Oxbow Books

Book SynopsisThis book is concerned with the origins, uses and subsequent histories of monuments. It emphasises the time scales illustrated by these structures, and their implications for archaeological research. It is concerned with the archaeology of Western and Northern Europe, with an emphasis on structures in Britain and Ireland, and the period between the Mesolithic and the Viking Age.It begins with two famous groups of monuments and introduces the problem of multiple time scales. It also considers how they influence the display of those sites today – they belong to both the present and the past. Monuments played a role from the moment they were created, but approaches to their archaeology led in opposite directions. They might have been directed to a future that their builders could not control. These structures could be adapted, destroyed, or left to decay once their significance was lost. Another perspective was to claim them as relics of a forgotten past. In that case they had to be reinterpreted.The first part of this book considers the rarity of monumental structures among hunter-gatherers, and the choice of building materials for Neolithic houses and tombs. It emphasises the difference between structures whose erection ended the use of significant places, and those whose histories could extend into the future. It also discusses ‘megalithic astronomy’ and ancient notions of time. Part Two is concerned with the reuse of ancient monuments and asks whether they really were expressions of social memory. Did links with an ‘ancestral past’ have much factual basis? It contrasts developments during the Beaker phase with those of the early medieval period. The development of monumental architecture is compared with the composition of oral literature.Table of Contents1. Pasts, presents and futures: Bredarör and the Boyne Valley Part 1: Key considerations 2. The tyranny of typing 3. Material differences 4. Closing and opening 5. Time and the sky Part 2: Pasts in retrospect 6. Allusions and illusions 7. Associations and origins 8. Oral literature and the histories of monuments 9. Monumental times: Avebury and the Upper Kennet Valley

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Book SynopsisPersian blue, pomegranate flower, spiny lobster, wine soup, pale flesh, dove breast, golden wax, grass green, green sand, rotten olive, modest plum, agate, rich French gray, gunpowder of the English...these are just some of the colour names of old fabric to fire the imagination. The Dyer's Handbook concerns a unique manuscript from the eighteenth century; a dyers memoirs from Languedoc, containing recipes for dyes with corresponding colour samples. It is an exceptional document, hugely rare and of great significance not only to textile historians but dyers and colourists today, as thanks to the information in the manuscript the colours can be reproduced exactly, with the same ingredients, or reproduced using modern techniques by matching the colour samples. To the English translation of the text, together with facsimile pages reproduced in colour from the original manuscript, are added essays meant to situate it in its historical, economic and technological contexts. For those historians who have long been fascinated by the change in scale and the amount of innovation that occurred in woollen cloth production in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, The Dyer's Handbook brings first-hand insight into the daily preoccupations and tasks of a key actor in the success story of the Languedocian broadcloth production specially devised for export to the Levant. Even non-specialists may be interested in understanding the clever management and technical organisation that made it possible for the author to produce, dye, finish, pack and export up to 1,375 pieces of superfine broadcloth per year, representing nearly 51 km of cloth.Trade Review...the author of the memoirs emerges as a highly competent and innovative dyer, for he created new colourways, and managed a successful manufacturing business. His ability to record accurately his recipes in one place and that the manuscript was preserved until the time Cardon became acquainted with it and brought it to our attention is like finding treasure. * Journal of Dress History *

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Book SynopsisOne marker of the majesty of ancient Rome is its surviving architectural legacy, the stunning remains of which are scattered throughout the circum-Mediterranean landscape. Surprisingly, one truly remarkable aspect of this heritage remains relatively unknown. There exists beneath the waters of the Mediterranean the physical remnants of a vast maritime infrastructure that sustained and connected the western world’s first global empire and economy. The key to this incredible accomplishment and to the survival of structures in the hostile environment of the sea for two thousand years was maritime concrete, a building material invented and then employed by Roman builders on a grand scale to construct harbor installations anywhere they were needed, rather than only in locations with advantageous geography or topography.This book explains how the Romans built so successfully in the sea with their new invention. The story is a stimulating mix of archaeological, geological, historical and chemical research, with relevance to both ancient and modern technology. It also breaks new ground in bridging the gap between science and the humanities by integrating analytical materials science, history, and archaeology, along with underwater exploration. The book will be of interest to anyone interested in Roman architecture and engineering, and it will hold special interest for geologists and mineralogists studying the material characteristics of pyroclastic volcanic rocks and their alteration in seawater brines. The demonstrable durability and longevity of Roman maritime concrete structures may be of special interest to engineers working on cementing materials appropriate for the long-term storage of hazardous substances such as radioactive waste.A pioneering methodology was used to bore into maritime structures both on land and in the sea to collect concrete cores for testing in the research laboratories of the CTG Italcementi Group, a leading cement producer in Italy, the University of Berkeley, and elsewhere. The resulting mechanical, chemical and physical analysis of 36 concrete samples taken from 11 sites in Italy and the eastern Mediterranean have helped fill many gaps in our knowledge of how the Romans built in the sea. To gain even more knowledge of the ancient maritime technology, the directors of the Roman Maritime Concrete Study (ROMACONS) engaged in an ambitious and unique experimental archaeological project – the construction underwater of a reproduction of a Roman concrete pier or pila. The same raw materials and tools available to the ancient builders were employed to produce a reproduction concrete structure that appears to be remarkably similar to the ancient one studied during ROMACON’s fieldwork between 2002-2009.This volume reveals a remarkable and unique archaeological project that highlights the synergy that now exists between the humanities and science in our continuing efforts to understand the past. It will quickly become a standard research tool for all interested in Roman building both in the sea and on land, and in the history and chemistry of marine concrete. The authors also hope that the data and observations it presents will stimulate further research by scholars and students into related topics, since we have so much more to learn in the years ahead.

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Book SynopsisThe Great Houses of the prehistoric and early medieval periods were enormous structures whose forms were modelled on those of domestic dwellings. Most were built of wood rather than stone; they were used over comparatively short periods; they were frequently replaced in the same positions; and some were associated with exceptional groups of artefacts. Their construction made considerable demands on human labour and approached the limits of what was possible at the time. They seem to have played specialised roles in ancient society, but they have been difficult to interpret. Were they public buildings or the dwellings of important people? Were they temples or military bases, and why were they erected during times of crisis or change? How were their sites selected, and how were they related to the remains of a more ancient past? Although their currency extended from the time of the first farmers to the Viking Age, the similarities between the Great Houses are as striking as the differences.This study focuses on the monumental buildings of northern and northwestern Europe, but draws on structures over a wide area, extending from Anatolia as far as Brittany and Norway. It employs ethnography as a source of ideas and discusses the concept of the House Society and its usefulness in archaeology. The main examples are taken from the Neolithic and Iron Age periods, but this account also draws on the archaeology of the first millennium AD. The book emphasises the importance of comparing archaeological sequences with one another rather than identifying ideal social types. In doing so, it features a range of famous and less famous sites, from Stonehenge to the Hill of Tara, and from Old Uppsala to Yeavering.Trade ReviewA stimulating review. * British Archaeology *[T]his is wide-ranging and thought-provoking book which should be read by anyone interested in the architecture of European prehistory but equally by early-medieval archaeologists engaged in buildings and their meanings. * Medieval Archaeology *Table of ContentsPART ONE: A PROBLEM SHARED Chapter One ‘Nobody on earth knew of another building like it.’ Chapter Two From Anatolia to Zealand: an A to Z of Great Houses PART TWO: DREAM HOUSES Chapter Three From the foundations Chapter Four Castles in the air PART THREE: SETTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER Chapter Five On a larger scale Chapter Six Social distances Chapter Seven Halls of residence and Halls of Fame Chapter Eight Building societies: a summary and some conclusions

