Landscape archaeology Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Book 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

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Book SynopsisThe American Southwest is characterised by environmentally and culturally diverse landscapes, which include the northern Rio Grande valley as it cuts through north-central New Mexico from Taos to Albuquerque. The region has a long and rich history of anthropological research primarily focused on the archaeological remains found along this valley corridor. Only recently has research involving large-scale surveys and excavations been conducted on the nearby mesas and mountains that form the rugged margins of the river valley. From Mountain Top to Valley Bottom incorporates this new research into a perspective that links the ever-changing and complementary nature of lowland and upland land use.The essays in this collection are unified by three specific themes: landscape, movement, and technology. Landscape involves the ecological backdrop of the northern Rio Grande valley, including past and present environments. Movement refers to the positioning of people across the landscape along with the dynamic and fluid nature with which people—past and present—view their relationship with the “above” and “below.” Technology not only refers to the tools and facilities that past people may have used but to the organisation of labour needed to cooperatively exploit a variety of subsistence resources and the exchange of products across the region. This volume provides both a cross section of current research from expert scholars and a broad perspective that seeks to integrate new data from lowland and upland contexts. From Mountain Top to Valley Bottom will appeal to those interested in obsidian source studies, geoarchaeology, past climatic regimes, foraging societies, early agriculture, ceramic technology, subsistence, early village formation, ethnogenesis, and historic multiethnic economies.Trade Review“Brings a wide range of specialties commenting on a single region into a single volume. It covers thousands of years of human occupation in the Northern Rio Grande and spans an array of specialties.”—Michael Adler, author of The Prehistoric Pueblo World, A.D. 1150–1350 “This volume illustrates the richness of the Northern Rio Grande archaeological record, the rapidly expanding database being built by a large number of excellent archaeologists working in the region, and the fascinating debates on fundamental interpretations that result.”—Journal of Anthropological Research “[This volume] is especially helpful as an example of a regional overview that synthesizes available data, addresses important research questions, identifies data gaps, and helps develop hypotheses for future research in Utah.”—Utah ArchaeologyTable of ContentsList of FiguresList of TablesForeword by Severin M. FowlesIntroductionBradley J. VierraPart I/Landscape1. The Geochemistry and Archaeological Petrology of Volcanic Raw Materials in Northern New Mexico: Obsidian and Dacite Sources in Upland and Lowland Contexts, M. Steven Shackley2. Surficial Processes and Preservation of Ancestral Puebloan Archaeological Sites on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico, Paul G. Drakos and Steven L. Reneau3. Dendroclimatologic Reconstructions of Precipitation for the Northern Rio Grande, Ronald H. Towner and Mathew W. SalzerPart II/Movement4. The Cultural Ecology of Jemez Cave, Richard I. Ford5. Transitional Archaic and Emergent Agricultural Settlement in the Lowland-Upland Settings of the Northern Rio Grande, New Mexico, Stephen S. Post6. Ecological Uncertainly and Organizational Flexibility on the Prehistoric Tewa Landscape: Notes from the Northern Frontier, Samuel Duwe and Kurt F. Anschuetz7. Living it Up: Upland Adaptation and High Altitude Occupation by the Gallina along the Continental Divide, J. Michael Bremer and Denver Burns8. Upland-Lowland Corridors and Historic Jicarilla Apache Settlement in the Northern Rio Grande, B.Sunday EiseltPart III/Technology9. Archaic Foraging Technology and Land-use in the Northern Rio Grande, Bradley J. Vierra10. The Gradual Development of Systems of Pottery Production and Distribution Across Northern Rio Grande Landscapes, C. Dean Wilson11. From the Land of the Little Birds to the Valleys of the White Rock, Tewa, Galisteo, Rio Grande and Santa Fe Rivers: Diet and Subsistence Meet the Challenges of a Changing Environment, Pamela J. McBride and Mollie S. Toll12. Northern Rio Grande Faunal Exploitation: A View from the Pajarito Plateau, the Tewa Basin and Beyond, Nancy J. Akins13. Discussion: Landscape, Movement and Technology in the Northern Rio Grande, Timothy A. KohlerList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThe toil of several million peasant farmers in Aztec Mexico transformed lakebeds and mountainsides into a checkerboard of highly productive fields. This book charts the changing fortunes of one Aztec settlement and its terraced landscapes from the twelfth to the twenty-first century. It also follows the progress and missteps of a team of archaeologists as they pieced together this story. Working at a settlement in the Toluca Valley of central Mexico, the authors used fieldwalking, excavation, soil and artifact analyses, maps, aerial photos, land deeds, and litigation records to reconstruct the changing landscape through time. Exploiting the methodologies and techniques of several disciplines, they bring context to eight centuries of the region's agrarian history, exploring the effects of the Aztec and Spanish Empires, reform, and revolution on the physical shape of the Mexican countryside and the livelihoods of its people. Accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike, this well-illustrated and well-organized volume provides a step-by-step guide that can be applied to the study of terraced landscapes anywhere in the world. The four authors share an interest in terraced landscapes and have worked together and on their own on a variety of archaeological projects in Mesoamerica, the Mediterranean, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

