Humans in the Environment: Plants,Animals and Landscapes in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland

Environmental archaeology has historically been central to Mesolithic studies in Britain and Ireland. Whilst processual archaeology was concerned with the economic significance of the environment, post-processual archaeology later rejected economically driven narratives, resulting in a turn away from plant and animal remains. Post-processual narratives focused instead on enigmatic ‘ritual’ items that economic accounts struggled to suitably explain. Processual accounts of landscapes, grounded in economic determinism, were also rejected in favour of explorations of their sociocultural aspects. However, in moving away from plant and animal remains, such accounts lacked the ability to rigorously explore the specificities of particular landscapes and humans actions within them. This paper will bridge this gap by considering how palaeoecological and zooarchaeological analyses can be used to explore human interactions with plants and animals, which were key in developing understandings and relationships that ultimately structured landscapes, influenced past human actions and shaped archaeological assemblages.     

Legal Challenges to Presidential Policies on the Use of Military Force

A review of legal challenges to the use of military force, from the Vietnam War era to the Gulf War, demonstrates a judicial unwillingness to constrain presidential policymaking. In most of these cases, the judiciary has ruled the legal challenge nonjusticiable. In the first post-Cold War challenge , Dellums v. Bush, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued the equivalent of a declaratory judgment. Arguably, this is the only practical judicial response to the presidential use of force, but it does little more than redirect the policy conflict from the courts to Congress. The rule of law remains a weak reed in efforts to constrain presidential policymaking on the use of military force.     

Book reviews

English Maps: A History. By Catherine Delano‐Smith and Roger J. P. Kain. London: The British library, 1999. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4609 0 (cloth); 0 7123 4660 0 (paper). Pp. xiv, 320, illus., col. plates. STG£25.00 (cloth).

Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of his Death, 1598–1998. Edited by Marcel van den Broecke, Peter van der Krogt and Peter Meurer. Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1998. ISBN 90 6194 388 4. Pp. 430, illus.,. 19 col. plates. DFL371.00(cloth).

A Biographical Index of East India Company Maritime Service Officers 1600–1834. By Anthony Farrington. London: The British Library, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4647 3. Pp. 886. STG£85.00 (cloth).

Catalogue of East India Company Ships’ Journals and Logs 1600–1834. By Anthony Farrington. London: The British Library, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4646 5. Pp. 789. STG£85.00 (doth).

Ordnance Survey Small‐Scale Maps: Indexes: 1801–1998. By Roger Hellyer. Kerry, Newtown, Montgomeryshire: David Archer, 1999. ISBN 0951757954. Pp. xxiv, 264, illus. STG£35.00 (cloth). [David Archer, Kerry, Wales SY16 . 4PD.]