December issues of the scientific journals Estonian Journal of Archaeology, Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences, Linguistica Uralica, Oil Shale, Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and TRAMES have been published.
ESTONIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY
In the second issue of the 28th volume of the Estonian Journal of Archaeology, the reader will find three fascinating articles, all from Estonian authors.
The team of authors led by Eve Rannamäe discusses the possible use of horse meat for food in Bronze Age Estonia based on the materials of the fortified settlement of Iru. Since the selection of horse bones found during excavations is not fundamentally different from that of cattle bones, it is considered possible in every way.
Andres Tvauri analyses Estonian sheet pendants of the 10th–17th centuries and notes that the symbols reflected on them – mainly the cross and the bosses representing the Five Holy Wounds of Christ – are Christian. One might think that such symbols manifested the Christian faith of the bearers of these ornaments.
Kristo Siig has looked at the current concepts of the function and role of one of the most powerful fortresses of late prehistoric Estonia, Varbola, and finds that, based on a new spatial analysis, it was most likely still a conventional centre of power.
ESTONIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES
The latest issue of the Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences presents a diverse collection of papers in various disciplines within Earth Sciences, including the discovery of new fossils, sedimentology, tectonics, and wave climate studies. These studies highlight the significant hydrocarbon potential of organic-rich Jurassic strata in Western and Southwestern Ukraine, Northeastern Romania, and Southern Moldova. Also, facies analysis of the Pļaviņas Formation reveals diverse shallow-water carbonate sedimentation environments, shaped by hydrodynamic fluctuations across the Baltic Devonian Basin. Palaeontological contributions include the first record of the new aulaceratid stromatoporoid Aulacera vohilaidia and the discovery of trimerellide brachiopod Gasconsia in Estonia. These findings expand the known distribution of these organisms and provide valuable insights into their stratigraphic and geographic contexts within Baltica. Geological mapping of the bedrock relief below Väinameri uncovers a cuesta-type terrain shaped by the combined effects of fluvial erosion and glacial processes. A study testing wave model performance in the Gulf of Finland demonstrates that simple wave models often fail to account for the complexities of nearshore areas, emphasizing the need for advanced modelling techniques to achieve accurate wave property replication and support coastal engineering. Finally, the first report on the second drill core of the ‘Collisional Orogeny in the Scandinavian Caledonides (COSC)’ project unveils a well-preserved early Palaeozoic sedimentary sequence in Jämtland, Sweden. This sequence offers valuable insights into sedimentation processes associated with the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and the Caledonian orogeny.
LINGUISTICA URALICA
One of the minor Uralic languages that receives consistent attention among Estonian linguists is certainly Livonian. In the December issue of Linguistica Uralica, the so called ‘broken tone’ of Livonian is investigated more closely. This phenomenon has already earlier attracted strong interest because it connects Livonian to its Baltic neighbour Latvian and, in a wider areal context, to the Danish stød. Tuuli Tuisk from the University of Tartu and Nicolai Pharao from the University of Copenhagen find in their study ‘Unveiling tonal contrasts in the Baltic region: exploring stød in Livonian spontaneous speech’ that the tonal contrast between words with and without broken tone tends to be neutralised in Livonian spontaneous speech, but there are individual differences between speakers, among them notable differences between male and female speakers.
OIL SHALE
The new issue of Oil Shale contains five articles with authors from China.
The articles ‘Oil shale pyrolysis and electric heating in situ mining technology improvements’ and ‘Research progress on electric heating technology for oil shale in situ mining’ discuss the so-called in situ technological solutions for oil shale pyrolysis using electric heating. The first article focuses on the pyrolysis mechanism, pore evolution, mineral transformation, and classification of electric heating technology for oil shale, while the second article is a review that summarizes the research progress on existing electric heating technologies, providing a reference for the engineering research and development of oil shale electric heating in situ mining technology.
The article ‘Effect of air staging on low-NOx combustion performance of regenerative heating furnace for oil shale retort’ focuses on the operation of an oil shale pyrolysis retort device, and the article ‘Thermal decomposition of Huadian oil shale: Part 2. The role of bonds in the kerogen skeleton chain during pyrolysis evaluated by ReaxFF MD simulations’ explores the mechanism of thermal decomposition of kerogen during the pyrolysis process.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ESTONIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The December 2024 issue of the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences contains eight articles by scientists from Estonia and abroad.
