THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANCIENT DIET AND THE INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF BONE AS DERIVED FROM FEEDING EXPERIMENTS

The levels of ten elements (phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, strontium, barium, potassium, sodium, zinc, iron, and aluminium) have been measured in the femurs and humeri of laboratory rats grown on test diets as a model for palaeodietary studies of excavated human skeletons. High levels of dietary fibre correlate with lower Ca and higher Sr and Ba in the bone. High values of the dietary Sr/Ca ratio correlate with high Sr levels in the bone. High levels of dietary protein correlate with lower Sr and higher Zn. High values of the ratio Ba/Ca and lower levels of Fe correlate with higher levels of Ba. Because bone levels typically are controlled by several dietary components, variation of the levels of a given element in the diet does not necessarily translate into analogous variations in bone. Only K and Fe in bone correlate highly with their levels in diet. The failure of bone Sr, Ba, and Zn to correlate positively with dietary levels is fully explicable in terms of their interdependence on other dietary components, such as Ca, P, Fe, protein, and fibre.     

SUPPLY ARMS AND OPTIMAL SPATIAL STRUCTURE*

ABSTRACT. A multi-plant producer has sole access to a region, and each of the plants processes a raw material which is drawn from its own exclusive supply area. Under these conditions what spatial structure of production (in terms of plant scale, plant frequency, supply-area size and supply-area shape) will enable region-wide or multi-plant profit to be maximized? The form of this optimal structure is shown to vary with prevailing level of price, which is exogenously determined.     

COPPER AND BARIUM AS DIETARY DISCRIMINANTS: THE EFFECTS OF DIAGENESIS

In skeletons excavated from Woodland sites, copper and barium levels are found to have been contaminated by influx from the soil environment. Electron microprobe scans for both elements show build-up along the outer surface of femur cross sections. Elemental levels for Cu and Ba are lower in the femur or fibula than in the more porous rib. The distribution of Cu in the immediately surrounding soil is highly anisotropic. These observations indicate that Cu and Ba should not be used for dietary inferences about ancient populations without independent evidence that diagenesis is not important.     

GUTENBERG'S INKS AND PAPERS: NON-DESTRUCTIVE COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSES BY PROTON MILLIPROBE

Particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) has been used in analysis of ink and paper of the 42-line Bible and other early printed works. Results are reported and their significance discussed.     

THE EFFECTS OF COURT INTERVENTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Books reviewed in this articles:
Laura M. Lake, Environmental Regulation; The Political Effects of Implementation
R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts; The Case of the Clean Air Act
Lettie M. Wenner, The Environmental Decade in Court     

Environmental limitations on prehistoric pastoralism in Africa

In several areas of Africa, pastoralism that existed prehistorically no longer survives today. Two such areas, the Southwestern Cape of South Africa and the Sahara, are discussed here, outlining methodologies for reconstruction of adaptive strategies on the basis of environmental parameters that constrained the pastoral economies.

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Résumé En plusieurs régions d'Afrique, le pastoralisme qui existait en temps préhistorique a maintenant disparu. L'article discute de deux de ces régions, le cap sud-ouest de l'Afrique du Sud et le Sahara, donnant un aperçu des méthodologies qui visent la reconstruction des stratégies adaptatrices en se fondant sur les paramètres écologiques qui ont contraint les économies pastorales.