Detailed knowledge about the interactions between vegetation, climate and land use during the Mesolithic and Neolithic, at the transition from foraging to farming, is still scarce in the Balkans. ...Here we present a palaeoecological study combining pollen, spores and charcoal found in sedimentary cores from Lake Ohrid, Ploča Mičov Grad, North Macedonia, with a particular focus on the vegetation dynamics during the Late Glacial-Holocene and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions. Our record begins at ca. 13,500 cal
bp
(11,550 cal
bc
) when partially open vegetation, consisting mainly of
Pinus
,
Abies
and deciduous
Quercus
tree stands grew on the hilly flanks of the bay of Ploča. From 12,650 cal
bp
(cal 10,700
bc
), herbs dominated the record until the onset of the Holocene (ca. 11,700 cal
bp
; 9750 cal
bc
), when increasing temperatures led to the establishment of pine-deciduous oak forests including
Alnus
,
Fraxinus ornus
,
Tilia
,
Ulmus
and
Abies
. These forests persisted until 7,500 cal
bp
(cal 5550
bc
), when deforestation started due to Neolithic land use. This first phase of Neolithic activities in the Ploča Mičov Grad area precedes the earliest archaeological structures so far recorded by almost 1,000 years. Our data suggest two phases of human land use between 7,500 and 6,300 cal
bp
(5550–4350 cal
bc
), when high values of Cerealia type pollen and other cultural indicators indicate intense arable and pastoral farming activities. Once human activities decreased, forests were able to re-establish quickly (within 100–250 years), although the composition changed with disturbance-adapted
Ostrya
type (mostly
Ostrya carpinifolia
) and
Fagus
becoming more important. We conclude that forests were resilient to early human disturbance, despite intensive land use and logging activities gradually leading to forest composition changes. Many of these composition changes can still be seen today, suggesting the legacy of Neolithic farmers is still present in today’s landscape.
Dans les Balkans, l'apparition de la céramique remonte à l'extrême fin du viie millénaire av. J.-C. Elle est étroitement liée à la diffusion d'un nouveau modèle économique fondé sur l'agriculture et ...l'élevage : le Néolithique. Les raisons de l'adoption de la poterie par les premières communautés agro-pastorales restent encore discutées. Pourquoi les groupes humains ont-ils inventé la poterie ? À quoi ont réellement servi les premiers récipients en terre cuite ? Une fois les vases brisés, certains tessons ont été recyclés en outils. Pourquoi les populations néolithiques ont-elles réutilisé des fragments de poterie ? Quelle était la fonction de cet outillage atypique ? L'habitat néolithique de Kovačevo (6100-5600 av. J.-C, Bulgarie), étudié par une équipe franco-bulgare depuis 1986, a livré un assemblage céramique de 1 600 000 tessons qui se prêtait à une recherche approfondie sur la fonction des productions potières néolithiques. La quantité de vestiges, tout autant que leur bon état de conservation, ont permis l'élaboration d'une méthode d'étude pluridisciplinaire de l'usage des céramiques qui croise les aspects morpho-dimensionnels (forme, taille, volume, épaisseur) et les traces d'utilisation (résidus et usures). La combinaison inédite de ces critères, à l'interface de la typométrie, de la chimie et de la tracéologie, est venue démultiplier les interprétations dans le domaine pauvrement documenté de la fonction des céramiques archéologiques. L'enquête a révélé la diversité insoupçonnée des usages de la poterie et de l'outillage sur tesson au sein de l'habitat de Kovačevo. Elle a, de surcroît, montré l'existence de normes régissant l'utilisation des céramiques qui témoignent d'habitudes alimentaires et techniques partagées par les occupants du site.
The concept of ‘Balkanization’, as well as the verb ‘to Balkanize’ have been adopted in the western political culture more than a century ago, without ever being questioned, neither on their origins, ...nor on the precise circumstances under which they have been adopted. The object of this paper is, first to underline that the Balkans have always been, from Late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, until modern times, an area of contact and exchange between different cultures, religions and political systems. Then, special attention is drawn to the period of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, and the period of national revolutions in the 19t century. These national revolutions have been acclaimed by the Western public opinions. However, the Western governments did not share this enthusiasm because they feared for the future of the Ottoman Empire, and the perspective of its disintegration. Therefore, they often accused the young nations of disturbing the peaceful Ottoman rule. However, the Balkanization -i.e. the fragmentation of the Balkan Peninsula- was rather a consequence of the policy of great European powers in that region. These great powers, by pursuing their own selfish interests jeopardized, more than young Balkan nations the peace and security of South-Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th century.
Northwestern Balkans represents one of the rare regions where data on both the shallow geology (i.e., local soil conditions) and the deep geology exist for stations that recorded hundreds of strong ...motion records. The strong motion database used in this study consists of 203 strong motion accelerograms (each with three orthogonal translational components), recorded in former Yugoslavia in the period 1976–1983, from 108 contributing earthquakes. In this paper, the results of a series of regression analyses are presented where empirical equations for scaling pseudo-acceleration response spectra were developed on the basis of 5 subsets of data and using three prediction models. Results of the regression analyses show that for ground motion in the horizontal direction, both the shallow and deep geology site conditions have to be taken into account or else the spectral estimates might be considerably biased. Results show that the shallow geology influences spectral amplitudes the most in the short period range and has much lesser effects for larger periods, while the influence of the deep geology is expressed in a wider range of intermediate to long periods. Results also show that if the prediction model that considers solely the shallow geology effects is used, the spectral peaks that have been related to the deep geology effects will completely vanish for larger source-to-site distances, while in the case when solely the deep geology is considered, the peaks related to the shallow geology will not be visible for any distance. As for the amplitudes in the vertical direction, although both the shallow and the deep geology effects are less expressed than in the horizontal one, they still cannot be neglected—the deep geology effects are visible for a wider range of vibration periods, while the shallow geology has some effects only for periods smaller than ~0.3 s.
