Landscape archaeology Books

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisA BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. 'Francis Pryor brings the magic of the Fens to life in a deeply personal and utterly enthralling way' TONY ROBINSON. 'Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' GUARDIAN. Inland from the Wash, on England's eastern cost, crisscrossed by substantial rivers and punctuated by soaring church spires, are the low-lying, marshy and mysterious Fens. Formed by marine and freshwater flooding, and historically wealthy owing to the fertility of their soils, the Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are one of the most distinctive, neglected and extraordinary regions of England. Francis Pryor has the most intimate of connections with this landscape. For some forty years he has dug its soils as a working archaeologist – making ground-breaking discoveries about the nature of prehistoric settlement in the area – and raising sheep in the flower-growing country between Spalding and Wisbech. In The Fens, he counterpoints the history of the Fenland landscape and its transformation – from Bronze age field systems to Iron Age hillforts; from the rise of prosperous towns such as King's Lynn, Ely and Cambridge to the ambitious drainage projects that created the Old and New Bedford Rivers – with the story of his own discovery of it as an archaeologist. Affectionate, richly informative and deftly executed, The Fens weaves together strands of archaeology, history and personal experience into a satisfying narrative portrait of a complex and threatened landscape.Trade ReviewFrancis Pryor traces the area's history and his own relationship with it, which stretches back more than 40 years * Radio Times *A fascinating account of a complex landscape by archaeologist Francis Pryor who has dug and worked its soil for almost 40 years. Weaving together strands of archaeology, history and personal experience, he paints an intimate portrait of the East of England's marshy and mysterious Fens * East Anglian Daily Times *[Francis Pryor's] enthusiasm is infectious, whether he's glimpsing Ely cathedral from a train, coming across John Clare's grave or counting the bricks of Tattershall Castle * Spectator *An elegant account of a region that, as [Francis Pryor] puts it, "has inhabited my soul" * History Revealed *Pryor always writes well and entertainingly, and in The Fens he has created what should become one of his most lasting works, a personal, archaeological celebration of a region where he has family roots and where he conducted a lifetime's fieldwork * British Archaeology *A heartfelt love story to the fens: a testament to their deep past as well as a concern for their ecological future * BBC Countryfile *Literally hands-on history – a deeply felt discovery of half a million underestimated acres from Lincolnshire to Suffolk... The Fens retains much of its brooding, enigmatic character and those who wish to understand its unique importance can now call on an articulate and avuncular guide' * Country Life *[Francis Pryor] interweaves his own personal experiences, the graft and grime of the dig and lyrical evocations of place, offering a unique portrait of a sometimes neglected but remarkable area of England * Countryside *A wonderful journey into the history and archaeology of an East Anglian landscape * Eastern Daily Press Norfolk. *An immersive journey through the landscape, saturated with local history and personal insight... It will inspire you to explore the locations on foot' * Country Walking. *Part history, part memoir, it brings the riches of the Fens to the surface and shines a light on this much misunderstood corner of the country * Waterways World *Extremely erudite, with a deep love for and understanding of the flat landscapes of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire (where he has lived for many years), this is the bronze and iron ages brought vividly to life -- Jo Henry, BookBrunch

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn invigorating journey through Britain's prehistoric landscape, and an insight into the lives of its inhabitants. 'Highly compelling' Spectator, Books of the Year 'An evocative foray into the prehistoric past' BBC Countryfile Magazine 'Vividly relating what life was like in pre-Roman Britain' Choice Magazine 'Makes life in Britain BC often sound rather more appealing than the frenetic and anxious 21st century!' Daily Mail In Scenes from Prehistoric Life, the distinguished archaeologist Francis Pryor paints a vivid picture of British and Irish prehistory, from the Old Stone Age (about one million years ago) to the arrival of the Romans in AD 43, in a sequence of fifteen profiles of ancient landscapes. Whether writing about the early human family who trod the estuarine muds of Happisburgh in Norfolk c.900,000 BC, the craftsmen who built a wooden trackway in the Somerset Levels early in the fourth millennium BC, or the Iron Age denizens of Britain's first towns, Pryor uses excavations and surveys to uncover the daily routines of our ancient ancestors. By revealing how our prehistoric forebears coped with both simple practical problems and more existential challenges, Francis Pryor offers remarkable insights into the long and unrecorded centuries of our early history, and a convincing, well-attested and movingly human portrait of prehistoric life as it was really lived.Trade ReviewDecades worth of communicating archaeology on TV and a recent foray into crime fiction writing help make this book a highly compelling read * Spectator *An evocative foray into the prehistoric past... Pryor recreates [the prehistoric world] with an effortless narrative style' * BBC Countryfile Magazine *Brings almost impossibly distant times into brilliant focus * Eastern Daily Press Norfolk *Pryor's colourful book makes life in Britain BC often sound rather more appealing than the frenetic and anxious 21st century! * Daily Mail *Vividly relating what life was like in pre-Roman Britain * Choice Magazine *Our prehistoric cousins lie on the other side of a vast expanse of time... Francis Pryor bridges that gap, showing how excavation and analysis can bring their stories to life. Of course, the gap between us and them is matched by the prehistoric era's epic sweep, and Pryor charts the changes witnessed across that time' * BBC History Magazine *Francis Pryor is always good value... He cherrypicks the most interesting recent discoveries about Britain's past before the Romans' * Spectator, Books of the Year *Archaeologists, enthusiasts, and novices alike can turn the page and enter scenes from prehistory, learning what it meant to live in and experience the past * The Past *Such personal insights, alongside the fascinating and wonderfully detailed archaeological narrative, make this book an essential – and hugely enjoyable – read for any enthusiast of British prehistory with an interest in how and why our landscape appears as it does today * Archaeology Worldwide *

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe bestselling author of The King in the North turns his attention to the obscure era of British history known as 'the age of Arthur'. 'Not just a valuable book, but a distinctive one as well' Tom Holland, Sunday Times 'An accessible and illuminating book' Gerard de Groot, The Times 'A fascinating picture of Britain's new-found independence' This England Somewhere between the departure of the Roman legions in the early fifth century and the arrival of Augustine's Christian mission at the end of the sixth, the kingdoms of Early Medieval Britain were formed. But by whom? And out of what? The First Kingdom is a skilfully wrought investigation of this mysterious epoch, synthesizing archaeological research carried out over the last forty years to tease out reality from the myth. Max Adams presents an image of post-Roman Britain whose resolution is high enough to show the emergence of distinct political structures in the sixth century – polities that survive long enough to be embedded in the medieval landscape, recorded in the lines of river, road and watershed, and memorialized in place names.Trade ReviewNot just a valuable book, but a distinctive one as well -- Tom Holland, Sunday TimesAn engagingly written exploration of these 'fragments', synthesising archaeological and historical research from the last four decades, and applying a critical eye to traditional narratives passed down by medieval chroniclers and later accounts * Current World Archaeology *A remarkable tapestry in which are woven the diverse threads of archaeology, topography, folklore, linguistics, and culture to create a panorama of Early Medieval Britain and its place in the context of European history -- Seán Beattie, Donegal Annual'A worthy synthesis of what little we know' Gerard de Groot, The Times. -- Gerard de Groot, The TimesA fascinating picture of Britain's new-found independence * This England *He writes with empathy and sensitivity in this distinctive and valuable book * Sunday Times *

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

Book SynopsisArchaeology isn’t just for academics and television presenters – it’s for everyone. And it is all around us. Get your boots on and explore Britain’s national and local archaeology sites for yourself with this revised and updated, easy-to-read, fully illustrated guide.Follow our islands’ history in this step-by-step introduction. Discover what life was like from the earliest days of human habitation right through to the world wars. Then get out to visit the best sites and see what features each era left behind for us to find – and find out how to spot archaeology for yourself in the most surprising places.Be warned: you may never look at an empty field, a stone monument or an old building in the same way again!