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Book SynopsisThe Viking Age (c. 750-1050 AD) is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver, and exotic commodities. Until relatively recently, archaeologists and textual scholars had the tendency to weave a largely male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians - for instance in craftsmanship, exploration, cross-cultural trade, warfare and other spheres of life - would not have been possible without the active involvement of women. Extant textual sources as well as the perpetually expanding corpus of archaeological evidence thus demonstrate unequivocally that both within the walls of the household and in the wider public arena women’s voices were heard, respected and followed.This pioneering and beautifully illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The multifarious motivations and circumstances that led women to engage in armed conflict or other activities whereby weapons served as potent symbols of prestige and empowerment are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the wider Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields – lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.Trade ReviewGardeła has provided a most welcome, cross-disciplinary survey of very diverse source materials. There is still much to discuss of this fascinating subject and this volume opens future avenues of research. * Medieval Archaeology *[It] provides a comprehensive catalogue of findings and an up-to-date view of the research, permitting a better understanding of the question of the warrior woman. However, as the author recalls, only 1% of female 'Vikings' burials found today include weapons ... This book provides an excellent documentary basis for understanding this problem. * BIBLIOTHÈQUE *Obligatory reading for anyone who wants to approach gender studies in the Viking Age for the first time. * Archeologia Medievale *Table of ContentsList of figures List of tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: the methodological and theoretical framework Entering the Viking world … of the dead Funerary diversity Cremation graves Inhumation graves Lost identities and elusive grave goods Warriors and warrior ideals Sex and gender in the Viking Age Amazons of the North: the scope of the book 2. Historiography Researching women in the Viking Age Warrior women in Old Norse studies and Viking archaeology 3. Women and weapons in medieval textual sources Armed women in Gesta Danorum Armed women in Old Norse Literature Women and weapons in the Íslendingasögur Freydís Eiríksdóttir Þórdís Súrsdóttir Auðr and Þuriðr Þórhildr Vaðlækkja Not only axes and swords: understanding women’s weapons Women and weapons in the fornaldarsögur Hervör Bjarmarsdóttir Þornbjörg Eiríksdóttir Other armed women in the fornaldarsögur Armed women in Old Norse mythology Valkyrjur, disir, fylgjur Skaði Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr Female Giantesses as grinders of war and bearers of arms Armed women of the Viking Age in non-Scandinavian medieval sources Æthelflæd of Mercia Women and war in the account of John Skylitzes Women with weapons in medieval literature: more than literary embellishments 4. Women and weapons in Viking archaeology: the burial evidence Female graves with weapons Swedish female graves with weapons Norwegian female graves with weapons Danish female graves with weapons 5. Interpreting the arsenal of armed women Women and axes in the Viking Age Axes in the Viking Age Axes in Viking Age funerary contexts Miniature axes Interpreting axes in Viking Age female graves Women and axes in textual sources and folklore Women and axes in the Viking Age: conclusions Women and swords in the Viking Age Swords in the Viking Age Swords in Viking Age funerary contexts Women and weaving swords Women and swords in iconography Miniature swords Interpreting swords in Viking Age female graves Women and swords in Old Norse sources Women and swords in the Viking Age: conclusions Women and spears in the Viking Age Spears in the Viking Age Spears in Viking Age funerary contexts Women and spears in iconography Miniature spears Interpreting spears in Viking Age female graves Women and spears in Old Norse sources Women and spears in the Viking Age: conclusions Women and shields in the Viking Age Shields in the Viking Age Shields in Viking Age funerary contexts Women and shields in iconography Miniature shields Interpreting shields in Viking Age female graves Women and shields in Old Norse sources Women and shields in the Viking Age: conclusions Women, bows and arrows in the Viking Age Bows and arrows in the Viking Age Bows and arrows in Viking Age funerary contexts Interpreting bows and arrows in Viking Age female graves Women, bows and arrows in Old Norse sources Women, bows and arrows in the Viking Age: conclusions Women, riding equipment and horses in the Viking Age Riding equipment in the Viking Age Riding equipment and horses in Viking Age funerary contexts Interpreting riding equipment and horses in Viking Age female graves Women and horses in Old Norse sources Women, horses and riding equipment in the Viking Age: conclusions 6. Women and weapons in Viking Age iconography The so-called ‘valkyrie brooches’: distribution and materiality (Re)interpreting the so-called ‘valkyrie brooches’ Freyja and a warrior woman? Sigurðr and Brynhildr/Sigrdrífa Other iconographic representations of armed females in Viking Age Scandinavia and England 7. Women with weapons: a cross-cultural phenomenon Warrior women in prehistoric times Female cross-dressers in early modern Europe The Amazons of Dahomey Women in the First and Second World Wars Emerging patterns and conclusions 8. Amazons of the North? Women and weapons in the Viking world Women and weapons in Viking archaeology Women and weapons in medieval texts The way of the warrior: past and present Appendix References

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Book SynopsisThis innovative study examines and analyses the wealth of evidence provided by the monumental effigies of Yorkshire, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including some of very high sculptural merit. More than 200 examples survive from the historic county in varying states of preservation. Together, they present a picture of the people able to afford them, at a time when the county was frequently at the forefront of national politics and administration, during the Scottish wars.Many monuments display remarkable realism, depicting people as they themselves wished to be remembered, and are accompanied by a great volume of contemporary sculptural and architectural detail. Stylistic analysis of the effigies themselves has been employed, better to understand how they relate to one another and give a firmer basis for their dating and production patterns. They are considered in relation to the history and material culture of the area at the time they were produced. A more soundly based appreciation of the sculptor's intentions and the aspirations of patrons is sought through close attention to the full extent of the visible evidence afforded by the monuments and their surroundings.The corpus is of sufficient size to permit meaningful analysis to shed light on aspects such as personal aspiration, social networks, patterns of supply and production, piety and wealth. It demonstrates the value of funerary monuments to the wider understanding of medieval society.The text will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue, making available a substantial body of research for the first time. The study considers the relationship between the monuments and related sculpture, architecture, painting, glass etc, together with contemporary documentary evidence, where it is available. This material and the underlying methodology are now available to illuminate monuments of the medieval period across the whole country. Its methods and messages extend understanding of all monuments, broadening its potential audience from the purely local to everyone concerned with medieval sculpture and church archaeology.Trade Review...the Gittos’ very evident expertise and dedication to these monuments have come together so fruitfully in this comprehensive book. * Medieval Archaeology *This engaging, authoritative and affordable study, with its additional online components, is indeed worth the wait. It will reinvigorate older debates and undoubtedly encourage new scholarship. * The Ecclesiological Society *Every medieval monument tells a story, both in its intent and origins, and in its subsequent history. It is clear that the authors realize this, and do their best to convey these stories, and the evidence that allows their recreation, to the reader. Their enthusiasm for this is contagious. * Archaeological Journal *Overall this a superbly researched and well-presented book which will doubtless become one of the great publications on medieval effigies and a much sought after addition to any bookshelf. For those interested in medieval arms and armour of the 13th and 14th centuries, this work is essential. * Arms and Armour: The Journal of Royal Armouries *The observational skills and contextual awareness of the authors, their breadth of scholarship and indomitable persistence are apparent throughout. […] While the effigies perpetuate the memories of the dead, this study if a worthy monument to the craftsmen who created them. * The Local Historian *Table of ContentsList of figures List of colour plates Acknowledgements Conventions 1 Introduction 2 The effigies 2a Description of the corpus 2b Aspects of design 2c Fate and fortune 2d Conclusions 3 Monuments in context 3a Introduction 3b Freestanding monuments 3c Canopied recesses 3d Tomb chests 3e Glass and painting 3f Armour and hearses 3g Dedicated locations 3h The churchyard 3i Conclusions 4 Makers and making 4a Fundamentals 4b Techniques 4c Relationships and series 4d Conclusions 5 Patrons and patronage 5a Historical context and Yorkshire society 5b The commemorated, their families and networks 5c Symbolism 6 Complexity and conclusions 6a The enigmatic priest’s monument at Welwick 6b Concluding remarks Bibliography Index List of Yorkshire's effigies to 1400

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Book SynopsisThe shift from a hunting and gathering economy to a productive economy, based on the domestication of plants and animals, is one of the most important changes in human history. This change, which manifested itself in different forms and at different times in different areas of the Old and New Worlds, is still a subject of debate and discussion today. How and why does such a profound change occur in the relationship with the environment and the land? Could the arrival of foreign settlers with a mature and structured Neolithic cultural heritage be the cause of this change in the Mediterranean?The archaeological excavations conducted at the settlement of La Marmotta (Anguillara Sabazia, Rome, Italy), today submerged under the waters of Lake Bracciano, represents one of the most relevant Neolithic villages of the entire Mediterranean. The exceptional nature of this site is given by the conservation of the organic remains. Not only are the piles and architectural remains of the houses well preserved at La Marmotta, but so are small finds and fragile artefacts such as spoons, textile crafts, baskets, ropes, sickles and bows. In addition, there are a huge variety of remains of both animal and vegetal nature, such as seeds, spikelets, bundles of wheat and other plants, possible cheese and milk derivatives and other mixtures of foodstuff. This set of materials has an enormous potential for changing and deepening our understanding of the first farming societies, of their technological complexity, their know-hows, their lifestyle and food habits. Thanks to La Marmotta it is truly possible to rewrite the evolution of techniques for processing plants and wood during prehistoric times. Until now, published information on the site is very limited and partial. The main aim of this book is to make visible the extreme richness of the La Marmotta archaeological record and provide insights into Neolithic woodworking, basketry, textile production and other crafting and subsistence activities.Table of ContentsPrologue Director General of Museums of Italy Prologue Director of the Museo delle Civiltà. Acknowledgements 1. Introduction to the volume: La Marmotta, an exceptional Neolithic site Mario Mineo, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco 2. La Marmotta site in the framework of the Early Mediterranean Neolithic Niccolò Mazzucco, Juan Gibaja, Mario Mineo 3. La Marmotta: location, history, stratigraphy and cultural sequence, chronology Mario Mineo, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco, Gerard Remolins 4. First palynological contribution towards a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Neolithic site La Marmotta Daniele Arobba1, Rosanna Caramiello, Lionello F. Morandi 5. Woodworking: Introduction to wood working and artefact crafting 5.1. Village Organization and Domestic Structures Mario Mineo, Gerard Remolins, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco 5.2. Navigation: dugout canoes, artefacts related to navigation Mario Mineo, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco, Laura Caruso 5.3. Wood Artefacts Juan F. Gibaja, Mario Mineo, Vittorio Brizzi, Niccolò Mazzucco, Laura Caruso, Miriam Cubas, Gerard Remolins, Daniele Arobba1, Rosanna Caramiello, Lionello F. Morandi 6. Working with plant fibres: textiles, basketry, cordage Juan F. Gibaja, Mario Mineo, Niccolò Mazzucco, Laura Caruso, Vanessa Forte, Millán Mozota, Christina Margariti, Eva Andersson 7. Food remains, phytotherapics and psychotropics remains Mauro Rottoli, Amaia Arranz 8. The Botanical Ornaments of La Marmotta Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia, Alice Vassanelli 9. Lithic Tools Analysis 9.1. Flaked Stone Tools Denis Guilbeau, Bernard Gassin, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco 9.2. Stone adzes and axes Alba Masclans 9.3. Grinding tools for plant processing and food production in La Marmotta Caroline Hamon, Marta Portillo 10. Restoration of wooden and textiles artefacts at La Marmotta Mario Mineo 11. Conclusions and future perspectives Niccolò Mazzucco, Mario Mineo, Juan F. Gibaja 12. References

