Ceremonial objects or household items? Non‐destructive μ‐XRD2 and μ‐XRF studies on three Neolithic hematite axes from Qatar

Three small stone axes were collected by the joint Qatari‐German South Qatar Survey Project (SQSP) at two places close to the eastern and western coast of Qatar in autumn 2012. Associated with settlement remains, flint artefacts and pieces of ?Ubaid pottery, the implements have been dated to the fifth millennium BCE. Non‐destructive μ‐XRD² and μ‐XRF analyses could, for the first time, prove the use of hematite as the raw material for the manufacture of these tools in Arabia. The absence of major hematite sources in the region and the special characteristics of hematite — a unique metallic shine of polished pieces and the blood‐red colour that appears during the manufacturing process — suggest the highly symbolic character of these objects.     

Is “Threat” in the Eye of the Researcher? Theory and Measurement in the Study of State‐Level Immigration Policymaking

This study initiates a methodological critique of the state‐level immigration policy literature through the lens of the racial threat and group power perspectives. First, I highlight the conceptual problems related to the application of such theories to legislature‐level data analysis. Next, I demonstrate the methodological and analytical problems that raise concerns about ad hoc theorizing in this field. Using counts of hostile and welcoming immigration legislation (2005–2011), I demonstrate that outgroup size measures correlate positively with both dependent variables while measures of population growth rate yield null results unless used on their own. These results suggest that the use of legislature‐level models with demographic indicators does not allow us to gain a clear understanding of whether and how population dynamics influence immigration policymaking. Based on these findings, I recommend that when using demographic indicators as key explanatory variables, researchers provide evidence of result consistency across multiple model specifications and also test the models with both hostile and inclusive policy variables. Such protocols would help avoid ad hoc theorizing.     

Post‐Kyoto? Post‐Bush? Towards an effective ‘climate coalition of the willing’

Weak early compliance with the Kyoto Protocol's current emissions reduction targets and the longer term impact of the US's defection point to emerging problems for the Protocol's effectiveness and legitimacy. This article argues that such problems could in part be addressed by shifting the emphasis of negotiations over the Protocol's second commitment period away from attempts to reengage the United States. Instead, these negotiations and key actors like the European Union should aim for a framework and 'culture of compliance' that actively engage the 'emergent major emitters', China, India and Brazil, either by including them in the Protocol's Annex B list of states, or in a new annex created specially to accommodate them.     

Do nationalist parties shape or follow sub‐national identities? A panel analysis on the rise of the nationalist party in the Flemish Region of Belgium, 2006–11

In this article, we examine the steep and unprecedented rise of the New Flemish Alliance (N‐VA), a Flemish nationalist party in Belgium that succeeded in gaining almost thirty per cent of the vote in a couple of years. During this period, a panel survey among 3,025 late adolescents and young adults was conducted. Our analyses suggest that support for a sub‐nationalist ideology is far more successful in explaining a subsequent vote for the nationalist party than vice versa. In terms of supply and demand mechanisms, we find that N‐VA has managed to address a preexisting reservoir of Flemish nationalist voters (demand), rather than attributing to a development of a stronger Flemish identity among its followers (supply). We should therefore not overestimate the constructionist power of (sub‐)nationalist political elites for the development of (sub‐)nationalist identities.     

‘Saving the Solomons’: a New Geopolitics in the ‘Arc of Instability’?

The recent crisis in the Solomon Islands is reviewed in the context of historical and regional antecedents. In the past two decades political and ethnic disputes have flared in several parts of Melanesia and nearby parts of the ‘arc of instability’. Tensions and violence in the Solomon Islands, based on social, economic and political issues, exemplify regional development concerns. The collapse of the economy and civil order resulted in the Solomon Islands being characterised as a ‘failed State’. Localised warfare brought external military intervention, with a regional assistance mission led by Australia, which paralleled other involvement in the region. Involvement has emphasised renewed Australian interest in the region, in the light of global geopolitical shifts, and a more controversial approach to regional security and development.     

A European ‘society of states’—but only states of mind?

The late Martin Wight (1917–72) made a significant contribution to the study of International Relations by developing the concept of an international 'society of states'. In such a society, he argued, states accept a number of norms and conventions governing their behaviour, which facilitate the management and resolution of interstate conflicts. The article argues that some of Wight's concepts can help to illuminate the current functioning of the European Union—seen as a body of states subject to a wide range of rules, both formal and informal—especially if these concepts are combined with the 'scientific' research methods developed more recently. In this connection, particular attention is paid to the historically based theoretical model developed by Andrew Moravcsik.     

