Evidence for “Celtic migrations”? Strontium isotope analysis at the early La Tène (LT B) cemeteries of Nebringen (Germany) and Monte Bibele (Italy)

Strontium isotope analysis on human remains from the Iron Age (4th/3rd century BC) cemeteries of Nebringen, Germany and Monte Bibele, Italy were carried out to investigate the role of residential changes during the period of the historic “Celtic migrations”. From an archaeological perspective, the location of the cemeteries in the Celtic core (Nebringen) and expansion area (Monte Bibele), and the distinctive development of their material culture, suggest that the buried populations had differing mobility rates. On the contrary, the strontium results indicate that only few individuals were mobile or non-local. There is, however, a difference in variation of strontium isotope ratios between the two studied cemeteries, presumably caused by differing geological conditions. In Nebringen changing use of cultivated land in a geologically heterogeneous environment most likely caused varying strontium isotope ratios even within the same jaw, while individual mobility over longer distances can also not be excluded. In Monte Bibele the range of strontium isotope ratios is narrow, and this may be explained by a community living in the same village and using the same agricultural resources. For various prehistoric time periods it has been suggested that some population groups were more mobile than others, for example because they had special social roles. In the two cemeteries studied here, males have slightly more often a non-local birthplace or moved during childhood. In contrast, females had isotope signatures which are more consistent with the local geological environment. Male mobility is, however, not correlated with burial as a warrior, and patrilocal residential patterns were not observed among females. Foreign and local items are found with isotopically local and non-local individuals and objects per se do not indicate descent. The motives for residential changes were, therefore, varied and not constrained to a specific area or population group. The presented dataset provides details on the way of life and land-use in the Celtic communities, for which information is otherwise absent.     

Roman lava quarries in the Eifel region (Germany): geochemical data for millstone provenance studies

Roman millstones of assumed Eifel origin were produced and exported in huge quantities to many parts of Roman Europe and can be used as tracers for trade patterns in Roman times. This study presents for the first time a raw-material centred geochemical definition of the 13 well-known Roman basaltic lava quarries in the Quaternary East and West Eifel volcanic fields. The aim is to find a way to characterize the individual exploitation sites precisely by means of their geochemical composition and to recommend a standard procedure for further millstone provenance analysis. Based on major and trace element composition analyses by XRF, a differentiation of each quarry is achieved by using a combination of geochemical discrimination and cluster and discriminant analysis. Therefore, for provenance analysis of a unknown millstone sample the following procedure is recommended: (1) geochemical discrimination to check if it actually belongs to the volcanic Eifel quarries; (2) cluster analysis to check to which quarry or cluster of quarries the millstone can be affiliated; and (3) discriminant analysis to assign the sample to its quarry of origin with a certain confidence.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

David Corbett, Australian Public Sector Management (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992) pp.280. $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 312 4.

Chris James, Chris Jones and Andrew Norton (eds.), A Defence of Economic Rationalism (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993) pp.194. $19.95 ISBN 186 3735348.

James Jupp and Marie Kabala (eds), The Politics of Australian Immigration (Carlton, Vic: Bureau of Immigration Research, 1993) pp.302. $n.p. ISBN 9 780644 272933.

H.P. Lee and George Winterton (eds), Australian Constitutional Perspectives (Sydney: The Law Book Company, 1992) pp.347. $55.00 ISBN 0 455 21085 3.

Ian McAllister, Political Behaviour: Citizens, Parties and Elites in Australia (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1993) pp.308. $24.99 ISBN 0 582 86987 0.

Stephen Mills, The Hawke Years: The Story from Inside (Penguin, 1993) pp.330. $19.95 ISBN 0 670 84563 9.

P. Molr and H. Eijkman (eds), Policing Australia: Old Issues; New Perspectives (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.391. $34.95 ISBN 0 7329 0390 4.