Read more less

Book SynopsisDeep in the heart of North Yorkshire, at a place called Walkington Wold, there lies a rather unusual burial ground, an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery. Twelve skeletons were unearthed by archaeologists, ten without skulls, later examination of the skeletons revealed that their owners were all subjected to judicial execution by decapitation, one of which required several blows. Similar fates have befallen other wretched souls, the undignified burial of suicides - in the Middle Ages, the most profound of sins - and the desecration of their bodies, go largely unrecorded. While plague pits, vast cemeteries where victims of the Black Death were tossed into the ground, their bodies festering one on top of another, are only today betraying their secrets. Although unpalatable to some, these burial grounds are an important part of our social heritage. They have been fashioned as much by the people who founded and used them, as by the buildings, gravestones and other features which they contain. They are records of social change; the symbols engraved upon individual memorials convey a sense of inherent belief systems, as they were constructed, adapted or abandoned depending on people's needs. Burying the Dead explores how these attitudes, practices and beliefs about death have undergone continual change. By studying the development of society's funerary spaces, the author reveals how we continue to reinforce our relationships with the dead, in a constant and ongoing effort to maintain a bond with them.Deep in the heart of North Yorkshire, at a place called Walkington Wold, there lies a rather unusual burial ground, an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery. AUTHOR: Lorraine Evans is an Archaeologist and Death Historian, specialising in mortality symbolism, funerary architecture and deviant burials. She is a successful author of a number of books, ranging from Ancient Egypt to World War One, and has worked on countless historical documentaries. Her research skills are often in demand as is her acclaimed photographic work, which has been exhibited all over the UK. 32 b/w illustrations

Read more less

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

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book charts and explains how human activities have shaped and altered the development of soils in many parts of the world, taking advantage of five decades of soil analytical work in many archaeological landscapes from around the globe. The core of this volume describes and illustrates major transformations of soils and the processes involved in these that have occurred during the Holocene and how these relate to human activities as much as natural causes and trajectories of development, right up to the present day. This is done in two ways: first by examining a number of major processes and impacts on the landscape such as Holocene warming and the development of woodland, clearance and agricultural activities, and second by examining the trajectories of these changes in soil systems in different palaeo-environmental situations in several diverse parts of the world. The transformations identified are relevant to prevalent themes of today such as over-development and soil, land and environmental degradation and resilience. The studies articulated relate to Britain, southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean basin, East Africa, northern India and Peru in South America.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Geoarchaeological approaches in archaeology 1.1 Endeavour 1.2 Development of the discipline of geoarchaeology as part of archaeological investigations 1.3 Importance to archaeology 2. Methodological approaches 2.1 Approaches in the field 2.1.1 Landscape to soil-scape 2.1.2 Soils and palaeosols 2.1.3 Formulating research designs 2.2 Basic characterisation techniques 2.2.1 Field prospection and soil/sediment profile description 2.2.2 pH and water quality 2.2.3 Loss-on ignition 2.2.4 Magnetic susceptibility 2.3 More involved techniques 2.3.1 Phosphorus (or phosphate) content 2.3.2 Multi-element analysis 2.3.3 Soil nutrient and fertility status 2.3.4 Micromorphology 2.3.5FTIR, XRF, EDAX, XRD and SEM 2.4 Establishing chronologies: Radiocarbon, OSL and Bayesian statistics 2.5 Scales of resolution 2.6 Soil nomenclature and classification 3. Soil transformation trajectories in temperate European landscapes 3.1 The beginnings to woodland soil development 3.2 Disturbance and degradation of woodland soils 3.3 Agricultural soil development 3.4 Woodland to pasture soils 3.5 Acidification and podzolisation 3.6 Erosion and colluviation 3.7 Alluviation, floodplains and waterlogging 3.8 Wetland soils 3.9 Cumulative soils 4. Soil transformation trajectories in southern Mediterranean landscape systems 4.1 Brown to red Mediterranean soils 4.2 Xeric calcitic soils and soil erosion 4.3 Erosion, alluviation and wadi development 5. Soil transformation trajectories in arid/semi-arid soil systems 5.1 Aridisols 5.2 Colluvial/alluvial systems 5.2.1 The Burj-Masadpur area of the Indus valley, northern India 5.2.2 The central Rio Puerco, New Mexico 5.2.3 The lower Ica valley, southern Peru 5.2.4 The Kerio-Embobut valleys in Marakwet, north-central Kenya 5.3 Terracing and irrigation 5.3.1 Aksum, northern Ethiopia 5.3.2 Konso, southern Ethiopia, 5.3.3 Engaruka, northern Tanzania 5.3.4 Sangayaico in the upper Ica valley, southern Peru 6. Timescales and longevity of soil processes 6.1 Timescales and longevity of soil properties 6.2 Soil horizonation and structural development 6.3 Within-soil illuviation and textural changes: stability, disturbance and erosion 7. Understanding long-term resilience in transformed soils Bibliography Appendices 1. Site gazeteer

Read more less

Book SynopsisPaisajes, espacios y materialidades: arqueología rural altomedieval en la península ibérica reúne una selección de los trabajos presentados tras la primera edición del EMCAM - Early Medieval Countryside Archaeological Meetings (Castelo de Vide, mayo 2019), organizado por el Instituto de Estudios Medievales (IEM – NOVA FCSH) y la Cámara Municipal de Castelo de Vide (Portugal). Las últimas décadas de trabajo de campo e investigación arqueológicas han demostrado la relevancia de los paisajes rurales para el análisis de los procesos de cambio tras la desarticulación de la estructura imperial romana. En este volumen, se reúnen las contribuciones de investigadores clave en la arqueología campesina altomedieval, especialmente en los territorios del cuadrante noroccidental de la Península, ofreciendo una imagen multiescalar de las principales líneas de investigación en curso. Los diferentes capítulos recogen reflexiones teóricas, enfoques metodológicos, estudios de colecciones cerámicas y aproximaciones a la bioantropología, antracología y carpología de diferentes yacimientos, ofreciendo contextos inéditos, revisiones críticas y síntesis regionales. Avanzar en la reconstrucción de los procesos históricos de las comunidades campesinas altomedievales requiere, simultáneamente, generar conocimiento detallado sobre yacimientos y territorios concretos y promover espacios de debate y reflexión que permitan dar continuidad a esas lecturas. Este libro tiene como objetivo hacer precisamente eso.Table of ContentsIntroducción (Sara PRATA, Fabián CUESTA-GÓMEZ y Catarina TENTE) ; PARTE I: REFLEXIONES TEÓRICAS Y METODOLÓGICAS ; 01: La diversidad de las formas de asentamiento rural en la Hispania post-romana y altomedieval: reflexiones y retos (Alfonso VIGIL-ESCALERA) ; 02: Nuevas líneas de investigación abiertas para el estudio de las comunidades rurales de la Alta Edad Media en la cornisa cantábrica (Pablo LÓPEZ GÓMEZ, Santiago RODRÍGUEZ PÉREZ, Margarita FERNÁNDEZ MIER) ; 03: Arqueología de los despoblados medievales y los lugares habitados en el País Vasco. Historias compartidas y puntos de inflexión (Juan Antonio QUIRÓS CASTILLO) ; PARTE II: TERRITORIOS EN TRANSICIÓN Y CREACIÓN DE NUEVOS PAISAJES ; 04: El mundo rural en el corazón de la Lusitania altomedieval. Variables e invariables en el caso de Egitania (ss. IV–VIII) (Tomás CORDERO RUIZ) ; 05: Las aldeas, protagonistas de la transformación del paisaje rural durante el period altomedieval en la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares (Madrid, España) (Fernando COLMENAREJO GARCÍA, Rosario GÓMEZ OSUNA, Elvira GARCÍA ARAGÓN, Alfonso POZUELO RUANO) ; 06: Farming and local economy in the early medieval countryside (Castelo de Vide, Portugal) (Sara PRATA, Fabián CUESTA-GÓMEZ) ; 07: Estructuras agrarias altomedievales: prensas, molinos de aceite y lagares (Yolanda PEÑA CERVANTES) ; 08: Agriculture, gathering, and food processing in the 10th century in central-north Portugal (Catarina TENTE, Luís SEABRA, João Pedro TERESO) ; 09: Paleobiology of early medieval populations from the northeast of Trás-os-Montes (Portugal) (Sofia TERESO) ; PARTE III: ALGUNOS CASOS DE ESTUDIO: ESPACIOS TRANSFORMADOS, NUEVOS ESPACIOS ; 10: El paisaje rural tardoantiguo y altomedieval en torno a la antigua villa romana de Balazote (Albacete, España): detección y primeras reflexiones (Julia SARABIA-BAUTISTA) ; 11: The fate of villae: the example of Horta da Torre (Fronteira) (André CARNEIRO) ; 12: Una nueva lectura del yacimiento tardo-antiguo de Vale da Bexiga: revisitando la investigación arqueológica en Castelo de Vide (1971–1997) (Fabián CUESTA-GÓMEZ, Sara PRATA, João MAGUSTO, Miguel NUNES, José REBELO) ; 13: Un asentamiento campesino en los confinesde la Meseta del Duero: El Pueblito (siglos VII–VIII) (Rubén RUBIO DÍEZ, Iñaki MARTÍN VISO, Inés Mª. CENTENO CEA) ; 14: El yacimiento arqueológico de Agicampe I (Loja, Granada). Un asentamiento de primera época andalusí (Alberto GARCÍA PORRAS, Moisés ALONSO VALLADARES) ; PARTE IV: APROXIMACIONES AL ESTUDIO DE LA CULTURA MATERIAL ; 15: Patrones de consumo en los asentamientos campesinos del norte de la Carpetania romana (Jesús BERMEJO TIRADO) ; 16: Los materiales cerámicos de la Dehesa de La Genestosa. Algunas cuestiones metodológicas derivadas del estudio de producciones altomedievales de pastas graníticas (Inés María CENTENO CEA, Iñaki MARTÍN VISO, Rubén RUBIO DÍEZ) ; 17: Estructuras agrícolas y contextos cerámicos de época emiral del arrabal Toledano de la Vega Baja. Los datos de la Parcela R-3 (Yolanda PEÑA CERVANTES, Eva ZARCO MARTÍNEZ, Gonzalo ROMERO GUSTOS) ; 18: The islamic pottery from Senhora do Barrocal (Sátão, Central-Northern Portugal) (Gabriel DE SOUZA, João Luís VELOSO, Catarina TENTE) ; 19: Vilares: de la Antigüedad tardía a la Alta Edad Media (Guilherme CARDOSO, Luísa BATALHA, Rui GIL, Rafael SANTIAGO)

