Suchergebnisse

In the spring of 2001, the National Service for Archaeological Heritage in the Netherlands and the Netherlands School of Archaeological Research (ARCHON) organised a three-day international symposium on early prehistoric archaeology and archaeological heritage management (AHM), entitled 'Preserving the Early Past. Investigation, selection and preservation of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes'. The symposium was held from 20 to 22 November 2002 at the headquarters of the National Service for Archaeological Heritage in the Medieval town of Amersfoort. During the first two days, 18 invited speakers – all archaeologists working in different countries in northwestern Europe and actively involved in Palaeolithic and/or Mesolithic archaeology and AHM – presented a variety of topics related to the central theme of the symposium: the investigation and management of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultural heritage. In addition to the invited speakers, approximately 60 professional archaeologists and students attended the symposium. A field excursion was held on 22 November. Participants travelled to the province of Flevoland for a demonstration of mechanical borings and visited nature conservancy group Stichting Gooisch Natuurreservaat in Hilversum to discuss a large collection of quartzite artefacts from the surface of an ice-pushed ridge in the vicinity of Hilversum. There were a number of reasons for organising this international symposium. In the Netherlands, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites have long been a rather neglected part of the archaeological record in AHM.The number of legally protected prehistoric hunter-gatherer sites is low compared to archaeological sites dating from late prehistory or the Roman period, for example. The number of sites protected by law is also manifestly in inverse proportion to the large number of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites presently known in the Netherlands. The fact that Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites are not visible in the Dutch landscape (in contrast to later prehistoric phenomena like terpen, hunebedden and burial mounds) and thus have no aesthetic value, may well be one of the reasons for this discrepancy. Furthermore, until recently virtually all the known Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites were in the higher, well-drained Pleistocene sandy and loess soils of the Netherlands. Almost all of them are surface sites in a poor state of preservation, and have consequently not been considered serious candidates for in situ preservation. Last but not least, in recent decades only a few Dutch archaeologists have focused their attention on issues associated with the in situ preservation of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains. Since the reasons mentioned above, or at least some of them, are also likely to apply to other countries in northwestern Europe, an international symposium on the subject seemed like a useful idea. In many European countries the early prehistoric record now deserves full attention, taking into account the new demands set by the 'European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised)' which was signed at Valletta on the island of Malta in 1992. The incorporation of the Malta Convention into Dutch legislation (which is expected in 2006), for instance, requires a strong and comprehensive national policy, a major part of which should deal with Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes.Without such a policy, the loss of archaeological evidence – ranging from very small sites represented by a few stone artefacts to entire buried palaeolandscapes containing archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data – will continue and perhaps even increase as a result of planning processes. The primary objective of the symposium was to learn about the role of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes in AHM from archaeologists working in various countries in northwestern Europe and to exchange ideas about how to investigate, assess, select and preserve this fragile archaeological resource in various environmental settings.What strategies are appropriate for the detection of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes, and how do we assess their information value? What scientific criteria should we use as a basis for deciding whether to go ahead with preservation in situ or excavation, or take no action at all? And what potential and constraints do we face in terms of the conservation and sustainable development of these Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains? The symposium offered an opportunity to discuss these important questions with an international forum of archaeologists, making use of examples from daily practice in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England and Germany. This volume includes the papers presented and the main conclusions of the discussions as summarized by the chairmen (Barton, Roebroeks and Zvelebil) of three sessions of the symposium. In retrospect, we can conclude that the symposium provided a sound basis for the further development and improvement of management strategies for early prehistoric remains. As an integral part of the archaeological record, and threatened by all kind of interventions in the soil, it is evident that these remains should be treated according to the principles of the Malta Convention and with the same attention given to archaeological remains from later periods. In other words, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes deserve full consideration in planning processes, with the aim of preservation in situ or – if preservation is not possible – conservation ex situ through excavation. Symposia such as the one held in Amersfoort in 2002 allow us to continue the international debate on issues associated with the management of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultural heritage. However, appropriate management strategies are not the only prerequisite. Problem-oriented research and public awareness will be essential in the battle to protect valuable Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites and landscapes from further destruction in the near future. And one final point worthy of our attention: not all Palaeolithic and Mesolithic landscapes are equally suited to long-term preservation, even if they have the same intrinsic or physical quality. The potential offered by specific regulations, the attitude and intentions of landowners and land users, and considerations of a practical and financial nature also play an important role in determining whether preservation in situ is possible. It is equally important that we have a thorough understanding of the present qualities of an archaeological site or landscape and whether these qualities can be maintained in the long term. It does not make much sense to preserve an archaeological site on scientific grounds if one is unable to prevent it from further disturbance due to slope erosion or ploughing, for instance. If the quality of a site is likely to significantly decline over the years, excavation in advance of further destruction should be given preference over preservation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY North Dakota has a long history of tobacco-related legislation dating back to the late 1800's, well before the formal organization of health advocates for tobacco control. Citizens of North Dakota recognized the negative health effects of tobacco smoke before most of the nation and made attempts to regulate the sale and use of tobacco products throughout the early 1900's. In 1913, the North Dakota legislature went as far as prohibiting the use of tobacco products in the state. However, all this early tobacco control legislation has since been repealed. From 1975-1983, clean indoor air legislation was introduced by legislators in North Dakota due to constituent requests and personal dislike of secondhand smoke exposure by some legislators. This legislation was consistently supported by GASP and the American Lung Association of North Dakota. These organizations were unable to pass strong clean indoor air legislation on their own. The mobilization of health advocates for tobacco control policy did not begin until the late 1980's when Dr. Stephen McDonough joined the State Health Department as the Head of the Preventive Health Section and Director of Maternal and Child Health. In 1985, Dr. McDonough joined forces with Marcie Andre of the North Dakota Lung Association to form the first tobacco control coalition in the state, Tobacco Free North Dakota. Tobacco Free North Dakota successfully brought together the State Health Department, voluntary health agencies, and other health organizations to work for tobacco control policy in the state. Tobacco Free North Dakota was in existence throughout the 1990's but became progressively less effective in promoting state level tobacco control policy due to increased tobacco industry involvement in state level politics. Through the efforts of Dr. McDonough and Tobacco Free North Dakota the first North Dakota state tobacco plan, "Tobacco, Health, and the Bottom Line" was developed in 1986. At the time the plan was one of only six that had been developed in the country. Through the leadership provided by McDonough, the active coalition of Tobacco Free North Dakota, and the well-developed plan tobacco control advocates were able to strengthen clean indoor air legislation (HB 1272) and pass a tobacco tax increase in 1987. The passage of clean indoor air legislation which required the designation of a smoking area in places of public assembly was similar to the 1975 Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act which had been passed 12 years earlier. Although weak by 2004 standards and well behind Minnesota, HB 1272 strengthened clear indoor air law in North Dakota. The mobilization of health advocates for tobacco control led to an increase in tobacco industry involvement in state politics and subsequent decrease in state level tobacco control policy. The tobacco industry has built and strengthened networks of third party allies, including the Tobacco Wholesalers Association, North Dakota Grocers Association, ND Petroleum Marketers Association, North Dakota Retail Association, and the Greater North Dakota Association to fight the public battles against tobacco control policy allowing the tobacco industry to remain behind the scenes. Although the path of tobacco industry money in North Dakota is difficult to trace due to poor reporting requirements, piecing together reported political contributions, tobacco industry budgets, and media reports provides evidence that tobacco industry funds have influenced the political process in North Dakota. The tobacco industry successfully halted the passage of tobacco control policy at the state level. The only state level legislative successes for health advocates beyond the 1987 legislative session was the prevention of the passage of preemptive legislation supported by the tobacco industry. In the early 1990's tobacco control advocates recognized the stall in state level tobacco control policy due to the infiltration of the political process by the tobacco industry. Wisely, tobacco control leadership at the State Health Department including Dr. McDonough and Jeanne Prom, State Health Department Tobacco Prevention and Control Administrator(1992-2001), shifted the focus to local level politics where the force of the tobacco industry was less powerful. In 1992, the State Health Department began funding local public health units for coalition building and the passage of youth access ordinances. Local tobacco control policy flourished throughout the 1990's with a total of 38 youth access ordinances enacted. The most significant local policy success in North Dakota was the passage of a smokefree restaurant ordinance in Minot, North Dakota on April 2, 2001. The STAMP coalition with the leadership of Kelly Buettner-Schmidt working in collaboration with City Council members Andy Bertsch and Stephan Podrygula secured the passage of the ordinance by the Minot City Council. As has happened in many other states following first passage of a smoke-free restaurant ordinance (with undisclosed backing from the tobacco industry), four days after the passage of the ordinance a referendum was forced and the smoke-free ordinance was subsequently brought to a vote of the people. Due to the efforts of the STAMP coalition the ordinance was successfully upheld by a vote of the people and became effective January 1, 2002. On the state level, State Health Officer Murray Sagsveen, under the direction of Republican Governor Edward Schafer, set the stage for the allocation of minimal Master Settlement Agreement funds to tobacco control in North Dakota. Prior to the 1999 legislative session health advocates failed to effectively advocate for the allocation of the funds to tobacco control. Therefore, the Governor and legislature determined that only 10% of the funds would be directed to a Community Health Trust Fund. Prior to the 2001 legislative session health advocates lost the leadership previously provided by Dr. Stephen McDonough and Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp and did not unify behind a plan for the allocation of the funds in the Community Health Trust Fund. The determination of the implementing legislation was largely left to the legislature. However, health advocates did play a role in shaping the Community Health Grants Program. The Community Health Grants Program directed the funds in the Community Health Trust Fund to the local public health units where tobacco control advocates have traditionally been the most successful in North Dakota. In the late 1990's the tobacco control infrastructure built by Tobacco Free North Dakota in the late 1980's crumbled due to loss of leadership and an adverse environment for tobacco control within the State Health Department. In 2003, health advocates in North Dakota were in the process of rebuilding this infrastructure in order to move forward with state level tobacco control policy.

