The development of high-throughput sequencing has triggered a revolution in the study of ancient DNA. In the last decade, methodological advances have allowed researchers to overcome some of the limits linked to the degradation and preservation of nucleic acids, improving the capacity of recovery and analysis of the ancient molecules. This fact, along with a wider accessibility to the next-generation sequencing platforms, has contributed to increase the number of genomic studies on ancient remains. This Special Issue, titled “Ancient and Archaic Genomes”, collects original research articles that present different methods and aspects of the paleogenetic research applied to anthropological, archaeological, and historic questions. Interestingly, specific regional contexts and cultural aspects previously poorly studied from a genetic point of view are here investigated. This Special Issue, presenting different methodological approaches and applications, will be a useful resource for both students and young researchers who are interested in ancient DNA studies.

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This volume critically investigates how art historians writing about Central and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries engaged with periodization. At the heart of much of their writing lay the ideological project of nation-building. Hence discourses around periodization – such as the mythicizing of certain periods, the invention of historical continuity and the assertion of national specificity – contributed strongly to identity construction. Central to the book’s approach is a transnational exploration of how the art histories of the region not only interacted with established Western periodizations but also resonated and ‘entangled’ with each other. In their efforts to develop more sympathetic frameworks that refined, ignored or hybridized Western models, they sought to overcome the centre–periphery paradigm which equated distance from the centre with temporal belatedness and artistic backwardness. The book thus demonstrates that the concept of periodization is far from neutral or strictly descriptive, and that its use in art history needs to be reconsidered. Bringing together a broad range of scholars from different European institutions, the volume offers a unique new perspective on Central and Eastern European art historiography. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, historiography and European studies.

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This Special Issue contains articles include, but not limited to, empirical, analytical, or design-oriented approaches to the following topics: Monitoring of carrying capacity and mechanisms for managing tourist flows in rural areas; Systems and tools to measure the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of rural tourism; Integration between public tourism policies and private strategies in the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices; Policies for promoting public participation in the planning and development of sustainable rural tourism; The impacts of tourism on traditional agricultural activities; Identity enhancement of the territory and its productions; "Good practices" in the implementation of rural tourism sustainability.

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The Land Between Two Seas: Art on the Move in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea 1300-1700 focuses on the strong riverine ties that connect the seas of the Mediterranean system (from the Western Mediterranean through the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov) and their hinterland. Addressing the mediating role of the Balkans between East and West all the way to Poland and Lithuania, as well as this region’s contribution to the larger Mediterranean artistic and cultural melting pot, this innovative volume explores ideas, artworks and stories that moved through these territories linking the cultures of Central Asia with those of western Europe.

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Witchcraft continued provides an important collection of essays on the nature and understanding of witchcraft and magic in European society over the last two centuries. It innovatively brings together the interests of historians in nineteenth-century witchcraft and the twentieth-century fieldwork of anthropologists and sociologists on the continued relevance of witch beliefs. The book covers England, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Finland, Transylvania and Northern Ireland. It examines the experience of and attitudes towards witchcraft from both above and below. They demonstrate the widespread fear of witches amongst the masses during the nineteenth century, and the continued but more restricted relevance of witchcraft in the twentieth century. While the educated classes generally denounced witch-believers as either superstitious, foolish or both, secular and religious authorities still had to find strategies of dealing with the demands of those who believed themselves the victims of witchcraft. Moreover the rise of the folklore movement and the growth of anthropology as an academic discipline over the period provided a huge body of evidence on continuing beliefs that many had consigned to the past. This book will be essential reading for those interested in the continued importance of witchcraft and magic in the modern era. More generally it will appeal to those with a lively interest in the cultural history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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