Welcome to our second issue of the European Journal of Archaeology for 2023. Recognizing that the world and all of our circumstances have changed immeasurably since 2019, the journal at least feels like it has returned to an even keel in this new year. As ever, we would not be able to produce it without all the reviewers, peer reviewers, authors, and other members of the archaeology community who give up their time to contribute; and I want to thank them particularly for their work during the high disruption of the last few years. In this issue of the EJA we feature six articles evenly split between prehistoric and more contemporary topics and four reviews.
This issue starts with two excellent studies of Beaker period stone implements. Barroso Bermejo and colleagues develop a detailed discussion of two small and broken stone bracers from Bell Beaker child burials in the Iberian peninsula. Through a combination of careful contextual analysis and detailed microscopic study, they reconstruct the biographies of the two bracers and demonstrate that both saw considerable use prior to deposition, including in archery in the case of one of them. Based on their small size, they (very tentatively) suggest that the children themselves may have used them prior to their deaths, but also note a range of questions raised by the evidence of usewear, including the possibility that the bracers were heirlooms of some sort.
Shifting north, Carey and colleagues discuss seven stone implements from late third millennium bc sites in Cornwall, UK. Through a combination of pXRF and microwear analysis, they argue all seven implements were used in processing the tin ore cassiterite. This provides us with some of the best direct evidence for Early Bronze Age tin exploitation in Cornwall, as well as an extrapolated chaîne opératoire of cassiterite processing in this period. Carey and colleagues convincingly argue that the small scale of cassiterite exploitation in the Beaker period means that, instead of looking for mines or primary evidence in the landscape, geochemical and microscopic analysis of artefacts such as these are our best chance of identifying and understanding tin use.
Turning our attention to long-term trends, Friman and Lagerås develop a demographic model of southern Sweden from the Neolithic to the Iron Age based on summed radiocarbon dates. This model highlights periods of population increase in the early fourth millennium bc, as well as a longer steady increase from ca. 1500 bc through to the early 1st millennium ad, as well as steep declines in the mid to late fourth millennium bc and seventh century ad. They argue that the population model developed with radiocarbon dates accords well with other indicators of expanding and contracting settlement, including pollen records, but accept that this model is necessarily quite large-scale and may be shaped by data biases, such as preservation of datable material and patterns of archaeological excavation linked to developer activities.
Remaining in Sweden, Papoli-Yazdi and Hogland explore rural waste disposal practices in twentieth and twenty-first century Öland. They explore patterns of dumping in the recent past and compare these to intentional collections of abandoned objects and apply the lens of heterotopia to explore the relationship between people, place, and things in this rural landscape. They argue that these sites of abandonment are not garbage, but can be recontextualized as material installations that give us insight into locally contingent articulations with place, memory, and nature. Certainly, how we engage with our own rubbish is a deeply significant topic in this period of rapid climate change and social disruption.
Grigoriadis brings together a wealth of archival resources to explore the life and works of Ottoman Greek archaeologist Théodore Macridy who made key contributions to Anatolian and Greek archaeology and museology in the early twentieth century. Grigoriadis argues that Macridy's Greek ethnicity and deep ties to the Ottoman Empire, as well as his position between Ottoman or Turkish intellectual culture and the Western European archaeological tradition made him a liminal figure, both in his own time and in later nationalist narratives concerning the ancient past. With this article, he seeks to raise Macridy's profile in our own narratives of Anatolian and Greek archaeological history.
Our final article this issue reports the results of an important survey of early career archaeologists carried out by the EAA's Early Career Archaeology community. With these data, Brami and colleagues outline the precarious state faced by ECRs seeking to make a career for themselves in our field. The results, including reports of exploitation, bullying, and despair, make for sober reading; but the authors also outline in very clear and specific terms how and where to begin addressing the problems we currently face. Not all of these are easily achieved—political will on a grand scale is required to, for example, make major reforms to university systems—but all are worthwhile goals. I personally am proud to publish this significant study, and hope it helps us build a better and more sustainable future for our emerging colleagues.
All four of our reviews this issue focus on the ways we tell and perceive narratives about the past. In a detailed review essay, Skeates explores four volumes comprising the published photographs and edited book manuscripts of early twentieth century Italian archaeologist Luigi Ugolini. Skeates highlights the careful archival work of the volume editors, as well as the particular significance of Ugolini's photography, but questions the choice to publish his work without more in-depth discussion of his adherence to Fascism and to the Fascist Party. A monograph on Schliemann's first exhibition of his Trojan finds is well received, as is Moser's new monograph exploring the impact and reception of Egyptianizing painting in Victorian England. Most excitingly, Fennelly warmly welcomes the publication of a new enhanced graphic novel of the excavation and interpretation of a neighbourhood in nineteenth century Sheffield, a format that encompasses both careful storytelling and excellent archaeological research.
If you are interested in submitting an article on any aspect of European archaeology, or have recently published a book that you would like us to review, do please get in touch with a member of our editorial team or visit us on https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology
The Reviews team is also actively to increase the pool of potential book reviewers. If you would like to be considered to review for EJA, please e-mail Marta and Maria at ejareviews@e-a-a.org and ejaassistreviews@e-a-a.org with a brief list of your topics of interest and a short CV attached. Advanced postgraduate students as well as those who have completed their PhD are able to review for EJA. Proposals to review specific books are considered, provided that they are relevant to the EJA's mission.
