SOVIET POLICIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOUNTAIN REGIONS (with particular reference to the Caucasus)

Mountain regions represent a substantial part of Soviet territory, a total of 652 million hectares, which is 29.5 percent of the total area, or 21 percent of the usable agricultural area (including livestock range), but only 3.8 percent of the arable land. Soviet policy toward mountain development has varied over time. At first, mountain areas were considered a symbol of backwardness, and were not allocated a role in the Soviet modernization program. In recent decades, attitudes have been changing, but solutions have differed. The author, focusing on the eastern portion of the Greater Caucasus, shows on the basis of the literature and personal observations how the policy in Dagestan and in Azerbaijan, by allocating lowland activities to mountain populations, differs from Georgian policy, which since 1976 has actively sought to foster a revival of mountain economies.     

ECONOMIC REGIONALIZATION OF THE EASTERN ZONE OF INFLUENCE OF THE BAIKAL-AMUR MAINLINE (CONCEPTUALIZATION AND METHOD)

Soviet geographers thus far have conceptualized regional development in the future BAM zone as a series of resource-based industrial complexes arrayed along the east-west mainline. An alternative regional design presented here involves a series of compensatory regional complexes in which a developed southern tier along the Trans-Siberian would be complemented by a resource-based northern tier along the BAM. A number of developed industrial centers along the Trans-Siberian that might serve as the bases for such south-north oriented regions are identified, along with transverse transportation routes linking segments of the Trans-Siberian and of the BAM within each of these proposed regional units.     

THE PROCESS OF SPATIAL CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION (with particular reference to the RSFSR)

A network of 484 economic microregions designed by the Central Urban Planning Institute is used as units of analysis to determine trends in the concentration of population in some parts of the Russian Republic. The analysis is carried out over time and on two levels: the area that contains 50 percent of the total population of the RSFSR, and the area that contains 75 percent of the population. In 1973, at the end of the study period, 50 percent of the population was accommodated in 4.3 percent of the area of the RSFSR, and 75 percent of the population was settled in 11 percent of the area. At the same time, one-fourth of the area of the RSFSR was found to be losing population.     

THE USE OF URBAN SPACE BY THE POPULATION OF A CITY (with particular reference to Moscow)

In the first attempt in the Soviet literature to investigate the activity spaces of urban residents, the author analyzes the movements of five groups of 10th-graders from schools in five parts of Moscow. The activity spaces display a general regularity of extending along radial subway lines from the outlying place of residence (and school) to the city center, demonstrating two basic characteristics: (1) the sectoral orientation of activity spaces; (2) the inclusion of the city center. In some cases where industrial districts intervene between place of residence and city center, the activity space becomes discontinuous. It is suggested that urban planners can effect any improvements in urban living conditions most efficiently through the medium of the activity spaces of urban residents.     

REGIONAL POLICIES IN DEVELOPED CAPITALIST STATES: THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL FORCES (THE WEST GERMAN EXAMPLE)

Using West Germany as an example, long-term trends contributing to the strengthening of regional socioeconomic inequalities are described. The role played by various factors in this process is analyzed: the relationship between “traditional” and “new” (high-technology) products, between the process and goals of regional policy formation, and between the spatial distribution of class and socio-political [i.e., political party] forces. These issues have clearly expressed political geographic and geoecological aspects (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

THE DYNAMICS AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF RUSSIA IN THE ERA OF IMPERIALISM (FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY TO 1917)

The authors critically survey tsarist censuses before the October Revolution and Soviet works on historical demography, and they re-estimate population numbers, natural and mechanical increase, and internal and external migration between 1897 and 1917, as well as changes in ethnic composition. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.)     

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WUCHENG CULTURE (IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERCULTURAL CONTACTS BETWEEN BRONZE AGE INHABITANTS OF THE LOWER YANGTZE VALLEY AND INDOCHINA PENINSULA)

In the present paper the author makes an attempt to generalize and analyze the fi nds of the late Neolithic and Paleometal Periods from the Middle and Lower Yangtze. The presence of stable contacts (including ethnologically signifi cant traits) is traced between the ancient cultures of this region and the Indochina Peninsula, inhabited by representatives of Austroasiatic peoples (the Viet, the Khmers). Based on comparisons, the Bronze and Iron Age inhabitants of the major part of South China are concluded to be Austroasian. Particular attention is paid to the Wucheng culture and its complex social structure.     