Read more less

Book SynopsisWessex is famous for its coasts, heaths, woodlands, chalk downland, limestone hills and gorges, settlements and farmed vales. This book provides an account of the physical form, development and operation of its landscape as it was shaped by our ancestors. Constituting no modern political entity, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and archaeological province of Wessex' may be defined by its natural resources and connectivity by both land and sea, for its borders include the English Channel and Severn Estuary.Following the tundra environments that dominated south of the ice sheets during the past two million years, the Wessex area experienced dramatic changes in climate, something reflected in its soils and vegetation cover. Humans hunted in the wildwood' established after the Ice Age, then cleared the land for agriculture and settlement in a 6,000 year old process. In more recent times, areas of cultural importance and nature conservation have been established as well as a thr

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology is a comprehensive survey of the field as seen through the eyes of nearly fifty scholars at a time when maritime archaeology has established itself as a mature branch of archaeology. This volume draws on many of the distinct and universal aspects of maritime archaeology, bringing them together under four main themes: the research process, ships and shipwrecks, maritime and nautical culture, and issues of preservation and management. The first section of the book deals with the best practices for locating, documenting, excavating, and analyzing submerged sites. This methodological foundation is followed by a sample of shipwreck studies from around the world as scholars trace the regional development of ships and seafaring. Chosen to balance the traditional core regions of maritime archaeology with important but lesser-studied areas, it aims at offering an international account of the study of submerged sites. Reflecting the growing number of sTrade Reviewa number of articles have very extensive bibliographies running six to ten pages, which make them a resource for students. ... this is a useful book ... and contributes to the scholarly literature on underwater archaeology. * Hector Williams, International Journal of Maritime History *Table of ContentsI. INTRODUCTION: The Development of Maritime Archaeology, George F. Bass ; II.THE PROCESS ; 1. Defining a Ship: Architecture, Function, and Human Space, Patrice Pomey ; 2. Wreck-Site Formation Processes, Colin Martin ; 3. Acoustic Remote Sensing in Maritime Archaeology, Rory Quinn ; 4. Archaeological Interpretation of Marine Magnetic Data, Robert Gearhart ; 5. Search and Documentation of Underwater Archaeological Sites, Michael C. Tuttle ; 6. Excavation Planning and Logistics: The HMS Swift Project, Chris Underwood ; 7. Ship Reconstruction, Documentation, and In-Situ Recording, Yaacov Kahanov ; 8. Ships on Land, James P. Delgado ; 9. Deep-Submergence Archaeology, Shelley Wachsmann ; 10. Recent Advances in Post-Excavation Documentation, Reconstruction and Experimental Maritime Archaeology, Morten Ravn, Vibeke Bischoff, Anton Englert and Soren Nielsen ; 11. Shipwreck Reconstruction Based on the Archaeological Record: Mediterranean Whole-Moulding and Kitten Wreck Case Study, Kroum N. Batchvarov ; 12. Historical Naval Architecture Practices as a Guide to Shipwreck Reconstruction: The La Belle Example, Taras Pevny ; 13. The Archaeological Role of Conservation in Maritime Archaeology, Donny L. Hamilton and C. Wayne Smith ; 14. Virtual Reconstruction of Maritime Sites and Artifacts, Donald H. Sanders ; 15. A Digital Library Perspective: The Synthesis and Storage of Maritime Archaeological Data to Assist in Ship Perspective, Carlos Monroy, Filipe Castro, and Richard Furuta ; III. SHIPS & SHIPWRECKS ; 16. Early Shipbuilding in the Eastern Mediterranean, Mark E. Polzer ; 17. The Maritime Archaeology of Greek and Roman Seafaring (450 BCE - 400 CE), Deborah N. Carlson ; 18. Mediterranean Ship Design in the Middle Ages, Eric Rieth ; 19. Medieval Ships and Seafaring, Susan Rose ; 20. Post-Medieval Ships and Seafaring in the West, Fred Hocker ; 21. Southern African Shipwreck Archaeology, Bruno E.J.S. Werz ; 22. The Red Sea, Lucy Blue ; 23. Maritime Archaeological Studies in India, Aniruddh S. Gaur and Kamlesh H. Vora ; 24. A Survey of East Asian Shipbuilding Traditions During the Era of Chinese Maritime Expansion, Randy Sasaki ; 25. Australian Maritime Archaeology, Mark Staniforth ; 26. Historic Period Ships of the Pacific Ocean, Hans K. Van Tilburg ; 27. The Archaeology of Steamships, Kevin Crisman ; 28. Caribbean Maritime Archaeology, Margaret Leshikar-Denton ; 29. Maritime Archaeology of the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Archaeology from the Age of Exploration to the Twilight of Sail, Amy Borgens ; 30. Shipwreck Archaeology in South America, Dolores Elkin ; 31. Underwater Archaeology of the World Wars, Robert S. Neyland ; IV. MARITIME CULTURE & LIFE ASHORE ; 32. The Maritime Cultural Landscape, Christer Westerdahl ; 33. Coastal Archaeology, Ben Ford ; 34. Submerged Prehistory in the North Sea, Antony Firth ; 35. Ancient Harbors in the Mediterranean, John P. Oleson and Robert L. Hohlfelder ; 36. Shipyard Archaeology, Jason D. Moser ; 37. Ship Abandonment, Nathan Richards ; 38. Maritime Communities and Traditions, Jesse Ransley ; V. BEYOND THE SITE ; 39. Maritime History and Maritime Archaeology, Francisco C. Domingues ; 40. Ethics, Underwater Cultural Heritage, and International Law, Thijs J. Maarleveld ; 41. Management of Maritime Cultural Resources: An American Perspective, Timothy Runyan ; 42. The Growth of Maritime Archaeology in Mexico: A Case Study, Pilar Luna Erreguerena ; 43. Aviation Archaeology, Peter Fix ; 44. Maritime Archaeology and Industry, Fredrik Soreide ; 45. Museums and Maritime Archaeology, Michael McCarthy ; 46. Maritime Archaeology, The Dive Community, and Heritage Tourism, Arthur B. Cohn and Joanne M. Dennis ; VI. CONCLUSION Future Directions, Paula Martin ; VII. GLOSSARY & APPENDIX Illustrated Glossary of Ship and Boat Terms, J. Richard Steffy ; APPENDIX: Scientific Analyses and Dating Techniques

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Down Farm Landscape (where the author''s family has farmed for generations) is one of the most carefully studied areas in Western Europe. Much of this work has been carried out by the author himself - who in 1992 won the Pitt Rivers award for independent archaeology. His work has involved five universities and one of the major field units were recently featured in a BBC 2 ''Meet the Ancestors'' programme. The farm is part of Cranborne Chase, just south of Salisbury (where, coincidentally, the famous General Pitt Rivers began his pioneering work in the 1880s). It not only contains the Neolithic Dorset Cursus, numerous long barrows and Hambledon Hill, but over the last 30 years henges, shafts, plastered houses, land divisions, enclosures and cemeteries have been identified and excavated. The farm has its own museum and for the book the author provided a unique range of illustrations (including full colour reconstructions).

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe ‘bog bodies’ of north-western Europe have captured the imaginations of poets and archaeologists alike, allowing us to come face-to-face with individuals from the past. Their exceptional preservation permits us to examine minute details of their lives and deaths, making us reflect poignantly on our own mortality. But, as this book argues, the bodies must be resituated within a turbulent world of endemic violence and change. Reinterpreting the latest continental research and new discoveries, and featuring a ground-breaking ‘cold case’ forensic study of Worsley Man, Manchester Museum’s ‘bog head’, it brings the bogs to life through both natural history and folklore, revealing them as places that were rich and fertile yet dangerous. The book also argues that these remains do not just pose practical conservation problems but also philosophical dilemmas, compounded by the critical debate on if – and how – they should be displayed.Trade Review'[...] this book is so much more than just an archaeological text setting out what we know about these fascinating remains. Giles takes us on a journey that is poignant, moving and often deeply personal. I have so much empathy in how Giles relates her work to her own sense of bereavement, having lost my own mother recently, that I am left saying, “Hell yes – this is archaeology”. Archaeology of the very best kind – the kind that helps you explore what it is to be human.'British Archaeology, Neil Redfern'Bog Bodies is an exhaustive study of human remains extracted from bogs in northern Europe where conditions amenable to preservation have resulted in the recovery of largely complete bodies. Giles (Univ. of Manchester, UK) explores the natural context of the bogs and how they interacted with the "bog bodies" found within them, delving deeply into the bodies' recovery. She deals with how historians and the public have viewed the bodies, pointing out that shaky assumptions have often driven interpretation. Treatment of the subject raises questions relating to death, from well-known examples to the more general occurrence of the dead, both in past and present cultural contexts and in relation to the bogs' natural environment. Giles's survey of finds, as well as public presentations in museums and written reconstructions, suggests to her that the dead offer a way for everyone to richly connect with and understand the lives of the past. Well-illustrated, with a current bibliography, this book is an obvious acquisition for colleges and universities with appropriate departments. The author's sensitive treatment will also interest a wider audience.--R. B. Clay, emeritus, University of KentuckySumming Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students.Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association. -- .Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 Discovering bog bodies 3 Preserving the dead 4 Crossing the bog 5 Exquisite things and everyday treasures: interpreting deposition in the bog6 Violent ends7 Worsley Man: Manchester’s bog head 8 Disquieting exhibits9 Conclusion: creative legaciesIndex

