A multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing Late Glacial and Early Holocene landscapes

Understanding palaeotopographical variability forms the basis for understanding prehistoric societies. Alluvial and lacustrine environments, in particular, are key areas with both a high archaeological and palaeoecological potential. However, the often deep stratification of these sites, the high water table and the complex sedimentological variations can hamper a detailed reconstruction of the spatial relationship between prehistoric settlement and their environment. Combining different remote and proximal sensing techniques and coring data, can offer detailed insight into such landscapes. More specifically, the integration of mobile geophysical methods allows the collection of unprecedented continuous information on large-scale palaeolandscape variability. In this study we present a combined approach in order to map and model prehistoric landscapes and river systems in and around a Late Glacial palaeolake in north-western Belgium. Based on filtered and unfiltered digital elevation models, a survey area of 60 ha was selected, in which detailed mobile multi-receiver electromagnetic induction survey was conducted. The results allowed for the delineation of palaeochannels in the area and enabled modelling the depth of these features in the survey area, providing insight into their flow characteristics. ¹⁴C sampling enabled the dating of the evolving river system to the transition between the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene. Through additional coring, this river system could be traced further through the palaeolake area. Based on these results a detailed reconstruction was made of the palaeotopography that harboured the Final Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic occupation of the study site.     

East is East,and West is West? Currency iconography as nation-branding in the wider Europe

This article considers European banknote iconography as an indicator of national branding choices from the early twentieth century up to the present. Systematic quantitative content analysis demonstrates that the values and ontologies expressed on Central/East European banknotes have historically tracked closely with the trends visible on their West European counterparts. This pattern is evident not just since the end of the Cold War, but indeed right from the founding of the modern Central/East European states about a century ago. Even during the Cold War, it did not take long for the trends on Western banknotes to appear on Central/East European banknotes as well. Thus, contrary to the conventional assumption of a deep-rooted normative gulf separating the national identity discourses of so-called “New” and “Old” Europe, the article underscores the fact of intense, longstanding normative cross-pollination between them.     

A comparative geochemical study of bituminous boat remains from H3, As-Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ-2, Ra's al-Jinz (Oman)

This paper presents a geochemical analysis of fragments of bituminous amalgam from H3, As‐Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ‐2, Ra's al‐Jinz (Oman). The fragments bear barnacles on one side and reed impressions on the other, and are thought to have been part of the coating of reed‐bundle boats. The material from H3 dates to between 5300–4900 BC, while that of RJ‐2 dates to 2500–2100 BC. Samples from both sites were geochemically compared to archaeological and ethnographic material from Kosak Shamali (northern Syria, c.5000–4400 BC), RH‐5 (Oman, 4400–3500 BC) and Baghdad (central Iraq, 1900 AD). The composition of the bituminous amalgams was studied in detail. Rock‐Eval Pyrolysis gave a measure of Total Organic Carbon in the samples, and allowed an initial comparison of the data sets using various parameters. Examination of the proportions of soluble and insoluble organic matter allowed an assessment of the quantity of vegetal matter added to the bitumen to make the bituminous amalgam. The composition of the Ra's al‐Jinz material was studied using X‐Ray Diffraction analysis and thin‐section petrography, in order to assess the proportions of various minerals in the bituminous amalgams. It was concluded that the recipe for the bituminous mixture used to coat reed‐bundle and wooden boats did not differ significantly from that commonly used to make ‘mortar’ for architectural purposes in Mesopotamia. Traces of animal fats or fish oils were not found in the analysed Ra's al‐Jinz material, in contrast to previous hypotheses regarding the composition of the mixture. Comparison of the gross composition of extractable organic matter (the constituents of pure bitumen, soluble in chloroform or dichloromethane) showed the progressive effects of weathering on the samples. The isotopic composition of the bituminous material from H3 and the other sites was then compared to that of bitumen seeps and crude oils from Mesopotamia, Iran and Oman. The most significant result is that the material from As‐Sabiyah originated in Kuwait, at a surface seep at Burgan, while the material from Ra's al‐Jinz had a source in northern Mesopotamia.     

From Savages and Barbarians to Primitives: Africa,Social Typologies,and History in Eighteenth–Century French Philosophy

This article describes the conceptual framework (what I call a “style of reasoning”) within which knowledge about Africa was legitimized in eighteenth–century French philosophy. The article traces a shift or rupture in this conceptual framework which, at the end of the eighteenth century, led to the emergence of new conditions for knowledge legitimation that altered Europe’s perception of Africa. The article examines these two conceptual frameworks within the context of a discussion of the social theory of the time, which categorized Africans first as savages, and then, with the advent of our modern “style of reasoning,” as primitives. The argument used to demonstrate this change in categorizations is historical. (In the terminology of Michel Foucault, the paper is an “archaeological” investigation of knowledge about Africa.) The greater part of the article analyzes in detail the principal social theory of Enlightenment philosophy, the stadial theory of society, with the aim of demonstrating how it determined what could be affirmed about Africa. The shift in the perception of Africans from savages to primitives involved an epistemological change in how societies were grasped. The article provides a greater understanding of the constitution of Africa as a cognitive construct, which is not only of theoretical concern; this construct shaped Europe’s intervention in Africa, and continues to influence what we believe Africa is and should become.