Death-Agony and Birth Pangs: Inheritors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under German Occupation 1915–1918

ABSTRACT

The Ober-Ost administration instated in 1915 covered a fragment of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania; a territory contested by Germany and Russia, inhabited by a nationally and religiously diverse society, with the Polish-Jewish city of Wilno as its central point. The German policies exploited the national aspirations of both the Lithuanians and the Belarusian leaders to dissolve the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Contrary to the Belarusian leaders focused on short-term benefits, the Lithuanian politicians proved more resourceful in using the seemingly pro-Lithuanian and pro-Belarusian policies towards obtaining their own nation state. The Germans discriminated the Lithuanian Poles in terms of rights to political activity, even when conducted without subsidies from the occupier. The disunity with the local society progressed and benefited the supporters of Polish national policies, however few in Wilno in 1915. The German authorities successfully pushed the Lithuanian Poles, so far seeking consensus with other local communities, towards merging with the post-war Polish state announced by the Act of 5th November 1916. The Germans backed the creation of small, interdependent Lithuanian and Belarusian states. The Lithuanians however issued a second declaration of independence (16.02.1918), thus becoming the only ones to benefit from Germany's military defeat.     

Settlement, Landscape and Social Identity: The Early-Middle Bronze Age Transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly.     

Chenopodium Seeds in Open-Air Archaeological Sites – How to Not Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

ABSTRACT

Differentiating between charred and uncharred plant remains may appear straightforward but for some taxa (here fat-hen, Chenopodium album type) can be very problematic. Recognition of the preservation state is obviously crucial for archaeobotanical data derived from dry, open-air sites. Fat-hen as a common weed, is also one of the most important components of a persistent soil seed bank. It is also a well-known food plant, gathered or cultivated. Numerous findings of fat-hen seeds in unclear states of preservation were noted in the Early Neolithic sites of the Linear Pottery culture in Kuyavia (N Europe). In previous studies such specimens were omitted as probably uncharred. Re-examination of Neolithic finds of fat-hen from that region showed the link of their abundancy with the earliest phases of the Neolithic occupation. The plant probably played an important role in the diet of the early Neolithic settlers there. It may indicate intensive use of local, open, fertile, probably alluvial areas. Distinguishing between ancient and modern specimens of that common weedy plant, producing large amounts of small, black, resistant seeds is thus very important, holding a great potential to shed new light on the origins of agricultural societies in this part of northern Europe.