Population and forest dynamics during the Central European Eneolithic (4500–2000 BC)

The population boom-and-bust during the European Neolithic (7000–2000 BC) has been the subject of lively discussion for the past decade. Most of the research on this topic was carried out with help of summed radiocarbon probability distributions. We aim to reconstruct population dynamics within the catchment of a medium sized lake on the basis of information on the presence of all known past human activities. We calculated a human activity model based on Monte Carlo simulations. The model showed the lowest level of human activity between 4000 and 3000 BC. For a better understanding of long-term socio-environmental dynamics, we also used the results of a pollen-based quantitative vegetation model, as well as a local macrophysical climate model. The beginning of the decline of archaeologically visible human activities corresponds with climatic changes and an increase in secondary forest taxa probably indicating more extensive land use. In addition, social and technological innovations are important, such as the introduction of the ard, wheel, animal traction and metallurgy, as well as changes in social hierarchy characterizing the same period.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Sir John Cramer, Pioneers, Politics and People: A Political Memoir (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) pp.viii + 231. $39.95 (hbk.) ISBN 0–04–442104–4.

Adam Graycar and Adam Jamrozik, How Australians Live: Social Policy in Theory and Practice (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1989, reprinted 1990) pp.xii + 314.

Ronald T. Libby, Hawke's Law: The Politics of Mining and Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1989) pp.xxvii + 175. $25.00 (pbk.) ISBN 0–85564–301–3.

George Palmer and Stephanie Short, Health Care & Public Policy: An Australian Analysis (Macmillan) $29.95(pbk.) $59.95(hbk.).

Tom Sheridan, Division of Labour: Industrial Relations in the Chifley Years 1945–1949 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.404. $45 00.

Gwyneth Singleton, The Accord and the Australian Labour Movement (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 222. $24.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–522–84421–9.

Hugh Stretton, Political Essays (Georgian House: Melbourne, 1987).

James Walter (ed.), Australian Studies. A Survey (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.vi + 326. $24.95 ISBN 0–19–554773‐X.

Patrick Weller, Malcolm Fraser: A Study of Prime Ministerial Power in Australia (Penguin Books, 1989) pp.xvii + 440. $26.99 ISBN 0–14–012974‐X.

Anna Yeatman, Bureaucrats, Technocrats, Femocrats: Essays on the Contemporary Australian State (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990) pp. xiii + 197. $14.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–04.442103–6.

Comparative and international politics

Raja Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan (New York: Verso Press, revised edition 1989) (Translated from the Urdu by Khalid Hasan, with and introduction by Fred Halliday) pp.xvii + 306. $34.95 ISBN 0–86091–979‐X.

George Bailey, The Making of Andrei Sakharov (Allan Lane, Harmondsworth, 1989) pp.453. $55.00 ISBN 0–7139–9033–3.

Patrick Cockburn, Getting Russia Wrong: The End of Kremlinology (London: Verso, 1989) pp.vii + 228. $24.95 ISBN 0–86091–977–3.

Bernard Eccleston, State and Society in Post‐War Japan (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989) pp.xvi + 286. $32.95 ISBN 0–7456–0166–9.

Julius W. Friend, Seven Years in France, François Mitterrand and the Unintended Revolution, 1981–1988 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989) pp xiv + 249. $US34.95 (hbk.).

John Gaffney (ed.), The French Presidential Elections of 1988 (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1989) pp.241. £29.50 ISBN 1–85521–059–2.

Steven A. Hoffmann, foreword by Michael Brecher, India and the China Crisis (Berkeley/London: University of California Press, 1990) pp.324. $US39.95 ISBN 0–520–06537–9.

Thomas Mann (ed.), A Question of Balance: The President, The Congress and Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1990). pp.ix + 265. $US29.95 (cloth) $US10.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–8157–5453–1.

Rosalind Marsh, Images of Dictatorship: Portraits of Stalin in Literature (London: Routledge, 1989) pp.267. ISBN 0–415–03796–4.

Ross M. Martin, Trade Unionism: Purposes and Form (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.xiii + 296. $70.00 (cloth) ISBN 0–19–827710–5.

Richard Mulgan, Maori, Pakeha and Democracy (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.viii + 159. $38.00 ISBN 0–19–558204–7.

William David Pederson, The ‘Barberian’ Presidency (N.Y.: Theoretical and Empirical Reading, Peter Lang, 1989) pp.xii + 265. ISBN 0–8204–0693–7.

Gerald M. Pomper et al, The Election of 1988: reports and interpretations (New Jersey: Chatham House, 1989) pp.vi + 221.

Edited by John Ravenhill, No Longer an American Lake? (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989) pp.285. $17.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–04–372042–0.

Colin White, Russia and America: The Roots of Economic Divergence. (London: Croom Helm, 1987) pp.268.

Political theory and methodology

David Boucher, The Social and Political Thought of R.G. Collingwood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) pp.xi + 300. $75.00 (hbk.) ISBN 0–521–36384–5.

Gregory Claeys, Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990) pp.xiv + 257. $34.95(pbk.) ISBN 0–04–445090–7.

Steven M. DeLue, Political Obligation in a Liberal State (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) $US39.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–7194–0092–1.

Eva Etzioni‐Halevy, Fragile Democracy: The Use and Abuse of Power in Western Societies (Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 1989) pp.xiii + 194. $US28.95 ISBN 0–88738–270–3.

