Arsenic in Danish and Swedish Mesolithic and Neolithic human bones – diet or diagenesis?

Arsenic has previously been measured in a bone sample of a c. 5-year-old Mesolithic child from Nivaagaard in Denmark yielding an anomalously high value of 13 μg/g. In the present work we show that other individuals at a nearby site also exhibit elevated arsenic levels, whereas individuals from other Mesolithic sites in Denmark are found to have quite low As-concentrations. Several attempts to reveal the source of the arsenic are reported: A railway track near the site, where the railway sleepers were suspected to have been impregnated with As leading to transport or diffusion of As into the adjacent soil; Several food items, the remains of which were found at the site, and one food item not preserved in the excavation, i.e. seaweed. Finally, it is shown that the most likely explanation of the elevated arsenic levels in human bones at Nivaa is diagenesis.     

THE MEDIEVAL URBAN CHURCHYARD AS A MEETING PLACE: A CASE STUDY OF FUNCTION AND ORGANISATION OF THE CHURCHYARD OF ST. CLEMENS IN COPENHAGEN

The article presents the results of a study based on activity analysis of a medieval churchyard of St. Clemens in the urban setting of Copenhagen. The churchyard was in function from the 11^th to 16^th century revealing changes in layout and burial rites over time. A glimpse of the symbolic life of the medieval Copenhageners is also exposed and analysed. Moreover, the study of the churchyard reveals activities of a more secular nature and presents some of the activities that must have been part of everyday life in the medieval town. Thus, the churchyard has not only been an arena for meetings between the living and the dead but also a location for experiencing the urban life burgeoning outside the churchyard. For comparison, a recently discovered contemporaneous churchyard at Rådhuspladsen is also discussed.     

The Hand Writing on the Screen

Abstract.

In this article, researchers evaluate the empirical performance of the Mincer earnings equation, which has been the benchmark model for assessment of wage profiles since 1974. The analysis concerns workers in the manufacturing industry in three countries before 1900. The Mincer equation must be adjusted with respect to functional form in order to capture the wage profiles of past industrial workers. The quadratic spline consistently provides the best fit, while the standard quadratic produces misleading estimates of wage changes and gender wage gaps. These conclusions hold across contexts, for men and women, and for both age and experience profiles. The results have methodological relevance for estimating historical wage profiles and also have implications for the assessment of gender wage gaps in the past.     

Raw material distribution ‐ social space,social interaction

For the historical Inuit period long‐distance trading networks are well documented. An archaeological verification of similar behaviour in the Palaeo‐Eskimo period is being discussed for Disko Bay and West Greenland. On the basis of two extraction sites of killiaq, a silicified slate, new evidence is presented. The separation of two types of killiaq is used to describe a local and a regional distribution system. Killiaq from the Nuussuaq peninsula has travelled in large quantities over more than 600 km, whereas the other source from Angissat seems to be more local. The question though still remains whether we are dealing with a direct or an indirect procurement system.