Innovative firms with good ideas may still struggle to fine-tune them to the stage where they can attract outside funding. We conduct a five-country randomized experiment that tests the impact of an ...investment readiness program. Firms then pitched their ideas to independent judges. The program resulted in a 0.3 standard deviation increase in the investment readiness score. Two years later, the average impacts on firm investment outcomes are positive but small in magnitude and not statistically significant. Larger and statistically significant impacts on receiving outside funding occur for smaller firms and for firms with lower likelihoods of otherwise being funded.
•Novo Brdo was an important late medieval mining center of the Balkans and Europe.•Unique assemblage of animal skins with preserved hair and filled with resin was discovered.•The light and SEM ...microscopy analysis of hair microstructure and FTIR of resin was performed.•The skins originated from goat and sheep, and the resin was identified as pine tar.•The tar stored in the skin was most likely used for the impregnation of wooden structures.
Organic materials are rare in the archaeological settlement context of the central Balkan area. A unique assemblage consisting of mummified animal skin with preserved hair, filled with resinous material, and four smaller pieces of animal skin with preserved hair was discovered during archaeological excavations of the Novo Brdo castle in 2015. The late medieval town of Novo Brdo was an important mining centre of the Balkans (and the entire Europe) for the production and distribution of silver ore. The archaeological context for the mummified animal skin was the workshop for the production of lead projectiles, situated in the northeast corner of the castle’s Great Hall, and it can be reliably dated to the first half of 1455. The finds were first subjected to macroscopic analysis, which included observations on the skinning method and the details of use. Applying light and SEM microscopy, a comparative set of hair surface structure images from seven mammal species was created, and a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis of resinous material was performed. By comparing it with the reference images of hair microstructure, the animal skin was identified as goat, while the FTIR of the resinous material identified pine tar. The four smaller pieces of skin probably originated from one individual sheep. The tar stored in the goat skin was most likely used in the impregnation of wooden structures or even to illuminate buildings and ramparts of the Novo Brdo castle, although other purposes, such as being used as a lubricant for weapons, cannot be completely ruled out.
Abstract This paper aims to shed new light on the phenomenon of Islamist violent extremism across the Western Balkans. This phenomenon has recently drawn worldwide attention due to the risk that the ...self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has raised as an international actor. The main theoretical argument is that the main driver of foreign fighters aligns with the Roy theory about the “Islamization of radicalism”. So far, academic literature on Islamist terrorism has often considered the Western Balkan region as the one with the highest percentage of foreign fighters. Notwithstanding this being correct, such analysis seems superficial, since it misrepresents the image of the region itself. In this paper, the countries taken into account are those with a high percentage of Muslim population (e.g. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo) and with a large Muslim autochthonous minority group (e.g. the Republic of North Macedonia). The comparison of the estimates of foreign fighters in Syria from the Western Balkans with data from several sources led us to understand the existence of a precise narrative towards the region and the Islamist religion.
Nakon gotovo tri desetljeća upravljanja “odozgo” ili primjene različitih koncepata i strategija Zapada objedinjenih u mantri europerspektive – Zapadni Balkan je ponovno u fokusu međunarodne javnosti ...kao novo geopolitičko žarište. Umjesto ciljane europeizacije, svjedočimo daljnoj balkanizaciji regije koja je posljedica neuspješnog djelovanja
Europske unije, kao i suprotstavljenih interesa saveznika – SAD-a, NATO-a, Velike Britanije, EU-a i Njemačke. Takva konstelacija odnosa omogućila je jačanje utjecaja niza ne-zapadnih aktera – Rusije, Turske, Kine, Irana i Saudijske Arabije, čija prisutnost već niz godina snažno oblikuje sigurnosno ozračje na Zapadnom Balkanu. Sve je očitije da je angloamerički projekt posthladnoratovskog uređenja prostora bivše Jugoslavije značajno istrošen. Naime, obećani prosperitet i stabilnost regije su izostali, a zaostavština primijenjenih zapadnih politika je krajnje siromaštvo, iznimna nezaposlenost i iseljavanje, propast javnih politika i kontinuirano gospodarsko urušavanje, kao i ponovno “aktiviranje” postojećih kriznih žarišta: Bosne i Hercegovine, Kosova i Makedonije.
It is a notorious fact that the evolution of civil-military relations and the security sector reform in South-East Europe has to deal with post-totalitarian and post-conflict challenges. The book ...examines these issues in the context of the adaptation to combating terrorism and the need to be effective in this struggle, while continuing the democratic reforms in the individual countries. A team of authors from all South-East European states, Western Europe and North America draw a complicated, yet logically evolving picture of the problems in the security sector reform field of the region, and prove the validity of the particular research area. This comprehensive study concludes that the security sector in the region is becoming increasingly mature, but also faces a variety of uncompleted tasks.
This essay seeks to puncture prevalent European understandings of the Mediterranean. The colonising impulse inscribed in Occidental historiography cannot be undone simply by adding previously ...repressed and unacknowledged histories. Instead, a re-examination of the premises and procedures
that produced such exclusions leads to a change in coordinates. A predominantly ocular order of knowledge that creates subaltern objects of study to reconfirm European centrality and subjectivity is interrogated. Insisting on a politics of registration and listening, further critical incentives
drawn from literature, music and cinema are deployed to query existing representations. In conclusion, a more exposed, heterogeneous and turbulent Mediterranean is brought to bear on how today we might think with the Balkans.
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