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGwithian, on the north coast of Cornwall, is a multiperiod archaeological site. Excavations by Charles Thomas in the mid-twentieth century provided evidence of human activity from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. The present work explores the palaeoenvironment of the area around the settlement sites, from the Neolithic, when sand dunes initially developed in the Red River valley, to the present post-industrial landscape. Multiproxy analyses on sediments from coring, a test pit and mollusc columns provide a view of the changing landscape and how it may have influenced, or been influenced by, human presence and settlement. Mollusc studies are used as the principal analytical method. Multiple radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminesce dates permit these changes to be studied on a tighter time frame than was previously possible. Mining activity from the Bronze Age to the present is explored using fine-resolution geochemistry. Dating allows the timing of the extinction and introduction of some mollusc species to be refined.Table of ContentsPreface; Foreword by Jacqueline A. Nowakowski; Chapter I – Introduction ; Chapter II – Gwithian and its archaeological complex; Chapter III – Previous molluscan studies at Gwithian; Chapter IV – The current study at Gwithian; Chapter V – The coring transect; Chapter VI – Percussion cores; Chapter VII – Hand auger cores; Chapter VIII – Pollen analysis at Gwithian – by Dr. C. R. Batchelor ; Chapter IX – Chronology and discussion of the coring transect; Chapter X – Trench excavation; Chapter XI – Micromorphology analysis of a buried soil – by Dr R. Y. Banerjea; Chapter XII – Mollusc studies in the wider Gwithian landscape; Chapter XIII – Mining for tin and other metals; Chapter XIV – Discussion and conclusions; Conclusions; Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe book draws on the evidence of landscape archaeology, palaeoenvironmental studies, ethnohistory and animal tracking to address the neglected topic of how we identify and interpret past patterns of movement in the landscape. It challenges the pessimism of previous generations which regarded prehistoric routes such as hollow ways as generally undatable.The premise is that archaeologists tend to focus on ‘sites’ while neglecting the patterns of habitual movement that made them part of living landscapes. Evidence of past movement is considered in a multi-scalar way from the individual footprint to the long distance path including the traces created in vegetation by animal and human movement. It is argued that routes may be perpetuated over long timescales creating landscape structures which influence the activities of subsequent generations. In other instances radical changes of axes of communication and landscape structures provide evidence of upheaval and social change. Palaeoenvironmental and ethnohistorical evidence from the American North West coast sets the scene with evidence for the effects of burning, animal movement, faeces deposition and transplantation which can create readable routes along which are favoured resources.Evidence from European hunter-gatherer sites hints at similar practices of niche construction on a range of spatial scales. On a local scale, footprints help to establish axes of movement, the locations of lost settlements and activity areas. Wood trackways likewise provide evidence of favoured patterns of movement and past settlement location. Among early farming communities alignments of burial mounds, enclosure entrances and other monuments indicate axes of communication. From the middle Bronze Age in Europe there is more clearly defined evidence of trackways flanked by ditches and fields. Landscape scale survey and excavation enables the dating of trackways using spatial relationships with dated features and many examples indicate long-term continuity of routeways. Where fields flank routeways a range of methods, including scientific approaches, provide dates.Prehistorians have often assumed that Ridgeways provided the main axes of early movement but there is little evidence for their early origins and rather better evidence for early routes crossing topography and providing connections between different environmental zones. The book concludes with a case study of the Weald of South East England which demonstrates that some axes of cross topographic movement used as droveways, and generally considered as early medieval, can be shown to be of prehistoric origin. One reason that dryland routes have proved difficult to recognise is that insufficient attention has been paid to the parts played by riverine and maritime longer distance communication. It is argued that understanding the origins of the paths we use today contributes to appreciation of the distinctive qualities of landscapes. Appreciation will help to bring about effective strategies for conservation of mutual benefit to people and wildlife by maintaining and enhancing corridors of connectivity between different landscape zones including fragmented nature reserves and valued places. In these ways an understanding of past routeways can contribute to sustainable landscapes, communities and quality of life.Trade Review[…] this important book […] could not be more topical. * British Archaeology *There is a good deal of novel thought and synthesis in this essentially stall-setting book; a research agenda that will intrigue many. * Northern Earth *It’s incredibly wide ranging, detailed and thorough. All the things I’d hoped to read about were there in spades along with an entire tranche of evidence and opinions that were new to me and kept me happily turning pages, right to the end. I’d definitely advise this book for anyone with an interest in prehistory. * The Prehistoric Society *This is an interesting and incredibly readable book examining the physical environmental evidence for the most basic of human needs, subsistence mobility and community interaction. The text is supported by well-chosen illustrations, it is extremely well-referenced and though descriptive in parts, it is critical throughout and delivers much food for thought. * Archaeologia Cambrensis - Cambrian Archaeological Association *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures List of Tables List of Supplementary Tables (on WWW) Chapter 1: Steps towards understanding: routeways in practice, theory and life Chapter 2 Walks in the temperate rainforest: developing concepts of niche construction and linear environmental manipulation Chapter 3 Niche construction and place making: hunter-gatherer routeways in north west Europe Chapter 4 Footprints of people and animals as evidence of mobility Chapter 5 Early farmers: mobility, site location and antecedent activities Chapter 6 Wetland trackways and communication Chapter 7 Barrow alignments as clues to Bronze Age routes Chapter 8 Trackways in later prehistoric agricultural landscapes Chapter 9 Maritime and riverine connectivity: the allure of the exotic Chapter 10 A case study of the Wealden District in South East England Chapter 11 Conclusions: why routes matter Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisMediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity: New frontiers and new perspectives highlights the fact that the study of landscape has in recent years been a field for considerable analytical archaeological experimentation. This new situation has made it possible to rethink the orientation of some theoretical approaches to the subject; equally these methods have been profitably used for the formation of a new theoretical and conceptual framework. These analytical trends have also featured in the Mediterranean area. Although the Mediterranean is the home of classicism (which also defines a particular archaeological methodology), it has seen the implementation of projects of this new kind, and in regions of Spain and Italy, after some delay, the proliferation of landscape archaeology studies. There are examples of more-or-less sophisticated postcolonial archaeological work, albeit conducted at the same time as examples of unreconstructed colonial archaeology. It is not easy to resolve a situation like this which requires the full integration of the different national archaeological cultures into a truly global forum. But some reflection on the cultural differences between the various landscape archaeologies, at least in the West is required. These considerations have given rise to the idea of this book which examines these themes in the framework of the Mediterranean area.Table of ContentsMediterranean landscapes in post antiquity: new frontier and new perspectives - by Sauro Gelichi and Lauro Olmo-Enciso The transformation of Medieval and Post-Medieval archaeology in Greece - by John Bintliff Post-antique settlement patterns in the central Balkans: use of Justinianic landscape in the early middle ages - by Vujadin Ivanišević and Ivan Bugarski Time travelling: multidisciplinary solutions reveal historical landscape and settlements (a case study of Sant’Ilario, Mira, VE) - by Elisa Corrò, Cecilia Moine and Sandra Primon Settlement dynamics in the rural Bolognese area between the late middle ages and the modern era - by Mauro Librenti ‘Emptyscapes’ and medieval landscapes: is a new wave of research changing content and understanding of the rural archaeological record? - by Stefano Campana Human-environmental interactions in the upper Ebro Valley (Spain): plant and animal husbandry in La Noguera (La Rioja) during the Roman and medieval periods - by Carlos López de Calle, Juan Manuel Tudanca, Leonor Peña-Chocarro, Guillem Pérez Jordà and Marta Moreno-García The construction and dynamics of Early Medieval landscapes in central Iberia - by Lauro Olmo-Enciso, Manuel Castro Priego, Blanca Ruiz Zapata, Mª José Gil García, Marian Galindo Pellicena, Joaquín Checa-Herráiz and Amaya de la Torre-Verdejo Archaeology of medieval peasantry in northwestern Iberia - by Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo and Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado The rural and suburban landscape of Eio-Iyyuh (Tolmo de Minateda, Hellín, Spain): new methodological approaches to detect and interpret its main generating elements - by Julia Sarabia Bautista, Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret, and Victoria Amorós Ruiz Animal husbandry and saltworks in the Kingdom of Granada (13th-15th centuries): The dynamics of landscapes in a Mediterranean territory - by Antonio Malpica Cuello, Sonia Villar Mañas, Marcos García García and Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz A Mediterranean mountain landscape: the transformation of the Frailes–Velillos Vall - by Alberto García Porras, Luca Mattei and Moisés Alonso Valladares Urban foundation and irrigated landscape construction in the medieval western Maghreb. Aġmāt (Morocco) - by Patrice Cressier and Ricardo González Villaescusa

