Early Holocene palaeoseasonality inferred from the stable isotope composition of Unio shells from Çatalhöyük,Turkey

Seasonal δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O data are presented from 14 Unio sub-fossil shells unearthed at the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey, spanning the occupation period ca. 9150–8000 cal years BP. The shells likely lived in the small lakes/wetlands around the site before being gathered and taken to Çatalhöyük. Wet-dry seasonal cycles are clearly apparent in the δ¹⁸O_shell profiles with low winter values reflecting winter precipitation and high δ¹⁸O in the summer resulting from evaporation. The most striking trend in the δ¹⁸O data is the drop in maximum summer δ¹⁸O ca. 8300 years BP, which we infer as indicating lower summer evaporation and hence a reduction in seasonality. Previous palaeoclimate records from the area have suggested cooler and more arid conditions, with reduced precipitation, around this time. While the drop in summer δ¹⁸O values could be due to reduced summer temperatures reducing summer evaporation, but there was little change in winter δ¹⁸O, perhaps suggesting winter growth cessation or reduced influence of winter climate change on δ¹⁸O. This shift in seasonal climate could be linked to solar-forced climate change beginning ca. 8600 years BP, and enhanced by the regional expression of the 8·2k event. Changing water balance over the occupation period is likely an important contributory factor behind observed cultural changes at Çatalhöyük in the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic period. Our results might be considered to support the fission-fusion farming hypothesis as we provide additional evidence for wet winter/early spring conditions during the Early Holocene which likely caused flooding of the Çar?amba Fan. The changing water balance after ca. 8300 years BP (i.e. reduced seasonality and potentially reduced local summer evaporation) is also coincidental with the proposed end of this farming system due to multi-decadal drought.     

Book reviews

New Book Review policy

Australia

IDEALS AND FOREIGN POLICY

Henry S. Albinski

J. A. Camilleri, An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1973, pp. v + 137, $1.50; J. Camilleri and M. Teichmann, Security and Survival. The New Era in International Relations, Heinemann Educational Australia. Melbourne, 1973, pp. ix + 226, $3.75.

Peter Aimer, Politics, Power and Persuasion: the Liberals in Victoria, James Bennett, Melbourne. 1974. pp. lv + 243, $9.95.

Alan Richardson, British Immigrants and Australia: A Psycho‐social Inquiry, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. 198, $8.95.

Bruce Juddery, At the Centre: The Australian Bureaucracy in the 1970s, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 272. Illustrated by Pickering. $4.95.

F. A. Larcombe, The Origin of Local Government in New South Wales 1831–58, Sydney University Press, in association with the Local Government Association of New South Wales and the Shires Association of New South Wales, 1973, pp. xv + 323, maps, $12.00.

H. G. Oxley, Mateship in Local Organization, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1974, pp. 240, $8.00.

H. Raysmith, J. Rimmer and D. Wookey, The Gee‐long Experiment in Social Planning, Geelong and District Community Chest Association, 1973, pp. 110, no price given.

C. A. Hughes and B. D. Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives 1901–1964, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. xiv + 544 + xiii, $8.95.

International

URBAN POLITICS Martin Painter

Eugene Lewis, The Urban Political System, Dryden, Hinsdale, Illinois, 1973, $5.00.

Murray S. Stedman, Urban Politics, Winthrop, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, $7.50.

Kevin R. Cox, Conflict, Power and Politics in the City, McGraw‐Hill, N.Y., 1973, $4.50.

I. H. Burnley, ed., Urbanization in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1974, $13.50.

Rex Mortimer, ed., Showcase State: The Illusion of Indonesia's “Accelerated Modernisation”, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973, pp. xiii + 163, $3.25, $5.95.

CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA

S. P. Seth

Edward E. Rice, Mao's Way, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies), Berkeley, 1972, pp. 596 + ix, $14.00.

Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan), 1972 (paperback), pp. 604 + xix, $US5.95.

Geoffrey Jukes, The Soviet Union in Asia, Angus and Robertson (in association with The Australian Institute of International Affairs), Sydney, 1973, pp. 304 + vii, $7.50.

Alastair Lamb, The Sino‐Indian Border in Ladakh, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 113 + xi, $6.00.

T. E. Smith, ed., The Politics of Family Planning in the Third World, Allen and Unwin, London, 1973, pp. 352, $14.00.

Ronald J. May, ed., Priorities in Melanesian Development: Papers Delivered at the Sixth Waigani Seminar, University of Papua and New Guinea, Port Moresby, and Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, ANU Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. xii + 470, $6.00.

J. Ayodele Langley, Pan‐Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa 1900–1945, Oxford University Press, London, 1973, pp. viii + 421, $12.00.

Robert C. Good, U.D.I.: The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion, Faber & Faber, London, 1973, pp. 368, $14.00.

