Buried assumptions: Some problems in the interpretation of the “Younger Fill” raised by recent data from Greece

A distinctive “Younger Fill” has been identified in the Mediterranean and adjacent regions. The dominant explanation for it is that of climatic change, first advanced by Vita-Finzi in 1960. Recent work on Greece by Bintliff appears to support the hypothesis. However, there are weaknesses. The present paper isolates the assumptions upon which the climatic hypothesis rests, particularly the notion of synchroneity and the apparent need for a universal mechanism. It sets out the grounds for scepticism, which include the ambiguity of the data, and attempts to evaluate the recent evidence from Greece. The paper then proceeds to argue that an anthropogenic origin cannot be ruled out and that it merits serious consideration. Criteria are suggested which the reinstated explanation would need to meet.     

News wire services in the nineteenth-century United States

News wire services were established in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century to gather and distribute news for local newspapers, using the new technology of the telegraph. With that early beginning in the era of electronic communication, the expansion of news wire services spans the change from a society of local communities to a more nationally integrated society. This paper assesses the importanceof changes in the medium's spatial organization which promoted national culture. The first wire services were local, ad hoc groups, organized to achieve greater efficiency in news-gathering. Formal services were first organized on a local basis, but in 1848 they began to sell news to the major urbanized portions of the United States. As the nation grew, the desire for greater efficiency conflicted with the desire for greater autonomy. Regional wire services persisted from the 1860s to the 1880s but after the 1880s, a tenuous national organization was achieved, cementing itself into a national system after the turn of the century. Efficiency in news collection was the primary reason for the increasing scale of news collecting groups. Each step toward larger spatial coverage, fed the growth of a complex interdependent urban system.