ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY OF SHELLS OF HELICIDAE FROM THE EDERA CAVE (NORTHEASTERN ITALY)*

The Edera Cave, near Aurisina in the Trieste Karst, retains a stratigraphy that extends from the Mesolithic to the modern era. At Sauveterrian layers, many specimens of Helix cincta are present, which are considerably crushed, and a small percentage of which are also blackened. Chemical analyses show that the blackened specimens were exposed to a temperature of between 500 and 550°C, and suggest that many others were destroyed by fire at temperatures of above 700°C. Consequently, only a part of the Helix cincta shells is assumed to be the residue of human meals, since several factors render plausible an accidental combustion of shells already present in the ground before the lighting of Mesolithic hearths.     

PROVENANCE OF OBSIDIAN EXCAVATED FROM LATE CHALCOLITHIC LEVELS AT THE SITES OF TELL HAMOUKAR AND TELL BRAK,SYRIA*

X‐ray fluorescence and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) analyses conducted on 40 obsidian samples from the Late Chalcolithic 2 levels at Tell Hamoukar and Tell Brak in north‐east Syria have shown trends towards the exploitation of obsidian sources in the eastern Taurus. While the Bingöl region appears to provide the majority of obsidian to both sites, there is also evidence of more minor exploitation of a source in the Lake Van area and an altogether unknown source (X). This paper presents the data acquired from the analyses of the archaeological obsidian and situates these results within their chronological and regional contexts.     

SHAFT‐HOLE AXES FROM SLOVENIA AND NORTH‐WESTERN CROATIA: A FIRST ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY ON ARTEFACTS MANUFACTURED FROM META‐DOLERITES*

A group of Copper Age shaft‐hole axes from Caput Adriae (northeastern Italy, western Slovenia and northwestern Croatia) manufactured using meta‐dolerite have been analysed for major and trace elements. All the samples show magmatic textures and well recognizable relicts of primary mineralogical phases. Petrographic observations suggest an ophiolitic provenance of the protolithic source(s) while geochemical data indicate that the original magmas originated in a fore arc or pre arc tectonic setting. Strong similarity has been found with several lithotypes from the Banija Ophiolite Complex (Croatia), here indicated as the most probable source area. Considering the available archaeometric data about shaft‐hole axes found in northern Italy and Caput Adriae in comparison to those of axe blades discovered in the same area, it emerges that there is a utilization of different rock types, the source of which appears to be quite close to the discovery sites. In the investigated area the shaft‐hole axes are largely made from ophiolitic‐related rocks which are associated with copper deposits. Consequently there may have been a relation between the localization of the geological sources of shaft‐hole axes and the development of metallurgical activities.     

Québec et la géographie sociale en questions

Questioning Québec through social geography In the early 1960s, two revolutions were underway: the quiet revolution in Québec and the quantitative revolution in geography. Apparently unrelated, these episodes of change probably shared common underlying values associated with modernity. Since then, the transformations experienced in Québec have been interpreted in a multitude of ways, including geographical considerations. Research careers, mine included, have been shaped by this undertaking. All along, I have found that social geography, with the capacity it has to reinvent itself, has helped making sense of this turbulent environment. In the 1970s, exploring the structural dynamics of Canada's social space helped in figuring out the place occupied by Québec in this ensemble. Then, analyzing the historical relationships between cosmopolitan Montréal and provincial Québec City suggested that the oxymoron ‘quiet revolution’ stood for a central process in the cultural dynamics of Québec's social space, where new ideas arriving through Montréal are sifted and institutionalized by the state in Québec City. Nevertheless, Québec City is also capable of initiating progressive urban movements, as illustrated by the odyssey of the Rassemblement populaire de Québec, documented through participant observation. Such urban movements may affect the urban fabric but, as intense and creative social networks, they may affect even more their interacting members, as it seems to have been the case with regard to rapidly evolving gender relations during the last decades. All in all, after more than four decades, I keep the conviction that a practice of social geography that is open to various theories and methods is capable of producing liberating knowledge.     

