoring the vital, yet often overlooked, role of regional administrative elites in post-colonial state-building.

Abstract: The De Javasche Bank (DJB) Cultural Heritage Building in Surabaya represents a crucial transition from the colonial financial system to national economic sovereignty through nationalization into Bank Indonesia (BI). This site serves a dual purpose as a historical artifact and an educational medium to foster a spirit of nationalism. Specifically, this relates to the Second and Third Principles of Pancasila. This article analyzes the disparity (gap) between the museum's expected educational function and the level of internalization of Pancasila values among young visitors. The research method uses a descriptive qualitative approach based on case studies. Data collection was achieved through direct observation and in-depth interviews with museum staff and visitors. The results show that the historical narrative of DJB-BI effectively describes the struggle for economic sovereignty. However, there is a disruption in the motivation for visits among students, where visits are dominated by academic demands (extrinsic motivation) rather than national awareness (intrinsic motivation). This phenomenon indicates a weakening of the essence of the Third Principle (Indonesian Unity) in the context of collective historical appreciation. The proposed strategic solutions include strengthening interactive and reflective educational programs (living history, project-based assignments) and multisectoral collaboration between museums and educational institutions. This synergy is crucial to restoring the museum's function as a space for ideological and moral character building in order to strengthen nationalism in the digital age.

Abstract: In the mid-1950s, the world’s space law practitioner, Andrew G. Haley, proposed the concept of Metalaw, the law governing interactions between all beings in the Universe, as he represented the American Rocket Society in the International Astronautical Congress, the single largest gathering of space-faring nations. Haley, with experience in radio communications law dating back to the 1930s, played a pivotal role in addressing the international allocation of radio frequencies in space. Haley was, too, an agile mediator with the Soviet Union and its bloc, acting across various organizations and forums. This article, in contextualizing Haley’s introduction of Metalaw, shows how the onset of the Space Age coincided with the emergence of a contact scenario involving extraterrestrial intelligence enabled by the corresponding techno-scientific capabilities of the time. It demonstrates how extraterrestrial intelligence discursively addressed outer space regulation as a bone of contention between the two geopolitically divided parts, a regulation upon which the US’s global satellite system would depend. The analysis in this article recounts the birth of the Metalaw concept at the intersection of outer space imaginary, law, international organizations, science and technology, diplomacy, the Space Race, the Cold War, and radio astronomy’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Abstract: Erasure is not forgetting; it is memory that has lost its path of return. This paper proposes a five-mode typology of structural erasure through Silencing, Reclassification, Compression, Substitution, and Tactical Forgetting as mechanisms by which memory systems fail. Historical erasure is not an incidental lapse in collective memory but a structured process shaped by social, institutional, and cultural gatekeeping. To examine how significant ideas and figures become omitted, the study applies this typology to five distinct cases from different periods and regions. Sophie Germain faced early denial of formal recognition that stifled her mathematical achievements and later reduced them to a token identity. Rosalind Franklin produced critical X-ray data on DNA, yet her work was overshadowed by a narrative that reassigned her contributions to Watson, Crick, and others while limiting her legacy to a single discovery. In Peru, María Elena Moyano was acknowledged only after her assassination; her socialist feminist activism was recast into a depoliticized image of martyrdom. Nwanyeruwa led the 1929 Aba Women’s War in colonial Nigeria, yet her leadership was obscured by British reclassification that renamed a coordinated uprising as a mere riot. Paul Robeson, once a global icon of radical internationalism and civil rights, was reclassified and his wide-ranging legacy compressed into a narrow, sanitized story that mirrored gendered cases where complex contributions were reduced to one attribute. By placing these cases together, the paper shows that modes of erasure overlap, change through time, and reinforce entrenched patriarchal, racial, and ideological hierarchies. Recognizing historical erasure as a systematic, multistage process rather than a series of isolated oversights identifies the points where collective memory becomes distorted or blocked. In doing so, the five-mode typology provides a conceptual framework linking media studies, archival research, and historiography. It offers scholars a concrete tool for corrective action through archival reform, analytical transparency, and historical repair.

