Landscape Construction and Long-Term Economic Practices: an Example from the Spanish Mediterranean Uplands Through Rock Art Archaeology

We argue in this paper that Levantine rock art in the Spanish Mediterranean basin allows us to ‘map’ the economic landscape of its makers. Rock art would be the ‘monumental’ side of a dual process of landscape construction: on the one hand, rock art is the first ‘cultural’ action on the landscape beginning in the Early Neolithic; on the other hand, the first evidence of active modification of the Mediterranean vegetation comes from this period. But this evidence as well as other kinds of archaeological remains are still relatively scarce in the uplands; rock art is therefore the most complete type of evidence we can use to support an early use of the Mediterranean upland environment. We use statistical and geographical analysis, together with archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources and pollen data, in order to support the idea of early use and exploitation of the Mediterranean uplands since the Neolithic, and into contemporary times.     

Giulio Preti ou le Tournant Pragmatique de la Philosophie

This article presents the essential characteristics of Giulio Preti's thought. It focuses on the primacy of pragmatic experience in order to historicize the formal principles of knowledge. The historicity of a priori in Preti's work acquires the form of a historicity of common sense, conceived as a historic vector of conceptual structures which shape culture. The integration of the classics of pragmatism into critical and transcendental European philosophies engenders a pragmatic turn in philosophy of great theoretical relevance.     

Embalming methods and plants in Renaissance Italy: two artificial mummies from Siena (central Italy)

Knowledge of the embalming methods used in Renaissance Italy comes not only from the literary texts of physicians and surgeons of that period, but also from artificial mummies which have been found. In 1999 two mummified bodies, dated back to the end of 15^th and beginning of the 16^th century, were recovered in a crypt of the hospital chapel of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (central Italy). The individuals were identified as Salimbene Capacci (1433–1497), Rector of the hospital, and his wife, Margherita Sozzini (?-1511). The mummies were submitted to autopsy and paleopathological examination, which included Computed Tomography. Palaeobotanical and palynological analyses were performed on the vegetable materials and plants used to fill the body cavities. This study was carried out with a multidisciplinary perspective, that allowed us to reconstruct the embalming techniques and substances used for mummification. The results are compared with the evidences provided by other mummies and embalming handbooks of that time.     

Petrographic and geochemical investigations of the late prehistoric ceramics from Sos Höyük,Erzurum (Eastern Anatolia)

Ceramics from the late prehistoric periods at Sos Höyük, in Eastern Anatolia, located along a thoroughfare that connects the Trans-Caucasus, Iran and central Anatolia, were subjected to petrographic and X-ray fluorescence analysis in order to characterise the clay groups, with a view to determining provenance and production patterns. Dominated by Kura-Araxes Ware, the data from the sequence at Sos Höyük were compared with the previous studies from the neighbouring regions to understand commonalities in pottery production. The analyses reveal a local production of vessels, most probably for household use. Although Sos Höyük potters shared similarities in the procurement pattern of raw clays and production technique with their neighbours, differences can be also recognized.     

Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in Mediterranean coastal environments: an isotopic study of the diets of the earliest directly-dated humans from Sicily

The subsistence of hunter-gatherers in the Mediterranean Basin has been the object of few studies, which have not fully clarified the role of aquatic resources in their diets. Here we present the results of AMS radiocarbon dating and of isotope analyses on the earliest directly-dated human remains from Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The radiocarbon determinations show that the Upper Palaeolithic (Epigravettian) humans from Grotta di San Teodoro (15 232–14 126 cal. BP) and Grotta Addaura Caprara (16 060–15 007 cal. BP) date to the Late-glacial and were possibly contemporary. The diets of these individuals were dominated by the protein of large terrestrial mammalian herbivores, such as red deer (Cervus elaphus). There is no evidence for the consumption of marine resources, which is probably the result not only of the oligotrophic nature of the Mediterranean, but also perhaps of the lack of adequate technology for exploiting intensively the resources from this sea. In spite of being contemporaneous and of the cultural and technological affinities present between the San Teodoro and Addaura humans, the carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope composition of their bone collagen suggests that significant differences were present in their diets. In particular, the hunter-gatherers from Grotta di San Teodoro, in NE Sicily where coastal plains are backed by high mountain chains (Monti Nebrodi), probably had easy access to resources such as anadromous brown trout (Salmo trutta), which might not have been similarly available in the NW of the island, where reliefs are noticeably lower and watercourses fewer and farther between. This study shows that the high biodiversity of this region, which results from the complex topography of Mediterranean landscapes, was probably exploited opportunistically by Late-glacial foragers. Our data also suggest that intensification and diversification of food acquisition in Sicily did not start in the closing stages of the late Pleistocene, as in other Mediterranean regions, probably because the island had only been (re-)colonized by humans around the Last Glacial Maximum.     

蓝色摩洛哥 混搭之城

多民族历史混搭和曾经的殖民统治,给摩洛哥留下的,就像一个混血大眼睛男孩迷人的神情,可以瞥见西班牙风情,又可以凝望撒哈拉的苍凉。     

Grassroots Ecologies of Value: Environmental Conflict and Social Reproduction in Southern Italy

In this article I examine socio-environmental conflicts through the category of value. Drawing from a single case study, an industrial city in southern Italy, I address the revaluation projects underpinning the conflict around socio-ecological arrangements that are considered unfair, unsustainable and detrimental to life. Focusing on the trajectory of local environmentalism and the specific case of a women group, the article shows how the intensification of the socio-ecological crisis prompted the shift of environmental conflicts from the sphere of production to the broader relations of social reproduction. I propose to analyse this shift through the concept of grassroots ecologies of value, which outlines a framework for thinking about how people deal with the socio-environmental contradictions in which they live, and their struggles for dignity and worth.     

Industrial Policy in the 21st Century

Industrial policy is back at the centre stage of policy debate, while the world is undergoing dramatic transformations. This article contributes to the debate by developing a new theory of industrial policy, incorporating some issues that have been neglected so far and taking into account the recent changes in economic reality. The authors explore how the incorporation of some of the neglected issues — commitments under uncertainty, learning in production, macroeconomic management (especially demand management), and conflict management — changes the theory. They then examine how the theory of industrial policy should be modified in light of recent changes in economic reality: the rise of the global value chain, financialization and new imperialism. This contribution aims at promoting a pragmatic approach to industrial policy and pointing to new areas for policy intervention in a changing world.