Jocelyn Pixley, Citizenship and Employment: Investigating Post‐Industrial Options (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1993) pp.339. $29.95 ISBN 0 521 44615 5.

S. Nicholas Samuel and Desh B. Gupta, Issues in Applied Economics: An Australian Text (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1993) pp.247. $26.95 ISBN 0 7329 2019 1.

M. Sawer and M. Simms (eds), A Woman's Place: Women and Politics in Australia, 2nd edition (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993) pp.345. $22.95 ISBN 1 86373 169 5.

Comparative and international politics

Tsuneo Akaha and Frank Langdon (eds), Japan in the Posthegemonic World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.295. $US17.95 ISBN 1 55587 385 5.

Michael R. Beschloss and Strobe Talbott, At the Highest Level: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (London: Little, Brown, 1993) pp.498. $40.00 ISBN 0 316 90523 2.

John Coates, Suppressing Insurgency: An Analysis of the Malayan Emergency, 1948–54 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992) pp.223. $US45.00 ISBN 0 8133 1436 4

Rafe de Crespigny, China This Century (Hong Kong, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.353. $19.95 ISBN 0 19 585164 1.

Geoffrey K. Fry, Reforming the Civil Service: The Fulton Committee on the British Home Civil Service, 1977–1968 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993) pp.296. £45.00 ISBN 0 7486 0412 X.

Leslie Holmes, The End of Communist Power. Anti‐corruption campaigns and legitimation crisis (Cambridge: Polity, 1993) pp.358. $13.95 ISBN 0 7456 0580 X.

Joel Krieger (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (London: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.1056. $59.95 ISBN 0 19 505934 4.

Brij V. Lal, Broken Waves: A History of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992) pp.404. $US38.00 ISBN 0 8248 1418 5.

Malcolm McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy: New Zealand in the World Since 1935 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1993) pp.329. $29.95 ISBN 1 86940 070 4.

Marina Ottaway, South Africa: The Struggle for a New Order (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1993).pp.250. $US34.95 ISBN 0 1857 6716 1.

Bob Tucker and Bruce Scott (eds), South Africa: Prospects for a Successful Transition (Kenwyn, South Africa: Juta & Co, 1992). pp.314. $n.p. ISBN 0 7021 2920 8.

Richard B. Spence and Linda L. Nelson (eds), Scholar, Patriot, Mentor: Historical Essays in Honor of Dimitrije Djordjevic (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1992) pp.422. $US51.00 ISBN 0 8803 217 4.

Carol M. Swain, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993) pp.275. $US37.50 ISBN 0 674 07615 X.

Katherine Tate, From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993) pp.221. $32.50 ISBN 0 674 32538 9.

Howard Williams, Moorhead Wright and Tony Evans, A Reader in International Relations and Political Theory (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1993) pp. 334. $39.95 ISBN 0 335 15667 3.

Political theory and methodology

F.G. Bailey, The Kingdom of Individuals: An Essay on Self‐Respect and Social Obligation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.231. $US15–35 ISBN 0 8014 8078 7.

Alan Carling, Social Division (London: Verso, 1991) pp.442. $45.00 ISBN 0 86091 506 9.

James W. Ceaser, Liberal Democracy and Political Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992) pp.242 $29.00 ISBN 0 8018 4511 4.

Eva Etzioni‐Halevy, The Elite Connection: Problems and Potential of Western Democracy (Cambridge: Polity, 1993) pp.239. $39.95 ISBN 0 7456 1068 4.

Shaun Hargeaves Heap, Martin Hollis, Bruce Lyons, Robert Sugden and Albert Weale, The Theory of Choice (Blackwell: Oxford, 1992) pp. 398. $49.00 ISBN 0 63118322 1.

Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.269. $US17.95 ISBN 0 8014 8072 8.

Paul Patton (ed.), Nietzsche, Feminism and Political Theory (London: Allen & Unwin, 1993) pp.258. $24.95 ISBN 186373 445 7.