Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe

English-language examinations of the history of the press oftenbegin with the 1620s or the 1640s, when this new medium beganto be more widespread in England. On the continent, however,around the year 1600 all the necessary technical, infrastructuraland communication elements were already in place for the developmentof the modern newspaper. Book-printing techniques enabled themass production of news reports; a regular relay post system,available to the general public, served the needs of a networkof professional correspondents from around the world. The timewas right for the first periodical news sheet, which appearedin Strassburg in 1605. The change from hand-copied to printednewspapers was of far-reaching significance, as the mass circulationof news gave regular publicity to the events and personalitiesof political life. By the 1620s a variety of newspapers werecirculating in central Europe, and in the second half of theseventeenth century newspapers were the most widely read secularmaterial. They provided a seedbed for the broadening politicaleducation which fostered the development of the Enlightenment.     

Does size matter: the role and significance of cereal grains in the Indus civilization

Cereal grains play a pivotal role in the rise and character of the Indus civilization. Archaeologists have traditionally focused their attention on the large-grained crops of wheat and barley while often minimizing the importance of the smaller-grained millets. Both environmental and cultural variables influence crop selection in the past as well as today. This paper explores the role and significance of cereal grain size during the evolution of the Indus civilization.     

Hunter–gatherer foraging ranges, migrations, and travel in the middle Holocene Baikal region of Siberia: Insights from carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures

Foraging ranges, migrations, and travel among Middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Baikal region of Siberia are examined based on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures obtained from 350 human and 203 faunal bone samples. The human materials represent Early Neolithic (8000–6800 cal BP), Late Neolithic (6000–5000 cal BP), and Early Bronze Age periods (∼5000–4000 cal BP) and come from the following four smaller areas of the broader region: the Angara and upper Lena valleys, Little Sea of Baikal’s northwest coast, and southwest Baikal. Forager diets from each area occupy their own distinct position within the stable isotope spectrum. This suggests that foraging ranges were not as large as expected given the distances involved and the lack of geographic obstacles between the micro-regions. All examined individuals followed a similar subsistence strategy: harvesting game and local fishes, and on Lake Baikal also the seal, and to a more limited extent, plant foods. Although well established in their home areas, exchange networks with the other micro-regions appear asymmetrical both in time and direction: more travel and contacts between some micro-regions and less between others. The Angara valley seems to be the only area with the possibility of a temporal change in the foraging strategy from more fishing during the Early Neolithic to more ungulate hunting during the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. However, the shift in stable isotope values suggesting this change can be viewed also as evidence of climate change affecting primary productivity of the Baikal–Angara freshwater system.