Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera Formation

The archaeological record of Oldowan hominins represents a diverse behavioral system. It has been suggested that exploitation of lithic resources by Oldowan hominins was simplistic and represented mostly use of local sources of stone. Here we investigate the raw material selection and transport behaviors of Oldowan hominins reflected in the stone artifact assemblages from the Kanjera South Formation, South Rachuonyo District, Kenya. Using geochemical methods (ED-XRF) artifacts are linked to primary and secondary source outcrops throughout southwestern Kenya. These data show that hominins selected raw materials for transport at frequencies that are significantly different from their availability on ancient landscapes. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the assemblage represents transport over relatively long distances (>10 km). Our study further suggests that in the early stages of stone tool use hominins used a wide variety of raw materials and selected these materials at some distance from their eventual discard locations. Early hominin behavior may have incorporated an understanding of raw material source distributions across a more extensive landscape than has been previously documented. This supports the growing perspective that Oldowan technology represents a more complex behavioral pattern than is usually associated with the beginnings of hominin tool use.     

The European defence project and the Prague summit

This article reviews the state of the two security and defence institutions available to west Europeans: NATO and the EU's common European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). In each case, the authors assess the political maturity and stability of the institution, and then ask what it can contribute in terms of coordinated military capability to west European's strategic readiness. NATO's Prague summit in November 2002 will address the thorny issue of the next tranche of post–Cold War enlargement. But beyond the predictable debate about which candidates to admit, and what should be offered to those unsuccessful in their bid, there will be a far more urgent and important agenda to be discussed at Prague—the military capabilities of the European allies. Given that ESDP is still far from achieving its capability goals, the authors argue that the time is right for European allies to begin thinking in terms of generating a composite, joint strike force which could be configured to be interoperable with US forces and which could salvage something useful from the disheartening lack of progress in developing a European military capability.     

"Days of Heaven on Earth": Presbyterian Communion Seasons in Nineteenth–Century Otago

Communion seasons were a distinctive and important part of nineteenth–century Presbyterian culture. This paper examines such occasions in the Presbyterian–dominated colony of Otago, New Zealand. Communion was a significant social event, and its preparatory fast days were holidays for the whole community. As a spiritual event, the communion season induced an experiential and emotive piety, belying common modern perceptions of nineteenth–century Presbyterianism as an ascetic and intellectualised faith. Over the period from the founding of the colony (1848) to the turn of the century, certain rituals of the communion season altered significantly. Some changes occurred in response to new ideologies such as temperance; others reflected a softening of traditional Calvinist theology in favour of a more inclusive religion, Presbyterians being invited to communion rather than having to prove themselves fit to attend. Such changes were not unique to Otago, and practice in the colony reveals a strong continuity with events in Scotland: the Presbyterian communion season proved a remarkably successful import to colonial Otago.