The softstone vessels from Qarn Bint Sa'ud, Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.)

This paper draws attention to thirty unpublished Iron Age softstone vessels from Qarn Bint Sa'ud held in the Al Ain Museum. They are compared with softstone vessels from other Iron Age sites in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Mesopotamia, in order to study distribution patterns and exchange.     

Revisiting the structuring effect of transportation infrastructure: An empirical approach with the French railway network from 1860 to 1910

The development of the French railway network was mostly planned in a centralized manner. Despite the multiplication of travel opportunities, the local impact on the demographics is often given as an indirect effect of this spatial transformation. However, this “structuring effect” is still subject to controversies within the academia.

In this paper, we construct a historical geographic information system describing the evolution of the French network. We use it to compute accessibility measures based on network access and travel durations. We first observe that the network growth indeed achieved the various planning goals in terms of functional accessibility. We then present further evidences that the “structuring effect” of the train network on cities demographics is very limited if not null.     

New datings of Amudian layers at Qesem Cave (Israel): results of TL applied to burnt flints and ESR/U-series to teeth

Because only a few radiometric data are actually available, the chronology of the Amudian – a blade-dominated industry of the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC) of the late Lower Paleolithic in the Levant – is still not well constrained. Qesem Cave offers the opportunity to enhance our knowledge of the chronological position of this industry which is unique to the Levant. The Qesem Amudian bearing layers yielded also human remains showing affinities with those of modern populations recovered in the Middle Paleolithic sites of Skhul and Qafzeh. The results presented here are the first attempt to apply the TL and ESR/U-series dating methods at this site and these methods yielded results which are generally in agreement. They support a time interval of hominid-bearing occupation of the areas of the cave where Amudian lithic artifacts were recovered during MIS 8 and likely 9 for the Deep Pit Area, and during MIS 8 and possibly 7 for the Upper part of the sequence (Square K/10 and the Eastern Microfauna-Bearing Area). An older occupation of the cave is also conceivable on the base of two dating results (MIS 11).     

Agroforestry on an Active Volcanic Small Island in Indonesia: Prospering with Adversity

This paper draws on the literature on agroforestry, disaster risk reduction, and livelihoods of people on small islands as it applies to a community prospering in conditions of adversity in Kinali village on Siau Island, Indonesia. Siau Island produces between one‐third and one‐half of all nutmeg and mace exported from Indonesia. The Kinali community has adopted strategies that enable it to prosper in spite of the risks of living on a small island with an active volcano. The paper charts the sociocultural dynamics of the village and examines how local coping mechanisms based on an agroforestry economy have assisted villagers in dealing with the multiple hazards and constraints arising from the biophysical characteristics of their island. The paper thus contributes to more informed responses to managing volcanic risk.     

The Location of Lake Titicaca’s Coastal Area During the Tiwanaku and Inca Periods: Methodology and Strategies of Underwater Archaeology

For more than 30 years, numerous research projects have revealed the dense and complex human settlement of the lacustrine basin of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. Physical evidence of such establishments has been discovered in plains, valleys, and highlands connected to the lake. These remains confirm human occupation and development in this environment, particularly during the Tiwanaku (AD 500-1150) and Inca (AD 1400-1532) Periods. The research project discussed in this paper includes consideration of submerged areas through underwater archaeology. This investigation involves analysis of two areas that have evidence of ancient human occupation but are poorly documented: the coastal and lacustrine regions. Due to its dominance in the landscape, Lake Titicaca has always been a major feature in the life and identity of populations of this vicinity. These inhabitants have developed socio-economic and ritual behaviours directly associated with the lake that have left cultural and material prints that are the foci of the present study.     

Using toponymy to reconstruct past land use: a case study of ‘brüsáda’ (burn) in southern Switzerland

Toponyms are frequently the outcome of a creative process, a subjective interpretation by the local inhabitants at the time of naming. They often survive changes in the local landscape, thus becoming historical documents of landscape dynamics or changes in land use. In this contribution we provide a systematic synchronic analysis of the toponym brüsáda (burn) in Canton Ticino. In total, 182 instances of place names containing brüsáda were recorded, of which 102 cases (56.0%) were localised. Based on oral information provided by the local people or on archival documents, it was possible to group the selected toponyms into different meaning classes such as burnt building, exposed sites, pasture-land and others without any indication (classified here as generic). On the basis of etymological, topographic, documentary, bibliographic, and historic evidence, as well as proxy-archives (such as charcoal in lake sediments), we hypothesise that most of the toponyms associated with pasture-land – and probably also a large portion of the generic toponyms – are directly or indirectly related to the habit of using fire to clear brushwood to improve pasture-land or to eliminate trees. In the study area, the practice of pasture-fires appears to have been a very well controlled and targeted activity in medieval times. In contrast, pasture-fires became very frequent and uncontrolled in the second half of the nineteenth century up until the Second World War. Our study confirms the usefulness and suitability of toponymy, in combination with other disciplines, for ecohistorical reconstructions of past environmental and land-use changes.     

Quoi de neuf sur l'Affaire?

Pierre Birnbaum (dir.) : La France de l'Affaire Dreyfus, Paris, Gallimard, 1994, 597 p.

Jean Doise: Un secret bien gardé. Histoire militaire de l'affaire Dreyfus, Paris, Le Seuil, collection “XXe siècle”, 1994, 225 p.     

Adhesive Production and Pottery Function During the Iron Age at the Site of Grand Aunay (Sarthe,France)*

A combination of elemental, functional and molecular analyses performed on amorphous organic residues dating from the Iron Age was developed in order to identify these remains and to understand their relationship with ceramic vessels in which some of them were found. These analyses made it possible to distinguish between ceramic vessels used for the production or storage of adhesive materials, mainly birch bark tar, and those dedicated to the preparation of culinary commodities, which contained animal fats. The organization of the production of adhesives is described and the addition of beeswax to birch bark tar is reported for the first time. The use of birch bark tar for coating ceramic vessels is also discussed.