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Book SynopsisSacred Nature: Animism and Materiality in Ancient Religions is the second volume of the series Material Religion in Antiquity (MaReA). The book collects the proceedings of the international online workshop carrying the same title organized by CAMNES, SoRS on 20–21 May 2021. Sacred Nature brings together the perspectives of scholars from different disciplines (archaeology, anthropology, iconography, philology, history of religions) about the notions of nature, sacredness, animism and materiality in ancient religions of the Old and the New World. The contributions highlight various ways of understandings the relationships that occurred between human beings, animals, plants, rivers, deities and the land in the religious life of ancient societies. In particular, each chapter explores entangled aspects of the perception of nature and its other-than-human inhabitants, and contributes to readdress some notions about nature, personhood/agency, divinity/sacrality, and materiality/spirituality in ancient religions and cosmologies. In this line, the book seeks to promote a starkly inter-disciplinary and religious-anthropological approach to the definition of ‘sacred nature’, especially engaging with the analytical category of animism as a fruitful conceptual tool for the investigation of human-environmental relations in the ancient religious conceptions, representations and practices. Dialoguing with animism and drawing upon the question on how an ancient religion happened materially, the volume presents key case studies that explore how nature and its non-human inhabitants were understood, represented, engaged with and interwoven in the sacred and sensuous landscapes of ancients.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Sacred Nature: Animism and Materiality in ancient Religions Anna Perdibon and Nicola Laneri 1. Before Nature: perspectives from new animist world-making Graham Harvey 2. Watercraft as Assemblage in the Western Arctic Erica Hill 3. Between Realms of Being: Signs of Liminality in Ancient Altai Stone Monuments Esther Jacobson-Tepfer 4. In Mantic and Hostile Lands: Surveillance and Mimesis by Divination in the Late Old Babylonian Period Seth Richardson 5. Nymphs or trees? Some remarks on the “animistic” interpretation of Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, vv. 256-272. Doralice Fabiano 6. The dawn of the Potnia. Reception and reinterpretation of an archetypal model in protohistoric peninsular Italy Valentino Nizzo 7. Responsibilities, Obedience, and Righteousness: Other-Than-Human Creatures in the Hebrew Bible Mari Joerstad

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores the part played by different metals in use from the fourth millennium BC to the Early Iron Age, not only in the Aegean but also in the wider Old World. It addresses the divergent uses and roles of different metals, the interrelationships of these roles and the changing values that may have been accorded to them at different times and in different places by producers and consumers. Individually, the papers in the volume contemplate the particular properties of different metals and the various issues concerning their frequent under-representation in the archaeological (but not necessarily textual) record, and also point out comparative and diachronic perspectives that may have the ability to offer insights into their important roles in wider cultural and historical changes over a period of several millennia. After the Introduction and Chapter 1, which reflects on some of the parameters involved in the term ‘precious’ as applied to metals, the remaining six chapters cover the Aegean and the networks that link the Aegean with Italy, Cyprus and the Near East more generally, and south-east Anatolia and the Caucasus. Between them they discuss the beginnings of regular iron metallurgy, the uses of and attitudes to gold, silver and bronze and other copper-based alloys at various times between the fourth millennium BC and the Early Iron Age.Table of ContentsList of Contributors Precious Circuits: Introduction Toby Wilkinson and Susan Sherratt 1. Precious Metal Values: Reflecting on Colours, Agency, and Domination Toby C. Wilkinson 2. Interaction, Gold, and Power: Contrasting Stories from Tombs across the East Mediterranean ca. 2000–1800 BC Borja Legarro Herrera 3. Greek Silver before Coinage: Medium of Exchange, Means of Wealth Accumulation, or Commodity? Susan Sherratt 4. The Sword and the Axe. Symbols of Value in the Bronze Age Social and Economic Exchange Networks Linking the Aegean to Italy within a Diachronic Perspective Elisabetta Borgna 5. The Development of Ironworking in the 12th and 11th Centuries in Cyprus Joanna Palermo 6. Provinces of Innovation. On the Introduction of Iron in the Near East Christopher Pare 7. Graves of Power. Circulation of Elite Strategies between Caucasus and South-eastern Anatolia in the Dawn of the Bronze Age Martina Massimino

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Book SynopsisTextile imagery is pervasive in classical literature. An awareness of the craft and technology of weaving and spinning, of the production and consumption of clothing items, and of the social and religious significance of garments is key to the appreciation of how textile and cloth metaphors work as literary devices, their suitability to conceptualize human activities and represent cosmic realities, and their potential to evoke symbolic associations and generic expectations.Spanning mainly Greek and Latin poetic genres, yet encompassing comparative evidence from other Indo-European languages and literature, these 18 chapters draw a various yet consistent picture of the literary exploitation of the imagery, concepts and symbolism of ancient textiles and clothing. Topics include refreshing readings of tragic instances of deadly peploi and fatal fabrics situate them within a Near Eastern tradition of curse as garment, explore female agency in the narrative of their production, and argue for broader symbolic implications of textile-making within the sphere of natural wealth The concepts and technological principles of ancient weaving emerge as cognitive patterns that, by means of analogy rather than metaphor, are reflected in early Greek mathematic and logical thinking, and in archaic poetics. The significance of weaving technology in early philosophical conceptions of cosmic order is revived by Lucretius’ account of atomic compound structure, where he makes extensive use of textile imagery, whilst clothing imagery is at the center of the sustained intertextual strategy built by Statius in his epic poem, where recurrent cloaks activate a multilayered poetic memory.

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Book SynopsisLand was the ideal store of wealth in the ancient Mediterranean world. It brought social respectability, and its possession allowed participation in the politics of the cities governed by landowning elites. Crucial defense of the interests of a given polity through armed services often involved the distribution of lands to laborers still not integrated in these societies. Mediterranean urban dynamics also involved paid labor and were always in need of short-contract manpower, including skilled soldiers and warriors. For short-time military services, lands were not always available so soldiers and warriors were paid with coins and riches.Because of their superior development, urban economies in the Mediterranean were able to attract migrant paid labor. When returning home, the migrant warriors carried coins and riches that would enable them to maximize the return that a homecoming entailed. Although difficult to prove whether these men were paid in advance or when discharged, it is an important issue as it shows the strength of one contractor over another and helps to better understand the construction of statehood in ancient and early medieval times.This collection of papers sheds light on how coins, riches, and lands were gained and distributed among soldiers, warriors, and mercenaries. Contributions cover a wide chronological span from Late Pharaonic to early medieval times, linking a well-defined core area, the Mediterranean basin, with its peripheries: Central Europe and Scandinavia to the north and the margins of the Sahara Desert and the Fertile Crescent to the south and the east.

