Temporal nature and recycling of Upper Paleolithic artifacts: the burned tools from the Molí del Salt site (Vimbodí i Poblet,northeastern Spain)

Recent research in Paleolithic archeology has stressed the importance of temporal issues in assemblage interpretation. Archeological assemblages are temporal constructs, formed by the addition of an unknown number of depositional events. This temporal dimension is also evident at the artifactual level, since single artifacts may undergo different events of modification and/or uses over time. The recycling of previously discarded blanks for tool production is one of the best examples of the temporal nature of artifacts. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the importance of recycling in a Late Upper Paleolithic site, examining a type of artifact – burned tools – that has up to now been little used to approach this issue. Our results suggest that recycling was probably a significant component of Upper Paleolithic provisioning behavior, with important implications in site formation processes and the typological variability of assemblages. The expedient or curated character of recycling is also discussed.     

An Index of Social and Economic Development in the Community's Objective-1 Regions of Countries in Southern Europe

In this article we calculate an indicator of social and economic development using the DP₂ distance method to measure the disparities in Objective-1 regions of southern European countries for 2006. In addition to per capita income, socio-economic components such as health, education, employment, scientific and technological development and infrastructure provision have been incorporated into the index. We examine the issue of whether the Europe Union regions included in the Convergence Objective achieved a lower level of development than the regions no longer covered in this objective for the 2007–2013 programming period by establishing a territorial classification based on the value yielded by the variables of the DP₂. Our indicator constitutes a novel contribution insofar as it was constructed using a large number of variables. In essence, we show that not all the regions of the Convergence Objective presented a lower level of economic and social development than those that lost this consideration between 2007 and 2013 and the opposite.     

Les Peintres et Sculpteurs du Roi et L’ « Expertise Artistique » Sous Louisxiv

At the crossroads of institutions, markets ands discourses, artistic expertise under the reign of Louis XIV has not been thoroughly studied. So-called "experts" belonged to the judiciary field: they were called upon to describe, attribute and evaluate paintings and sculptures in probate inventories or in the context of judiciary actions. Their appointment was a real performative act, since experts were chosen by the judge or the parties, without definite criteria. Therefore, experts were often - but not always - artists, either guild masters or academicians.     

Boiled versus unboiled: a study on Neolithic and contemporary human bones

Bones treated at low temperature do not present major modifications although, macroscopically, boiled bones may be distinguished from unboiled ones as they are smoother, lighter and more transparent. Such observations should correspond to textural modifications at a nanometric level and should depend on boiling time. In this study, contemporary human bones, boiled during various time intervals, were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nitrogen adsorption (BET). The results were used to estimate the boiling time in four archaeological samples (Neolithic bones from Malalmuerzo cave, Spain). It is concluded, comparing Neolithic bones to contemporary ones and from the textural characterization at a nanometrical level, that two of the archaeological bones were boiled and that they were boiled for less than 6 hours.     

First archaeobotanical approach to plant use among Selknam hunter-gatherers (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)

Diverse hunter-gatherer groups inhabited Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) from the end of the last glaciation until recent dates. Sadly, the contact with European settlers was fatal for them, and a series of different causes led to their disappearance. Among these groups, Selknam inhabited the central and northern part of the Isla Grande (Tierra del Fuego) until the first decades of twentieth century. Although many travellers and ethnographers described this society, the recorded information related to vegetal resources management and plant exploitation strategies was quite scarce. As a consequence, a picture was created in which plants, and especially plant food, had a very poor role in the everyday life of these people. In this work, we present the results of the first archaeobotanical analyses carried out on an excavated site related to the Selknam hunter-gatherers. The information presented here, along with future studies, will enlarge the knowledge and enrich the image that we have of Selknam’s plant use, economy and social relations.     

Exploring children's foodscapes

In this article, we discuss children's becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. We draw from a project, Children as co-researchers of foodscapes, where we have been working with children as co-researchers, using basically ethnographic methods, and as co-designers in a collaborative design effort. This article focuses on the findings from a theoretically inspired perspective, using the concept of foodscapes. These are food-related structures of different kinds, which evolve as the child explores them and where children as food consumers are generated. In this article, we highlight the scapes of taste, routines, people, things, commerce, child (as opposed to adult) and health and give brief accounts of the way the children related to them. Finally, we turn to the benefits of working with foodscapes for a better understanding of children's becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. This article is based on data gathered by the children, but also on our fieldwork notes and observations following the children in their foodscapes.