Complex Pathways Towards Emergent Pastoral Settlements: New Research on the Bronze Age Xindian Culture of Northwest China

Journal of World Prehistory - The Xindian culture of northwest China has been seen as a prototypical example of a transition toward pastoralism, resulting in part from environmental changes that...     

The Scramble for East Africa: British Motives Reconsidered, 1884–95

This article re-examines the partition of East Africa. It first outlines the existing historiography, namely the dominant geo-strategic Nile model, and suggests that there are two major areas of weakness upon close analysis: a lack of documentary evidence; the way the sequence of actual events and policy decisions is inconsistent with the main thesis. Second, using a wide range of sources, a new chronology of events will be proposed that divides the annexation process into three separate stages. The article will first expose the importance of the prelude to partition in determining its ultimate geographical scope, in particular Anglo-German relations, local treaties and the commercial expectations for the lakes region. The second and third sections will expose the importance of public opinion in formulating a forward policy in the region. Finally, building on this, it will be argued that the role of Britain's anti-slave-trade policy needs to be fully acknowledged, with regard to Britain's raison d'être for establishing a formal presence on the mainland in 1885 with the occupation of the territories encompassing modern Kenya and Uganda in successive stages from 1885 to 1895.     

Emergent Complexity,Changing Landscapes,and Spheres of Interaction in Southeastern South America During the Middle and Late Holocene

Newly created academic programs at Brazilian universities have provided the impetus for new archaeological projects in southeastern South America during the last two decades. The new data are changing our views on emergent social complexity, natural and human-induced transformation of the landscape, and transcontinental expansions and cultural interactions across the Río de la Plata basin during the Middle and Late Holocene. We concentrate on six major archaeological traditions/regions: the Sambaquis, the Pantanal, the Constructores de Cerritos, the Tupiguarani, the Southern Proto-Jê, and the middle and lower Paraná River. Diverse and autonomous complex developments exhibit distinct built landscapes in a region previously thought of as marginal compared with cultural developments in the Andes or Mesoamerica. The trajectories toward increased sociopolitical complexity flourished in very different and changing environmental conditions. While some groups were pushed to wetland areas during a drier mid-Holocene, others took advantage of the more humid Late Holocene climate to intensively manage Araucaria forests. The start of the second millennium AD was a critical period marked by an increased number of archaeological sites, the construction of ceremonial architecture, and the intensification of landscape transformation; it also was marked by the rapid expansion of influences from outside the La Plata basin. The Amazonian Tupiguarani and Arawak newcomers brought with them significant changes in technologies and social and political structures, as well as novel landscape management practices.     

Settlements and Seafaring: Reflections on the Integration of Boats and Settlements Among Marine Foragers in Early Mesolithic Norway and the Yámana of Tierra del Fuego

The abundant Early Mesolithic (11,500–10,000 cal. BP) settlements at the raised shorelines in Norway and Sweden represent the earliest documented marine foragers in northern Europe. In the Scandinavian seascapes, both traveling and subsistence depended on seaworthy vessels. However, this highly mobile lifestyle was likewise dependent on settlements on firm ground. Departing from actor-network theory and symmetrical archaeology, I explore the structural relations between extensive use of boats, basic co-residing units, and activity patterns at settlements. The empiric basis for my study is the excavated Early Mesolithic coastal sites in the Ormen Lange project in Central Norway, dated to ca. 11,000–10,800 cal. BP. I suggest that the structural uniformity that is observed in the settlements may be related to the dependency on boats for subsistence activities as well as transport and settlements, creating human-thing dynamics that interlocked co-residents and boat crews, logistics, and activity patterns. This dynamic regime is also explored with ethnohistorical and archaeological references to the Yámana in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.     

Mycenaean pottery from the Argolid and Achaia—a mineralogical approach where chemistry leaves unanswered questions

The chemical classification of Mycenaean pottery from the Northern Peloponnese by neutron activation analysis (NAA) resulted in two groups with very similar chemical compositions assigned to production centres in the Argolid and in Achaia, respectively. The statistical separation of these two groups on the basis only of their chemical composition was difficult, and not clear‐cut for all of the examined samples. A complementary mineralogical examination by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) of some selected samples indicated differences in the mineralogical composition, which confirmed the determined chemical differences. Furthermore, a clay sample was examined, which showed a composition similar to that of the pottery.     

Institutionalising Future Geographies of Financial Inclusion: National Legitimacy Versus Local Autonomy in the British Credit Union Movement

In Great Britain, financial infrastructure withdrawal and community economic decline have focused attention on the capacity of locally "alternative" financial institutions to combat social and financial exclusion. This paper examines one such institution, the residential or "community" credit union, which provides a low-cost source of credit for members drawn from a common bond area usually based upon place of residence and/or work. Although community credit unions have traditionally been seen as providing individuals and communities with the opportunity to access credit and savings facilities in areas where there has been contraction in bank and building society provision (the financial "mainstream"), ongoing attempts exist to move away from the traditional role of community credit unions. This transition has set up three main challenges for the British credit union movement, discussed in this paper as follows: (1) a struggle over the attempt to redefine the "model" credit union within the national credit union movement; (2) the changing regulatory context for credit union development, including attempts to embrace credit unions within New Labour policies on social exclusion; and (3) a "local" challenge, including the incorporation of credit unions into community economic development initiatives. The paper considers how these challenges feed into wider understandings about the social relations, categorisation and autonomy of locally "alternative" financial institutions. We argue that future research on geographies of financial inclusion focusing on "alternative" institutions and their relationship to the financial mainstream needs to pay close critical attention to potential contradictions and tensions operating at different, yet intersecting spatial scales.     

Fallout 137Cs and natural 40K as tracers of topsoil development during slope processes — a case study from the Daugai environs, Southern Lithuania

Investigations of soil erosion by ¹³⁷Cs method brings uncertainties of different nature. The estimation of the ¹³⁷Cs local inventory is associated with problems of data comparison and instrumental errors. In order to avoid systematic errors, the rate of soil erosion determined by the ¹³⁷Cs method is compared with the values obtained for other radioactive elements. Soil parameters must be regarded too. The aim of the work was to test the character of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K distribution in the topsoil vertical section for determination erosion-accumulation type and ratio in different time spans. The topsoil thickened by different types of erosion-accumulation processes was sampled at a 2–3 cm interval. Soil samples were analysed by means of scintillation gamma spectrometry. The relationship between ¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K inventories was weakest in the topsoil formed by mixing of soil material during the installation of artificial drains. Based on climatic characteristics, variations of theoretical soil accumulation rate in the last 50 years were calculated for the topsoil accumulated predominantly by water erosion. ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs correlation in the bottom of vertical section of topsoil or arable horizon are closest and this section may be used as a complementary parameter determining the local inventory value.