Landscape archaeology Books

Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on ConservationSophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.' Chris PackhamFor thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment for good and for bad.In Nature's Ghosts, award-winning journalist Sophie Yeo examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries.Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, she seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.Along the way, Sophie encounters the environmental d

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Book SynopsisA beautiful new edition of a classic work of landscape history, in which Alfred Watkins introduced the idea of ancient 'ley lines' criss-crossing the English countryside. First published in 1925, The Old Straight Track described the author's theory of 'ley lines', pre-Roman pathways consisting of aligned stone circles and prehistoric mounds, used by our Neolithic ancestors. Watkins's ideas have intrigued and inspired generations of readers – from historians to hill walkers, and from amateur archaeologists to new-age occultists. This edition of The Old Straight Track, with a substantial introduction by Robert Macfarlane, will appeal to all who treasure the history, contours and mystery of Britain's ancient landscapes.Trade ReviewWatkins re-enchanted the English landscape, investing it with fresh depth and detail, prompting new ways of looking and new reasons to walk -- Robert MacfarlaneA remarkable book... Alfred Watkins [was a] visionary who saw beyond the bounds of his time' -- John MichellRobert Macfarlane in his introduction to this new edition [...] is respectful, finding new relevance in Watkin's writing. The result is to fold Watkins, the counter-cultural mystic-modernist, into the cultural landscape, laying the track for others to follow * TLS *A stimulating historical mediation on landscape * Daily Mail *Careful erudite topography in the grand Enlightenment tradition, which nevertheless presents a vision of Herefordshire that is awe-inspired * Spectator *

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Book Synopsis''A beautiful, beautiful book . . . archaeology is changing so much about the way we view the so-called Dark Ages [Williams] is just brilliant at bringing them to light'' Rory Stewart on The Rest is PoliticsFrom the bestselling author of Viking Britain, a new epic history of our forgotten past.This is the world of Arthur and Urien; of the Picts and Britons and Saxon migration; of magic and war, myth and miracle.In Lost Realms Thomas Williams uncovers the forgotten origins and untimely demise of Britain's ancient kingdoms: lands that hover in the twilight between history and fable, whose stories hum with gods and miracles, with giants and battles and ruin. Why did some realms like Wessex, Northumbria and Gwynedd prosper while others fell? And how did their communities adapt to the catastrophic changes of their age? Drawing on Britain ' s ancient landscape and bringing together new archaeological revelations with the few precious fragments of surviving written sources, Williams spectaTrade Review PRAISE FOR LOST REALMS ‘Sceptical, scrupulous, written with wit and flair’Financial Times ‘This brilliant history of Dark Age Britain mixes serious scholarship with nods to pop culture, from Tolkien to The Wicker Man… Lost Realms is a joy to read’The Telegraph, FIVE STAR REVIEW ‘Williams makes a compelling guide as he steers us through the darkness’ Spectator ‘Williams has a fine command of the literary, administrative, religious and archaeological sources of early medieval Britain. He is a diligent scholar and a likeable writer’ Sunday Times ‘Thomas Williams is an exceptionally vivid and exciting writer, and his wonderfully evocative recreations are just what the generally impoverished and bewildering evidence for early medieval Britain requires. He is also however a meticulous, honest and fair-minded scholar, and his careful analysis of that evidence, material and textual, always establishes its limitations as well as its potential. His consideration of the losers of Anglo-Saxon state building provides a genuinely original and illuminating perspective on how England came to be’Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch 'Thomas Williams has blended a potent brew of mythic and material fragments to raise forgotten kings & queens (and their stories) from the grave. An historian not afraid of the dark and with eyes adapted to it – what he sees is assessed sagely and described beautifully'Christopher Hadley, author of Hollow Places

