Looking ahead

La coeditora K. Anne Pyburn felicita a Nick Shepherd por el primer número de la revista y propone como tema para el segundo número el tema “Ense?ando Arqueología como un Acto Revolucionario”, que ella misma editará.

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Résumé La coéditrice, K. Anne Pyburn, félicite Nick Shepard pour le premier numéro et présente le thème du prochain numéro qu'elle éditera: Enseigner l'archéologie comme un acte révolutionnaire.

     

Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones

Archaeological fish bones reveal increases in marine fish utilisation in Northern and Western Europe beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. We use stable isotope signatures from 300 archaeological cod (Gadus morhua) bones to determine whether this sea fishing revolution resulted from increased local fishing or the introduction of preserved fish transported from distant waters such as Arctic Norway, Iceland and/or the Northern Isles of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland). Results from 12 settlements in England and Flanders (Belgium) indicate that catches were initially local. Between the 9th and 12th centuries most bones represented fish from the southern North Sea. Conversely, by the 13th to 14th centuries demand was increasingly met through long distance transport – signalling the onset of the globalisation of commercial fisheries and suggesting that cities such as London quickly outgrew the capacity of local fish supplies.     

A Tamed Brown Bear (Ursus arctosL.) of the Late Mesolithic from La Grande-Rivoire (Isère, France)?

A pair of mandibular rami from a brown bear (Ursus arctosL.) was found at the rock shelter of the Grande-Rivoire in the Castelnovian level. Both exhibit a peculiar deformation affecting the bone between the first and second molars and the roots of these teeth.The perfect symmetry of this deformation, the absence of pathological features, and the misplacement of the teeth suggest that a thong had been placed around the mandible while the animal was young; the mandible then grew around the thong.The interest of this find is that it both demonstrates the taming of a bear and the complexity of the relationships between humans and animals during the late Mesolithic.     

The potential of bird remains for environmental reconstruction

Until relatively recently, studies of bird remains have been regarded as peripheral to mainstream research on early archaeological and palaeontological sites, rather than a potentially crucial factor in the reconstruction of the past environments in which hominids and other larger mammals were present This paper sets out to define the range of ecological information for a site which can be gained through study of the bird bones, using as an example the bones recovered in the excavations at Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A case of exemplarity: C. F. Rottböll's history of smallpox inoculation in Denmark-Norway, 1766

Smallpox inoculation was one of the great discoveries of the 18th century and has been written into the grand narrative of medical progress, describing the taming of epidemic disease. Setting the perspective of progress aside, the article explores how this medical innovation was situated in 18th-century society and culture. The aim is to investigate how medical practice was intertwined with social structure and cultural patterns. The article takes its case from a book published in Copenhagen in 1766 by Professor C. F. Rottb?ll, former Head Physician of the Royal Inoculation House in Copenhagen. Being the first medical treatise on inoculation in Denmark-Norway, the book also has a historical section followed by a collection of reports and letters written by a number of other authors from various parts of the kingdom. Through close reading, the article explores how the introduction of the new technique was described in the texts. The reports were written to present practice and discuss cases. In doing so, they also presented a variety of other concerns so that a diversity of aims and intentions are added to the medical ones. The social and rhetorical strategies employed illuminate social ambition and systems of patronage, as well as understandings of history and of truth.