Variation in strontium isotope ratios of archaeological fauna in the Midwestern United States: a preliminary study

Strontium isotope values (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) in bone and tooth enamel have been used increasingly to identify non-local individuals within prehistoric human populations worldwide. Archaeological research in the Midwestern United States has increasingly highlighted the role of population movement in affecting interregional cultural change. However, the comparatively low level of geologic variation in the Midwestern United States might suggest a corresponding low level of strontium variation, and calls into question the sensitivity of strontium isotopes to identify non-local individuals in this region. Using strontium isotopes of archaeological fauna, we explore the degree of variability in strontium ratios across this region. Our results demonstrate measurable variation in strontium ratios and indicate the potential of strontium analysis for addressing questions of origin and population movement in the Midwestern United States.     

Bison butchery at Cooper,a Folsom site on the Southern Plains

Cooper, a Folsom arroyo-trap bison kill site in northwest Oklahoma is composed of three large-scale kill episodes. The bison bones have been examined for butchering evidence and exploring the butchering pattern. Damage categories to cortical bone are indentation, cut mark, helical fracture, and impact blow. The 99 elements damaged are from 36 carcasses across all three kills, and damage morphology indicates both lithic and bone expediency tools were used in the butchering. Animals are being butchered in an upright position on their stomachs, with transverse and abdominal muscles the focal point. Experimental butchering of a bison replicates the reconstructed sequence and underscores a gourmet butchering style for the Cooper kills.     

Spatial Spillovers and Regional Growth: A Cognitive Approach

Spatial spillover effects are widely studied in the literature, as an important source of externality and therefore of discrepancy between private and social optimum, creating the emergence for ad-hoc policy interventions. Within the literature, their spatially-bounded nature is highly emphasised, but the mechanisms for their spatial diffusion are generally considered as a black box, with no reference to territorialized channels through which these externalities spread around. The study aims to present a literature review on the spatial spillover concept, emphasising two main stages of reflection, the so-called spatial approach and the functional approach. This work identifies in a third approach, the cognitive approach, a new perspective to the interpretation of spatial spillovers and their conditions, and on this approach it elaborates theoretically and empirically. The main assumption is that the capabilities of economic agents to absorb and utilize spillovers—implicitly assumed by the spatial spillover theory to be invariant with respect to space—in reality highly depend on strongly territorialized and un-imitable assets, such as local trust, sense of belonging and creativity. This assumption is tested empirically on all NUTS 2 of the 27 European member countries, thanks to a regional forecasting growth model developed by the author, called MASST.     

Industrial Enterprises and Economic Space: the Network Paradigm

This paper is an extended review essay stimulated by the book of Conti, Malecki and Oinas (1995) on The Industrial Enterprise and its Environment. Three different paradigms of industrial organization are outlined with what has earlier been referred to as the network paradigm best capturing contemporary realities. The spatial implications of this framework are then drawn out and the limits of the paradigm summarized.