Abstract: Non-alignment was officially born at a conference in Brijuni, Croatia (then Yugoslavia) in 1956 and then formalized in Belgrade in 1961. Yet its origins go back to the independence struggle of Indonesia in 1945-49 and especially to diplomacy around the Korean War in 1950-53. During that conflict, United States unilateralism pushed India, Indonesia and Burma (now Myanmar) into forming an Asian bloc aligned for diplomatic purposes in the goal of peace. The search for peace in turn formalized a bloc of Asian states that would initiate the Bandung Asian-African conference of 1955 and finally the Non-Aligned Movement. This article explores the emergence of non-alignment in the alte 1940s and early 1950s as a conscious rejection of both Cold War alignment, and earlier European concepts of neutralism in favour of an “active and independent” non-aligned diplomacy that would lead to the emergence of a bloc of non-aligned states.

Abstract: In 2023 David Barrado Navascués published Cosmography in the Age of Discovery and the Scientific Revolution, arguing among other points that a wave of rationalism that began with Pico della Mirandola’s Disputations Against Astrological Revolution swept astrology out of the universities. This argument is reductive. Instead, the historical record shows that in regions of Europe such as France and England judicial astrology—the form of the discipline used to make predictions—became increasingly associated with riot, unrest, civil war, and perhaps most damning in the eyes of Early Modern intellectuals in these areas, the lower classes. As a result, intellectuals such as Pierre Gassendi and the Fellows of the Royal Society of Science in England adopted a mechanical model of the cosmos that did not require celestial influences. The influence of the latter body was particularly important, as its prestige—and the concomitant prestige of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society—undercut the reputation of astrology, since the journal would accept no astrological paper. These changes in England were in large part the result of the appropriation of astrological forecasting by those who lacked a university degree during the English Civil War (1642-46). Thus, the lapsing of astrology as an academic discipline owed more to social and cultural factors than to any rising tide of scientific rationalism.

Abstract: In this work I would like to analyze how the Romanian Civil Code balances traditional civil law principles with modern needs for contractual flexibility, especially in light of European harmonization trends. This work highlights a foundational principle in civil law, positions Romania in the wider European legal context and involves comparative analysis with French, German, or Italian codes.

Abstract: This paper examines the historical and contemporary drivers of innovation in rocket propulsion aiming to identify the strategic, scientific, economic, and geopolitical factors that have most significantly influenced technological progress. Research relies on open-source datasets, government and agency reports, mission case studies, and peer-reviewed publications to illustrate how propulsion technologies have met mission demands over time. The analysis identified four primary categories of innovation drivers: geopolitical competition, scientific freedom and institutional R&D support, international collaboration, and commercial disruption. Each driver is examined across distinct historical eras, from post-WWII missile development and the Cold War Space Race to present-day megaprojects and private-sector breakthroughs. The study asserts that propulsion advancement is not necessarily constrained by scientific knowledge alone, but by the sociopolitical context that either accelerates or suppresses engineering implementation. Accordingly, it argues that sustainable propulsion innovation will require environments that combine long-term scientific autonomy with focused strategic urgency. Key findings highlight the catalytic effect of competition (e.g., U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-China space rivalries), the reactivation of dormant propulsion concepts such as nuclear thermal engines, and the pivotal role of cost-efficiency and environmental considerations in shaping next-generation systems. The paper concludes by outlining specific recommendations for future work: improved access to proprietary commercial data, more granular modeling of propulsion-system life cycles, and expanded research into cross-border governance mechanisms for nuclear and fusion propulsion. Together, these directions aim to bridge historical insight with actionable foresight to help accelerate the propulsion development further.

