The development of the longbow in late medieval England and ‘technological determinism’

Traditional understandings of the development of the medieval English longbow and its role in the fourteenth-century ‘infantry revolution’ have recently been challenged by historians. This article responds to the revisionists, arguing based on archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence that the proper longbow was a weapon of extraordinary power, and was qualitatively different from – and more effective than – the shorter self-bows that were the norm in England (and western Europe generally) before the fourteenth century. It is further argued that acknowledging the importance of the weapon as a necessary element of any credible explanation of English military successes in the era of the Hundred Years War does not constitute ‘technological determinism’.     

Hot dogs: Comestible Canids in Preclassic Maya Culture at Cuello, Belize

The contribution of animal protein to the ancient Maya diet, and its means of procurement, can be assessed more accurately on the basis of systematic faunal recovery from recent excavations. We evaluate the presence of dog (Canis familiaris) remains in Preclassic (1200 BC-AD 250) deposits from the Maya site of Cuello, Belize, and conclude that the animals were raised for food and killed at the end of their first year of life. The frequency and distribution of canid bones suggest a significant but not dominant contribution to the meat supply throughout the Preclassic period.     

Representing Structural Change in U.S. Migration Patterns

This paper focuses on the identification of three sets of relationships exhibited by a time series of age-specific national migration rates and multiregional transition probability matrices: the relationship across time for the same age group, as defined by period (temporal) transformation coefficients or matrices; the relationships across age at a particular moment in time, as defined by age transformation coefficients or matrices; and the relationships across time and age, as defined by cohort transformation coefficients or matrices. Given any two of these relationships one can solve for the third. This feature of age-period-cohort relationships has a practical application in the development of improved methods for representing structural change in migration patterns over time and for indirectly estimating migration patterns using inadequate data.     

A further consideration of neolithic dogs with special reference to a skeleton from Grime's Graves (Norfolk), England

The complete skull and skeleton of a dog were recently excavated from the neolithic flint mines at Grime's Graves in Norfolk. As very few complete skeletons of dogs have been found from neolithic contexts in Britain a detailed metrical comparison was made between the Grime's Graves specimen and dog skeletons of comparable antiquity and completeness from Easton Down and Windmill Hill in Wiltshire.Implicit in the study of the dog from Grime's Graves was the need to date it precisely. As the skeleton could not be sacrificed for radiocarbon dating, closely associated antlers of Red deer (Cervus elaphus) were used for this purpose. The date of the Grime's Graves dog is compared with the dates for other dog remains from recently excavated neolithic sites in the British Isles.     

A system for classification and description of the horn cores of cattle from archaeological sites

A system is proposed for the classification and sexing of the horn cores of cattle recovered from archaeological sites. The cores are first divided into four groups depending on their length. The terms “small”, “short”, “medium” and “long horned” are given to these groups but bear no relation to the names used for modern breeds of cattle. After differentiation according to length, the sex of the core is designated by visual appraisal of the shape, curvature and angle of attachment of the cores to the frontal bones. It is not claimed that the sex of individual horn cores can always be established but from the sample of 80 cores that we tested by statistical analysis (presented in an appendix) it was evident that the categories based on length and assessment of sex did separate out as expected.     

LEADERS,FOLLOWERS, AND ASYMMETRIC LOCAL TAX POLICY DIFFUSION

Complementing recent theoretical models of tax competition with endogenous leadership, we empirically model local policy diffusion as a dynamic asymmetric process. Using a setting where local option sales taxes rapidly transitioned from nonexistence to ubiquity, we construct a policy leadership index to classify jurisdictions as leaders or followers. Using models that control for vertical tax competition effects, we show how asymmetric leader–follower dynamics characterize horizontal tax competition over the three decades that follow. A placebo test further supports our main conclusions. This methodological approach could be adapted to other settings where policies exhibit both extensive and intensive margins.