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As a synthesis of Oceanic prehistory, the revised edition is meritorious and it remains unique in its comprehensive coverage." * Archaeology in Oceania *""A grand synthesis. Kirch has done Pacific archaeology proud with this book." * Antiquity *"Excellent." * Times Literary Supplement *"Riveting" * The Washington Post *"Patrick Kirch’s revised version of his near-classic On the Road of the Winds appears only eighteen years after the original edition and makes it clear that that received wisdom was very much mistaken. While the broad outlines of settlement and social processes in the Pacific Islands have become well-known, ongoing excavations in the past two decades have rewritten a great many of the details. Some of these are especially salient, including increasing recognition of the importance of trade networks and the environmental and ecological changes wrought by human agency." * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsList of Maps / List of Figures / List of Tables / Preface / INTRODUCTION / Defining Oceania / • Linguistic, Human Biological, and Cultural Variation in Oceania / • About This Book / • A Note on Dates and Time / 1 • DISCOVERING THE OCEANIC PAST / Enlightenment Voyagers / • Outposts of Empire: Missionaries, Colonists, and Academic Beginnings / • “The Problem of Polynesian Origins” / • Te Rangi Hiroa and the “Micronesian Route” to Polynesia / • The Discovery of Time Depth and Culture Change / • The Search for Polynesian Sequences / • Broadening Research Horizons / • Moving beyond Polynesia: Archaeology in Melanesia and New Guinea / • Francophone Archaeology in the Pacific / • Not an Ivory Tower: Public Archaeology in the Pacific / • Recent Advances in Pacific Archaeology / 2 • THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AS A HUMAN ENVIRONMENT / Origins and Development of the Pacific Islands / • Types of Islands / • Climatic Factors in the Pacific / • Island Life and Biogeography / • The Microbiotic World and Human Populations / • Island Ecosystems / • Humans and Island Socioecosystems / 3 • SAHUL AND THE PREHISTORY OF “OLD” MELANESIA / The Pleistocene Geography of Sahul and Near Oceania / • Initial Human Arrival in Sahul and Near Oceania / • Pleistocene Voyaging in Near Oceania / • Near Oceania during the Pleistocene / • Cultural Innovations of the Early Holocene / • A Paradox and a Hypothesis / 4 • LAPITA AND THE AUSTRONESIAN EXPANSION / The Human Landscape of Near Oceania at 2000–1300 b.c. / • The Advent of Lapita / • Lapita Origins: The Austronesian Expansion / • Lapita across Time and Space / • Lapita in Linguistic and Biological Perspective / • The Lapita Ceramic Series / • Lapita Sites and Settlements / • Lapita Subsistence Economies / • Exchange between Lapita Communities / • Ancestral Oceanic Societies / 5 • THE PREHISTORY OF “NEW” MELANESIA / Trading Societies of Papua and the Massim / • The Late Holocene in Highland New Guinea / • The Bismarck Archipelago after Lapita / • The Solomon Islands / • Vanuatu / • The Polynesian Outliers in Melanesia / • Ethnogenesis in La Grande Terre / • Fiji: An Archipelago “in Between” / • Larger Themes in Melanesian Prehistory / 6 • MICRONESIA: IN THE “SEA OF LITTLE LANDS” / Colonization and Early Settlement in Micronesia / • Cultural Sequences in Micronesia / • Tuvalu and the Polynesian Outliers in Micronesia / • Atoll Adaptations / • Later Prehistory in Western Micronesia / • Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Caroline High Islands / 7 • POLYNESIA: ORIGINS AND DISPERSALS / Polynesian Origins / • Polynesia as a Phyletic Unit / • Ancestral Polynesia / • Cultural Sequences in Western Polynesia / • The Settlement of Eastern Polynesia / • Early Settlement Sites in Eastern Polynesia / • Polynesian Voyaging / • Summary / 8 • POLYNESIAN CHIEFDOMS AND ARCHAIC STATES / Polynesian Chiefdoms: Ethnographic Background and Anthropological Significance / • The “Traditional” Societies / • Sociopolitical Transformation in the Open Societies / • The Emergence of Stratified Chiefdoms / • From Chiefdom to Archaic State: Tonga and Hawai‘i / • Polynesian History: A Concluding Note / 9 • BIG STRUCTURES AND LARGE PROCESSES IN OCEANIC PREHISTORY / Voyaging and the Human “Conquest” of the Pacific / • History Written in the Present: Correlations between Language, Biology, and Culture / • The Role of Demographic Transitions in Oceanic History / • Oceanic Populations on the Eve of European Contact / • The Political Economy of Dynamic Landscapes / • Intensification and Specialization in Island Economies / • Transformations of Status and Power / • On Comparison: A Closing Comment / Notes / References / Index /

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Book SynopsisThis is a book about ideal landscapes and Feng-Shui. Using evolutionary and anthropological approaches, Peking University professor Kongjian Yu - who holds a doctorate degree in Design from Harvard - explores the origin, structure, and meanings of Feng-Shui in juxtaposition to the ideal landscape models in Chinese culture. Using illustrative site observations and literature, Yu argues that Feng-Shui landscapes share similar structures with other Chinese ideal landscapes - the implications of which are deconstructed into terms of geography, anthropology, ecology, and philosophy. As a landscape architect and urbanist, Professor Yu respects the role of Feng-Shui in the making of places, yet still is in opposition to its superstitious nature. Well illustrated and poetically written, this book is a must-read for those who are interested in Feng-Shui, as well as those who care about their daily living environment - especially those who practice architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the Skelligs, Ireland's most dramatic and beautiful Atlantic islands, and focuses particularly on Skellig Michael, a famous UNESCO World Heritage Site. It considers why the construction of a remarkable monastic site near the peak of this island over a thousand years ago stands as one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of Christianity. The Book of the Skelligs combines different approaches to deepening our understanding of the islands, combining the perspectives of history, archaeology, cultural geography, oral tradition, literature and natural science. It interprets distinctive features, both physical and human, that shape the unique character of these islands while also exploring their geology, marine and terrestrial life as well as the historical background and cultural setting of Skellig Michael's monastic remains. It also considers the impact of the Vikings, and the construction of lighthouses a millennium later. Drawing on appropriate disciplines, the book reveals how a unique cultural landscape was generated by human activities over long periods of time. The editors and contributors have incorporated a wide range of illustrative material including maps, paintings, and photographs throughout the book, many of which have not been published before. It comprises over forty individual chapters and case studies in which the work of academics and independent scholars is combined with that of poets and artists to provide a wide range of perspectives on Skelligs' distinctive character - both natural and human - during different periods. The aim of the editors is to produce a well-informed, accessible, highly readable, and generously illustrated volume that succeeds in conveying a true sense of the cultural richness and complexity of these remarkable islands. The blend of text and images is an important part of the book, making it both suitable for the general reader and a wide range of teaching programmes.

