The Territorial Approach to Cultural Economy: New Opportunities for the Development of Small Towns

In recent years, there has been a notable development of research on the role of culture in regional and local development models and on the relevance of the so-called cultural economy. Despite the existence of several nuances, it is possible to identify two basic research approaches to the issue. The first is focused on analysing the industry of culture, showing the processes of concentration of cultural activities in some places and the links with other sectors of the local economy. The other approach, more oriented towards the territory, emphasizes the role that a system of cultural assets can play in the dynamics of economic and social development of a specific area. In contrast to the first, which concerns larger cities, the territorial approach privileges medium- and small-sized towns and rural areas. In adopting this perspective, we present the case study of Volterra, a small Italian town whose cultural heritage has been considered in recent years as the main local development driver. By means of a direct survey and interviews with opinion leaders, we have attempted to assess the perceptions and reactions of residents and visitors and to identify the connections between the local heritage, cultural activities and strategies of urban development.     

Constructions of rural childhood: challenging dominant perspectives

This article reviews research on the lives and experiences of children and young people living in rural Minority world environments. The literature reviewed has focused on constructions of rurality in relation to children's experiences, most notably the rural idyll. Alternative constructions of rural childhood, characterised by dullness, horror and deprivation, are also apparent, and associated with insufficient rural activities, resources and transport, marginalisation and social exclusion. The more recent inclusion of children's perspectives on rural living provides a deeper understanding of rural childhood and challenges the dominant perspectives.     

Digging in the Dark: The Underground War on the Western Front in World War I

Throughout the First World War, with the trenches largely static, the combatants tried to break the deadlock by tunnelling under one another’s trenches. The Tunnelling Companies of the British Royal Engineers were engaged in a bitter struggle against German Pioneers that left both sides with heavy casualties. A project to determine the location of one particular act of heroism in that underground war has resulted in the erection of a monument to the Tunnellers at Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée in northern France.     

New trials in the consolidation of waterlogged archaeological wood with different acetone-carried products

Some acetone-carried consolidants for waterlogged archaeological wood were tested in order to evaluate treatments able to save time and energy. In details, colophony (rosin), two esterified colophonies (Rosin 100^® and Rosin 459^®), a mixture of colophony with PEG 3400 and a vinyl acetate - vinyl versate copolymer (Vinavil 8020S^®) were tested. The treatments were carried out at temperatures of 20 and 35 °C on waterlogged maritime pine, elm, oak and beech. The materials came from the archaeological site of the ancient ships of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy) and were dated back to VII cent. BC – II cent. AD. To evaluate the processes, equilibrium moisture content and dimensional stability of treated wood samples at different relative humidity, and retention of impregnating products were measured; moreover macroscopic and microscopic examination were also run to respectively assess the shape and appearance of treated wood and the way of deposition of consolidants. The results highlighted that natural and modified colophony treatments gave the most satisfactory results both in the maintenance of shape and dimensions of samples and in the stabilization with respect to RH variations. Moreover, the equilibrium moisture contents of samples treated with R100 and R459 were much reduced in comparison to the other consolidants and to untreated archaeological wood. This fact was related to the high retention values of those products that occluded most of the porosity including the microporosity of cell walls. Therefore, in terms of higroscopicity treated wood was more similar to impregnating substances rather than to decayed wood. This fact was considered helpful in contrasting the moisture-related negative effects in cases of eventual faults in the climate control during e.g. exhibition and in protecting treated wood from the risks of new fungal attacks.     

Establishing the Middle Sea: The Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean Europe (1700–900 BC)

Journal of Archaeological Research - The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the...     

Unstable Bodies: Science,Society, and Visual Work

In recent years increased attention has been paid to both modes and processes of seeing in anthropology. At the same time, the body as the locus of visual practice is increasingly problematized. The works reviewed here are all concerned with making people — and bodies — visible, but are aware of the methodological, moral, and political implications of this. Other common threads include the tension between reproduction and representation, the self-awareness of the seen and seeing body, and the roles of digital and other technologies in rendering bodies visible or, at least, present.     

Ecological constraints on the first prehistoric farmers in Europe

The Neolithic Revolution, which witnessed the transformation of hunter–gatherer groups into farming communities, is traditionally viewed as the event that allowed human groups to create systems of production that, in the long run, led to present-day societies. Despite the large corpus of research focused on the mechanisms and outcomes of the Neolithic transition, relatively little effort has been devoted to evaluating whether particular production-oriented adaptations could be integrated into a broad range of ecological conditions, and if specific cultural traditions differed ecologically. In order to investigate whether the differences between the adaptations and geographic distributions of three major Early Neolithic archaeological cultures are related to the exploitation of different suites of environmental conditions, we apply genetic algorithm and maximum entropy ecological niche modeling techniques to reconstruct and compare the ecological niches within which three principal Neolithic cultures (Impressed Ware, Cardial Ware, and Linearbandkeramik) spread across Europe between ca. 8000 and 7000 cal yr BP. Results show that these cultures occupied mutually exclusive suites of environmental conditions and, thus, were adapted to distinct and essentially non-overlapping ecological niches. We argue that the historical processes behind the Neolithization of Europe were influenced by environmental factors predisposing occupation of regions most suited to specific cultural adaptations.