Yukarı Dicle bölgesi, Güneydoğu Anadolu dağ sistemi içerisinde önemli bir alanı temsil etmekte olup, söz konusu özellik Mezopotamya çukur bölgesini hem kuzey hem de doğu Anadolu alanlarına bağlayan bir rol oynamasına imkan sağlayan coğrafi konumu ile ilişkilidir. Dicle nehrinin yukarı çığırında son otuz yılda gerçekleştirilen arkeolojik araştırmalar sayesinde, yerel bir kültürel sistemin tanımlanmasını sağlayacak yeni önemli göstergelere ek olarak, gerek bölge içerisinde gerekse ötesinde zamandizinsel ayrımlar ve eşzamanlılıklara açıklık getirmekte kullanılabilecek kapsamlı bir veri bütüncesi de elde edilmiştir. Bu kitap, Erken ve Orta Tunç Çağı'nın son kısmına ilişkin yakın dönemde yürütülen arkeolojik etkinliklerin sonuçlarını araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Yayımlanan verilerin ayrıntılı bir çözümlemesinden başlayarak yerleşkeler, stratigrafi, mimari, çanak çömlekler, bölgesel bağlantılar ve zamandizine ilişkin temel konular ele alınmıştır. Ṭūr ʿAbdīn tepelerinin kuzeyinde, yüksek Güneydoğu Torosların eteklerinde yer alan Yukarı Dicle bölgesi, arkeolojik bulgular açısından tutarlı ve uyumlu bir görüntü çizmektedir. Yürütülen araştırma ve kazılar, vadideki kayda değer bir yerleşim döneminin, ufak boyutlu yerleşimlerin Dicle taşkın ovası kenarındaki akarsu taraçalarında ve ana akarsu kolları boyunca kurulma eğilimi içerisinde oldukları M.Ö. III. binyılın sonu ile M.Ö. II. binyılın ilk yarısı arasında tarihlendirilmesi gerektiğini belgelemektedir. Bunların çoğu, iri yapılar ya da yapı bütünleri ile komşu bölgelerdeki eşzamanlı seramik geleneklerinden farklı nitelikteki yerel bir seramik topluluğu tarafından karakterize edilmektedir. Ağırlıklı olarak kırmızı-kahverengi astarlı ve boyalı çömleklerden oluşan seramik topluluğu, yerel sistemin tanımlanması ve Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki sahalararası kültürel bağlantıların belirlenmesi açısından önem taşımaktadır. Alanda ele geçirdiğimiz buluntuların büyük kısmını teşkil eden çanak çömlek parçalarının yaygın olarak yer alışı, halihazırda araştırmaların temelini oluşturmalarını sağlamaktadır. Özellikle son dönemdeki araştırmaların üzerinde yoğunlaştığı Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde ele geçirilen çanak çömlekler, diğer buluntu kategorileri ve alandaki varlıklarına kıyasla, yalnızca farklı katman bağlamları dahilinde değil aynı zamanda henüz kazılmamış alanların yüzeylerinde de dikkat çekici nitelikte olup; bu belirgin coğrafi alandaki maddi üretimin belirleyici özelliklerini saptamak ve Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki kültürel gelişimi daha geniş bir yelpazede yorumlayabilmek adına en güvenilir araçlardan biri olma özelliğine sahiptir. Coğrafi ve tarihi nitelikli kısa önsöz hariç (Bölüm 1), kitabın esas içeriğini bölgede yürütülan arkeolojik araştırmalar ve çözümlemeleri olusturmaktadır (Bölüm 2 & 4). İkinci bölümün konusu, araştırılan alanlar ve kazılan verleşimler olup (Bölüm 2); söz konusu alanlar, bugün itibarıyla sahip olduğumuz arkeolojik bilgilerin en üst seviyesine ışık tutmaktadır. Bu konuda bir diğer önemli katkı sunan Hirbermerdon Tepe'deki kazılar kitabın üçüncü bölümünün ana konusunu teşkil etmekte ve yerleşim evreleri ve ilgili çömlek buluntularını (3.4) da içeren arkeolojik bağlam (3.2) üzerine çoğunluğu yayımlanmamış akla yatkın önermelerde de bulunulmaktadır. Çanak çömlek parçalarının gerek teknolojik gerekse biçimsel açıdan sınıflandırılması (3.3) ile, alandaki varlıklarının mekansal ve zamansal devamlılık özellikleri ve çanak çömlek çeşitlerinin analizine geniş yer ayrılmıştır. Ayrıca temel küçük buluntular da gerek bölgesel gerekse zamandizinsel çerçeve açısından yorumlanmış ve ilgili ögelerle birlikte değerlendirilmiştir (3.5). Seramik buluntularının ayrıntılı bir analizini gerçekleştirebilmek adına yararlandığımız temel bilgi kaynağı Hirbemerdon Tepe höyüğünde gün ışığına çıkarılan yapılar bütünü olmakla birlikte, yerleşimde açılan sondajlardan elde edilen bulgulardan da yararlanılmıştır. Dicle nehrinin sağ kıyısında yer alan Hirbermerdon Tepe'de gerçekleştirilen ilk kazı dönemi (2005-2007), yararlı arkeolojik verileri göz önüne sermenin ötesinde, çoğunluğu M.Ö II. binyılın ilk kısmına tarihlendirilen bol miktarda çanak çömlek buluntusu ve buluntu elde edilmesini de sağlamıştır. Farklı katmanlara ait yeni veriler sunan Hirbermerdon Tepe, böylece Yukarı Dicle vadisinin kültürel profilini belirlemek adına önemli bir katkıda bulunmaktadır. Kazılar, her biri form ve teknolojik özellikleri sayesinde belirlenen üç ana seramik evresi sıralamasını gün ışığına çıkarmıştır (3.6). Yaklaşık olarak Erken Tunç Çağı'nın sonlarına, yani Erken Tunç Çağı III-IV'e (Erken Cezire III-V'in sonu) tarihlendirilen erken evre (1. Evre), kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çanak çömlekler (RBWW) ve koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) tarafından; Orta Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen orta evre (2. Evre), çoğunlukla kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çanak çömlekler ve şerit boyama çömlekler (band painted ware) tarafından karakterize edilmektedir. Son evre ise (3. Evre) Orta Tunç Çağı ile kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömleklerden oluşan karmaşık bir repertuvarı gözler önüne sermekte ve Geç Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen Habur ile Nuzi çömlek parçalarını da içermektedir. Hirbemerdon'da Geç Tunç Çağı'na ait kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlek bulunup bulunmadığı henüz kesinlik kazanmamıştır. Seramik repertuvarının teknolojik ve biçimsel özellikleri kapsamında tartışılması ve bölgesel bir bağlama yerleştirilmesine ayrıca bir bölüm ayrılmış (3.7) olup; yerel seramik sistemi ile komşu bölgelerdekiler arasındaki ilişkinin altını çizebilmek adına, eldeki veriler diğer sit alanları ve bölgelerden elde edilenlerle karşılaştırılmıştır. Bölümün sonunda ise, bölgesel dönemlendirmeye ilişkin yorumlar yer almakta ve repertuvar için bir tarihlendirme önerisi sunulmaktadır. Bölüm 4, Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki yerleşim düzeninin gelişimi, yapılar ile elde edilen çanak çömlekler ve önemli küçük buluntulara ilişkin bazı genel yorumlar sunmaktadır. Halihazırda yayımlanmış ve mevcut veriler ile Hirbemerdon Tepe'den elde edilen bulgulara dayanan bu araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre, yerel Orta Tunç Çağı kültürünün yükselişinin M.Ö. III. ile II. binyıl arasındaki geçiş dönemine tarihlendirilmesi gerekmektedir. Yukarı Dicle topluluklarının en etkin oldukları dönemin ise M.Ö. 19. ile 17. yüzyıllar arasına tarihlendirilmesi gerekmekte olup, söz konusu dönem kırmızı kahverengi astarlı/ boyalı çömleklerin ana üretim dönemiyle örtüşmektedir. Yukarı Dicle bölgesine özgü ortak bir seramik repertuvarı tespit edilebilmekte ve özellikle kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW), kırmızı-kahverengi perdahlı çömlekler (RBBW), koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB/DROW) ve çömleğin yüzünü tamamen ya da kısmen örtmek ve dekore etmek amacıyla kullanılan kırmızı-kahverengi astarların karakterize ettiği şerit boyama çömleklerin (BD) varlığı dikkat çekmektedir. Çömlek şekillerinin münferit parçalarını ile paralellik gösteren unsurlara Anadolu ve Suriye'deki Yukarı Fırat bölgesi, Belih Vadisi, Yukarı Habur ve Kuzey Irak düzlük arazileri ve bazen yüksek Anadolu arazilerini de içine alan yaygın bir coğrafyada rastlanmak olsa da, çanak çömleklerin maruz kaldığı yüzey işlemlerinin kendine özgü yerel bir özellik taşıması nedeniyle Dicle vadisi kültürünün belirgin bir ifadesi olarak kabul edilmesi gerekmektedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi astarlı ve boyalı çömleklerin hayli yüksek bir yüzdeye sahip oluşu, Güneydoğu Toros sıradağları ile Van dağ sırasının güneybatısında yer alan Ṭūr ʿAbdīn yüksek arazileri arasında yerel geleneğe yakından bağlı kalmış kendine özgü bir seramik bölgesinin varlığını ileri sürer niteliktedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi çömlekler (DROB/DROW, RBWW, BD), Dicle nehri bölgesindeki aynı imalat geleneğinin ürünleridir. Büyük olasılıkla koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) M.Ö. II. binyılın başlarında bazı sınırlı istisnalar hariç kullanımdan kalkmış olduğu halde, kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW) ise Orta Tunç Çağı'nın tamamı boyunca ve muhtemelen Geç Tunç Çağı'nın başlarına kadar var olmaya devam etmiştir. Dicle çanak çömlek seçkisi, Fırat bölgesinden Cezire'ye kadar uzanan farklı akımlardan etkilenmiş olup; etkileşimin bazı dönemlerle oldukça yoğun, bazen ise daha seyrek nitelikte olduğu belirlenmiştir. Sonuç kısmını teşkil eden Bölüm 5'te ise, türdeşliğin Dicle Bölgesi'ndeki maddi kültür bağlamında toplumsal ve kültürel değeri araştırılmakta ve belki de siyasi oluşumlarla ilintili bir genel örgütlenmenin varlığına ilişkin görüşler ileri sürülmektedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi seramik tarafından karakterize edilen sit alanları, Erken ve Orta Tunç Çağı arasındaki kültürel devamlılığa dair kanıtlar sunmaktadır. Verilerden hareketle, yerel toplumsal ve siyasi düzenin bir noktada değişime uğradığı ve çok işlevli yapılar barındıran küçük yerleşkeler etrafında odaklanan yeni bir yerleşim düzenine geçildiği ve bu değişimin başta kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW) ve koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) olmak üzere, kırmızı-kahverengi çömlek gruplarının üretildiği yerleşim alanlarının gelişimiyle özdeşleştirilebileceği varsayımında bulunmak mümkündür. Erken Tunç Çağı dönemine dair fazla bir yorumda bulunmak mümkün değildir. M.Ö III. binyılın ikinci yarısına ait ya da son yüzyıllarına tarihlendirilen buluntular ve katmanlar, birkaç sit alanında gün ışığına çıkartılmasına rağmen, hiçbiri açık bir stratigrafik sıralama ya da nispeten bütünlüklü bir bağlamlar topluluğu sunmamaktadır. Kalıntılar, bir sonraki dönem olan Orta Tunç Çağı'ndakilere kıyasla cılız kalmakta ve sit alanının kenar noktalarında yer almaktadır. Vadi bu dönemde önemli yerleşimlerden neredeyse tamamen yoksun olup, bunun nedeni muhtemelen yerleşim düzeninin Orta Tunç Çağı'ndakinden hayli farklı ve/veya arkeolojik açıdan kolayca tespit edilemez nitelikte oluşudur. Bazı sit alanlarından oldukça seyrek bulgular elde edilmiş (gömütler, duvar ve zeminlerin bazı bölümleri, çanak çömlek parçaları), fakat bugün itibarıyla kayda değer herhangi bir katmana rastlanmamıştır. Gel gelelim ince katmanların kısa ve aralıklı yerleşim dönemlerine işaret etmesi mümkündür. Elbette bazı ana höyüklerin altında henüz gün ışığına çıkartılmamış kayde değer M. Ö III. binyıl yerleşimlerinin yer alma olasılığı bulunmakla birlikte, henüz bu yönde somut herhangi bir kanıt ele geçirilmemiş, Pornak ve Pir Hüseyin'deki olası geniş yerleşke buluntuları da nehir boyunca ilerleyen vadi bağlamında neredeyse fark edilmeyecek kadar ufak yerleşkelerden ibaret kırsal bir arazi şeklinde beliren genel görüntüyü değiştirecek nitelikte değildir. Muhtemelen M.Ö III. ile II. binyıl arasında geçiş döneminde vadideki yerleşke ve topluluklar, yerleşim alanlarının artması suretiyle bir yeniden yapılanma süreci yaşamış; söz konusu süreç, Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde yaşayan gerek yerleşik gerekse yerel toplumun parçası olan hareketli grupların toplumsal karmaşıklığının gelişmesini tetikleyen ve bu sayede topluluklar arasında yeni etkileşim, kontrol ve idare yöntemleri meydana getiren, niteliği henüz belirsiz fakat önemli bazı değişiklikleri takiben hayata geçmiştir. Bu dönemde, muhtemelen M.Ö III. binyıl sosyopolitik düzeninin belirgin özelliği olan gevşek köy örgütlenmelerine kıyasla daha karmaşık bir toplumsal yapı geliştirilmiştir. Örneğin Giricano, Salat Tepe, Hirbemerdon Tepe'de bulunan ve Orta Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen yapılara ve birleşik mimari komplekslere ait bölümler ile benzer mimari özellikler taşıyan Kavuşan ve Üçtepe kalıntıları, muhtemelen üretim kaynakları üzerinde belirli denetim yöntemlerinin uygulandığı bir toplum planlaması düzenine ya da yerel ekonomik yaşantı yapılanmasına işaret etmekle birlikte, merkezi bir güce biat edildiğini ima etmek için yeterli bir karmaşıklık seviyesinde olmadığı görülmektedir. Yapı ve buluntular elit bir sınıfın varlığını doğrulamamakta olup, yerel ekonomi yönetimini mütevazı ölçekte organize eden ufak toplulukların varlığını ortaya koymaktadır. Söz konusu sitler arasında bir hiyerarşi olduğunu iddia etmeye yetecek bulguya sahip olmamamıza rağmen, eşgüdüm bağlamında önemli bir rol üstlendiklerini ve toplulukları kendilerine çeken, üretilen ürünlerin işlendiği, hayvancılık, tarım, avcılık ve dağlar arası ticaretten elde edilen malların depolandığı ve aynı zamanda toplumsal ve dini nitelikli eylemlerin gerçekleştirildiği önemli birer merkez teşkil ettikleri görülmektedir. Yerleşim yoğunluğundaki artış, yöreye özgü grupların sosyoekonomik anlamdaki yeniden yapılanmasının göstergesi olarak kabul edilebilir. Bu yenilenme süreci, ticari bir ağın kurulmasına ve/veya temel geçim etkinlikleri arasındaki dengede meydana gelen bir değişime ya da bölgeye yeni toplulukların gelişi gibi diğer dış etkenlere de bağlantılandırılabilir. Aynı şekilde önemli olabilecek bir başka faktör ise, aynı grup veya kabile içerisindeki iki farklı kesim, diğer bir deyişle yerleşikler (çoğunlukla çiftçi) ve seyyar (yaylacı çobanlar ve göçebeler) arasındaki ilişkinin değişmesi ve bu sayede bütünleşik bir ekonomi ile genişlemiş bir sosyo-politik düzenin gelişmesine neden olmasıdır. Şimdilik yerli toplumun gelişiminin olası nedenleri üzerine tahmin yürütmekle yetinmek zorundayız. Söz konusu iki kesim, yani aynı grup ya da kabile içerisindeki yerleşikler ve seyyarlar arasındaki ilişki ve bu ilişkinin yol açtığı bütünleşik bir ekonomi ile genişlemiş bir sosyopolitik düzenin gelişmesi olguları, Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde M.Ö III. binyılda hayat bulan yeni bir toplum yapısının temellerini teşkil etmekteydi. Daha karmaşık bir süreci basite indirgemek suretiyle zihnimizde bir senaryo canlandırmak gerekirse, bu bölgede yaşadıkları antik metinler ve modern araştırmalarca doğrulanan göçebe ya da yarı göçebe çoban gruplarının farklı gerekçelerle tarımsal etkinlikler ve köy yaşantısına geçmeye karar verdiklerini ve bu amaçla dağlar, vadiler ve stepler arasında önceleri yüzyıllar boyunca mevsimlik göç ve yaylacılık çerçevesinde yararlandıkları alanlardan birine yerleşmeyi seçtiklerini; grubun diğer kısmının ise sürülerle geleneksel rotaları izleyerek ilerledikleri ve yerleşik topluluklarla etkileşime devam ettiklerini düşünmek mümkündür. Eldeki mevcut yazılı belgeler yetersiz olup, güney şehir devletleriyle etkileşim ve ticaret ağlarına katılım yöntemlerinin belirlenmesine henüz imkan sağlamamaktadır. Yerel toplulukların sosyal ve ekonomik yapılarının yeniden düzenlenmesi olgusu Orta Tunç Çağı toplumlarının belirgin bir özelliği olarak öne çıkmakta; nitekim söz konusu toplumların önce M.Ö II. binyıl ve takiben M.Ö I. binyıl boyunca yerel niteliklerine sıkıca bağlı kaldıkları ya da güney imparatorluklarının sabit sömürgeleştirme girişimleri ve baskılarına rağmen, zaman zaman Anadolu'nun doğusuna yöneldikleri görülmektedir. Bu durumun toplumsal ve tarihsel değerinin önemli çıkarımlarından birine, yerel toplumun farklı unsurları ve üyelerinin bu arkeolojik arazi kapsamında üstlendikleri roller üzerinden ulaşmak mümkündür. Oluşturduğumuz taslak doğru ise, M.Ö III. binyıla tarihlendirilen sitlerin azlığı ya da başka bir ifadeyle bu yerleşim alanlarının sınırlı görünürlükte oluşlarının, dengesiz bir yerleşme düzenine işaret ediyor olabilir. Zira nüfusun büyük bir kısmı, bölge şartlarına en iyi uyum gösterme yöntemi olarak seyyar, yarı göçmen ya da göçmen bir yaşam tarzını tercih etmiştir. Yukarı Dicle vadisi örneğinde ise, sistemin karmaşıklaşması ve yerel toplumdaki dönüşümün tetiklenmesinde ticaret ağlarının mı yoksa yerel gruplar arasındaki belki de Akkadların bölgedeki etkilerini artırmaları sonucu doğan dinamiklerin mi etkili olduğunu sorgulamamız mümkündür. Vadi, maddi kültürü ve özellikle de çanak çömlek geleneği açısından kendisini çevreleyen diğer bölgelerden ayrılan bir niteliğe sahiptir. Aslında Dicle kültürünün kendine has ve özel konumu, birçok yüzyıl boyunca metinsel herhangi bir ize rastlanmaması, Mezopotamyalıların bölgeyi kontrol altına almakta yaşadıkları zorluklar ve maddi kalıntıların özellikleri, bu alanın iyi tanımlanmış ve belirgin bir kültürel ve belki de siyasi oluşuma ev sahipliği yaptığını düşündürmekte ve bunun bağlantılı olarak, kırmızı-kahverengi seramiklerin varlığı ile karakterize edilen yerleşkelerin gelişiminden de anlaşıldığı üzere, M.Ö III. binyılda gerçekleşen değişimlere de yön verdiği ihtimalini güçlendirmektedir. Yukarı Dicle'deki kazılarda gün ışığına çıkartılan kalıntıların Hurri medeniyetinin doğrudan bir ifadesi olarak kabul edilip edilemeyeceği ise, şimdilik ilginç fakat metinsel kanıtların yokluğunda ispat edilemeyecek bir varsayımın ötesine geçememektedir. Ancak Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde yakın dönemde yürütülen araştırmalar, M.Ö. III. binyılın sonu ile M.Ö. II. binyılın başı arasında Anadolu'nun güneydoğusunda yaşayan ve Antik Yakın Doğu'nun tarihsel arka planı kapsamında henüz tam anlamıyla belirlenememiş de olsa önemli bir rol oynayan toplulukların daha iyi tanımlanabilmeleri adına yeni ve önemli bazı kanıtlar elde edilmesini sağlamıştır. ; La regione attraversata dal corso superiore del fiume Tigri, in Turchia sud-orientale, è stata per molto tempo un'area poco conosciuta dal punto di vista archeologico. L'intensificarsi delle ricerche sul campo, a partire dagli anni novanta del secolo scorso, ha prodotto le evidenze su cui basare una prima ricostruzione della storia dell'insediamento e della cultura materiale di questi territori, tra le alte terre anatolico-orientali e le pianure mesopotamiche. I risultati degli scavi e le ricognizioni indicano che tra la fine del Bronzo Antico e l'inizio del Bronzo Medio giunge a maturazione un processo di trasformazione e riorganizzazione delle comunità locali. La comparsa di ampi complessi architettonici ed edifici in siti di medio-piccole dimensioni, caratterizzati da un particolare repertorio di oggetti e da ceramiche rosso-brune, potrebbe nascondere la formazione di realtà socio-politiche più strutturate rispetto a quelle del periodo precedente ed essere espressione di quel mondo khurrita che avrebbe avuto proprio nella regione del Tigri, secondo le ricostruzioni storiche, una delle zone di insediamento principale. ; The Upper Tigris region represents an important area within the mountainous system of south-eastern Anatolia and its relevance is related to its geographical position that plays a role in connecting the Mesopotamian lowlands to both northern and eastern Anatolian areas. Archaeological researches carried out during the last thirty years along the upper course of the Tigris river have provided new important evidence for the definition of a local cultural horizon and a large corpus of data that may be used to clarify chronological divisions and synchronism within the region itself and beyond. The aim of this book is to investigate the results of the recent archaeological activities concerning the final part of the Early and the Middle Bronze Age. Starting from a detailed analysis of the published data, central issues concerning settlements, stratigraphy, architecture, pottery, regional links, and chronology have been treated. The region of the Upper Tigris river, north of the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn hills and at the foot of the high south-eastern Anatolian mountains, show a coherent picture in terms of archaeological evidence. Surveys and excavations have documented that an important occupational period of the valley should be dated back to the end of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, when mainly small sized settlements tend to be established on the river terraces on the edge of the Tigris floodplain and along the main river tributaries. Many of them are characterized by large buildings or architectural complexes and the presence of a typical ceramic assemblage which appears to be distinct from the other contemporaneous ceramic traditions of the neighbouring regions. The assemblage of pottery, mainly red-brown slipped and painted wares, is important for the definition of a local horizon and for the identification of intersite cultural connections in the upper Tigris region. The ubiquity of pots sherds, essentially representing the bulk of what we found in the field, make them currently the basis of this investigation. In the particular case of the Upper Tigris, area of recent investigation, the pottery is remarkable when compared with other categories of finds and their presence, not only in stratified contexts but also on the surface of non-excavated sites, makes one of the most reliable tools for characterizing the material production of this specific geographical area and interpreting wider features of the cultural development in the Upper Tigris. A part a brief geographical and historical introduction (Chapter 1), the core of the book is represented by the results of the archaeological researches in the region and their analysis (Chapters 2 and 4). Surveyed areas and the excavated sites are the subjects of the second chapter (Chapter 2) that provides also the current state of the art for our archaeological knowledge. An important contribution is offered by the excavations at Hirbemerdon Tepe and to this site is dedicated the Chapter 3 where is reasoned argument of the archaeological context (3.2) with its phases of occupation and associated pottery (3.4), mainly unpublished. Much space is given to the classification of pottery sherds (3.3) both in technological and morphological terms and the analysis of spatial and diachronic occurrence of wares and types. Also main small findings are interpreted and contextualized in the regional and chronological frameworks (3.5). Our primary source of information for a detailed analysis of the pottery is the architectural complex, discovered on the mound of Hirbemerdon Tepe but also the evidence from other soundings opened on the site. The first excavations campaigns (2005-2007) carried out at Hirbermerdon Tepe, on the right bank of Tigris river, yielded good archaeological contexts and a conspicuous amount of pottery and artefacts mainly dating back to the first part of the 2nd millennium BC. Providing a new set of stratified data, Hirbemerdon Tepe offers an important contribution to defining the cultural profile of the Upper Tigris valley area. The excavations provided us with a sequence of three main ceramic phases, each individuated by morphological and technological attributes (3.6). The early phase (Fase 1), dating to the end of the Early Bronze Age, approximately to Early Bronze Age III-IV (end of Early Jazirah III-V), is characterized by the presence of an early version of RBWW and DROB; the middle phase (Fase 2), dated to the Middle Bronze Age, is characterized mainly by RBWW and band painted ware. The last phase (Fase 3) comprises a mixed assemblage with RBWW types of MBA date and others in common ware together with some Khabur and Nuzi sherds of Late Bronze Age date. It is not ascertained that at Hirbemerdon exists RBWW of LBA date. A section is dedicated to discuss the pottery repertoire, its technological and morphological characteristics, and in the regional context (3.7), comparing data with those from other sites and regions in order to underline the relationship between the local ceramic horizon and those of the neighbours. The end of the chapter concerns remarks on the regional periodization and propose a date for the repertoire. Chapter 4 offers general remarks about the settlement developments, architecture, pottery and significative small finds recovered in the Upper Tigris region. According to the results of this study, based on the published data currently available and the evidence from Hirbemerdon Tepe, the rise of the local Middle Bronze Age culture has to be dated to the passage between the 3rd and the 2nd millennium. The floruit of the Upper Tigris communities has to be dated to the period between the 19th and 17th centuries that coincides with the main phase of production of the red-brown slipped/painted pottery. A common pottery horizon is widely recognizable in the Upper Tigris region, marked specifically by the presence of categories known as Red Brown Wash Ware (RBWW), Red Brown Burnished Ware (RBBW), Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls/Ware (DROB/DROW) and Band Painted Ware (BD) which are characterized by a layer of red/brown slips used to cover, entirely or partially, the surface of the pot and to decorate it. Parallels of single components of the pottery shape are geographically widespread, encompassing the Upper Euphrates in Anatolia and Syria, the Balikh area, the Upper Khabur and the northern Iraqi lowlands, sometimes the Anatolian highlands, but the particular surface treatment is a specific local characteristic and has to be considered as a distinctive expression of the Tigris valley culture. The high percentage of red-brown slipped and painted wares suggests that a proper ceramic region existed between the South-Eastern Taurus fringes and the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn uplands, south-west of the Van mountain system, resting firmly within a local tradition. Red-brown wares (DROB/DROW, RBWW, BD) are products of the same manufacturing tradition, centred on the Tigris river area. It is likely that the DROB were out of use at the beginning of 2nd millennium, a part some marginal exceptions, whereas the RBWW continued for the entire span of the Middle Bronze Age and probably until the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The Tigris pottery assemblage experienced the effects of different influxes, from the Euphrates area and to the Jazirah, with a period of major interaction and others of less intensive contacts. In conclusion, Chapter 5 explores the social and cultural value of the homogeneity in material culture within the Tigris region, suggesting the existence of a communal organization maybe connected with political entities. The sites characterised by red-brown wares represent evidence of cultural continuity between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. It may be assumed that at a certain point a transformation of the local social and political system occurres, with the conversion to a new settlement pattern organized around little sites with multifunctional buildings and this change is also identified by the growth of settled sites producing red-brown pottery, like DROBs and principally RBWW. Not much can be said as regards the end of the Early Bronze Age period. Findings and strata of the second half of 3rd millennium or dating to the last centuries have been exposed at few sites but none provides a clear stratigraphic sequence or fairly well articulated contexts. In general, the remains are poor compared with those of the following Middle Bronze Age and cover marginal areas of the site. The valley was almost devoid of significant settlements during this period, probably because the settlement pattern was substantially different from the Middle Bronze Age pattern and/or not easily recognizable archeologically. Some sites produced very sparse evidence (tombs, portion of walls and floors, pot-sherds) but no substantial layers have been found up to now. In fact the thin layers could indicate brief and intermittent periods of occupation. Of course there might have been considerable 3rd millennium sites not yet excavated beneath some of the major and important mounds but as yet there is no evidence for them and the possible finding of large settlements in Pornak and Pir Hüseyin do not change the general picture of a rural landscape with evanescent presence of very small sites, as for the valley along the river. Probably during the passage between the 3rd and 2nd millennium there was a reorganization of settlements and populations in the valley with an increase of settled sites, after important but unclear changes in the whole region that stimulated the growth of the social complexity among the groups inhabiting the Upper Tigris, both sedentary and mobile segments of local society, producing new forms of interaction between the communities, control and management of the resources. In this period a social structure more complex than loose village organizations that probably characterized the sociopolitical landscape of the 3rd millennium was developed. The portions of buildings and composite architectural complexes, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, found for example at Giricano, Salat Tepe, Hirbemerdon Tepe, but also the remains of Kavuşan and Üçtepe showing similar architectural features, suggest a community planning with the possible existence of a form of control over productive resources or organization of the local economic life, but not a level of complexity implying the subordination to a centralizing power. Architecture and artifacts do not confirm the presence of elites but indicate small communities organizing the management of local economy on a modest scale. We do not have elements to recognize a hierarchy between these sites yet but it seems that these played a role of coordination and were centers of attraction for populations; for processing products and storing commodities coming from herds, agriculture, hunting and intermountain trade as well as for communal and ritual performances. The growing of settlement density can be considered as an indicator of a socio-economic reorganization of indigenous groups. This regenerative process can be linked to the establishment of a commercial network and/or to a change in the balance between main subsistence activities or to other external stimuli as the arrival of newcomers. Not less important could have been the changing relation between the two segments, settled (mainly farmers) and mobile (transhumant shepherds and nomads) of the same group or tribe, developing an integrated economy and an enlarged socio-political system, At present we can only speculate about what the development of the indigenous society holds. The relation between these two segments, settled and mobile of the same group or tribe, developing an integrated economy and an enlarged socio-political system, was at the base of a new society inaugurated at the end of the 3rd millennium in the Upper Tigris. It is possible to imagine a scenario, simplifying a more complex process, where groups of shepherds, nomadic or semi-nomadic, who have lived in this area as ancient texts and modern studies confirm, decided to convert to agricultural activities and village life, for different motives, settling in one of the areas that for centuries they had used during the seasonal migrations and transhumance between mountains, valleys and steppes; whereas the other part of the group continued to bring herds along traditional routes interacting with the sedentary communities. The available textual documentation is meager and does not permit to establish yet the modalities of interaction with the southern city states as well as the involvement within commercial circuits. This new organization of the social and economic structure of the local community is a trait of the Middle Bronze Age society that in the course of the 2nd millennium and then during the 1st millennium, will keep firmly a local character or will be occasionally oriented towards eastern Anatolia in spite of the pressure and attempts at stable colonization by southern empires. An important implication of social and historical significance is involved in the role assumed by the different components and members of the local society in this archaeological landscape. If this outline is correct, the scarcity of sites dated to the 3rd millennium or otherwise, the low visibility of these settlements, might point to unstable occupation: a mobile, semi-nomadic or nomadic style of life was for most of the population the best adaptation to the surrounding regional environment. We can question if in the case of the Upper Tigris river valley it has been the trade network to generate the rise of complexity or dynamics internal to local groups (maybe stimulated after the Akkadians established their influence over the region) have had been more effective to prompt the transformation of local society. The valley represents a distinct unit from the surrounding regions with regard to its material culture and particularly its pottery tradition. Actually, the particular setting of Tigris culture, the lack of textual records for several centuries, the difficulties met by Mesopotamians to control these territories, and the characteristics of the material remains could suggest that the area was a place of a well-defined cultural and maybe political entity and resulting in the changes at the end of 3rd millennium that we can recognize in the growth of the settlements characterized by the presence of red-brown ceramics. If the archaeological remains emerged through the excavation in the Upper Tigris have to be considered direct expression of the Khurrian world is at the moment an intriguing hypothesis that in absence of textual evidence cannot be demonstrated. However the results of the recent research in the Upper Tigris provide new fundamental evidence for a better definition of the communities inhabiting the south-eastern Anatolia between the end of 3rd and the beginning of 2nd mill. BC that played an important, yet poorly defined role within the historical scenario of the Ancient Near East.

