A test of Suchey–Brooks (pubic symphysis) and Buckberry–Chamberlain (auricular surface) methods on an identified Spanish sample: paleodemographic implications

Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology studies depend critically on the accuracy and reliability of age-estimation techniques. In this study we have evaluated two age-estimation methods for adults based on the pubic symphysis (Suchey–Brooks) and the auricular surface (Buckberry–Chamberlain) in a current sample of 139 individuals (67 women and 72 men) from Madrid in order to verify the accuracy of both methods applied to a sample of innominate bones from the central Iberian Peninsula. Based on the overall results of this study, the Buckberry–Chamberlain method seems to be the method that provides better estimates in terms of accuracy (percentage of hits) and absolute difference to the chronological age taking into account the total sample. The percentage of hits and mean absolute difference of the Buckberry–Chamberlain and Suchey–Brooks methods are 97.3% and 11.24 years, and 85.7% and 14.38 years, respectively. However, this apparently greater applicability of the Buckberry–Chamberlain method is mainly due to the broad age ranges provided. Results indicated that Suchey–Brooks method is more appropriate for populations with a majority of young individuals, whereas Buckberry–Chamberlain method is recommended for populations with a higher percentage of individuals in the range 60–70 years. These different age estimation methodologies significantly influence the resulting demographic profile, consequently affecting the biological characteristics reconstruction of the samples in which they are applied.     

Pre-hispanic goldwork technology. The Quimbaya Treasure,Colombia

One of the most important pre-Columbian gold assemblages made up of more than one hundred objects from two tombs in the Cauca river valley, Colombia, was studied to obtain archaeometric information. Although several attempts have been made to arrange gold production in time and space from the stylistic point of view, no firm conclusions were possible due to the lack of archaeological contexts. This paper presents first results of a new, fully instrumental approach, in which different analytical techniques, including OM, SEM-EDS, XRF, PIXE, RBS, AMS and X-ray imaging, were applied in order to determine a technological, metallurgical and chronological frame of the so-called Quimbaya Treasure.     

The Social Role of Technology in Coastal Alaska

Novel technologies linked to women and men through identity-demarcated tasks and knowledge sets can potentially have differential and even long-term effects on each group. This study follows the trajectory of two significant imports into the coastal western Alaskan system, the firearm and the metal cook pot. These imports had different implications for coastal Yup’ik women and men, young and old. Over time the gun became an integral piece of a man’s tool kit and one that had the potential to boost production and thus a man’s access to status-building. However, these same tools had the potential to undermine the apprenticeship system of male authority. Likewise, the metal cook pot replaced the productive oversight and skill set of elder women’s ceramic production but created paths of independence for younger Yup’ik women. These changes in technology destabilized relative balances of gender and age based status, security, and authority and fashioned new gender and age based social and economic opportunities and limitations.     

What is a Burin? Typology,Technology, and Interregional Comparison

Classification of artifacts has long marked a significant edge between theory and practice in archaeology. While considering classification to be a necessary methodological device, most practitioners also recognize that it carries with it built-in assumptions. This essay approaches the issue by way of a specific stone tool type from Old World sites: the burin. By asking “what is a burin?” the study shows the need to reconsider typologies to reflect changes in research questions and progress in dating methods, especially when working with museum collections and secondary data between regions and across national traditions, and the need to study whole collections from the perspective of technological choices.     

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Occupation of the Moroccan Northwest Maghreb During the Last Glacial Maximum

New work at Kehf el Hammar Cave provides the first well-dated palaeoenvironmental sequence for the Late Upper Palaeolithic in this region of the northwest Maghreb. The archaeological layers are dated via a combination of AMS radiocarbon and luminescence dating methods. The sequence contains charcoal-rich occupation layers with faunal, human and lithic finds. Local vegetational patterns are reconstructed on the basis of preliminary analysis of the charcoal evidence. Using standard calibration curves the AMS radiocarbon dates are compared with proxy evidence for climatic change from sea core records in the Alborán Sea. These appear to show that the Late Upper Palaeolithic occupation of the region coincides closely with Heinrich Event 1, a period marked by intense aridification and dating to ca. 16,700–17,250 calendar years ago.Les nouvelles recherches dans la grotte de Kehf el Hammar ont permis d’obtenir la première séquence paléoenevironnementale bien datée du Paléolithique supérieur tardif au Nord Ouest du Maghreb. En effet, les niveaux archéologiques ont été datés par le radiocarbone par accélérateur (AMS) et des méthodes radiométriques basées sur la luminescence. En revanche, les paléoenvironnements végétaux ont été partiellement reconstitués à base des premières analyses des charbons de bois. Les dates AMS calibrées ont été comparées aux données climatiques issues des carottes marines dans la mer Alborán. Ainsi, les occupations humaines du Paléolithique supérieur tardif dans la région ont sensiblement coïncidé avec l’événement climatique Heinrich 1. Celui-ci correspond à une période qui a été marquée par une aridification intense entre 16.700 et 17.250 ans (cal.).     

Gunnar Karlsson,Iceland's 1100 Years: The History of a Marginal Society, (London: Hurst, 2001). 418 pp. ISBN 1-85065-420-4.

This paper explores the role of personal networks and social capital in the assimilation of individuals into the elite of 18th‐century England. In it, I draw on the letterbooks of two merchants from north‐west England to assess the ways in which individuals accessed established networks and thus augmented their social status and business opportunities. In particular, I examine how networks were articulated, and consider their impact on both the social standing of the individual merchant and the construction of a shared culture amongst merchants. It is therefore possible to see business networking as an important counterpart to polite sociability in the construction of an expanded elite.     

European Policy and the Regions: A Review and Analysis of Tensions

This article explores a series of tensions inherent in the series of European policies that are designed to improve the competitiveness of regions in the face of globalization. Its focus is the co-existence of interventionist policies intended to overcome problems of lagging regions such as cohesion policies and those, for example competition policy which are designed to remove barriers to market integration and that are anti-interventionist. Moreover, the changing relationship between the European Union (EU), member states and the regions and problems of how regions are defined complicate policy implementation. To review these issues, the article adopts an agent-centred approach to understanding economic behaviour in the face of globalization in particular geographical and sectoral contexts. This methodology is used to highlight five sources of tension relating to the reality of the experience of globalization. These are illustrated by evidence from a recently completed EU Fifth Framework Programme study of regional adjustment strategies and technological change in five European countries.     

The Natural-Historic basis for the Development and Specialization of Agriculture in the Socialist Countries (Outside the USSR)

The authors urge a zonal specialization of agriculture within the countries of the Socialist camp, particularly the CEMA grouping. Bulgaria, which supplies tobacco, grapes, early vegetables, and fruits to other countries, in cited as an example. Geographers are urged to work out such a specialization scheme based on a complex of factors, including the physical-geographic base, manpower resources, the present state of agriculture, and the traditional working habits of the population.