Neolithic economy in central Europe

This article presents a survey of Neolithic economy, land use, trade, natural environment, and usage of plant and animal resources in central Europe, 5415–2240 B.C. (4500–1800 bc). Early, Middle A and B and Late Neolithic materials are summarized and compared. The earliest farmers expanded from southern Hungary and adjacent areas into central Europe over a relatively short time period, 100–200 years. They occupied areas only with good soils; thus probably hunters and gatherers continued to exist in many regions of central Europe. There is an increase in population and more upland areas are exploited for farming during the Middle Neolithic A and B periods. By the Middle Neolithic B period, low-level hierarchical or ranked societies appear in some regions of central Europe. The Late Neolithic may represent a modification of the mixed farming strategy observed during the earlier periods. Perhaps the herding of domestic animals became more important.     

Who ate the birds: the taphonomy of Sarakenos Cave,Greece

The taphonomic analysis of avian remains from Sarakenos Cave reveals that, contrary to previous suggestions, many bird bones excavated there represent food remains of the Eagle Owls rather than humans. The conclusion is based on the presence of traces of digestion, beak and claw punctures, and indirect evidence that includes relative preservation of particular elements, species composition, the lack of cut marks, and the absence of numerous traces of burning. Specimens with medullary bone and traces of digestion indicate that the owls killed breeding females in spring. Since it is unlikely that owls shared the cave with humans at the same time, it supports the notion based on archeological evidence that human groups did not inhabit it permanently.     

Distribution and origin of organic matter in the Baltic Sea sediments dated with <Superscript>210</Superscript>Pb and <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs

Organic carbon deposited in marine sediments is an important part of the global carbon cycle. The knowledge concerning the role of shelf seas (including the Baltic Sea) in the carbon cycle has increased substantially, however organic carbon accumulation rates in the Baltic sediments still require clarification.     

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT,INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND THE CHANGING POLISH PIG INDUSTRY

The world's meat market has had tremendous growth in the past decades. Global meat producers, particularly in developed economies, have grown bigger through expansion, mergers and acquisitions. The livestock markets in less developed countries are particularly the prime targets for investments by these producers. This article looks at foreign direct investment in a transitional economy, using Poland's pig industry as the empirical case study. It argues that such investments not only bring significant changes in the method of producing meat in the host country; they also have particular socio‐political impacts and have thus been met with some level of resistance by local communities. Our study suggests that the relations of foreign firms to the local community are crucial for their long term presence; and these relations are in turn dependent on a gamut of place specific features and the firms' broader corporate philosophy and strategy. In general, foreign firms need to find ways to replicate the kinds of deep social‐economic links between the livestock industry and places that existed in the socialist era. The case studies of American‐owned Agri Plus and Danish‐owned Poldanor illustrate some of the difficulties involved in the foreign investment in the meat industries while demonstrating the viability and possibility of such companies becoming more accepted and welcomed in the local communities.     

Social context of the unchambered megalithic long barrows in Middle Pomerania,Poland

This paper is an attempt at defining the social functions of the unchambered megalithic long barrows found in the ?upowa group of the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB). The authors assume that their aim can be achieved by employing a cultural ecological approach, which leads to a determination of the following variables: exploitation efficiency of the local population, local territory, and size of that population. The values determined for these variables imply that only a small, limited number of the deceased members of the group were buried in the long barrows discussed. Thus, it is possible that burial functions were not the only and most important ones. The authors try to define the remaining functions of the long barrows.     

Detection of diffusion and contact zones of early farming in Europe from the space-time distribution of 14C dates

The spread of early farming in Europe is revisited using a sample of 3072 audited 14C calBC dates from 940 georeferenced early Neolithic sites. The surface expansion of early Neolithic has been reconstituted using the kriging technique of spatial interpolation. Centres of renewed expansion, of contact zones, and the main routes of expansion have been highlighted by means of a vector map, representing the gradient. The expansion of the agricultural system on the map, was not uniform and regular across Europe as a whole, but proceeded in leaps. With the scale of detection of the 500-year isochrones, several leaps are identifiable: at 8000 calBC crossing the Taurus barrier, 6700–6100 calBC crossing the southern Adriatic barrier, 6100–5600 calBC crossing the Central European agro-ecological barrier and 5000–4000 calBC expanding on the other, marginal zones. Using a vector map, 10 points of renewed expansion and nine contact zones, were detected. The whole does not correspond to a process of homogeneous diffusion, approximately steady, but a process marked by phases of geographical expansion and stasis.     

Use of a general ecological model for the reconstruction of prehistoric economy: The Hallstatt period culture of northwestern Poland

An ecological model of prehistoric economy is presented and illustrated in the case of cultures dated to the Hallstatt period of the Iron Age. The central theorem of the model is that a self-sufficient population must have such extractive efficiency as to supply the population with an amount of matter and energy sufficient to cover all its needs (nutritional, “hygenic”, technological, and organizational), under given environmental conditions. Appropriate quantitative measures of environmental conditions, extractive efficiency, and population needs are proposed, and relaitons between them presented. The model is applied to an actual case of “Biskupin-type” fortified settlements (about 500 B.C., northwest Poland) and their fall. This application is based on quantitative estimates of human needs and prehistoric extractive efficiency.