Arctic Centre

Human burials from the cemetery at the Rounala church, northern Sweden, were radiocarbon (14 C) dated to shed light on the use of the cemetery. Carbon, nitrogen and sulfur stable isotope analysis of bone collagen from 19 distinct individuals indicated that these individuals had a mixed diet consisting of freshwater, marine and terrestrial resources. Dietary modeling using FRUITS was employed to calculate the contributions of the different resources for each individual. These data were then used to calculate individual ΔR values, taking into account freshwater and multiple marine reservoir effects, the latter caused by Baltic and Atlantic marine dietary inputs, respectively. 14 C dating of tissues from modern freshwater fish species demonstrate a lack of a freshwater reservoir effect in the area. Two OxCal models were used to provide endpoint age estimates. The calibrated data suggest that the site's cemetery was most likely in use already from the 14th century, and perhaps until at least the late 18th century.

The present study is a technological investigation of lithic blade technology from the Middle Mesolithic site Hovland 3 in Larvik, Vestfold, in south-eastern Norway. The knowledge of the Middle Mesolithic (8350-6300 BCE) in Scandinavia has increased substantially in recent years, following the research on large-scale cultural transmissions seen in the development of lithic blade technology. The change is considered to have been instigated by both migration and the diffusion of knowledge between communities of hunter-gatherer, and is seen in the implementation of pressure flaking as a technique for knapping lithic blades. The new concept of blade technology has been referred to as the conical pressure blade concept , which diffused from the north-western Russian plains into and through Scandinavia during the Early- Middle Mesolithic transition. A premise for this recent perspective is that the Mesolithic communities are believed to have been highly conservative of their traditions of material culture. In this thesis, I will explore the possibility of discerning how social factors contributed to consolidating and temporally maintaining this concept of lithic blade technology through the Middle Mesolithic era. To enable a discussion of this topic, the well-dated and defined locality Hovland 3 will serve as a test case, and its blade material will be investigated by the method of technological classification, in conjunction with the principles of the chaîne opératoire.

I denne artikkelen vil jeg presentere resultater fra min teknologiske analyse av flekkemateriale fra den mellommesolittiske lokaliteten Hovland 3 i Larvik, Vestfold. Materialstudiet ble gjort i tilknytning min masteroppgave, levert våren 2015. Den teknologiske analysen ble
gjennomført innen en dynamisk teknologisk metodologi, med teknologisk klassifisering som metode. En kort beskrivelse av metodologien og den anvendte metoden vil bli gitt før selve resultatene gjennomgås til slutt.

The governance architecture in the Arctic region is subject to broad public and academic debate. Existing governance arrangements are not considered sufficient to minimize risks and impacts from Arctic offshore oil activities. These governance arrangements are fragmented between law of the sea norms, numerous regulatory conventions, and non-legally binding guidelines produced by the Arctic Council, an informal body of the eight Arctic states. While the benign form of cooperative fragmentation seems to prevail, specific governance challenges exist. The nature of these governance challenges and political feasibility considerations suggest an enabling joint management approach for the architecture of Arctic governance.

Ongoing political, legal, environmental and economic changes open up the Arctic. This has implications for regional security. The article tackles the question whether the preeminent regional institution, the Arctic Council, should include security-related topics in its portfolio to deal with the emerging challenges. The article argues that the regional security issues will be taken care of better in other institutions for at least two reasons: dealing with security-related topics might negatively impact the Arctic Council's institutional practice, while at the same time the Arctic Council might not provide the best institutional background needed to cope with the most pertinent issues on the security agenda.

The report identifies three normative requirements for governance in the Arctic, peace, freedom and self-determination, and sustainable development. These requirements are challenged by recent developments, and thus the need for regulative policies arises. The challenges are briefly sketched in regard to the issue areas of sovereign control, security, shipping, living resources and biodiversity, pollutants and climate change, resource extraction and living conditions of indigenous peoples. After briefly accounting for the status of the Arctic governance architecture as fragmented multi-level system, the report explores six future scenarios for governance: Back to Cold War, nationalization of the Arctic sea-space, an Arctic Treaty System, a regional seas governance mechanism, a regional organization and integrated multi-level governance. The report argues that the last option is the most feasible and also desirable.

This paper presents the 2005 global inventory of anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere component of the work that was prepared by UNEP and AMAP as a contribution to the UNEP report Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment: Sources, Emissions and ...

The radioactive waste (RAW) storage site at Andreeva Bay in the Russian Northwest has experienced radioactive contamination both as a result of activities carried out at the site and due to incidents that have occurred there in the past such as accidental releases of radioactive materials. The site is an interesting case study for decommissioning due to the extremely large amounts of radioactivity present at the site and the conditions under which it is stored; very little has been previously published in the scientific literature about this site. This paper complements the paper describing dose rates at Andreeva Bay which is published in this issue of Journal of Environmental Radioactivity by the same authors. This study presents new data related to the activity concentrations of (137)Cs and (90)Sr in surface soils and measurements of alpha- and beta-particle fluxes taken at different areas around the site. Limited data on 60Co is also presented. The results of the study indicate that the main areas of site contamination are associated with the former spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Building 5, due to accidental discharges which began in 1982. Substantial contamination is also observed at the solid radioactive waste storage facilities, probably due to the ingress of water into these facilities. More than 240 samples were measured: maximum contamination levels were 1 x 10(6)Bq/kg (137)Cs (mean value 4.1 x 10(5)Bq/kg) and 4 x 10(6)Bq/kg (90)Sr (mean value 1.2 x1 0(5)Bq/kg). Localised patches of alpha and beta contamination were also observed throughout the site.