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The long-term history of walrus hunting by Inuit can be characterised by the stark contrast between the innovation and venturous nature of the hunters, and the relative ecological conservatism of their prey. In this chapter, we examine several aspects of walrus subsistence hunting by Inuit from their earliest occupations in Arctic/Subarctic Canada and Greenland (beginning around the 13th century CE) to present. We focus our discussions on the intensive hunting practices of Amitturmiut of northern Foxe Basin, Nunavut, Inuit communities of the Avanersuaq region of North-West Greenland, as well as of their ancestors. We describe species-specific challenges, strategies and technologies for hunting, butchery, storage and consumption of walruses. We also provide a discussion of the position of the species within Inuit cosmology.

Archaeology is often defined by our interest in how cultural traditions change over time and generate patterns of material culture diversity. As acknowledged throughout the history of archaeological research, evolutionary biology broadly parallels these interests by also examining patterns of inheritance and diversity. Today, one of the most common frameworks used in evolutionary biology to infer patterns of macroevolution is Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Despite the popularity of this approach across the sciences, few worked examples can be found in the archaeological literature. This chapter closes this gap by providing a step-by-step application of a Bayesian phylogenetic approach to archaeological data from the Great Plains. We conclude that Bayesian methods are not only able to reconstruct evolutionary relationships in a more robust manner but also ask a new generation of questions about the pace of cultural change, periods of cultural divergence, and rates of cultural diversification.

Es wird nach einer Antwort auf die Frage gesucht, warum geographische Nameneine so starke symbolische Wirkung ausüben und so wichtig für die Bildung raumbezogenerIdentitäten sind, dass sie Anlass zu politischen Konflikten geben können wiezum Beispiel die zweisprachigen Namen in Kärnten, Makedonien als Staatennameoder der Doppelname Japanisches Meer/Ostmeer.Dazu wird zunächst die grundlegende Rolle der örtlichen menschlichen Gemeinschaftim Vorgang des Benennens hervorgehoben. Die Beziehung zwischen Gemeinschaft undgeographischem Objekt wird als das wesentliche und entscheidende Kriterium für dieUnterscheidung zwischen Endonym und Exonym angesehen. Diese Unterscheidungnämlich reflektiere den Unterschied zwischen dem, was eine Gemeinschaft für „dasIhre“ und „das der Anderen“ halte. Endonyme wären in diesem Sinn Namen, die eineörtliche Gemeinschaft für geographische Objekte verwendet, die ihr gehören oder fürdie sie sich verantwortlich fühlt. Exonyme wären dagegen Namen, die eine Gemeinschaftvon anderen übernimmt und für Objekte auf deren Territorium anwendet. Siereflektierten das Beziehungsgeflecht einer Gemeinschaft über deren Grenzen hinweg.Da die Unterscheidung zwischen „Eigenem“ und „dem der Anderen“ auch schondas Individuum betrifft und natürlich auch Familien, Ortsgemeinschaften und Gemeinden– sich also nicht auf Gemeinschaften verschiedener Sprache beschränkt – könne esauch innerhalb einer Sprache unterschiedliche „Namen von innen“ (Endonyme) und„Namen von außen“ (Exonyme) geben. Definitionen des Endonyms und des Exonyms,welche die Sprache zum unterscheidenden Merkmal machen, träfen daher nicht dasWesen dieser beiden Begriffe.Mit diesen Definitionen erfolgt somit auch eine theoretische Begründung dieserUnterscheidung aus kulturgeographischer Sicht.Schließlich werden noch vier wichtige Rollen geographischer Namen als Mittlerzwischen Mensch und Raum beleuchtet, nämlich (1) das Betonen räumlicher Merkmale,die für eine Gemeinschaft wichtig sind, (2) das Markieren und (3) Strukturieren desTerritoriums einer Gemeinschaft und (4) das Unterstützen emotionaler Bindungenzwischen Mensch und Raum und die dadurch bewirkte raumbezogene Identitätsbildung.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-hol-10.1177_09596836211041728 for Species-specific reservoir effect estimates: A case study of archaeological marine samples from the Bering Strait by Jack PR Dury, Gunilla Eriksson, Arkady Savinetsky, Maria Dobrovolskaya, Kirill Dneprovsky, Alison JT Harris, Johannes van der Plicht, Peter Jordan and Kerstin Lidén in The Holocene

