Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin,Sudan

With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this regard. It is the first time that an opportunity has occurred to construct a reliable model of the environment exploitation and the behaviour of human groups producing lithic tools using Levallois methods in the Terminal Pleistocene. Archaeozoological analyses have allowed the identification of taxa, species and anatomical origin of remains and enabled the establishment of a database of osteometric measurements. The animals hunted in the Sudanese Nile Valley during the Terminal Pleistocene have been classified with a view to refer the data to the results of analogous studies on MSA in South Africa. The behaviour of the communities occupying the Affad Basin 15,000 years ago was connected to the environment of the tree-covered, swampy savannah and extensive backwaters. Medium-sized antelope (kobus) was hunted most often. People hunted also, albeit less frequently, for large ruminants (buffalo), guenons and large rodents. Remains of fish and mega-fauna (hippopotamus and elephant) have been found in isolated concentrations, away from the camp sites. Remains of molluscs or ostrich eggs have not been registered. The condition of the osteological materials, notably their anatomical distribution, is shown to have been largely affected by wetland environment, rich in iron and manganese.     

Affective spaces,sensuous engagements: in quest of a synaesthetic approach to ‘dark memorials’

Although relatively recent, the concepts of ‘dark tourism’, ‘difficult heritage tourism’ and ‘Holocaust tourism’ have already been approached from historical, cultural, sociological, anthropological and managerial perspectives. The article offers a philosophical inquiry of ‘dark attractions’, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s work on aesthetics, with an aim of divorcing the term ‘dark tourism’ from its typically negative valance. It makes use of a synaesthetic understanding of experience and relies on an enlarged idea of perception conceptualised as a dynamic continuity between bodily/affective and intellectual cognitive faculties that are activated in the vibrant interaction with the architectural landscape of the ‘dark site’. The emphasis on immediate perception necessarily implies formulation of a concept of ‘affective aesthetics’ which refers to bodily process, a vital movement that triggers the subject’s passionate becoming-other, where ‘becoming’ stands for an intensive flow of affective (micro)perceptions. Such an approach sheds a different light on ‘Holocaust tourism’ and the ‘pleasures’ associated therewith, especially because it provides an explanation to a situation (common at many Holocaust memorials) when visitors are pleased, or positively affected, with representation/image/expression of sadness/atrocity. The synaesthetic operations of ‘dark attractions’ will be briefly illustrated with an example of the Holocaust memory site in Be??ec, Poland.     

The application of the tree-ring chronologies in assessing ecological requirements of Metasequoia glyptostroboides growing in southern Poland

Metasequoia glyptostroboides is considered to be a species highly resistant to harmful environmental factors. For this reason it has been introduced to the cities. The climate of Krakow differs from that in its natural range in China. The research was focused on 40-year-old trees, planted in Kraków on fertile alluvial soils with a low level of ground water, in the vicinity of the steelworks. During the period of the highest level of air pollution in the 1970s and 1980s, the radial increment of investigated trees showed an increasing trend. At the end of the 1980s, when the emissions were reduced, a decreasing trend in radial growth was recorded. Throughout the entire period of their life the investi-gated trees have shown high homogeneity of short-term growth reactions. The sensitivity chronology of the trees was characterized by a high representativeness and a strong high-frequency signal. This may indicate that the investigated trees have shown a large sensitivity to climatic factors. The positive effect on the radial growth of Metasequoia had a cold September in the previous year, and also a cold January, April and May in the year of ring formation. Positive impact on the growth of trees had also the high precipitation occurring in April and August, as well as high air humidity in the spring of the year of ring formation. In the period 1974–2011 fifteen signature years were found. The analysis of the climatic conditions in these years confirms the results of the statistical analyses.