Read more less

Book SynopsisCommunity Archaeology presents the results of an investigation of wetland heritage in eastern Australia, with important contributions to the archaeology of the Tasmanian Midlands and the New England Tablelands. In this first substantial project in these bioregions since 1991, OSL and radiocarbon dating at lagoon sites provided dates going back to 8000 BP, significantly extending previous information. In both regions a range of stone artefact scatters were recorded adjacent to lagoons, suggesting associated ceremonial activities. Across the regions, new OSL dates were obtained for lunette formation. These were unexpectedly diverse, with OSL dates not clustered around the Last Glacial Maximum at 20k. With sediment particle sizes suggesting both wind and water deposition, quite individual local lunette depositional histories not closely related to global climates are indicated. The book also contributes to the important global field of community engagement and education. Unlike most projects where Aboriginal people are involved in commercial archaeology, this project focussed on research. Community Elders were research team partners during fieldwork and training. Work-integrated -learning, at University and on-country locations, proved very successful as a learning approach for young participants.Table of ContentsIntroduction – Wendy Beck and Robert Haworth ; Chapter 1: Indigenous Participation and Aboriginal Education – Wendy Beck, Catherine Clarke, Judith Burns, Anne McConnell and Lagoons Aboriginal Reference Group ; Chapter 2: Connections—Aboriginal Participants’ Reflections: A Photo Essay – Compiled and photographed by Catherine Clarke and Wendy Beck ; Chapter 3: Fieldwork, Sampling and Study Areas – Wendy Beck and Robert Haworth ; Chapter 4: Dating and Chronology – Elspeth Hayes, Richard Fullagar, Wendy Beck and Kevin Kiernan ; Chapter 5: Formation and development of upland lake-lunette systems in northern New South Wales, Australia, and their relation to climate, ecological change and human occupation – Robert Haworth, Kevin Kiernan, Anne McConnell ; Chapter 6: A Review of the Archaeological Record of Surface Sites, New England Bioregion – John Appleton and Wendy Beck ; Chapter 7: Lagoon Excavations: New England Tableland Bioregion – John Appleton and Wendy Beck ; Chapter 8: Silcrete Grinding Grooves in New England, NSW – Richard Fullagar, Elspeth Hayes, Nancy Vickery, John Appleton and Wendy Beck ; Chapter 9: Contrasting Lake Formation and Late-Glacial Aeolian Activity Between the Tasmanian Central Plateau and Adjacent Midlands Graben – Kevin Kiernan, Anne McConnell, Robert Haworth, Richard Fullagar and Elspeth Hayes ; Chapter 10: The Archaeology of Lagoons of the Tasmanian Midlands and Eastern Central Plateau and Its Role in Re-Interpreting Past Tasmanian Aboriginal Landscape Use and Meaning – Anne McConnell, Andry Sculthorpe and Kevin Kiernan ; Chapter 11: The Tasmanian and New England Research in a Global Setting – Wendy Beck and Robert Haworth ; Appendix A: Analyst Report for Radiocarbon Dating ; Appendix B: Luminescence Dating of Sediments from Wetland Sites in New England, New South Wales, and Tasmania, Australia ; Appendix C: Luminescence Dating of Sediments from New England and Tasmanian Wetland Sites ; Appendix D: New England Tablelands Sediment Profile Descriptions ; Appendix E: Mapping and Characterisation of Silcrete and Axe Grinding Grooves in the New England Region, NSW

Read more less

Book SynopsisSurvey tra Fiumi, Pianure e Colline analyses the territory of Santa Croce di Magliano in the province of Campobasso, Molise, Italy and studies all its archaeological aspects in order to understand patterns of occupation of the human groups that have inhabited it and how they, through the evolution of social interactions, have received extraterritorial influences. It maintains a focus on this small area of the lower Molise in the wider regional context of the Frentano state. This study has been able to contribute further evidence to support attempts to explain the interactions between the Samnite cultures located north of the Fortore river and those located south of the same river, characterised by a Daunian culture (at least until the sixth century BC). It also highlights the evolution of settlement types over the centuries. Furthermore it has been also possible to highlight how the types of settlement have evolved over the centuries, up to the current urban form of the village considered in this study.Table of ContentsIntroduzione ; Capitolo 1 - Inquadramento geografico e geomorfologico del territorio di Santa Croce di Magliano ; Capitolo 2 - Santa Croce di Magliano: Status Quaestionis ; Testimonianze Archeologiche ; Testimonianze Epigrafiche ; Capitolo 3 - Le nuove indagini ricognitive ; Schede di Sito ; Capitolo 4 - La viabilità antica nel territorio di Santa Croce di Magliano ; La viabilità romana ; La viabilità medievale ; Capitolo 5 - Lettura diacronica del dato archeologico santacrocese nel contesto bassomolisano ; Bibliografia ; Appendice ; Carte di fase ; Mappe viabilità antica ; Carta archeologica di Santa Croce di Magliano

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book aims to connect the domestic spaces of rural settlements from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages periods with other rural contexts, such as cemeteries or production areas, which were also part of the living and organisational dynamics of the communities that inhabited them.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOf all of Britain's great archaeological monuments the prehistoric and later hillforts have arguably had the most profound impact on the landscape, if only because there are so many; yet we know very little about them. Were they recognised as being something special by those who created them or is the ‘hillfort’ purely an archaeologist's 'construct'? How were they built, who lived in them and to what uses were they put?This book, which is richly illustrated with photography of sites throughout England and Wales, addresses these and many other questions. After discussing the difficult issue of definition and the great excavations on which our knowledge is based, Ian Brown investigates in turn the origins of hillforts, their architecture and the role they played in Iron Age society. He also discusses the latest theories about their location, social significance and chronology.The book provides a valuable synthesis of the rich vein of research carried out in England and Wales on hillforts over the last thirty years. The great variability of hillforts poses many problems, and this book should help guide both the specialist and non-specialist alike though the complex literature. Furthermore, it has an important conservation objective. Land use in the modern era has not been kind to these monuments, with a significant number either disfigured or lost. Public consciousness of their importance needs raising if their management is to be improved and their future assured.Trade ReviewIan Brown is to be heartily congratulated on having comprehensively revised and expanded his successful 2009 book and, - with the help of high editorial standards from Windgather Press - producing a useful and readable new volume which would not be out of place on the bookshelves of undergraduates, university professors, and keen ramblers alike. * Archaeologia Cambrensis - Cambrian Archaeological Association *Table of ContentsList of figures List of tables Acknowledgements to first edition Acknowledgements to second edition Notes Preface Part 1 The ‘elusive’ hillfort 1. Hillforts – an introduction 2. From antiquarian to modern Part 2 Defining the space 3. Hillfort origins 4. Enclosure – around the circuits 5. Inside the enclosures Part 3 Hillfort and society 6. Environment, society and hillfort people 7. Hillfort economy 8. Superstition, belief and ritual 9. Hillforts and Rome 10. Later use and reuse of hillforts Part 4 Hillforts – function and social significance 11. Hillforts – new theories, new questions 12. Beacons in the landscape – a synthesis of ideas Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAlthough the history of orchards and fruit varieties is of great popular interest, there have been few academic treatments of the subject. This book presents results from a three-year project, 'Orchards East', investigating the history and ecology of orchards in the east of England. Together, the eastern counties of Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have a tradition of fruit cultivation comparable in scale to that of the better-known west of England. Drawing on far-reaching archival research, an extensive survey of surviving orchards and biodiversity surveys, the authors tell the fascinating story of orchards in the east since the late Middle Ages. Orchards were ubiquitous features of the medieval and early modern landscape. Planted for the most part for practical reasons, they were also appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. By the seventeenth century some districts had begun to specialise in fruit production - most notably west Hertfordshire and the Fens around Wisbech. But it was only in the 'orchard century', beginning in the 1850s, that commercial production really took off, fuelled by the growth of large urban markets and new transport systems that could take the fruit to them with relative ease. By the 1960s orchards were extensive in many districts but, since then, they have largely disappeared, with significant impacts on landscape character and biodiversity. For well over a century now, orchards have been romanticised as nostalgic elements of a timeless yet disappearing rural world. Even before that, they were embedded in myths of lost Edens, or golden ages of effortless plenty. A key aim of this book is to challenge some of these myths by grounding orchards within a wider range of historical and environmental contexts. Orchards are not timeless, and in some ways our relationship with orchards is a classic example of the 'invention of tradition'. What do our attitudes to this aspect of our heritage tell us about our wider engagement with the past, with nature, and with place?Table of Contents1. Orchards, Landscapes and History 2. Farmhouse and Commercial Orchards before c.1850 3. The ‘Orchard Century’, c.1850-1960 4. Garden and Institutional Orchards 5. Processing: Cider, Jam and Canning 6. The Recent History of Orchards 7. Fruit Varieties and the Nursery Industry 8. The Significance of Orchards 9. Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisAccompanying an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, this book explores island identities in the ancient Mediterranean, questioning how ‘insularity’– being of an island – affected and shaped art production and creativity, architectural evolution, migrations and movement of people. It extends beyond the ancient, incorporating current discourses on island versus mainland cultural identities, in contemporary Art and other disciplines.Throughout history, islands have been treated as distinct places, unlike mainland and continental masses. In geographic terms, islands are merely pieces of land surrounded by water, but the perception of island life has never been neutral. Rather, the term ‘insularity’ – belonging to/being of an island – has been romanticized and associated with otherness. Islands have often been deemed to have differenthistories from the mainland and with more readily isolated socio-political, cultural and economic characteristics. Yet connectivity has also been an important feature of island life as the sea can be a linking rather than just a dividing body, motivating and maintaining informal and formal connections.Fifty unique archaeological objects – most never displayed before outside Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia – tell exceptional stories of insular identity, over a period of 4000 years. The movement of people and episodes of migration between islands and their surrounding mainlands is also explored, through architecture, material culture, crafts and technologies present in the Mediterranean islands.Islanders has a broad diachronic scope and applies integrative analytical approach, bringing together research findings from scientific fields within archaeology, as well as a multi-scalar approach to past human interaction within continental and island environments.Trade ReviewAs this new exhibition at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum shows, [the Mediterranean islands] were remarkably open to outside influence – to foreign materials, skills, fashions and legends. * The Week *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOld orchards have an irresistible appeal. Their ancient trees and obscure fruit varieties seem to provide a direct link with the lost rural world of our ancestors, a time when the pace of life was slower and people had a strong and intimate connection with their local environment. They are also of critical importance for sustaining biodiversity, providing habitats, in particular, for a range of rare invertebrates. Not surprisingly, orchards and the fruit they contain have attracted an increasing amount of attention over the last few decades, from both enthusiastic bands of amateurs and official conservation bodies. But much of what has been written about them is historically vague, romanticised and nostalgic. Orchards have become a symbol of unspoilt, picturesque rural England.This book attempts, for the first time, to provide a comprehensive review of the development of orchards in England from the Middle Ages to the present day. It describes the various different kinds of orchard and explains how, and when, they appeared in the landscape – and why they have disappeared, at a catastrophic rate, over the last six decades. Chapters discuss the contrasting histories of fruit growing in different regions of England, the complex story of ‘traditional’ fruit varieties and the role of orchards in wildlife conservation. In addition, a chapter on researching orchards provides a practical guide for those wishing to investigate the history and archaeology of particular examples.Trade ReviewThe book is an enjoyable read, it combines a vast amount of information in an accessible narrative * Antiquity *This is a well-produced book with ample colour illustrations and presents a useful summary on the subject of English orchards, in particular the consideration of the four different types of orchards and a comparison of orchard development between the three key regions of orchard landscapes in England. * Landscape History *Blending erudite landscape history and ecology with a perceptive eye for heritage and environmental issues, this book provides a superb overview of a neglected feature of our historic environment. It fully deserves the wide readership that it will doubtless receive. * Worcestershire Recorder *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations 1. Introducing Orchards 2. Types of Orchard: Farmhouse and Commercial 3. Types of Orchard: Gardens and Institutions 4. The Orchard Countries: Western England 5. The Orchard Countries: South-East England 6. The Orchard Countries: East Anglia and the Fens 7. The Recent History of Orchards 8. Studying Old Orchards 9. The Importance of Orchards: Biodiversity 10. The Importance of Orchards: Culture and History 11. Conclusion Bibliography

