Polylinear incursions and autochthonous adaptations: Neolithisation and sustainable sedentarisation of the Arabian Peninsula

This contribution’s broad and in parts essayistic approach to Arabia’s Neolithic is less a discussion of findings than an explicit advocacy for future holistic research strategies. Based on the contribution’s meta-theoretical inputs, it suggests two sets of theses to be tested by the hitherto gained fragmentary information and future research on Arabia’s Neolithic. It aims to encourage an “emancipation” of Arabia’s early to mid-Holocene research from conceptions developed outside its regions, and to identify the Neolithic elements and developments of the Arabian lands by distinguishing incursions from primarily autochthonous and/or autonomous adaptations in their own right. It is suggested that productive lifeways are considered to be the only crucial parameter to testify a Neolithic status. In our view this is the case, provokingly enough, for the productive foraging management of natural resources which attests surplus and pre-planning strategies and contacts with established Neolithic socio-economies. Polylinear incursions and autochthonous adaptations are discussed as the two poles between which early to mid-Holocene developments in Arabia took place. A set of basic and a set of trajectory hypotheses on Arabia’s neolithisation and finally sustainable sedentarisation (reliance on oases economies) is presented, offered as a possible framework for future multi-/ transdisciplinary research.     

Neolithic nomadism in south‐east Arabia — strontium and oxygen isotope ratios in human tooth enamel from al‐Buhais 18 and Umm al‐Quwain 2 in the Emirates of Sharjah and Umm al‐Quwain (UAE)

Human skeletal remains from the Neolithic sites BHS18 in the interior of the Sharjah Emirate and the Neolithic shell midden UAQ2 (Umm al‐Quwain) on the coast of the Persian Gulf (United Arab Emirates, UAE) were analysed for their isotope ratios of strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and oxygen (¹⁸O/¹⁶O). The results are not in agreement with earlier assumptions about a Neolithic nomadism between inland regions and the south‐eastern coast of the Persian Gulf. Existing evidence of nomadic movements of the people from BHS18 most possibly refers to transhumance within the mountains in the hinterland. The strontium isotope measurements on human skeletons from UAQ2 on the contrary indicate uninterrupted residence of this population on the coast. Nevertheless, evidence was found of individual mobility between inland regions and the coast.     

The Conservative Critique of the Enlightenment: The Limits of Social Engineering

The conservative, mainly Anglo-Saxon, critique of “social engineering” in Enlightenment thinking, which goes back to Edmund Burke and David Hume, among others, has recently resurfaced in the works of Michael Oakeshott, Roger Scruton, and Friedrich Hayek. This article focuses on their conservative critiques and more specifically on two common issues: the unintended negative consequences of political planning, and the institutions in civil society that act as a positive counterpart to this form of engineering.     

Characteristics of Collaboration in Product Innovation in the Regional System of Innovation of East Gothia

The focus of this article is on product innovations introduced by firms (establishments) and the collaborations they enter into with other firms and organizations in carrying out this activity. The theoretical framework combines innovation theories with the literature on regional innovation systems and the knowledge-based economy. Empirically we have investigated characteristics of collaboration among manufacturing establishments in the region of East Gothia in Sweden, with specific focus on the number of employees involved in the innovation projects, mechanisms of knowledge transfer between organizations, as well as financing and patenting in relation to product innovations.     

A laboratory cave for the study of wall degradation in rock art caves: an implementation in the Vézère area

The aim of this proposal is to present an original approach to the study and preservation of rock art caves. A multidisciplinary study of cave wall alteration will be performed to understand the impact of environmental context on the evolution of wall surfaces. The approach involves the choice of a cave with characteristics similar to painted caves in the studied area (Vézère Valley in Dordogne, France): e.g., cave wall alteration, lithology, morphology, etc. This selected cave is intended to become a laboratory cave, monitored for the acquisition of chemical, physical and biological environmental data on bedrock, air and fluids along with their characteristics. A cave without art or archaeological interest has been chosen specifically to conduct experiments, to make in situ analysis and to obtain samples. The results are to be completed by specific observations in several other caves and compiled in a database.