The new 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.
Brief reviews of the journals:
ESTONIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY
The December issue of the Estonian Journal of Archaeology contains four articles.
Irina Khrustaleva and Aivar Kriiska present a spatial and contextual analysis of finds from the settlement site Jägala Jõesuu V in northern Estonia. The excavations of this site, radiocarbon dated to the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, yielded remains of a pit-house and an above-ground building, several pits and fireplaces, and other features of later times. The site was most likely permanently inhabited for a relatively short time.
In another article on the Stone Age, Kristjan Sander and Aivar Kriiska present an integrated GIS-based reconstruction of coastal palaeolagoons at the mouths of the rivers Vihterpalu, Teenuse and Velise in western Estonia. During the fieldwork connected with this reconstruction, 45 seasonally inhabited settlement sites and 18 find spots of the Late Mesolithic and Neolithic were discovered.
Lijana Muradian presents in her article first twelve AMS 14C dates yielded from a range of different barrows and graves in western Lithuania. The results mostly indicate the period 800– 400 BC, i.e., the Hallstat calibration plateau, which makes it difficult to follow changes within this period. Comparison with available data from other cemeteries still suggests that collective burials in barrows, burials outside the external stone circle of the barrow, and individual barrows for a single deceased could have co-existed.
Erki Russow, Maxim Mordovin and Igor Prokhnenko analyse Comines’ textile industry in Flanders and its cloth seal finds from Estonia and Ukraine (altogether 11). These cloth seals belong to the early 15th century and help to reconstruct, among other things, the late medieval and early modern trade connections and consumption patterns.
ESTONIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES
The new issue of the Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences contains four papers covering a range of topics from Quaternary geology to physical oceanography in the Baltic region.
Henry Vallius and co-authors analysed the distribution of heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, comparing sampling campaigns from 1995 and 2014. They show that, with few exceptions, the concentration of studied elements has decreased notably over two decades. For instance, mercury concentrations in the topmost few centimetres of sediment have generally halved and cadmium concentrations have decreased considerably across the study area. In most cases, the 2014 campaign data revealed values below or only slightly above the threshold levels of the sediment quality guidelines, suggesting improved conditions in the Baltic Sea with respect to heavy metal pollutants.
Argo Jõeleht and co-authors studied the subsurface structures of the Vaivara Deformation Zone in northeastern Estonia using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). GPR mapping showed various types of deformations, including deformed and tilted limestone blocks, thrusts and folds, and suggested their glaciotectonic origin. The study confirmed the usefulness of GPR in this kind of investigation, yet with the combination of other methods to identify the bedrock blocks.
Muhammad Saladin Prawirasasra and co-authors analysed the effects of ship-born underwater noise on free-ranging Baltic Sea ringed seals on their transit from Väinameri to the southern part of the Gulf of Riga. The results showed some dive profile irregularities in the form of deep dives or multiple surfacings when the seals passed through the Suur väin and crossed the Virtsu–Kuivastu ferry route. These data are in line with the previously reported studies. The authors concluded that the ship-radiated noise is unlikely to affect the energy budgets of ringed seals due to the short exposure time.
Liudas Daumantas and co-authors described a mixed lacustrine-aeolian succession in southeastern Lithuania. The multi-proxy sedimentological analyses revealed that the paleolake formed on a sandur plain during the latest Pleistocene, and the transition to the fast sand sedimentation started in the Middle Holocene, caused by warming and drying climate in the Baltic region. Carbonate ratios and macro-remains from the lower gyttja material showed the presence of substantial millennial-scale oscillations, suggesting a delayed response to the isotopically derived paleotemperatures. The new data support the idea of a direct but delayed positive correlation between dolomite and calcite ratios in lake sediments and the climatic signal.
