Plant microfossils in human dental calculus from Nemrik 9, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq

Samples of dental calculus were taken from 11 human individuals buried at Nemrik 9, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq. All of them represented the time span of ca. 9100–8600 bp. In total, 95 microfossils were retrieved from these samples, including 70 phytoliths, 9 starch granules or clusters of starch, 3 pollens, and 1 xylem fragment. Most microfossils could be attributed to C₃ cool season cereals, most likely wheat and barley, which is consistent with previous knowledge about the composition of crops in early farming communities living in the Fertile Crescent. In addition, three phytoliths and one starch granule typical of C₄ warm season grasses were recovered including one subangular and faceted starch granule, which might derive from a native grass, but is not diagnostic of any genus. Prior to assigning diagnostic status to this starch, exhaustive reference work on native grass seeds is necessary. The presence of one Phragmites phytolith suggests non-alimentary processing of reeds using teeth or perhaps using the stem of this grass as a toothbrush or toothpick.     

Ethics and Entrepreneurship

An important criticism of public entrepreneurship has been that Us precepts and practices are not consonant with democratic values. This paper examines the meaning of entrepreneurship as defined in bath the public and private sectors, suggesting that some attributes of entrepreneurs that commonly are deemed undesirable–egotism, selfishness, waywardness, domination, and opportunism–actually are functional for entrepreneurial activity. This is because entrepreneurship plays an essential role in addressing a particular type of policy problems (here called "anarchic")–those where goals are ambiguous or conflicting and where the means to achieve them are unknown or uncertain. Finally, methods are suggested for encouraging ethical entrepreneurship, whether undertaken in an anarchic setting or within an organizational matrix that is communitarian or bureaucratic.