A northern Neolithic? Clay work,cultivation and cultural transformations in the boreal zone of north‐eastern Europe,c.5300–3000 bc

The adoption of pottery in eastern Fennoscandia in the later sixth millennium BC has traditionally been understood in straightforward technological and practical terms, and as a development that did not mark other significant changes in local culture or ways of life. Recent research in the region, combined with new ideas about Neolithization in Eurasia more generally, nonetheless suggests that the adoption of pottery was associated with more fundamental cultural and environmental transformations than has previously been thought. This article brings together diverse old and new data from north‐eastern Europe and discusses the character and dynamics of cultural and human‐induced environmental change following the adoption of pottery. The aim is to provide a scenario of long‐term cultural changes and, in particular, to consider the significance and broader implications of the very practices of clay use and cultivation, as well as their links to wider cultural and environmental phenomena.     

The long‐haired kings of the Franks: ‘like so many Samsons?’1

As the paradigm of Germanic sacral kingship has lost its appeal, historians have begun to rethink the concept of Merovingian kingship. Most of the arguments once used in support of its alleged Germanic and pagan character have now been refuted. However, the meaning of their long hair has thus far proven difficult to explain. This article will argue that the Merovingian hairstyle took up Christian meaning shortly after their conversion, presenting them in the image of the biblical Samson. Consequently, their use of biblical analogies to legitimize royal power further challenges the once‐held dichotomy between Merovingian and Carolingian kingship.     

Towards Free Trade in the Pacific? The Genesis of the ‘Kava‐Biscuit War’ between Fiji and Vanuatu

Contemporary movements towards trade liberalisation have influenced economic development in Pacific island states, where opportunities for growth have always been restricted. The new free trade, centred on comparative advantage, is especially challenging for countries producing sugar, where diversification is difficult, and for the smallest states where trade options have always been limited. New regional trade agreements have been introduced in the Pacific as a step towards global free trade, but have emphasised trade rivalry and conflict, characterised by the ‘kava‐biscuit war’ between Fiji and Vanuatu, rather than complementary trade and cooperation. Movement towards free trade poses acute problems for island states, yet international agreements have not recognised their particular disadvantages, and continue to stress benefits that are nowhere apparent in the Pacific.     

A Crisis of Confidence? Parliament and the Demand for Hospital Reform in Early‐15th‐ and Early‐16th‐Century England

This article examines attempts made by the Commons in the parliaments of April 1414 and 1512 to address the corruption, neglect and poor administrative standards deemed endemic in the nation's hospitals and almshouses, and to remedy a perceived lack of facilities for the care of sick paupers. Despite early (but short‐lived) support from the crown, the first initiative failed, partly because of its association with heretical demands for the disestablishment of the English Church. Although the underlying reasons for institutional decline were often more complex than the reformers cared to suggest, their campaign did inspire a number of hospitals and their patrons to rectify abuses. At the same time, individuals and organisations throughout society invested in new foundations, generally under lay management, for the residential accommodation of the elderly and reputable poor. These measures sufficed until the arrival of endemic pox, along with mounting concerns about vagrancy and disorder, prompted another parliamentary petition for the investigation and reform of charitable institutions. Notable for its emphasis upon the sanitary imperative for removing diseased beggars from the streets, and thus eliminating infection, the bill of 1512 also attacked the proliferation of fraudulent indulgences, which raised money under false pretences for houses that were hospitals in name only. This undertaking also failed, almost certainly because the lords spiritual had, again, drawn the line at the prospect of lay intervention in overwhelmingly ecclesiastical foundations. Both bills are reproduced in full in an appendix, that of 1512 appearing in print for the first time.     

Betylmania? – Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths of South‐West Britain

This paper calls attention to a previously neglected element of the broad repertoire of monumental megalithic structures that characterize the later third and second millennia BC across the British Isles – extremely small standing stones. Despite their frequency and the complex arrangements and associations they embody, these miniliths are rarely recorded in detail and frequently marginalized to a generic background. As a result, they are largely absent from interpretative accounts. Drawing upon recent debates regarding materiality and monument form, alongside the results of excavations explicitly targeting tiny stone settings, the discussion argues that the phenomenon of raising and fixing small uprights was not only widespread and persistent, but sheds important light upon the beliefs and ideas driving monument construction during the later Neolithic and Bronze Ages.     