In the Art of War, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu said, "if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." This nugget of wisdom is as perceptive today as it was over 2,000 years ago. And it does not bode well for America.We clearly don't know our adversaries. We've been caught flat-footed, repeatedly, in recent years, from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the almost instantaneous collapse of the Afghanistan government that we'd spent two decades supporting, to the recent Hamas attacks destabilizing the Middle East.The biggest question mark of all is if and when China might transition from nibbling on the margins of Asia to taking a big bite in the form of Taiwan. Perhaps even more worrisome, and far less excusable, is the fact that we don't know ourselves. In a world growing less stable by the day, the disconnect between our policymakers in Washington and the American public is frightening. While prominent national security experts of both parties seem to be coalescing around maximalist approaches toward the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and lobbying for a more confrontational stance toward China, the American public appears largely tuned out, instead focused on challenges closer to home, like paying bills, raising children, and navigating polarizing domestic politics. The disconnect between rhetoric and reality is breathtaking. On one hand Washington issues commitments to helping reclaim all Ukrainian territory, the "total destruction" of Hamas, and a robust defense of Taiwan. On the other hand the American public is either disengaged from (or divided on) these issues, our weapons stockpiles are shrinking, military recruitment numbers plunging, the deficit is ballooning, and the economy is uncertain.Meanwhile, the country continues to fracture along red and blue lines. Could we still unite in a time of war? It depends. If Russian paratroopers descended on Colorado like the 1984 cult classic Red Dawn, yes, I'm confident we'd come together and repel the existential threat of a foreign invasion. But am I convinced, in this toxic political climate, that farm boys from Kansas, warehouse workers from the Rust Belt, and college students from the Pac-12 would race to recruiting offices to help Taiwan repel a Chinese invasion? Or to deploy to the Middle East to dive into what looks like an intractable conflict with complicated roots dating back at least 75-years? Not really.It is also worth asking if America has the stomach for casualty numbers that would almost certainly dwarf the 7,057 U.S. servicemembers killed in action post-9/11 in a Great Power war. Russia continues to fight in Ukraine despite estimates of over 100,000 killed in just the past few years. We can't assume China wouldn't have a similar tolerance for heavy losses too.Despite these concerns, national security officials and foreign policy luminaries persist in advancing strategic postures that may require U.S. troops to deploy in greater numbers to three theaters (even if these deployments are under the guise of "deterrence") .
(While the principle of deterrence is sound in theory, the danger lies in assuming that appearing to be a superior force on paper will obviate the need to ever actually fight, overlooking the fact that credibility requires a willingness and capacity to do just that. Which brings us back to Sun Tzu. Can we answer the willingness and capacity question about ourselves with any degree of confidence? Have we ever taken it seriously?)Right now it seems like our strategy — to the extent we have one — is being developed in a vacuum, with little concern for minor details like who will fight, and with what degree of national commitment. This reflects, in part, a persistent tendency, to which we keep returning since the days of Robert McNamara's "Whiz Kids" of the Vietnam era, to view conflict as a technocratic exercise where victory and defeat are largely dependent on the amount, and quality, of sophisticated high-dollar weaponry. But as our experiences in Vietnam and Afghanistan should have taught us, collective will and resolve also matter. A lot. We must not overestimate (or fail to even consider) ours. Wars are still fought by people. And, to date, there has been no effort to secure the buy-in of the American public.We need to really ask: How many young Americans would volunteer to strap on a ruck, grab an M4, and go fight one of these distant wars if an adversary calls what they may see as a bluff? We must first accept that these would not be conflicts that could be handled by cobbling together the same people from a volunteer force and deploying them countless times over decades like we did during the "Global War on Terror." In fact, it is almost impossible to envision a scenario where our deterrent is credible, or where we could prevail in a world war, absent a draft.While a draft invokes images of Vietnam it may be time to revisit its upsides in the context of today's disconnect between citizen and military and citizen and government.At the most basic level, a draft would solve the personnel shortages we are struggling with. I'm aware that military leaders fear that a draft would hurt the professionalism of today's force. However, the lowering of recruiting requirements, as well offering big signing bonuses to impressionable high school students, is already diminishing standards. It would also serve as a powerful unifying force, bringing together young people of different races, belief systems, and geographic backgrounds in shared national service. This would help unify a generation that has experienced little but corrosive fragmentation for years. And since Americans would have skin in the game, a draft would also force politicians to abandon vapid, cliché-ridden rhetoric, and be forced to either convince Americans we need to be on wartime footing, or tone down their bellicose talk and develop creative and less militaristic strategies, starting with our approach to Ukraine, China, and now the Middle East.Finally, it would signal to the world that we are serious about a strong national defense. The perception would no longer be that we are a country in decline, anesthetized by popular culture and unwilling to sacrifice. Unfortunately, there seems to be no appetite for such a call to service on the part of the same leaders and pundits lobbying for a muscular, militarized foreign policy. It is remarkable to witness swaggering commitments to the potential use of force against Great Power adversaries on Capitol Hill but absolutely no willingness to discuss the national sacrifice that it would require. And so, if we conclude a draft won't happen, we'd be better off addressing the massive disconnect between Washington rhetoric and the extent of Americans' willingness to fight now, as opposed to after our leaders talk us into another, and possibly far more calamitous, war.

