Eco‐urbanism and the Eco‐city,or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco‐cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new‐build eco‐city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco‐cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world's least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco‐city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco‐cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers’ geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.     

Fishing Livelihoods,Seashore Tourism,and Industrial Development in Coastal Rio de Janeiro: Conflict,Multi‐Functionality,and Juxtaposition

Critical global political ecology and critical cultural political economy approaches are used in a study involving decades of research to evaluate the changing relationship between fisher livelihoods, seashore tourism, and urban industrial development in an economically dynamic region of coastal Brazil. As the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro expanded and encompassed fishing communities, socio‐environmental transformations created threats to fisher ways of life, opened new multi‐functional opportunities, and also introduced unrelated juxtaposed activities. As stocks fell due to overfishing and urban industrial pollution over the last two decades, small‐scale inshore fishing declined in the bay–lagoon systems located to the east and south‐west of Rio de Janeiro. Tourism increased but proved to be a poor substitute for declining fishing activities because it and other new multi‐functional activities rarely aggregated significant value to local livelihoods. Consequently, only a small minority of fishers benefited and remained on the islands and sand spits, while the great majority left for the mainland. New cultural and environmental functions were also absent, so that of the types of multi‐functionality identified by Wilson and Holmes, those present in the study area are weak and basically serve outside urban production and consumption interests.     

Diet,nutritional status and oral health in hunter‐gatherers from the central‐northern coast of Patagonia and the Chubut river lower valley,Argentina

Archaeological research in central‐northern Patagonia (Atlantic coast and lower the valley of Chubut river) showed that this area was used since at least the Middle Holocene. Stable isotope analyses (¹³C and ¹⁵N) of human bone samples indicate that hunter‐gatherers living in that area had a terrestrial‐marine diet including guanaco meat, land plants, mollusks and pinnipeds. Despite this general trend, intersite variability and changes through time were noted, especially after the late Holocene. These results have been reinforced by archaeofaunal, technological and bioarchaeological records. In this paper, three hypotheses are examined: (a) the diet of these populations was complete and rich enough to ensure good health status and avoid nutritional deficiencies; (b) carbohydrate consumption increased progressively after 1000 BP, when pottery technology was adopted and (c) this kind of mixed diet would have been qualitatively more nutritious than that of other populations of the region, which would have resulted in better nutritional and healthy conditions. These three hypotheses are compared with dental results obtained from 563 permanent teeth from 45 individuals (34 adults and 11 juveniles from both sexes), rescued from burial sites. Indicators of oral health were assessed through the observation of caries, abscesses, wear, pulpar cavity exposure and ante mortem loss. Features of nutritional status such as enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia were also examined. Given the availability of direct radiocarbon dating for most of the sample, three temporal series were determined: ‘Before 1000 BP’, ‘1000–5000 BP’ and ‘Post‐contact’. No evidence of alimentary stress or iron deficiency was found in individuals from the three series, which accounts for healthy and good nutritional life conditions. After 1000 BP, the results show a progressive increase in the caries percentage and a decrease in abscesses, dental wear and ante mortem losses frequency. This is possibly related to more consumption of processed foods in the last 1000 years. These results were compared with similar studies based on samples from different environments and latitudes of Patagonia. Evidence suggests that mixed diets (marine‐terrestrial) would have been more appropriate and nutritionally complete than exclusively marine or terrestrial diets. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Twins in prehistory: The case from Olèrdola (Barcelona,Spain; s. IV II BC)

This paper details the discovery of two perinatal individuals interred simultaneously at the archaeological site of Olèrdola, Barcelona, Spain. Information from the excavation and from the subsequent anthropological study of the recovered skeletal and dental remains suggests that these individuals (OL–2000–8245 and OL–2000–8246) are the first documented case of twins in Iberian period. The possibility of a simultaneous perinatal twins burial at Olèrdola raises new questions concerning about the frequency of twins in prehistory and protohistory. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ANALCIME CRYSTALLIZATION AND COMPOSITIONAL PROFILES—COMPARING APPROACHES TO DETECT POST‐DEPOSITIONAL ALTERATIONS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTTERY*

