Variation in human bone bioerosion during the Late Eneolithic/Bronze Age in Moravia (Czech Republic): A novel approach to BSE-SEM image quality and quantity assessment

Human bones from Late Eneolithic graves and Bronze Age settlement pits in Moravia (Czech Republic) were studied to reconstruct their post-mortem histories based on the distribution of their microbial destruction. Backscattered electrons in a scanning electron microscope (BSE-SEM) were used for visual assessment of bioerosion. Visual data from the histological analysis were transformed into quantitative data using the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) toolkit. The results show that the presence of bioerosion is different between the two groups of samples. The bones from settlement pits display extensive bioerosion whereas the bones from graves display no or arrested bioerosion. The absence of bioerosion in graves is most probably linked with tomb burials of Corded Ware Culture. Given the tombs are frequently not preserved archaeologically, the state of bone bioerosion may serve as an indicator of their existence.     

Protection of the State of Prehistoric Mounds in Hungary: Law as a Conservation Measure

According to the Act of 1996 on nature protection, mounds (kurgans) are natural monuments protected nationally in Hungary. According to the law, all kurgans in Hungary were to be surveyed by 2002, and 1692 were included in the cadastre. Fewer than half of the kurgans remained intact due to numerous anthropogenic impacts. A high number of disturbing artificial buildings together with soil erosion, soil removal, and afforestation have significantly reduced the landscape value of kurgans. In 2002, 51.5% of the surveyed kurgans still represented some kind of a value and thus their protection became one of the most urgent tasks of nature conservation and archaeology. According to a Hungarian ministerial decree, established on the basis of an EU Council decree, the area of kurgans under cultivation must be removed from cultivation. By 2015, in the area of 90% of the kurgans under cultivation this land use, which caused significant erosion, was terminated.     

Piloting Regional Innovation or Much Ado about Nothing?—Evaluating the R&D Policy Initiative of Nordland,Norway

This article evaluates the results of almost a decade of experience with regional R&D development and implementation for enhanced innovation in the county of Nordland, Norway. Following a 2002 national devolution initiative, the county of Nordland was the first among Norwegian counties to coin and implement a distinct R&D policy for business-related innovation and development. This was done by setting up a broad regional partnership, framing a regional strategy and by coordinating substantial budgetary resources to implement the strategy. The evaluation describes the results of this process as ambiguous. This article looks at the process from three perspectives. First, we look at the organizational side of how the policy formation and implementation processes have performed. Second, we evaluate the business community response to the policy initiative to see whether any signs of altered behaviour can be found. Third, we look at how the partnership dynamic can explain policy outcomes. Theoretically and policy-wise we then discuss how our findings contribute to new insights in the field of analysing and generating regional innovation policy.     

Early agrarian landscapes in Finland

Cadastral maps from the 17th and 18th centuries of villages in southwest Finland and Ostrobothnia have been used in this study to map the variations in land organisation that existed before the first enclosure ( storskiftet ). Settlement structure and land division in particular were found to vary regionally, a fact that can be explained by topographical circumstances but also by the different historical background of the historical provinces. The aim was to distinguish between the cultural influences on the use and ownership of land from Sweden (the west) and Finland (the east) respectively. Through the Swedish colonisation of Finland a feudal social organisation was introduced which affected village organisation all over the investigated area but to a varying degree, resulting in several types of settlements from planned villages with regular strip parcelling to villages developed through piecemeal colonisation and with an unsystematic division of the land.     

War, suffering and modern German history

This introduction proceeds in five steps. First, it briefly considers the etymology of the term "suffering," as well as the way in which scholars from different disciplines have approached it conceptually and empirically. Second, drawing on the contributions to this issue, it raises general themes emerging from the study of the Thirty Years, Franco-Prussian and First World Wars, with particular attention to gender, the disabled, and Jewish-German veterans. Finally, it considers the most politically contested field of German suffering - the Second World War - and reflects on how that suffering can be narrated and understood without running into the intellectual dead ends of either self-pity or collective guilt.     

When DNA can't help: The osteobiographical profile and stable isotope analysis as auxiliary tools for refining genealogical relationships,on the example of the Swéerts-Sporck family

Research into the family of the Counts Swéerts-Sporck raised doubts regarding their biographical data, particularly concerning a child who died in 1817, later identified as Philipp Swéerts-Sporck, and his siblings Joseph and Barbara. These were alleged to include a pair of dizygotic twins, but DNA could not be used to clarify their relationships. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes were therefore measured in their first permanent molars, whereas Philipp's biological age was estimated based on his skeleton. Philipp died at an older age than the written sources claim; an isotopic similarity was found between Joseph and Barbara, but Philipp differed.