One of the remarkable aspects of the "big bang" expansion of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) announced at the summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week, is the invitation to join the group issued to, among others, Iran and Saudi Arabia — geopolitical rivals in the Persian Gulf.


After Iran became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2022, and Saudi Arabia a "dialogue partner" to this China-led Eurasian security forum (with the prospect of full membership), BRICS is now the second multilateral platform for cooperation and dialogue between Riyadh and Tehran.


Simultaneous accession to BRICS and, in the future, Saudi accession to SCO, could further enhance the incipient process of bilateral normalization between Tehran and Riyadh. Skeptics point to the alleged dysfunctionality of BRICS that, unlike the European Union or NATO, lacks clear accession criteria and gathers countries that seemingly have little in common except some vaguely defined dissatisfaction with the U.S.-led "rules-based order."


Yet, this flexibility and the absence of rigid "rules" can be more of an asset than a defect. For Iran and Saudi Arabia, what counts is a trajectory, a prospect for a long-term normalization rather than immediate results and unrealistic commitments and expectations.


In other words, a forum like BRICS, where both countries can interact on an equal footing and all decisions are taken by consensus, could prove to be a suitable arena to incrementally build mutual confidence.


Such a prospect, of course, is far from inevitable. The reactions from Tehran and Riyadh to the invitation to join BRICS were markedly different in tone and substance. While Iranian officials were exultant about the prospect, the Saudis were much more cautious and pointed to the need to further study the details of what membership would entail before confirming their intention to join.


This disparity stems from both countries' different needs: for Iran, it is imperative to overcome what Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi called the U.S. "gatekeeping role" in the international community. Seen from this angle, joining BRICS is diplomatically far more impactful for Iran than the SCO. Unlike the latter, BRICS is truly global and cannot be dismissed as a club of Eurasian autocracies. There are democracies among its members — Brazil, India, South Africa, and, if membership is confirmed after the elections later this year, Argentina.


None of these countries can be classified as an anti-American autocracy. Yet their Western ties and democratic governance were not obstacles in their greenlighting of Iran's accession. Tehran is right to see it as a diplomatic success.


Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, does not need to break any diplomatic ceilings — to the contrary, it is being courted by the U.S. for a deal that would reportedly entail, among other things, U.S. security guarantees for the kingdom in exchange for Saudi-Israeli normalization. Yet, joining BRICS fits into a broader Saudi strategy of diversifying foreign ties, and, in particular, building a closer relationship with China. The chances, therefore, are that Saudi Arabia, after taking a requisite diplomatic pause, will accept the BRICS invitation.


Matters may be more complicated with joining the SCO, as reportedly one of the U.S.'s quiet demands on Saudi Arabia in exchange for security benefits on offer is to stay away from China's orbit. In that context, full SCO membership may be a bridge too far for Riyadh. Yet such membership is not imminent anyway. Meanwhile, SCO dialogue partner status that the kingdom obtained earlier in 2023 provides it another link to Iran, a permanent member.


Ultimately, however, platforms like BRICS and SCO can only help, but not substitute for the bilateral Saudi-Iranian normalization track. While the Tehran-Riyadh dialogue proceeds with high-level meetings of foreign ministers and top defense officials, it is still in its early stages. Despite optimistic timetables, the work of the diplomatic legations in both countries has not yet fully resumed.


The controversies over the disputed Arash/Dorra gas field, which pits Saudi Arabia and Kuwait against Iran have not yet been resolved. Saudi Arabia insists that, in the long run, Iran will have to address its regional forward-defense strategy — that is, its reliance on non-state proxies and allies that Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries see as a threat, without specifying what corresponding concessions Riyadh would be willing to countenance. After decades of tensions dating back to 1979, mutual distrust runs deep, and its structural reasons are still far from being removed.


Perhaps, most urgently for Tehran at this stage, Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it won't seek exemptions from U.S. sanctions on Iran unless there is some sort of a nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran — an unlikely event given the U.S. is entering a new election season when neither political party will want to appear solicitous of Iran. The implication is that the anticipated economic benefits from the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement may be slow in materializing.


In view of these deeper entanglements, it is likely that Saudi-Iranian relations will experience further ebbs and flows. If they take a more confrontational turn again, it might negatively affect the cohesion of BRICS, with both sides using whatever leverage they have to the detriment of the other. In that case, the current members of BRICS may come to rue the decision of importing geopolitical rivalries from the Persian Gulf into their group.


That would be particularly harmful for the self-perception of BRICS as a forum for inter-state cooperation, in contrast to the Western-dominated institutions, such as the OECD, Bretton Woods, and NATO, based on U.S. hegemony.


Yet this should not necessarily be the case. Relations between China and India are similarly not devoid of tensions due in part to a a long-standing border dispute: as recently as 2020, scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed in an armed skirmish. Both countries also compete for leadership in the Global South. Yet both Beijing and Delhi also seek to preserve dialogue and close economic relations. So far, they have not let their differences stand in the way of BRICS, and this week's ambitious expansion of the group is proof that pragmatism prevails.


There is no reason why Tehran and Riyadh cannot manage their differences in similar fashion. China, a leading power in both BRICS and SCO, also played a crucial role in kickstarting the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement and can be expected to invest in this process further.


Most importantly, both Tehran and Riyadh see an abiding national interest in proceeding with the de-escalation and normalization of ties. In the near future, at least, it looks likely that this trajectory will be preserved, despite the pitfalls on the way. Shared membership in BRICS — and, in the future, possibly in the SCO, too — provides additional venues for the confidence-building process.

Norbert Michel and Jai Kedia


A few weeks ago, American Compass released Rebuilding American Capitalism, A Handbook for Conservative Policymakers. This Forbes column (American Compass Points To Myths Not Facts) provided a very brief critique of the handbook's "Financialization" chapter, and Oren Cass, American Compass's Executive Director, released a response titled Yes, Financialization Is Real.
This Cato at Liberty post is the third in a series that expands on the original criticisms outlined in the Forbes column. (The first and second in the series are available here and here.) This post demonstrates that the evidence does not support American Compass's claims regarding profits. This post also documents American Compass's failure to clearly specify terms and dates, as well as its selective use of examples that appear to support its positions.
To recap, the American Compass handbook states the following:
American finance has metastasized, claiming a disproportionate share of the nation's top business talent and the economy's profits, even as actual investment has declined." [Emphasis added.]

The original critique in Forbes pointed out: "It's impossible to know exactly what American Compass means by profits because they don't cite anything, but the National Income and Product Accounts provide financial and nonfinancial company profits dating back to 1998." With nothing else to base an analysis on, the critique then summarized the NIPA data, stating:
While the annual share of total corporate profits in the NIPAs has varied, at the end of 2022 it was 18 percent for financial companies versus 82 percent for nonfinancial companies. In 1998 the share for financial firms was a touch higher (20 percent) compared to nonfinancial firms (80 percent).

The original Forbes critique didn't make clear, however, that these respective shares do not suggest either sector "claimed" a share of total available profits at anyone's expense. They're merely part of the Bureau of Economic Analysis's national accounting exercise that estimates the value of all final goods and services produced in the United States. There is nothing inherently wrong with a higher (or lower) profit share in either sector.
In his response, Cass points out that the NIPA data goes back to 1929. He then shows that the share of total corporate profits for financial firms is twice as high in the 2010s versus in the 1950s (using 10‐​year averages for each decade), and finally complains that the original critique's "focus on the 2022 data as the endpoint is unfortunately misleading."
While Cass still neglects to specify any kind of preferred profit metric, fails to explain why his use of 10‐​year averages for each decade between 1950 and 2019 is appropriate, and fails to stipulate what the optimal share of profits should be, at least he acknowledges the NIPA data goes back to 1929. (For the record, it is just as misleading for American Compass to focus on 1950 to 2019 as evidence of an increase in the financial sector share as it would be for us to focus on the decline since 2009 as evidence of a decrease.)
While it is true, as Cass states, that the financial sector share was 28 percent in 2019, it is also true that the series exhibits a high degree of volatility. The standard deviation of the full series is about seven percentage points, and the financial sector share peaked at an unusually high value in 2002 (37 percent) before crashing to an unusually low value in 2008 (8 percent). This high degree of volatility makes it especially important to focus on the long‐​term trend rather than on any specific period.
As Figure 1 demonstrates,[1] using the NIPA data, the long‐​term trend for the financial sector's share of total corporate profits increases slowly throughout the roughly 100‐​year period. The slope of the trend line in Figure 1 indicates the financial sector's share of corporate profits increased by about 0.2 percent per year between 1929 and 2022.









Figure 1: Financial v. Non‐​Financial Share of Corporate Profits, Annual from 1929 to 2022
But that's all the series reveals. It does not provide evidence that the financial sector "claimed" a "disproportionate share" of the economy's profits, much less that this rate of change harmed the broader economy.
Importantly, it is not the case that corporate profits in the non-financial sector have been falling throughout this period. That is, even though the financial sector's share of NIPA corporate profits has been slightly increasing for 100 years, profits in the non‐​financial sector have been steadily growing, as has the broader economy.
Figure 2 provides a similar analysis. It shows that financial sector profits as a share of GDP have averaged less than two percent from 1929 to 2022. The series exhibits a slightly increasing trend, rising about 1.5 percentage points throughout the period, with a recent downtick since the early 2000s. While it would be misleading to claim that this recent downtick demonstrates a major failure of capitalism, selectively fixating on a narrow period to draw incorrect inferences mirrors American Compass's approach to other claims it has made.









Figure 2: Financial Profits as a Share of Nominal GDP, Annual from 1929 to 2022
For instance, in The Rise of Wall Street and the Fall of American Investment, American Compass claims that corporate profits have stagnated. Sort of. For instance, the report states:
Corporate profits from domestic industries fell for four straight years, from 2014 to 2018, even as the stock market was surging. The level in 2018–19 was 11 percent lower than at the prior business cycle's peak in 2005-06.

The report then presents a graph of pre‐​tax real corporate profits from 1998 to 2019, titled Profits Stagnating. The graph displays a very clear upward trend for the full period, but the report only discusses the decline in the level of profits from 2014 to 2018, and the level of profits in 2018 and 2019 relative to the peak in 2005 and 2006. In other words, American Compass's claim that corporate profits have stagnated ignores the broader trend and relative measures of profits, and carefully selects periods for comparison.
The above examples demonstrate American Compass's propensity to pick and choose metrics and time periods that appear to provide evidence for its claims. But, overall, these statistics do not provide evidence that "In recent decades, American finance has metastasized, claiming a disproportionate share of…the economy's profits." Of course, if American Compass has an optimal share for the financial sector in mind, it should clearly explain what that number is and why it is optimal.
In the next post, we will discuss claims involving "financialization's" alleged effect on investment.


[1] The figure omits data for 1932 and 1933 as these values, during the Great Depression, turned aggregate corporate profits negative. For the sake of completeness, the numbers are presented here. In 1932 and 1933, corporate profits are -$0.2 billion in each year, financial firms' profits are $0.6 billion and $0.8 billion respectively, and non‐​financial firms' profits are -$0.8 billion and -$1 billion respectively.