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Book SynopsisHistorical archaeologists explore landscapes in the American West through many lenses, including culture contact, colonialism, labor, migration, and identity. This volume sets landscape at the center of analysis, examining space (a geographic location) and place (the lived experience of a locale) in their myriad permutations. Divided into three thematic sections—the West as space, the West as community, and the West today—the book pulls together case studies from across the American West and incorporates multivocal contributions and perspectives from archaeology, anthropology, Indigenous studies, history, Latinx studies, geography, and material culture studies. Contributors tackle questions of how historical archaeologists theoretically and methodologically define the West, conveying the historical, mythological, and physical manifestations of placemaking. They confront issues of community and how diverse ethnic, racial, gendered, labor-based, and other demographic populations expressed their identities on and in the Western landscape. Authors also address the continued creation and re-creation of the West today, exploring the impact of the past on people in the present and its influence on modern conceptions of the American West.

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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.

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Book SynopsisThis ground-breaking exploration of the Anglo-Saxon 'Avon valley frontier', combines archaeology and documentary sources, to present a case for remarkable continuity during the Dark Age and Anglo-Saxon period. Based on research in the department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic History at Cambridge University, this study explores the evidence of archaeology, chronicles, charters and place-names to analyse the history of the 'Bristol Avon' as a frontier from the 4th to the 11th century. The result is a regional history that mirrors the history of Anglo-Saxon England. It also reveals a striking continuity in the use of the Avon valley as a frontier; the roots of which are discernible in the Late Iron Age. Yet this continuity tells two different 'stories', either side of Bath, which influenced the actions of successor kingdoms over hundreds of years. In this history, Offa, Alfred, Guthrum, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edgar and Cnut all played their parts. Even the legendary Arthur and the semi-legendary Vortigern have walk-on parts. What is surprising is that 21st century civil and Church boundaries still reflect this history, which is over 1,500 years old.

