Review of the Alaska boundary question

EUROPE

A Vertebrate Fauna of Forth. By L. J. Rintoul and E. V. Baxter. Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd Ltd., 1935. Price 25s.

River Navigation in England, 1600–1750. By T. S. Wilian. London : Oxford University Press, 1936. Price 10s. 6d.

The Pastoral Heritage of Britain. By E. H. Carrier. London : Christophers, 1936. Price 10s. 6d.

The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe : a Study of the Food‐Gathering Peoples of Northern Europe during the Early Post‐Glacial Period. By J. G. D. Clark. Cambridge : The University Press. Price 25s.

ASIA

Asia. Third Edition. By L. Dudley Stamp. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 27s. 6d.

Odyssey of the Islands. By C N. Taylor. London : Charles Scribner's Sons Ltd., 1936. Price 12s. 6d.

AFRICA

The Seething African Pot. By D. Thwaite. London : Constable and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 7s. 6d.

Canoe Errant on the Nile. By R. Raven‐Hart. London : John Murray, 1936. Price 7s. 6d.

AMERICA

Tempest over Mexico. By R. E. King. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 10s. 6d.

Londoner's New York. By E. S. Fay. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 8s. 6d.

AUSTRALASIA

Central Australia. By C. T. Madigan. London : Oxford University Press, 1936. Price 12s. 6d.

Papuan Epic. By K. Bushell. London : Seeley, Service and Co. Ltd. 1936. Price 12s. 6d.

New Zealand: A Short History. By J. C. Beaglehole. London : George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1936. Price 3s. 6d.

OCEANIA

POLAR

Cradle of the Storms. By B. R. Hubbard. London : George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 8s. 6d.

GENERAL

British Regional Geology : The Pennines and Adjacent Areas. By Dr. D. A. Wray. London : H.M. Stationery Office, 1936. Price 1s. 6d.

Trees of Britain. By B. Briggs. London : The Lutterworth Press, 1936. Price 21s.

(7) Wild Flowers of the Wayside and Woodland. Compiled by T. H. Scott and W. J. Stokse. London : Frederick Warne and Co. Ltd., 1936. Price 7s. 6d.

EDUCATIONAL

The Economic Geography of the British Empire. By R. Ogilvie Buchanan. University of London Press Ltd., 1935. Price 6s.     

Historians,the War of American Independence,and the Persistence of the Exceptionalist Ideal

Prince Kaunitz and the Balance of Power; Franz A.J. Szabo

The American Revolution in an International Perspective: Views from Bicentennial Symposia; Lawrence S. Kaplan

The Reign of Sir Edward Grey as British Foreign Secretary F.H. HINSLEY, ed. British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1977. Pp. 702; ZARA S. STEINER. Britain and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St Martins Press 1977. Pp. 305.; Samuel R. Williamson, Jr     

Book reviews

James E. McClellen III and Harold Dorn. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1999.404 pages + illustrations + maps + graphs + bibliography + index. $55.00 (hardcover), $18.95 (paperback).

Arnold Pacey. Meaning in Technology (Cambridge, Mass and London, England: MIT Press, 1999), pp. viii+264.     

Probing dietary change of the Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį individual,an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: II. Deconvoluting whole skin and bone collagen δC values via carbon isotope analysis of individual amino acids

The remains of the Kwäd?y Dän Ts'ìnch? individual, a frozen male human, were recovered from a retreating glacier within the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia in August 1999. In order to provide information on both the geographical origin of this individual and low long he spent in the remote interior region prior to his death, molecular analysis and compound-specific carbon isotope analyses were performed on individual amino acids purified from his skin and bone. Gas chromatographic quantification of constituent amino acids of both tissues revealed a molecular distribution characteristic of collagen, dominated by glycine and to a lesser extent proline, hydroxyproline and alanine. Chiral gas chromatography indicated that protein preservation in both tissues was exceptional. Carbon isotope analysis of a faunal assemblage from an earlier prehistoric site from southern British Columbia provided reference dietary amino acid δ¹³C values for terrestrial (deer and domestic dog) and marine species (salmon and sealion), showing clear separation in all amino acids, particularly glycine which was extremely ¹³C-enriched in the marine animals. The distinction between terrestrial and marine organisms was increased by exploring Δ¹³C_{Glycine-Phenylalanine} values (6.6 ± 0.6‰ and 15.0 ± 2.1‰, respectively), which were higher in the latter by approximately 8‰, mirroring the increased δ¹⁵N_{Bulk collagen} values observed for the marine animals (R² = 0.78; p < 0.001). The Kwäd?y Dän Ts'ìnch? individual's bone had a similarly elevated Δ¹³C_{Glycine-Phenylalanine} value of 15.6 ± 1.0‰, indicating his extreme reliance on marine dietary resources throughout early life. The skin amino acid δ¹³C values were consistently lower than those observed for bone, with a concurrently lower Δ¹³C_{Glycine-Phenylalanine} value of 12.7 ± 0.9‰. The shift between the carbon isotope composition of bone (long-term diet) and skin amino acids (short-term diet) confirmed a sudden divergence away from marine food sources in the last months of life, consistent with his discovery 80 km inland.     

Geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro (Crete) and the Late Minoan IA eruption of Santorini

The explosive eruption at Santorini in the Aegean Sea during the second millennium BCE was the largest Holocene volcanic upheaval in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The eruption was disastrous for the Minoan settlements at Santorini, but the effect on human society in the neighbouring islands and regions is still clouded in uncertainty. Tsunami generation was suggested, but comparatively little evidence was found. The lack of firm tsunami traces is particularly puzzling in Crete with its coastal settlements of the Late Minoan IA period, during which the Santorini eruption occurred. Here, we report the discovery of extensive geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro in north-eastern Crete. These deposits are characterized by a mixture of geological materials, including volcanic Santorini ash, and archaeological settlement debris. Various tsunami signatures were identified: (1) erosional contact with the underlying strata, (2) volcanic ash intraclasts in the lower part of the deposit, (3) reworked building stone material in the lower part of the deposit, (4) individual marine shells, (5) marine micro-fauna, (6) imbrication of rounded beach pebbles, settlement debris, ceramic sherds and even bones, (7) multi-modal chaotic composition. Late Minoan human settlement activities at Palaikastro provided architectural and stratigraphic frameworks in space and time that recorded and preserved tsunami evidence as geoarchaeological deposits. Such stratigraphic resolution and preservation may not occur in the natural landscape. Volcanic ash transported by wind from Santorini south-east to Crete preceded the tsunami. Geological, archaeological and radiocarbon dating criteria all converge, indicating that the tsunami deposits are coeval with the Minoan Santorini eruption. Field evidence suggests that tsunami waves at Palaikastro were at least 9 m high. Inverse tsunami modeling was attempted, based on these newly discovered tsunamigenic deposits. The initial wave in the generation region at Santorini that best fits the stratigraphic data is a wave with +35 to −15 m initial amplitude and a crest length of about 15 km.