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Book SynopsisThe valley of the western Rother lies within the South Downs National Park but has a special character based on its Cretaceous geology of sandstones and clays. These give rise to soils that are ideal for agriculture but are extremely erodible. Over the centuries the area has been exploited by humans and partially cleared of forest. In this book, the archaeological history of the Rother Valley is summarized, with particular emphasis on the evidence for Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman occupation. Analysis of sediments in ponds adds to the evidence for changes that have happened over the last few hundred years. A notable feature of the cultural landscape is the network of sunken lanes.The Rother Valley contains unique chalk-aquifer fed streams with rare and protected species, such as sea trout and otter. Heathland, floodplain, wet meadows and woodlands are interspersed with agriculture, linked together by hedgerows and ditches. The health of the river is threatened by polluting inputs from farming and sewage. Past weather and hydrological records show the potential impact of climate change on the functioning of the river. The impact of recent changes on water availability for irrigation and human consumption are explored in relation to ecosystem requirements. Soil erosion is a significant problem, with the resulting high river sediment concentrations requiring expensive cleaning for the water to be fit for human consumption and the runoff often causes flooding of roads and properties. Mitigation measures aim to reduce the loss of soil on fields and interrupt connectivity between fields and the river system. We identify sediment sources contributing eroded soil to the river, the function of field-edge sediment traps, in-stream weirs and major reservoirs on sediment storage and connectivity.Finally, the book considers the future of the unique landscape that is the Rother Valley, including plans for restoration of the flood plain. Contributors include planners, researchers and managers of the large estates that are an integral part of the Rother landscape.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe latest volume of the British Historic Towns Atlas series covers the internationally-renowned city of Oxford. Famed for its university and its many outstanding historic buildings, the volume presents in mapped form the history of its topographical development. From its prehistoric setting, through its contentious Anglo-Saxon foundation, the medieval establishment of its university, and its sporadic growth after that, the Atlas charts how it became a nineteenth-century city dominated by colleges, churches, university buildings, and its associated publishing industry.The Atlas is presented as a large-format portfolio containing a series of maps showing the city at key points in its history, many illustrations of its buildings and streets, maps to show its setting, and reproduction early maps of the city. A readable text introduces and explains the maps, giving the reader a thorough grounding in how and why Oxford developed, and an explanation of its changing fortunes. A supplementary chapter brings the situation up to date.Whilst many histories of the university have been written, the Atlas concentrates on the topographic development of Oxford as a settlement, and explains it in mapped form. A comprehensive gazetteer lists every building and street shown on the maps, with a short history and references for further reading.Trade ReviewIt is a serious work of top-quality scholarship … I for one will find the Atlas to be of immense value for my own research, and congratulate all concerned on the production of this magnificent work. * Current Archaeology *Presented as a large-format portfolio, the atlas contains fold-out maps showing the city at key points in its history, many illustrations of its buildings and streeets, maps to show its setting, and reproduction early maps of the city. * Oxford Civic Society *Table of ContentsPreface A note on cartography abbreviations General introduction Prehistoric and Roman Oxford Anglo-Saxon Oxford Medieval Oxford Early Modern Oxford Modern Oxford: 1771-1900 Afterword Gazetteer Bibliography sources of maps, plates and figures

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Book SynopsisBritannia Romana: Roman Inscriptions and Roman Britain is based on the author’s 40 years’ experience of the epigraphy of Roman Britain. It collects 487 inscriptions (mostly on stone, but also on metal, wood, tile and ceramic), the majority from Britain but many from other Roman provinces and Italy, so as to illustrate the history and character of Roman Britain (AD 43–410). Each inscription is presented in the original (in Latin, except for eight in Greek), followed by a translation and informal commentary; they are linked by the narrative which they illustrate, and more than half (236) are accompanied by photographs. All Latin terms in the narrative and commentary are translated and explained. The author demonstrates his unrivalled ability to read and understand Roman inscriptions and their importance as a source of historical knowledge. They are treated by chronology or theme in 14 chapters. The first eight take the narrative from Claudius’ invasion (AD 43) to the death of the last emperor to attempt the conquest of Britain, Septimius Severus (AD 211). The next four cover the general themes of soldier and civilian, economy and society, government, religion. The last two continue the narrative to the death of the last emperor to rule Roman Britain, Constantine III (AD 411).Trade ReviewThis book is a joy, learned, insightful and witty. His [Roger Tomlin’s] contributions have ever been amongst the most erudite, informative and readable contributions to that journal. Now Tomlin has drawn on his deep knowledge of the Roman inscriptions from Britain, and also Roman inscriptions relating to Britain from elsewhere in the empire, to offer us a personal panorama of life and death in the province. * Northern History *

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Book SynopsisBeads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities’ past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind’s technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs. Papers discuss the social narratives behind bead and beadwork manufacture, use and disposal; the way beads work visually, audibly and even tactilely to cue wearers and audience to their social message(s). Understanding the entangled social and technical aspects of beads require a broad spectrum of technical and methodological approaches including the identification of the sources for the raw material of beads. These scientific approaches are also combined in some instances with experimentation to clarify the manner in which beads were produced and used in past societies.Trade ReviewCovering a wide range of topics, Not Just for Show will be a valuable addition to the research library of anyone interested in beads and beadwork. Available in hard cover as well as an ebook, it is highly recommended. * BEADS *Table of Contents1: The archaeology of beads, beadwork and personal ornaments. Alice M. Choyke and Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer PART 1: SOCIO-CULTURAL REFLECTIONS 2. Traditions and change in scaphopod shell beads in northern Australia from the Pleistocene to the recent past. Jane Balme and Sue O'Connor 3. Magdalenian “beadwork time” in the Paris Basin (France): correlation between personal ornaments and the function of archaeological sites. Caroline Peschaux, Grégory Debout, Olivier Bignon-Lau And Pierre Bodu 4. Personal adornment and personhood among the Last Mesolithic foragers of the Danube Gorges in the Central Balkans and beyond. Emanuela Cristiani and Dušan Borić 5. Ornamental Shell Beads as Markers of Exchange in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Southern Levant. Ashton Spatz 6. Games, Exchange, and Stone: hunter-gatherer beads at home. Emily Mueller Epstein PART 2: AUDIO AND VISUAL SOCIAL CUES 7. The Natufian audio-visual bone pendants from Hayonim Cave. Dana Shaham and Anna Belfer-Cohen 8. Bead Biographies from Neolithic Burial Contexts: Contributions from the Microscope. Annelou van Gijn 9. The Tutankhamun Beadwork, an Introduction to Archaeological Beadwork Analysis. Jolanda E. M. F. Bos PART 3: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES 10. A Mother-of-Pearl Shell Pendant from Nexpa, Morelos. Adrián Velázquez-Castro, Patricia Ochoa-Castillo, Norma Valentín-Maldonado, Belem Zúñiga-Arellano 11. Detailing the bead maker: Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) of steatite disk beads from prehistoric Napa Valley, California. Tsim D. Schneider and Lori D. Hager 12. Exploring Manufacturing Traces and Social Organization using Prehistoric Mortuary Beads in the Salish Sea Region of the Northwest Coast of North America. David Bilton and Danielle A. Macdonald

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Book SynopsisIn a companion book to the best-selling Stories from Ancient Egypt, Joyce Tyldesley re-tells some of the most interesting and entertaining myths and legends from the Classical world. These stories tell us how the spider spun the first web, how a simple ball of string defeated the fearsome minotaur, and how Romulus founded the mighty city of Rome. The “this book belongs to” introduction teaches the reader how to write their name using ancient Greek letters, and their age using Roman numerals. Each of the stories includes a question and answer section for enthusiastic young archaeologists.The book is illustrated with imaginative and amusing line-drawings by acclaimed artist and archaeologist Julian Heath.Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome is primarily aimed at children between the ages of 7-11, but it offers an entertaining and informative introduction to the myths of ancient Greece and Rome to readers of all ages.

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Book SynopsisHigh Pasture Cave, located on the island of Skye, Scotland, occupies a liminal location on the very edge of a settlement, and appears to have been a focus for specific and special activities. Its extended period of use is indicated by ephemeral signs of Neolithic Activity, limited Bronze Age usage, and vast artefactual and environmental assemblages recovered dating to the Early to Middle Scottish Iron Age, c. 800 BC to AD 150. High Pasture Cave details the research-led excavations at the cave and its context in the landscape, including geology and stratigraphy, the use and transformation of the cave from the Neolithic, post-Medieval activity after the site's closure, chronology and radiocarbon dating, the human remains, and stable isotope analysis. The examination of the site indicates that the High Pasture Cave Complex was a special place, a focus for significant communal events, for undertaking ritual and special activities, and a place for deposition of significant objects - a place whose significance remained embedded in social memory long after active use ceased. These findings challenge our current understanding with regards to cave use and function, and with relation to the wider understanding of Iron Age cultural and religious beliefs.

