Deglaciation and Colonization: Pioneer Settlements in Northern Fennoscandia

We present new data on Early Mesolithic settlements in northern Sweden and discuss the process of pioneer colonization. A new set of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites push deglaciation of northern Fennoscandia further back in time and demonstrate the rapid arrival of pioneer settlers. Environmental data reveal a highly productive early postglacial setting with plant communities unmatched in present ecosystems. The chronological and technological setting supports immigration from the north and northwest with pioneers relying on a long history of enculturating northern subarctic landscapes.     

感悟北欧

正2015年仲秋,我们老中青驴友组合一行四人相约赴北欧深度游。在北欧4次租车,4次乘机,一路行程7000公里。亲身体验异域开车的惬意,住木屋、民宿、高级酒楼的温馨,沐浴原生态美景的快感。22天一晃而过,我们体健、心悦、精气神儿足,几乎每天都在亢奋中。北欧之行触人事、察社会、赏美景,思绪万千,感悟颇深。     

感悟北欧

<正>2015年仲秋,我们老中青驴友组合一行四人相约赴北欧深度游。在北欧4次租车,4次乘机,一路行程7000公里。亲身体验异域开车的惬意,住木屋、民宿、高级酒楼的温馨,沐浴原生态美景的快感。22天一晃而过,我们体健、心悦、精气神儿足,几乎每天都在亢奋中。北欧之行触人事、察社会、赏美景,思绪万千,感悟颇深。     

Boathouses in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic

The paper describes the status and further perspectives of boathouse research in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. The main questions asked are: what are the characteristics of such buildings in archaeological, social and functional terms, and which options are given to promote further research? The case of Norway, where there is a continuing tradition of storing boats in boathouses, plays a key role. The Norwegian experiences seem to be to some extent transferable to other areas in the Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. © 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

The Medieval Colonization of Central Europe as a Problem of World History and Historiography

The author of this article asks two main questions. First, whatwas the nature of the so-called medieval colonization in theeastern half of central Europe? Secondly, which factors decidedthat in the second half of the nineteenth and in the twentiethcentury, during the era of a rising modern nationalism and imperialism,colonization became the—not always conscious—toolof manipulation in the fight for so-called ‘historic rights’in certain territories and the battle for the ‘forgingof nations’. In particular, in German historiography themyth of medieval colonization was born, which had very littlein common with medieval reality. Even German peasants were supposedto have marched East, not in order to seek out better livingconditions, as one Flemish song went, but to subject for Germany‘empty space’ in the barbaric East. At the sametime, the author presents the thesis that several ideas aboutthe topic of medieval colonization developed under the influenceof the colonization of North America, especially in California—contemporaryto many of these German scholars. This found its expressionin the terminology used, in numerous comparisons, and even inthe fundamental suggestion that German law legitimized the Germanclaim for almost the whole of central and eastern Europe. Thebasic conviction among German historians and politicians wasthat these territories should belong to the Empire under thesame conditions as India ‘belonged’ to the English,and Algeria to the French.     

The transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe

This paper presents a general survey of the transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe, approached within the framework of the availability model and treated from the perspective of local (Mesolithic) hunting and gathering communities. We argue that in Eastern and Northern Europe, the transition to farming was a slow process, which occurred through the adoption of exogenous cultigens and domesticates by the local hunter-gatherer populations, who may have been already engaged in some form of husbandry of the local resources. Contact and exchange with the Neolithic and later Bronze Age of Central Europe had a profound and prolonged influence on the process of the adoption of farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. During the slow process of transition, mixed hunting-farming societies emerged, which could be regarded as having a characteristic social and economic organization of their own (i.e., neither Mesolithic nor Neolithic). In conclusion, we argue for continuity in population and in social and economic traditions from the hunter-gatherer past until recent antiquity and, in some areas, into the historical period.     

Boats in the rock art of Kanozero and Northern Europe

A comparative analysis of boats depicted in the rock art of Lake Kanozero and Northern Europe suggests that they refer to the same type, which was common in northern cultures and was characterized by a protruding straight keel, an oblique sternpost, and a stem post decorated with an elk head. The design apparently consisted of a broad keel plank to which the sides, bow, and stern were attached. In boats represented at Kanozero, this plank protrudes forward, beyond the nose, and backward, beyond the stern.     