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisSome maintain that ley lines are the result of some ''earth force'', others that they are the earliest routes marked out across the land. In his new book Anthony Poulton-Smith examines the origins and meanings of these ancient trackways, tracing them on foot and taking in markers that have been in existence for millennia to travel in a straight line from Shropshire and Gloucestershire in the west to Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire in the east. Whether they are tracked by dowsing or by a simple line on a map, Ley Lines across the Midlands is a fascinating read for walkers, historians, visitors and locals alike, and provides a very different view of the ancient history of the Midlands.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe island of Robert Graves, Joan Miro and Archduke Ludwig Salvador has become the most popular holiday destination in the Mediterranean with nearly 10 million visitors a year. Few, however, are aware of the 5000 year history of Mallorca and its resulting landscape featuring late Bronze Age navetes and talayots, Roman cities, and a major medieval trading port with one of Europe's largest cathedrals. Mallorca's landscape has been formed with a pattern of important country houses and enclosed fields, and the relics of major nineteenth century industries including textiles and shoe-making workshops. One hundred and twenty years of tourism, latterly on a massive scale, endangers much of what has gone before. Professor Buswell's pioneering work, based on more than ten years of local research, describes and analyses all these elements that together form the contemporary landscape. Written in an accessible style and well-illustrated with maps and photographs, this book will appeal to student and concerned reader alike and should be read by all who are inquisitive about what they see around them when they visit the island.Trade Review'Buswell's latest book has no peer in English....he draws on various epistemological perspectives to portray the landscape as a cultural artifact that is unique due to changing human settlement and exploitation, but also is a palimpsest bearing telltale signs of sequent occupancy never completely erased.' The AAG Review of Books'The chapters on the historical landscape changes are both enjoyable and informative. The reader is taken on a tour which begins with ‘Prehistoric Mallorca’ (ch. 4), runs through the Roman and Muslim occupations (ch. 5 and 6) through to Medieval and early modern Mallorca (ch. 7 and 8). Three final chapters in this block (ch. 9-11) cover the last two centuries, focusing on the development of manufacturing (principally textiles), demographic changes, the decline of the large estates that had dominated for centuries, and of course, tourism. There is a careful consideration throughout on rural-urban landscape interactions and the development of Palma, reflecting its size and importance. These historical chapters that form the ‘core’ of the book are highly readable and will have wide appeal to a non-academic audience. This is in part down to the inclusion of many fascinating factual ‘gems’ that make the narrative come alive. These range from descriptions of land tenants’ rents during the sixteenth century (paid in a mixture of cream cheeses, goats and cash), to changes in dietary preferences between the Muslim and Christian occupations. I particularly enjoyed the author’s many asides (harking back to themes covered elsewhere) and style of probing behind the facts, although not all his questions are answered in much depth, which might frustrate some readers. There is much to commend the structuring and presentation of the book. The chronological layout of the chapters makes them easy to dip in and out of, whilst helpful summaries reinforce key points. The illustrations are generous and useful, taking the form of coloured maps, photographs and tables. I found the historical maps and old photographs particularly welcome - I wish there had been more of these but space doesn’t seem to have permitted this. The reference list is impressive and an excellent resource in itself.' Island Studies‘The book is well illustrated and offers a panoply of archival photographs, contemporary images and sketch maps, but draws almost exclusively upon secondary research material. It is of direct interest to the teaching of Iberian geography at undergraduate level. This fascinating and informative book offers valuable insight into an island community that is little known beyond its Catalan and Castilian research roots.’ GeographyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Preface. 1. Introduction: Mallorca and landscape history; 2. Mallorca and the Mediterranean; 3. The physical basis of the landscape; Prehistoric Mallorca - early human imprint; 5. Roman and other empires in Mallorca: limited landscapes; 6. The landscape of the Muslims, 902-1229; 7. Medieval Mallorca, 1229-1519; 8. Early modern Mallorca, 1520-1820; 9. The long nineteenth century, 1820-1920: the beginnings of modernisation; 10. A beggar's mantle fringed with gold - Mallorca 1920-1955; 11. Mass tourism and the landscape - Mallorca 1955-2011; 12. Reflections on a theme of landscape change. Notes. References. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDeeply stratified settlements are a distinctive site type featuring prominently in diverse later prehistoric landscapes of the Old World. Their massive materiality has attracted the curiosity of lay people and archaeologists alike. Nowadays a wide variety of archaeological projects are tracking the lifestyles and social practices that led to the building-up of such superimposed artificial hills. However, prehistoric tell-dwelling communities are too often approached from narrow local perspectives or discussed within strict time- and culture-specific debates. There is a great potential to learn from such ubiquitous archaeological manifestations as the physical outcome of cross-cutting dynamics and comparable underlying forces irrespective of time and space. This volume tackles tells and tell-like sites as a transversal phenomenon whose commonalities and divergences are poorly understood yet may benefit from cross-cultural comparison. Thus, the book intends to assemble a representative range of ongoing theory – and science –based fieldwork projects targeting this kind of sites. With the aim of encompassing a variety of social and material dynamics, the volume’s scope is diachronic – from the Earliest Neolithic up to the Iron Age–, and covers a very large region, from Iberia in Western Europe to Syria in the Middle East. The core of the volume comprises a selection of the most remarkable contributions to the session with a similar title celebrated in the European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting held at Barcelona in 2018. In addition, the book includes invited chapters to round out underrepresented areas and periods in the EAA session with relevant research programmes in the Old World. To accomplish such a cross-cultural course, the book takes a case-based approach, with contributions disparate both in their theoretical foundations – from household archaeology, social agency and formation theory – and their research strategies – including geophysical survey, microarchaeology and high-resolution excavation and dating.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Learning from Prehistoric Tells by Antonio Blanco-González and Tobias L. Kienlin Chapter 2. Architectural Phases, Use-life Episodes and Taphonomic Processes in Tell Formation: An Approach to Neolithic Tell Halula (Syria) by Miquel M. Molist, Quim Sisa, Julia Wattez and Anna Gómez-Bach Chapter 3. Re-discovering the Neolithic Landscapes of Western Thessaly, Central Greece by Athanasia Krahtopoulou, Charles Frederick, Hector, A. Orengo, Anastasia Dimoula, Niki Saridaki, Stella Kyrillidou, Alexandra Livarda and Arnau Garcia-Molsosa Chapter 4. The Old Becomes New: Material Culture and Architectural Continuity on an Anatolian Höyük by Sharon R. Steadman & Jennifer C. Ross Chapter 5. Moving Bottom-up: The Case Study of Kakucs-Turján (Hungary) and its Implications for Studies of Multi-layered Bronze Age Settlements in the Carpathian Basin by Robert Staniuk, Mateusz Jaeger, Gabriella Kulcsár, Nicole Taylor, Jakub Niebieszczański and Johannes Müller Chapter 6. Exploring the Bronze Age Tells and Tell-like Settlements from the Eastern Carpathian Basin. Results of a Research Project by Florin Gogâltan, Alexandra Găvan, Marian A. Lie, Gruia Fazecaș, Cristina Cordoș and Tobias L. Kienlin Chapter 7. Talking Trash. Reconstructing Activities, Discard and Abandonment at Late Bronze Age Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) by Victor Klinkenberg Chapter 8. Domesticаtion of Tells: Settlements of the First Farmers in Pelagonia (Macedonia) by Goce Naumov Chapter 9. Tells (and Flat Sites) as Social Agents: A View from Neolithic Greece by Stella Souvatzi Chapter 10. Human Activities on a Late Neolithic Tell-like Settlement Complex of the Hungarian Plain (Öcsöd-Kováshalom) by András Füzesi, Knut Rassmann, Eszter Bánffy and Pál Raczky Chapter 11. The Practice of Everyday Life on a European Bronze Age tell: Reflections from Százhalombatta-Földvár (Hungary) by Joanna Sofaer, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Magdolna Vicze Chapter 12. Social Life on Bronze Age Tells. Outline of a Practice-oriented Approach by Tobias L. Kienlin Chapter 13. Architecture, Power and Everyday Life in the Iron Age of North-eastern Iberia. Research from 1985 to 2019 on the Tell-like Fortress of Els Vilars (Arbeca, Lleida, Spain) by Joan B. López, Emili Junyent and Natàlia Alonso Chapter 14. Then, Now, to Come – A Commentary by John Chapman