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-hol-10.1177_09596836211041728 for Species-specific reservoir effect estimates: A case study of archaeological marine samples from the Bering Strait by Jack PR Dury, Gunilla Eriksson, Arkady Savinetsky, Maria Dobrovolskaya, Kirill Dneprovsky, Alison JT Harris, Johannes van der Plicht, Peter Jordan and Kerstin Lidén in The Holocene

This thesis investigates the function of early Holocene hunter-gatherer ceramic vessels in northern Eurasia. It presents the first systematic application of organic residue analysis (ORA) to Early Neolithic pottery from European Russia and Siberia. During the early Holocene (ca. 9,700 to 5,000 cal BC) pottery was widely produced by hunter-gatherers across Eurasia. One existing theory suggests that the advent of pottery was linked to an intensification of aquatic resource exploitation; the so-called “Aquatic” Neolithic (Gibbs et al. 2017). This theory is supported by recent ORA of early pottery from eastern Asia and northern Europe, where lipid markers derived from aquatic resources were frequently encountered, absorbed in the pots themselves. One area neglected by ORA is the vast territory of what is now Russia where the arrival of pottery marks the start of the Neolithic period, predating agriculture by several thousand years. Despite its importance in defining the Neolithic in this region, little is known about how early pottery was used and what drove its adoption during the early Holocene. Here, ORA was applied to 417 samples, representing 314 ceramic vessels, recovered from three important early Neolithic sites: the East Siberian site of Gorelyi Les, and Rakushechny Yar and Zamostje 2 in the southern and northern part of European Russia respectively. Overall, the results generated by this thesis indicate much greater diversity in the use of early pottery than predicted from the “Aquatic” Neolithic theory. While aquatic products were indeed prevalent at many sites, lipids derived from terrestrial plants and animals were also common and, overall, the initial use of pottery seems to have varied according to the regional context. These results challenge the idea that the widespread adoption of pottery by Holocene Eurasian foragers was driven primarily by the need to process aquatic resources.

Portable, composite tool kits have been essential to the prehistoric dispersals of people around the globe. Nowhere is this clearer than during Greenlandic prehistory. Archaeological studies of tool kits have been vital to our understanding of this unique area and period in human history. The present thesis proceeds from the recent culture-historical definition of the Greenlandic Dorset (ca. 800 – 200 cal. BC), a Paleo-Inuit tradition that branched off into Greenland from the Canadian Early Dorset. This was achieved by the construction of a standardised taxonomy of its tradition for producing lithic components, using the chaîne opératoire methodology. This provided a rigorous means to assign lithic artefacts – the dominant remains from the period – within a coherent chapter of eastern Arctic prehistory. As such, the definition of the Greenlandic Dorset erased the separation between the Independence II and Dorset 1 of northernmost and western Greenland respectively. However, interpretations on the Arctic lifeways of the period have become equally standardised. With circular logic, the taxonomy itself has based interpretations of social behaviour within the period as highly conservative. To address this issue, the present thesis contributes as follows: 1) Demonstrate that relational thinking is a useful framework for researching how technologies structured Arctic lifeways; 3) Showcasing how a Relational Approach can help us reach relational perspectives on Arctic lifeways through bottom-up lithic study; 3) A comprehensive case-study that offers a novel understanding of how people and tool kits co-created a unique period in Arctic prehistory.

