Isenya: état des recherches sur un nouveau site acheuléen d'Afrique orientale

Résumé Isenya est le premier site acheuléen fouillé sur les hauts plateaux du Kenya. Sa richesse en vestiges lithiques et fauniques en fait dès maintenant un gisement important pour la connaissance des hominidés du Pléistocène moyen. Isenya est inclus dans un contexte sédimentaire fluviatile, indiquant que les hommes préhistoriques se sont installés sur une barre sableuse, le long d'une rivière qui était alors peut-être pérenne. La convergence des informations géologiques et archéologiques permet d'expliquer la mise en place des vestiges, la positionin situ de plusieurs niveaux d'occupation superposés, le faible degré de perturbation qu'ils ont subi, et l'origine essentiellement anthropique des associations os/pierres. L'industrie lithique est caractérisée par une grande abondance de bifaces et de hachereaux dont les proportions varient dans le temps. Une première analyse de l'ensemble apporte d'ores et déjà des indications sur les comportements techniques: les chaînes opératoires sont décryptées, depuis l'acquisition des matériaux jusqu'à l'obtention des outils. La faune associée à cet outillage est dominée par des animaux de savane ouverte (Alcelaphini etAntilopini). Son étude détaillée mettra en évidence les stratégies d'acquisition du gibier et son mode de consommation. Attirés, entre autres raisons, par la proximité de l'eau et des affleurements de phonolite, source principale de matière première pour l'outillage, les hominidés ont occupé cet enfroit de façon répétée dans un court laps de temps, selon une périodicité à rapprocher sans doute des comportements de subsistance.

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Isenya is the first Acheulian site excavated in the Eastern Highlands of Kenya. Very rich lithic and faunal remains in a fluviatile sedimentary context indicate hominid activity on a sandy bar next to a river, which was perhaps perennial. Microstratigraphy and archaeological data permit reconstruction of the processes by which the remains were deposited. Severalin situ occupation layers show only a slight degree of perturbation. The bone assemblage is of anthropic origin, and the lithic industry is characterized by an abundance of bifacial pieces, level VI being particularly rich in cleavers. From the analysis of the lithic industry we can obtain some idea of hominid technological behaviour, most notably the operational chains of tool production from the procurement of raw materials to the knapping sequences. The fauna associated with the lithic materials is dominated by animals of the open savanna (Alcelaphini andAntilopini); and its detailed study will allow us to specify the strategies used in the procurement of game and its subsequent consumption. Without doubt, the reasons for hominid occupation at this particular site will be impossible to explain fully. However, choice of this location, where evidence for several different activities has been uncovered, should be considered in terms of the proximity both of water and of outcrops of phonolite, the principal raw material for tool-making. Repeated occupation by hominids over a short time may, perhaps, correspond to the periodicity of their subsistence behaviour.

     

The architecture of the Iron Age II fortified settlement at Muweilah (Sharjah,United Arab Emirates)

Excavations at Muweilah have uncovered twelve buildings encircled by two pairs of walls and ditches. We have published preliminary studies of several buildings. Research has now progressed to a stage where it is possible to produce a more complete analysis of the architecture. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the fortifications and each building with its installations. Our assessment of the architecture identified the repeated combination of three rooms in many of the buildings in the Central Area of Muweilah. Moreover, a detailed study of the fortifications revealed several means of accessing Building II, the columned hall, in the Western Area. These findings offer insights into the organisation of Iron Age II settlements in south‐eastern Arabia.     

Social sustainability tool for assessing land use planning processes

The aim of this paper was to develop a social sustainability tool to clarify what social sustainability means in land use planning processes. The tool was developed through a robust research process covering a large amount of scientific literature and built environment sustainability assessment tools. To assess how the developed tool works in practice, we used it as a coding system for the assessment of social sustainability in a case study from Finland. The case study includes the master planning process of a medium-sized city and the legal framework guiding it. The theoretical contribution of the paper lies in creating a holistic tool for the assessment of social sustainability in planning processes. This study also provides a strong practical contribution, as it goes beyond theoretical definitions to the pragmatic level by providing exemplary measures to be used in designing and implementing processes. Therefore, this paper is a valuable source for those stakeholders (for example planners, developers and policymakers), who struggle with the issue of the successful implementation of social sustainability practices, and it will help them to benchmark their processes against the themes found in the tool.     

“Ceci n’est pas un fragment”: Identity,Intertextuality and Fictionality in Sappho’s “Brothers Poem”

In this article, Sappho’s Brothers Poem is re-evaluated and analysed from various perspectives that have not been addressed sufficiently in scholarship so far. First, some questions of principle regarding the role of the brothers and the Sapphic speaker are discussed. Secondly, the poem’s communicative situation is examined, and different options for the identification of the person addressed as “you” are considered. Thirdly, it is demonstrated how the poem establishes an intertextual dialogue with the Homeric Odyssey on various levels, and how this dialogue affects the general understanding of the poem. Finally, the commonly held view that the five transmitted stanzas do not represent the entire poem is challenged. The article concludes with some wider considerations about some of the most common assumptions regarding the nature and the fragmentary state of the Brothers Poem.     

The Swedish journal Morgonbris on political violence in Finland 1917–1918

Women participated actively in the Finnish Civil War in January 1918–April 1918. The radicalization of the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the embracing of a revolutionary discourse sent tremors also to Sweden. In this article, I investigate how the Swedish Social Democratic women’s journal Morgonbris addresses women’s political violence in the period surrounding the Russian Revolution in March 1917, the October 1917 Bolshevik takeover and the following Civil War in Finland early 1918.

Morgonbris did not shun from reporting or debating women’s political violence, however, as this article shows there is a great discrepancy between how different acts of violence are understood in the greater discourse. Some violence, and especially some acts of violence committed by women, is clearly framed as more legitimate than others.