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Book SynopsisA simply outstanding book' Astonishing' [A] rich treasure-trove of photographs of objects' The book truly is a delight, and is a book of the ancestors' in a very real sense.' Highly recommended.' - Sacred Hoop Magazine, March 2022 Stonehenge is one of the best known, but most misunderstood, monuments in the world. Contrary to common belief, it was not a static, unchanging structure built by shadowy figures or druids. Rather it represents the cumulative achievement of numerous generations who were woven into a complex and widespread network of cultural interactions, environmental change and belief systems. This publication, which accompanies the first exhibition about Stonehenge ever staged in London, uses the monument as a gateway to explore the communities and civilisations active at the time of its construction and beyond, between 4,000 and 1,000 BCE. Recent archaeological findings regarding the origin of Stonehenge's striking bluestones' have reignited interest in this ancient wonder, the people who built it and the beliefs they held. Through the iconic' structure, spectacular objects of precious and exotic material and more humble, personal objects, authors Duncan Garrow and Neil Wilkin examine the dramatic cultural and societal shifts that characterised the world of Stonehenge, including the introduction of farming and development of metalworking. Covering a period of thousands of years, the publication traces the appearance of the first monuments in the landscape of Britain around 4,000 BCE, the arrival of the bluestones from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire 1,000 years later, all the way up to a remarkable era of cross-Channel connectivity and trade between 1,500 and 800 BCE. Through a new study of the enigmatic and beautiful objects made and circulated during the age of Stonehenge, connections are charted in the shared religious practices and beliefs of communities from across Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. The presence of other stone and wooden circles hundreds of miles from Salisbury Plain including Seahenge, discovered on a beach in Norfolk in 1998 is further evidence of these shared ways of thinking. At a critical moment in the narrative of Stonehenge, around 2,500 BCE, the significance of the cosmos and the heavens expressed through the construction of stone circles and megalithic passage tombs began to wane and portable objects gained increasing importance. This key transformation is demonstrated by a highlight object from Germany: the Nebra Sky Disc, a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols believed to represent the sun, a crescent moon and the Pleiades constellation. More modest items found in tombs, burials and settlements are no less important in shedding light on the development of ideas relating to identity, religious practices, and relationships between the living and dead. Monuments such as Stonehenge cannot be understood in isolation. Stonehenge was not always a static, monolithic structure: over generations it was adapted and added to by communities that changed and developed the landscape on which it still stands today.Table of ContentsIntroduction – introduces the connections between people and nature, people and the heavens above, and between different peoples. Explores the relevance of Stonehenge and other stone circles to the wider world at the time. 1. Working with Nature – before Stonehenge; the first farmers; grave goods and belief 2. Sermons in Stone – major developments at Stonehenge and the surrounding landscape c. 3,000–2,500 BCE; other sites in Britain and Ireland; artistic expression 3. Under One Sky – the relationship of Stonehenge to the sun; the sun, moon and the cosmos 4. New Horizons: People and Pilgrims – modifications at and the significance of Stonehenge c. 2,500–2,000 BCE; new burial traditions; 5. Facing the Ocean: Cosmological Travellers – transformation around and across the Stonehenge landscape; cross-Channel connections; metalwork and its links to the natural world; economic and social change at the end of the early metal age. Conclusion – highlights the need to consider ‘iconic’ monuments and objects within a broader context to counter the narrative that Stonehenge can be understood in isolation. Bibliography Credits Index