The earliest written information in Scandinavia about a trade in walrus products comes from the North Norwegian landowner and merchant Ohthere. The text dates to the late 9th century AD and describes the long-distance trading of walrus ivory, skins and other Arctic products that appear to originate in Northern Russia. Iceland offered an additional source of valuable walrus ivory and was colonised by the Norse at around this time, although the small local population was quickly hunted to extinction during Settlement and Commonwealth periods (ca. 870 – 1262 AD). From the early part of the 10th century AD the Novgorod elite exerted increasing control over the hunting and trading of Russian Arctic products, and decided to concentrate on supplying the lucrative markets of the Near East and Asia. This shift created supply-side problems in Western Europe, and these markets increasingly came to rely on alternative walrus hunting grounds in the remote North Atlantic. The search for walrus ivory may also have motivated initial Norse exploration and settlement of Greenland in the late 900’s AD. Walrus hunting - and the profitable trade in ivory – was central to the social and economic life of the remote Norse colonies in Greenland, and led eventually to the Norwegian Church and Crown seeking to increase its influence among the Greenlandic elite. Over time, however, the heavy reliance of the Norse colonies on long-distance trade networks generated inherent vulnerabilities, and the declining volume of walrus products circulating in Western European markets in the Late Middle Ages may have been one of the factors that triggered the depopulation and eventual abandonment of the Greenland colonies by the mid 1400’s AD. In northern and western Europe, the use of walrus ivory in decorative arts can betraced back at least as far as the 9th century CE. (Curnow, 2000, p. 293;Roesdahl, 2005, p. 185). Around this time, walrus ivory was being sourced alongthe Arctic coasts of Scandinavia and Russia. The ivory was then traded westwards into the markets of northern and western Europe, but also eastwards via the Muslim lands, into the Orient and even into the Far East (Tegengren, 1962, p. 7ff.). This chapter examines the role played by western European societies in the active hunting of walruses across the remote North Atlantic periphery. Chronologically, it spans the 9th to the mid-15th centuries CE; that is, from the earliest written descriptions of the lucrative trade in walrus products, through tothe eventual decline and abandonment of the Norse colonies in Greenland. Bythis time, Greenland had taken over from Arctic Russia as the main supplier ofwalrus ivory to the luxury markets of North-West Europe.The hunting of walruses for ivory and hide is first mentioned in the early travelaccounts of Ohthere, a North Norwegian chieftain, who made a journey to theArctic territories of European Russia, and later relayed his experiences to the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred at the end of the 800’s. Ohthere’s account suggests that large and impressive walrus tusks were already circulating as prestigious objects and were highly sought after in northern European markets and trade networks as a valuable raw material for decorative pieces of artwork. In addition to the ivory, walrus hide was also valued as a material for producing tough and waterproof ropes. The demand for walrus products—and especially ivory—grew rapidly. The early stages of the ‘boom’ in ivory coincided with the Norse settlement of Iceland around 870 CE and subsequent arrival of Icelandic settlers in Greenland at the end of the 900’s. Both events allowed new access to North Atlantic walruses to meet European commercial demands. For the remote colonies of Iceland and Greenland, the trade in ivory generated valuable opportunities to supply the markets of northern Europe. Much of the demand appears to have been driven by the leaders of emerging kingdoms and the Roman Catholic Church elite. Both were keen to use magnificent and valuable ivory artworks in events and ceremonies that signalled their wealth and reinforced their claims to power and authority.

In this PhD project the first use of pottery by prehistoric peoples in Alaska was researched through lipid residue analysis and isotope analysis. Pottery was first invented by hunter-gatherers in East Asia some 20,000 years ago. Recent research shows that early pottery was often used to process aquatic species. In the (sub)Arctic, pottery was not adopted until 3,000 years ago. The presence of pottery in this extreme environment seems out of place. What drove the adoption of pottery into this region?This research has shown that, much like the earlier pottery in East Asia, Alaskan pottery was mainly used to process aquatic species. An interesting pattern shows differences between the earliest pottery in Alaska, which was used to process salmon, and the later pottery that was used to process sea mammals. This pattern seems to extend to Siberia, where early pottery sites are mainly found along large rivers. It is possible that pottery technology spread along the river systems of Northeast Asia into Alaska. In Alaska the dispersal event was delayed significantly on Kodiak Island, where the technology was only partly adopted at around 500 years ago, and finally terminated with the introduction of Russian cooking kettles during contact times.

In the last decade of the 20th century the process of transition initiated decisive changes in the former Communist countries of Europe. They affected also Croatia and will be documented and explained in this article by the example of Central Croatia.

The Johnsons Landing landslide occurred on July 12th 2012 in the mid-morning along Gar Creek, that flows from the Kootenay Joe Ridge to the Kootenay Lake, in the south-eastern British Columbia (Canada); it consisted of a debris avalanche with a volume of 300,000 m3. The event caused extensive damage in the area and killed four people. The aim of this work is to summarize the back-analysis of this event with the two dimensional computer-based model DAN-W and the three dimensional model DAN3D. The results constitute a step in the calibration procedure of the DAN-W and DAN3D models, that represent powerful tools in the frame of landslide risk management. Additionally, the issue of the level of topography smoothing which is necessary to obtain reliable results using a dynamic analysis model is highlighted. .