Geochemical Analysis of Massif Armoricain (France) Sources for Neolithic Dolerite Axes

This study presents new geochemical data on dolerites from the Plussulien and Beulin Neolithic quarries in the Massif Armoricain (France) and for dolerite samples from their surrounding local regions. Using the major and trace element data obtained on these rocks, the two quarries and regional dolerite occurrences appear to be clearly distinct. Consequently, a set of chemical criteria is proposed to identify the dolerite axes produced uniquely at the Beulin quarry and to discriminate between the axes produced in the surrounding local region of Beulin, but outside the quarries, and those produced in the local region of Plussulien. These results could also be used, for example, to identify the existence of undiscovered quarries in the Beulin region. This work may provide the breakthrough needed to understand stone axe exchanges during the Neolithic times in north‐western France and beyond.     

Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archaeological Institute

Neolithic settlements are rare on the British mainland, and England in particular (Cooney 1997; Thomas 1999. 8–9 for somewhat differing comments}. One claimed site occurs at Portinscale 4 km west of the Castlerigg stone circle in the English Lake District where a number of stone axes and other artefacts were found in 1901. The finds were reported to consist of four unpolished stone axes, a number of ‘chippings of similar stone’ and of a ‘log…in an upright position, with the top rudely chipped as if by some clumsy instrument’ (Rawnsley 1902). The remains have sometimes been interpreted as those of a possible settlement where the axes were ‘finished’ or polished (Manby 1965, 3; cf. Fell 1950, 9), although Briggs (1989} noted that the axes also may have been used unpolished. The site is important in any discussion of the production of stone axes in the central Lake District (Bradley and Edmonds 1993). This paper reports the result of small-scale excavations designed to assess whether any material of archaeological interest survived on site and reviews the evidence reported by Rawnsley and that of stray finds of axes from the vicinity of Keswick and Castlerigg (Illus. 1).     

A Neolithic innovation in eastern Arabia: haematite axes and adzes

Well before metallurgy, Neolithic societies in the Gulf were engaging in a very peculiar form of metal object production, particularly of axes and adzes made from haematite. In the heart of the Neolithic Middle East, this innovation was specific to Arabian shores between the Musandam and Qatar peninsulas. Quite infrequent among Neolithic lithic assemblages from Arabia, axes and adzes were mostly collected on the surface of domestic settlements. One is often dealing with objects to which the most focus has been given, apart from arrowheads and projectile points. Several sites or outcrops are present on the Emirati coastline and Gulf islands. Inland mountain ranges also include some of these. From Ra’s al-Khaimah to Qatar, only 500 km separate the most distant Neolithic domestic settlements which possess haematite axes or hoes, a distance that is quite small when one considers the circulation of polished stone blades in other societies of the same period. Within the Middle East, south-eastern Arabia during the Neolithic engaged in a very original means of production of metal objects, as the latter did not focus on copper, a very malleable and much more available material, but on haematite, which was much harder.     

NEOLITHIC AXES FROM ROMAN SITES IN BRITAIN

Finds of Neolithic axes are usually regarded primarily as evidence for Neolithic occupation in the area of the findspot. Neolithic axes from Roman contexts are also usually regarded in this way, often being classed as residual material. However, a study of axes from Roman sites in Britain has shown that they may well have been deliberately collected, in the Roman period, for religious or superstitious reasons. Many have been found on sites of a religious nature (an aspect well documented for temple sites on the Continent) and the beliefs associated with such axes may have been widespread.     