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Book SynopsisNearly 2000 years ago, people living in the river valleys of southern Ohio built earthen monuments on a scale that is unmatched in the archaeological record for small-scale societies. The period from c. 200 BC to c. AD 500 (Early to Middle Woodland) witnessed the construction of mounds, earthen walls, ditches, borrow pits and other earthen and stone features covering dozen of hectares at many sites and hundreds of hectares at some. The development of the vast Hopewell Culture geometric earthwork complexes such as those at Mound City, Chilicothe; Hopewell; and the Newark earthworks was accompanied by the establishment of wide-ranging cultural contacts reflected in the movement of exotic and strikingly beautiful artefacts such as elaborate tobacco pipes, obsidian and chert arrowheads, copper axes and regalia, animal figurines and delicately carved sheets of mica. These phenomena, coupled with complex burial rituals, indicate the emergence of a political economy based on a powerful ideology of individual power and prestige, and the creation of a vast cultural landscape within which the monument complexes were central to a ritual cycle encompassing a substantial geographical area.The labour needed to build these vast cultural landscapes exceeds population estimates for the region, and suggests that people from near (and possibly far) travelled to the Scioto and other river valleys to help with construction of these monumental earthen complexes. Here, in the first American Landscapes volume, Mark Lynott draws on more than a decade of research and extensive new datasets to re-examine the spectacular and massive scale Ohio Hopewell landscapes and to explore the society that created them.Trade ReviewMark Lynott has given us a successful account of the earthwork centers of southern Ohio and one that complements previous treatments focusing on grave lots, ritual production, and artifact-based interaction. It is a useful addition to our understanding of Ohio Hopewell and it will be read by generations to come. * Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology *Well illustrated with photos and drawings. A must for those interested in Hopewell and for scholars around the world researching ceremonial earthworks. * CHOICE *Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes of Ohi is, in my estimation, the most authoritative, up-to-date, and attractive overview of ancient North America’s allimportant Hopewellian world (c. 150 b.c.–a.d. 350). The book’s authority and up-to-date quality rest on the late author’s decades-long experience with the archaeology and archaeologists of this all-important indigenous cultural phenomenon. * Landscape History *Table of ContentsI. More than Mounds and Ditches, an Introduction to Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes Ohio and the Beginning of North American Archaeology Mortuary Mounds and Artifacts Expanding Research Interests in earthworks and ceremonial centers Ohio Hopewell Constructed Landscapes and the Digital Revolution Ohio Hopewell – an iconic name and iconic sites, but what is it?II. Current Issues in the Construction of Ohio Hopewell ceremonial landscapes Hopewell Variation and Distribution Time and Hopewell ArchaeologyEnergy analysis: How many people did it take to build Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes Sedentary Farmers or Mobile Foragers? Mensuration, Geometry, Alignments and Reading the Heavens Alignments and Reading the Heavens The Great Hopewell Road Were ceremonial landscapes planned designs? Models and hypotheses.III. The Hopeton Earthworks ProjectGeophysical Survey and Trench ExcavationsEmbankment Wall Features GeoarchaeologyRadiocarbon ResultsNon-embankment wall featuresNear The Earthworks: Triangle, Red Wing, Overly, and Cryder sitesWhat have we learned about the Hopeton Earthworks?IV. Studies of Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes Southeastern Ohio Newark Earthworks Marietta Scioto River Valley Seip High Bank Earthwork Anderson Earthwork Mound City Hopewell Mound Group Shriver CircleSouthwest Ohio – Brush Creek, The Great Miami and Little Miami River drainagesFort Hill, Highland CountyFort AncientFoster’s CrossingPollock WorksMiami FortTurner Group of EarthworksStubbs EarthworkV: What do we know about Hopewell ceremonial landscapes?Constructed Landscapes, Site Preparation and PlanningMaterial Selection and the Placement of material: art or engineering?Landscape Features - Unique and DiverseTime and Landscape Construction How Were Ceremonial Landscapes Used? Ritual Refuse Pits at the Riverside Site, Hopewell Mound Group The Moorehead Circle Craft Houses and Other Wooden Structures A Great Post Circle and Many Buildings Beyond the Enclosure at Mound City Some additional thoughtsVI. Some Final Thoughts: What We Still Need to Learn Landscapes and Time The Meaning Behind Landscape Forms Beyond Southern Ohio Future studies and final thoughtsVII. References

