The Spatial Organization of Bone Crafting During the Middle and Late Mesolithic at Ringsjöholm and Strandvägen in Sweden

This paper focuses on the spatial distribution of bone tool production waste from two Mesolithic sites in Sweden, Ringsjöholm and Strandvägen, with well-preserved faunal remains including bone and antler artifacts. Local production on both sites has generated a variety of identifiable waste products deriving from complete chains of production, including unmodified bones, debitage and finished products. Identified categories include: blanks, removed epiphyses, bone flakes, and preforms. Identification of species shows that antler and bone from red deer were the preferred raw materials. Spatial statistical analyses confirm that different stages of bone tool production were organized within separate areas of the sites and that larger items were discarded in the water along the shorelines. Interestingly, blanks and preforms seem to have been stored under water for future use and demarcated clusters of bone flakes in association with dwellings represent “bone knapping floors” where production was more intense than in other areas.     

Performing Inequality in Mediterranean Diplomacy

Abstract

Early modern Mediterranean diplomacy was marked by multiple and contrasting claims to superiority which derived from competing normative orders. These practices are the focus of the first part of this paper, which shows how claims to superiority were performed in the practice of diplomacy and how stable and pacific relations could be maintained within a context of competing normative orders. Instead of privileging the religious divide between Islam and Christianity, the paper suggests that a better understanding of how multiple universalisms interacted with each other in practice may better explain the apparently paradoxical durability of pacific relations between Muslim and Christian rulers in the wider Mediterranean area of the early modern period. The second part reframes the transformations in Franco-Tunisian diplomatic practice from the late eighteenth century onward within the context of a global history of growing imbalances. The espousal of definitions of sovereignty derived from the European ius gentium to the exclusion of all others led to a redefinition of who had the rights and honors to engage in foreign relations. The early modern pluralism evolved into an increasingly unequal bipolarity, finally resulting in the economic, military and symbolic predominance of allegedly ‘civilized’ European powers over the ‘uncivilized’ rest.     

A NEW BRONZE AGE HOARD FROM MARIESMINDE AT LANGESKOV ON FUNEN,DENMARK

A hoard was discovered at Mariesminde near the centre of the Danish island Funen in 2003 during trial excavations. A pot containing 27 bronzes was later excavated in the museum laboratory. The bronzes were stacked disorderly, with a large piece of sheet bronze at the bottom. The objects consisted of broken rings, several so-called ‘Hohlwulstringe’ or hollow rings, a socketed axe, plus 13 casting cakes and three casting runners. No less than four rings are types new to Scandinavia and reflect connections with the Italian peninsula and further away. The hoard's mixture of broken objects, casting runners and cakes classifies it as a scrap hoard. It is dated to the Bronze Age period VI (Montelius), prominently indicated by the hollow rings. The findspot of the hoard was only c. 200 m from the well-known period IV hoard Mariesminde I with the largest collection of gold vessels from Funen. The metal analyses open new perspectives and indicate an origin in the Alps or the Erzgebirge for most of the collection.