Ain Raal (University of Tartu) and his co-authors from Estonia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan analyse the content and composition of essential oils obtained from the common thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.). Thymus vulgaris is one of the most well-known plants in the world, widely used in medicine, culinary arts, and cosmetics. Gas chromatography was used to characterize the quality and diversity of chemotypes of the studied plant raw material of different origins, T. vulgaris commercial samples grown in Estonia and in various European countries. The samples of the T. vulgaris herb contained 3–28 mL/kg of essential oil, and in five samples it was below the European Pharmacopoeia requirement. In total, 44 essential oil components were identified; the five principal compounds were carvacrol, thymol, p‑cymene, γ-terpinene, and (E)-β-caryophyllene. It was concluded that the main compound of T. vulgaris essential oil was thymol with an average content of 41.1%. Monoterpenoids (90.5%) and sesquiterpenoids (5.7%) were the most dominating groups of terpenoids in the studied essential oil. The content of the four most important terpenoids (thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene, and γ-terpinene) in the essential oil of T. vulgaris does not change much from the beginning to the end of the flowering period. Among seven studied chemotypes of T. vulgaris essential oil, five contained thymol as one of the main components.
The last issue of the year also contains several research articles on mathematics, as well as interesting reading on electronics, mechanics, etc.
TRAMES. A JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
The opening article of the December issue of Trames is a joint effort by Chinese and Pakistani researchers about US-China competition in the politics of the Pacific region. The regional geopolitics is made more complicated by the emergence of new actors, such as Japan, Australia and ASEAN, with a clear impact on the regional political and economic stability. The new US partnership strategy to contain China has forced Chinese leaders to proactively pursue competitive countervailing strategies that influence the interests of both countries.
The Czech scholar Martin Dudáš analyses strategies of electoral manipulations during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule in Turkey. Turkey’s manipulations include unfair access to resources, media and law, election fraud, intimidation of opposition and buying votes. State resources are siphoned to municipalities controlled by AKP and regime-friendly businessmen, who donate to the party and offer other services. State media and media regulators are also controlled by AKP. As a result, the opposition gets minimal coverage both in public and most private media outlets. Opposition politicians and journalists are suppressed by taking over the judiciary and by vague definitions in the anti-terrorism law and in other laws. AKP is additionally controlling the institutions who oversee elections. Intimidation of opposition includes both legal prosecution and physical attacks. Buying votes in Turkey is a form of rewarding voters of the ruling party, and not an attempt to swing voters.
The article ‘Feminism or Misogyny?’ by authors from China tackles feminism and gender studies. It looks at boys’ love drama genre spread in recent years in China. It has posed a challenge to state-manipulated heteronormative ideology and patriarchal hegemony. However, it remains uncertain whether the exposure to boys’ love drama makes the public more feminist or more misogynistic.
Indonesian authors present a historical-archaeological analysis about multicultural traces in ancient Islamic, European and Chinese tombs in Indonesian Maluku province. The article looks at how the shape, decoration and spread of tombs influenced the life of the Maluku people who lived with immigrant communities as multiculturalism developed.
In the next article, ‘Devadasi, post-truth and “simulacra”’, the Indian researchers deconstruct the poetics and politics of representation of devadasi in Indian narratives. In India, a devadasi is a female artist, devoted for life to serve a divinity or a temple. Narratives about devadasi are historically constructed to glorify the dedication of young girls as dancers in temples, which is an indispensable contributor to the cultural milieu of the sacred edifices. The legacy of devadasi is quite popular and well known even today, but the negative side of this tradition is ignored, i.e. the systemic oppression of girls and women, their exploitation, and enduring bondage. The deconstruction uses a post-truth view and Baudrillard’s ‘simulacra’.
The last contribution of the current issue, interdisciplinary research ‘Evolution of lotus images in traditional Chinese art’, comes from Chinese art historians, who examine the lotus plants botanically. The growth and evolutionary patterns of lotus in nature are largely consistent with the representation and transformation of lotus imagery in art. Natural phenomena significantly influence the selection and depiction of artistic subjects.
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