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the long history of documenting the material culture of the archaeological record, meaning and actions of makers and users of these items is often overlooked. The authors in this book focus on rituals exploring the natural and made landscape stages, the ritual directors, including their progression from shaman to priesthood, and meaning of the rites. They also provide comments on the end or failure of rites and cults from Paleoindian into post-DeSoto years.Chapters examine the archaeological records of Cahokia, the lower Ohio Valley, Aztalan Wisconsin, Vermont, Florida, and Georgia, and others scan the Eastern US, investigating tobacco/datura, colour symbolism, deer symbolism, mound stratigraphy, flintknapping, stone caching, cults and their organisation, and red ochre. These authors collectively query the beliefs that can be gleaned from mortuary practices and their variation, from mound construction, from imagery, from the choice of landscape setting. While some rituals were short-lived, others can be shown to span millennia as the ritual specialists modified their interpretations and introduced innovations.Table of ContentsList of contributors 1 The Ritual Complex Cheryl Claassen Part 1: Cults and Rituals 2 The Old Fire-Deer Spirits cult in the Archaic Period of eastern North America Cheryl Claassen 3 Priestesses and priests, temples and goddesses: structuring and centering ritual in early Cahokian religious landscapes Thomas E. Emerson 4 Continuity, resilience, and transformation in Choctaw ritual practice David H. Dye 5 Places of stone and skill: an exploration of Paleoindian and Early Archaic rituals and ritual practitioners in northeastern North America Francis “Jess” Robinson 6 Watchfires above the wetwoods: late Middle Archaic mortuary ritual and landscape in the Falls of the Ohio region Anne Tobbe Bader 7 Persons of the Directions: ontology and ethics meet cosmology in understanding the world views and rituals of Adena, Hopewell, and Postcontact eastern Woodland Indian societies Christopher Carr 8 Set, setting, and sacra: eastern North America’s tobacco shamans and the New World narcotic complex Bobi Deere 9 Figured practices: the material heritage of ritual in the Great Lakes region William Fox and Neal Ferris Part 2: Landscape, Shrines, and Pilgrimage 10 Portals through the spirit world: precontact ceremonial cave use in the American Southeast Jan F. Simek, Beau Duke Carroll, and Alan Cressler 11 Rituals of stone: Native American use of stone in the southeastern US James R. Wettstaed and Johannes H. N. Loubser 12 Revisiting Aztalan: looking at ritual from several perspectives Lynne Goldstein, Sissel Schroeder, and Donald Gaff 13 Sacred journeys in the greater Cahokia region B. Jacob Skousen 14 Paths of the lightning arrow: the Apalachee ballgame and the persistence of landscapes Jesse C. Nowak and Charles T. Rainville

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume presents a series of papers designed to offer a summary of ongoing research across Argentina that can come under the broad heading of Rural Archaeology.Table of ContentsEditorial – by C. Landa, V. Pineau, E. Montanari y J. Doval; Introducción – by F. Brittez; La vida cotidiana y su materialidad en Alexandra Colony. Alejandra, Santa Fe, Argentina – by I. Dosztal; "La 26 al fondo": historias de un lugar – by S. Lanzelotti y G. Acuña; Los estancieros y/o hacendados en el San Vicente de mediados del siglo XIX a principios del siglo XX – by M. López, M. Torres Núñez y M. Vommaro; Entre estancias ganaderas y comercios rurales: Arqueología histórica en Magdalena (Buenos Aires). Los sitios El Santuario I y Estancia Bertón. – by M. S. García Lerena; Excavando la casa del juez: arqueología histórica en el sitio “Estancia el Rosario” Ayacucho, Buenos Aires – by F. Gómez Romero; El espacio fronterizo y el poblamiento rural del sur bonaerense desde una perspectiva arqueológica (segunda mitad del siglo XIX) – by V. Bagaloni; A través de una década de arqueología rural en el norte pampeano: pulperías, caminos, puestos y poblados (fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX – by C. Landa, V. Pineau, J. Doval, L. Coll, E. Montanari, A. Andrade, F. Caretti y A. Rearte

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book is an archaeological exploration of a conflict landscape encountered by the volunteers of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. A great deal is known about the Brigades in terms of inter-world war geopolitics, their history and make-up, but less is known about the materiality of the landscapes in which they lived, fought, and died. The Spanish Civil War was a relatively static conflict. As in the First World War, it consisted of entrenched Republican government lines facing similarly entrenched Nationalist (rebel) lines, and these ran north to south across Spain. Fighting was intermittent, so the front line soldiers had to settle in, and make what was an attritional war-scape, a place to live in and survive. This research examines one such war-scape as a place of ‘settlement’, where soldiers lived their daily lives as well as confronting the rigours of war – and these were the volunteers of the International Brigades, both foreign and Spanish, who occupied a section of lines southeast of Zaragoza in Aragón in 1937 and 1938. This research draws, not only on the techniques of landscape archaeology, but also on the writings of international volunteers in Spain – in particular, George Orwell – and it incorporates historical photography as a uniquely analytical, archaeological resource. Trade Review'Salvatore Garfi's book is one of the most compelling accounts by far of a bloody 20th-century conflict. It provides the reader with an all-important historic context to the war, and records the archaeology associated with the trench positions of the International Brigades and Republican forces, where both civilians and combatants bore the brunt of the evils of civil war.' – George Nash (2020): Current World Archaeology #99 -- George Nash * Current World Archaeology #99 *'This is an expert, informative, and often intriguing investigation of a historically recent battle-zone landscape by an archaeologist whose innovatory approach deploys photographs, maps, and historical (and literary) background context to make a powerful contribution to modern conflict archaeology.' – Nicholas Saunders (2020): Military History Matters, Issue 116 -- Nicholas Saunders * Military History Matters *'Garfi’s volume is novel and challenges the traditional presentation of war as a grand narrative, exploring instead the harsh and visceral experience of a war lived on the battlefield.' – Claire Nesbitt (2020): Antiquity Vol. 94 -- Claire Nesbitt * Antiquity 2020 Vol. 94 *'... this volume is an essential contribution to archaeology studies of the Spanish Civil War... Garfi’s application of nonintrusive archaeological survey techniques is praiseworthy, and the multiplicity of the sources used, beyond the fieldwork, makes this volume pertinent for anyone interested in the history of the Spanish conflict of 1936–1939.' – Luis Antonio Ruiz Casero (2020): Historical Archaeology, Volume 54 -- Luis Antonio Ruiz Casero * Historical Archaeology *'In conclusion, Garfi's monograph is a remarkable work detailing a war zone that has been neglected by scholars until now. Although it represents a valid case study on Spain, it also perfectly fits into the wider discipline of combat and landscape archaeology. The variety of sources used by Garfi (including survey data, literary sources, and archival records), supported by rigorous methodology, are points of strength in this book, which makes a valuable contribution to the field of European archaeology. – Antonino Crisa (2022): Landscape Journal Volume 40 #1Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements PART ONE Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Spanish Civil War PART TWO Chapter 3 On Trenches and Field Fortifications Chapter 4 Trench Systems as Settlement Archaeology: The Salient at Mediana de Aragón PART THREE Chapter 5 Experiencing the Mediana Lines Chapter 6 An Archaeology From Photographs: Imaging the Aragón Front Chapter 7 History in ‘Three Dimensions’ Bibliography Appendix Tables