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Book Synopsis'A lyrical meditation on landscapes and cities, vivid reportage and a memoir. And also a beautifully realised and moving read.' Financial Times'A beguiling mix of history, geology, folklore and memoir that captivated me from the first page.' Lara Maiklem, author of Mudlarking'Tom Chivers brings a poet's sensibility to this book about the hidden parts of the capital, mixing the past with the present, the known with the unknown and his personal story with social history and geology.' Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, OtherWhat secrets lie beneath a city?Tom Chivers follows hidden pathways, explores lost islands and uncovers the geological mysteries that burst up through the pavement and bubble to the surface of our streets. From Roman ruins to a submerged playhouse, from an abandoned Tube station to underground rivers, Chivers leads us on a journey into the depths of the city he loves.A lyrical interrogation of a capital city, a landscape and our connection to place, London Clay celebrates urban edgelands: in-between spaces where the natural world and the metropolis collide. Through a combination of historical research, vivid reportage and personal memoir, it will transform how you see London, and cities everywhere.'Tom Chivers, with the forensic eye of an investigator, the soul of a poet, is an engaging presence; a guide we would do well to follow.' Iain Sinclair, author of The Last LondonTrade ReviewWill open readers' eyes to what is around and below them ... Its delight in exploration is matched by a thoughtful meditation on grief. * Economist *Periodic surprises even for the most dedicated student of this subject ... movingly written. -- Caroline Crampton * Spectator *Incredible ... More than a simply a cracking read, it's a book that will inspire you to go out and make your own discoveries. You'll never look at the city in the same way again. * Londonist *London Clay by Tom Chivers, is perfect. He brings a poet's sensibility to this prose nonfiction book about the hidden parts of the capital, mixing the past with the present, the known with the unknown and his personal story with social history and geology. -- Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other[Chivers] combines the modern phenomenon of psycho-geographer with the ancient trade of poet ...Action-packed, erudite... an audiobook to savour slowly. -- Christina Hardyment * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''A beautiful, beautiful book . . . archaeology is changing so much about the way we view the so-called Dark Ages [Williams] is just brilliant at bringing them to light'' Rory Stewart on The Rest is PoliticsFrom the bestselling author of Viking Britain, a new epic history of our forgotten past.As Tolkien knew, Britain in the Dark Ages' was a mosaic of little kingdoms. Many of them fell by the wayside. Some vanished without a trace. Others have stories that can be told.ELMET. HWICCE. LINDSEY. DUMNONIA. ESSEX. RHEGED. POWYS. SUSSEX. FORTRIU.In Lost Realms, Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain, uncovers the forgotten origins and untimely demise of nine kingdoms that hover in the twilight between history and fable, whose stories hum with saints and gods and miracles, with giants and battles and the ruin of cities. Why did some realms like Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and Gwynedd prosper while these nine fell?From the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish coastline, from the Trade Review PRAISE FOR LOST REALMS ‘Sceptical, scrupulous, written with wit and flair’Financial Times ‘This brilliant history of Dark Age Britain mixes serious scholarship with nods to pop culture, from Tolkien to The Wicker Man… Lost Realms is a joy to read’The Telegraph, FIVE STAR REVIEW ‘Williams makes a compelling guide as he steers us through the darkness’ Spectator ‘Williams has a fine command of the literary, administrative, religious and archaeological sources of early medieval Britain. He is a diligent scholar and a likeable writer’ Sunday Times ‘Rich and captivating’ TLS ‘The book is beautifully written, pushing at the very limits of our ability to understand the early medieval world’ British Archaeology ‘In recovering what he can of the near-vanished histories of Britain’s lost realms, Williams has done an admirable job, evoking the spirit of an age that was both chaotic and creative, from the ferment of which England and ultimately Britain emerged. It is a gift indeed to be reminded that Dumnonia, Lindsey, Fortriu, Hwicce, Elmet and Rheged – faint ghosts of places though they may now seem – made their own contributions to what we are today’ Literary Review 'Thomas Williams has blended a potent brew of mythic and material fragments to raise forgotten kings & queens (and their stories) from the grave. An historian not afraid of the dark and with eyes adapted to it – what he sees is assessed sagely and described beautifully'Christopher Hadley, author of Hollow Places

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2024 Richard Jefferies Award for nature writing Shortlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation A Times Science Book of the Year Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.' Chris Packham

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Book SynopsisIn the desert sands of southern Jordan lies a once-hidden conflict landscape along the Hejaz Railway. Built at the beginning of the twentieth-century, this narrow-gauge 1,320 km track stretched from Damascus to Medina and served to facilitate participation in the annual Muslim Hajj to Mecca. The discovery and archaeological investigation of an unknown landscape of insurgency and counter-insurgency along this route tells a different story of the origins of modern guerrilla warfare, the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, Emir Feisal, and Bedouin warriors, and the dramatic events of the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. Ten years of research in this prehistoric terrain has revealed sites lost for almost 100 years: vast campsites occupied by railway builders; Ottoman Turkish machine-gun redoubts; Rolls Royce Armoured Car raiding camps; an ephemeral Royal Air Force desert aerodrome; as well as the actual site of the Hallat Ammar railway ambush. This unique and richly illustrated account from Nicholas Saunders tells, in intimate detail, the story of a seminal episode of the First World War and the reshaping of the Middle East that followed.Trade ReviewDesert Insurgency is a well-written and lavishly illustrated volume that describes the surveys and excavations of the Great Arab Revolt Project * Benjamin Adam Saidel, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies *This painstakingly detailed and richly illustrated book explores the interface between history, archaeology, and anthropology in one marginal desert area of southern Jordan. * A. Rassam, CHOICE *Table of ContentsMaps 1: Introduction 2: Into the Ghost-Land 3: Archaeology, Material Worlds, and the Arab Revolt 4: The Hejaz Railway: Faith, Conflict, and Afterlife 5: Guerillas and the 'Sultan's Mule' 6: Conflict on Jebel Sherra: Ma'an to the Blockhouse 7: 'Belly of the Beast': Abdullah's Fort to Batn al-Ghoul 8: Forts, Stations, and Ancestors: Wadi Rutm to Tel Shahm 9: Concealment, Raiding, and Ambush: Tooth Hill to Hallat Ammar 10: Beyond the Railway Timeline of Major Events on the Hejaz Railway Between Ma'an to Mudawwara, 1900-2018 Gazeteer