Jack. Hayward, The One and Indivisible French Republic, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973, pp. 306, $16.00 and $6.10.

Jean‐Jacques Salomon, Science and Politics, N. Lindsay, trans., MIT Press, Cambridge, 1973, pp. xxii + 277, $US 15.00.

M. Moroshima, Marx's Economics, Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. viii + 198, £3.60.     

Trends in political science

Ithiel de Sola Pool, ed.: Contemporary Political Science: Toward Empirical Theory, McGraw‐Hill, New York, 1967, pp. 276, $7.90.     

Book reviews

Australian books

L. L. Robson, The First A.I.F. A Study of Its Recruitment 1914–1918, Melbourne University Press, 1970, pp. 227 + ix, $6.75.

Richard Gordon (ed.), The Australian New Left: Critical Essays and Strategy, Heinemann Australia, Melbourne, 1970, pp. 304 + x, $1.75.

D. J. Murphy, R. B. Joyce and Colin A. Hughes (eds.), Prelude to Power. The Rise of the Labour Party in Queensland 1885–1915, Queensland University Press, 1970, pp. 336 + xx, $6.95.

J. T. Lang, The Turbulent Years, Alpha Books, Sydney, 1970, pp. 319, $4.95.

C. B. Schedvin, Australia and the Great Depression. A Study of Economic Development and Policy in the 1920s and 1930s, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1970, pp. 419 + xvi, $10.00.

K. D. Buckley, The Amalgamated Engineers in Australia, 1852–1920, Department of Economic History, A.N.U., Canberra, 1970, pp. 318, $5.00.

W. M. Hughes, The Case for Labor, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1970, pp. 144 + xxxiv, $1.75 (paper).

W. J. Hudson, Australia and the Colonial Question at the United Nations, Sydney University Press, 1970, pp. ix + 214, $6.00.

W. E. Tomasetti, Australia and the United Nations: New Guinea Trusteeship Issues from 1946–1966, New Guinea Research Bulletin No. 36, pp. viii + 110, Australian National University, 1970.

E. M. Andrews, Isolationism and Appeasement in Australia. Reactions to the European Crises, 1935–1939, Australian National University Press, 1970, pp. 236 + xv, $6.95.

W. Macmahon Ball, Australia and Japan, Nelson, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 172 + xii, $1.95

H. I. London, Non‐White Immigration and the “White Australia” Policy, Sydney University Press, 1970, pp. 318, $7.00.

J. M. Bennett (ed.), A History of the New South Wales Bar, Law Book Company for the Bar Association of New South Wales, Sydney, 1969, pp. 282 + xiv, $10.25.

R. McMurchie (ed.), Australia 1980: Australian Finance Conference — International Seminar, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1969, pp. 154, $3.50.

Julie Rigg (ed.), In Her Own Right, Nelson, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 184 + viii, $4.95.

Non‐Australian books

Trevor R. Reese, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. A Survey of International Relations 1941–1968 (Royal Institute of International Affairs), Oxford University Press, London, 1969, pp. 376 + x, $9.35.

Austin Mitchell, Politics and People in New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1969, pp. 323, $4.75.

Max Beloff, Imperial Sunset Vol. 1, Britain's Liberal Empire 1897–1921, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1969, pp. 387 + xii, $9.60.

Grant Hugo, Britain in Tomorrow's World, Principles of Foreign Policy, Chatto & Windus, London, 1969, pp. 256, $5.40.

G. St. J. Barclay, Commonwealth or Europe, Queensland University Press, St. Lucia, Queensland, 1970, pp. 210 + xi, $4.95.

J. D. Simmonds, China's World, The Foreign Policy of a Developing State, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1970, pp. 260 + ix, $6.95.

Haruhiro Fukui, Party in Power. The Japanese Liberal‐Democrats and Policy‐Making, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1970, pp. 301, $8.50.

S. M. Lipset (ed.), Politics and the Social Sciences, Oxford University Press, New York, 1969, pp. 328 + xxii, $7.50 (Aust.).

J. B. Sanderson, An Interpretation of the Political Ideas of Marx and Engels, Longmans, London, pp. 118, 18/‐ stg.

Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz, Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, New York, 1970, pp. 220 + xiv, $2.95 paper, $6.75 cloth.

Robin Farquharson, Theory of Voting, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1969, pp. 83 + xii, $US5.00.

Stein Rokkan and Jean Meyriat, International Guide to Electoral Statistics. Volume I: National Elections in Western Europe, Mouton, The Hague, 1969, pp. 351 + vi. $13.50.

S. K. Panter‐Brick (ed.), Nigerian Politics and Military Rule: Prelude to the Civil War, Athlone Press, London, 1970, pp. 267, 55/‐ stg.