A TECHNIQUE FOR CLASSIFYING URBAN PLACES IN TERMS OF DEVELOPMENT REQUISITES (with particular reference to Smolensk Oblast)

On the basis of a number of socio-economic and physical requisites, the prospects of future development are examined for all 28 urban places of Smolensk Oblast as of early 1973. The requisites are the economic-geographic (transport) situation, availability of water resources, labor resources, economic base, industrial terrain and housing. The urban places are assigned point scales combining these factors and are assigned to three categories (with very favorable, favorable and unfavorable prospects of development). The allocation of places to particular development classes is then tested statistically by association with two additional variables: population size and functional characteristics, and the corrections introduced by the procedure are analyzed. The prospects for further development are found to be most favorable for the six largest towns—Smolensk, Roslavl', Vyaz'ma, Safonovo, Yartsevo and Gagarin. (The study was completed before the founding in 1973–74 of two new urban places that are associated with major power stations under construction and are thus endowed with growth prospects: Desnogorsk, on the site of the Smolensk nuclear power station, and Ozernyy, on the site of the Smolensk peat-fired power station.)     

TERRITORIAL CONCENTRATION OF ECONOMY AND POPULATION IN THE EUROPEAN PART OF THE USSR (GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS,SPATIAL FORMS AND NATURE-CONSERVATION ISSUES)

A review article of Soviet research in the 1970s and early 1980s focuses on the factors that continue to make the European part of the USSR the leading macroregion of the Soviet Union. The review assumes particular timeliness under the new administration of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose spatial policies, such as intensification of the economy, recycling of resources, applications of science and technology, appear to favor continued development of the existing economic, science and technology potential of the European USSR. The article reviews the geographic factors that continue to keep the focus on the European part of the country, the spatial forms of economy and population that distinguish this development, and some of the environmental protection issues of such development. (The responsible editor of the article on the Soviet side is O. A. Kibal'chich of the Institute of Geography in Moscow.)     

PROCESSION AND SYMBOLISM AT TARA: ANALYSIS OF TECH MIDCHÚARTA (THE 'BANQUETING HALL') IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SACRAL CAMPUS

Summary.   New analysis explores Tech Midchúarta (the 'Banqueting Hall') from the point of view of a sacral, processional approach to the summit of the Hill of Tara, the pre-eminent cult and inauguration site of prehistoric and early medieval Ireland. It is suggested that aspects of its architectural form symbolize the liminal boundary between the human world and the Otherworld of Tara, and that in so far as Tech Midchúarta is also designed to control and manipulate how the ceremonial complex is disclosed to the observer, it assembles the existing monuments into one, integrated ceremonial campus. It is argued that Tech Midchúarta is one of the later monuments on the Hill of Tara and that it may date from the early medieval period. Using the evidence of documentary sources and extant monuments, a possible processional route from Tech Midchúarta to Ráith na Ríg is described.

Immráidem fós Long na Láech
frisanabar Barc Ban mbáeth.
Tech na Fían, nirbo long lec,
co cethri doirsib deac.
Let us consider too the Hall of the Heroes
which is called the Palace of Vain Women;
the House of Warriors, it was no mean hall,
with fourteen doors.

( Gwynn 1903–35 , Metrical Dindshenchas III, 18)     

THE USE OF ANALYTICAL METHODS OF MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS FOR IDENTIFYING RURAL PLACES WITH GROWTH PROSPECTS: (with particular reference to Kaliningrad Oblast)

One of the key objectives in the rural development program for the Nonchernozem Zone of the RSFSR is the consolidation of rural settlement in larger places. An example of the dispersed settlement pattern is Kaliningrad Oblast, which has a total of 1,527 rural places ranging from fewer than 5 to more than 2,000 inhabitants, with a total rural population of 195,529 (1970 census). The author shows that growth prospects are dependent on a combination of five factors—geographical setting and level of development; population; fixed assets in agriculture; nonfarm fixed assets; availability of services—and, using correlation analysis, identifies 283 places with prospects of future growth, ranging from 32 in the 51–100 size class to one of more than 2,000 population. The preservation of some small rural places is termed inevitable because many serve as outlying settlements for livestock subdivisions of collective and state farms, and dairy and beef cattle represents a characteristic type of farming in Kaliningrad Oblast.     

MAPPING OF RECREATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AROUND A LARGE CITY (with particular reference to Moscow)

An analysis of recreation uses in the Moscow region shows a generalized radial pattern focused on the city of Moscow as the center of demand and an outward diffusion with distance from the city combined with clustering along railroad lines. This overall pattern is deformed by landscape differences, with higher density of recreation use in well drained wooded areas and lower density in swampy areas. The locational patterns of recreational use are further broken down by groups of users. [For a previous paper on recreation in the Moscow region, see the paper by Vedenin et al. in Soviet Geography, May 1977.]     

