Grassroot responses to the Tohoku earthquake of 11 March 2011: Overcoming the dichotomy between victim and helper (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article examines the response of a large Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai, to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. While this response was significant, it has not been reported in Japanese national news. An important question that is emerging for development agencies and academics as they look back over the response to the crisis, is how people possibly survived for the first few days and months, given that government aid did not reach some people for up to two months. This article highlights one significant early response and points to the problem of how to overcome the victim/helper dualism which is rooted in much failing NGO aid and development projects.     

The troublesome life of peaceful atoms in Denmark

The Danish Atomic Energy Commission (AEK) was created in 1955 with the remit to promote ‘the peaceful exploitation of atomic energy for the benefit of society.’ Between 1956 and 1963 the AEK, which had been preceded by a number of early private nuclear initiatives, established an ambitious atomic energy research facility at Risø, some 40 kilometers west of Copenhagen. For most of this period the AEK was chaired by the celebrated physicist Niels Bohr. In spite of strong support from relevant actors in Danish society and Risø’s management, Denmark never built commercial nuclear power stations. Today Risø has undergone a complete metamorphosis from atomic energy research facility to a national laboratory, doing research and development on a broad range of alternative energy sources. Using concepts and approaches like national innovation systems and technological nationalism, the present paper will explore why and how this remarkable development took place.     

A review of archaeological research on sami prehistory

Abstract

The English botanist and gardener John Tradescant the Elder's diary from a voyage to northern Russia in 1618 has lately attracted attention as a potential source on early Russian sea mammal hunting on the Svalbard archipelago. This article examines the usefulness of Tradescant's diary in this respect, but comes to a negative conclusion.     

The taphonomy of fallow deer (Dama dama) skeletons from Denmark and its bearing on the pre-Weichselian occupation of northern Europe by humans

The ecological tolerances of Neandertals, their ability to subsist in the dense forests of full interglacials, and their capacity to colonize northern latitudes are the subject of ongoing debate. The site of Hollerup (northern Denmark) lies at the northern extreme of the Neandertal range. Dated by various techniques to the Eemian interglacial (MIS 5e), this site has yielded the remains of several purportedly butchered fallow deer (Dama dama). Taphonomic reanalysis of the remains from Hollerup and a handful of other Eemian-aged fallow deer skeletons cast doubt on the interpretation that they were humanly modified. We place this revised conclusion into the wider context of human settlement of southern Scandinavia during the Eemian. Other claims of Neandertal presence in the region rest on candidate Middle Paleolithic artifacts, all of which derive from surface contexts. With the fallow deer material removed as a secure indicator of Neandertal settlement of Denmark during the last interglacial, this lithic material must be viewed with renewed skepticism. While ecological and/or topographic factors may have played an important role in preventing Neandertals from penetrating into peninsular Scandinavia, we caution that geological, taphonomic, research-historical, and demographic factors may have significantly distorted our picture of their occupation in this region.     

Post conflict identities: Affiliations and practices of Somali asylum seeker children

Following the 2005 terrorist attacks on London it emerged that two of the terrorists charged with the failed 21st July bombings had arrived in the UK as child asylum seekers from East Africa. In the ensuing debate the bombers were represented as children that turned to hate. In this discussion paper we draw on empirical work conducted in Sheffield, UK to explore the identities, affiliations and practices of Somali asylum seeker children, aged 11–18.1 ¹This ongoing research is being funded by the ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme (Award No: RES-148-025-0028) View all notes Specifically, we argue that the actions of the two bombers need to be framed within a broader understanding of the complex processes of social identification that take place as young people negotiate what it means to be a child in the context of different ‘age’, gender and racialised expectations and against a backdrop of discrimination and social exclusion in different relational geographical spaces. We begin by outlining the context of UK immigration policy, before reflecting on dominant constructions of both childhood and asylum seekers. We then discuss how these may shape young refugee and asylum seekers' own narratives of the self and the role that their mobility and specific sites of identity formation may play in this process. In doing so, we contribute to children's geographies by addressing a group – refugee and asylum seekers – that has been neglected within the sub-discipline.     

Magnetic detection of ship ballast deposits and anchorage sites in King Herod's Roman harbour,Caesarea Maritima,Israel

Ballast stone deposits are a common feature of sediments in ancient harbour basins but are often overlooked as a potential source of archaeological information. Recent geophysical investigations at Caesarea Maritima in Israel have discovered a thick, laterally extensive ballast layer in the area seaward of the 1st c. BC Roman harbour. The ballast deposits were identified by low-relief mounds on the seabed with elevated magnetic intensities. Jet probing and excavation of magnetic anomalies at several locations revealed a 20–60 cm thick rubble layer containing large quantities of Late Roman and Byzantine pottery, local sedimentary boulders (kurkar sandstone, limestone cobbles) and foreign igneous and metamorphic boulders (granite, schist, volcanics; ca. 50%). The foreign boulders and pottery identify the rubble layer as ballast and ships refuse jettisoned by merchant ships outside the harbour. The strong magnetic contrast between the ballast deposits and the natural seabed sediments is attributed to the high magnetic susceptibility (>10⁻³ SI) of crystalline boulders and pottery materials within the ballast rubble.     

Marine Magnetic Survey of a Submerged Roman Harbour, Caesarea Maritima, Israel

A marine geophysical survey was conducted at Caesarea Maritima, Israel, to map the buried structure of King Herod's Roman harbour. Magnetic surveys reveal the presence of an extensive hydraulic concrete foundation below the ruined harbour moles. The magnetic anomaly patterns indicate that the concrete foundation was laid out in header fashion along N-S and W-E trending segments to form two large 'artificial islands'. Magnetic lows within the structure identify baffles that were infilled with sand to stabilise the concrete foundation walls.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Who Was First? Nationalism in Slovak and Hungarian Archaeology and History

This paper critically examines several examples of theories, which represent polemical Hungarian and Slovak positions, and consider the socio-historical and conceptual roots of problematical contrasting interpretations. Slovaks and Hungarians (Magyars) lived until 1918 in a common state for about 1000 years. Today, archaeologists and historians working in different countries are concerned with different questions and offer very different interpretations of the past. A case in point is the issue of the arrival of Slavs and Magyars to the Middle Danube region. Although it is, in general, agreed that the Magyars came into the region over 350 years after the arrival of the Slavs, some Hungarians scientists emphasize a so-called “double occupation” of homeland having to do with relationships between the Magyars and the Huns. In contrast, we can find in the Slovak archaeological literature arguments concerning the “presence” of Slavs in the territory of Slovakia already in the fourth century (or even earlier), that is, before the Huns.