Journal
« ANTIQUITY »

James N., Stoddart S.

Stratum plus 1-6. 342, 376, 397, 408, 520, 374 pages, b&w figures. 1999. Kishinev: High Anthropological School

A lively journal of archaeology has taken off from Moldova. It features articles, long (`Monographs in the journal') and medium, and notes. Most are grouped by themes and period, including persistent concern with migration and diffusion in eastern Europe and Siberia from the Palaeolithic to the Classical period and the Middle Ages. Economic and environmental archaeology figure strongly, but there are also papers on art. No. 1 concentrates on the Palaeolithic, No. 2 on the Bronze Age, 3 and 4 on successive phases of the Iron Age, 5 on the earlier Medieval, and 6 on coins. There are pieces on theory (including several by L.S. Klejn from both St Petersburg and Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and technique too. The geographical focus is on Moldova and the northern Black Sea basin. Stratum plus is clear about the region's importance and, in that connection, articles have ranged as far afield as Scandinavia, Inner Asia and northern Pakistan. Many contributors are from Russia as well as Moldova and the Ukraine, and others have come from Bulgaria, western Europe and yet further afield. Reviews and obituaries are published too — there is evidently something of a backlog of notices. Publication is in Russian but abstracts and lists of contents are provided in English.

It is so important to hear from Eastern Europe and to encourage the development of archaeology there. If Stratum plus maintains the breadth and the energy — so many pages — of its first year, it will become an invaluable point of reference and a stimulus.

ANTIQUITY
Vol. 74 Number 285 September 2000
p. 722-723