The Social Context of Settlement in Norway in the First Millennium AD

The Viking Age was an important watershed in European history, characterized by the centralization of authority, the adoption of Christian ideology, the growth of market trade, the intensification of production and the development of urbanism. Together, these phenomena mark the beginning of Scandinavian state formation. However, the dates at which each occurred - and the unequal rates at which different state attributes were adopted in 'cores' and 'peripheries' - remain to be fully explored and explained. These issues can be illuminated by world-systems theory and brought into focus by studying the date at which key aspects of the Viking Age were adopted in a Scandinavian periphery - the Norse Earldom of Orkney and Caithness, northern Scotland. The present study questions not only why peripheries change, but why they do not change, or change more slowly than neighbouring cores.     

Agency and Structure in Militarized Conservation and Armed Mobilization: Evidence from Eastern DRC's Kahuzi-Biega National Park

Ongoing debates in conservation studies stress the dire consequences of ‘fortress’ and ‘militarized’ conservation at violent frontiers. Presenting evidence from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article shows how the park has become a focal point for armed insurgent groups in the region. Although fortress conservation has contributed to one major incident of violent resistance in recent years, it plays only a marginal role in defining the structures shaping the actions of armed groups. These structures — some of which are reproduced and (occasionally) reshaped by armed groups — include the legacies of poverty and insecurity, the geographical features of the park and the presence of illicit trading networks. This perspective emerges only when we zoom out from the park to place it within the context of the history and broader political economy of the DRC. On the one hand, these dynamics severely constrain the agency of conservation organizations, leaving militarized conservation as the only feasible form of enforcement. This approach at times generates violent outcomes for certain groups of people and produces a resource-rich, isolated terrain which provides a staging ground for broader conflicts to play out. On the other hand, militarized conservation could provide basic law and order at the forest's edge. Ultimately, therefore, militarized conservation plays an ambivalent role vis-à-vis security and stability.     

Excavation versus sustainability in situ: a conclusion on 25 years of archaeological investigations at Goose Rock, a designated historic wreck-site at the Needles, Isle of Wight, England

Assurance , a British warship of 44 guns, was lost on the Needles of Wight, UK, in 1753. Pomone , a British 5th rate 38-gun frigate of the Leda class, followed in 1811. Designated a'protected wreck' in 1975 this multi-period site was investigated under a UK Government licence. Despite her total disintegration, Pomone left artefact scatters attesting to her size, character, resting position and evidence of her cabin plan. This archaeological evidence is compared with two surviving sister ships, and the presumption of incomprehensible 'scrambling' on Muckelroy Class 5 wreck sites is robustly challenged. The licencee reviews the organization and methodology of 25 years of licenced activity on this site and concludes that the UK policy of promoting invasive investigation of historic shipwrecks cannot be readily reconciled with the principles of sustainability which are now embodied in European Agenda 21.