Sites of Social Centrality and Segregation: Lefebvre in Belfast,a “Divided City”

Abstract: This paper applies Henri Lefebvre's ideas on participatory democracy and spatial politics to the context of “divided cities”, a milieu often overlooked by scholars of Lefebvre. It considers, via Lefebvre, how the heterogeneous and contradictory statist methods to deal with ethno‐national violence in Belfast have in effect increased segregated space. State‐led approaches to public space as part of conflict transformation strategies appear contradictory, including attempts to “normalize” the city through inward capital investment and cultural regeneration, encouraging cosmopolitan notions of inclusive “civic identity”, and reinforcing segregation to contain violence. These processes have done little to challenge sectarianism. However, as Lefebvre suggests that dominant representations of space cannot be imposed without resistance, this paper considers the alternative strategies of a disparate range of groups in Belfast. These groups have formed cross‐cleavage networks to develop ritualized street performances which challenge the programming of public space for segregation.     

Getting Behind the Grain: The Politics of Genetic Modification on the Canadian Prairies

Abstract: In 2001 a coalition of actors including farm, consumer, health, environmental and industry organizations announced its opposition to Monsanto's attempts to commercialize GM wheat in Canada. Although this coalition consisted mostly of rural and agricultural groups, the three arguments that came to dominate the discourse advanced by the coalition seem, at first glance, to characterize a politics of consumption. These three arguments revolve around market acceptance, environmental risk, and the lack of democratic and transparent process in biotech regulation and policy. This paper argues that producer interests were not displaced by, but rather articulated alongside and through consumer‐driven discourses. In fact, farmers used claims about the supremacy of the consumer and impending environmental change to advance their vulnerable political and economic positions as producers of food.     

Two Early Archaic Shipwrecks at Kekova Adası and Kepçe Burnu,Turkey

During its annual surveys of the Turkish coast in the 1970s and 1980s, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology discovered two early Archaic (7th‐ to early‐6th‐century BC) shipwrecks at Kekova Adas? (Antalya region) and Kepçe Burnu (Mu?la region); Dokuz Eylül University's Institute of Marine Science and Technology is currently involved in survey of the region. The wrecks, marked by a primary cargo of basket‐handle amphoras, indicate exchange between Cyprus and the cities of coastal Asia Minor and Corinth. Such Iron Age internationalism may have been driven by an interest in processed agricultural goods such as olive oil. © 2010 The Authors     

A 16th‐Century Ship‐Find from Amager Beach Park,Denmark: description and preliminary interpretation

When establishing the new Amager Beach Park near Copenhagen, Denmark, a small clinker‐built ship dating to the 16th century (dendro‐dated to 1560–70) was discovered. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde excavated the wreck in 2004, and parts of the ship were later taken to the museum and recorded in 3D. This article describes the excavation and the documentation, and presents the preliminary interpretation of the ship‐find. The ship is interpreted as a small cargo vessel, probably carrying two masts. Its hull‐form indicates that the vessel was specially designed for navigating the waters of the Sound between Denmark and Sweden. © 2010 The Author     

Precipitation patterns formed by self‐organizing processes in porous media

We compare laboratory and field examples of self‐organized mineral precipitates in porous media. Laboratory tests of silver chromate precipitation in glass beads and glass bead/gel mixtures produce structures such as periodic banding and mm‐size spherules. These are morphologically similar to the varied forms of iron oxide precipitates in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Utah USA, that preserve records of former fluid redox boundaries in a porous and permeable sandstone. Experimental studies of periodic precipitates in porous media can provide valuable insight for understanding the diagenetic history of similar precipitates in natural environments.     

The Policy Sciences of Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are increasingly touted as platforms not merely for networks of friends and for private diversion, but as vehicles that allow ordinary people to enter and influence the many arenas of public life. On the surface, the disparate and shapeless population of “i‐reporters,” policy “tweeters,” and anonymous news web site “commentators” would appear to challenge the comparatively well‐defined cast of professional diplomats, journalists, and propagandists that Harold D. Lasswell identified as policy‐oriented communicators. However, to illuminate the roles and impacts of social media in politics and policymaking, insights from Lasswell's “science of communication” must be embedded in Lasswell's broader lessons on value assets and outcomes. A closer look at the so‐called democratizing functions of social media in politics reveals the influence of powerful intermediaries who filter and shape electronic communications. Lasswell's insights on the likelihood of increased collaboration among political elites and skilled, “modernizing intellectuals” anticipates contemporary instances of state actors who recruit skilled creators and users of social media—collaborations that may or may not advance experiments in democracy. Lasswell's decision process concept is deployed to discover social media's strengths and weaknesses for the practicing policy scientist.