Read more less

Book SynopsisArchaeological evidence for settlement and land use in early medieval Scottish upland landscapes remains largely undiscovered. This study records only the second excavation of one important and distinctive house form, the Pitcarmicktype building, in the hills of north-east Perth and Kinross. Excavation of seven turf buildings at Lair in Glen Shee has confirmed the introduction of Pitcarmick buildings in the early 7th century AD. Clusters of these at Lair, and elsewhere in the hills, are interpreted as integrated, spatially organised farm complexes comprising byre-houses and outbuildings. Their form has more to do with contemporary traditions across the North Sea than with local styles. There is a close link between 7th-century climatic amelioration and their spread across the hills, and it is argued that this was a purposeful re-occupation of a neglected landscape. Pitcarmick buildings were constructed and lived in by precocious, knowledgeable, and prosperous farming communities. Pollen analysis has shown the upland economy to have been arable as well as pastoral, and comparable contemporary economic ‘recovery’ is suggested from similar analyses across Scotland. The farms at Lair were stable and productive until the 11th century when changes, poorly understood, saw their demise.Trade ReviewDevotees of upland field archaeology in Britain will be familiar with some of its eternal problems: inadequate chronological precision, few finds and often poor connectivity between structural data from settlement archaeology and landscape-level palaeoenvironmental studies. This attractively presented and sparingly written monograph shows that these issues can be substantially overcome with well-planned collaboration between field surveyors, excavators and palaeobotanists. -- David Griffiths * Medieval Settlement Research 36 *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Contributors Notes 1. Introduction (Strachan and Tipping) 1.1 Background to the project 1.2 North-west European turf and timber houses: an international context for the excavations at Lair 1.3 The archaeological setting 1.4 Pollen-analytical evidence for land-use change in and around Glen Shee 1.5 Historical and political contexts 1.6 The Pictish language and place-names in and around Glen Shee 1.7 The catchment of the Allt Corra-lairige: geology, topography, soils and climate 1.8 Mapping of the field remains 1.9 Key sites in the study area 1.10 Research objectives 2. Results of Archaeological Fieldwork, Radiocarbon Dating, Peat-Stratigraphic and Pollen Analyses (Sneddon, Strachan and Tipping) 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Topographic and geophysical survey 2.3 Excavation 2.4 Geo-archaeological analyses 2.5 Radiocarbon dating 2.6 Peat-stratigraphic and pollen-analytical evidence for environmental and land-use change 2.7 Charcoal analysis 3. The Small Finds (Strachan and Sneddon) 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Lithics 3.3 Stone tools 3.4 A decorated stone spindle whorl 3.5 The iron objects 3.6 The vitrified material 3.7 The pottery 3.8 The glass bead 3.9 Animal bone 4. Discussion (Strachan, Tipping and Sneddon) 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Archaeological and pollen-analytical evidence for later prehistoric settlement and use of the uplands 4.3. A Late Iron Age–early medieval settlement continuum? 4.4 Lair immediately prior to the construction of the Pitcarmick buildings 4.5 Chronology and sequence of the buildings at Lair 4.6 The buildings at Lair: form and function 4.7 The buildings at Lair: turf, stone, timber and thatch 4.8 The buildings at Lair: spatial patterning 4.9 Re-visiting the morphology of Pitcarmick buildings 4.10 Early medieval buildings in the North Sea area 4.11 The socio-political context and geographic patterns of Pitcarmick buildings in north-east Perthshire 4.12 The rural economy at Lair AD 600-660 to AD 975-1025: palynological evidence and implications 4.13 The wider context of 7th century AD agrarian expansion 4.14 The function of Pitcarmick buildings 4.15 The social status of ‘Pitcarmick’ communities 4.16 After the ‘Pitcarmicks’ 5. Conclusions 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Threats to the resource 5.3 The impact of the Glenshee Archaeology Project 5.4 Lessons learned 5.5 Potential for future research References Appendix A Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisExcavation, Analysis and Interpretation of Early Bronze Age Barrows at Guiting Power, Gloucestershire covers the full excavation, analysis and interpretation of two early Bronze Age round barrows at Guiting Power in the Cotswolds, a region where investigation and protection of such sites have been extremely poor, with many barrows unnecessarily lost to erosion, and with most existing excavation partial, and of low quality. One monument, Guiting Power 1, typical of many others in the region in terms of general form, was investigated to assess how far surviving evidence could be used to indicate original structure, as a basis for discussion of function as a funerary and ritual site. The project is paired with the full excavation of a larger round barrow, of similar date, nearby, at Guiting Power 3 in the valley below. Both sites have been considered within their local environment and as part of the general pattern of settlement. The monuments have also provided data for a programme of experimental investigation of prehistoric cremation. Discovery of a post ring with well-preserved basal structures, sealed under an early bronze age round barrow at Guiting Power 3, enables detailed analysis of its structure, associations, and place in the sequence. This review of a sample of other post rings from southern and western Britain places the example from Guiting Power within its archaeological context.Table of ContentsAnalysis of an Early Bronze Age Round Barrow: A Case Study at Guiting Power 1, Glos. (UK) ; SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE ; SECTION 2: OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT ; SECTION 3: METHODS FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE SITE ; SECTION 4: STRUCTURAL SEQUENCE AT THE SITE ; SECTION 5: GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SITE ; SECTION 6: FINDS AND SAMPLES FROM THE SITE ; SECTION 7: SUPPLEMENTARY STUDIES ; SUPPLEMENTARY STUDY A: Round barrows in the northern Cotswolds: current state of preservation in a selected study area ; SUPPLEMENTARY STUDY B: Summary of published data on excavated round barrows from the Cotswold region ; SUPPLEMENTARY STUDY C: Other round barrows in the area: data from geophysical survey ; SECTION 8: APPENDICES ; SECTION 9: SUPPORTING INFORMATION/SOURCES ; SECTION 10: FIGURES AND PLATES ; Interpretation of an Early Bronze Age Round Barrow: Excavation of the Monument at Guiting Power 3, Glos. (UK) ; SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE ; SECTION 2: OBJECTIVES AND METHODS FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE SITE ; SECTION 3: STRUCTURAL SEQUENCE AT THE SITE ; SECTION 4: GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SITE ; SECTION 5: FINDS AND SAMPLES FROM THE SITE ; SECTION 6: SUPPORTING INFORMATION/ SOURCES ; SECTION 7: FIGURES AND PLATES ; A Brief Review of Post Rings Associated With Earlier Bronze Age Round Barrows in Southern Britain: A Context for the Example at Guiting Power 3, Glos. (UK) ; SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION ; SECTION 2: REVIEW OF PUBLISHED INFORMATION ; SECTION 3: SUMMARIES OF INDIVIDUAL POST RINGS ; SECTION 4: GENERAL DISCUSSION ; SECTION 5: SOURCES OF INFORMATION ; SECTION 6: FIGURES

Read more less

Book SynopsisQuebrada de Humahuaca is the center of important and diverse continuous cultural developments and presents places that are key references in the archaeology of Argentina. However, numerous spaces, such as Tumbaya, have not yet been the subject of systematic and intensive research. There, the study began as a response to the interest of the local aboriginal community to know the pre-Hispanic past of the area. Tumbaya, in the central-south sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca, is a particular space since its environmental and geomorphological characteristics have allowed important interactions between the groups that inhabited the area and those of other regions, added to a social dynamic that gives a distinctive character to the sector. Within this framework, the landscapes that were configured in the central-south sector of Quebrada during the agricultural-ceramist period were studied, concerning its social identity and the links it may have had with other sectors of the circumpuneña area. The landscape approach, understood from a comprehensive perspective, allowed consideration of the natural, social and symbolic environment of the inhabitants of the area throughout its occupational history, including the materiality generated and manipulated to configure the landscape and define a particular identity. Thus, the landscape was conceived as a dynamic space, socially built by the daily activities, beliefs and value system of the social actors who carry out an act of memory that is constitutive of both their identity, their conception and legitimation of the territory.Table of ContentsIntroducción ; Capítulo 1. El Estudio del Paisaje: Abordaje Teórico y Metodológico ; Capítulo 2. La Quebrada de Humahuaca en la Arqueología ; Capítulo 3. Las Investigaciones en el Sector Centro-Sur de la Quebrada de Humahuaca ; Capítulo 4. El Sector Centro-Sur de la Quebrada de Humahuaca ; Capítulo 5. La Agricultura en Tumbaya. Raya-Raya a lo Largo del Tiempo ; Capítulo 6. El Pobladito: los Contextos Excavados ; Capítulo 7. El Pobladito: Configuración Espacial y Arquitectura ; Capítulo 8. La Alfarería de Momentos Tardíos ; Capítulo 9. Discusión de los Resultados y Perspectivas ; Bibliografía ; Anexo 1. Descripción de las Formas Identificadas para la Cerámica del Sector Centro-Sur ; Anexo 2. Fichas de Registro Cerámico por Vasija. El Pobladito

Read more less