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Copyright of Praehistorische Zeitschrift is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sekretär is the property of Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde eV and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of German Language & Literature / Istanbul Üniversitesi Alman Dili ve Edebiyai Dergisi / Studien zur Deutschen Sprache und Literatur is the property of Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper looks at the European Union's involvement in the Western Balkans and points out some of the imminent problems when dealing with a region with disputed territorial issues and trying to support reform processes in countries with divided societies. Although the Western Balkans and the South Caucasus can hardly be compared with each other, at least when it comes to the engagement of the EU, it can be assumed that similar strategies will be pursued and policy instruments deployed. Therefore, it is useful to identify some lessons taken from the Western Balkans that are applicable for the South Caucasus. The paper deals 1) with the controversies on Kosovo's independence and the problems of the EU to deal with its consequences, and 2) with the EU's efforts to support the constitutional and police reform processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to illustrate the challenges the EU faces when it has to deal with a "divided" country. In the second part, the paper looks at the EU's engagement in the South Caucasus, where the EU might play a similar role in the future as it does in the Balkans. The investigations demonstrate that European foreign policy has often lacked consistent strategies towards the Western Balkans, which prevented the EU from achieving "satisfactory" outcomes in its neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vrbjanska Čuka is a tell site in the region of Pelagonia (Macedonia) established 8000 years ago by the Neolithic communities. Later it was used as an agricultural unit during the Roman era and the Middle Ages when it was also employed as a burial area. The excavations performed in the 1980s and during the last five years indicate a Neolithic farming society that constructed large buildings made of daub in a settlement enclosed by a circular ditch. The buildings had many clay structures, such as ovens, granaries, bins and grinding areas for processing cereals and bread production. The Neolithic communities used sophisticated fine pottery and modeled figurines and altars, while the stone tools were mainly used for cutting trees, harvesting and grinding. Apart from the cereal-based food (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat or barley), the inhabitants of Vrbjanska Čuka consumed lentils, peas and a variety of gathered wild fruits, while cattle, caprovine, mussels, fish and wild game meat was also part of a diet, as well as the dairy products. This paper will be a summary of a variety of data provided from the current international and multidisciplinary research of the site that involves excavation, prospection, geomagnetic survey, study of material culture, examination of architecture, radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, lipid and use-wear analyses, as well as the topographic and 3D modeling. The recent knowledge on Vrbjanska Čuka provides novel understanding of the Early Neolithic in Pelagonia and contributes to the more extensive research of first farming societies in the Balkans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeast Europe’s economic backwardness and very slow industrialization prior to 1945 continues, even in recent research, to be attributed to an unproductive peasant economy and traditional peasant society. However, the radical paradigm shift in the view of peasants as agents of economic growth and of their ability to adjust to modern growth after 1960 has surprisingly never been highlighted in economic history research on the Balkan-states (Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece). Interpreting agricultural development as a mainly demand-driven process this paper argues that the potential for agricultural growth was much more restricted in the Southeast than the Northwest of Europe but that Balkan peasants seem to have exploited their growth potential as far as possible. There is a lot of evidence that the reasons for sluggish industrialization before 1940 were definitely not rooted in 'peasant traditionalism' as often claimed by Balkan elites and many scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper on the absolute chronology of the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe is based on the available dates that have to be critically examined, with all the risks and limitations arising from their acquisition and evaluation. The different beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin (except for Slovakia) and in the Balkans does not find support either at the social, economic or super-structural level, or in the new finds of tin-bronze artefacts. The attempts to create a fine absolute chronology based on graves with various types of pins are tentative and point to the limitations of present-day dating methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussions on the „Balkans" as a particular „historical unit" often refer to a specific "Balkan political culture", which -- as a result of long historical and cultural traditions -- is usually seen as a "deficit", so far preventing the establishment of a stabile democratic order and civil society. The article describes elements of political culture in the Balkans since the 19th century and discusses their historical and cultural context. Using Detlef Pollack's categories of "thick cultures" and "thin cultures", the paper debates the question, if these .elements of political culture are the result of historical and cultural longue durée-factors in Balkan history or if they should rather be seen in the particular context of "transition", going beyond any regional and