Material Choices for Fibre in the Neolithic: An Approach through the Measurement of Mechanical Properties

Studies of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Europe have focused on plants and animals exploited for food. However, the exploitation of plants for fibres underwent a significant change with the addition of domestic flax as a fibre crop. While the technology of flax fibre processing is increasingly understood by archaeologists, its material value as a fibre crop in comparison to indigenous fibre is less well explored. We examine the mechanical properties of flax and two indigenous fibres (lime bast, willow bast), by testing fibre strips for tensile properties and discuss the results in the light of material choices in these periods.     

Indigenous peoples,local communities,and Payments for Ecosystem Services

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are reshaping the governance of ecosystems and natural resources around the world. These programs often occur in spaces that are unceded, contested, or otherwise not legally recognized as Indigenous homelands, customary areas, and territories. Building on the discourses of Indigenous self‐determination, nationhood, and cultural responsibilities, this paper examines how PES programs produce unique outcomes for Indigenous peoples as ecosystem services providers. Our findings demonstrate and substantiate three themes that impact Indigenous ecosystem services providers uniquely: (1) the internationally recognized right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous peoples; (2) the reinforcement of settler colonial jurisdiction; and (3) mismatches between Indigenous knowledges and PES‐type approaches. The ways that PES programs run the risk of reifying and reducing Indigenous knowledges have not yet been adequately considered within current PES approaches. Our findings enable a conceptualization of PES as a new conservation tool within ongoing histories of land management and dispossession by settler colonial governments. We assess the strengths and challenges of PES programs as a departure from previous conservation modalities.     

Fostering deeper critical inquiry with causal layered analysis

Causal layered analysis (CLA) is a technique that enables deeper critical inquiry through a structured exploration of four layers of causation. CLA’s layers reach down from the surface litany of media understanding, through the layer of systemic causes identified by conventional research, to underpinning worldviews, ideologies and philosophies, and deep subconscious drivers that manifest in myth and metaphor. CLA applies equally to geographical research’s socioculturally constructed situations and to the exploration of individual meta-cognition and motivation through pedagogic research. Outcomes, explored through reflective journals and term papers, suggest that CLA helps more, especially middle achievement, learners discover deeper structures within their studies.     

Norman Tombstone at Coningsborough

The Vicars' Hall at Windsor Castle has had a varied history. Recent excavation in the undercroft and recording of the standing fabric has now enabled its story to be firmly established. The curtain wall in this area of the lower ward, and an adjacent building discovered in the excavations, were probably built in the reign of Henry III between 1227 and 1230. The Vicars' Hall with its undercroft was built c. 1415–16 in the reign of Henry V and survives to this day, but was shortened when the Horseshoe Cloister was built between 1478–82. Around 1693 the hall was converted into a library and the undercroft divided up for housing.     

Fostering Global Citizenship – tree planting as a connective practice

Education for Global Citizenship is about living as though the future mattered. This evaluates learner reactions to a tree-planting exercise that invites reflection upon hopes for the world, personal responsibilities and acting locally while thinking globally. Participant hopes concerned: environmental sustainability, peace on earth, then the welfare of future generations and personal wellbeing. Global citizenship concerns included sustainability, social justice, interdependencies and personal responsibilities. Some participants envisaged exercise outcomes to be mainly practical, others personal, such as reflection on lifestyle choices. Off-campus sessions generated higher grades, more concern for giving back to/defining a role in nature and volunteering.     

Measuring park visitation vulnerability to climate extremes in U.S. Rockies National Parks tourism

ABSTRACT

Changes in temperature and precipitation can affect tourist experiences. This study examines how summer park visitation has changed in response to temperature and precipitation extremes. The study goals were two-fold. The first is to introduce a framework and the second is to test it in a pilot region with four mountainous National Parks. The framework is designed to compare the vulnerability of seasonal park visitation to shifts in a combined indicator of temperature and precipitation. It uniquely considers needed measurements, and the data required to conduct an analysis. The second goal is to test it in four destinations in the U.S. Northern Rockies, including Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain National Parks. The preliminary test reveals outlier cases of visitation under wet and dry extremes. The analysis connects time series climate and visitation data for the peak summer season from 1991–2012. Outlier analysis illustrates more change in extremely dry conditions, with four out of the six dry-year outliers resulting in a visitation decline. Whether this decline in park tourism is attributable to climate features, economic factors, or conscious management decisions, these drops have significant economic impacts: estimates of changes in visitor spending during dry years are between roughly 9 and 90 million USD. These differences may be connected to the popular activities in each park, and the extent they are dependent on weather conditions. This framework can be used to test the relationship between climate and tourism visitation in other regions, in various seasons and time frames. The work may inform the tourist sector in adjusting and planning for a range of conditions. We discuss opportunities and conclude with additional needs for understanding the mechanisms behind risk in mountain park tourism under climate extremes.     

Deerhurst Church,Gloucestershire

Abstract

The zoomorphic ornament of a group of sculptured crosses from Ryedale is here analysed in detail in terms of motif and style. Its Yorkshire context is defined and close parallels from Skaill, Orkney and Kirk Braddan on the Isle of Man are discussed. Origins for various style and motif elements are sought in insular and Scandinavian art. It is concluded that a group of sculptures in Ryedale, exemplified by the Sinning ton crosses, were produced in the second quarter of the tenth century during a period when Yorkshire was under strong Scandinavian influence and had close contacts with the Irish Sea Province. The ornament of the Sinnington crosses closely reflects Anglo-Scandinavian motifs and styles current in York and around the Irish Sea in this period. These Anglo-Scandinavian artistic developments reveal a complex assimilation of preceding English and Scandinavian artistic traditions and may have been a source for reciprocal influences on the arts in mainland Scandinavia. Following the abolition of Scandinavian kingship in York in 954, metropolitan art styles further developed, with prominently insular, particularly Mercian, rather than Scandianavian influences, while the sculpture of Ryedale became introverted and provincial with little evidence of further external influence.     

An ethnopalynological test of task-specific area analysis: Bay View Stable,Cataumet, Massachusetts

Palynologists seeking evidence of patterns in human plant use among the pollen spectra of archaeological site floors operate on the assumption that the pollen of economic plants is deposited at the locations of undertakings involving these plants in quantities significantly exceeding the amounts of the same pollen types in the background pollen component. This assumption has never been questioned in the literature, even though it has not been tested. Researchers are, however, uncertain about the extent to which floor deposits of economic pollen are affected by later human activities. Pollen profiles from three functionally distinct bays in the cellar of a New England livestock barn that was actively used for at least 40 years were analyzed to examine economic pollen deposition and dispersal. The data from this test indicate that the pollen of economic plants is deposited in distinctive quantities where the plants were used and that these pollen deposits are not significantly diffused by subsequent human activity. The data also suggest that pollen concentrations per unit of matrix will assist in defining active surfaces within archaeological floor zones.