Location of the Brecourt (Normandy,France) WW2 Howitzer battery using a geoforensic search strategy

The assault on D-day by Easy Company of the 101^st Airborne Corps on a German howitzer battery at Brecourt Manor (Normandy) that was firing upon Utah Beach is a famous action of World War 2. Understanding the firefight and disablement of the guns depends on where the four howitzers and crew were located. Three of the locations are unequivocal, with post-WW2 accounts and the search described here in agreement. One Howitzer position (the northernmost of the four) remains in contention, with two different positions described. A geoforensic search strategy (desktop study, geophysics, excavation) was deployed that shows strong evidence for the location of the debated fourth gun, together with aerial photographic and military tactical evidence for why this fourth Howitzer was moved to a second location close to D-day.     

Investigating interrelationships between Lower Palaeolithic stone tool effectiveness and tool user biometric variation: implications for technological and evolutionary changes

Lower Palaeolithic hominins are thought to have been dependent upon stone tools during the acquisition and processing of food resources. Hence, it is hypothesized that the evolutionary advantages provided by efficient stone tool use may have selected for anatomical changes observed in the hand during this period. Similarly, hominin manipulative capabilities are suggested to have been of consequence to Lower Palaeolithic technological choices and tool use capabilities. The extent and character of these relationships are not, however, fully understood and it is not known whether these hypothesized co-evolutionary and co-dependent relationships are consistent across varying technological and task-type conditions. Here, six key biometric parameters of the hand are investigated in terms of their statistical relationship with cutting efficiency using both flakes and handaxes over extended periods of use and in multiple types of cutting task. Results indicate that (1) both handaxe and flake cutting efficiencies are significantly related with biometric variation of individual tool users, (2) relationships between biometric parameters and efficiency are consistent across extended durations but vary dependent upon task-type conditions, (3) manipulative strength is the most significant biometric trait in terms of predicting flake efficiency, while (4) hand size is the strongest predictor of handaxe cutting efficiency. These results demonstrate the long-term impact that stone tool use likely had on the evolution of hominin biometric variation during the Lower Palaeolithic, while also highlighting the variable influence of different tool use contexts. Most notably, results indicate that the onset of the Acheulean may have been dependent, a priori, upon hand dimensions that are close to the modern human range, and that prior to the appearance of this anatomy, handaxe use would have been an impractical (i.e. inefficient) tool use behaviour compared to the use of flakes.     

AVIATION NOISE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: THE BARRIO BARRIER*

ABSTRACT Aviation noise is a harmful pollutant, which has yet to be studied in the environmental justice literature. This paper uses Tobit and logit multivariate regression analyses to analyze noise pollution exposure from a major commercial‐service airport. It addresses the issue of whether people moved to the aviation noise‐impacted areas or the noise encroached on the people, and controls for economic and political costs as well as the possibility of racial and ethnic prejudice. The results indicate that ethnicity is the primary cause of the disproportionate burden of aviation noise pollution borne by Hispanics in the area analyzed.     

Glaciology in Aberdeen

ABSTRACT

The Department of Geography has been engaged with glaciological research from its early beginnings. The paper concentrates on the period from the appointment of Chalmers Clapperton in 1962 onwards, which coincides with the time when academic staff developed focused areas of research expertise. A brief biography of each of the eleven academic members of staff who worked in the area of glaciology is presented. This is followed by an overview of the recurring research themes and locations which have been revisited within glaciology over the years. It aims to provide an overview and flavour of the Department’s glaciological research.     

‘Unreliable memoirs’: geography at Aberdeen 1960–2002

ABSTRACT

We have drawn upon our combined experience of almost 90 years to reflect upon the changing life and times of the Department of Geography at the University of Aberdeen from the 1960s to the start of the new millennium. Our account is divided into four sections corresponding to the successive decades from the 1960s, when AMDG was an undergraduate student in the Department, to the 1990s, when KC was Head of Department (HoD). This chronological approach is not simply an arbitrary and convenient framework; the character and concerns of each of these periods were very different. These differences reflect the complex interactions between essentially ‘local’ institutional circumstances and the wider policy environment, affecting all universities, associated with the shift from an elitist to a mass higher education system.