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Book SynopsisMulti-disciplinary investigation of Anglo-Saxon funerary traditions. Burial evidence provides the richest record we possess for the centuries following the retreat of Roman authority. The locations and manner in which communities chose to bury their dead, within the constraints of the environmentaland social milieu, reveal much about this transformational era. This book offers a pioneering exploration of the ways in which the cultural and physical environment influenced funerary traditions during the period c. AD 450-850, in the region which came to form the leading Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This was a diverse landscape rich in ancient remains, in the form of imposing earthworks, enigmatic megaliths and vestiges of Roman occupation. Employing archaeological evidence, complemented by toponymic and documentary sources and elucidated through landscape analysis, the author argues that particular man-made and natural features were consciously selected as foci for funerary events and ritual practice, becoming integral to manifestations of identity and power in early medieval society. Kate Mees is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University.Trade Review[An] invaluable resource for anyone seeking to use evidence of burial in the landscape -- EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPEA detailed and thoughtful book...A stroke of Mees' brilliance is the use of microtopography, a novel approach that yields some intriguing inferences about the interplay between landscape and funerary ritual. * JAEMA *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Perspectives, Approaches and Context Monument Reuse and the Inherited Landscape Topography and Ritual Life 'Britons and Saxons'? Land Use, Territoriality and Social Change The Church and the Funerary Landscape Conclusions Appendix: Gazetteer of burial sites in the study area, c. AD 450-850 Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of small early folk communities prior to the eleventh century, showing their development and sophistication. All communities have a strong sense of identity with the area in which they live, which for England in the early medieval period manifested itself in a series of territorial entities, ranging from large kingdoms down to small districts known as pagi or regiones. This book investigates these small early folk territories, and the way that they evolved into the administrative units recorded in Domesday, across an entire kingdom - that of the East Saxons (broadly speaking, what is now Essex, Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and south Suffolk). A wide range of evidence is drawn upon, including archaeology, written documents, place-names and the early cartographic sources. The book looks in particular at the relationship between Saxon immigrants and the native British population, and argues that initially these ethnic groups occupied different parts of the landscape, until a dynasty which assumed an Anglo-Saxon identity achieved political ascendency (its members included the so-called "Prittlewell Prince", buried with spectacular grave-good in Prittlewell, near Southend-on- Sea in southern Essex). Other significant places discussed include London, the seat of the first East Saxon bishopric, the possible royal vills at Wicken Bonhunt near Saffron Walden and Maldon, and St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea, one of the most important surviving churches from the early Christian period.Trade ReviewStephen Rippon must be congratulated on a handsome, well-illustrated book that is a new must-read [...]. -- Current ArchaeologyTable of ContentsPART I: BACKGROUND Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Territoriality in Early Medieval England Chapter 3 Reconstructing Early Medieval Folk Territories PART II: THE EARLY FOLK TERRITORIES Chapter 4 From Early Folk Territory to Domesday Vills: The Rochford Peninsula Chapter 5 Immigration and Integration in the Central Thameside Districts: The Fen District and Havering Chapter 6 The Province of the Middle Saxons Chapter 7 Fringes of the Kingdom: The Eastern Coastal Districts and the Landscape Context of Anglo-Saxon Colonisation Chapter 8 A British Domain: The Central Claylands, Place-names, Early Medieval Territorial Identity, and the -ingas Question Chapter 9 Another British Domain: The Northern Claylands Chapter 10 And Another British Domain: The Western Districts, and Romano-British Antecedents of Early Medieval Central Places Chapter 11 Beyond the Northern Frontier PART III: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS Chapter 12 Agriculture and Resource Management Chapter 13 Conclusions Appendices 1. Domesday population densities across the 'Rochford Peninsula' early folk territory 2. Sites used in the analysis of animal bone assemblages 3. Sites used in the analysis of charred cereal assemblages Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a history of archaeological endeavour in Norfolk set within a national context. It covers the writer's early experiences as a volunteer, the rise of field archaeology as a profession and efforts to conserve the archaeological heritage against the tide of destruction prevalent in the countryside up to the 1980s when there was not even a right of access to record sites before they were lost. Now developers often have to pay for an excavation before they can obtain planning consent. The book features progress with archaeology conservation as well as the growth of rescue archaeology as a profession both in towns and in the countryside. Many of the most important discoveries made by aerial photography, rescue excavations and metal detecting from the 1970s onwards are illustrated. The last section covers the recent growth of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust as an owner of some of the most iconic rural sites in Norfolk. The book concludes with a discussion of some issues facing British field archaeology today.Trade Review'What a life in Norfolk's archaeology! The book is destined to become an essential archaeological reference and to join other classics of archaeological autobiography, among them Sir Mortimer Wheeler's Still Digging and Philip Rahtz's Living Archaeology. An absolute must-read.' - Edward Biddulph (2018): Current Archaeology Nominated for the Current Archaeology Book of the Year Award 2019Table of ContentsNorfolk Firsts ; Time line of key events most of which feature in the Book ; Chapter 1: Introduction ; Chapter 2: The Early Years ; Chapter 3: Excavating Deserted Medieval Villages ; Chapter 4: The Launditch Hundred Project, 1967-71 ; Chapter 5: North Elmham Park: The Excavation of a High-Status Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Settlement, 1967-72 ; Chapter 6: Chance Finds ; Chapter 7: Societies ; Chapter 8: Amateurs in Action ; Chapter 9: Metal Detecting: ‘The Norfolk System’ ; Chapter 10: Urban Surveys ; Chapter 11: The ‘RESCUE’ Movement, The Scole Committee and Professional County Units ; Chapter 12: A New County Service for Field Archaeology, 1973-1999 ; Chapter 13: Key Norfolk Archaeological Unit Projects ; Chapter 14: The Story of ‘East Anglian Archaeology’ ; Chapter 15: County-based Conservation Projects ; Chapter 16: National Conservation Initiatives ; Chapter 17: Some Rescue Excavations, 1972-92 ; Chapter 18: Clearing the Publication Backlog from the Past, 1977-97 ; Chapter 19: Re-structuring Field Archaeology in Norfolk, 1991 ; Chapter 20: Time to Move On ; Chapter 21: The Norfolk Archaeological Trust: a property-owning conservation trust ; Chapter 22: Caistor St Edmund Roman Town ; Chapter 23: Burgh Castle ‘Saxon Shore’ Roman Fort ; Chapter 24: Two Monasteries ; Chapter 25: Other Recent Acquisitions ; Chapter 26: The Future Role of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust ; Chapter 27: A Time to Reflect ; Appendix 1: Alan Davison’s publications ; Appendix 2: Summary of progress set out in the 1996 Five-year Development Plan for Archaeology in the Norfolk Museums Service ; Appendix 3: List of those archaeologists who attended the February 1970 Barford meeting which represented the start of the RESCUE movement ; Bibliography ; Index

