The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Southeastern Central Europe (Czechoslovakia and Hungary)

Southeastern Central Europe is quite rich in finds of progressive Neandertals from Middle Paleolithic contexts and early modern humans associated with evolved Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian and Pavlovian). There are no human fossils that can be related to the transitional Middle-Upper Paleolithic units (the Bohunician and the Szeletian); thus, from anthropology we know only that the transitional period began with Neandertals and ended with modern humans. The archaeological record is more complex. The Jankovichian industries of Hungary differ from the mostly non-Levallois Middle Paleolithic of Central Europe in the presence of some Levallois; they seem to be technologically related to the Levallois-Leptolithic Bohunician industries of Moravia, dated to 43,000–38,000 B.P., which are the first transitional Upper Paleolithic unit. The appearance of the Szeletian before 42,000 B.P. in Hungary and at about 39,000 in Moravia represents a technological variation of the transition, although retaining marked local Middle Paleolithic elements. The date of the appearance of the typical Aurignacian, the first culture clearly related to modern humans, is unclear, but it certainly developed after 36,000 B.P. and has several dates between 35,000 and 30,000 B.P.     

The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe

Sherzer, Joel. Verbal Art in San Blas: Kuna Culture through Its Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. x + 281 pp. including references and index. $39.50 cloth.

Heider, Karl G. Indonesian Cinema: National Culture on Screen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. x + 154 pp. including bibliography and index. $28.00 cloth, $9.95 paper.     

The chronology of Neolithic dispersal in Central and Eastern Europe

We analyze statistically representative samples of radiocarbon dates from key Early Neolithic sites in Central Europe belonging to the Linear Pottery Ceramic Culture (LBK), and of pottery-bearing cultures on East European Plain (Yelshanian, Rakushechnyi Yar, Buh-Dniestrian, Serteya and boreal East European Plain). The dates from the LBK sites form a statistically homogeneous set with the probability distribution similar to a single-date Gaussian curve. This implies that the duration of the spread of the LBK is shorter than the available temporal resolution of the radiocarbon dating; therefore, the rate of spread must be larger than 4 km/yr, in agreement with earlier estimates. The East European sites exhibit a broad probability distribution of dates. We identify in these data a spatio-temporal sequence from south-east to north-west, which implies the rate of spread of the initial pottery-making of the order of 1.6 km/yr, comparable to the average rate of spread of the Neolithic in Western and Central Europe. We argue that this spatio-temporal sequence is consistent with an idea that the tradition of the initial pottery-making on East European Plain developed under an early impulse from the Eastern Steppe.     

The end of the West: the once and future Europe

Europe and the United States—the West—urgently need political leadership, economic fortitude and a clear vision of the future if they are to contend with the challenges posed by emerging regional powers and to resist the downward pressures of ‘relative decline’, the central focus of David Marquand's book, The end of the West: the once and future Europe. Central to this goal will be the West's ability to ‘rebalance’ between its institutions and democracy; its power and commitments; and its political and moral authority. Europe must ‘rebalance’ on issues related to ethnicity and identity, governance and authority, and civilization and territory. EU enlargement and its institutional reform processes have exacerbated this imbalance. American foreign policy objectives currently exceed its resources and are hampered by lack of strategic clarity and intellectual vision which keeps the United States from achieving an adaptive leadership model more capable of successfully operating in an increasingly complex and multipolar world. For Europe to become internally healthy and externally productive—both politically and economically—it needs to regain balance between its utopian, institutional objectives and democratic support for its future ambitions and policy course. Strong leadership and a powerful vision of prosperity from the West will be vital to return the transatlantic partnership to global economic and political advantage.     

The magdalenian in Western Central Europe: Settlement pattern and regionality

Magdalenian material from northern Switzerland, southwestern and southeastern Germany, the middle Rhine, and central Germany is examined for differences among these geographical areas. Several regional features, including a broad range of archaeological data, can be identified and indicate two regional groupings, a southwestern and a northeastern. The first includes sites from central Germany and the middle Rhine, while the second includes northern Switzerland and southwestern Germany. The southeastern German sites cannot be firmly placed within this pattern because of the insecure data base. The main differences are in prey species, hunting and settlement patterns, and some characteristics of the mobile art. The comparison does not allow a finer separation, although the two regional groups could probably be subdivided into smaller geographical units. Alternative explanations are discussed and further avenues of research are proposed.     