The Maikop culture represents one of the most significant occurrences in the context of pre-urban agricultural and livestock communities of the Middle East and Caucasus. It covers the borderline area between south-west Asia and Eastern Europe, pre-Caucasian steppe and north Caucasus, where the cultural influences of southern peoples confront with tradition ofEuropean population for ages. (Image 1) The study of Maikop culture began by the end of 19th century after the discovery of exceptionally rich tombs in Maikop (1897) and two stone tombs in Carska, present-day Novosvobodna (1898). The most extensive research was done in the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. After the seventies, in the20th century, several monographs and journals dealing with the Maikop culture were published, including general research by R.N. Munčaev, S.N. Korenevki and A.D. Rezepkin. The issue of Maikop culture is undoubtedly very interesting outside the Russian federation, but it mostly involves the review of the results from modern-day Russian research. This tendency isclearly visible in the works by A. Häusler, B. Govedarica, B. Lionne, F. Kohl, D. Anthony and others. The most important archaeological monuments of the Maikop culture are settlements and necropoles. Nowadays, we have information about several dozens of Maikop settlements and according to the material published, the most famous are Dolinsk, Ust-Džegutinsk,Galjugaevsk 1, Sereginsk, Psekupsk i Boljšetegensk. The settlements investigated are mostly situated in the river valleys, at lower grounds close to the river banks. In the Caucasus foothills, the settlements are located on the plains at hill slopes. They are mostly open settlements, while cave habitats are very rare. Burying was done in tumuli – kurgans. In thenorthern Caucasus, this tradition originates from the Chalcolithic, during fifth millennium BC. This phenomenon was further developed by the representatives of Maikop culture through the building of great multi-layered kurgans which apart from burial also had the role of sanctuary. Mounds are made of earth or of stone. In the case of earth kurgans, moundsare occasionally made only of a layer of humus, but they are most frequently mounds of mixed earth. Stone kurgans are made by placing stones over the tomb which was later covered with a layer of earth. Besides, in Maikop kurgans, frequently there are circular stone walls – kromlexes – which can be single or multiple depending on the phase of the burial and rituals performed through. The most frequent are individual kurgans meaning that there were not subsequent burials of Maikop people in the mounds above primary grave. Kurgans with several Maikop burials are scarcely represented. In the research history of the sites from the framework of Maikop culture and Maikop culture area, two phases, crucial for the actual cultural and historical interpretation of this phenomenon can be outlined. The first phase is related to the discovery of monumental stone monuments along with numerous bronze and gold objects which, according to then known analogies, are interpreted as direct reflection of the progress achieved in Middle East cultures during 3rd millennium BC. In the opinion of the majority of the former researchers, at the beginning the representatives of Maikop culture took over the cultural achievements of the Middle East which were further perfected afterwards. The second opinion about the interpretation of this phenomenon is formed in recent period as a result of multiple radiocarbon dates what caused significant corrections of absolute chronology of Maikopculture dating it to the 4th millennium BC. This imposed new cultural relations to the Middle East, but this time not to the dynastic period but to previous, pre-urban cultures of Ubaid and Uruk. All this indicates a higher level of authenticity of Maikop culture, especially in the domain of metallurgy. Anyway, the Maikop culture, during its existences gained hightechnological development and in metal processing it does not fall behind Middle East cultures. A significant breakthrough in the process of determining absolute chronology of Maikop culture was made through implementation of radiocarbondating. So far, within this framework, more than 70 dates were collected, which are mostly concentrated in three successive periods. The early period covers the time span from 40th to 37th century BC. Those dates are very scarce and they are related to the sites of Maikop (Galjugaevsko-Sereginsk) and Psekupsk variants in the area of Terek and Kuban, as well asin Kuma–Manych periphery. The dates of the middle period cover the time period from 37/35th to 34/33rd century BC and they are related to the finds of all variants of Maikop culture. The most significant Maikop settlements belonging to this period are Ust- Džegutin, Galjugaevsk, Novosvobodna and Dolinsk, necropoles in Klada or the grave 70 from Kurgan 1 in Zamankul which according to the finds is the closest to the Maikop kurgan. The dates of the late period cover the time span from 34th to 30/29th century BC and mostly belong to the group of Novosvobodna and the Dolinsk and Psekupsk variant. The cultural and social development of the Maikop culture reached the so-called chieftain level which can be compared to the late period of Sumerian pre-dynas tic period. Maikop warrior's weapons do not fall behind after Sumerian armies, but further development in this respect was not attained by Maikop culture. It vanishes with oncoming climate warming during second phase of Subboreal and its disappearance is most likely induced by internal social changes as well. There is no clear standpoint in science, regardingthe issue of ethnical character of representatives of the Maikop culture, mostly having in mind the language groups of different nations (Indo-Europeans, Semites, Hattam, Adygei, Kabardini, Turks). The analysis of the archaeological material shows that Maikop culture consisted of four components, out of which every single one had its own path of origin. Among the variants there were close connections, particularly in general religious displays, funeral rituals, syncretism emergence and adaptation. Having this in mind, the Maikop culture cannot be considered as a product of a single ethnic group, nor it can be related to a single nation. However, it was definitely a local culture, coming from north pre-Caucasian area, strongly influencedby northern Mesopotamia, eastern Anatolia and southern Caucasus through Kurin flatlands. The tradition related to spiritual customs of Maikop population shows both, the elements of the local Chalcolithic with familiar funeral ceremonies of buryingin kurgans, but also the contacts with eastern European cultures which could contribute to the creation of Maikop warrior elite. Archaeological sources also indicate that all foreign influences were more or less adapted to the features of Maikop culture, assimilating in quite specific pre-Caucasian features.

[Italiano]: L'opera, a cura di Alfredo Buccaro e Maria Rascaglia, con la collaborazione di Daniela Bacca, Francesca Capano, Maria Gabriella Mansi, Maria Ines Pascariello, Massimo Visone, è pubblicata in coedizione con CB Edizioni Grandi Opere (ediz. a stampa ISBN 978-88-97644-65-2). Catalogo dell'omonima mostra organizzata dal CIRICE dell'Università di Napoli Federico II con la Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli (Palazzo Reale di Napoli, Appartamento Borbonico, 12 dicembre 2019-13 marzo 2020) sotto l'egida del Comitato Nazionale per le Celebrazioni del V Centenario della morte di Leonardo, il volume è dedicato alla memoria dell'illustre studioso vinciano Carlo Pedretti, che ha ampiamente ispirato questi studi. Autori: Daniela Bacca, Federico Bellini, Ciro Birra, Vincenzo Boni, Alfredo Buccaro, Francesca Capano, Salvatore Di Liello, Leonardo Di Mauro, Adriano Ghisetti Giavarina, Serenella Greco, Claudia Grieco, Orietta Lanzarini, Angelica Lugli, Emma Maglio, Luigi Maglio, Maria Gabriella Mansi, Pieter Martens, Paolo Mascilli Migliorini, Margherita Melani, Maria Ines Pascariello, Maria Rascaglia, Saverio Ricci, Renata Samperi, Anna Sconza, Daniela Stroffolino, Sara Taglialagamba, Carlo Vecce, Alessandro Vezzosi, Massimo Visone, Paola Zampa. La mostra ha voluto porre per la prima volta all'attenzione del grande pubblico le tracce della diffusione, diretta o indiretta, della lezione vinciana e rinascimentale post-vinciana nel contesto dell'architettura e dell'inge­gneria del Mezzogiorno moderno, analizzate attraverso testimonianze manoscritte e a stampa sinora mai presentate al pubblico e, in molti casi, del tutto inedite. Introdotti da saggi generali a firma di autorevoli studiosi di Leonardo e del Rinascimento, i contributi specifici della prima parte del volume riguardano, tra le altre testimonianze: gli incunaboli della Biblioteca Nazionale relativi ai trattati un tempo presenti nella biblioteca di Leonardo e che ispirarono i suoi studi; il Codice Corazza, apografo vinciano seicentesco pubblicato per la prima volta da Buccaro sotto la guida di Pedretti, unitamente ai documenti del fondo Corazza della stessa Biblioteca; il Codice Fridericiano, apografo del XVI secolo dal Trattato della Pittura di Leonardo, acquisito nel 2016 su proposta di Buccaro e Vecce dal Centro per le Biblioteche dell'Ateneo di Napoli Federico II; il Foglietto del Belvedere dell'Archivio Pedretti, il cui studio è stato affrontato in dettaglio da Buccaro; i Vari disegni di Giovanni An­tonio Nigrone (BNN, Ms. XII.G.60-61, ca. 1598-1603), recanti un progetto di trattato di ingegneria meccanica e idraulica di ispirazione vinciana rimasto manoscritto. Nella seconda parte del volume vengono analizzati per la prima volta i grafici di architettura e urbanistica contenuti nei due album cinquecenteschi che compongono l'inedito Codice Tarsia (BNN, Mss. XII.D.1, XII.D.74), vero e proprio 'Libro di disegni' risalente al XVI secolo (ca. 1540-98) conservato nella Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli e un tempo appartenente alla raccolta del principe Spinelli di Tarsia. Questo ricco repertorio documentario diede vita, sul volgere del XVI secolo, al progetto editoriale di Nicola Antonio Stigliola, filosofo e ingegnere nolano: la raccolta contiene splendidi rilievi di antichità e progetti di edifici in gran parte di ambito vignolesco redatti per la committenza farnesiana, oltre a disegni di città fortificate italiane ed europee di estremo interesse e bellezza, in cui è evidente l'influenza degli studi di Leonardo in materia di inge­gneria militare. Il Codice, oggetto di un attento studio e della catalogazio­ne digitale per Manus Online da parte degli studiosi del Centro CIRICE dell'Ateneo Fridericiano e della Biblioteca Nazionale, rappresenta una preziosa testimonianza della diffusione del Rinascimento di matrice toscana e romana in ambito meridionale ./[English]: This book, edited by Alfredo Buccaro e Maria Rascaglia, with the collaboration of Daniela Bacca, Francesca Capano, Maria Gabriella Mansi, Maria Ines Pascariello, Massimo Visone, is a co-edition with CB Edizioni Grandi Opere (printed edition: ISBN 978-88-97644-65-2). The work is the catalogue of the recent exhibition organized by CIRICE - University of Naples Federico II, with the National Library of Naples (Royal Palace of Naples, Bourbon Apartment, December 12th 2019-March 13th 2020) with the patronage of the National Committee for the Celebrations of V Centenary of Leonardo's death. It is dedicated to the memory of the most illustrious scholar on Leonardo, Carlo Pedretti, who largely inspired these studies. Authors: Daniela Bacca, Federico Bellini, Ciro Birra, Vincenzo Boni, Alfredo Buccaro, Francesca Capano, Salvatore Di Liello, Leonardo Di Mauro, Adriano Ghisetti Giavarina, Serenella Greco, Claudia Grieco, Orietta Lanzarini, Angelica Lugli, Emma Maglio, Luigi Maglio, Maria Gabriella Mansi, Pieter Martens, Paolo Mascilli Migliorini, Margherita Melani, Maria Ines Pascariello, Maria Rascaglia, Saverio Ricci, Renata Samperi, Anna Sconza, Daniela Stroffolino, Sara Taglialagamba, Carlo Vecce, Alessandro Vezzosi, Massimo Visone, Paola Zampa. The exhibition has brought to public attention, for the first time, the traces of the diffusion of Leonardo lesson and of post-Leonardo Renaissance lesson in the context of architecture and engineering in the modern Southern Italy, analyzed through never known manuscript or printed testimonies. Introduced by some general essays by important scholars on Leonardo and the Renaissance, the papers of the first part of the book, among other testimonies, deal with: the incunabula of the National Library relating to the treaties once present in Leonardo's library that inspired his training; the Codice Corazza, a seventeenth-century apograph published by Buccaro with the advice of Pedretti in 2011, together with manuscript from Corazza collection in the same library; the Codice Fridericiano, a sixteenth-century apograph from Leonardo's Treatise on Painting, acquired in 2016 by the Center for Libraries of University of Naples Federico II on a proposal by Buccaro and Vecce; the Foglietto del Belvedere of the Foundation Pedretti Archive, studied in detail by Buccaro; the Vari disegni by Giovanni Antonio Nigrone (BNN, Ms. XII.G.60-61, ab. 1598-1603), containing an unpublished project for a mechanical and hydraulic engineering treatise inspired by Leonardo's studies. In the second part of the book, the architecture and urban planning graphics contained in the two sixteenth-century albums of the unpublished Codice Tarsia (BNN, Mss. XII.D.1, XII.D.74) have been analyzed for the first time. It a real 'Book of drawings' dating back to the 16th century (ab. 1540-98), once belonging to the Prince Spinelli of Tarsia library. This rich documentary repertoire inspired, at the end of that century, the editorial project by Nicola Antonio Stigliola, a philosopher and engineer from Nola: this collection contains some beautiful drawings of Antiquities and architectural projects largely related to Vignola's works for the Farnese family, as well as very interesting drawings of Italian and European fortified cities, in which the influence of Leonardo's studies about military engineering is evident. This Codex, carefully studied and digitally cataloged for Manus Online by scholras of CIRICE and of the National Library, is a precious testimony of the spread of Tuscan and Roman Renaissance in the Southern Italy.