LINGUISTICA URALICA
In the December issue of Linguistica Uralica, Jaakko Raunamaa and Antti Kanner from the University of Helsinki investigate personal names in the census book of late 15th century Novgorod’s Vodskaja pjatina. In their article “Clustering Names of Medieval Novgorod: Geographical Variation of Personal Names Attested in the Census Book of Vodskaja Pjatina”,they apply digital methods to cluster a data set of almost 36,000 names (the number of individual name variants is 2748). Most names are already of Christian origin whereas only ca 2% of names contain Finnic features. The clustering results implied that the area can be divided into various subgroups according to personal name usage. They discover differences between northern and southern naming patterns. The results are in line with earlier sources and studies.
OIL SHALE
The recent issue of Oil Shale contains an article “Viscosity data for kukersite shale gasoline fractions” by authors from Tallinn University of Technology. The article provides new information by presenting experimental viscosity data for the lighter portion of kukersite shale oil, often called shale gasoline.
Very interesting is an article “Reduction of life cycle impacts of oil shale electricity caused by the shift to fluidized bed combustion technology” by Estonian scientists. The article presents the research results of the full oil shale electricity life-cycle assessment. The research was carried out in 2004–2005 and 2008, respectively before and after the major reconstruction of some boilers of the two largest Estonian oil shale power plants.
Other articles in the new issue include “Effect of real-time temperature and shear angle on the mechanical strength and energy evolution of oil shale” by Chinese scientists and “Mineral matter hydropyrolysis of Tarfaya oil shale and influence of sedimentation edge” by Moroccan researchers.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ESTONIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The December 2022 issue of the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences contains eight articles by scientist from Estonia and abroad. The issue covers a wide range of topics such as organic chemistry, neurosciences, freshwater ecology, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, antimicrobial materials and many more.
Jüri Engelbrecht and scientists from Tallinn University of Technology published their analysis “Signals in nerves from the philosophical viewpoint”. Arvo Kaldmäe and co-authors investigate some properties of recently defined forward and backward shifts of vector fields. Katrit Karus and co-authors from Estonian University of Life Sciences and Latvia studied the feeding of European perch Perca fluviatilis L. larvae in littoral and pelagic habitats of four different lakes – one Latvian (Auciema) and three Estonian (Akste, Kaiavere, and Prossa). Silver Türk and co-authors from the University of Tartu present a study on microbiological and chemical properties of shungite water. The article by Chinese scientists Yanlin Zhai et al. focuses on the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on root traits and salt tolerance of Tagetes erecta.
Content and full texts of the articles
TRAMES. A JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
The new Trames contains six contributions.
In the opening article, Turkish researchers Sami Doğru and Çağrı Güçlüten examine the shooting down of a Russian plane in Turkish airspace on 24 November 2015. This incident is viewed from the perspective of international law and several aspects. The analysis is significant also because of the war against the Ukrainian state and people started by the Russian Federation.
The next article is by Ukrainian authors Volodymyr Pylypenko et al. about national security and its aspects of international law. The aim is to establish science-based recommendations for the international public. The research was motivated by the continuing hybrid aggression against Ukraine by Russia.
Austrian researcher Besmir Shishko analyses storytelling in the digital era, considering people’s age and gender. Disadvantaged and marginalised women across the world can use digital means to convey and spread their stories.
Kazakh researchers Manifa Sarkulova and Roza Khassenova examine the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh and Kyrgyz literature. The cosmodrome in these literatures is presented as a gift of modernity.
Fahd Mohammed Taleb Saeed Al-Olaqi from Saudi Arabia looks at the Christian-born grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha in the Ottoman Palace in Constantinople. He became the favourite of sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, but the sultan had him killed.
In the last article, Qilin Zeng from China analyses Feng Zikai’s thoughts on religion and culture, expressed in correspondence with scholars abroad, especially with Guangqia, a monk from Singapore. The letters cover the period between the 1950s and the 1970s. The article also examines Feng Zikai’s and Guangqia’s teacher Hong Yi. Feng Zikai was a painter, a Buddhist thinker, produced comic books and essays.