Archaeological Pragmatics

In the course of the 9th century areas in Western Europe were conquered by the Vikings. The Isles of Orkney were settled by Norwegians and became a stronghold. Some possible economic characteristics of Orkney have been considered in an attempt to gain insight into how the local resources might have: been exploited and into the contact between Norway‐Orkney and The British Isles.     

A provenance study of archaeological obsidian from the Andahuaylas region of southern Peru

To date, most obsidian sourcing studies in the Andes have concentrated on the highlands and Titicaca Basin of far southern Peru and northern Bolivia. Toward achieving a more complete understanding of the region, this paper offers new data on the long-term prehistoric obsidian procurement and consumption patterns in the Andahuaylas region of the south-central Peruvian highlands. Obsidian sourcing data from Andahuaylas are particularly interesting since the area is centrally located among several important regional obsidian sources. A total of 94 obsidian samples from a range of sites of different temporal periods were chemically analyzed using portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF), as well as laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results demonstrate a number of interesting trends, the first of which is the long-term importance of the Potreropampa obsidian source to populations of the Andahuaylas region from at least the early Formative period (∼2500 BCE). Secondly, the results indicate that procurement strategies by local populations in Andahuaylas were primarily reliant on nearby (<150 km) obsidian sources. Finally, the paucity of more distant, yet widely exchanged, high quality obsidian (i.e., Chivay, Alca) confirm that as a region, Andahuaylas was more heavily connected economically (and likely culturally) with local areas to the south (Apurímac) and to the west (Ayacucho).     

Regionalism in Central Asia: New Geopolitics, Old Regional Order

Behind the rhetoric of regional cooperation, the Central Asian states have been embroiled with increasing frequency in conflicts among themselves, including trade wars, border disputes and disagreements over the management and use of water and energy resources. Far from engendering a new regional order in Central Asia, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent basing of US troops in the region have served to entrench pre-existing patterns of regional cooperation, while highlighting the obstacles that have beset the regionalization process there since the mid-1990s. While all five Central Asian states have been attempting to use the renewed rivalry between Russia and the United States, which is being played out in the Central Asian region, to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, the formation of the United States–Uzbekistan strategic partnership has increased the resolve of the other Central Asian states (Turkmenistan excepted) to balance Uzbekistan's preponderance by enthusiastically pursuing regional projects involving Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. This regional dynamic has resulted in the steady gravitation of the centre of regionalism in Central Asia to the north from a nominal Tashkent–Astana axis to a more stable Astana–Moscow one, with possible repercussions for the poorer states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The article examines the major constraints on regionalism in Central Asia, considering in particular the ways in which the personalist, non-democratic regimes of Central Asia have obstructed state–centric 'top–down' regionalism as well as informal regionalist processes 'from below'.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Das DLR: Hoch hinaus und bodenständig

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), wird vielfach, sicherlich im wesentlichen durch seine Namensgebung begründet, nur mit „h?heren Zielen” in Verbindung gebracht; sei es durch die D2-Space-Shuttle-Mission oder das Deutsche Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum (DFD) des DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. Bei letzterem kann man sich den Einsatz von Geographen gut vorstellen. Die „irdische” Komponente des DLR, die wenig oder keine Verbindungen zur Luft- und Raumfahrt aufweist, bietet aber durchaus ebenso Besch?ftigungsm?glichkeiten für unsere Zunft, wie das Beispiel von Dipl.-Geogr. Annette Bona unterstreicht, die als Projektmanagerin in der Organisationseinheit „Innovationsmanagement und Technologiemarketing” am K?lner Standort besch?ftigt ist. Mit ihr unterhielt sich J?rg Franzen M. A. über die weniger bekannten, bodengebundenen T?tigkeiten des DLR und ihren spezifischen Anteil daran.