Athenian Black Gloss Pottery: A View from the West

Excavation of archaic Morgantina (c.700–450 BC), Sicily, has brought to light a significant pattern in the distribution of imported Greek pottery. This pattern, which shows a preference for imports with features that referred to metal vessels, is echoed at sites around the western Mediterranean. We argue that the preference for certain types was communicated back to Greek producers, and that it also reflects the particular local interests of non‐Greeks, who associated metallic features not only with wealth, but also with their own ancestral traditions.     

Representations of an Imagined Past: fairground heritage villages

This paper is concerned with groups of historic vernacular buildings, assembled and displayed as 'villages' at agricultural fairgrounds. These are grassroots versions of open-air museums and heritage sites developed by public institutions and private foundations. The fairground heritage village structures are usually collected by volunteers and moved to existing county or state fairgrounds, then used in similar ways as professionally managed sites. The location and situation offer certain advantages, but also present problems that stem from being authentic structures presented as a fictional village. Because narrative, scale and editing are factors in the conflict, adding an outward-directed layer of interpretation would visually reconnect the dislocated buildings with their original sites. This is intended to destabilise the past as a fixed, isolated place, and link the village display to landscape change in the region.     

Iron Age Transformations at Mmadipudi Hill,Botswana: Identifying Spatial Organization Through Electromagnetic Induction Survey

Mmadipudi Hill (CE 550–1200) is an Iron Age site in east-central Botswana approximately 3 km west of Bosutswe, a major Iron Age trade center at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert. A 5,000-m² electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey conducted in 2011 revealed a cattle post arranged in the Central Cattle Pattern, including a central animal kraal with at least three clusters of houses flanking the eastern edge. A test trench confirmed the presence of a Taukome daga structure, possibly a house, 100–150 cm in depth. The EMI survey is one of, if not the first, archaeogeophysical surveys conducted in Botswana. It has proven invaluable as a means to understand the settlement organization and to pinpoint excavations to gain a more detailed understanding of the material culture. The perspective it offered on thorn brush fencing would not have been possible through excavation alone. Although small in scope, the test excavation yielded Taukome and Toutswe artifacts related to the larger sets of issues the Bosutswe region faced as Indian Ocean trade transformed the local political economy. The nature of the relationships between Bosutswe and its surrounding communities likely evolved due to the rise of a prestige goods economy, growing inequality, and environmental degradation around CE 1200. The occupation at Mmadipudi Hill would have immediately preceded these changes. By determining the spatial organization of Mmadipudi Hill, this article begins a crucial first step towards exploring what the local settlement pattern looked like prior to CE 1200 and understanding what the relationships among sites may have been.     

Exploring socioeconomic relationships from surface survey ceramics: New methodologies from Bronze-Age Benta Valley,Hungary

A Phase II survey team collected samples of ceramics from the Benta Valley in the western Carpathian Basin of Hungary to identify secondary (rural) sites, determine their extent and density, and investigate everyday economic and social routines. By comparing ceramic attributes such as function, decoration, and exterior finish, the authors argue that studies of ceramics from plow zone contexts can address nuanced questions of social and economic behavior played out on the landscape beyond what can be investigated in traditional excavations, which are principally focused on tell centers. The efficient, low-cost survey demonstrates the potential of plow zone archaeology in studies of socioeconomic relations within settlement systems. This micro-regional approach and the methods involved can be employed on other survey projects in Hungary and beyond, as rescue excavations across the region are becoming standard practice.     

Renewable Energy Innovation and Governance in Wales: A Regional Innovation System Approach

This paper draws on research commissioned to investigate the regional innovation system of Wales on green innovation, focusing on the renewable energy sub-sectors of wind, solar and biomass. It shows how many innovative firms operate within regional networks, cooperating and interacting not only with other firms such as suppliers, customers and competitors, but also with research and technology resource organizations, innovation support agencies, venture capital funds, and local and regional government bodies. The paper argues that within the region there is the presence of various renewable energy production platforms, usually based on core technologies (wind, solar, biomass, marine, etc.) at different levels of development. They involve a mix of established energy utilities and new sustainable energy businesses that are positioned at different levels within the renewable energy supply chain. The research shows that the regional government is playing an important role in supporting the renewable energy industry; nevertheless, more needs to be done to facilitate planning control, provide skills and create new demands for renewable energy that will further foster business growth and further strengthen the existing manufacturing base and innovation in Wales. The paper identifies some weaknesses in the Welsh energy innovation system, not least that energy is not a devolved responsibility and it argues that there is some scope for the Welsh Assembly Government to further investigate gaps within the green innovation supply chain and act on strengthening regional capabilities within the industry but also to support and investigate further opportunities for inward investment.