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Book SynopsisCrafts and Social Networks in Viking Towns explores the interface between craft, communication networks, and urbanisation in Viking-Age northern Europe. Viking-period towns were the hubs of cross-cultural communication of their age, and innovations in specialised crafts provide archaeologists with some of the best evidence for studying this communication. The integrated results presented in these papers have been made possible through the sustained collaboration of a group of experts with complementary insights into individual crafts. Results emerge from recent scholarly advances in the study of artefacts and production: first, the application of new analytical techniques (e.g. metallographic, isotopic, and biomolecular techniques) and second, the shift in interpretative focus from a concern with object function to considerations of processes of production, and of the social agency of technology. Furthermore, the introduction of social network theory and actor-network theory has redirected attention toward the process of communication, and highlighted the significance of material culture in the learning and transmission of cultural knowledge, including technology.The volume brings together leading UK and Scandinavian archaeological specialists to explore crafted products and workshop-assemblages from Viking towns, in order to clarify how such long-range communication worked in pre-modern northern Europe. Contributors assess the implications for our understanding of early towns and the long-term societal change catalysed by them, including the initial steps towards commercial economies. Results are analysed in relation to social network theory, social and economic history, and models of communication, setting an agenda for further research. The volume provides a landmark statement on our knowledge of Viking-Age craft and communication.Trade ReviewHighly relevant to anyone interested in the Viking Age, not just artefact and craft specialists. It sets out the basic research and chronologies, contains a wealth of new data, and importantly places these new results into the wider context of networks, thus adding individuals to the discussion. It's a book I will certainly return to. * Medieval Archaeology *The volume uses thoroughly researched studies of material evidence, underpinned by social network theory, to construct a compelling argument for the interdependence of craft, communication networks and urbanisation in Viking Age Northern Europe. * Antiquity *Table of Contents1. Crafting the urban network Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk 2. Craft: some pragmatic notes on the study of craft production and craftspeople in early medieval northern Europe Johan Callmer 3. Between domestic circles and urban networks Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk 4. The emergence of professional pottery production: York, a case study Ailsa Mainman 5. Textile networks in Viking-Age towns of Britain and Ireland Penelope Walton Rogers 6. Constructing specialism Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk 7. Combmaking in southern and eastern Scandinavia and the Baltic region (c. AD 700–900) Johan Callmer 8. A history of combmaking: biographies of innovation in Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia Steven P. Ashby 9. The archaeology of blacksmithing and the rise of urbanism in England and northern Europe c. 700–1100 Patrick Ottaway 10. Collaboration and expert knowledge Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk 11. From bronze-casting to non-ferrous metalworking: complexity, choices and cooperation in urban Scandinavian Viking-Age workshops Unn Pedersen 12. Non-ferrous metalworking networks in Scandinavian-influenced towns of Britain and Ireland Penelope Walton Rogers List of contributors

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Book SynopsisCompared to modern standard, the Roman army of the imperial era was surprisingly small. However, when assessed in terms of their various tasks, they by far outstrip modern armies – acting not only as an armed power of the state in external and internal conflicts, but also carrying out functions which nowadays are performed by police, local government, customs and tax authorities, as well as constructing roads, ships, and buildings.With this opulent volume, Thomas Fischer presents a comprehensive and unique exploration of the Roman military of the imperial era. With over 600 illustrations, the costumes, weapons and equipment of the Roman army are explored in detail using archaeological finds dating from the late Republic to Late Antiquity, and from all over the Roman Empire. The buildings and fortifications associated with the Roman army are also discussed. By comparing conflicts, border security, weaponry and artefacts, the development of the army through time is traced.This work is intended for experts as well as to readers with a general interest in Roman history. It is also a treasure-trove for re-enactment groups, as it puts many common perceptions of the weaponry, equipment and dress of the Roman army to the test.Trade ReviewThe range of material covered in this work is remarkable, making this book a useful resource for students looking deeper into the material culture of the Roman army, including dress, equipment, and infrastructure. Fischer’s book provides a strong notion of the development over time of military equipment and infrastructure. All readers will find the tools of this book—illustrations and end matter—especially useful. This book is a great starting point for learning about the hierarchy and structure, the equipment used, buildings and infrastructure, and other material culture of the Roman military. It can serve as a reference work that sums up the archaeological and historical evidence. * H-Net Reviews *In this work, Thomas Fischer gives an excellent overview of the buildings and equipment of the Roman military from the Republic to Late Antiquity, completed by the excellent contributions of the co-authors. All authors involved are proven experts, which is all too clear in the contributions. Numerous illustrations and the presentation of numerous finds, some of which have not yet been published, complete the book. This is certainly a standard work on the Roman military and can only be warmly recommended to anyone who is interested. * Bonner Jahrbücher *Table of ContentsTranslator’s Preface Acknowledgements Introduction The state of research The iconographic sources On armament, equipment, and the buildings Basic information on the history and structure of the Roman army Notes to introduction Part I Iconographic sources for the Roman military by Dietrich Boschung 1. Introduction 2. Republican representations 3. The Early Empire: Augustus to Domitian 4. Representations from the middle imperial period 5. Representations from the Tetrarchic period 6. Representations from Late Antiquity Notes to Part I Part II General remarks on the Roman army 1. Introduction 2. A history of research 3. Armament and equipment 4. Find contexts of Roman weapons and equipment parts 5. Legionary or auxiliary equipment? 6. Rank insignia 7. On the reconstruction of Roman fighting methods 8. Comments on the re-enactment scene 9. Forgeries Notes to Part II Part III Costumes, weapons, and equipment of the army from original archaeological finds 1. Infantry 2. Cavalry 3. Artillery 4. Standards and instruments for signalling 5. Awards and decorations 6. Pioneer tools, tents, field pack Notes to Part III Part IV The buildings of the Roman army 1. Introduction 2. Roman camps and forts 3. The most important types of camps and forts 4. Late Roman fortifications 5. Military infrastructure 6. Limites and ripae Notes to Part IV Part V The development periods of Roman military history 1. Introduction 2. Republic 3. The early Imperial period from Augustus to Nero 4. The middle Imperial period from Vespasian to Trajan 5. The middle Imperial period from Hadrian to Septimius Severus 6. The middle Imperial period from Caracalla to the reforms of Diocletian 7. Late Antiquity Notes to Part V Part VI The Roman navy 1. Arming and equipping the marines 2. Bases of the Roman fleets in the Imperial period by Thomas Schmidts 3. Roman warships by Ronald Bockius Notes to Part VI End matter 375 Bibliography Abbreviations Illustration credits Index Persons and peoples Places Subjects

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Book SynopsisEgyptian coffins stand out in museums’ collections for their lively and radiant appearance. As an involucre of the mummy, coffins played a key-role by protecting the body and at the same time, integrating the deceased in the afterlife. The paramount importance of these objects and their purpose is detected in the ways they changed through time. For more than three thousand years, coffins and tombs had been designed to assure in the most efficient way possible a successful outcome for the difficult transition to the afterlife.This book examines twelve non-royal tombs found relatively intact, from the plains of Saqqara to the sacred hills of Thebes. These almost undisturbed burial sites managed to escape ancient looters and became adventurous events of the Egyptian archaeology. These discoveries are described from the Mariette’s exploration of the Mastaba of Ti in Saqqara to Schiaparelli’s discovery of the Tomb of Kha and Merit in Deir el-Medina.Each one of these sites unveil before our eyes a time capsule, where coffins and tombs were designed together as part of a social, political, and religious order. From the Pre-dynastic times to the decline of the New Kingdom, this book explores each site revealing the interconnection between mummification practices, coffin decoration, burial equipment, tomb decoration and ritual landscapes. Through this analysis, the author aims to point out how the design of coffins changed through time in order to empower the deceased with different visions of immortality. By doing so, the study of coffins reveal a silent revolution which managed to open to the common men and women horizons of divinity previously reserved to the royal sphere. Coffins thus show us how identity was forged to create an immortal and divine self.Trade ReviewThe author has a gift for vivid writing and he writes apssionately about a subject close to his heart. […] I would not hesitate to call it a good book and I wish it a wide readership. * Chronique d'Egypte *This well-illustrateed publication is a stimulating read and contains a wealth of information relating to funerary practices and their development through the Pharaonic age […] a very useful addition to any Egyptology bookshelf. * Ancient Egypt Magazine *Table of ContentsList of figures Preface 1. A dwelling by the Nile: The Predynastic grave of “Gebelein Man A” 2. On the path to Sokar: Solar splendours in the Mastaba of Ti 3. Facing the sun: The shaft tomb of Senebtisi 4. Flying back home: The grave of the “Gurnah Queen” 5. A house on the edge of the world: The Tomb of Kha and Merit (TT 8) 6. The Garden of Heaven: The family tomb of Sennedjem (TT 1) 7. The healing light: The burial assemblage of the priestess Tabasety 8. The divine brotherhood: The Tomb of the Priests of Amun 9. Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThese papers highlight recent archaeological work in Northern England, in the commercial, academic and community archaeology sectors, which have fundamentally changed our perspective on the Neolithic of the area. Much of this was new work (and much is still not published) and has been overlooked in the national discourse. The papers cover a wide geographical area, from Lancashire north into the Scottish Lowlands, recognising the irrelevance of the England/Scotland Border. They also take a broad chronological sweep, from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition to the introduction of Beakers into the area.The key themes are: the nature of transition; the need for a much-improved chronological framework; regional variation linked to landscape character; links within northern England and with distant places; the implications of new dating for our understanding of the axe trade; the changing nature of settlement and agriculture; the character of early Neolithic enclosures; and the need to integrate rock art into wider discourse.Trade ReviewThe authors, editors and contributors are to be congratulated and commended on bringing these excellent volumes to publication. * Antiquity *This fine volume … [is] a fine counterbalance to the biases at the very core of the historical narrative of the Neolithic in Britain. * Archaeological Journal *Until recently, archaeologists took a broad-brush, sometimes ignoring local and regional nuances, so it is refreshing that Hey, Frodsham, and their team look at the Neolithic in terms of a northern tradition … The editors have skilfully integrated the academic, commercial and community sectors to provide a multi-interpretive approach to this dynamic period … This book is a much-needed addition to the Neolithic bookshelf and will be a useful reference for ongoing and future research. * Current Archaeology *This book, like the 2016 conference in Carlisle from which it derives, is an explicit bid to sing the glories of stone axe quarries, rock art, stone circles and other landscape features which proclaim the intense regionality of Britain’s earliest farming communities. * British Archaeology *Table of ContentsList of contributors List of figures List of tables and appendices Introduction Gill Hey and Paul Frodsham Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Langdale and the Northern Neolithic Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson Chapter 2: Stainton West: a Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Site on the Banks of the River Eden Fraser Brown Chapter 3: The last hunter of a wise race: evidence for Neolithic practices in northern England Seren Griffiths Chapter 4: ‘Weird and atypical, even degenerate’… or then again, maybe not? Early Neolithic Enclosures in the North Al Oswald and Mark Edmonds Chapter 5: Documenting English Rock Art: a review of the ‘big picture’ Kate E. Sharpe Chapter 6: New Light on the Neolithic: a perspective from North-East England Clive Waddington Chapter 7: Street House in the Neolithic Period, Stephen J. Sherlock Chapter 8: Recent work on the Neolithic landscapes of Cumbria and North Lancashire Helen Evans, Antony Dickson and Denise Druce Chapter 9: Out of the Shadows: an emerging Neolithic in the Yorkshire Dales Yvonne Luke Chapter 10: ‘A most noble work', at the Heart of Neolithic Britain. Some Thoughts on the Long Meg Complex in the Light of Recent Fieldwork Paul Frodsham Chapter 11: A View from North of the Border Alison Sheridan Chapter 12: Monumentality in Neolithic Britain: The Case of South West Scotland Julian Thomas Chapter 13: A New Survey of The Carles Stone Circle, Castlerigg, Cumbria Al Oswald and Constance Durgeat Chapter 14: Two Newly-Identified Possible ‘Hengiform’ Monuments in the North Pennines Stewart Ainsworth, David McOmish, Al Oswald and Andrew Payne Chapter 15: The End of the Neolithic?: Early Bell Beaker Groups in Northern England A. P. Fitzpatrick

