Archeometric characterization of prehistoric grindstones from Milazzo Bronze Age settlement (Sicily,Italy)

The results of a petrographic and geochemical study carried out on archeological grindstones allow to provide new constraints on protohistoric commercial exchanges over the Mediterranean area. Eleven grindstones, discovered in an archeological site located in Milazzo (Messina, Sicily) and dated from the Early Bronze Age, have been investigated by geochemical and petrographic techniques. The raw materials are mainly volcanic rocks characterized by calc-alkaline and K-alkaline affinities with volcanic arc geochemical signature. Only one sample, made of basalt belonging to the Na-alkaline series, shows an intraplate signature. The comparison with the available literature data for similar rocks allowed constraining the volcanic origin of the exploited lavas. While the intraplate-type raw material came from Mt. Etna Volcano (Sicily), the arc-type volcanic rocks are mostly trachyandesites, basaltic andesites, and one rhyolite. Although most of them come from the Aeolian Arc, a provenance of some samples from the Aegean Arc cannot be excluded. This last region could represent the most probable provenance area for the rhyolite sample.     

Success of a flexible behavior. Considerations on the manufacture of Late Epigravettian lithic projectile implements according to experimental tests

It is generally recognized that the function and modality of hafting are the main factors influencing mental templates, and consequently, stone tool standardization. But what role do technical knowledge and traditions play? In this study, we investigate the interaction between mental templates and technological choices in the manufacture of Late Epigravettian projectile implements. The examined specimens come from different dwelling phases of the Dalmeri rock shelter (Italian Alps). Technological analyses suggest that lithic production systems gradually simplified their structure over time, implying a shift in technical investment from shaping on the core to a subsequent shaping on the derived flake blank. However, correlations between the dimensions and morphological features among the armatures from the different units suggest that mental templates remained unchanged throughout the Alleröd. Experimentation attests to the frequent combined application of different retouching techniques. Further, the variability in their arrangement denotes the absence of strict rules and the Epigravettian capability to recognize the most situationally suitable method. In the Dalmeri rock shelter, the standardization of lithic projectile implements is therefore a result of flexibility in retouching, framed in a production system characterized by a progressive simplification. A such rapidly produced and responsive technology must have been encouraged by Late Glacial climatic and environmental changes and the occupation of alpine territories previously inaccessible. Thus, the flexibility of technical behaviors turns out to be a key element in the transformation of Late Epigravettian societies during this period, enabling them to adapt and evolve in response to environmental, social, and economic changes.     

Book reviews—Comptes rendus

State‐building—Formation de l'Etat

P. LE ROUX, Romains d'Espagne. Cités et politique dans les provinces, Paris, Armand Colin, 1995,182 p., cartes, chronologies, glossaire, bibliographie, index.

Janice E. THOMSON, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns. State‐building and extraterritorial violence in early modern Europe, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994, xiii + 219 p., ISBN 0691086583.

Isser WOLOCH, The New Regime. Transformations of the French civic order, 1789–1820s, New York & London, W.W. Norton, 1994, 536 p. ISBN 0–393–03591–3.

Marie‐Anne MATARD‐BONUCCI, Histoire de la mafia, Bruxelles, Editions Complexe, 1994, 317 p. ISBN 2–87027–505–6.

Religious history—Histoire religieuse

C. Stephen JAEGER, The Envy of Angels: cathedral schools and social ideals in medieval Europe, 950–1200, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, xvi + 515 p., ISBN 0–8122–3246–1.

Bodo NISCHAN, Prince, People and Confession. The Second Reformation in Brandenburg, Philadephia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, 366 p., 21 black & white illustrations, ISBN 0–8122–3242–9.

Marriage and power—Manage et pouvoir

Martin AURELL, Les Noces du Comte. Mariage et pouvoir en Catalogne (785–1213), Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1995, 623 p.

Carole LEVIN, The Heart and Stomach of a King. Elizabeth I and the politics of sex and power, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, ISBN 0–8122–1533–8.