BRICS içerisinde yer alan (Brezilya, Rusya, Hindistan, Çin ve Güney Afrika) yükselen güçlerinin 21. Yüzyıldan itibaren uluslararası siyasette öne çıkışı kalkınma için işbirliğinin teşvik edilmesi fikrine yeni bir ivme kazandırmıştır. Bu süreçte BRICS'in yapmış olduğu dış yardımlar artırmış ve özellikle Güney ülkeleriyle Güney-Güney işbirliği yoluyla farklı ekonomik işbirliği yolları ve alanları ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu tez, genel olarak bu beş ülke ve özel olarak Çin tarafından Sahra Altı Afrika'da yürütülen ikili dış yardım faaliyetlerine ilişkin hali hazırda var olan ama oldukça kısıtlı olan mevcut literatüre katkı sağlamayı hedeflemektedir. Yükselen donörler olarak nitelendirilen bu devletler, son yıllarda uluslararası kalkınmada istikrarlı bir şekilde öne çıkarken esasen 1950'li yıllara kadar uzanan dış yardım programları ile kesinlikle bu alanda yeni değiller. Böyle olmakla birlikte söz konusu devletlerin dünyanın dört bir yanındaki yardım faaliyetleri kimi zaman Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Batı Avrupa ve Japonya'nın hakim olduğu uluslararası yardım mimarisine bir tehdit olarak algılanmaktadır. Kalkınma yardımının Güney-Güney işbirliği çerçevesinde önemli bir dış politika aracı olduğu varsayımından yola çıkarak, bu tez söz konusu yükselen güçleri bu alanda harekete geçiren motivasyonların neler olduğunu sorgulamaktadır. Dış yardımın araçsallaştırılmasının arkasındaki temel motivasyonlar nelerdir? Yükselen donörler uluslararası kalkınmada geleneksel bağışçılardan farklı mı? Sahra altı Afrika'nın dış yardımın ana alıcısı olduğu ve doğal kaynaklar açısından zengin olduğu düşünüldüğünde, Çin dış politika araçlarını Sahra altı Afrika ile olan işbirliğinde nasıl ve ne amaçla kullanıyor? Son olarak, uluslararası politikada kalkınma yardımı farklı bağışçılar arasında bir rekabet unsuru olmakla birlikte, aynı zamanda farklı yönelim, teknik ve politik özelliklerine sahip olan bağışçıların her birinin kendi aralarında işi paylaştıkları ileri sürülebilir. Bütün bunlar bize kalkınma yardımı ortamının büyük oranda değiştiğini göstermektedir.İÇİNDEKİLER . . . benTEŞEKKÜRLER . . . ivÖZ . . . vÖZET . . . viKISALTMALAR, KISALTMALAR VE KISALTMALAR LİSTESİ . viiBÖLÜM 1GENEL TANITIM1.1 Sorunun bağlamı veya ifadesi . . 11.2 Araştırma hedefleri ve soruları. . . 71.3 Çalışmanın önemi. . . 81.4 Konunun kapsamı, sınırlaması ve metodolojisi. . . 91.5 Tezin yapısı. . . 10BÖLÜM 2KALKINMA YARDIMI: KAVRAMSAL VE TEORİK ÇERÇEVE2.1 KAVRAMSAL ÇERÇEVE . . 112.1.1 Dış yardım . . . 112.1.1.1 Tanım . . 112.1.2 Yabancı yardım türleri . . 162.1.2.1 Resmi kalkınma yardımı . . 172.1.2.2 Diğer hükümetler arası yardım . . 182.1.2.3 Hükümet dışı yardım . . 192.1.3 Dış yardım için farklı motivasyonlar . . 202.1.3.1 Siyasi-diplomatik . . 21ii2.1.3.2 Askeri güvenlik . . 222.1.3.3 İnsani Yardım . . 232.1.3.4 Özgecil veya gelişimsel . . 232.1.3.5 Ticari . . 242.1.3.6 Prestij . . . 252.1.4 Dış yardım kanalları . . 262.2 KURAMSAL ÇERÇEVE . . 302.2.1 Gerçekçi teoriler . . 322.2.1.1 Klasik gerçekçilik . . 332.2.1.2 Neo-gerçekçilik . . 342.2.1.3 Neoklasik gerçekçilik . . 362.2.2 Liberal teoriler . . 382.2.3 Yapılandırmacı teoriler . . 412.2.4 Global Sistem Teorisi (TSM) . . 43BÖLÜM 3KALKINMA YARDIM MİMARİSİ: KALKINMA YARDIMI BAĞIŞÇILARI OLARAK GELİŞMEKTE OLAN GÜÇLERİN BİR PROFİLİ3.1 Geleneksel yardımdan Güney-Güney işbirliğine: literatürün gözden geçirilmesi . 453.2 Yükselen güçlerin Güney-Güney işbirliğine katkısı . 533.3 Kalkınma yardımında ortaklar olarak yükselen güçler . 563.4 BRICS geliştirme yardımının farkı nedir? . 624. BÖLÜMULUSLARARASI KALKINMADA GELİŞMEKTE OLAN GÜÇLERİN KONUMU: SAHARAN ALTINDA AFRİKA'DA ÇİN ÖRNEĞİ4.1 Afrika'ya Çin yardımına tarihsel bir bakış . . 67iii4.2 Yükselen bir donör olarak Çin . . 714.3 Çin'in dış yardımına yönelik motivasyonlar . . 754.3.1 Siyasi nedenler . . 754.3.1.1 Tek Çin politikası: uluslararası tanınma arayışı . . . 764.3.1.2 Uluslararası kuruluşlarda destek alma . 784.3.1.3 İyi bir uluslararası imaj yansıtma . . 794.3.2 Ticari çıkarlar . . 804.3.2.1 Çin şirketlerine uluslararası pazarların açılması . 814.3.2.2 Doğal kaynaklara güvenli erişim . . 824.3.3 Gelişimsel ve insani endişeler . 844.4 Güney-Güney işbirliği örneği olarak Çin-Afrika ilişkileri . 854.5 Afrika'da Çin yardımı . . 884.5.1 Rol ve etki . . . 884.5.2 Zorluklar ve değişen eğilimler . . 90SONUÇ . . . 95KAYNAKÇA . . . 98EKLER . . . 122 --- Since the beginning of the 21st century, the rise of the emerging powers of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has given new impetus to the promotion of development cooperation. the BRICS have increased their foreign assistance and established distinct avenues and means of economic cooperation, in particular through South-South cooperation with countries of the South. This dissertation provides an overview of the small but growing literature on bilateral foreign aid activities carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa by these five countries in general and China in particular. While these so-called emerging donors are steadily growing in importance in international development, they are certainly not new to the field, with foreign aid programs dating back to the 1950s. The recent increase in the size and scope of their aid activities around the world is seen by some as a threat to the international aid architecture dominated by the United States and its allies in Western Europe and Japan. Starting from the assumption that development aid represents an instrument of foreign policy within the framework of South-South cooperation, our objective is to ask ourselves what are the motivations that drive these emerging countries? What are the main motivations behind the instrumentalization of foreign aid? Are they different from traditional donors in providing aid? Given that sub-Saharan Africa is the main recipient of foreign aid and rich in natural resources, how and for what purposes is China using its foreign policy tools in its collaboration with the latter? On the international scene, development aid can indeed be an element of competition between different donors; on the other hand, we sometimes have the impression that the donors share the work, each with its own tropisms and technical and political characteristics. However, it is clear that the development aid landscape is changing dramatically.TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . iTHANKS . . . ivABSTRACT . . . vÖZET . . . viLIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS . viiCHAPTER 1GENERAL INTRODUCTION1.1 Context or statement of the problem . . 11.2 Research objectives and questions. . . 71.3 Importance of the study. . . 81.4 Scope, limitation and methodology of the subject. . . 91.5 Structure of the dissertation. . . 10CHAPTER 2DEVELOPMENT AID: CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK . . 112.1.1 Foreign aid . . . 112.1.1.1 Definition . . . 112.1.2 Types of foreign aid . . 162.1.2.1 Official development assistance . . 172.1.2.2 Other intergovernmental assistance . . 182.1.2.3 Non-government assistance . . 192.1.3 The different motivations for foreign aid . . 202.1.3.1 Political-diplomatic . . 21ii2.1.3.2 Military-security . . 222.1.3.3 Humanitarian . . . 232.1.3.4 Altruistic or developmental . . 232.1.3.5 Commercial . . . 242.1.3.6 Prestige . . . 252.1.4 Channels of foreign aid . . 262.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . . 302.2.1 Realistic theories . . 322.2.1.1 Classical realism . . 332.2.1.2 Neo-realism . . . 342.2.1.3 Neoclassical realism . . 362.2.2 Liberal theories . . 382.2.3 Constructivist theories . . 412.2.4 Global Systems Theory (TSM) . . 43CHAPTER 3DEVELOPMENT AID ARCHITECTURE: A PROFILE OF EMERGING POWERS AS DEVELOPMENT AID DONORS3.1 From traditional aid to South-South cooperation: a review of the literature . 453.2 Contribution of emerging powers to South-South cooperation . 533.3 Emerging powers as partners in development aid . 563.4 How is BRICS development assistance different? . 62CHAPTER 4POSITION OF EMERGING POWERS IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF CHINA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA4.1 A historical perspective of Chinese aid to Africa . . 67iii4.2 China as an emerging donor . . 714.3 Motivations for China's foreign aid . . 754.3.1 Political reasons . . 754.3.1.1 One-China policy: the search for international recognition . . . 764.3.1.2 Obtaining support in international organizations . 784.3.1.3 Projecting a good international image . . 794.3.2 Commercial interests . . 804.3.2.1 Opening international markets to Chinese companies . 814.3.2.2 Secure access to natural resources . . 824.3.3 Developmental and humanitarian concerns . 844.4 Sino-African relations as a case of South-South cooperation . 854.5 Chinese aid in Africa . . 884.5.1 Role and impact . . . 884.5.2 Challenges and changing trends . . 90CONCLUSION . . . 95BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . 98APPENDICES . . . 122

The Comal Independent School District (CISD) retained Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (PapeDawson) to conduct cultural resource investigations for the proposed construction of a new high school (High School #4) near the city of Garden Ridge in southern Comal County, Texas. The CISD High School #4 Project (Project) includes construction of buildings, parking lots, roadways, and associated utility installation for the new school campus. After the identification of a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL)-eligible burned rock midden at site 41CM412 during the preliminary archaeological survey, a data recovery investigation was undertaken within this portion of the site. Pape-Dawson archaeologists initially identified site 41CM412 during an intensive archaeological survey for the Project between December 11, 2017, and January 10, 2018, under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 8244. Comprising the entire 40.4-hectare (ha; 99.8-acre [ac]) survey area, site 41CM412 is a multi-component site containing early to mid-twentieth century structures, a light scatter of historic artifacts, an extensive scatter of prehistoric lithic material (both tools and non-tools), and a large burned rock midden. While the historic component of the site, as well as the extensive lithic artifact scatter, were determined to be not eligible for designation as a SAL, Pape-Dawson's survey effort concluded that the burned rock midden demonstrated research value. Following completion of the initial survey, Pape-Dawson archaeologists coordinated with the Texas Historical Commission (THC), who concurred that the burned rock midden feature at site 41CM412 met the requirements for SAL designation. As impacts to the burned rock midden at site 41CM412 could not be avoided during the proposed Project construction, Pape-Dawson archaeologists conducted a data recovery investigation of the midden deposits. Since CISD is a political subdivision of the State of Texas, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT) was required for the investigation. Pape-Dawson completed the data recovery field effort under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 8361 between March 19 and April 3, 2018. The data recovery Project Area included a buffer of 0.66 ha (1.63 ac) surrounding the 0.21-ha (0.51-ac) midden area within the overall 40.4-ha (99.8-ac) site boundary. The primary goals of the investigation were to (1) assess the age or age range of the midden accumulation; (2) identify if the type of burned rock formation was sheet, domed, or annular; (3) identify the fuel sources and types of food processed at the midden; (4) determine if a heating element was present within the midden or if the rocks were heated elsewhere; and (5) determine if the accumulation of burned rock was gradual over a period of time or rapid during a phase of intense usage. To address these research questions, the investigation consisted of a program of systematic shovel testing, mechanical excavation of two archaeological trenches, and the hand-excavation of two 1-x-1-meter (3.3-x-3.3-foot) units, as well as five 50-x-50-centimeter (19.7-x-19.7-inch) columns. Melanie Nichols served as the initial Principal Investigator (PI), and Dr. Karissa Basse assumed responsibility as PI during report production. Field efforts were led by Melanie Nichols, with assistance from Jacob Sullivan, Virginia Moore, Megan Veltri, and Dr. Nesta Anderson. Light Detection and Ranging imaging and drone footage were collected on site by David Leyendecker and Angela Livingston. Geographic Information Systems and laboratory assistance was provided by Jacob Sullivan, Sheldon Smith, Ann Marie Blackmon, and Mikayla Mathews. Curation for the Project was completed by Ann Marie Blackmon and Mason Miller. Special studies, including macrobotanical analysis, faunal analysis, projectile point analysis, magnetic susceptibility testing, and radiocarbon dating, were conducted by Dr. Leslie Bush, Melanie Nichols, Chris Ringstaff, Dr. Charles Frederick, and Direct AMS, respectively. Brooke Bonorden served as editor, and Zachary Overfield oversaw quality control and quality assurance. The data recovery investigations resulted in the horizontal and vertical refinement of the boundaries of the burned rock midden (Feature 1) within 41CM412, which dates to the Archaic period. In addition, two internally embedded features—a possible heating element (Feature 1.1) and an earth oven pit (Feature 1.2)—were identified. A historic-age midden (Feature 2) was also identified during investigation. In total, the prehistoric assemblage collected from site 41CM412 consists of 3,224 prehistoric artifacts, including 3,156 lithics (17 projectile points, 2 dart point preforms, 29 bifaces, 3 unifacial scrapers, 1 perforator, 5 edge-modified flakes, 2 cores, 1 blank, and 3,096 pieces of unmodified debitage), 47 faunal bone fragments, 10 pieces of ocher (21.16 grams [g]), 1,395.4 g burned clay, 2.46 g charcoal, and 2,910 pieces of burned rock (214.29 kilograms). The historic- and modern-age material recovered from the site largely consists of metal, glass, cut faunal bone, and mortar. All cultural material was collected and brought back to the Pape-Dawson Laboratory in Austin for processing and analysis aside from FCR, which was analyzed and discarded in the field. Based on the results of the fieldwork and subsequent analyses, the burned rock midden at site 41CM412 appears to have largely resulted from a series of long-term, or perhaps seasonal occupations occurring from the Early to Transitional Archaic periods, with a concentrated occupation evident during the Middle Archaic. The vertical distribution of artifacts at the site points to multiple occupations occurring on a landform with a slow sedimentation rate. Integral heating elements and earth oven pits (Features 1.1 and 1.2, respectively) within the Feature 1 midden suggest the site contained a center-focused cooking facility. This facility is represented by the annular formation of the overall midden and on-site heating of the rocks. Task specific activities at the site include earth oven baking (as evidenced by burned rock midden deposits) and tool manufacturing and maintenance (as evidenced by a high percentage of small, tertiary flakes within the artifact assemblage). Processing of predominantly meat products also occurred at the site, given the presence of faunal bone within the overall Feature 1 matrix and general lack of packing material in the earth oven. Ancient fuel sources appear to be hardwoods of oak and potentially juniper. In addition, trace evidence of hickory/walnut/pecan family nuts indicate these plants may have also been processed as a food source. Although not all cultural components of the site were stratigraphically discrete, the burned rock midden deposits illustrate evidence of use and reuse over several millennia. This sequence significantly contributes to our understanding of Archaic cooking models and burned rock formation processes. In accordance with the criteria in 13 ACT 26.10, Pape-Dawson's data recovery of the SAL eligible portion of site 41CM412 has mitigated any impact associated with the construction of the Comal ISD High School #4. As a result, Pape-Dawson recommends no further work for the site. The THC concurred with the Pape-Dawson's recommendation on April 13, 2018 and allowed construction for the Project to proceed. Furthermore, Pape-Dawson received concurrence from the THC for the draft report of investigation on October 23, 2020. Following completion of the final report, artifact discard decisions will be coordinated with the THC. Project records, photographs, and select collected artifacts will be curated at the University of Texas at San Antonio Center for Archaeological Research.