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Book SynopsisRecent developments in aDNA has reshaped our understanding of later European prehistory, and at the same time also opened up for more fruitful collaborations between archaeologists and historical linguists. Two revolutionary genetic studies, published independently in Nature, 2015, showed that prehistoric Europe underwent two successive waves of migration, one from Anatolia consistent with the introduction of agriculture, and a later influx from the Pontic-Caspian steppes which without any reasonable doubt pinpoints the archaeological Yamnaya complex as the cradle of (Core-)Indo-European languages. Now, for the first time, when the preliminaries are clear, it is possible for the fields of genetics, archaeology and historical linguistics to cooperate in a constructive fashion to refine our knowledge of the Indo-European homeland, migrations, society and language. For the historical-comparative linguists, this opens up a wealth of exciting perspectives and new working fields in the intersections between linguistics and neighbouring disciplines, for the archaeologists and geneticists, on the other hand, the linguistic contributions help to endow the material findings with a voice from the past. The present selection of papers illustrate the importance of an open interdisciplinary discussion which will gradually help us in our quest of Tracing the Indo-Europeans.Trade ReviewTracing the Indo-Europeans delivers a good insight into the potential, and challenges, of 'archaeolinguistics' […] It is all in all an exciting and rewarding read. * Antiquity *Table of ContentsList of figures List of tables Contributors 1. Tracing the Indo-Europeans: Introduction Birgit A. Olsen, Thomas Olander and Kristian Kristiansen 2. The Indo-European homeland: Introducing the problem Thomas Olander 3. Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Uralic and Nostratic: A brief excursus into the comparative study of proto-languages James P. Mallory 4. A linking cord: Pottery ornamentation and language in the North c. 3600–2400 BC Einar Østmo 5. On the emergence of the Corded Ware societies in Northern Europe: Reconsidering the migration hypothesis Rune Iversen 6. Late Bronze Age midwinter dog sacrifices and warrior initiations at Krasnosamarskoe, Russia Dorcas R. Brown and David W. Anthony 7. ‘Children of the light’: On yoga, body schemes and altered states of consciousness in the Nordic Late Bronze Age – a link to India? Kristin Armstrong Oma and Lene Melheim 8. Aspects of family structure among the Indo-Europeans Birgit A. Olsen 9. To bury a ruler: The meaning of the horse in aristocratic burials Anne-Marie Carstens

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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

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Book SynopsisThe central issues discussed in this new collected work in the highly successful ancient textiles series are the relationships between fiber resources and availability on the one hand and the ways those resources were exploited to produce textiles on the other. Technological and economic practices - for example, the strategies by which raw materials were acquired and prepared - in the production of textiles play a major role in the papers collected here.Contributions investigate the beginnings of wool use in western Asia and southeastern Europe. The importance of wool in considerations of early textiles is due to at least two factors. First, both wild as well as some domesticated sheep are characterized by a hairy rather than a woolly coat. This raises the question of when and where woolly sheep emerged, a question that has not up to now been resolvable by genetic or other biological analyses. Second, wool as a fiber has played a major role both economically and socially in both western Asian and European societies from as early as the 3rd millennium BCE in Mesopotamia, and it continues to do so, in different ways, up to the modern day. Despite the importance of wool as a fiber resource contributors demonstrate clearly that its development and use can only be properly addressed in the context of a consideration of other fibers, both plant and animal. Only within a framework that takes into account historically and regionally variable strategies of procurement, processing, and the products of different types of fibers is it possible to gain real insights into the changing roles played by fibers and textiles in the lives of people in different places and times in the past.With relatively rare, albeit sometimes spectacular exceptions, archaeological contexts offer only poor conditions of preservation for textiles. As a result, archaeologists are dependent on indirect or proxy indicators such as textile tools (e.g., loom weights, spindle whorls) and the analysis of faunal remains to explore a range of such proxies and methods by which they may be analyzed and evaluated in order to contribute to an understanding of fiber and textile production and use in the past.Trade ReviewThe research will be a valuable resource for those who study the history of clothing and weaving, as well as ethnographers and archaeologists. * Journal of Dress History *Table of ContentsPreface 1 Introduction 2 The Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent and the origins of fiber technology 3 Early Wool of Mesopotamia, ca. 7000-3000 BC. Between prestige and economy 4 Continuity and Discontinuity in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Linen Textile Production in the Southern Levant 5 Fibers, Fabrics and Looms: A link between animals fibers and warp weighted looms in the Iron Age Levant 6 An archaic, male exclusive, loom from Oman 7 The TOPOI Research Group "Textile Revolution" - Archaeological background and a multi-proxy approach 8 Fibres to Fibres. Thread to Thread. Comparing Diachronic Changers in Large Spindle Whorl Samples 9 Finding the woolly sheep: meta-analyses of archaeozoological data from Southwest- Asia and Southeast-Europe 10 Taming the Fibres: Traditions and Innovations in the Textile Cultures of Neolithic Greece 11 Ex Oriente Ars? "Anatolianizing" spindle whorls in the Early Bronze Age Aegean islands and their implications for fiber crafts 12 Different skills for different fibres? The use of flax and wool in textile technology of Bronze Age Greece in light of archaeological experiments 13 Neolithic flax production in the pre-Alpine region - Knowledge increase since the 19th century 14 Underrated. Textile-making in Neolithic lakeside settlements in the Northern Alpine Foreland 15 Textile materials in the Mesolithic and Neolithic and their processing 16 Raw materials, Textile Technologies, Innovations and Cultural Response in Central Europe in the 3rd to 1st mill. BC 17 First genetic evidence for the origin of Central European sheep (Ovis ammon f. aries) populations from two different routes of Neolithisation with contributions to the history woolly sheep 18 Sheep Husbandry in the Ancient Near East