The Crofter and the Iron Works: The Material Culture of Structural Crisis, Identity and Making a Living on the Edge

The iron and steel industry has been of the greatest importance to the Swedish economy since medieval times. During the seventeenth century a large number of new iron works were erected in the Värmland region of western Sweden. The iron works brought an urban and industrial culture into an otherwise rural area. They were also of great importance to the local economies, as a number of people could earn their living, or part of their living, by working at the iron works or in other forms of associated employment. In the late nineteenth century a serious structural crisis hit the Swedish iron industry, causing many iron works to close. However, the actual effects, in the form of unemployment and increased poverty, appear, for hitherto unknown reasons, to have been minimal. In this article the household of a crofter family with close links with an iron works at the time of the structural crisis is investigated. Aspects of the crofter’s material culture, identity and consumption pattern are studied, and it is found that although the household shared in an urban and industrial identity, its economic basis was in the rural tradition of a mixed economy, combining wage employment and land-based elements. The mixed economy stands out as one reason why the structural crisis did not have as dramatic an effect as might have been expected.     

SWEDISH EXPLORERS,IN-SITU KNOWLEDGE,AND RESOURCE-BASED BUSINESS IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE

The period from 1870 to 1914 plays a unique role in the history of natural resource exploration and extraction. This article analyses, from a Swedish viewpoint, the connections between two actor categories of special importance in this context: scientific-geographical explorers and industrial actors. The article examines their activities in three broadly defined regions: the Arctic, Russia, and Africa. We show that the Swedes generally had far-reaching ambitions, on par with those of the large imperial powers. In some cases, notably in Africa, Sweden was not able to compete with the larger imperial powers; but in other cases, such as the exploration of the Arctic – from Spitsbergen to Siberia – and the industrial exploitation of coal at Spitsbergen and petroleum in Russia’s colonial periphery, Swedish actors played a leading role, in competition with players from the larger European nations. Our paper shows that scientific exploration and industry were closely linked, and that foreign policy also influenced the shaping of these links. We distinguish different types of knowledge produced by the Swedish actors, pointing to local, situated knowledge as the most important type for many resource-based businesses, although modern, scientific knowledge was on the increase during this period.     

Hunters of forests and waters: Late Iron Age and Medieval subsistence and social processes in coastal northern Sweden

During the course of the 14th century the Swedish Crown and the Catholic Church made robust attempts to include the areas beside the Bothnian bay within their central fiscal and clerical organization. Salmon fishing in the productive river rapids became major targets for external commercial interests. Written records inform us about the situation from the perspective of the exploiters. However, there is a story running in parallel – that of the local population already occupying the lands and the fishing grounds. The study aims to analyse the significance of hunting and fishing to the overall subsistence of coastal communities in northern Sweden during the period AD 500–1600. The social context is of particular interest, specifically in relation to the successive conformation by the local communities to the Swedish fiscal system. The study draws on archaeological records and on historical records from the 14th to the 17th century, in addition to ethnographic accounts for hunting and fishing. We conclude that the legal cultures embraced by the indigenous population and that of the Swedish central powers were in essence incompatible. The acquisition of land and fishing rights was never settled between two equal parties, but one-sidedly enforced by the party holding the pen.     

Understanding large-scale institutional change

A remarkable reform in modern Swedish political history was the transformation of the local government structure between 1952 and 1974. In a mere 22 years, the number of municipalities was reduced from 2,498 to 277. This study aims to answer how such large-scale reforms could come about politically, particularly since much of the literature on institutions and political reform asserts that carrying out large-scale political change should be a difficult task. Two opposing stories of institutional change are presented: evolutionary accounts, which see the amalgamations as rational adaptations to changing circumstances, are contrasted with a social conflict perspective, which explains amalgamations in terms of their distributional consequences. By investigating the processes leading up to this vast restructuring of Swedish local political geography, we demonstrate that an understanding of these reforms as rational adaptations to changing circumstances, made on the basis of consensus among leading political actors, is not accurate. The reforms were not as uncontroversial and non-conflictual as they often have been portrayed. Our results weaken the evolutionary approach to institutional change, whilst supporting the social conflict perspective.     