cultural specifics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses archive documents to analyse the motives which Fritz Valjavec, the founder of German southeastern studies, may have had for cooperating with the NS and to identify any reasons that speak in favour of the reverse, his distance from the NS. This is integrated into a discussion of whether he can be regarded as a perpetrator pursuing an ideological goal. The discussion takes a chronological approach, beginning with his early involvement in student cultural heritage work, then moving on to his role as the academic driving force behind this work and the part he played in shaping the programmatic concept of southeastern research studies. His involvement as academic advisor in the Task Force 10B during the NS campaign against the Soviet Union is an example of his proximity to the NS and his professional advancement. His conservative-Catholic values and his personal connections with representatives of various resistance groups, on the other hand, are testimony to his distance from the NS. This ambivalence in Fritz Valjavec's biography seems to indicate that he was not an ideologically motivated man of conviction. On the contrary, it was his career and the security of his status which he viewed, within the framework of the contemporary social and political situation, as his foremost priority; this does not imply either a moral evaluation or an exoneration of his person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparative history of the Slavic literatures in south-eastern Europe from their beginnings to the present has not been written yet. National frames of literary history have established categories of exclusion rather than considering interconnections of the region's multicultural writing. The article discusses how to write literary history of the South Slaves today and suggests applying the history of knowledge to literary historiography throughout a dynamic cultural and historical space (the Balkans, Southeast Europe, the Mediterranean) taking into account young and 'small' literatures as well as 'nomadic' writers against the background of migration and globalization. On the one hand, epoch-specific aspects of aesthetics, axiology, cultural semiotics, imagology, (inter)mediality, and multilingualism of the region's literatures are to be characterized as diverse and plural. On the other hand, the comparative approach on the historically changing yet overlapping commonalities of religious-cultural, transcultural, discursive, and generally communicative figurations of south-eastern European literature suggests a shared sphere of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cooperation between the Austrian Archaeological Institute (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and City Museum Zenica in the frame of the project "Visualizing the unknown Balkans" resulted in the discovery and subsequent archaeological investigations of the first documented graveyard of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in central Bosnia at the site Kopilo. The excavations conducted in 2021 and 2022 brought to light the cemetery located on the terrace below the previously investigated hilltop settlement and provided new insights into the mortuary practices of the local prehistoric population. In total, we unearthed 46 graves, with 51 individuals of all age groups. Most of the graves were placed in stone constructions that included several inhumation burials. We also found clear evidence of grave reopening and reuse, multiple burials and graves containing only selected body parts. The spectrum of metal and pottery finds consists of local, regional and forms of supra-regional distribution, indicating well-established communication networks of the community that used the cemetery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the politicization and institutionalization of Southeast European Studies, exploring its historical roots and its entanglement with political objectives. Topics covered include the origins of Southeast European studies intertwined with political interests, the interwar period's impact on its institutional development, and its instrumentalization during the Nazi era for political purposes. These studies, spanning from the late 18th century to the post-World War II period, demonstrate a complex relationship between politics and academia, highlighting the competition, cooperation, and challenges faced by various research institutions.

Copyright of Monatsschrift fuer Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Following a short outline of the main approaches, semantics and limits of national historiography in Southeast Europe / the Balkans, the article focuses on some phenomena which do not fit in with the history of a state or the history and "prehistory" of a nation. This is especially true for many of the migrations in pre-modern times. Crossing the borders of states and cultures (often accompanied by an identity switch) was an important aspect of everyday life. Besides the history of states and (modern) nations, the history of migrations (beyond states and nations) should therefore figure as a third pillar of Southeast European historiography. One of the main challenges of such an approach concerns the identification of ethnic groups. Many of the recorded ethnonyms do not necessarily correspond to an ethnic group (in the sense of a group with common descent). In many cases it remains unclear what is behind a name. The same ethnonym was often applied to people of different origin who were only united by their profession, language or religion. In most cases the ethnic origins of modern nations and the ethnic continuity of pre-modern ethnic groups is a matter of pure speculation. The article stresses the contingent and performative character of ethnic and national identity and argues in favour of a historiography which questions the popular perceptions of autochtonity and continuity of groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]