The Dynamics of Regional Disparities in Central and Eastern Europe during Transition

This paper examines the evolution of territorial imbalances in per capita income in the Central and Eastern Europe regions between 1990 and 2001. In order to overcome the limitations of conventional convergence analysis, we have combined a non-parametric approach that allows us to study the dynamics of the entire cross-section distribution, with a series of theoretical results and measures taken from the literature on personal income distribution. The results obtained show an overall reduction in regional inequality over the study period. This process has been compatible with the simultaneous presence of between-country convergence and within-country divergence. Likewise, we have observed a reduction in the development gap between the sample regions and Western Europe. In any event, the polarization of the distribution under consideration has decreased, while the registered level of intra-distribution mobility is relatively low. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the important role played in explaining the distribution dynamics by factors such as the national component, spatial location, productive structure, agglomeration economies and the percentage of gross domestic product devoted to investment.     

Middle pleistocene adaptations in Central Europe

The biological evolution documented in the fossil and archaeological record of Central Europe between about 700,000 and 100,000 years ago reflects the transition fromHomo erectus to the earliestHomo sapiens. These populations created different types of industries, ranging from assemblages of small artifacts and industries with simple pebble tools to standardized units such as the Evolved Acheulean and the Early Mousterian. The industries of the Last Interglacial (Taubachian) show some regression in technological standardization and a reappearance of small artifacts. Other aspects of cultural adaptation (settlements, dwellings, hunting activity, symbolic and aesthetic expressions) are also summarized. It is suggested that the impact of climate and climatic changes on human settlement and behavior was greater in Central Europe (where two glaciations advanced from both north and south) than in the Mediterranean and Western Europe. The general trend of cultural veolution was toward greater technological and social complexity, but its course was not unilinear.     

Confession and Nation in Early Modern Central Europe

Abstract

Amongst historians of early modern Europe, the relation between confession and nation has been largely neglected, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. The dominant discourse on nationhood, in contrast, was established by historians of modern history such as Elie Kedourie, Ernest Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson, and Miroslav Hroch. This article evaluates the contributions of two historiographical debates to the study of early modern Central Europe, which were conducted in parallel, from the 1980s, but have not been assessed in context. It argues for the necessity to combine the perspectives of ‘confessionalization’, developed by early modernists, with the focus of nationalism, championed by students of the nineteenth and twentieth century, in order to achieve a full understanding of the region.     

Application of magnetic susceptibility on polished stone tools from Western Hungary and the Eastern part of the Czech Republic (Central Europe)

A non-destructive method – magnetic susceptibility (MS, κ) measurement – was used to characterize about 360 Neolithic, Copper and Bronze age polished stone tools of the Miháldy collection (Laczkó Dezső Museum, Veszprém, Hungary), composed of artefacts from three Neolithic (Moravian Painted Ware) workshops around a source of greenschist at Želešice near Brno (Moravia, Czech Republic) and semifinished artefacts from workshops at Neolithic mines in the Jizerské hory Mts. (Bohemia, Czech Republic); in addition, rock reference samples collected from the possible provenance areas and rock outcrops in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary were analysed as comparative material with the same method. We elaborated a model experience to control the thickness correction factor (TCF) following Williams-Thorpe et al. (2000).Among various stone raw materials of polished artefacts we found basaltic rocks and greenschists-metabasites as the most common.     

How Wealth Happened in Neolithic Central Europe

This paper advances the proposition that three key technological and logistical systems matured during the fourth and third millennia BC in Late Neolithic/Copper Age Europe: transportation infrastructure, durable goods made of metals, and capital investment in oxen used for traction. As risk rather than uncertainty became the dominant condition under which decisions were made, the convergence of these factors permitted individuals and households to accumulate genuine wealth.     

Globalization of real estate markets in Central Europe

The process of globalization is increasing competition between urban areas for the attraction of investment. Within this context the paper initially highlights the impact of global change on city economies linking this to international investment within the real estate market. Factors influencing diversification strategies and international investment activity within property markets in central Europe are considered relative to a range of performance criteria. Office markets in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw are forwarded as case study examples to assess the degree of maturity that is occurring in these former socialist cities based on the activity of investors and end‐users including the extent to which there are dual markets operating for local and international actors.