A Provenance Study of Early Bronze Age Artefacts Found in Asturias (Spain) by Means of Metal Impurities and Lead,Copper and Antimony Isotopic Compositions

We describe here the first combined isotopic and impurities study on 27 copper artefacts found in the north‐west of Spain. This study follows previous studies on the lead isotopic composition of copper ores in three local mines that were exploited during the Bronze Age. The levels of impurities found were clearly different from ingots and axes, with ingots having much higher levels of impurities. It was not possible to differentiate the origin of the artefacts only by the impurities present. On the other hand, the lead isotopic composition indicated that all artefacts were prepared from local ores, the ‘La Profunda’ mine being the most probable source for most artefacts that carried out a clear radiogenic lead signature. The copper isotopic composition seemed to be able to differentiate artefacts from the ‘El Aramo’ mine from those from the ‘El Milagro’ and ‘La Profunda’ mines. On the other hand, the antimony isotopic signature was not useful for source allocation.     

Public policy,local labor demand,and migration in Sweden, 1979-84

"A model of private local labor demand and interjurisdictional migration is presented and estimated using data from Swedish counties and municipalities for 1979-84. Our goal is to compare the effects on local labor markets of distinctive public-sector programs with those of traditional market variables. We find that local income taxes and tax-equalization grants have important effects on local labor markets; regional development policy measures and geographical-mobility subsidies do not. Thus, recent efforts scaling back some of these programs may not materially alter the regional economy's performance. Wages and other traditional market variables are also often found to influence significantly local labor markets."     

Polished Stone Axes in Caput Adriae from the Neolithic to the Copper Age

This paper reports the results of a long-term project on the stone axes from Caput Adriae. Available data show that jade axes originating in the western Alps reached the Neolithic groups of Friuli Venezia Giulia and coastal Istria as early as the second half of the 6th millennium BC, during the Danilo/Vla?ka culture. The exchange of this and other classes of lithic artefacts testifies that in this period this area was fully integrated into long-distance exchange systems that used mainly coastal routes. These systems would have continued in the 5th millennium BC, as indicated by a few oversized jade axe blades and other materials. Far from the coast, jade axes entered central Slovenia, probably reaching sites of the Sava Group of the Lengyel culture in the first half of the 5th millennium BC. In roughly the same period, shaft-hole axes made of Bohemian metabasites (BM) spread over central and southeastern Europe, crossed the Alps and reached Italy. According to different Neolithic traditions, during the 5th millennium BC Europe appears to be divided into a jade-using western area and a central-eastern BM-using one. During the 4th millennium BC, the exchange networks of Caput Adriae are increasingly influenced by the eastern Alpine and Balkan world, where the raw material sources of the main groups of shaft-hole axes are located. The association of the rocks used for axe production and copper ore suggests that the changes in raw material exploitation strategies during the Copper Age were probably related to the development of the first metallurgy.     

Provenancing the rhyolitic and dacitic components of the Stonehenge landscape bluestone lithology: new petrographical and geochemical evidence