The scientific examination of the inheritance of Jean-Baptiste Lepère conserved by the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne is a desideratum of the early architectural history of the 19th century. The aim of this work is, to investigate the architectural politics of Napoleon I. on the basis of Lepère's drawings of the Palaces of Saint-Cloud, Meudon and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The architectural politics of the emperor include the architectural program and the organisation of the imperial construction firm. These two aspects will be represented in detail. Thereupon it will be explored in which way the construction firm of Napoleon operated concretely, by referring to the projects at the three palaces. Which role do the constructor and architect play? How are the governmental directives reflected in the building activity? This work examines the years from 1811 until 1814, which span a period from the point of culmination of the Grand Empire with the birth of the Roi de Rome until the abdication of Napoleon. Therefore it is necessary to analyse the consequences of the political development on Lepère's architectural projects. To capture Napoleon's architectural policy precisely, decrees firstly time discovered in the archives, concerning the organisation of the imperial construction firm, will be used. Based on the decrees, the tasks and functions of the individual offices of the construction firm can be declared. Furthermore the roots of the Ancien Régime and innovations of Napoleon I. are to be clarified. This raises the question as to what political intentions hide behind the decrees, respectively behind the new organisation? The architectural preconditions for Lepère as an architect will be clarified with the help of the existing literature concerning the three palaces. In this dissertation, 65 drawings of the Palaces of Saint-Cloud, Meudon and Saint-Germain-en-Laye will be described, analyzed and put into context with the architectural policy of Napoleon I. In order to place the drawings into context, they will be attributed to individual project-chapters with the help of previously undiscovered documents in the archives. Within one chapter dedicated to one project the drawings will be illustrated and information of the inventory number, inheritance, artist, material, technique, dimensions, restoration and archival documents will be presented. Afterwards the details about the inscriptions like title, signature, dating, measure rod, measures and the reverse side succeed. Followed by a description of the drawing and a reconstruction of the context of the project based on the archival documents, that had to be prepared according to the instructions of the government. A stylistic analysis of Lepère's designs will explore and evaluate his personal interpretation of a napoleonic architecture of palaces in consideration of biographical aspects and the private library of Lepère. Doing so will clarify, which typological and formal repertoire Lepère used. The design of the plans will be classified in context with classicism, architectural concepts of the revolution period as well as ideas of an imperial representation architecture during the Premier Empire. A closing chapter will reveal, with aid of the acquired results, the aim of Napoleon's architectural policy and summarize the consequences of the civil service for Lepère's projects on the three palaces. The illustrations and informations of the drawings will not be presented in a catalogue at the end of this dissertation but in the beginning of each chapter dedicated to one project. The significant documents in the archives allow to determine the evolution of the projects. This dissertation aims to establish a context between the drawings, the building history and the process of the projects. ; Ce travail scientifique sur la collection personnelle de dessins de Jean-Baptiste Lepère conservée au Musée Wallraf-Richartz à Cologne comblera un manque dans les recherches sur l'histoire de l'architecture du début du XIXe siècle. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'explorer la politique architecturale sous le règne de Napoléon Ier sur la base des dessins des palais de Saint-Cloud, Meudon et Saint-Germain-en-Laye. La politique architecturale de l'empereur comporte d'une part le programme architectural et d'autre part l'organisation du service des bâtiments de la Couronne. Ces deux aspects seront présentés en détail. Ensuite, nous étudierons la manière concrète de fonctionner du service des bâtiments de la Couronne de Napoléon Ier concernant, en particulier, les trois palais mentionnés. Quel rôle ont joué le commanditaire et l'architecte? Comment les directives de la politique architecturale d'État se sont-elles traduites dans les travaux? La thèse se concentrera sur la période de 1811 à 1814, celle de l'apogée du Grand Empire, ou plus précisément entre l'année de la naissance du roi de Rome et celle de la première abdication de Napoléon. De ce fait, il nous faudra analyser les conséquences des développements politiques sur les projets de Lepère. Pour mieux comprendre la politique architecturale de Napoléon Ier, des décrets inédits relatifs à l'organisation du service des bâtiments de la Couronne, qui ont été découverts dans les archives, seront utilisés. Grâce à cette découverte, nous pourrons décrire précisément les fonctions et les devoirs des différents services des bâtiments de la Couronne. Nous tenterons de déceler quelles intentions politiques se cachent derrière les décrets et la nouvelle organisation. En outre, nous distinguerons les racines provenant de l'Ancien Régime et les innovations de Napoléon. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, 65 dessins relatifs aux palais de Saint-Cloud, Meudon et Saint-Germain-en-Laye seront décrits, analysés et placés dans le contexte de la politique architecturale de Napoléon Ier. Les dessins des trois palais seront mis en contexte dans des chapitres consacrés à chaque projet individuellement, à l'aide de documents jusqu'alors inconnus, provenant des archives. Dans chacun des chapitres dédiés à un projet, les dessins seront d'abord accompagnés d'informations concernant le numéro d'inventaire, la collection, l'artiste, le matériel, la technique, les dimensions, la restauration et les documents découverts dans les archives. Suivront ensuite des détails sur les inscriptions, comme le titre, la signature, la datation, les mesures et l'échelle. Viendront ensuite une description du plan et une reconstitution du contexte du projet de Lepère basée sur les documents d'archives produits conformément à la réglementation de l'État. On étudiera les nouveaux projets de Lepère et ses interprétations de l'architecture du Premier Empire sous forme d'une analyse stylistique, en tenant compte des aspects biographiques et de la bibliothèque privée de Lepère. Ce faisant, on s'intéressera au répertoire typologique et formel utilisé par l'architecte. Ces projets seront replacés dans le contexte du classicisme, des concepts de l'architecture révolutionnaire et des idées du régime en faveur d'une architecture de représentation impériale. Un chapitre de conclusion doit révéler, à l'aide des résultats obtenus, l'objectif de la politique architecturale de Napoléon et résumer l'impact de la fonction publique sur les projets de Lepère pour les trois palais. Les illustrations et les détails des dessins ne seront pas présentés dans un catalogue à la fin de cette thèse mais au début du chacun des chapitres dédiés à chaque projet. Le matériel significatif des archives permettra de déterminer l'évolution des projets. L'objectif de ce travail est de remettre en contexte les dessins, l'histoire architecturale des palais et le déroulement des projets.

The Himalayan collision, in which India underthrusts below Tibet, regularly produces major destructive earthquakes in Nepal and its neighboring countries, most of which are fatal to nearby communities. As a wall dividing the Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau, the Himalaya also significantly modifies the atmospheric circulation, affecting both the local and global climate. This thesis explores the poorly known Quaternary history and evolution of Himalayan climate and seismicity, more particularly in the least populated and most remote region of Western Nepal. In terms of climate and environmental change, one of the least understood aspects of Himalayan history during the late Quaternary is the extension of glaciers and their impacts on landscape evolution. Based on field observations, cosmogenic nuclide dating (10Be) and satellite observations, we estimated the maximum extent of glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum, which supports the hypothesis of a relatively large glacier cover, but not of an extended ice cap, at the scale of Western Nepal. In terms of seismology, the social, economic and political implications of the occurrence of an earthquake of higher magnitude than the recent earthquake of 2015, whose epicenter is located near the city of Gorkha, is a major concern and largely motivates this thesis. The last major earthquake of magnitude greater than 8 (Mb) took place on 6 June 1505 and had a profound impact on the Nepalese population and the surrounding area. In Western Nepal the 1505 event was the last earthquake that ruptured the Main Frontal Thrust according to historical archives and paleoseismological studies, which gave rise to the concept of a seismic gap in western Nepal and adjacent areas in northern India. With this in mind, this thesis addresses two major issues on the Himalayan seismic behavior: on the first hand is the hypothesis of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya and on the second the temporal distribution of earthquakes during the late Quaternary. For this purpose, a new research approach independent of paleoseismic trenches was applied in the Himalaya. By using lakes as paleoseismometers, we were able to refine the temporal resolution and identify earthquakes that had not yet been documented in the accessible databases on a 700-year scale. Our results from Lake Rara highlight significant previously-unknown earthquakes (Mw>6.5) and they reveal that Western Nepal is seismically as active as central Nepal. Furthermore, they call into question the hypothesis of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya. Based on a longer sediment core from the same lake, we studied the temporal distribution of earthquakes over a period of 6000 years, which has highlighted the random nature of the occurrence of earthquakes, constituting a paradigm shift where the notion of seismic cycle is still prevalent. The random nature of the occurrence of earthquakes both on short (instrumental) and Quaternary time scales disproves the hypothesis of the seismic gap in the central Himalaya and underlines the permanent risk for the million people of concern. The final part of this thesis addresses the possible global relationship between seismic rate fluctuations and climate change during the Holocene. Our results show that the global seismicity clustered over 7000 years and appears to be synchronous with the sum of glacial advances through the Mid and Late Holocene. ; L'Himalaya résultant de la collision indo-asiatique, dans laquelle l'Inde plonge sous le Tibet, initie régulièrement des tremblements de terre destructeurs dont la plupart sont mortel pour les communautés népalaises et limitrophes. Telle une muraille séparant les plaines d'Inde et le haut plateau du Tibet, l'Himalaya façonne la circulation atmosphérique, affectant tant le climat régional que global. Cette thèse vise à se pencher sur l'histoire et l'évolution peu connue du climat et de la sismicité de l'Himalaya, dans une des régions les moins peuplées et la plus reculées du Népal occidental. Dans le contexte de changements climatiques et environnementaux, l'un des aspects les moins bien élucidés de l'histoire de l'Himalaya au cours du Quaternaire supérieur est celui de l'extension des glaciers ainsi que leurs impacts sur l'évolution du paysage. En nous appuyant sur des observations de terrain, sur des datations par nucléides cosmogéniques (10Be) ainsi que des observations satellitaires, nous avons pu estimer l'étendue maximale des glaciers durant le dernier maximum glaciaire. Soutenant ainsi l'hypothèse suivant laquelle la présence de glacier fut relativement plus étendue à l'échelle du Népal occidental mais pas de l'ordre d'une calotte glaciaire. Sur le plan sismologique, l'enjeu à la fois sociale, économique et politique de l'occurrence d'un séisme de magnitude plus élevée que le récent séisme de 2015 dont l'épicentre se situe près de la ville de Gorkha constitue une préoccupation majeure et motive en grande partie cette thèse. Le dernier séisme majeur ayant rompu le Main Frontal Thrust de magnitude supérieure à 8 (Mb) s'est déroulé le 6 juin 1505 et a considérablement impacté la population népalaise et environnante. Le caractère singulier du Népal occidental s'exprimant ainsi par l'hypothèse de la présence d'un hiatus sismique s'étendant sur plus de 500 ans sur base d'archives historiques et d'études paléosismologiques. Dans cette perspective, cette thèse se penche sur deux questions majeures relatives au comportement sismique de l'Himalaya : d'une part, l'hypothèse d'une lacune sismique dans l'Himalaya central et, d'autre part, de la distribution temporelle des séismes au cours de la fin du Quaternaire. A cette fin, une nouvelle approche de recherche, indépendamment du recours aux tranchées paléosismiques, a été mise en œuvre en Himalaya. En utilisant les lacs comme paleoseismomètre, au travers de la collecte de carottes sédimentaires, nous avons pu affiner la résolution temporelle et déceler des séismes à ce jours non répertorié dans les basses de données accessible et ce sur une échelle de 700 ans. La mise en évidence de séismes important (Mw>6.5) non répertorié indique que le Népal occidental connait une activité sismique comparable au centre du Népal et remet en question l'hypothèse d'un gap sismique au centre de l'Himalaya. Sur base d'une carotte sédimentaire plus longue provenant du même lac, nous avons étudié la distribution temporelle des séismes sur une période de 6000 ans, permettant ainsi de mettre en évidence le caractère aléatoire de l'occurrence des séismes constituant un changement de paradigme là où notion de cycle sismique est encore prépondérante. La mise en évidence du caractère aléatoire de l'occurrence des séismes tant à courte échelle de temps (instrumentale) qu'à l'échelle du Quaternaire infirme l'hypothèse du gap sismique au centre de l'Himalaya et mets en évidence le risque permanent pour le million de personnes concernées. Cette thèse s'achève en se penchant sur une possible relation à l'échelle globale entre la variation de taux de séismicité et les changements climatiques au cours de l'Holocène. Nous constatons ainsi que la sismicité globale connu des périodes de séismes accrue sur 7000 ans. Ces périodes de plus fortes activités semblent être synchrone avec la somme des avancées glaciaires de l'Holocène moyen et supérieur.