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Book SynopsisWriting is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology.Table of ContentsList of contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction: writing practices in socio-cultural context Philip J. Boyes, Philippa M. Steele and Natalia Elvira Astoreca 2. Towards a social archaeology of writing practices Philip J. Boyes 3. The lives of inscribed commemorative objects: the transformation of private personal memory in Mesopotamian temple contexts Nancy Highcock 4. A cognitive archaeology of writing: concepts, models, goals Karenleigh A. Overmann 5. The materiality of the Cretan Hieroglyphic script: textile production-related referents to hieroglyphic signs on seals and sealings from Middle Bronze Age Crete Marie-Louise Nosch and Agata Ulanowska 6. Visual dimensions of Maya hieroglyphic writing: meanings beyond the surface Christian M. Prager 7. Visibility of runic writing and its relation to Viking Age Society Sophie Heier 8. Words beyond writings: how to decrypt the secret writings of the masters of psalmody (Yunnan, China)? Aurélie NévotContents 9. A script ‘good to drink’. The invention of writing systems among the Sora and other tribes of India Cécile Guillaume-Pey 10. Why did people in medieval Java use so many different script variants? A.J. West 11. Cultures of writing: rethinking the ‘spread’ and ‘development’ of writing systems in the Bronze Age Mediterranean Theodore Nash 12. Script, image and culture in the Maya world: a southeastern perspective Kathryn M. Hudson and John S. Henderson 13. Writing and elite status in the Bronze Age Aegean Sarah Finlayson 14. Why με? Personhood and agency in the earliest Greek inscriptions (800–550 BCE) James Whitley 15. Names and authorship in the beginnings of Greek alphabetic writing Natalia Elvira Astoreca 16. Marking identity through graphemes? A new look at the Sikel arrow-shaped alpha Olga Tribulato and Valentina Mignosa Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis second volume presenting the research carried out through the Exeter: A Place in Time project presents a series of specialist contributions that underpin the general overview published in the first volume. Chapter 2 provides summaries of the excavations carried out within the city of Exeter between 1812 and 2019, while Chapter 3 draws together the evidence for the plan of the legionary fortress and the streets and buildings of the Roman town. Chapter 4 presents the medieval documentary evidence relating to the excavations at three sites in central Exeter (High Street, Trichay Street and Goldsmith Street), with the excavation reports being in Chapter 5-7. Chapter 8 reports on the excavations and documentary research at Rack Street in the south-east quarter of the city. There follows a series of papers covering recent research into the archaeometallurgical debris, dendrochronology, Roman pottery, Roman ceramic building material, Roman querns and millstones, Claudian coins, an overview of the Roman coins from Exeter and Devon, medieval pottery, and the human remains found in a series of medieval cemeteries.Trade ReviewAnyone interested in the history and archaeology of Exeter and the south-west of England will want to have these two substantial volumes on their shelves. ...Volume 2 opens with a summary of all archaeological excavations in Exeter, from 1931 to 2019. Of all the contributions to these volumes, this will probably prove to have the greatest enduring value: anyone who has attempted to research the archaeology of England’s historic towns will know that finding out what has been done and how any reports or archives may be accessed can often be very difficult. * Medieval Archaeology *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables List of Appendices List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements Summary Foreign Language Summaries 1. Introduction: Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter Stephen Rippon and Neil Holbrook 2. Summaries of the Excavations within the City of Exeter 1812–2019 David Gould, Andrew Pye and Stephen Rippon 3. Roman Exeter: The Fortress Plan and Gazetteers of Evidence for the Street Plans and Stone Buildings Paul Bidwell and David GouldSection 4. Medieval Documentary Evidence Relating to the High Street, Trichay Street and Goldsmith Street Excavations John Allan 5. Excavations at Trichay Street and Pancras Lane, 1972–3 Nicky Garland, John Allan and Neil Holbrook 6. Excavations at Goldsmith Street Area III, 1971–2 Neil Holbrook, John Allan and Jonathan Hart 7. Excavations at 196–7 High Street, 1972–4 John Allan, Nicky Garland and Neil Holbrook 8. Excavations at Rack Street, 1974–5 and 1977–8 Nicky Garland, Neil Holbrook and John Allan 9. The Faunal Remains from Exeter, 1976–1990 Malene Lauritsen 10.Archaeometallurgy: An Assessment of Roman and Medieval Crucibles and Other Possible Metalworking Debris Carlotta Gardner and David Dungworth 11.Dendrochronology: The Roman and Medieval Timbers from Exeter Cathy Tyers 12.Pottery Supply in Roman Exeter and the South-West Paul Bidwell, with contributions by Kamal Badreshany and Roger T. Taylor 13.1 Roman Ceramic Building Material: Introduction Stephen Rippon and Neil Holbrook 13.2 Roman Brick and Tile Production in Devon Sara Machin 13.3 An Analysis of the Roman Ceramic Building Material Industry in Devon Using pXRF Peter Warry 14.The Querns and Millstones of Roman Exeter: Supplying and Feeding the Fortress and Town Ruth Shaffrey 15.Can Analysis of Claudian Bronze Coins Found at Exeter Usefully Contribute to the Debate for an ‘Earlier’ or ‘Later’ Claudio-Neronian Origin for the Legionary Fortress? Robert Kenyon 16.The Roman Coins from Exeter and its Hinterland Andrew Brown and Sam Moorhead 17.The Local, Regional and Other North European Pottery, 900–1550 John Allan, with contributions from Michael Hughes and Roger T. Taylor 18.The South European Pottery, 1250–1550 Alejandra Gutiérrez and Hugo Blake, with contributions from Kamal Badreshany and Michael Hughes 19.Exeter’s Medieval Cemeteries: A Bioarchaeological Analysis Mandy Kingdom Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTextile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities in prehistory. Textiles were significant objects of practical use, and at the same time had cultural, social and symbolic meaning, crucial for displaying the identity, gender, social rank and status, or wealth of their users. However, evidence of ancient clothing is scarce due to unfavourable preservation of organic materials. Only occasionally are prehistoric textiles and associated implements preserved, mainly as a result of exceptional environmental conditions, such as waterlogged contexts like bogs, or in very dry or cold climates. In other cases textiles are sporadically mineralised, carbonised or preserved by metal corrosion. Textiles and leather can also be visible as imprints on clay.The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography.The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.Trade ReviewThis is an important, well-illustrated and well-edited publication that I highly recommend to anyone interested in prehistory and ancient protohistory. * Revue de l’Archéologie du Vêtement et du Costume *Table of ContentsList of contributors Preface 1. Introduction Małgorzata Siennicka, Lorenz Rahmstorf and Agata Ulanowska 2. Early loom types in ancient societies Eva Andersson Strand 3. Discussing flax domestication in Europe using biometric measurements on recent and archaeological flax seeds – a pilot study Sabine Karg, Axel Diederichsen and Simon Jeppson 4. From adorned nudity to a dignitary’s wardrobe: symbolic raiment in the southern Levant 13 500 BC–3900 BC Janet Levy 5. The earliest cloth culture in Denmark Ulla Mannering 6. Loom weights and weaving at the archaeological site of São Pedro (Redondo, Portugal) Catarina Costeira and Rui Mataloto 7. Evidence of textile technology in the Early Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles, Spain). Some hypotheses Miriam de Diego, Raquel Piqué, Antoni Palomo, Xavier Terradas, Maria Saña, Ignacio Clemente and Millán Mozota 8. From east to west: the use of spinning bowls from the Chalcolithic period to the Iron Age María Irene Ruiz de Haro 9. From the loom to the forge. Elements of power at the end of Neolithic in western Europe: a focus on textile activities Fabienne Médard 10. Textile manufacture in the prehistoric pile dwellings of south-west Germany: planned investigation Johanna Banck-Burgess 11. Late Neolithic weaving tools from Melk-Spielberg in Austria: experiments with crescent-shaped weights Karina Grömer 12. Two sides of a whorl. Unspinning the meanings and functionality of Eneolithic textile tools Ana Grabundžija 13. Plant textiles in a grave mound of the Early Bronze Age in eastern Romania Neculai Bolohan and Ciprian-Cătălin Lazanu 14. Social contexts of textile production in Bulgaria during the Late Chalcolithic: from multimedia work-areas to material, social and cultural transformations Petya Hristova 15. Experimenting with loom weights. More observations on the functionality of Early Bronze Age textile tools from Greece Agata Ulanowska 16. Textile tools and manufacture in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades: evidence from Amorgos and Keros Giorgos Gavalas 17. Fibre crafts and social complexity: yarn production in the Aegean islands in the Early Bronze Age Sophia Vakirtzi 18. In search of ‘invisible’ textile tools and techniques of band weaving in the Bronze Age Aegean Agata Ulanowska 19. The Early Bronze Age textile implements from the Eskişehir region in inland north-western Anatolia Deniz Sarı 20. Investigating continuity and change in textile making at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC Romina Laurito

