Quantitative Dental Mesowear Analysis in Domestic Caprids: a New Method to Reconstruct Management Strategies

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Dental mesowear is a widely used tool in archaeology and palaeontology for the reconstruction of the overall diet of mammals. This method is based on...     

Probing dietary change of the Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį individual,an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: I. Complementary use of marine lipid biomarker and carbon isotope signatures as novel indicators of a marine diet

The remains of the preserved ice body from the Kwäd?y Dän Ts'ìnch? discovery were recovered from a retreating glacier in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia in August 1999. Despite the remote location 80 km inland, bone collagen stable isotope analysis indicated that the individual spent much of his life in a region rich in marine foods (δ¹³C −13.7‰ and δ¹⁵N +17.9‰). Since finds of such bodies are exceptionally rare we undertook detailed lipid analyses in order to assess their preservation and determine whether they might provide new insights into the individual’s dietary life history. Molecular fingerprinting and compound-specific carbon isotope analysis were performed on individual lipids extracted from his bone (turnover approximately ≥1 year) and skin (turnover approximately several weeks). A considerable abundance was observed of C_12:0, C_14:0, C_16:0, C_16:1, C_18:0 and C_18:1 fatty acids (FAs), cholesterol and hydroxy FAs (the latter being decay products). Most unusual was the presence of long-chain hydroxy FAs (LCHFAs), 10- and 12-hydroxyeicosanoic acid and 10- and 12-hydroxydocosanoic acid, in the bone. The latter components are most likely the products of microbially mediated hydration of the double-bonds of C_20:1 and C_22:1 FAs, the latter almost certainly originating from the consumption of a largely marine-based diet. A suite of three isoprenoidal lipids, phytanic acid, pristanic acid and 4,8,12-trimethyltetradecanoic (TMTD) acid, was also detected supporting the notion of a significant marine component of the diet for a substantial part of his life. In contrast, the skin lipid composition was dominated by C_{16:0 FA}, with lower abundances being observed of the marine LCHFAs and isoprenoidal compounds, suggesting reduced reliance on coastal marine foods in the last period of life. This interpretation is supported by the enhanced marine dietary signal observed in the bone than skin FA δ¹³C values.     

Women and Work after the Second World War: A Case Study of the Jute Industry, Circa 1945-1954

This article examines the attempts by the Dundee jute industryto recruit women workers in the years circa 1945–1954.It locates its discussion of these attempts in the literatureon the impact of the Second World War on the participation ofwomen in the British labour market more generally, and the forcesdetermining that participation. It stresses the peculiaritiesof jute as a traditional major employer of women operating invery specific market conditions, but suggests that this casestudy throws light on the broader argument about the impactof war and early post-war conditions on women's participationin paid work.     

From Empires to Nation-State: Remaking the Roman Catholic Church in an Independent Poland

ABSTRACT

Roman Catholicism is most often imagined as an element of continuity in Poland’s turbulent history: even when a Polish state was absent from the map of Europe from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries, a recognizably ‘Polish’ church has been presumed to provide a robust institutional anchor for the Polish nation. This article, however, argues that the creation of a ‘Polish’ Roman Catholic church was a belated and protracted process, one that was only getting started in the years following the achievement of Polish independence in 1918. The church’s ‘Polonization’ was only partially a matter of emancipation from imperial-era restrictions. It often also involved the defence and attempted extrapolation of laws, practices and institutions that had developed under the auspices of the German, Austrian or Russian states and that the Catholic hierarchy viewed as healthy and desirable building blocks for a future Polish church. These imperial precedents continued to provide crucial points of reference in ongoing debates about what ‘Polish’ Catholicism was and what it should become.     

The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Hominin presence is well documented in a number of Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene European localities. However, the evidence currently available indicates that Acheulean handaxes spread in the fluvial basins of Western Europe during MIS 11, ～400 kyr ago, associated with Homo heidelbergensis, although a number of early Middle Pleistocene Acheulean assemblages have been dated from MIS 16 onwards. For this reason, the magnetostratigraphic dating in Southeast Spain of two archaeological localities, the open-air site of Solana del Zamborino (SZ) and the rock-shelter site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Quípar (EQ), that put back the appearance of handaxes to the Early-Middle Pleistocene limit (Scott and Gibert, 2009) is of particular interest, as the new ages suggest that H. heidelbergensis was a contemporary of H. antecessor that had the ability to produce Levallois debitage and to control fire during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. However, we have detected a number of errors in the interpretation of the archaeological assemblage from the first site as well as striking discrepancies with the original faunal lists published for both localities, with several large mammal species that are omitted or arbitrarily changed to make the assemblages consistent with the new ages deduced from magnetostratigraphy. For this reason, we suggest that: (1) the finding of reverse polarity in the sediments sampled for paleomagnetism in SZ may simply record one of the polarity reversals that took place during the Brunhes Chron, although the use by Scott and Gibert (2009) of a composite stratigraphic column precludes correlating these levels with a specific reversal; and (2) the fauna and tools of EQ correspond to the late Middle Pleistocene sedimentary infillings of this karst site, while the samples taken for paleomagnetism belong to a previous sedimentary cycle during the Matuyama Chron. Such interpretations would be in better agreement with the age estimates provided by biostratigraphy and also with the currently accepted chronology for the appearance of Acheulean industries in Western Europe.