Initial stages of water solvation of stepped platinum surfaces

Catalysis and Surface Chemistr

Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds: the diversity of practices and identities in the 54th–53rd centuries cal BC in south-west Hungary and beyond

Szederkény-Kukorica-dűlő is a large settlement in south-east Transdanubia, Hungary, excavated in advance of road construction, which is notable for its combination of pottery styles, variously including Vinča A, Ražište and LBK, and longhouses of a kind otherwise familiar from the LBK world. Formal modelling of its date establishes that the site probably began in the later 54th century cal BC, lasting until the first decades of the 52nd century cal BC. Occupation, featuring longhouses, pits and graves, probably began at the same time on the east and west parts of the settlement, the central part starting a decade or two later; the western part was probably abandoned last. Vinča pottery is predominantly associated with the east and central parts of the site, and Ražište pottery with the west. Formal modelling of the early history and diaspora of longhouses in the LBK world suggests their emergence in the Formative LBK of Transdanubia c. 5500 cal BC and then rapid diaspora in the middle of the 54th century cal BC, associated with the ‘earliest’ (älteste) LBK. The adoption of longhouses at Szederkény thus appears to come a few generations after the start of the diaspora. Rather than explaining the mixture of things, practices and perhaps people at Szederkény by reference to problematic notions such as hybridity, we propose instead a more fluid and varied vocabulary including combination and amalgamation, relationships and performance in the flow of social life, and networks; this makes greater allowance for diversity and interleaving in a context of rapid change

A guide to ancient protein studies

Palaeoproteomics is an emerging neologism used to describe the application of mass spectrometry-based approaches to the study of ancient proteomes. As with palaeogenomics (the study of ancient DNA), it intersects evolutionary biology, archaeology and anthropology, with applications ranging from the phylogenetic reconstruction of extinct species to the investigation of past human diets and ancient diseases. However, there is no explicit consensus at present regarding standards for data reporting, data validation measures or the use of suitable contamination controls in ancient protein studies. Additionally, in contrast to the ancient DNA community, no consolidated guidelines have been proposed by which researchers, reviewers and editors can evaluate palaeoproteomics data, in part due to the novelty of the field. Here we present a series of precautions and standards for ancient protein research that can be implemented at each stage of analysis, from sample selection to data interpretation. These guidelines are not intended to impose a narrow or rigid list of authentication criteria, but rather to support good practices in the field and to ensure the generation of robust, reproducible results. As the field grows and methodologies change, so too will best practices. It is therefore essential that researchers continue to provide necessary details on how data were generated and authenticated so that the results can be independently and effectively evaluated. We hope that these proposed standards of practice will help to provide a firm foundation for the establishment of palaeoproteomics as a viable and powerful tool for archaeologists, anthropologists and evolutionary biologists

Regionalization and multiculturalism in sociological perspective

This paper is an attempt to deal with current and also controversial problems of regionalization and multiculturality together, by putting them in a broader sociological perspective, and then questioning them on the example of the current position of Vojvodina and growing demands for democratization, deregulation and decentralization of Serbia. Starting with a question how to harmonize very strong need of modern societies for homogenization with the equally strong and legitimate need for heterogeneity, which was one of the first and basic questions that sociology posed to itself, the author points out that regionalization and multiculturality solve nothing by themselves alone, if they are not put in the context of the crisis of modernity, which opens space for constructing essentially different pluralistic society. Process of regionalization in general, and in Serbia particularly, appears as a rational choice only if it goes together with already mentioned processes of democratization deregulation and decentralization, which should provide relatively fast transformation of old structures through development of the new ones. In other words, regionalization must be looked upon as one of the moments of the process of foundation of new pluralistic society, which contributes to opening and development, and not to closing, stagnation or regress, which eliminates or alleviates old conflicts and prevents creation of the new ones, which eliminates harmful consequences of stiff centralization and at the same time does not call for equally harmful unreasonable fragmentation which encourages demands for autonomy of parts and at the same time does not prevent integration and solidarity, which respects differences and does not endanger the social unity

