Denmark and the first world war

This article analyses general opinions of Scandinavia held by British policymakers in the post‐war period, before going on to examine a particular instance of Britain's attempts to copy ‘Scandinavian policies’ in the early 1960s. Given the generally positive views held as concerned Scandinavian economic and social policies at the time, and the influence those countries wielded in international economic and social policy networks, such attempts were only to be expected. During the 1959–1964 Parliament, the British Conservative Government attempted to adopt housing policies from Scandinavia, in particular housing co‐operatives subsidized by the state, but organized by owners and tenants. They failed to entrench such new ideas in the British policy system, for four reasons. The first was the very strong institutional position of municipal housing and owner‐occupation; the second was the taxation system, which proved impervious to change; the third was the obviously politically‐motivated attempt to change British behaviour in a very short time‐frame; and the fourth, crucially, was the lack of knowledge as to how Scandinavian housing markets actually worked. This failed experiment demonstrates the allure, but also the superficiality and some of the dangers, of direct policy transfer between nations.     

THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL RANK IN THE EARLY NEOLITHIC OF NORTHERN EUROPE

Klavs Randsborg has made important contributions to the archaeology of the Bronze Age and later prehistoric periods, but in the 1970s he also touched upon issues such as the formation of rank in Neolithic societies. In his article ‘Social Dimensions of Early Neolithic Denmark’, he suggested that a hierarchical society arose at the transition from the Early to Middle Neolithic, c. 3300–3200 BC. Since then, excavations and research have resulted in numerous publications about the Neolithic, but only rarely have these examined social development. In this article, the authors continue the debate, sharing the same starting point as Klavs Randsborg, but here approaching the question of emerging social inequality on the background of recent research into the early agricultural societies in Northern Europe, seen in a broader European context. The primary focus is upon burial monuments as manifestations of status and power, and parallels are drawn with similar construction activities amongst present‐day farming communities in such remote areas as the islands of Southeast Asia. The social organisation and ritual customs of these modern farming communities are considered relevant when interpreting the archaeological evidence for early agricultural societies in Northern Europe.     

PRE‐CHRISTIAN OFFERINGS FROM GULDHULLET NEAR SMØRENGE ON BORNHOLM,DENMARK

As a result of metal detector surveys over several years, a unique find of gold figurines and gold foil figures from the 6^th century AD has come to light at a locality known as Guldhullet (‘the gold hole’). Geomagnetic surveys and a subsequent excavation in 2017 revealed a large number of ‘cooking pits’ close to the present‐day damp area where the finds were made. The pits are roughly contemporary with the gold finds, which suggests that the location was both a sacrificial site and an important communal meeting place.     

Fires at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany: An analysis of fire proxies from a Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic basin site

Few sites with evidence for fire use are known from the Last Interglacial in Europe. Hearth features are rarely preserved, probably as a result of post-depositional processes. The small postglacial basins (<300?m in diameter) that dominate the sedimentary context of the Eemian record in Europe are high-resolution environmental archives often containing charcoal particles. This case study presents the macroscopic charcoal record of the Neumark-Nord 2 basin, Germany, and the correlation of this record with the distinct find levels of the basin margin that also contain thermally altered archaeological material. Increased charcoal quantities are shown to correspond to phases of hominin presence—a pattern that fits best with recurrent anthropogenic fires within the watershed. This research shows the potential of small basin localities in the reconstruction of local fire histories, where clear archaeological features like hearths are missing.     

Radiologic proof for the Iceman's cause of death (ca. 5’300 BP)

A possible cause of death of the Iceman – a ca. 5’300 BP natural human glacier mummy from the Tyrolean Alps – is an intrathoracic stone arrowhead. The aim of this study was to prove radiologically his enigmatic cause of death. In August 2005, the Iceman underwent his first multislice computed tomography examination. As the main pathologic finding, the left dorsal subclavian artery contures shows a 13 mm-long part where the vessel wall is damaged and a 3 mm-long irregular pseudo-aneurysm – a typical complication of a laceration of the subclavian artery. In the surrounding soft tissue a large haematoma is visible. Historic records highlight the fatal destiny of subclavian artery injuries e.g. due to massive active bleeding and shock-related cardiac arrest. Therefore, the Iceman's cause of death by an arrowhead lacerating among others the left subclavian artery and leading to a deadly hemorrhagic shock can be now postulated with almost complete certainty, especially when taking the environmental (3’210 meters above sea level) and historic (5’300 BP) settings into account.