Modified innovation diffusion — A way to explain the diffusion of cholera in Linköping in 1866? A study in methods

This article seeks to simulate diffusions of cholera from different water sources in the town of Linköping in 1866. The innovation diffusion theory, developed by Hägerstrand, has been used and modified. The article also investigates if it is possible to ascertain which water sources were contaminated during the cholera epidemic of 1866. The modifications of the theory of innovation diffusion resulted in a simulation model, which took into consideration the distribution of the population and barriers. The model corresponded with reality both in graphic and cartographic comparisons. With the help of the model, three water sources were identified as having been the probable cholera spreaders.     

New AMS Dates from the Lambourn Long Barrow and the Question of the Earliest Neolithic in Sourthern England: Repacking the Neolithic Package?

This paper reassesses the chronological status of the Lambourn long barrow, which has provided one of the earliest dates from a mortuary monument in Britain. Three new AMS dates on short-lived material indicate that the construction and primary use phase of the monument lies within the period 3760–3645 cal BC, and that the earlier estimate obtained on charcoal (4555–3780 cal BC) is likely subject to the old wood effect, or is residual. This is followed by a consideration of the implications of the new dates in the context of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, the timing of which remains poorly understood. It is argued that the evidence is increasingly pointing to a more rapid neolithization process, and that this had implications for the mechanisms involved.     

Recovering the past from above Hibabiya — an Early Islamic village in the Jordanian desert?

Britain and the Middle East were the two areas in which the technique of aerial archaeology was pioneered in the 1920s. Overwhelmingly the latter took place in Syria where a French Jesuit priest, Antoine Poidebard, worked for a generation. Further south in Transjordan — as it then was — three men presided over a brief (1927–1929) but fruitful period: an archaeologist with a passion for the newly developing technique (O.G.S. Crawford) and two pilots of the Royal Air Force with an amateur interest in what they saw beneath their wings (Flt. Lt. P.E. Maitland and Gp/Capt L.W.B. Rees). An aerial photograph published at the time seemed to identify a ‘village’ as prehistoric. Over eighty years later and just after it was destroyed, a fresh examination and the rediscovery of some crucial dating evidence have combined to identify it as, probably, an early Islamic village on the desert fringe.     

How many Gs are there in ‘global governance’ after the crisis? The perspectives of the ‘marginal majority’ of the world's states

The G20 summit has recently emerged as the dominant agency of global governance. It claims that its economic weight and broad membership give it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system. But the G20 still excludes from membership some 150 other countries, all of which have interests at stake within the contours of contemporary global governance. In the financial arena these excluded countries contributed significantly to the alternative agenda for dealing with the global financial crisis proposed by the United Nations conference that met in June 2009. In the trade arena they engaged extensively in a variety of coalitions within the World Trade Organization during the so‐called Doha Round and played a part in preventing a deal emerging that was unsatisfactory from their perspective. Questions are raised about the legitimacy of the G20 by the active presence of so many other country voices outside its remit and it can be expected that the excluded ‘G150’ will increasingly explore different ways to engage with the members of the G20 over the next few years.     

Cultural Changes in Funeral Rites During the Neolithic in the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula? The Cave of Pantà de Foix (Barcelona)

During the third millennia bc , there is a change in the funerary patterns of the populations in Catalonia. This novelty usually has been usually related to a change in the economical source of the human groups that become less sedentary as the stockbreeding becomes more important. In the present study, we analyse this change, reflected in the mortuary practices, by the study of diet and health markers such as caries, dental calculus or enamel hypoplasias and of biological affinities based on dental non‐metric traits. It has been included a total amount of 317 permanent teeth from Cova del Pantà de Foix sites, a sepulchral cave found at the south‐west of the city of Barcelona and dates from the third millennia bc . The 74.2% of them present dental calculus deposits, which are usually related to a high protein intake. Nevertheless, the high prevalence of carious lesions (15.3% of the teeth) suggests that the main dietary contribution comes from carbohydrates. Furthermore, when this group is compared with one from the Middle Neolithic Age, which presents a lower calculus prevalence, no biological differences are observed. This lack of differences among these groups denote that the origin of the high amount of calculus deposit is environmental, which is consistent with the elevated observation of hypoplasias of the crown enamel. The absence of dietary, biological and economical differences indicates that the population substrate during the Neolithic in Catalonia is the same and that the transition in the funerary rite is related to a substantial change only regarding to mortuary practices. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.