Abstract: This study examines the interrelations between energy transitions and industrial development in the nineteenth-century United States, using the iron industry as a case study. Through a detailed historical framework the analysis delineates three sequential yet overlapping energy transitions—anchored in anthracite, bituminous coal, and Great Lakes iron ore—each exhibiting distinct interplays between fuel, technology, and product markets. Shaped by an exceptional territorial expansion and resource diversity the American case shows that industrial transitions in energy-intensive sectors often hinge on new products and shifting societal demands. Finally, the findings reveal a non-linear causality: from fuel enabling industrial expansion, to technological innovation stimulating further coal resource extraction, and finally to dematerialization, whereby efficiency gains mitigate total fuel consumption. In hindsight, the study reveals the historical layers of the United Stares Rust Belt.

Abstract: Industrial heritage has emerged in recent decades as a distinctive category within cul-tural heritage, though its aesthetic significance remains underexplored. Unlike tradi-tional monuments with long historical resonance, industrial remains are often recent, standardized, and seemingly devoid of unique cultural symbolism. Yet, in Chi-na—where industrial production expanded massively under both demographic pres-sures and the Maoist planned economy—these sites now constitute one of the world’s largest inventories of heritage. This study builds on earlier discussions of heritage aes-thetics by systematically analyzing the foundations of aesthetic value in industrial heritage, combining historical, functional, and identity-driven perspectives. Drawing on long-term field research, archival documentation, and policy analysis, it examines how adaptive reuse projects—from Beijing’s 798 Art District to Shougang Park and the reconfigured factories of Shanghai and Wuhan—redefine the visual and social signifi-cance of former industrial sites. The methodology integrates heritage aesthetic theory with case-based evidence to assess three key components: technological-historical traces, landscape transformation, and collective memory. Results indicate that aes-thetic value rarely arises from static preservation but is constructed through refunc-tionalization, where industrial ruins acquire renewed meaning as cultural parks, crea-tive hubs, or community spaces. Moreover, large-scale Chinese practices reveal that industrial heritage possesses not only visual appeal but also profound identity-based resonance for generations shaped by the “factory managing community.” By situating industrial heritage within the broader aesthetic system of cultural heritage, this re-search demonstrates that its value lies in the synthesis of function, memory, and land-scape, and that China’s experience provides a compelling framework for rethinking global approaches to industrial heritage aesthetics.

Abstract:

This article focuses on ponds and reservoirs (PRs) in Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. Sanuki is a region in the Seto Inland Sea with low annual rainfall. In 1999, there were 14,619 PRs in the 1,877-square-kilometer area. Mannō-ike, the largest PR, is said to have been constructed at the beginning of the ninth century by Kūkai, one of Japan's most prominent Buddhist monks. Such huge man-made structures could have been achieved only through collective human labor. The motivation to build large PRs was driven by the risk of drought. However, it is important to note that there were many more small PRs managed by individuals or families than one might imagine. PRs can range in size from huge to small and in location from mountainous areas to mountain foothills and plains. Rather than hard clustering, which classifies PRs according to a single logic, this article takes a new, historically holistic approach by using soft clustering to analyze the classification mechanism by considering the "Living Spaces," the world of all living organisms, including humans, and quantifying its complex logic.

Abstract: This article provides first-hand evidence for the existence of a global musical culture that was already present in the Bronze Age. The studied prehistoric music connects the Near East with India, the Caucasus, and the Mediterranean across thousands of miles of impenetrable mountains, highland plateaus, and deserts. The material that is discussed in detail in the article includes the Hymn to Nikkal and the Rig Veda. The Hymn to Nikkal is the oldest musical score that has yet been unearthed. It was found on the east coast of the Mediterranean. The Rig Veda is a collection of tens of thousands of verses dating from the same Bronze Age period as the Hymn to Nikkal. These verses have been passed down to us in an oral tradition in India. The study of the musical connection between the Hymn to Nikkal and the Rig Veda, together with the ramifications that surround it, suggests that the Bronze Age saw the emergence of a global musical culture. The statistical evidence discussed in the present article comes as close to certainty as mathematically possible. Overall, the idea of a global musical culture in the Bronze Age will strongly impact multiple fields of research including evolutionary linguistics and the study of cultural evolution and diversification, as well as the broader understanding of the human condition.