The source of the bluestone component found in the Stonehenge landscape has long been the subject of great interest and considerable debate. The bluestones are a mix of lithologies, the standing orthostats being predominantly dolerites, variably ‘spotted’, with only four of them being of dacitic and rhyolitic composition and the Altar Stone being sandstone. However in the 1920s the spotted dolerites were sourced to outcrops which comprise tors in the summit regions of the Mynydd Preseli in north Pembrokeshire, west Wales. There were also speculations about the possible sources of the dacitic and rhyolitic components, ideas which were elaborated on in the early 1990s when the original petrological provenancing was supplemented by whole-rock geochemical analysis. Most recently, new petrographical investigations have been combined with zircon geochemical data to determine the possible source of one type of rhyolite, the so-called ‘rhyolite with fabric’, found abundantly as débitage in the Stonehenge landscape (but not composing the four orthostats) to outcrops in the vicinity of Pont Saeson, especially a large craggy outcrop called Craig Rhos-y-felin, located in low ground to the north of the Mynydd Preseli. In order to test this provenance whole-rock geochemical analysis has been undertaken on samples of débitage from the Stonehenge landscape and from the Pont Saeson area, including Craig Rhos-y-felin. These data are then compared with other new and existing geochemical data for dacitic and rhyolitic lithologies recovered from the Stonehenge landscape, including the four orthostats, as well as geochemical data from outcrops of the same lithologies from the two main volcanic horizons exposed across north Pembrokeshire, namely the Fishguard Volcanic Group and the Sealyham Volcanic Formation, both of Ordovician age. This study concludes that previous, 20th century, attributions of provenance to a number of dacitic and rhyolitic outcrops in the north Pembrokeshire have been in error whilst the new data for the Pont Saeson rhyolite accords well with elemental contents recorded in the ‘rhyolite with fabric’ lithology from the Stonehenge landscape débitage. This study therefore endorses the proposal that the Pont Saeson area is indeed the source of the ‘rhyolite with fabric’ lithology recovered from numerous sites in the Stonehenge landscape, and is the only reliable provenance for any of the dacitic and rhyolitic bluestone material collected to date. It also serves to endorse the use of zircon chemistry as a provenancing tool in archaeopetrological investigations.     

Cooperative Competition

This article focuses on the collision between the communal-based and individual-based business cultures within the merchant community of Pori. The conflict is analysed by examining divergent petitions, complaints, and statement letters written to and by various authorities at the local, provincial, and national levels during the first half of the 19th century. The case study concentrates on confrontations between a nobleman of Swedish origin, Frans Fredrik Wallenstråle (1771–1857), and members of the local merchant community. The article strives to explain how and why the merchant community and the members of the town council made every possible effort to prevent Wallenstråle from developing his business activities and participating in communal cooperation within the community. In contrast to earlier literature, this article does not concentrate on petitions, their rhetoric, or the interaction between individual and state authorities. It analyses petitions as historical sources that resulted from collisions between the communal, cooperative business culture and vested interests.     

SHAFT‐HOLE AXES FROM CAPUT ADRIAE: MINERALOGICAL AND CHEMICAL CONSTRAINTS ABOUT THE PROVENANCE OF SERPENTINITIC ARTEFACTS*

The change of raw materials used to produce stone axes during the Neolithic to Copper Age transition in northeastern Italy, central and western Slovenia and northwestern Croatia (Caput Adriae) has been recently linked to the development of early European metallurgy. Serpentinite shaft‐hole axes occur commonly in the archaeological context of this region and their rounded irregular shape suggests that the raw material was mainly sourced from secondary deposits. The aim of the present study is to characterize with multiple analytical methods, including synchrotron radiation, the axes and locate the primary outcrop(s) of raw materials and related secondary exploitation areas. All the analysed artefacts are manufactured from peridotites and probably pyroxenites completely metamorphosed in greenschist facies and characterized by antigorite, diopside and magnetite, sometimes rimmed by penninite. Mineralogical and petrographic data exclude most Eastern Alps outcrops as possible raw material sources, thus limiting the research to the Hohe Tauern. Chemical data reveal a close homogeneity for the peridotite‐derived axes and therefore demonstrate a selection of the most suitable raw material for axe production. Provenance from Hohe Tauern and related secondary deposits of the Drava River hydrographical system agrees with previous studies, as this region is rich in copper ore deposits, which have been exploited since prehistory.     

How to picture race?

The purpose of the Swedish State Institute for Race Biology, SIRB, was to survey the Swedish people according to its race criteria. In this research process photographs were used to document and portray the different races living in Sweden. This article examines how the photographs were used in this process: What pictorial rhetoric did they use and what did the photographs bring to the research process? The result shows that SIRB did not succeeded in developing consistent methods of portraying race. The style and formula of the portraits varied; sometimes environmental aspects came in to focus, sometimes bodily aspects. These methodological shortcomings must be attributed not only to the fact that the institution was working with a new and immature scientific medium – photography – but also that it operated inside an immature scientific discipline. The race scientific community had no joint theories and methods to work with, and did not know how to affiliate with other disciplines – such as anthropology, focusing on environmental factors, or medicine, focusing on bodily aspects. But the lack of methodological consistency was not just a shortcoming; it could also be used to bias the material in a way that served the ideas of eugenics.     

