Strontium isotope analysis of Neolithic and Copper Age populations on the Great Hungarian Plain

The strontium isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) is used in archaeological studies to identify major events of population movement in prehistory such as migration, conquest, and inter-marriage. This study shows that the strontium isotope method can be expanded to identify more subtle shifts in prehistoric human mobility. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope ratios were analyzed in dental enamel from human and faunal specimens from the Late Neolithic and Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. The archaeological record indicates that several aspects of life changed during the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Copper Age (ca. 4500 BC) in Hungary; evidence for increased interaction over a wide geographical area, less resource pooling and the use of secondary products has been used to support the idea that local populations became more mobile, perhaps due to the adoption of an agro-pastoral economy. Results from this study identify a change in the range of strontium isotope values from the Late Neolithic to the Copper Age from a very narrow range of values to a much broader range of values, which suggests that changes in how land and resources were utilized on the Great Hungarian Plain affected incorporation of strontium into the skeletal system. This study indicates that the strontium isotope ratio is a valuable tool for identifying more subtle changes in prehistoric behavior such as a shift to a more pastoral economy.     

Innovation and Small Firms’ Growth Prospects: Relational Proximity and Knowledge Dynamics in a Low-tech Industry

The paper tests the hypothesis that innovation activity determines the growth prospects of small low-tech firms. Innovation here is analysed as a function of a firm's knowledge base and the relational proximity processes it is involved in. Analysis refers to small and medium- sized enterprises in tourism under the premise that important insights might be provided as regards to the functioning of innovation processes in low-tech industries.     

The After School Routines of Literature-Devoted Urban Children

This paper discusses the out of school routines of a group of ‘literature-devoted’ children of the city of Madrid (Spain). The children and families were recruited for the study at a library, a children's bookstore and a puppet show in a park. Participants provided information on their weekly routines through several procedures: surveys, photographs of their daily lives, interviews based on the photographs and interviews with parents. We develop a spatially based model that allows us to identify four styles of activity in children's out of school lives: homebound children, non-scheduled children, outdoor and scheduled children, and fully scheduled children. Our results suggest that there is significant diversity in the ways in which children's after-school time is organized, even within a middle-class and socially homogeneous sample as the one in this study. Also, the range of activities our participants engage in seems to contradict current portraits of Western urban children's lives as constrained.     

Buried together,buried alone: Christian commemoration and kinship in the early Middle Ages

This essay explores the ways in which strategies of commemoration elaborated by kin groups changed after the end of the western Roman empire and what role Christianity played in these transformations. In order to shed some light on the situation, a broad sample of cemeteries dating from late antiquity and the early Middle Ages was analysed, focusing on the spatial organization of the individuals within the cemeteries and around cult places. For this purpose archaeological, physical anthropological and epigraphic data were studied and juxtaposed with the theoretical debates expressed by Christian writers. The data at hand seem to suggest that rather than radically transforming kinship commemoration strategies, Christianity added new ideological layers, making its use and display multidimensional.     

Characterization of dyestuffs in ancient textiles from Xinjiang

Extraordinarily well-preserved organic remains from mortuary and settlement sites, including mummified bodies, are scattered along the outer, oasis-laden rim of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Province, China, ranging in date from about 1400 BC to the late first millennium BC. Specimens of textile finds from Chärchän, dated at about 1000 BC were selected for dye analysis using newly developed protocols employing high performance liquid chromatography with spectrophotometric and mass spectrometric detection. A single blue (from an indigo plant), a red (from madder, a Rubia species) and two yellow dyes were detected, although the exact plant source for none of them could be identified with certainty. This research offers new insights in the interpretation of textile finds from prehistoric Xinjiang, and more generally, of early Bronze Age Eurasia.     

City-Management – Eine Erfolgsstory?!

Seit geraumer Zeit wird das Thema Innenstadt kontrovers diskutiert. Neben dem Niedergang der City und der Konkurrenz zur „Grünen Wiese” werden zugleich die europ?ische urbane Stadt heraufbeschworen und zahlreiche Aktivit?ten zur (Re-)Vitalisierung unternommen. Von privaten Initiativen, H?ndlergemeinschaften über public-private-partnership-Projekte, wie z.B. „Ab in die Mitte” in Nordrhein-Westfalen, bis zum st?dtischen City-Manager und Landesf?rderung für Innenstadtprojekte reicht das Repertoire. City-Management ist dabei ein wesentliches Instrument. Wie City-Management in Deutschland aussieht und wie es sich entwickelt, zeigt der folgende Beitrag.     

Balance of power across the Channel: reassessing Frankish hegemony in southern England (sixth–early seventh century)

Relations between southern Britain and the Merovingian kingdoms in the sixth and early seventh centuries have largely been understood in terms of a Frankish hegemony extending across the Channel. However, a re-examination of the small group of written sources on which this idea is based shows that they do not necessarily imply such overlordship. Sixth-century archaeological evidence points to a different and more complex picture of Frankish influence: displaying links with the Franks was crucial for the self-representation of elites in southern England, and should be understood in the context of extensive transmarine contacts.