Privatization and Democratization in Lithuania: A Case Study of Who Benefits in Siauliai

While Lithuania had undertaken substantial political and economic reform prior to independence, the greatly accelerated pace of privatization following the restoration of same resulted in the emergence of a business class at the local level controlling most of the economic wealth. Concurrent with the process, the state became increasingly less able to either subsidize local governments or assist those hurt most by the reforms. A case study ofSiauliai, Lithuania demonstrates that while the new local business class is overrepresented in the city's government other social elements are not without political voice. Indeed, there appears to be substantial evidence of an "urban regime" linking political office seekers and business interests in an interdependent relationship permitting the former a significant degree of latitude in responding to the demands of pensioners and other citizen groups who make up the majority of their political base.     

The 13th century polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island

We assess 926 radiocarbon dates from Hawai’i Island, the largest assemblage of dates compiled from a single island in Oceania. Based on a classificatory approach that arranges the dates based on their reliability, accuracy, and precision, our results indicate that the most reliable estimate for the initial Polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island is AD 1220–1261, ∼250 to 450 years later than the current consensus. This conclusion is strikingly convergent with recent estimates for the colonization of remote East Polynesia. Our analysis highlights the need for wood charcoal identification to insure selection of short-lived plants/plant parts for radiocarbon dating, and that a reliance on dating unidentified wood charcoal is a waste of resources that only serves to retard progress in refining the settlement chronology of Hawai’i Island and other locations.     

Taphonomy and contextual zooarchaeology in urban deposits at York,UK

Zooarchaeological research on assemblages from deeply stratified sites in historic towns is complicated by the reworking of bones through intercutting and disturbance. Conversely, structural association with buildings and property boundaries may allow detailed spatial analysis, and interpretation at a close contextual level that reveal small details of people’s lives. Five years of excavation at the Hungate site in York has yielded a very large animal bone assemblage ranging from Roman to early modern times. Assessment of this assemblage has focussed on identifying context groups of good integrity and high research value. In this paper, we present preliminary results from Hungate to show the potential of contextual analysis in urban deposits, and the challenge presented by redeposition and time-averaging.