Multi‐Scalar Practices of the Korean State in Global Climate Politics: The Case of the Global Green Growth Institute

The paper examines the significance of state territoriality and the related multi‐scalar practices of the state in the light of the symptoms of post‐politics exemplified in global environmental governance. The focus rests on the South Korean government's Green Growth (GG) strategy and the efforts to export this strategy as a role model to emerging economies worldwide through the establishment of the Global Green Growth Institute. We begin with the question why the Korean government is going global with a political program that is heavily disputed at home. We then study the practices by which the state manages to maintain its territoriality under the conditions of global climate change. Lastly, we discuss how multi‐scalar practices of environmental governance in the GG strategy are applied by state and non‐state actors both in Korea and abroad.     

No Place for the Political: Micro‐Geographies of the Paris Climate Conference 2015

Building upon post‐foundational political philosophies, this article scrutinizes the Paris Climate Conference in December 2015 from a micro‐geographical perspective. The analysis suggests that three different spaces exist at the site of the summit and reveals how their constituting practices and material arrangements rendered “Paris” post‐democratic. We begin with exposing the staged statements of the world's political elites in the meticulously orchestrated Leaders Event as different phenotypes of the post‐democratic condition. We then investigate the formal negotiations in the cordoned‐off backrooms, where positions within the system were at stake, but not the system as such. Finally, we wander through the strictly policed “trade fair” and unveil attempts to entice delegates into techno‐managerial solutions to the climate crisis. In the conclusion, we ponder over the prospects of environmental activism at the COPs in the light of their massive depoliticization.     

Poaceae phytoliths from the Niassa Rift,Mozambique

The most common grass phytoliths from “Zambezian” miombos are described here for the first time. Their potential for long term preservation in sediments makes them a useful tool in the reconstruction of ancient plant communities and plant/human interactions. We processed 60 plant samples (26 identified genera and species), with an average of 300 phytoliths counted per sample to a total of 18,586. Forty-seven morphotypes were described as per the International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature, with exceptions, including forty-five discreet shapes and two articulated forms, which can be used as comparative reference materials. We conducted three forms of statistical analyses: Discriminant Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Principal Component Analysis. The highest biomineral content was recorded among the Bambuseae and Paniceae, while the lowest silica production is detected in the Cynodonteae tribe. Typologically, the subfamily Panicoideae yielded 50% of the types reported here, 32% are from the Chloridoideae, 12% from the Bambusoideae, and 8% from the Arundinoideae sensu lato. Overall, the idealized Zambezian Poaceae phytolith spectrum is dominated by a small subset of Poaceae short cells, which include five morphotypes conventionally associated with Panicoid grasses (Bilobate concave outer margin long shaft, Bilobate concave outer margin short shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin long shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin short shaft, Cross), one morphotype commonly seen in Chloridoid taxa (saddle), and two types that appear across subfamily boundaries (tower, tower horned). The next logical step to take in regional phytolith research is the account of phytoliths deposited in soils underneath living plants, for they represent the interface between existing vegetation communities and the inevitably distorted fossil assemblages that the paleobotanist uses for environmental reconstruction.     

A Variation on a Basic Theme: The Transition to Farming in Southern Central Europe

This paper attempts to summarize the past years of research on the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Central Europe and to review recent discussions about the origin and spread of the Early Neolithic. Particular emphasis is given to the debate about migration or diffusion. A combined migrationist/diffusionist model is presented, arguing for an emergence of a farming economy among hunter-gatherer populations in Transdanubia and the subsequent spread of this economy through migration. The new settlers interacted with local Mesolithic groups and adopted and incorporated local material culture and sometimes even aspects of local Mesolithic economy, a process which continued throughout the Early Neolithic. With time, population increase, subsequent competition for resources, and climatic instability led to a destabilization of traditional Early Neolithic society and finally to the outbreak of severe intercommunity violence. The only escape from mutual extinction was a rearrangement of subsistence and social and political structures, possibly with contributions from surviving Terminal Mesolithic groups.     

Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test?