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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

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Book SynopsisProfessor Challenger and his Lost Neolithic World combines the two great passions of the author’s life: reconstructing the Neolithic mind and constructively challenging consensus in his professional domain. The book is semi-autobiographical, charting the author’s investigation of Alexander Thom’s theories, in particular regarding the alignment of prehistoric monuments in the landscape, across a number of key Neolithic sites from Kintraw to Stonehenge and finally Orkney. It maps his own perspective of the changing reception to Thom’s ideas by the archaeological profession from initial curiosity and acceptance to increasing scepticism. The text presents historical summaries of the various strands of evidence from key Neolithic sites across the UK and Ireland with the compelling evidence from the Ness of Brodgar added as an appendix in final justification of his approach to the subject.Trade Review'...a richly illustrated account of an important, but much marginalised debate within archaeology and, as such, of great historiographical value.'—Kenneth Brophy (2021): Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.22278Table of ContentsForeword – Dr Doug MacKie ; Preface ; Chapter 1 The origins of the controversy ; Chapter 2 Early hypothesis-testing in western Scotland ; Chapter 3 Decisive tests in Orkney and Ireland ; Chapter 4 Research into Alexander Thom’s fieldwork ; Chapter 5 The probable astronomy and geometry of Stonehenge ; Chapter 6 The Neolithic solar calendar, as seen on a kerb stone at Knowth, Ireland ; Chapter 7 Current aspects of the research situation ; Appendix Is there plausible evidence that the Ness of Brodgar priesthood had any esoteric knowledge? ; Bibliography

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