MEDITERRANEAN CORAL: ITS USE and EXCHANGE IN and AROUND the ALPINE REGION DURING the LATER NEOLITHIC and COPPER AGE

Different types of Mediterranean coral are described, and the potential sources of prehistoric coral in the central Mediterranean are considered. Early examples of coral artefacts from in and around the alpine region, as well as their finds-contexts, are then described and chronologically defined, and their value, use, and exchange is discussed.     

The framework nation: can Germany lead on security?

Can Germany lead on security? This article aims to address this question by looking at recent German contributions to European defence cooperation. In 2013 Germany introduced the Framework Nations Concept (FNC) as a systematic and structured approach towards joint capability development. The concept relies on the idea that bigger nations take the overall responsibility for coordinating the contributions of smaller partners in a capability package. The framework nation model as such is not new but the initiative has been welcomed as a potential game changer in European defence cooperation and as confirmation of Germany's commitment to NATO. In light of the Ukraine crisis, measures to adapt NATO and to strengthen the European pillar of the alliance have become more urgent. Allies and partners increasingly want Germany to extend its role as Europe's dominant economic and financial power to matters of security and defence. The framework nation model allows Germany to take international responsibility, while avoiding debates about leadership and hegemony. Moreover, as a framework nation, Germany can advance flexible cooperation among a smaller number of allies without undermining its commitment to multilateralism. But the FNC initiative also raises further questions: what is the added value of the framework nation model compared to similar formats; what should be the place of smaller groupings in the evolving Euro‐Atlantic security architecture; and how reliable is Germany in the role of a lead nation?     

TRITON'S TRUMPET: A NEOLITHIC SYMBOL IN ITALY

Summary. The distribution and uses of triton shells in Italy from the Neolithic to modern times are described in detail, along with a summary of examples from the Neolithic and Copper Age of Central Europe and the central and eastern Mediterranean. Attention is then focused upon the triton shell trumpet, which is interpreted both as a Neolithic visual symbol and an oral signal, and suggestions are offered concerning its changing meaning in historical and more recent times.     

Ambivalent solidarities: Food governance reconfigurations in Croatia and Italy

The authors compare the solidarity practices of farmers and food activists in Croatia and Italy in order to highlight the unintended consequences of mutual support initiatives and how these may reinforce disengagement from governance. Two ethnographic case studies from Istria (Croatia) and Lombardy (northern Italy) show self-reliant ways of organizing mutual support networks among, respectively, Istrian winemakers and Lombard Solidarity Purchase Groups. They both challenge the top-down regulatory governance of food systems, with the former organizing forms of economic and logistic mutual support to bypass strictures and faults of the Croatian fiscal and agricultural aid system and the latter self-certifying organic crops to avoid the costs and arbitrariness of bureaucratic procedures for organic certification. Both highlight the discourse and practice of morality in food procurement and the ambivalence of the concept and practice of ‘solidarity’.     

THE POTENTIAL MOBILITY OF HUMAN POPULATIONS

Summary. The interpretation of the findings of archaeological surface survey involves making assumptions about the extent and limits to the mobility of communities, land, and individuals in past times. Recent work in medieval and early modern European history has established both the rates and the causes of mobility in a number of different communities. This paper assembles some rather less conclusive evidence from classical Greece to argue that relatively high rates of mobility of individuals, land and communities should not be excluded when a picture of the society of ancient Greece is conjured up.