Bayesian radiocarbon models for the cultural transition during the Allerød in southern Scandinavia

During late Greenland Interstadial 1 (the Allerød chronozone), southern Scandinavia witnessed an abrupt cultural transition. This period marks the end of Late Magdalenian/Final Palaeolithic Federmessergruppen in the region, and the beginning of the Bromme culture. The latter is characterised by a restricted territorial range, loss of bow-arrow technology, and a general reduction in material culture complexity. Different hypotheses for the origin of the Bromme culture have been put forward, variously stressing local continuity or discontinuity. Different environmental and cultural factors have been suggested to force the observed changes, but crucially their precise timing remains elusive. Here, we review competing hypotheses for this cultural transition, and evaluate them using an audited regional database of the available ¹⁴C dates. We construct a series of Bayesian calibration models using the IntCal09 calibration curve to clarify timings of cultural continuity/discontinuity, probable duration of different techno-complexes, and relationships between environmental changes and material culture transitions. Our models suggest that the Bromme culture emerged late in the Allerød, and that the Laacher See-eruption most probably forced this cultural event horizon.     

The Neuropathology of Morality: Germany 1930–1960

This article analyzes brain scientists’ attempts to trace morality in the brain in Germany from 1930 to 1960. The debate around Karl Kleist's localization of the Gemeinschafts-Ich [community-I] in the 1930s is depicted in order to illustrate the central arguments for and against localizations of morality. The focus of this article is on the period 1936–1960 in which experts put forth specific ideas on morality's cerebral underpinnings that mirror the larger theoretical shift from strict localization doctrine to a more holistic understanding of the brain. As a result of this shift, experts avoided exact localizations of morality. Instead, they posited correlations between brain areas and morality. The analysis illustrates the dependence of neuropathological research on morality on general theories of brain functioning and marks a first contribution to the history of the neuroscience of morality for the time after 1930.     

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.     

Did the Nationalist Government Manipulate the Chinese Bond Market? A Quantitative Perspective on Short-Term Price Fluctuations of Domestic Government Bonds, 1932–1934

Based on a newly constructed set of data, this paper offers a quantitative perspective on the Nationalist Government’s relations with China’s domestic bond markets during the period 1932–34. For all the recent revisionist scholarship on the achievements of Nationalist state-building, the perception of the Nationalist elite as corrupt is still widely accepted. In order to demonstrate the empirical potential of quantitative financial history, this paper tests one particular assertion: that members of the Nationalist elite manipulated the issue price of domestic government bonds in order to enrich themselves and their associates. We test this by calculating two price data correlations: that of a first sample of government bonds, all of them issued before 1932, and that of a second sample of government bonds, which includes bonds issued during the period under review. The price fluctuations of the first sample are correlated with each other to a much higher degree than those of the second sample. This indicates that the prices of bonds in the first sample were reacting similarly to the same range of influences, while the bonds issued during the period under review and included in the second sample were displaying individual price fluctuations. One possible explanation for this is that members of the Nationalist elite enriched themselves or their associates by issuing domestic government bonds at artificially low prices. In sum, the article illustrates both the potential and the limitations of quantitative history: it allows us to test and dismiss a precisely formulated hypothesis about Nationalist corruption, but it is only one possible way in which statistical analysis can be applied and does not cover the whole realm of state practices.