Bronze Age Globalisation and Eurasian Impacts on Later Jōmon Social Change

Journal of World Prehistory - From northern China, millet agriculture spread to Korea and the Maritime Russian Far East by 3500–2700 BC. While the expansion of agricultural societies across...     

PLACE AND SPACE IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE: SOME LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS*

The “localities debate,” stimulated by the Economic and Social Research Council's “Changing Urban and Regional Systems” initiative, was conducted in the pages of Antipode and Society and Space at a length that showed scant regard for emerging environmental sensitivities. Much of it involved politically contentious claims and increasingly exhausted theory; it resolved very little and in that sense was little more than a storm in a pretty familiar pudding basin. A later flirtation with postmodernism simply pushed aside questions of explanation while raising the political stakes as celebration of the differences between places became the order of the day. Nonetheless, important issues emerge from or relate to that debate, and we draw on our experiences to comment on three of them: (i) agents, structures, the production of space and the material bases of place: some issues of theory; (ii) the production of places, people's attachment to place, and place-based political strategies: some issues of practice; (iii) localities, postmodernism and the difference that place makes: is the regressive turn to postmodernism as approach avoidable?     

Importing Clay for Local Pottery Production in the 4th Century b.c. at Tell el-Timai,Egypt

Archaeological evidence of ceramic production most commonly consists of locally procured raw materials. Excavations at Tell el-Timai in Lower Egypt recovered raw fine marl clay from two transport jars in the vicinity of pottery kilns dating to the 4th century b.c. Production wasters of small perfume bottles produced in the same fine marl clay were found inside the kilns. The marl clay inside the jars pointed to an origin outside of Lower Egypt. Samples of the clay and wasters, along with a confirmed locally sourced sample, were subjected to X-Ray Fluourescence (XRF) analysis, revealing significant differences in their chemical compositions. The results of the analysis are compared to published Egyptian data and an Upper Egyptian provenience is suggested because the raw clay is consistent with available comparative XRF data.     

Death on the farm: Culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The Welsh Assembly Government has recently announced its intention to cull all badgers from North Pembrokeshire on the grounds that they are vectors of bovine tuberculosis. This article considers some local reactions to this news, ranging from those who support the cull wholeheartedly to those who argue against it, and some of the reasons why people adopt different standpoints. The article considers a range of issues which help explain why people think as they do; these include perception of risk, ethnicity, ideas about animals and wildlife, the selective uses of both scientific literature and emotion, and finally some of the local and regional politics involved.     

Cull or vaccinate?: Badger politics in Wales

In this sequel to an article on the badger‐cull published in the April issue of 2010, the author provides an update on what is happening to the culls announced for North Pembrokeshire and for England.