Multilateralism and the Shaping of an ‘Active Foreign Policy’: Sweden during the preparatory phase of the CSCE

This article deals with the early reactions of Swedish decision-makers and diplomats on the idea and preparations for the convocation of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), mainly during the years 1969–1971. On the basis of recently declassified diplomatic sources from the archive of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the study outlines the role of Swedish diplomacy in the preparatory phase of the security conference as part of the wider context of European neutrality during détente. It is the very first contribution to the historiography of the Helsinki process based on Swedish archival material, and suggests that the picture of Sweden's widely mentioned active foreign policy at that time should be further scrutinized. It also sheds new light on the paradox between Swedish involvement in European and global politics.     

A community transplanted: the formative experience of a Swedish immigrant community in the Upper Middle West

Nineteenth-century European migration to the agricultural frontiers of the American Upper Middle West established axes of communication and migration between localities on both sides of the Atlantic. This study is a detailed examination of the transplantation of community between two such localities. It traces the emigration of approximately 85 households from the Swedish parish of Rättvik to the daughter settlement they founded in Isanti County, Minnesota, and compares the fabric of life they had known in the old parish to the one they established during the formative years of the new community. While patterns of social life were transplanted to the New World, economic adjustments to a new environment were unavoidable.     

Excavations of ironware of the third–fifth century from Marvele necropolis (Lithuania)

This study presents the overview of ironware excavations of the third–fifth century demolished tombs from Marvele necropolis. Three axes, four spearheads, two knives and a clasp were excavated in 2006. Afterwards, a metallographic and chemical analysis as well as mechanical properties of artefacts, also metallurgical slag, clinkers and iron concretions found in the surroundings of tombs were tested and presented in this article. General tests were executed in order to compare results with other archaeological and scientific researches. Metallographic analysis and hardness tests’ results revealed that axes were forged from two separate billets of iron, whilst spearheads and knives from one. The results of chemical analysis have affirmed earlier results of other Lithuanian archaeological sites. Although some differences in chemical composition were observed, this fact shows possible not local origin of some ironware.     

‘A Wagner for the Jews’: Moses Pergament,Richard Wagner and anti-Semitism in Swedish cultural life in the interwar period

This article deals with the Finnish-Swedish, Jewish composer and author Moses Pergament and his relationship with Wagner's theories, anti-Semitism in particular, and their influence on the development of modern Swedish classical music during the interwar period. The author emphasizes the importance of recognizing that Pergament's reaction to Wagner's cultural theories was part and parcel of his struggle for assimilation. The basis of Pergament's interpretation of Wagner was the notion that it is possible to separate life and belief: the anti-Semitism and enthusiastic lechery were part of Wagner's life, to which it was not necessary to attach much importance. The beliefs, on the other hand, were there to be analysed. Furthermore, an explicit and public critique of Wagner's anti-Semitism was inconsistent with an attempt to gain a foothold in Swedish cultural life. As Wagner's anti-Semitism was well known but was deemed either acceptable or irrelevant, paying attention to it was by definition proof of a Jewish identification. To be accepted as a Swedish music critic, Pergament had to follow the unwritten rules of the game, amongst them the requirement not to exhibit his ‘Jewishness’ openly. The actions of certain members of Föreningen Svenska Tonsättare (FST, the Association of Swedish Composers) indicate that Pergament's work was not thought to indicate a Swedish identification. On the contrary, his reviews were seen as a threat to ‘Swedish music’, and with implicit references to Wagner this was attributed to Pergament's supposed lack of feeling for the ‘spirit of the Swedish people’.