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic - from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta - offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation.Trade ReviewThe Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe represents an important contribution to world literature. * Jaromír Bene and Tereza Majerovicová, IANSA: Interdisciplinaria archaeologica *The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe is a great scholarly achievement and a valuable offering essential to everyone interested in the archaeology of the European Neolithic. * Evita Kalogiropoulou, European Journal of Archaeology *Table of ContentsPart I: Introduction 1: Chris Fowler, Jan Harding, and Daniela Hofmann: Defining the 'Neolithic in Europe': Diverse and Contemporaneous Communities, c. 6500-2500 BC Part II: Mobility, Change, and Interaction at the Large Scale 2: Tony Brown, Geoff Bailey, and Dave Passmore: Environments and Landscape Change Movement of Plants, Animals, Ideas, and People 3: Joannes Müller: South-East Europe 4: Jean Guilaine: The Neolithization of Mediterranean Europe: Mobility and Interactions from the Near East to the Iberian Peninsula 5: Wolfram Schier: Central and Eastern Europe 6: Anne Tresset: Moving Animals and Plants in the Early Neolithic of North-Western Europe 7: Stephen Shennan: Language, Genes, and Cultural Interaction Sequences of Cultural Interaction and Cultural Change 8: John Chapman: South-East Europe 9: Caroline Malone: The Neolithic in Mediterranean Europe 10: Detlef Gronenborn and Pavel Dolukhanov DR: Central and Eastern Europe 11: Nick Thorpe: Northern and Western Europe Part III: Neolithic Worlds and Neolithic Lifeways Houses, Habitation, and Community 12: Pál Raczky: Tells and Settlements in South-East Europe 13: Demetra Papaconstantinou: Domestic Space in the Mediterranean 14: Jonathan Last: Longhouse Lifestyles in the Central European Neolithic 15: Francesco Menotti: Lakeside Dwellings of the Circum-Alpine Region 16: Anick Coudart: Households and Communities in Neolithic France 17: Kenneth Brophy: Houses, Halls, and Occuptation in Britain and Ireland 18: Mats Larsson: Places of Settlement in Southern Scandanavia Subsistence and Social Routine 19: Rich Schulting: Stable Isotopes and Neolithic Subsistence: Pattern and Variation 20: Amy Bogaard: Subsistence Practices and Social Routine in Neolithic Southern Europe 21: László Bartosiewicz and Malcolm Lillie: Subsistence Practices in Central and Eastern Europe 22: Tony Legge DR and Peter Rowley-Conwy: Subsistence Practices in Western and Northern Europe 23: Dimitrij Mleku%z: The Neolithic Year 24: Roy Loveday: Religious Routine and Pilgrimage in the British Isles Materiality and Social Relations 25: Marjorie de Grooth: Invention and European Knapping Traditions 26: Pedro Díaz-del-Río and Mara Capote: Shared Labour and Large Scale Action: European Flint Mining 27: Gabriel Cooney: Stone and Flint Axes in Neolithic Europe 28: Mihael Budja: Pottery of South-East Europe 29: Joachim Pechtl: Linearbandkeramik Pottery and Society 30: Rick Peterson and Johannes Müller: Ceramics and Society in Northern Europe 31: Marc Vander Linden: Bell Beaker Pottery and Society 32: Stratos Nanoglou: A Miniature World: Models and Figurines in South-East Europe 33: John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska: Spondylus and Shell Ornaments 34: Tony Axelsson, Morten Ramstad, and Anders Strinnholm: Amber 35: Volker Heyd and Katherine Walker: The First Metalwork and Expressions of Social Power 36: Mark Pearce and Martin Bartelheim: Early Metallurgy in Iberia and the Western Mediterranean 37: Ben Roberts and Catherine Frieman: Early Metallurgy in Western and Northern Europe 38: Duncan Garrow: Deposition in Pits 39: Arkadiusz Marciniak and Joshua Pollard: Animals and Social Relations Monuments, Rock Art, and Cosmology 40: Jörg Petrasch: Central European Enclosures 41: Robin Skeates: Italian Enclosures 42: Niels Andersen: Causewayed Enclosures in Northern and Western Europe 43: Vicki Cummings, Magdalena Midgeley DR, and Chris Scarre: Chambered Tombs and Passage Graves of Northern and Western Europe 44: Sara Fairen-Jiminez: Rock Carvings in Iberia 45: Angelo Fossati: Rock Carvings in South Central Europe 46: Andrew Cochrane, Andrew Jones, and Kalle Sognnes: Rock Carvings in Northern Europe 47: Robin Skeates: Underground Religion in the Central Mediterranean Neolithic 48: Michael Hoskin: A Place in the Cosmos: Monuments and Celestial Bodies Death, Bodies, and Persons 49: Du%san Bori'c: Mortuary Practices, Bodies, and Persons in the Neolithic and Early-Middle Copper Ages of South-East Europe 50: John Robb: Burial and Human Body Representations in the Central Mediterranean Neolithic 51: Daniela Hofmann and Jörg Orschiedt: Mortuary Practices, Bodies, and Persons in Central Europe 52: Karl-Göran Sjögren: Mortuary Practices, Bodies, and Persons in North-East Europe 53: Chris Fowler and Chris Scarre: Mortuary Practices and Bodily Representations in North-West Europe Part IV: Conclusion: Debates in Neolithic Archaeology 54: Alasdair Whittle: Unexpected Histories? South-East and Central Europe 55: Julian Thomas: What Do We Mean By 'Neolithic Societies'? 56: Kristian Kristiansen: The Decline of the Neolithic and the Rise of the Bronze Age Society

