Diet and death in times of war: isotopic and osteological analysis of mummified human remains from southern Mongolia

This study presents the results of an isotopic analysis of nine naturally mummified individuals—three adults, two adolescents, one juvenile, and three infants—recovered from the Hets Mountain Cave site in southern Mongolia, where they had been secondarily deposited. All of the individuals show evidence of violent perimortem trauma, but no skeletal indicators of nutritional or disease-related stress. Multi-isotopic data (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and ²⁰ⁿPb/²⁰⁴Pb) were characterized in multiple tissues from each individual when possible, in order to reconstruct diet composition and residential origin at different points in life. Specifically, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N in bone carbonate and collagen (N = 8) and hair keratin (N = 4) were coupled with enamel carbonate δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C (N = 3) and enamel ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and ²⁰ⁿPb/²⁰⁴Pb (N = 3) to assess diet and residential mobility in relation to skeletal indicators of health and trauma. Results are consistent with a persistence of mixed C₃/C₄ pastoral subsistence and general stability of diet composition over the life course, in contrast to contemporary accounts of widespread famine and a dependence on grains imported from China throughout the region. However, results also suggest that at least some individuals may have migrated to this region of southern Mongolia from elsewhere during life, meaning that their dietary isotopic profiles may not represent local subsistence patterns near the Hets Mountain Cave site. Overall, these results speak to the utility of life course oriented multi-isotopic analysis in complementing more top-down historical analyses in understanding variation in subsistence, nutrition, and migration in regions undergoing significant political and economic turmoil.     

Between crime and colony: interrogating (im)mobilities aboard the convict ship

Recent literature in carceral geography has attended to the importance of mobilities in interrogating the experience and control of spaces of imprisonment, detention and confinement. Scholars have explored the paradoxical nature of incarcerated experience as individuals oscillate between moments of fixity and motion as they are transported to/from carceral environments. This paper draws upon the convict ship – an example yet to gain attention within these emerging discussions – which is both an exemplar of this paradox and a lens through which to complicate understandings of carceral (im)mobilities. The ship is a space of macro-movement from point A to B, whilst simultaneously a site of apparent confinement for those aboard who are unable to move beyond its physical parameters. Yet, we contend that all manner of mobilities permeate the internal space of the ship. Accordingly, we challenge the binary thinking that separates moments of fixity from motion and explore the constituent parts that shape movement. In paying attention to movements in motion on the ship, we argue that studies of carceral mobility must attend to both methods of moving in the space between points A and B; as micro, embodied and intimate (im)mobilities are also played out within large-scale regimes of movement.     

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.     

‘A good wife stays home’: gendered negotiations over state agricultural programmes,upland Vietnam

Rural and livelihood studies, alongside development organisations, are stressing the importance of gender awareness in debates over food security, food crises and land tenure. Yet, within the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, these gender dynamics are frequently disregarded. In Vietnam, rice is intimately linked to the country's food security. Over the last decade, rice export levels, production methods, and local and global market prices have remained constant preoccupations for governmental and development agencies. Steadfast official approval for agricultural technologies and intensification has seen the domestic growth and importation of hybrid varieties of rice and maize seeds. Yet, the impacts of these technologies on upland ethnic minority rice producers and consumers in Vietnam have been overlooked. For these women and men, such as Hmong and Yao farmers, food security is a daily concern for their near-subsistence livelihoods. While strongly encouraged to grow these new seeds, insufficient research has examined the social realities and experiences of these upland minority groups. Moreover, how such agrarian policies and practices are being implicated in reconfiguring gender roles, relations and identities through transformations to individual and household livelihoods has been ignored. In this article, we focus on the gendered consequences of the government's hybrid rice programme for upland farmers. We reveal recent impacts on family relations, including rising intergenerational tensions across genders, and shifting responsibilities and new negotiations between young spouses. These dynamics are further complicated by household economic status, as household members access specific opportunities available to them to improve everyday food security.     

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...     

Usages of Domestic Life in the Middle Ages

This paper is based on the lecture given to the Institute at the Society of Antiquaries of London on 18 October 1972. It concerns the discovery in 1967 in a house in the village of Harwell of the aisled hall, formerly in the curia of the medieval manor of the Bishop of Winchester, for which the Pipe Rolls for most of the years from 1208 to 1450 exist. The earliest phase of which parts survive consisted of a framed building with passing-braces built in the twelfth or early thirteenth century. The evolution of this form of timber dwelling with oak is traced from continental, probably lower Rhineland, structures of the ninth and tenth centuries. The long timbers used as passing braces are likely to have been derived from buildings in southern Germany which used conifers such as fir, timber that in turn had a long history from Roman times.