The goal of this paper is to refine the relative and absolute chronology of Epigravettian culture (26.5–15.0 ka) in eastern Central Europe (ECE) and clarify its relation to the Last Glacial Maximum ...(LGM) and subsequent climatic changes. Epigravettian sites were sorted into three chronological clusters: initial LGM (ILGM) (26.5–24.0 ka), local LGM (LLGM) (24.0–20.0 ka), and post-LGM (PLGM) (20.0–14.7 ka). We obtained new radiocarbon dates from previously dated and undated sites, then analysed the lithic tool typology and faunal data to seek correlations between age and archaeological features.
The lithic typology study did not find differences between ILGM and LLGM sites, but the tool type variance between LLGM and PLGM was significant, applicable for relative chronology. ILGM and LLGM lithic assemblages were characterized by domestic tool dominance and the frequent use of flake tools. PLGM assemblages were correlated with armature dominance and blade/let tools. Among the armatures, backed point variants characterized the PLGM sites compared to the ILGM and LLGM. The sole ILGM lithic armature was the retouched blade/let point. The LLGM also possessed this type and often included backed blade/lets.
ILGM faunal data, although few, implied the hunting of mammoth and reindeer. The LLGM data represented recurring hunting of reindeer and horse, and PLGM data indicated the hunting of horse, reindeer, and mammoth.
Our results suggested that the territory of Poland was deserted by humans in the LLGM. Moravia and Lower Austria was inhabited until the first half of the LLGM, while the Carpathian Basin was all along the ILGM. The preference for the Carpathian Basin could have been the milder climate, the abundance of fauna, and permanent access to tree vegetation. After the LGM the glacial flora and fauna gradually disappeared, leading to a reduced human presence in southern ECE. Thus, the disappearance of the Epigravettian culture and Pleistocene hunter-gatherer occupations are linked to the amelioration of climate that resulted in the disappearance of the Pleistocene environment.
•Our data refined the absolute and relative chronologies of the Epigravettian.•Relative chronological keys are lithic armature and faunal evidence.•There was a lack of human population in Poland throughout the LGM.•The Carpathian Basin was the most densely populated territory in ECE during the LGM.•The withdraw of Pleistocene environment led to the disappearance of the Epigravettian.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Microplastic pollution within the marine environment is of pressing concern globally. Accordingly, spatial monitoring of microplastic concentrations, composition and size distribution may help to ...identify sources and entry pathways, and hence allow initiating focused mitigation. Spatial distribution patterns of microplastics were investigated in two compartments of the southern North Sea by collecting sublittoral sediment and surface water samples from 24 stations. Large microplastics (500−5000 μm) were detected visually and identified using attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The remaining sample was digested enzymatically, concentrated onto filters and analyzed for small microplastics (11−500 μm) using Focal Plane Array (FPA) FTIR imaging. Microplastics were detected in all samples with concentrations ranging between 2.8 and 1188.8 particles kg−1 for sediments and 0.1–245.4 particles m−3 for surface waters. On average 98% of microplastics were <100 μm in sediments and 86% in surface waters. The most prevalent polymer types in both compartments were polypropylene, acrylates/polyurethane/varnish, and polyamide. However, polymer composition differed significantly between sediment and surface water samples as well as between the Frisian Islands and the English Channel sites. These results show that microplastics are not evenly distributed, in neither location nor size, which is illuminating regarding the development of monitoring protocols.
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•All 46 analyzed sediment and surface water samples contained microplastics.•Microplastic concentrations were higher in sediment than surface water samples.•Polymer composition differed significantly between surface waters and sediments.•Microplastics <500 μm were more abundant and divers in polymer type than large ones.•Particles smaller 100 μm dominated clearly in both environmental compartments.
Capsule: Microplastic concentrations and compositions differ significantly between environmental compartments. Geographic distribution patterns are revealed by a statistical approach. Microplastics <500 μm are more abundant and diverse than >500 μm ones, rendering the exclusive analysis of later ones insufficient for environmental risk assessment.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The current transformation of many Eastern European societies is impossible to understand without comprehending the intellectual struggles surrounding nationalism in the region. Anthropologist ...Katherine Verdery shows how the example of Romania suggests that current ethnic tensions come not from a resurrection of pre-Communist Nationalism but from the strengthening of national ideologies under Communist Party rule.
The author of the article examines monument trees, representing in history and culture traumatic social experiences. Using examples from Central Europe, he describes specific trees and their close ...environment (surroundings), looking for traces of dramatic events or processes from the past. On this basis, he reconstructs the biomemory of the region, which stores the “scars” of military conflicts, political violence, expulsions or cultural cleansings. The author argues that biomemory can function as an alternative history or counterhistory, preserve local tradition, inspire social practices, and conceptualize the relationship between the ideological, civilizational and organic perception of the natural environment.
Ethnopopulism is an elite strategy for winning votes and concentrating power - a common playbook for the erosion of liberal democracy that is empowered and justified by a companion playbook of ...ethnopopulist and majoritarian appeals. Ethnopopulism is flexible with the truth, and flexible in identifying friends and enemies of "the people". Ethnopopulist parties manipulate opposition to neo-liberal economic policies and racialize the immigrant threat. Democratic backsliding has unexpectedly taken hold in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, and the very factors that seemed to augur well for liberal democracy may have contained the seeds of its degradation at the hands of ethnopopulist leaders.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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The research objectives were to describe heat waves (HWs) in Central Europe and define the synoptic situations that cause their occurrence. In this article, a hot day was defined as a day ...when the maximum temperature was above the 95th annual percentile and an HW was considered a sequence of at least five hot days. In the analysed multi‐year period and study area, 11 HWs were observed in the north and 51 HWs were observed in the south. The occurrence of HWs was mainly connected with positive anomalies of sea level pressure and with the 500 hPa level, which shows the presence of high‐pressure systems. HWs were also accompanied by positive T850 and precipitable water (PW) anomalies.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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