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Book SynopsisMatthew Edgeworth is Research Associate and Project Officer, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester.Trade ReviewBeyond dams and diversions, the author extends the cultural dimension of watercourses to take in their more ethereal property of 'flow' ... a thought-provoking thesis on a very wide-ranging subject, which deserves much greater consideration. -- Stuart Nisbet, University of Glasgow…this is an ambitious book with a big argument.[…]Commendably, Edgeworth uses the theoretical literature and theoretical perspectives critically yet effectively, i.e., actor-network theory, symmetrical archaeology, phenomenology, etc., both to think through the case studies and to support his broader argument about the utility of the concept of flow. -- Cecelia Feldman Weiss, University of Massachusetts Amherst * The New England Classical Journal *

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Book SynopsisA ‘user-friendly’ and up-to-date investigation of Welsh Iron Age communities, incorporating new and exciting discoveriesTrade Review"Ray’s lectures and field trips, when he and I were colleagues at Newport, were always entertaining as well as scholarly, a happy combination that hooked students from all kinds of backgrounds. His book, crammed with knowledge and peppered with trenchant, often hilarious anecdotes, exemplifies this approach." -- Miranda Aldhouse Green * Current Archaeology Magazine *

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Book SynopsisDroving has been hugely important in shaping farming practice across Northumberland for 1,000 years or more. The necessity of transporting sheep and cattle has changed the landscape, and developed the roads and buildings and at one time, animals would be herded from as far a field as Scotland and Ireland. Today the scene is very different but the legacy of the drovers can still be seen and enjoyed all over the region. Local archaeologists Ian Roberts, Alan Rushworth and Richard Carlton have been determined to preserve this history on behalf of the Northumberland National Park Authority. Following the development of droving in Northumberland from prehistoric times, through Middle Ages, the eighteenth century and right up to date, they offer the definitive history of this significant activity.

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Book SynopsisThe history of 12,000 years of the British landscape, from the Ice Age to the twenty-first century, by prizewinning author Nicholas Crane, co-presenter of COAST.Trade Review'Ambitious, magnificent . . . Crane is excellent at describing climate, geology and shifting shorelines, but is at his best when plaiting together earth-shaping events with humankind and civilisation' -- Andrea Wulf * Guardian *'Pungent, dramatic and drawing deeply on recent research . . . a geographer's love letter to the British and the land that formed them - and which they transformed over many millennia of creative labour. As such, it is dramatic, lyrical and even inspiring, and given all those rocks, remarkably readable' -- James McConnachie * SUNDAY TIMES *'This is a magnificent, epic work by a national treasure . . . Nothing escapes his eye . . . and the sweep of history, brought to life in superb prose, is oddly moving. A tour de force' -- Bel Mooney * DAILY MAIL *'Crane's book earns its place in the pantheon and it will hopefully inspire a passion for our landscapes in a new generation of readers' -- Richard J Mayhew * LITERARY REVIEW *'The book I admired most was Nicholas Crane's The Making of the British Landscape as panoramic as it is revelatory' -- Tom Holland * OBSERVER Books of the Year *'The book I want most for Christmas is the satisfyingly hefty The Making of the British Landscape by the ever reliable Nicholas Crane' -- Bill Bryson * OBSERVER Books of the Year *'Crane provides a masterful account of how landscapes were settled and shaped' * THE NATIONAL *'A definitive, encyclopaedic read and an evocative paean to the evolution of our scenery by the vastly knowledgeable BBC presenter, Nick Crane. A revealing glimpse of the Britain that once was and how we made it the place it is today' * BBC COUNTRYFILE *'Nicholas Crane's sweeping The Making of the British Landscape shows how fragile are the views we love best, and how critical it is to guard them' -- Simon Jenkins * EVENING STANDARD *'This is his greatest work for those curious to understand the geographical layers that have shaped Great Britain. From diminishing ice to the peak of our London urban Shard, Crane has captured the chronology of change of our landscapes, full of facts, imagination and archaeology' -- Nigel Winser * GEOGRAPHICAL *

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Book SynopsisThis is an inter-disciplinary study of pathways to regional rulership and territorial lordship in early post-Roman Britain which takes as its starting point the East Anglian royal centre at Rendlesham and its contexts.This book examines the origins and development of the East Anglian kingdom in the fifth to eighth centuries AD through the lens of the elite settlement complex at Rendlesham, Suffolk using an interdisciplinary approach involving field survey, landscape history, excavation and metal-detecting finds. It also examines the wider regional context and proposes a new narrative of kingdom formation.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[Somerville's] infectious enthusiasm and wry humour infuse his journey from the Isle of Lewis to southern England, revealing our rich geological history with vibrant local and natural history. * Observer *For someone who hated geology lessons at school, barely able to stay awake during discussions of laminated rhyolites and tuffaceous breccias, Christopher Somerville has made up for this with aplomb and vivid readability. To have tramped more than 1,000 miles from the sea stacks of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, where in fiery days gone by more than 3,000 million years ago the landscape was literally set in stone, and reach the silty clay of Wallasea Island in Essex is a remarkable achievement. By focusing on the best bits of geological interest along the way such as Arthur's Seat in once volcanic Edinburgh, the sandstone crags of the Pennine Way and the chalky Chilterns, he provides an illuminating new take on the British landscape. Encounters, warm humour, history and plenty of geology (Carboniferous periods, Permian periods, Zechstein Seas, no less) carry you down the winding tracks. -- Tom Chesshyre, author of Lost in the LakesRambling alongside the tirelessly energetic Christopher Somerville from the comfort of my armchair is a joy. In Walking the Bones Someville is the perfect travelling companion. Knowledgeable and observant, he picks up the stories of the paths he walks along in much the same way as he illuminates the stones which are under his feet, holding them up for us to see, and then returning them to the path, for the next curious traveller to find. A meticulous exploration of the ground beneath our feet. Glorious." -- Katherine Norbury, author of The Fish Ladder and Women on NatureAn ideal gift for any walking enthusiast who wants to know more. -- Patrick Corbett * Geoscientist magazine *Walking the Bones of Britain demystifies our daunting geology on a nine-month journey laced with humour and history. -- Roger Butler * The Great Outdoors *

