First evidence of the production of Ginalski E5 button spurs from copper alloy in Central Europe

Ginalski-type E5 button spurs made from a Cu alloy are a characteristic attribute of the Middle Roman period in barbarian Europe. The find of part of a mould made of non-ferrous metal at the Luleč site in the district of Vyškov, Czech Republic, provided key evidence for explaining the issue of their production. The discovery of this unique artefact showed that based on current knowledge, the spurs made from a Cu alloy were also produced in the Middle Danube region and not only in Northeast Europe as had previously been thought.     

Identification of a possible engraved Venus from Předmostí, Czech Republic

One Gravettian feminine representation – the schematic Venus of P?edmostí – is so different from all the others that it has always been regarded as unique. The engraving, which was closely examined for the purpose of comparison in this study, represents a woman composed of geometric shapes, including a triangular head with interior lattice-work, concentric ellipses for the breasts, belly and pelvis, a double ladder for the remaining arm, hatch marks, and a thigh made up of parallel vertical lines. This article presents the discovery and discusses the authenticity of a second, feminine anthropomorph engraved on a bone shaft fragment, which is labelled as coming from the same site and is highly similar to the one described at the end of the nineteenth century. The modern history of P?edmostí reveals that the site was used as a quarry for the extraction of loess and limestone, and that tons of mammoth bones were extracted to produce spodium. Remarkable objects that were found both during early archaeological excavations and the site’s commercial exploitation went towards private collections. The history of the piece under study traces it back through a succession of owners to the collection of René de Poilloüe de Saint-Périer (b.1877–d.1950) and Raymonde-Suzanne de Saint-Périer (b.1890–d.1978). The engraving is on the periosteal surface of a limb bone from a very large mammal, probably a proboscidian. Microscopic analysis of the bone surface and engravings identify the chronology of the grooves and their relations to the stages of the bone’s alteration and fracturing, starting with: 1) heavy weathering of the bone surface that produced longitudinal cracks, which probably led to its breakage, 2) engraving of the feminine representation, 3) intense mechanical and chemical attacks that smoothed all of the bone’s surfaces and wore down the engravings, 4) covering with a consolidation agent, and, most recently, 5) some abrasion, which resulted in the creation of a few straight lines. Since no evidence is found to suggest that the highly worn appearance of the engravings composing the feminine representation resulted from modifications that were meant to artificially age the periosteal surface of the bone, we conclude that the engraving can be plausibly attributed to the Gravettian and that further analyses are warranted.     

Protective Structures for the Preservation of Medieval Buildings and their Remains: Case Studies from Monastery Hilandar and Mount Athos

The objective of this study is to establish a methodology for temporary protective structures, that is, the guidelines for planning, design, and implementation of future protective structures. The basic method of this paper was the observation and analyses of temporary protective structures as well as the evaluation of the results achieved in implementation of these rules in completed structures, within the Hilandar Monastery complex on Mount Athos, in Greece. Mount Athos was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its cultural and natural values. The Holy Mount Athos is a unique monastic complex in the world and only males are allowed past the entrance. Having performed the evaluation of certain types of temporary protective structures, the given results were offered as recommendation for their design and implementation. The most significant accomplishment of this paper is verification of the designed, calculated, and completed protective structures through practical application within the Hilandar Monastery complex, in accordance with all the factors of site management.     

The utility of livestock dung for reconstructing recent ethnological and environmental histories

Animal dung is evaluated here as a tool to reconstruct recent societal and environmental changes. Studies completed on the macro- and micro-contents from dung deposited in a mountain cave in Catalonia during the 1970–1980s, preceding the socio-economic changes in the area, was supplemented by the testimony of the last shepherd alive in the area. This information was also compared with evidence from aerial photographs of the area surrounding the cave taken in 1956 and 2009. Although taphonomic distortion of the dung shape precluded its assignment to its producers based on morphology, information from the organic remains reflects the agro-pastoral activities in the mountainous area of the Catalan coast. A lack of calcium phosphate and abundant phytolith and epidermal remains from wild species indicates that the dung was excreted by ovicaprines, who sheltered in the cave during spells of adverse weather. These indicators also signify that the animals fed only on natural vegetation. Insect remains in the dung include fragments of chafers, dung and ground beetles, bees and ants, and whilst the latter may have foraged in the cave, the others may have been accidentally ingested by herbivores. The nannofossils and diatoms found in the dung derive from tertiary crops 4 km away from the cave but within the range of the ovicaprine herd. The lack of cereal and vegetable remains in the dung is consistent with the ethnographic record that shepherds and farmers could not afford to supplement the herds’ diet with fodder crops or grain, a consequence of the low productivity of the local subsistence agriculture. This study further discusses the socio-economic impacts of the introduction of intensive farming, industrialisation and tourism in Catalonia during the latter part of the last century and how they are represented in the dung.     

Seal dies from the National Museum of Slovenia: Non-destructive analyses of medieval and early modern copper alloys

A representative group of seal dies made of copper alloys from the collection of the National Museum of Slovenia was investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF). Chronologically, the artefacts date from the early 13th century to the present. Non-destructive EDXRF screening of elemental fingerprints of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ag, Sn and Sb was performed on 95 seal dies, and the obtained elemental data set was further processed by chemometric tools such as principal component analysis (PCA). The relationships between the elemental composition of analysed seal dies, type of alloy applied and their historical context—date, location of manufacture and, possibly, social rank of the owner—were examined in detail.     

A Geographic Network Automata Approach for Modeling Dynamic Ecological Systems

Landscape connectivity networks are composed of nodes representing georeferenced habitat patches that link together based on a species’ maximum dispersal distance. These static representations cannot capture the complexity in species dispersal where the network of habitat patch nodes changes structure over time as a function of local dispersal dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this study is to integrate geographic information, complexity, and network science to propose a novel Geographic Network Automata (GNA) modeling approach for the simulation of dynamic spatial ecological networks. The proposed GNA modeling approach is applied to the emerald ash borer (EAB) forest insect infestation using geospatial data sets from Michigan, U.S.A. and simulates the evolution of the EAB spatiotemporal dispersal network structures across a large regional scale. The GNA model calibration and sensitivity analysis are performed. The simulated spatial network structures are quantified using graph theory measures. Results indicate that the spatial distribution of habitat patch nodes across the landscape in combination with EAB dispersal processes generate a highly connected small-world dispersal network that is robust to node removal. The presented GNA model framework is general and flexible so that different types of geospatial phenomena can be modeled, providing valuable insights for management and decision-making.     

Anti‐nationalist nationalism: the paradox of Dutch national identity

Academic research on contemporary Dutch nationalism has mainly focused on its overt, xenophobic and chauvinist manifestations, which have become normalised since the early 2000s. As a result, less radical, more nuanced versions of Dutch nationalism have been overlooked. This article attempts to fill this gap by drawing attention to a peculiar self‐image among Dutch progressive intellectuals we call anti‐nationalist nationalism. Whereas this self‐image has had a long history as banal nationalism, it has come to be employed more explicitly for political positioning in an intensified nationalist climate. By dissecting it into its three constitutive dimensions – constructivism, lightness and essentialism – we show how this image of Dutchness is evoked precisely through the simultaneous rejection of ‘bad’ and enactment of ‘good’ nationalism. More generally, this article provides a nuanced understanding of contemporary Dutch nationalism. It also challenges prevalent assumptions in nationalism studies by showing that post‐modern anti‐nationalism does not exclude but rather constitutes essentialist nationalism.