Urban experimentation & sustainability transitions

ABSTRACT

This special issue deals with various research questions regarding the impact of urban experimentation on transitions towards sustainability in different industries and sectors. Cities have been identified to play a vital role for sustainability transitions. Not only are they places with an increased urgency for change, but they also bring about many current sustainability initiatives and interventions. This special issue focuses on investigating the relationship between urban experimentation and institutional change. The articles shed light on various characteristics of urban environments that influence experimentation and potentially lead to institutional change and thus elaborate on some of the distinct mechanisms through which urban experimentation can lead to broader systemic changes.     

Testing for the presence of thermal pretreatment of flint in the mesolithic and neolithic of Sweden

Through ethnographic accounts, the method of heat treatment of silica materials to improve the flaking qualities is shown to have been known almost worldwide. Some mesolithic and neolithic flint artifacts from southern Sweden were examined in order to determine if they too were heat treated. From several methods proving or indicating thermal alteration of flint, analysis using scanning electron microscopy was chosen. Two samples were taken from each artifact, one being examined unaltered, the other being heat treated. No two samples from the same artifact had the same kind of surface appearance. Thus these analyses prove that the artifacts examined had not been heat treated.     

Distal cryptotephra found in a Viking boathouse: the potential for tephrochronology in reconstructing the Iron Age in Norway

Distal tephra deposits from Icelandic volcanic eruptions have been found in Norway and can be used to precisely date a variety of sedimentary environments. Tephrochronology has not yet been applied to archaeological investigations in Norway because tephra are generally not found as visible layers, but are present as very low concentrations of glass shards (i.e. cryptotephra). In this study, we present results from the analysis of cryptotephras found in an Iron Age boathouse in northern Norway. The boathouse was associated with the chieftain center at Borg on Vestvågøy in the Lofoten Islands. In 2003, a trench was excavated and the stratigraphy of the boathouse was described. Radiocarbon ages from cultural deposits show that it was constructed in the Early Iron Age c. AD 540–660 and the main period of use was at the end of the Iron Age between c. AD 1030 and AD 1270. Volcanic glass shards were isolated from sediment samples collected above and below the cultural deposit representing the main period of use. Electron microprobe analysis of the glass shards showed that the lower sample resembles the AD 860 Layer B tephra and the upper sample resembles tephra erupted from the Hekla volcanic system between AD 1104 and AD 1300. These tephrochronologic dates agree with the radiocarbon-derived dates and possibly further constrain the boathouse’s main period of use to c. AD 1030–1104. Our results demonstrate the value of using tephrochronology for archaeological studies in Norway and the potential for finding cryptotephra from other large explosive volcanic eruptions during the Iron Age.