Multiculturalism and rationalization in transition conditions

It is first stated in this paper that those societies which are exceptionally multicultural and in every way heterogeneous, and which undergo transitional changes, potentially have an additional difficulty in comparison to those that do not have such characteristics. This is much more of a case for those societies in which the existing differences that have not been overcome, became one of the basic reasons, if not even one of the main causes, of fierce and historically repetitive (which also means repeatable) conflicts. Nevertheless, if the question of larger admiration of existing differences and its expression through new ways of social organization is, in fact, raised as an important issue in highly developed and extremely stable states, sometimes even with a strong monoculture ideology, but also with a multicultural reality, the author asks himself what are the possibilities for a society that goes through transitional changes to, simultaneously with this changes, try to solve this, in its foundation, "postmodern" problem. This issue is particularly interesting for those societies or regions that already have a respectable experience of a multicultural (co)existence, as it is the case with Vojvodina. All that should primarily be done is to revise, renew and improve such a positive heritage. In that sense, the basic thesis of the author would be that if this is done at the appropriate time and in a proper manner, the transition itself will be completed more easily and with more success. By doing so differences could, from a potential burden and restriction, become some sort of advantage

Serbia and transition: In turmoil of political and economic oligarchy

This article deals with obstacles that Serbia faces during the process of delayed transition after the constitution of democratic government. The attention is focused on the role of the most important political and economic actors in the process, whose partial interests are identified as one of the largest obstructions to faster and better transformation of old structures. Emphasizing that the new authorities is still trapped by the old models of governance and accumulation of wealth, which led to greater social inequalities and dissolution of democratic potential of the society, author specially points to damaging consequences of fight for power inside the governing elite of DOS which begins to look like old communists' ideological and political clashes. The way out from such situation is long-term development of stable civil society, while in short-term framework, the emphasis is put on strengthening of regulated political and economic competition, and strengthening of position of critical public opinion, in which foreign actors ought to take role. The first step would have to be to oblige political actors to check the consequences if their policies in front of the voters more frequently

Regionalisation in Serbia: Between centralism and regionalism

This paper is one of the results of the empirical research of the problem of regionalisation and multiculturality on the territory of Vojvodina. Only the part of gathered data, which concerns the regionalisation of Serbia and the status of Vojvodina, is used. Claiming that a regional state is not only a special form of the complex organization of state authorities, but also a special form of the whole social life, the author tries to define clear and reliable criteria of "good" or "desirable" regionalisation, which would avoid extreme centralism and extreme regionalism. Following the statistical territorial units, according to the standards of the European Union (NUTS) the author recommends the a regional structure, understood as a special form of division of authorities: Serbia as a state or federal unit (NUTS 1) Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija as provinces (NUTS 2), regions (NUTS 3) sub-regions (NUTS 4) and municipalities (NUTS 5). In this context, it is suggested that the future Constitution of the Republic of Serbia should define only provinces and municipalities (NUTS 2 and NUTS 5), while for the forming of regions and sub-regions (NUTS 3 and NUTS 4) only the procedure and principles should be given - the rest would be left to spontaneous initiative of potential regional or sub-regional units. Two undesirable things would be avoided: A regionalisation imposed from "above", which could be understood as uncovered centralism, and a regionalism from "bellow" which tries to hide separatism under the mask of regionalisation and which leads not to better functioning and faster development of Serbia, but to disintegration

Ethnic conflicts in multicultural societies and (im)possibilities to prevent them

This paper points out the main characteristics and the major consequences of ethnic conflicts in multicultural societies. Also, the (im)possibilities to prevent them are also questioned. The base for this analysis are ethnic conflicts that occurred on the territory of former Yugoslavia, which are in some of their aspects qualified as typical, and in others as specific. Examination of the question of ethnic conflicts in multicultural societies is approached with an essential intention to show how the joint destructive action of domestic actors and a negative interference from the side necessarily produce catastrophic consequences in such societies. With the intention to offer a more balanced and a more complete perspective of this crucial problem, the author pleads for the respect of few ground principles in dealing with and for seeing the eruption of ethnic conflicts. In his opinion, in order to truly accept those principles and successfully realize them, it is necessary, beside the fundamental inner changes, to also eliminate negative action from the outside actors, and improve "positive interference" of the external factor, based on good evaluation of one's own interests, which are not incompatible with truly developmental needs and interests of societies and countries of this region