The changing abundance of backed artefacts in south-eastern Australia: a response to Holocene climate change?

The timing of the introduction, proliferation and decline of backed artefacts in Australia has been much debated. In south-eastern Australia, after initially appearing at least 8500 years ago, backed artefacts greatly increased in number between 4000 and 3500 years ago to the extent that they are found in numerous sites and are recorded in large numbers in individual sites from that time. From about 1500 years ago they declined markedly in number and had seemingly disappeared by the time of British colonization. Models explaining their proliferation advance the proposition that increased backed artefact production was triggered by heightened foraging risk and/or social re-organisation brought about by a change in climate to a regime which was cooler and drier than any other time during the Holocene combined with intensified ENSO climatic conditions. Our study develops this hypothesis by inferring the use of backed artefacts at Mussel Shelter in the Sydney Basin through an integrated use-wear and residue analysis. These inferences provide new insights into the nature of the evolutionary changes in tool production and use in response to the period of altered climatic conditions.     

A changing sense of Somaliness: Somali women in London and Toronto

This article considers how direct and indirect transnational linkages influence Somali refugee women settling in London, England and Toronto, Canada, and lead to shifts in identity in resettlement contexts. Drawing on interviews with Somali refugee women and discussions with resettlement staff, this article shows that under influences of distant and local linkages with other Somalis and through the cultural and social influences of the receiving society, Somali women develop a changing sense of their own Somaliness. The article argues that indicators of belonging, such as dress, religion and language, come to hold new and increased value within the new context, and familiar facets of national, cultural and religious identity shift in significance in response to competing influences and are used as intentional signifiers of identity.     

Developments in Harnessing and Draught in the Roman World

Material remains of harness elements from different parts of the Roman Empire have contributed to a new interpretation of the harness depicted on funerary reliefs of the second‐third centuries AD from north‐western Europe and on other figured documents, such as Trajan's Column in Rome (dedicated in 113 AD). As recent experimental reconstruction has shown, the curved wooden plaques, held firmly in place by a metal bow, may have formed a precedent for the collar and hames developed during the Middle Ages into the form still in use today. The most important innovation was the introduction – no later than the second century AD – of single draught between shafts, replacing traditional paired draught with pole and yoke. There is even some evidence that other elements of modern harness, such as traces and the whippletree, hitherto considered to be medieval inventions, were also known during the period of the Roman Empire.     

The Artist and the Archaeologist: A Presentation in Memory of Christopher and Sonia Hawkes

The paper is an adapted version of a talk given in December 2001 at the Institute of Archaeology in Beaumont Street in dedication of a plaque and the lithograph 'Landscape of the Megaliths' by Paul Nash to the memory of the late Professor Christopher Hawkes, the founder of the Institute and first professor of European Archaeology from 1946 to 1972, and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, Lecturer in Anglo–Saxon Archaeology from 1973 to 1994, by Christopher's son.     

Flourishing in fragile academic work spaces and learning environments: feminist geographies of care and mentoring

In this article we discuss the ways in which a feminist ethos of care and the associated practice of mentoring allows feminist geography to flourish in teaching, working and learning spaces. We argue that our working relationship – based on care, mentoring and friendship – is crucial in order to survive and deflect structural inequalities. Our working relationship spans across undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and early career stages at a single university. We offer our personal stories as examples of establishing and maintaining collaborative mentoring and caring work relationships. Further, our commitment to a feminist ethos of care and mentoring is vital for our selfcare and causes trouble for structural power differentials. First, we share stories about how our working relationship began and developed within the critical, caring and fragile spaces of the Geography Programme at the University of Waikato and other feminist geography networks. Second, literature on care, mentoring and collaboration is discussed, with a focus on feminist politics of mentoring and collaboration. Third, we return to our own experiences to illustrate the ways embodied and emotional subjectivities and associated power dynamics shape mentoring and care relationships. Examples of joint supervision and research are offered to illustrate complex sets of spatially significant emotions, feelings and subjectivities. Finally, we highlight the ways in which place matters if feminist geography is to flourish.