The Himalayan collision, in which India underthrusts below Tibet, regularly produces major destructive earthquakes in Nepal and its neighboring countries, most of which are fatal to nearby communities. As a wall dividing the Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau, the Himalaya also significantly modifies the atmospheric circulation, affecting both the local and global climate. This thesis explores the poorly known Quaternary history and evolution of Himalayan climate and seismicity, more particularly in the least populated and most remote region of Western Nepal. In terms of climate and environmental change, one of the least understood aspects of Himalayan history during the late Quaternary is the extension of glaciers and their impacts on landscape evolution. Based on field observations, cosmogenic nuclide dating (10Be) and satellite observations, we estimated the maximum extent of glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum, which supports the hypothesis of a relatively large glacier cover, but not of an extended ice cap, at the scale of Western Nepal. In terms of seismology, the social, economic and political implications of the occurrence of an earthquake of higher magnitude than the recent earthquake of 2015, whose epicenter is located near the city of Gorkha, is a major concern and largely motivates this thesis. The last major earthquake of magnitude greater than 8 (Mb) took place on 6 June 1505 and had a profound impact on the Nepalese population and the surrounding area. In Western Nepal the 1505 event was the last earthquake that ruptured the Main Frontal Thrust according to historical archives and paleoseismological studies, which gave rise to the concept of a seismic gap in western Nepal and adjacent areas in northern India. With this in mind, this thesis addresses two major issues on the Himalayan seismic behavior: on the first hand is the hypothesis of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya and on the second the temporal distribution of earthquakes during the late Quaternary. For this purpose, a new research approach independent of paleoseismic trenches was applied in the Himalaya. By using lakes as paleoseismometers, we were able to refine the temporal resolution and identify earthquakes that had not yet been documented in the accessible databases on a 700-year scale. Our results from Lake Rara highlight significant previously-unknown earthquakes (Mw>6.5) and they reveal that Western Nepal is seismically as active as central Nepal. Furthermore, they call into question the hypothesis of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya. Based on a longer sediment core from the same lake, we studied the temporal distribution of earthquakes over a period of 6000 years, which has highlighted the random nature of the occurrence of earthquakes, constituting a paradigm shift where the notion of seismic cycle is still prevalent. The random nature of the occurrence of earthquakes both on short (instrumental) and Quaternary time scales disproves the hypothesis of the seismic gap in the central Himalaya and underlines the permanent risk for the million people of concern. The final part of this thesis addresses the possible global relationship between seismic rate fluctuations and climate change during the Holocene. Our results show that the global seismicity clustered over 7000 years and appears to be synchronous with the sum of glacial advances through the Mid and Late Holocene. ; L'Himalaya résultant de la collision indo-asiatique, dans laquelle l'Inde plonge sous le Tibet, initie régulièrement des tremblements de terre destructeurs dont la plupart sont mortel pour les communautés népalaises et limitrophes. Telle une muraille séparant les plaines d'Inde et le haut plateau du Tibet, l'Himalaya façonne la circulation atmosphérique, affectant tant le climat régional que global. Cette thèse vise à se pencher sur l'histoire et l'évolution peu connue du climat et de la sismicité de l'Himalaya, dans une des régions les moins peuplées et la plus reculées du Népal occidental. Dans le contexte de changements climatiques et environnementaux, l'un des aspects les moins bien élucidés de l'histoire de l'Himalaya au cours du Quaternaire supérieur est celui de l'extension des glaciers ainsi que leurs impacts sur l'évolution du paysage. En nous appuyant sur des observations de terrain, sur des datations par nucléides cosmogéniques (10Be) ainsi que des observations satellitaires, nous avons pu estimer l'étendue maximale des glaciers durant le dernier maximum glaciaire. Soutenant ainsi l'hypothèse suivant laquelle la présence de glacier fut relativement plus étendue à l'échelle du Népal occidental mais pas de l'ordre d'une calotte glaciaire. Sur le plan sismologique, l'enjeu à la fois sociale, économique et politique de l'occurrence d'un séisme de magnitude plus élevée que le récent séisme de 2015 dont l'épicentre se situe près de la ville de Gorkha constitue une préoccupation majeure et motive en grande partie cette thèse. Le dernier séisme majeur ayant rompu le Main Frontal Thrust de magnitude supérieure à 8 (Mb) s'est déroulé le 6 juin 1505 et a considérablement impacté la population népalaise et environnante. Le caractère singulier du Népal occidental s'exprimant ainsi par l'hypothèse de la présence d'un hiatus sismique s'étendant sur plus de 500 ans sur base d'archives historiques et d'études paléosismologiques. Dans cette perspective, cette thèse se penche sur deux questions majeures relatives au comportement sismique de l'Himalaya : d'une part, l'hypothèse d'une lacune sismique dans l'Himalaya central et, d'autre part, de la distribution temporelle des séismes au cours de la fin du Quaternaire. A cette fin, une nouvelle approche de recherche, indépendamment du recours aux tranchées paléosismiques, a été mise en œuvre en Himalaya. En utilisant les lacs comme paleoseismomètre, au travers de la collecte de carottes sédimentaires, nous avons pu affiner la résolution temporelle et déceler des séismes à ce jours non répertorié dans les basses de données accessible et ce sur une échelle de 700 ans. La mise en évidence de séismes important (Mw>6.5) non répertorié indique que le Népal occidental connait une activité sismique comparable au centre du Népal et remet en question l'hypothèse d'un gap sismique au centre de l'Himalaya. Sur base d'une carotte sédimentaire plus longue provenant du même lac, nous avons étudié la distribution temporelle des séismes sur une période de 6000 ans, permettant ainsi de mettre en évidence le caractère aléatoire de l'occurrence des séismes constituant un changement de paradigme là où notion de cycle sismique est encore prépondérante. La mise en évidence du caractère aléatoire de l'occurrence des séismes tant à courte échelle de temps (instrumentale) qu'à l'échelle du Quaternaire infirme l'hypothèse du gap sismique au centre de l'Himalaya et mets en évidence le risque permanent pour le million de personnes concernées. Cette thèse s'achève en se penchant sur une possible relation à l'échelle globale entre la variation de taux de séismicité et les changements climatiques au cours de l'Holocène. Nous constatons ainsi que la sismicité globale connu des périodes de séismes accrue sur 7000 ans. Ces périodes de plus fortes activités semblent être synchrone avec la somme des avancées glaciaires de l'Holocène moyen et supérieur.

1. IntroductionStone adze blades are so ubiquitous in the Pacific that they have always been central to the work of archaeologists. Polynesian adze heads were often viewed as convenient "cultural fossils" displaying stylistic features that could be used as chronological markers (e.g. Davidson 1984; Duff 1977; Suggs 1961) or to infer inter-island relationships (Duff 1960; Emory 1968; Sinoto 1970). The typological approach developed throughout the 20th century thus proved useful for understanding the archaeological diversity in the Pacific. Yet, it rarely took into account the environmental or technical contexts involved in the production of these artefacts. A broader technological turn began in the 1970's (Cleghorn 1982; 1986; Leach 1980; 1984), which has led to better understanding of the technical and economic dimensions involved in Polynesian stone tool production.In this paper, I propose an integrated method to the study of stone tool technology and socio-economic evolution in Polynesian chiefdoms. My approach draws on the 'research program' which was set up by a group of French anthropologists (Cresswell 1976; Lemonnier 1983; 1986) to emphasize the systemic and multi-scalar dimensions of technical activities and to identify the fundamental role of techniques and production activities in the performance and evolution of societies. The work presented here was conducted during my PhD research, and therefore represents a first step in a wider research program that will be address with the dynamics of stone tool production at the inter-site scale, in different Polynesian islands. 2. Background and MethodologyAs a first step, each rock material was assigned a specific geological feature using a set of different geochemical analyses (Hermann et al. 2012; 2016). I used these results, combined with macroscopic identification of each artefacts, to track the spatial distribution of production processes ("chaînes opératoires") within two sites dating from the early 13th to the late 15th century AD and considered as part of the same "technical transect" (Coupaye 2015) on the northern coast of Tupua'i island (Austral archipelago, French Polynesia). Both sites were discovered within the main pre-Contact district of the island, named Toerauetoru (Aitken 1930: 31-32): the Tanataetea site consists of a quarry and several workshops where basanite prisms have been quarried and transformed in great quantity, and the Atiahara site is a domestic occupation involving small thatched houses known from the ethnographical period as 'arepota'ata (Hermann et al. 2016). I propose a thorough description of technological patterns in the making of adze heads in these two sites, not only through the description of finished products, but also through the identification of other artefacts including discarded preforms, roughouts, and other flake wastes, each representing combined sets of gestures constitutive of each sequence in the overall process of production. For every sequence, I investigated four main parameters interacting with one another: the nature of the raw material selected and its physical properties (fine or coarse-grained, natural flaws, etc.), the individual involved (including the inherited and acquired know-how, the technical traditions, economic choices, etc.), the tools and techniques performed (physical actions, mechanical procedures, etc.), and the spatial-temporal dimension of the process (concentrated in one site or segmented in space). These intrinsic properties are subject to change in different processes, however in this case they could be described through direct macroscopic observations, and interpreted thanks to experimental tests previously performed with the help of archaeologist and experimenter Florent Le Mené. The extrinsic properties of production processes are eventually be inferred. This last step of the analysis regarding the scarcity or uneven distribution of resources, the social environment, and the social status of craftsmen, provides the greatest insight into the evolution of the traditional Polynesian chiefdoms. 3. Results In East Polynesian islands stone adzes were produced by both specialists and non-specialists; the assemblages from Tupua'i show very clear differences in terms of technical skills, production intensity, and formal standards of the finished products, as an example of this technical split. While the craftsmen working in the Tanataetea workshops were producing big, standardised adzes with fine knapping techniques and were displaying anticipation as well as good risk management skills; the stone knappers of the domestic site at Atiahara only managed to produce only small flake adzes and appear to have maintained and recycled adzes produced elsewhere (including in the Tanataetea workshops). They therefore did not display any skills involving adapted percussion techniques or reaction facing flaking accidents, such as hinging or plunging fractures.At a diachronic level, the technological investigation suggests a significant evolution in the organisation of stone adze production in Tupua'i during the 14th century AD, with an increase of specialised production, as visible in the Tanataetea workshops, towards other sites from the same local chiefdom. The limited distribution of good-quality material in non-specialised sites like the domestic occupations of Atiahara also implies an increase in political control over key resources. 4. Discussion and conclusionThe general development of craft specialisation in the limited context of Tupua'i echoes previous observations from other parts of Polynesia (Cleghorn 1982; 1986; Leach 1993; Winterhoff 2007), and further reinforce the hypothesis of a strong correlation between technical specialisation and social complexity (Brun et al. 2006). This interpretation also fits the view of an increasing hierarchy among Polynesian chiefdoms where social and religious elites took control over different groups of specialists during the first half of the second millennium AD (Kirch 1984). I propose that the emerging view in the evolution of Polynesian craft production can also be explained in Sahlins' terms of the "inflexion of the domestic mode of production" (Sahlins 1976). This model predicts that the intensification of production in traditional chiefdoms is driven by new economic choices prioritising centralisation and collaboration between households. Therefore, I propose that a heuristic approach of viewing material culture through the technological approach of chaînes opératoires is a promising method for investigating these patterns on the longue durée and across different Polynesian regions. ; La lame d'herminette en pierre, élément ubiquiste des cultures matérielles polynésiennes, a toujours été utilisée pour établir une périodisation des séquences culturelles pré-européennes. Bien que cette approche ait permis d'aborder la diversité des traditions culturelles et de définir une typo-chronologie des occupations pré-européennes dans la région, très peu de travaux ont pris en compte les aspects techno-économiques liés à la production de cet outillage. Cet article concerne la production des herminettes en Polynésie centre-orientale dans la première moitié du deuxième millénaire de notre ère, et se base sur les avancées théoriques et méthodologiques développées au sein de l'école française de l'anthropologie des techniques (aussi connue comme "technologie culturelle"). En nous basant sur l'analyse de plusieurs chaînes opératoires de production des lames d'herminette dans l'île de Tupua'i (Archipel des Australes, Polynésie Française), nous mettons en évidence des stratégies et des choix relativement complexes liés à la variabilité technique et l'organisation spatiale des chaines opératoires mises en œuvre, l'accès aux matières premières de qualité (en l'occurrence les basaltes à grains fins) et la présence d'artisans spécialisés.Enfin, nous traitons du rôle joué par le phénomène de spécialisation artisanale dans l'évolution des anciennes chefferies polynésiennes et proposons de considérer l'investigation approfondie des systèmes techniques comme un moyen efficace pour mettre en évidence des indices de la complexité sociale.

The European Commission's initiatives in the field of armament should lead to a deeper integration of European DTIBs in the coming years. In parallel, the links between European and American DTIBs take the form of technological and armament cooperation, and of capital links between European or American companies. This report aims at analysing the links between the US DTIB and the EU DTIB, and the consequences these links carry on cooperation between European DTIBs. These links vary by country. France has strived to preserve its strategic autonomy when developing its DTIB. Its technological and capability-related reliance on the United States has thus remained limited. Nonetheless, cooperation is sought when it is mutually beneficial while French companies seek to invest in the US market, as do other European DTIBs. The German DTIB was rebuilt belatedly after World War II, partly on the basis of French-German cooperation. German industry is now privatised and the scope of the German DTIB's partnerships has widened to other European countries and to the US. The German supply chain is now well established in American armament programmes. The Italian DTIB has consistently pursued a policy of active cooperation, whether with the US or with EU member states. Links with the US have notably been built in the context of NATO and through bilateral agreements. In parallel, Italy has developed partnerships with European countries. Rome's cooperation policy is thus inclusive, and has considered diverse factors such as political links, capability requirements, the need to develop certain technologies and to preserve industrial capabilities and jobs in Italy. The British DTIB has historically enjoyed deeper links with US industry, as a result of the cultural closeness between the UK and the US, and of the strategic proximity that dates back to the end of World War II. The links between US and UK DTIBs thus follow a model of strategic partnership. Nevertheless, the UK's industrial and defence policy is also pursued within a European framework. The missile manufacturer MBDA is nowadays considered as the deepest model of transnational industrial and defence integration in Europe. While Sweden seeks to preserve its industrial capabilities in two sectors – submarines and military aircraft – it appears to be most technologically reliant on the US among the surveyed countries. It is worth noting also that these links are long-standing, dating back to the cold war and the Soviet threat, despite Sweden not being a NATO member state. The links with the US are thus very different from one country to another, and carry varying implications. While the costs of acquiring American equipment can be low despite their high technological grade, there are often constraints on their use and restrictions on technologies that will not be transferred, or that will be unusable for other partnerships. These links are also formalised through bilateral agreements promoting armament cooperation, as is the case for UK-Italian cooperation. For its part, Sweden has signed interstate agreements with the US in the field of technological cooperation. DEFENCE INDUSTRIAL LINKS BETWEEN EU AND US / September 2017 3 Since the European Council meeting in December 2013 and in its 2016 Global Strategy, the EU has set itself the task of developing "a certain degree of strategic autonomy" supposed to encourage greater competitiveness of European DTIBs. In order to promote the development of this European defence industrial policy, we must seek to ensure that the links between US and EU DTIB are mutually beneficial. To do this, two conditions must be met: -That the rules governing relations between US and EU DTIB be based on the principle of reciprocity and on equal rules of regulation of respective DTIBs. -That the rules governing relations between US and EU DTIB be defined in the context of a dialogue between the European Union and the United States and not bilaterally between each European country and the United States. Today the multiplication of bilateral agreements between the United States and European Union member states are potential obstacles to the establishment of a level playing field governing the relations between European DTIBs; There is also a lack of reciprocity and equal regulation of EU and US DTIB. This concerns different areas: access to advanced capabilities, unrestricted use of exported armament, access to cooperated technologies, rules governing investment in US and European companies, rules governing property rights over technologies, rules governing export controls. Organizing the transatlantic relationship in the field of armaments in order to have a more balanced and profitable relationship, can be achieved in two complementary ways. At the European level, the European Defence Research Program (EDRP) will have strong implications for the relations between the companies of the US DTIB and the EDTIB. The rules governing access to finance and the ownership of intellectual property rights (IPR), which will be adopted for collaborative R&T projects involving European defence companies, will result in a common framework governing the relationship between these companies and the US EDTIB: the more Europeans will collaborate among themselves in the field of defence research, the more they will be able to set common and mutually beneficial rules in their relationship with the United States. It may also be considered that some EU States will decide to engage in enhanced cooperation in the industrial defence field which could include the following rules: -Obligation to achieve a level of 30% R&T in common among the members of the enhanced cooperation, which means 10% more than the target that was defined 10 years ago by the European Defence Agency and that is regularly reminded in the objectives of the European Union; -Obligation to inform members of enhanced cooperation of agreements on defence R&T cooperation concluded with the United States so as to ensure compatibility of these agreements with existing agreements between members of enhanced cooperation. The objective is to prevent agreements with the United States from subsequently restricting the scope of existing agreements between European countries; DEFENCE INDUSTRIAL LINKS BETWEEN EU AND US / September 2017 4 -Obligation to systematically consider the acquisition of military equipment manufactured by one of the member countries of enhanced cooperation. This should be accompanied by reinforced security of supply rules; -The need to bring the export policies of the member states of the enhanced cooperation closer together. These rules, complementary with, and not contradictory to, those which are being defined at European Union level, would accelerate industrial defence consolidation in Europe and make it possible to consider on a more balanced, mutually equally beneficial, basis relations between the United States and the European Union in the field of armaments. These rules would also be inspired by political principles: to strengthen the strategic autonomy of the European Union when necessary. Far from forbidding cooperation between the US and the EU DTIB, such enhanced cooperation would be facilitated because cooperation between US EDTIB and EU DTIB would not be a brake on European cooperation, as it is currently still too often the case.