The approaches of comparative studies and profile measurements, often used in order to detect post‐depositional alterations of ceramics, have been applied simultaneously to two sets of Roman pottery, both of which include altered individuals. As analytical techniques, Neutron Activation Analysis and X‐Ray Diffraction have been used. Both approaches lead to substantially different results. This shows that they detect different levels of alteration and should complement each other rather than being used exclusively. For the special process of a glassy phase decomposition followed by a crystallization of the Na‐zeolite analcime, the results suggest that it changes high‐fired calcareous pottery rapidly, and so fundamentally that the results of various archaeometric techniques can be severely disturbed.     

BAYESIAN ANALYSIS OF PLEISTOCENE CHRONOMETRIC METHODS*

Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates on Holocene archaeological sites has become well established. Application to Pleistocene sites dated by multiple techniques would be advantageous. This paper develops the necessary mathematical apparatus in the form of likelihoods for luminescence dating, and uranium‐series dating, and considers the possibility for amino‐acid racemization dating. Application of the new methods is illustrated using the stratigraphic sequences of dates from the sites of Saint‐Césaire and La Chaise‐de‐Vouthon. For application to amino‐acid racemization dating, fuller publication of data is found to be required.     

Real‐time quadrupole mass spectrometer analysis of gas in borehole fluid samples acquired using the U‐tube sampling methodology

Sampling of fluids in deep boreholes is challenging because of the necessity of minimizing external contamination and maintaining sample integrity during recovery. The U‐tube sampling methodology was developed to collect large volume, multiphase samples at in situ pressures. As a permanent or semi‐permanent installation, the U‐tube can be used for rapidly acquiring multiple samples or it may be installed for long‐term monitoring applications. The U‐tube was first deployed in Liberty County, TX to monitor crosswell CO₂ injection as part of the Frio CO₂ sequestration experiment. Analysis of gases (dissolved or separate phase) was performed in the field using a quadrupole mass spectrometer, which served as the basis for determining the arrival of the CO₂ plume. The presence of oxygen and argon in elevated concentrations, along with reduced methane concentration, indicates sample alteration caused by the introduction of surface fluids during borehole completion. Despite producing the well to eliminate non‐native fluids, measurements demonstrate that contamination persists until the immiscible CO₂ injection swept formation fluid into the observation wellbore.     

Fracture sealing and fluid overpressures in limestones of the Jabal Akhdar dome,Oman mountains

Fractures are important conduits for fluid flow in the Earth's crust. To better understand the spatial and temporal relations among fracturing, fracture sealing, and fluid flow, we have studied fractures, faults, and veins in a large dome (Jabal Akhdar) in the Oman mountains. Our work combines the results of meso‐ and microstructural analyses and stable isotope analyses. Seven generations of fractures and veins have been identified in the carbonate‐dominated dome. The earliest generations of veins developed during extension and subsidence of the Mesozoic basin. These veins formed in the inclined segments of bedding‐parallel stylolites and in extensional fractures that are perpendicular to bedding (#1 and #2, respectively). These extension‐related veins are truncated by bedding‐parallel veins (#4) that formed during top‐to‐north bedding‐parallel shear of both the northern and southern limbs of the dome. These veins are consistent with a change in stress regime and may be related to an earlier generation of strongly deformed pinch‐and‐swell veins (#3) that are exposed locally on the southern limb of the dome. Normal faults contain a set of en‐echelon tension gashes (#5) and veins emplaced in dilational jogs along the fault planes (#6). In the northern part of the dome, veins (#7) associated with thrusts post‐date the normal faults. Samples of veins and their host rocks were analyzed to provide information on fluid‐rock interaction in the dome and the scale(s) of fluid movement. Oxygen isotope values range from +16.2 to +29.3‰; carbon isotope values range from 0 to +3.6‰. The results of the structural and isotopic analyses are consistent with the early veins (#2–#5) having precipitated from overpressured fluid in a isotopically rock‐buffered system. During normal faulting (#5 and #6), a more open system allowed external fluid to infiltrate the dome at drained conditions and precipitate the youngest sets of veins (#6 and #7).