David Held, Political Theory and the Modern State (Cambridge: Polity, 1989) pp.265. $29.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–7456–0620–2.

Sue Curry Jansen, Censorship: The Knot that Binds Power and Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) pp.282. $70.00.

Philip K. Lawrence, Democracy and the Liberal State (Dartmouth: Aldershot, 1989) pp.213.

Ellen Meiksins Wood, Peasant‐Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy (London and New York: Verso, 1989), pp.210 + x, pbk, $29.95, ISBN 0–86091–911–0

Erik Olin Wright, Uwe Becker, Johanna Brenner, Michael Burawoy, Vai Burris, Gugliclmo Carchedi, Gordon Marshall, Peter Meiksins, David Rose, Arthur Stinchcombe and Philippe Van Parijs, The Debate on Classes (London and New York: Verso, 1989) pp.ix + 356. $34.95.     

Your Tacitism or mine? Modern and early-modern conceptions of Tacitus and Tacitism

The purpose of this article is to show, by the example of Hugo Grotius's Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis (AH), that the nature and content of the concept of Tacitism (Tacitist, Tacitean) in the period around 1600 was markedly different from modern perceptions of the style and political purport of Tacitus's works. This gap between current and early-modern conceptions of Tacitus is important to bear in mind for intellectual historians dealing with early-modern intellectual currents such as Reason of State, Neo-Stoicism, Tacitism, and others.This article first describes how the Tacitean style is characterised in literary criticism around 1600; then it explores the qualities of Hugo Grotius's imitation of Tacitus from the 17th-century perspective and from that of some main aspects of the present-day view of Tacitus. It concludes that Grotius's imitation shows Tacitus's style in a characteristically 17th-century mirror, in that it puts emphasis on Tacitean syntax, brevity and choice of words (the stylistic micro-level), as well as on political iudicium and Reason of State, but omits imitation of the narrative and structural qualities of Tacitus's composition, and their implications, which are central to modern interpretations.     

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) as an Accumulator of Bones in Cave‐like Environments

Identifying the behavioural patterns of bone collecting animals is a crucial aspect of taphonomic studies. Although many studies have established criteria for identifying animal‐collected or animal‐modified bones, very few papers describe the distinguishing features of fox‐made bone assemblages. The bone assemblage collected in an inactive underground stone mine in Potok‐Senderki (Poland) is diagnostic of a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) den. This site provides an ideal opportunity to develop an understanding of the bone collecting behaviour of red foxes in cave‐like environments. This study showed that bones collected by red foxes are concentrated in clusters. The bones represent a broad spectrum of local fox prey species, with most bones showing the marks of gnawing. Each cluster may contain from <10 to >100 bones. Furthermore, the long axes of the bones in clusters frequently show specific orientation. The analysis of bones at this site might make an important contribution towards the establishment of baseline criteria for the identification and evaluation of fox‐accumulated bone assemblages. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

POTASH,SALTPETER AND TAR

Quantitative calculations on the use of natural resources provide valuable tools, which can give new insights to old questions and rise new ones. In this article, I compare the wood consumption in the production of potash, saltpeter and pine wood tar in 19th century Finland. My calculations shows that in the 19th century the cumulative wood consumption in the production of potash might have been higher or at least on the same level as in the production of tar, while the production of saltpeter consumed only a fraction. In the 1830s their combined wood consumption reached the level of slash‐and‐burn cultivation.     

Cover it! The Protection of a Merovingian Burial Ground in Borgharen (Municipality of Maastricht), the Netherlands

A Merovingian burial ground in Borgharen was threatened by development. Plans however could be changed so the site could be preserved. The initial research however showed the bone material was at risk of severe degradation in the near future. In order to determine whether in situ preservation was feasible three campaigns were carried out. This led to the conclusion that the burial conditions were excellent and there was little risk that severe degradation will reduce archaeological information of the site over the coming decades. The remaining threat concerned illegal excavators with metal detectors and spades. To protect the site it was covered with a series of different materials to prevent the site from being looted.     

Merchandising and sanctity: the invasive cult of Padre Pio

In the final decades of the twentieth century, the Blessed Padre Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968) became a 'saint' of global stature. It is most exceptional for the cult of a saint to acquire such dimensions in so short a time. Further, this is the story not of someone with a modern profile of sanctity,but someone who on the contrary answers to the traditional model of sanctity, and whose cult is moreover characterized by an instrumental devotional repertoire. Despite this 'classic' model, his person and cult are extremely ambiguous. This article describes and analyses the processes which have brought and continue to bring this about, and the recent development of the cult in Italy. By these processes a controversial cult, often associated with anti-ecclesiastical devotional activities and of limited scope, has become one of the most important and irreproachable in Italy. In part through the personal support of Pope John Paul II, in about a decade Padre Pio has grown from a friar in a controversial fundamentalist context to an almost invulnerable national saint, who is beginning to become a part of the Italian identity. The power of his cult is so strong - a devotional avalanche - that it has sidelined other cults, and to an increasingly large degree defines the Italian sacred landscape. The Pio cult encroaches on other devotions, and moreover is becoming its own competitor: to an increasing degree Pio's central pilgrimage site at San Giovanni Rotondo is losing pilgrims to the secondary pilgrimage site at Pietrelcina and to the hundreds of chapels and local shrines that have sprung up the length of Italy.