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Book SynopsisThis descriptive report on the 1975 archaeological excavations at Cowboy Cave, an Archaic site located in Wayne County, Utah, provides relevant comparative and interpretive comments by a number of authors.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisPrehistoric Man in Palliser Bay presents, in 14 papers by 9 authors, the results of a pioneering, multifaceted, archaeological research programme carried out between 1969 and 1972 in the south-eastern coastal part of the North Island of New Zealand.

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Book SynopsisThis Element highlights the employment within archaeology of classification methods developed in the field of chemometrics, artificial intelligence, and Bayesian statistics. These run in both high- and low-dimensional environments and often have better results than traditional methods. Instead of a theoretical approach, it provides examples of how to apply these methods to real data using lithic and ceramic archaeological materials as case studies. A detailed explanation of how to process data in R (The R Project for Statistical Computing), as well as the respective code, are also provided in this Element.

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Book SynopsisTaking a broad geographical, temporal, and cross-disciplinary approach, this volume explores new and innovative research which focuses on rivers and waterways from across the Roman world.Rivers and Waterways in the Roman World brings together cross-disciplinary chapters focussing on theoretical approaches, new digital and scientific methods and analytical techniques, and related surveying and excavation case studies to examine the Romans'' extensive use of rivers and inland waterways around the Empire. Roman seafaring is well studied, but this book expands our knowledge of Roman transport, communication, and trade networks inland. The book highlights the challenges of archaeological work in the dynamic environments of rivers and waterways and showcases the use of new methodologies, including the increasing availability and accessibility of digital technologies that have led to a growth in the development and application of new archaeological and analytical techniquesTable of ContentsPart One: General; 1. The Archaeology of Rivers: Processes and Patterns; 2. New Approaches to Roman River Finds; 3. Geoarchaeology and Archaeology of Navigable Canals in River Deltas During the Roman Period: Technical, Methodological and Conceptual Approaches; Part Two: Mediterranean Region; 4. One City, Two Tibers? Reintegrating the Supply Networks of Imperial Rome; 5. Understanding the Cultural Landscape of the Stella River Through Underwater Archaeology; 6. ‘Carrying Up It All The Products Of The Seas’; 7. The River Ljubljanica: Evidence for the Change in Celtic Cult Practices Between the Late Iron Age and the Early Roman Period; 8. The Nile: A Maritime Pacemaker in Roman Egypt; Part Three: Northern Europe and Britain; 9. River Finds from the Netherlands: An Overview; 10. Nodes and Networks: Military and Civilian Trade and Transport in the Roman Dutch Southwest Delta; 11. Roman Waters? Military Usage of Waterways in 1st Century Scotland; 12. Waterways and Community Identities in Early Roman Sussex: A Multiscalar and Multivariate Approach; 13. Back and Forth: Roman River Crossings at Stirling, Scotland and Their Impact on Native Settlement; 14. Do Rivers Make Good Frontiers? Environmental Change and Military Policy Along the Roman Rhine; 15. Rivers and Walls: The Materiality of Roman Frontier Waterscapes on Hadrian’s Wall and the Lower Danube

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Book SynopsisRock art in South America is as diverse as the continent itself. In this vast territory, different peoples produced engravings, paintings, and massive earthworks, from the Atacama to the Amazon. These marks on the landscape were made by all different kinds of peoples, from some of the earliest hunter-gatherers in the continent, to the very complex societies within the Inca Empire. This book brings together the work of specialists from throughout the continent, addressing this diversity, as well as the variety of approaches that the Archaeology of rock art has taken in South America. Constructed of eleven thought-provoking chapters and arranged in three thematic sections, the book presents different theoretical approaches that are currently being used to understand the roles rock art played in prehistoric communities. The editors have skillfully crafted a book that presents the contribution the study of South American rock art can offer to the global research of this materialiTable of Contents1. Contemporary approaches to rock art in South America: introductory remarks; 2. The materiality of rock art. Image-making technology and economy viewed from Patagonia; 3. Rock art and technology. A spatio-temporal proposal from the upper basin of the Limari river, north central Chile; 4. Rock art in the construction of landscape, Parguaza river basin, Venezuela; 5. Memory in the stone. Rock art landscape at Cerro Colorado as a negotiation space for social memory; 6. Signs in the desert: geoglyphs as cultural system and ideology (northern Chile); 7. Capivara (north-east Brazil) and the Limari Basin (Chile): a semiotic tale of two rock art landscapes; 8. Exploring rock paintings, engravings and geoglyphs of the Atacama Desert through materiality, style, and agency; 9. Hunting scenes in Cueva de las Manos: style, content, and chronology (Rio Pinturas, Santa Cruz, Patagonia); 10. Rock art assemblages in north central Chile: materials and practices through history; 11. Ethnogeology of rock art? Some considerations derived from Amazonianist ethnographies

