Chronostratigraphy of an Eroding Complex Atlantic Round House,Baile Sear,Scotland

A high-resolution chronostratigraphy has been established for an eroding Atlantic round house at Sloc Sàbhaidh (North Uist, Scotland), combining detailed OSL profiling and dating of sediments encompassing the main bracketing events associated with the monument, radiocarbon AMS dates on bone recovered from excavated features and fills within it, and TL dates on pottery and burnt clay. Concordant OSL and radiocarbon evidence place construction of the wheelhouse in the first to second centuries AD, contemporary with dates from the primary occupation. Beneath the wheelhouse, clay deposits containing burnt material, attest to cultural activity in vicinity to the monument in the preceding second to first centuries BC. At a later date, the southern wall collapsed, was rebuilt, and the interior spaces to the monument re-structured. The chronology for the later horizons identified from the sediment luminescence dates extends to the second half of the first millennium AD, which goes beyond the range of the radiocarbon dates obtained. The data from ceramics encompass both periods. The juxtaposition of the dating evidence is discussed relative to short and longer chronologies for this Iron Age monument. Corollaries of this research are the implications that based on the long chronology, some of the ecofacts (bone) appear to be residual, and that the temporal duration of Hebridean Coarse Ware may extend into the second half of the first millennium AD.     

The dry tank: development and disuse of water management infrastructure in the Anuradhapura hinterland,Sri Lanka

We identify and offer new explanations of change in water management infrastructure in the semi-arid urban hinterland of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka between ca. 400 BC and AD 1800. Field stratigraphies and micromorphological analyses demonstrate that a complex water storage infrastructure was superimposed over time on intermittently occupied and cultivated naturally wetter areas, with some attempts in drier locations. Our chronological framework, based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurement, indicates that this infrastructure commenced sometime between 400 and 200 BC, continued after Anuradhapura reached its maximum extent, and largely went into disuse between AD 1100 and 1200. While the water management infrastructure was eventually abandoned, it was succeeded by small-scale subsistence cultivation as the primary activity on the landscape. Our findings have broader resonance with current debates on the timing of introduced ‘cultural packages’ together with their social and environmental impacts, production and symbolism in construction activities, persistent stresses and high magnitude disturbances in ‘collapse’, and the notion of post ‘collapse’ landscapes associated with the management of uncertain but essential resources in semi-arid environments.     

Decline in firing technology or poorer fuel resources? High-temperature thermoluminescence (HTTL) archaeothermometry of Neolithic ceramics from Pool,Sanday, Orkney

The Neolithic ceramic assemblage from the multi-period coastal settlement at Pool on the island of Sanday, Orkney is unique because it stratigraphically spans both the earlier round-based (including possible Unstan bowls) and later flat-based (‘Grooved Ware’) traditions. High-temperature thermoluminescence (HTTL) analysis objectively demonstrates that ceramics from the earliest Neolithic layers have been consistently better fired compared to examples from later layers. We suggest two interpretations of these data: either firing technology declined with changing social structures and/or adoption of a different ceramic tradition or that there was greater pressure on fuel resource and management in the later Neolithic. Paleoenvironmental and chronological evidence indicate climatic deterioration in the later Neolithic, which adds further support to an interpretation of a poorer fuel resource at that time. In addition to studies of the HTTL signal, analysis of the ambient temperature modification of the TL signal has potential to support or evaluate dating evidence, and is readily applicable to optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age data.     

Mexican Public Sector Food Policy Under Agricultural Trade Liberalization

Mexico has enjoyed one of the Third World's most successful food production systems, based on a complex pattern of public sector intervention. Since 1982, the public sector has withdrawn, in a remarkably Steadfast commitment to privatization, external stabilization, and trade liberalization. This article traces the key elements of that process, and their likely impacts on traditional political goals of food security progressive social policy in the countryside, and external sector dependence. The principal argument is that privatization and trade liberalization leave poor agriculturalists vulnerable, but undoubtebly offer fiscal gains to the state and benefits to urban consumers, especially in light of reduced subsidies.     

THE 'BLOB'

Canada will remember 1985 as the year of the ‘Blob,’ that mixture of toxic chemicals found in the St Clair River that attracted national attention. The ‘Blob’ was discovered by divers from the Great Lakes Institute (gli) of the University of Windsor, who were engaged in taking samples of sediment from the bottom of the river. The oily sludge was found to be a mixture of nasty chemical compounds - including dioxins. In the words of one government scientist, it was the most contaminated material ever found in the Great Lakes! Traces of the dread dioxin were found in the drinking water of municipalities downstream, and citizens demanded action from all levels of government. Did the chemicals come from spills from Chemical Valley industries? or industrial sewers? or seepage from deep wells where chemical waste has been stored? Do these toxic contaminants bioaccumulate in the food chain? And what is their effect on humans? No one knows the answers to these questions, but the problems have not gone away. One important result has been a great increase in research efforts. The Gli had been engaged for three years in research in the Essex region on four toxic contaminants — lead, cadmium, pcbs, and ocs (octachlorostyrene) under a contract with the federal Department of Environment. This research indicated that these contaminants are widespread in the sediments and clams of the rivers and Lake St Clair- and also in the soil and plants of the region. The latter finding is of concern, since recent research has shown that food (not drinking water) is the chief source of many contaminants to the human body. Since the ‘Blob’ findings, the Gli has received grants from the World Wildlife Fund and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to pursue its research into toxic contaminants in the ecosystem. The ‘Blob’ incident has been a justification for the existence of the Great Lakes Institute. It demonstrated that university institutes could bring to public attention environmental hazards that may be concealed or minimized by private companies and overlooked or condoned by government agencies. The multidisciplinary cli was formed at the University of Windsor in 1981 to provide an alternative to government research on the Great Lakes. In Ontario at that time there was no university-based organization doing Great Lakes research, though all the Great Lakes states had such university institutes.