Refit and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Freshwater Mussel Shells from the Tillar Farms Site (3DR30), Southeast Arkansas

ABSTRACT

We investigate the link between the consumption of foodstuffs, excavation of a large pit, and disposal of waste at the Tillar Farms site (3DR30), southeast Arkansas, using refit and oxygen isotope analyses of well-preserved freshwater mussel shells from Feature 1. Only 0.13% of 7,408 valves analyzed were unidentifiable to species.The refit analysis produced 460 refits across 23 species and strongly indicates that the shell midden represents a single episode of shellfish gathering, consumption, and discard. Oxygen isotope analysis of five randomly selected shells are used as a test of the refit results. δ¹⁸O values from the five archaeological shells are compared to modern control samples of live-collected specimens from Bayou Bartholomew in winter of 2011. Refit analysis suggests the accumulation of mussel shells occurred quickly, likely as a result of one collection, consumption, and discard event. δ¹⁸O values suggest this activity took place during a single winter season.     

Leaving for work,leaving in fear (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

In June 2010 outbreaks of violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks began in the Kyrgyzstani cities of Osh and Jalal‐Abad and quickly spread to neighbouring towns. The mass aggression ended relatively quickly, but individual acts of brutality primarily aimed at Uzbeks have continued; the number of Uzbeks leaving the region for work appears to be rising quickly. McBrien reflects on the link between the increase in labour migration and the ethnic violence of June 2010 in a small town that has been her primary fieldsite for the past eight years.     

‘Now they’re coming after our schools’: interrogating urban intimacies of children and displacement

ABSTRACT

Education scholars grappling with policy issues related to community and identity issues may pay attention to the work of emotion. Rationalist, psychological frameworks that bound many educational researchers’ policy analyses are limited in scope: the policy process is seen as a linear cause-and-effect process. A feminist geographic attention to this research offers a more complex understanding of the experiences of policy. Using children’s displacement by gentrification as an example, this commentary will show how a feminist geographic understanding of place attachment offers a more complete understanding of the effects of gentrification. Specifically, using the concept of the ‘intimate city’, I show how the global process of gentrification is entangled with the intimate embodiment of emotions. And in order to effectively study education policy, we must be attuned to how children embody their emotions.     

‘The bullets buzzed like bees’: Gunshot wounds in skeletons from the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Gunshot trauma is an important, but often overlooked, avenue for interpreting the historic past. Ten skeletons of Seventh Cavalry troopers, killed during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, are analysed osteologically. Six of the ten specimens have gunshot wounds, including three to the cranial vault. The other wounds are to postcranial remains, including one in an innominate. This wound location aids the identification of the individual, confirming and complementing historic accounts. Of the remaining two, one is to the humerus and the other to the chest region. These wounds provide insights into the nature of perimortem injuries, weapons used in the battle, and interpretations of the battle.