Walde, D.H.-G., Weber, B., Erdtmann, B.-D. & Steiner, M. 20 June 2019. Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test? Alcheringa 43, 335–350. ISSN 0311-5518

The problematic late Ediacaran tubular fossil Corumbella werneri is revised based on two-dimensional compressions, and new three-dimensionally preserved specimens from the Tamengo Formation of the Corumbá Region in Mato Grosso do Sul, west-central Brazil. These fossils represent some of the oldest skeletonized metazoans and were originally described from diagenetically compacted tubes that prompted conflicting interpretations as either Ediacaran coronate scyphozoan exoskeletons, or conulariid tests. Our new material from Corumbá permits a morphological and taphonomic revision of C. werneri, which we suggest was probably a calcareous sinotubulitid. Corumbella werneri closely resembles the late Ediacaran Sinotubulites from South China, as well as the Silurian worm tube Eoalvinellodes, which has similar exterior ornamentation. Ultrastructurally, the tubes of C. werneri exhibit a coarse sparitic microtexture, which we attribute to diagenetic alteration. Partial flexibility also supports interpretation as an originally weakly calcified, or entirely organic exoskeleton. We therefore reject placement of C. werneri as a conulariid scyphozoan, and instead, advocate possible relationships with marine annelids.

Detlef Hans-Gert Walde [walde.detlef@gmail.com], University of Brasília, Institute of Geosciences, Brasília-DF, Brazil; Bernd Weber [bweber@zedat.fu-berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany; Bernd-D. Erdtmann [berni1739@gmail.com], 1165 N Mountain View Road, Apache Junction, AZ 85119, USA; *Michael Steiner [Michael.Steiner@FU-Berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften (Haus D), Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany.     

Quedlinburg—10 Years on the World Heritage List: East–West Transformations of a Small Historic Town in Central Germany

While the conservation efforts and constraints in the medieval town of Quedlinburg are typical of the conditions in the smaller historic towns in the former German Democratic Republic, they also resemble those of small heritage towns in other countries. Shifts and changes are assessed for a time frame of about 25 years, before and after the pivotal event of German reunification of 1990. Located in a previously prosperous but now depressed region with more than 20% unemployment, Quedlinburg has suffered from the breakdown of the former agricultural and other industries in the region after 1990 and subsequent out‐migration. Some valuable historic buildings were lost before 1990, owing to neglect and lack of funding. Since then, improved funding, combined with public–private partnership, has helped the town to make very considerable conservation progress. The town’s World Heritage status since 1994 has been utilised as a significant supporting factor in tourism promotion, which has become an important part of the ongoing conservation processes.     

Bison breeding characteristics and interpretation of archaeological seasonality revisited

Bison breeding behaviour has been used for the last three decades as the basis for developing methods for assigning season‐of‐occupation estimates to archaeological sites on the North American Plains. These methods are based upon the supposition that the North American bison breeding season is extremely short and that genetically controlled ontological characteristics such as foetal growth and tooth eruption sequences can therefore be used to infer site seasonality in a reasonably straightforward and precise manner. This paper reviews bison population studies conducted during the past 30 years to reassess present understandings of the length of North American bison breeding seasons. It is concluded that the bison breeding season regularly extends over a period of three to four months, and that initiation of ontological development will therefore also vary over the same period of time. Bison development characteristics cannot provide a reliable or precise means of assigning seasonality to archaeological sites on the North American Plains. It is suggested that methods using physical characteristics such as dental cementum incrementation which are directly affected by seasonal changes could be more productive. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Imperial Expansion, Ethnic Change, and Ceramic Traditions in The Southern Chad Basin: A Terminal Nineteenth-Century Pottery Assemblage from Dikwa, Borno State, Nigeria

In the course of an archaeological project in the southern Chad Basin of Nigeria, excavations were conducted at several deeply stratified mound sites that date from the Late Neolithic to the Late Iron Age. As a way to complement the ceramic sequence obtained so far and to link it with today's pottery tradition, a small excavation was conducted at a site that dates to the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century A.D. A pottery assemblage was discovered that shows obvious links to today's tradition but notable breaks with those of the nineteenth century and earlier. This break in decoration style and technique is interpreted as an archaeologically visible expression of changing ethnic identity. This ethnic change and the associated spread of the ceramic tradition can be linked with the expansion of the sphere of power of the Kanem-Borno Empire into the area south of Lake Chad after the sixteenth century A.D.     

Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigations Along the Southern Fringes of Lake Chad, 1993–1996

Archaeological and ethnohistorical investigations were conducted in the area around the town of Ngala in Borno State, Nigeria, situated immediately south of Lake Chad. Four mounds were excavated. Comparison with data from excavations and ethnohistorical studies provided a fairly complete picture of the settlement and cultural history of that most environmentally peculiar region. It is now evident that Late Neolithic settlers established themselves around 1000 CalBC in permanent hamlets with year-round occupation and a subsistence based not only on gathering, hunting and fishing but also on cattle herding and probably the cultivation of domesticated Pennisteum. Certainly, cultivation is attested after the onset of the Early Iron Age around 500 CalBC. Although from then on we see a steady development toward further complexity with the establishment of compact villages during the middle of the first millennium CalAD and the foundation of local principalities during the fourteenth century AD it was not before the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries AD, that the mode of subsistence and the political and societal structure typical for the area today was fully developed. By then, the wider region came under control of the Borno Empire, a situation which lasted up to the early colonial days at the onset of the twentieth century. Des recherches archéologiques et ethnohistoriques ont été conduites dans les environs de la ville de Ngala (état du Borno, Nigeria) située immédiatement au sud du lac Tchad. Quatre tertres d'habitat ont été fouillés. La comparaison des matériaux excavés avec ceux des fouilles antérieures, complétée par des analyses ethnohistoriques, a permis de reconstituer de manière assez complète l'évolution du peuplement et la succession des cultures dans cette zone qui se distingue par des conditions environnementales particulières. Il est clair aujourd'hui que les colons du Néolithique récent se sont installés, vers 1000 CalBC, dans des hameaux permanents occupés toute l'année, et que leur subsistance n'était pas uniquement basée sur la chasse, la collecte et la pêche, mais probablement aussi sur l'élevage et la culture du Pennisteum domestique. Certainement l'agriculture est attestée au début de l'Age du fer Ancien, vers 500 CalBC. A partir de ce moment, on observe certes une évolution régulière et soutenue vers plus de complexité, avec l'apparition de gros villages dans le courant du premier millénaire CalAD, et la fondation, au quatorzième siècle, de principautés locales, mais ce n'est pas avant les quinzième et seizième siècles que le mode de subsistance et la structure socio-politique qui caractérisent cette région aujourd'hui se sont véritablement mis en place. A partir de ce moment, la zone à laquelle appartient notre domaine d'étude a été intégrée dans l'empire du Bornou, une situation qui s'est maintenue jusqu'au début de la période coloniale, à l'aube du vingtième siècle.     

Provenance of Early Bronze Age metal artefacts in Western Switzerland using elemental and lead isotopic compositions and their possible relation with copper minerals of the nearby Valais

Ten Early Bronze Age (BzA1, 2200–2000 BC) copper artefacts from the central Valais region from Switzerland were studied for their elemental composition and lead isotope ratios. In order to answer the archaeological question of a local copper supply, a database for copper minerals across the Valais (Switzerland) has been established. This database contains 69 data on lead isotope ratios as well as additional information on the minerals and geochemical associations for copper minerals from 38 locations in the Valais. Comparisons of the artefacts were also made with data pertaining to minerals from various deposits from Europe and Anatolia taken from the literature. The provenance of the materials is very diverse. Some of the data are compatible with the data from the copper mineral deposits of the Valais region. Moreover, three copper lunulae were identified as possibly Tuscan, which suggests contacts between Italy and the Valais region. This pattern also establishes a multiplicity of provenances for the metal and cultural influences in the Alpine environment of the Rhone Valley of Switzerland at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.