ROCK ART AND RITUAL LANDSCAPE IN CENTRAL SPAIN: THE ROCK CARVINGS OF LA HINOJOSA (CUENCA)

Summary. In this article the rock art carvings of La Hinojosa in central Spain are examined. Their connection to a major transit route recorded at least from the medieval period is explored, as well as their location in a valley located at the confluence of two primary river basins in the Iberian Peninsula separated by less than five kilometres. It is argued that this singularity of the landscape seems to have been perceived by the people who marked the stones. From the 17 decorated rocks recorded in La Hinojosa valley, three were exceptionally elaborately decorated. They were situated at regular intervals in the valley. The site with the greatest number of motifs, the large rock of San Bernardino, occupies a central location. This site is also exceptional because of the transformations which the rock shows throughout the day, pointing to a narrative in which cups and anthropomorphs seem to have a primary role. It is suggested that gender may have constituted one of the main guidelines of the narrative, given the apparent replacement of feminine by masculine human representations throughout the day.     

ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING OF COPPER SMELTING SITE F2 IN THE TIMNA VALLEY (ISRAEL) AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MODELLING OF ANCIENT TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Site F2 in the Timna Valley, Israel, is a small copper smelting site of ‘primitive’ technology, dated by its excavator to the Pottery Neolithic (sixth to fifth millennium bce ). This early date challenges the common view of the beginning of smelting technology in the Levant and has been contested by various scholars since its publication. In this study, we present results of archaeointensity experiments conducted on slag fragments from the site. The slag yielded an excellent ancient geomagnetic value (64.1 ± 1.1 μT) that, when compared to the Levantine master curve, suggests an age not older than the second millennium and most probably between the 13th and 11th centuries bce . In addition to demonstrating the applicability of geomagnetic archaeointensity experiments to independent dating of slag, we discuss the implications of the current results for the socio‐historical picture of the Timna Valley, and in particular for the way in which technological developments were previously modelled in the archaeometallurgical research on the region.     

ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY OF PROTOHISTORIC GRINDING TOOLS OF VOLCANIC ROCKS FOUND IN THE KARST (ITALY–SLOVENIA) AND ISTRIA (CROATIA)*

This paper presents the results of the archaeometric study of 30 grinding tools found in the Karst plateau (an area that spreads from the northeastern border of Italy to Slovenia) and in the Istria peninsula (Croatia). The petrographic and geochemical characteristics of the artefacts indicate that most of them would be made of trachytic volcanites extracted from the Euganean Hills, near Padua (Veneto). It is known that trachytic rocks from this area had been widely exploited in northern Italy during protohistoric times, but these data considerably enlarge the area of diffusion of saddle‐querns made of these rocks, extending it to Istria. Additionally, the likely provenance from Mount Etna of few other pieces of mugearites and hawaiites represents a new element, to be fully evaluated in the context of trans‐Adriatic exchange/trade connections. Analytical data and possible archaeological inferences are presented in detail in the text.     

SHELL FRAGMENTATION AS A TOOL FOR QUANTIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF TAPHONOMIC PROCESSES IN ARCHAEOMALACOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE CANTABRIAN REGION (NORTHERN SPAIN)

This paper presents a quantification method for archaeological molluscs using fragmentation categories. By employing the data from nine prehistoric sites (13 000 to 5000 bp ; 15 700 to 5700 cal bp ) in Cantabrian Spain (northern Spain), it has been shown that traditional methods, based on one or two anatomical elements, systematically produce a loss in the minimum number of individuals (MNI) that is sometimes significant. This paper also proposes using fragmentation categories in the calculation of the fragmentation index. In addition, based on these indices, a reflection is made on the difficulty involved in associating the amount of fragmentation of the shells with the taphonomic processes that have occurred at the archaeological sites, especially in discerning which agents have caused the fragmentation.     

ELECTRON BACKSCATTER DIFFRACTION (EBSD): A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF PIGMENTS AND RAW MATERIALS IN HISTORIC GLASSES AND CERAMICS

Coloured samples of glass and ceramic were selected for EBSD investigation to verify the potential (advantages and limitations) of this technique in the characterization of the raw materials used and the neoformation phases originating from the manufacturing processes. In the case of copper‐bearing red glasses, it was verified that micrometric droplets, residuals of the original copper source, can be ascribed to metallic copper or to a low‐Sn bronze, due to strongly similar lattice parameters. From the same samples, micrometric flakes were identified by EBSD as magnetite and interpreted as residues of the reducing agent used in the production of such red glasses. Further, the technique allowed the pigment responsible for the yellow colouring of some incised slipware to be recognized as bindheimite. In a third case, the black pigment, contained in some Nestorian decorated pottery, was identified as an amorphous phase of Mn oxide. The accurate identification of the colouring particles and other products or materials offered a more precise comprehension of the production technique, period and site of the examined artefacts, together with scientific parameters for the identification of the raw materials, their transformation during the production cycle and an evaluation of the most reliable recipes used for their preparation.