Demographic estimates from the Palaeolithic–Mesolithic boundary in Scandinavia: comparative benchmarks and novel insights

Prehistoric demography has recently risen to prominence as a potentially explanatory variable for episodes of cultural change as documented in the archaeological and ethnographic record. While this has resulted in a veritable boom in methodological developments seeking to address temporal changes in the relative size of prehistoric populations, little work has focused on the manner in which population dynamics manifests across a spatial dimension. Most recently, the so-called Cologne Protocol has led the way in this endeavour. However, strict requirements of raw-material exchange data as analytical inputs have prevented further applications of the protocol to regions outside of continental Europe. We apply an adjusted approach of the protocol that makes it transferable to cases in other parts of the world, while demonstrating its use by providing comparative benchmarks of previous research on the Late Glacial Final Palaeolithic of southern Scandinavia, and novel insights from the early Holocene pioneer colonization of coastal Norway. We demonstrate again that population size and densities remained fairly low throughout the Late Glacial, and well into the early Holocene. We suggest that such low population densities have played a significant role in shaping what may have been episodes of cultural loss, as well as potentially longer periods of only relatively minor degrees of cultural change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’.publishedVersio

Hur kan man tolka genus? - En genusundersökning av gravfältet Simris och Istabygravfältet i södra Sverige från yngre förromersk och romersk järnålder.

The overall aim of this study is to get closer look at the prehistoric individual on a more social level. This will be attempted through a qualitative understanding of how one can interpret gender using a source material from two Iron Age cemeteries both located in the very southeastern corner of Sweden. In doing this, the study revolves around a crucial understanding of three theoretical ideas: Gender, Funerary Rituals, and Object. The source material consists of fifteen individuals altogether, split up between determined and undetermined sex. A back-and-forth approach between the source material and the three theoretical ideas will then attempt to elucidate different gender roles. The study encountered various grounds of success when implementing theoretical views regarding the object’s ability to communicate and represent gender differences when combined with a physical presence of the individual’s skeleton. However, due to a lack of understanding regarding funerary rituals from the Iron Age period, the possibility of misrepresentation interfered with the process of interpreting gender. The results of the study were somewhat inconsistent due to the general nature of gender, the idea of gender as something rather ’ever changing’ led to a variety of gender roles the majority of the burials that might of been, yet again, they may very well not have been

Triply resonant coherent four-wave mixing in silicon nitride microresonators

Generation of multiple tones using four-wave mixing (FWM) has been exploited for many applications, ranging from wavelength conversion to frequency comb generation. FWM is a coherent process, meaning that its dynamics strongly depend on the relative phase among the waves involved. The coherent nature of FWM has been exploited for phase-sensitive processing in different waveguide structures, but it has never been studied in integrated microresonators. Waveguides arranged in a resonant way allow for an effective increase in the wavelength conversion efficiency (at the expense of a reduction in the operational bandwidth). In this Letter, we show that phase shaping of a three-wave pump provides an extra degree of freedom for controlling the FWM dynamics in microresonators. We present experimental results in single-mode, normal-dispersion high-Q silicon nitride resonators, and numerical calculations of systems operating in the anomalous dispersion regime. Our results indicate that the wavelength conversion efficiency and modulation instability gain in microcavities pumped by multiple waves can be significantly modified with the aid of simple lossless coherent control technique

Verksamhetsutveckling genom kunduppföljning vid Licab : Med koppling till samhällsbyggnad, infrastruktur och industri

Detta examensarbete var skriven av två studenter som en avslutande del av samhällsbyggnadsprogrammet vid Luleå tekniska universitet. Arbetet genomfördes i samråd och på teknikkonsultföretaget Licab, där verksamhet inom infrastruktur, industri och samhällsbyggnad bedrivs. Genom dialog med ledningen på Licab identifierades behovet av en kunduppföljningsmetod med syfte att förbättra företagets kundrelation och öka kundnöjdheten. Examensarbetet blev därmed att analysera och förstå utvecklingen av ett tillvägagångssätt lämplig för Licab, med målet att främja företagets tillväxt på lång sikt genom effektivare kundrelationer. Vid utförandet av examensarbetet inhämtade studenterna information från ledningen, kunderna och representanter, samt att de genomförde en litteraturstudie och en jämförelse mellan verktygen Google Forms och Brilliant. Med resurser från företagets medarbetare och en tydlig tidsplan på 10 veckor, fördelat på totalt 400 timmar sammanlagt för båda studenterna, planerades och genomfördes arbetet strukturerat för att möta de förväntade kraven. Studenterna riktade frågeställningarna på att välja lämpligt verktyg, identifiera relevanta frågor, bestämma antalet frågor, definiera mottagarna, utvärdera svaren och undersöka hur kunduppföljningsmetoden kunde bidra till att förbättra kundrelationerna. Genom att uppnå dessa mål och besvara frågeställningarna vill studenterna erbjuda både öppna förslag och konkreta rekommendationer

Demographic estimates from the Palaeolithic–Mesolithic boundary in Scandinavia: comparative benchmarks and novel insights

Prehistoric demography has recently risen to prominence as a potentially explanatory variable for episodes of cultural change as documented in the archaeological and ethnographic record. While this has resulted in a veritable boom in methodological developments seeking to address temporal changes in the relative size of prehistoric populations, little work has focused on the manner in which population dynamics manifests across a spatial dimension. Most recently, the so-called Cologne Protocol has led the way in this endeavour. However, strict requirements of raw-material exchange data as analytical inputs have prevented further applications of the protocol to regions outside of continental Europe. We apply an adjusted approach of the protocol that makes it transferable to cases in other parts of the world, while demonstrating its use by providing comparative benchmarks of previous research on the Late Glacial Final Palaeolithic of southern Scandinavia, and novel insights from the early Holocene pioneer colonization of coastal Norway. We demonstrate again that population size and densities remained fairly low throughout the Late Glacial, and well into the early Holocene. We suggest that such low population densities have played a significant role in shaping what may have been episodes of cultural loss, as well as potentially longer periods of only relatively minor degrees of cultural change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’

Fordeling av steinalderens løsfunn og boplassfunn i Vestland

Fordeling av steinalderens løsfunn og boplassfunn i Vestland Kontraster og konsekvenser for forskning og forvaltnin

Re-enacting the sequence : Combined digital methods to study a prehistoric cave

This contribution seeks to demonstrate how recently developed 3D GIS platforms can help archeologists in relating to the original context legacy data that can be employed to digitally reconstruct the sequence of arbitrary layers as it was observed and then excavated in the end of the nineteenth century. This research has been conducted on the prehistoric cave of Stora Förvar, located on the small island of Stora Karlsö, in South-Eastern Sweden. As a part of a research project titled “The pioneer settlements of Gotland,” this line of enquiry has sought to combine 3D-based digital acquisition techniques, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and old archival material (hand-made drawings, artifacts lists, historical pictures) in order to virtually reconstruct the original sequence as it was excavated through the method of arbitrary layers. At a later stage, the reconstructed sequence has been employed to re-contextualize and analyze the distribution of artifacts so as to detect any possible pattern that could have been useful for defining the chronological boundaries of the Mesolithic phase of habitation of the cave. In brief, three main objectives can be defined: (a) to re-create a spatial connection between the artifacts retrieved at the time of the excavation and the sequence of layers, (b) to define density maps showing the relationship between volumes of layers and categories of artifacts belonging to the sequence, and (c) to further our knowledge about the Mesolithic habitation of the cave, not only vertically (chronologically) but also horizontally