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Book SynopsisThe future of humanity is urban, and knowledge of urbanism's deep past is critical for us all to navigate that future. The time has come for archaeologists to rethink this global phenomenon by asking what urbanism is and, more to the point, was. Can we truly understand ancient urbanism by only asking after the human element, or are the properties and qualities of landscapes, materials, and atmospheres equally causal? The nine authors of New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms seek less anthropocentric answers to questions about the historical relationships between urbanism and humanity in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They analyze the movements and flows of materials, things, phenomena, and beingshuman and otherwiseas these were assembled to produce the kinds of complex, dense, and stratified relationships that we today label urban. In so doing, the book emerges as a work of both theory and historical anthropology. It breaks new ground in the archaeology of urbanisTrade Review"The writers have produced an outstanding overview of the flow of antiquities, moving from the source of the looting or excavation, through transit states, and culminating in museums, showrooms, and private collections. This book stands as an excellent summary of the work being done on this illicit trade, and will be an invaluable resource for those familiar with the subject, and for those new to it." - Prof. Derek Fincham, South Texas College of Law Houston, USA"This fascinating book will become the go-to resource on the global market in illicit antiquities. The authors’ in-depth investigations into this devastating global crime problem highlight the importance of collecting and analysing evidence to counter the justifications that can exist in the often grey worlds that thrive around illicit antiquities. Highly accessible, the book engages with theory, research methods and international policy in a manner that provides a valuable counterpoint to much work on the area that is based on conjecture. In presenting their hugely significant Trafficking Culture research, the authors also promote an important future policy approach. The book will inspire future research into the global market in illicit antiquities and serve as an example of how it should be undertaken." - John Kerr, University of Roehampton, UK"Inspired by Deleuzian and other realist philosophies, this provocative book synthesizes New Materialist theories and relational approaches to tackle a mainstay of traditional archaeological research, urbanism and city life in ancient societies. The authors demonstrate that cities defy reduction to essentialized types but must be understood as dense but fluid assemblages of peoples, infrastructures, substances, formless matter, phenomena and objects. The case studies, ranging from across the globe, reveal the fundamental importance of ontology and religion to urban historical process, one mediated by diverse assemblages of non-human entities. The edited volume presents a radically new approach to the analysis of urbanism that stands to revolutionize archaeological approaches to ancient landscapes." - Edward Swenson, University of Toronto, CanadaTable of Contents1. Introducing New Materialisms, Rethinking Ancient Urbanisms; 2. From Weeping Hills to Lost Caves: A Search for Vibrant Matter in Greater Cahokia; 3. Chaco Gathers: Experience and Assemblage in the Ancient Southwest; 4. Assembling the City: Monte Albán as a Mountain of Creation and Sustenance; 5. Assembling Tiwanaku: Water and Stone, Humans and Monoliths; 6. Immanence and the Spirit of Ancient Urbanism at Paquimé and Liangzhu; 7. The Gathering of Swahili Religious Practice: Mosques-as-Assemblages at 1000 CE Swahili Towns; 8. Urbanism and the Temporality of Materiality on the Medieval Deccan: Beyond the Cosmograms of Social and Political Space; 9. Cities, the Underworld, and the Infrastructure: The Ecology of Water in the Hittite World; 10. Commentary: The City and the City

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the transitional period of the late Republic to the early Principate, Trees in Ancient Rome offers a sustained examination of the deployment of trees in the ancient city, exploring not only the practicalities of their cultivation, but also their symbolic value. The Ruminal fig tree sheltered the she-wolf as she nursed Romulus and Remus and year's later Rome was founded between two groves. As the city grew, neighbourhoods bore the names of groves and hills were known by the trees which grew atop them. From the 1st century BCE, triumphs included trees among their spoils and Rome's green cityscape grew, as did the challenges of finding room for trees within the congested city.This volume begins with an examination of the role of trees as repositories of human memory, lasting for several generations. It goes on to untangle the import of trees, and their role in the triumphal procession, before closing with a discussion of how trees could be grown in Rome's urban spaces. Trade ReviewThe Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder noted that trees were the source of more benefits to humankind than any other part or aspect of nature. This volume offers an in depth discussion of the fundamental importance of trees to the cultural fabric of ancient Rome. -- Annette Giesecke, Victoria University of Wellington, New ZealandTable of Contents1. Trees in Urban Spaces: An Introduction 2. Memory and Trees 3. Bringing Trees to Rome 4. Trees in the Triumph 5. Keeping Trees in the City 6. A New Leaf Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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