Dietary life histories in Stone Age Northern Europe

We present here a framework for using stable isotope analysis of bone and teeth to study individual life history. A sampling strategy and analytical approach for stable carbon and nitrogen analysis of bone and dentine collagen optimised for intra-individual purposes is put forward. The rationale behind this strategy, various requirements and constrains, and recommendations on how to modify it according to variations in material and analytical instrumentation, are discussed and explained in detail. Based on intra-individual data for 131 human individuals from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in Northern Europe, we consider the sources and various kinds of variation one is likely to find, and how the data can be explained and transformed into an archaeologically meaningful interpretation. It is concluded that the use of stable isotope analysis to trace individual life history is not limited to carefully excavated, neatly preserved, single burials with articulate skeletal remains. Even collective burials, disturbed graves, disarticulated human remains in cultural layers, or other depositions that deviate from what is often considered as a “proper burial”, offer the possibility to look at individual life biographies.     

Boats Apart. Building and Equipping an Iron-Age and Early-Medieval Ship in Northern Europe.

Archaeological ship remains usually induce a functional, i.e. technological and social, interest. This text introduces what is not 'another' aspect in fact, but rather something that runs parallel or is contained within both. Maritime societies and individuals develop cosmologies and rituals, not only strategies for sustenance, which to them are supposed to be as necessary for survival. It is an additional challenge to archaeology to explore and interpret these cognitive elements and their role in maritime cultures of the past, illustrated here by the wood, the building place, the equipment, the ship as a unit, illustrating power, ancestors, and pars-pro-toto .
© 2007 The Author     

Pre-colonial Ethnic Wars and the Colonization of Northern Tanzania from 1800 to 1950 CE: The Case of Chagga of Kilimanjaro

In the late 19th century, the various chiefdoms of the Chagga people of Mount Kilimanjaro, in north-eastern Tanzania, engaged in continuous warfare among themselves. While the Mangi (chiefs) sought to expand their areas of domination and strengthen their chiefdoms with the wealth acquired through warfare, they also provided an opening for foreigners to become involved in these local conflicts. This paper examines the role and impacts of the Chagga wars in the German colonization of Chagga land. In the initial stages of the colonization process, the Germans could not know where to start or who to partner with in order to facilitate this process in Kilimanjaro. With the entire Chagga community at war, one chiefdom against another, and the axis of power moving from chiefdom to chiefdom, it was not very easy for colonialists to determine which one was dominant. Although Rindi, the Mangi of Moshi, convinced the Europeans that he was the most powerful chief in Kilimanjaro, the ceaseless wars made the Germans aware that there were other more active and even stronger chiefdoms than Moshi. For the Germans to get into Kilimanjaro, and secure a future for themselves there, the solution was to wage war against the Chagga. Hence they engaged in war with the Kibosho Chiefdom which, under Mangi Sina, was by then the most powerful and prosperous chiefdom. Although Karl Peters had signed a treaty with Mangi Rindi of Moshi in 1885, the country was brought under complete colonial rule by Germans in the early 1890s, after subduing the long-running local wars in the area. This paper draws on the author’s research into oral history in Chagga land, and his archaeological survey of the area, to explore the unintended consequences of involving Europeans in the Chagga chiefdom’s local wars.     

Human security: a new strategic narrative for Europe

This article examines the potential of human security as a narrative and operational frame for the European Union's external relations. Human security is about the security of individuals and communities and it links physical and material security—‘freedom from fear’, and ‘freedom from want’. The article addresses both the lexis (language) and praxis (practice)of human security in relation to the EU. Much of the language currently used in EU external relations, particularly crisis management, civil—military cooperation and conflict management, already contains elements of a human security approach. At the same time, the concept of human security goes beyond these terms and if formally adopted and elaborated could greatly strengthen the EU's role as a global security actor. The article develops five principles of human security—human rights, legitimate political authority, multilateralism and regional focus—and makes the case that the application of these principles would increase the coherence, effectiveness and visibility of EU missions. The article concludes that the adoption of a human security approach would build on the foundational ideas of Europe in overcominga history of war and imperialism and could help to rally public opinion behind the European idea. More importantly, it would contribute to closing the real security vacuum that exists in large parts of the world today.     

Extreme right parties in Western Europe: the case of the Italian Northern League

Abstract

This article argues that voters of the Italian Lega Nord have been radicalized in recent years, shifting from an intermediate ‘centrist’ position to the extreme right. Data from both national and European mass surveys (e.g. Italian National Election Studies and European Electoral Studies) provide additional support for this shift from left to right and the accompanying changes in criteria (i.e. immigration, democracy, civil rights, European integration, and politics), indicating that Lega Nord voters have evolved into a body that fits the new extreme-right concept well.     

Colonization and the Commodification of Nature

This paper explores some of the theoretical issues surrounding the commodification of nature and its value as a research topic. In particular it examines the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space. An appeal is also made for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology. Case studies from South Africa and Virginia illustrate the manner in which abstract notions of space and the environment contributed to the commodification of nature. The Virginia case study from Jamestown Island provides a particularly vivid example of how micro- and macro-level environmental changes can be linked to important political and economic events.