William G. WAGNER, Marriage, Property and Law in Late Imperial Russia, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994, xiv + 413 p., ISBN 0198204477.

Northern Europe—Europe du Nord

T. KJAERGAARD, The Danish Revolution, 1500‐I800. An ecohistorical interpretation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xii + 314 p., ISBN 0521442672.

David KIRBY, The Baltic World 1772–1993: Europe's northern periphery in an age of change, London & New York, Longman, 1995, viii + 472 p., 4 maps, ISBN 0–582–00408‐X (hardback), 0–582–00409–8 (paperback).

Contemporary political history—Histoire politique de l'époque contemporaine

François DUCHENE, Jeen Monnet: the first statesman of interdependence, New York & London, W.W. Norton & Co., 1994, 478 p., ISBN 0393034976, 0393314901.

Romain YAKEMTCHOUK, L'adhésion de la Belgique à l'ONU 1944–1945. La contribution belge à la rédaction de la Charte de San Francisco, Bruxelles, Institut Royal des Relations Internationales, 1995, 207 p.

Kenneth MAXWELL, The Making of Portuguese Democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, 250 p., ISBN 0–521–46077–8.

Methodology—Méthodologie

Jean BOUTIER et Dominique JULIA (sous la dir. de), Passés recomposés. Champs et chantiers de l'histoire, Autrement, Série Mutations, no. 150–151, 349 p.     

Some Insights on the Aterian in the Libyan Sahara: Chronology, Environment, and Archaeology

The Aterian has a huge geographic extension covering all North Africa, although it was not supposed to exist in the mountain ranges of the central Sahara. Its chronological context is not yet definitively determined and it is still difficult to say whether the Aterian tools are technological, typological, functional, or chronological markers. Recent surveys and excavations at Uan Tabu and Uan Afuda, two rock-shelters located in the central Tadrart Acacus, provide the first chronological, environmental and archaeological indications on this Late Pleistocene human occupation in the area. The lack of organic matter led us to perform OSL and TL analyses on sand. L'Atérien a une énorme extension géographique qui couvre tout le Nord de l'Afrique, tandis qu'on ne pensait pas qu'il existait dans les montagnes du Sahara central. Son contexte culturel n'est pas définitivement déterminé et il est encore difficile de dire si les instruments atériens sont des indicateurs téchnologiques, typologiques, fonctionels ou culturels. Reconnaissances et fouilles récentes à Uan Tabu et Uan Afuda, deux abris situés dans l'Acacous central, fournissent les premières indications sur la chronologie, l'environnement et l'archéologie de l'Atérien dans la région. L'absence de la substance organique, nous a porté à faire des déterminations OSL et TL sur les sables.     

City Size Distribution Analyses Based on the Concept of Entropy Competition

The present work pursues theoretical and empirical objectives. With regards to the former, it is demonstrated that the natural tendency to uniformity of both the probability distribution of a city to have a certain number of inhabitants and that of a person to reside in a town of a given number of citizens leads to a competition between their information entropies, which provides the power law distribution as the most probable one for city size. It is also shown that Zipf's law reflects the significant control of the existence of interconnections between cities on the self-organization of their size. With regards to the empirical objectives, based on population data of European countries and Italian municipalities, the theoretical approach proposed is validated. At the Italian scale, city distribution is shown to be a power law for cities above 10,000 inhabitants. In the 20 Italian regions, the breakpoint in the distribution is generally lower. Finally, the geographical control on city distribution is discussed based on the results achieved in some regions.     

Pragmatisme Logique et Probabilisme Radical dans la Philosophie Italienne du XXe Siècle

This article sketches the principal characteristics of a philosophical trend which has met with some resistance despite the recognized importance of its representatives. This text illustrates the ideas at the foundation of the logical and methodological pragmatism of Giovanni Vailati and Mario Calderoni. These are ideas which should have surfaced in the international debate about the principle of verification and the concept of analyticity. In addition, the links between these ideas and the development of the subjective conception of probability in the work of Bruno de Finetti are explored.