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Book SynopsisOver the past 30 years, research on archaeological textiles has developed into an important field of scientific study. It has greatly benefitted from interdisciplinary approaches, which combine the application of advanced technological knowledge to ethnographic, textual and experimental investigations. In exploring textiles and textile processing (such as production and exchange) in ancient societies, archaeologists with different types and quality of data have shared their knowledge, thus contributing to well-established methodology. In this book, the papers highlight how researchers have been challenged to adapt or modify these traditional and more recently developed analytical methods to enable extraction of comparable data from often recalcitrant assemblages. Furthermore, they have applied new perspectives and approaches to extend the focus on less investigated aspects and artefacts.The chapters embrace a broad geographical and chronological area, ranging from South America and Europe to Africa, and from the 11th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Methodological considerations are explored through the medium of three different themes focusing on tools, textiles and fibres, and culture and identity. This volume constitutes a reflection on the status of current methodology and its applicability within the wider textile field. Moreover, it drives forward the methodological debates around textile research to generate new and stimulating conversations about the future of textile archaeology.Table of ContentsList of Contributors and Editors Preface Ian Shaw Ancient tools and textiles: Thinking outside the box Gabriella Longhitano, Sarah Hitchens, Alistair Dickey and Margarita Gleba Part I: Application of Analytical Techniques on Tools 1. Preliminary remarks on some wear traces on Egyptian and Levantine textile tools Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi 2. Visible tools, invisible craft: an analysis of textile tools in Iron Age Cornwall Lewis Ferrero 3. Tools and their products: spindle whorls decorated by yarn impressions from Iron Age Donja Dolina in Northern Bosnia and Herzegovina Julia Kramberger 4. Shears in the ancient world: A comparison between the Iberian culture of southern Spain and Roman culture in northern Italy Patricia Rosell Garrido and Fabio Spagiari Part II: Application of Analytical Techniques on Textiles and Fibres 5. Early fibre production in the west coast of South America: The case of plant-fibre technology of the south coast of Peru Camila Alday 6. Humans, wool textiles, chronology and provenance: a case study from the Orenburg region in the southern Urals, Russia Natalia Shishlina, Olga Orfinskaya, Daria Kiseleva, Anna Mamonova, Lidia Kuptsova, and Tomasz Goslar 7. Using textiles to reconstruct looms: burial shrouds from Deir el-Banat (Fayum, Egypt) Olga Orfinsaya and Darya Klyuchnikova 8. EDS analysis of Neolithic to Early Dynastic Egyptian woven cloth in the Bolton Museum collection Alistair Dickey 9. A post-excavation study using the archaeothanatological approach to determine the possibility of wrapping in Early Bronze Age burials Eleanor James Part III: Cultural and Personal Identity 10. Beyond textile production: What textile tools can tell us about networks of craftspeople and cultural identity Gabriella Longhitano 11. Textiles and human needs. A discussion of textile production in the Hallstatt Culture Karina Grömer 12. Textile tools and textiles from the ninth–eighth century BC necropolis of Incoronata (Basilicata, Italy): Evidence for culture, status and specialisation in south Italian indigenous community Francesco Meo 13. Translating sailcloth into raw materials, land, and labour Lise Bender Jørgensen Afterword Lin Foxhall

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Book SynopsisThis book shows how a military colony became a large, impressive and prosperous city. Legendary for its walls and port, it was able to play a basic role in the great strategy of ancient Rome between the Po and the Danube, spanning the centuries from its foundation (181 BC) to the fateful days of blood and violence of its fall (AD 452).Based on a study of ancient sources, contemporary literature and the latest archaeological research, and written in a fast-paced and accessible style, the book provides a portrait of Aquileia in a diachronic key, under various aspects; it sets the city in the complex societal and political system of the time, gives a thorough account of the great events of which it was a protagonist or victim and offers detailed portraits of key figures, whether famous or less well-known, and analyses of epic battles.Combining academic scholarship with storytelling, biographies of important personalities and stories of political intrigue, assassinations and full-scale warfare which narrate the evocative epic of the rise, decline and disappearance of ancient cities, the volume highlights a significant topic in Roman political, social, economic, religious and military history, but one which has been inexplicably neglected in the Anglo-Saxon world until now.Trade ReviewThis book traces the history of the Roman city-fortress of Aquileia, the fulcrum of the defensive system of the eastern Alps, from its foundation in 181 BCE. to its fall in 452 CE. to Attila the Hun, based on a study of ancient sources, contemporary literature, and the latest archaeological research. It shows how what started as a military colony became a large, impressive, and prosperous city, legendary for its wall and its port on the Adriatic Sea, and able to play a fundamental role in the strategy of ancient Rome between the Po and the Danube. * New Testament Abstracts *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Preface Introduction: The background 1. The northernmost stronghold 2. Caesar's seat for Illyrian affairs 3. The capital of the Regio X-Venetia et Histria 4. A portrait of a Roman city in the Early Empire 5. In the whirlwind of the Marcomannic Wars 6. Aquileia’s War 7. The Great Constantinian Aquileia 8. A residence of emperors and an evangelizing Church 9. Aquileia in the sunset of the Empire 10. Aquileia's fall Appendix: The Roman expansion in northern Italy Chronology Contemporary references Further reading

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Book SynopsisThe Danubian provinces represent one of the largest macro-units within the Roman Empire, with a large and rich heritage of Roman material evidence. Although the notion itself is a modern 18th-century creation, this region represents a unique area, where the dominant, pre-Roman cultures (Celtic, Illyrian, Hellenistic, Thracian) are interconnected within the new administrative, economic and cultural units of Roman cities, provinces and extra-provincial networks. This book presents the material evidence of Roman religion in the Danubian provinces through a new, paradigmatic methodology, focusing not only on the traditional urban and provincial units of the Roman Empire, but on a new space taxonomy. Roman religion and its sacralised places are presented in macro-, meso- and micro-spaces of a dynamic empire, which shaped Roman religion in the 1st-3rd centuries AD and created a large number of religious glocalizations and appropriations in Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior, Moesia Superior, Moesia Inferior and Dacia.Combining the methodological approaches of Roman provincial archaeology and religious studies, this work intends to provoke a dialogue between disciplines rarely used together in central-east Europe and beyond. The material evidence of Roman religion is interpreted here as a dynamic agent in religious communication, shaped by macro-spaces, extra-provincial routes, commercial networks, but also by the formation and constant dynamics of small group religions interconnected within this region through human and material mobilities. The book also presents for the first time a comprehensive list of sacralised spaces and divinities in the Danubian provinces.Trade ReviewThis book presents the material evidence of Roman religion in the seven Danubian provinces through a new methodology, focusing not only on the traditional urban and provincial units of the Roman empire, but on a new space taxonomy. * New Testament Abstracts *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Emerging Roman religion: the beginnings 3. Lived religion and its macro-spaces in the Danubian provinces 4. Space sacralisation in meso-spaces 5. Religious experience in micro-paces: housing the gods 6. Conclusions: beyond the materiality of Roman religious communication Annexes 1. Sanctuaries in the Danubian provinces 2. Divinities in the Danubian provinces 3. Diagrams Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisArchaeoastronomy and archaeology are two distinct fields of study which examine the cultural aspect of societies, but from different perspectives. Archaeoastronomy seeks to discover how the impact of the skyscape is materialised in culture, by alignments to celestial events or sky-based symbolism; yet by contrast, archaeology's approach examines all aspects of culture, but rarely considers the sky. Despite this omission, archaeology is the dominant discipline while archaeoastronomy is relegated to the sidelines. The reasons for archaeoastronomy’s marginalised status may be found by assessing its history. For such an exploration to be useful, archaeoastronomy cannot just be investigated in a vacuum but must be contextualised by exploring other contemporaneous developments, particularly in archaeology. On the periphery of both, there are various strands of esoteric thought and pseudoscientific theories which paint an alternative view of monumental remains and these also play a part in the background.The discipline of archaeology has had an unbroken lineage from the late 19th-century to the present. On the other hand, archaeoastronomy has not been consistently titled, having adopted various different names such as alignment studies, orientation theory, astro-archaeology, megalithic science, archaeotopography, archaeoastronomy and cultural astronomy: names which depict variants of its methods and theory, sometimes in tandem with those of archaeology and sometimes in opposition. Similarly, its academic status has always been unclear, so to bring it closer to archaeology there was a proposal in 2015 to integrate archaeoastronomy research with that of archaeology and call it skyscape archaeology. This volume examines how all these different variants came about and consider archaeoastronomy's often troubled relationship with archaeology and its appropriation by esotericism, to shed light on its position today.Table of Contents1. Introduction: contesting the past 2. Antiquarianism: the longue durée 3. The emergence of archaeoastronomical thought 4. ‘The great subject of orientation’ 5. Lines in the landscape 6. ‘God in the machine’ 7. Megalithic science 8. New World archaeoastronomy 9. A turning point for British archaeoastronomy 10. Archaeoastronomy and cultural astronomy in Europe 11. Archaeoastronomy in the 21st century 12. Final Thoughts Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe end of the 3rd millennium was a time of significant transformation in south-east Arabia (the United Arab Emirates and northern Oman). The cultural homogeneity of the preceding Early Bronze Age, Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700–2000 BC) came to an end and gave way to the Middle Bronze Age, Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC). Settlements changed, and possibly began to decline in size and number, the economy changed for many and the important trade in copper ore seems to have declined. In addition, there was a marked change in funerary practices as new types of tombs appeared – both collective and individual burials. All of this took place within the context of a climatic shift that led to a decline in rainfall across many parts of the region. Much of the countryside of south-eastern Iran was abandoned and the urban period of the Indus Valley was weakening. In the midst of this turmoil, the limited agricultural plains of northern Ras al-Khaimah appear to have developed into an island where there was greater continuity than elsewhere. This book reports on the excavation of a number of monumental collective tombs that were built there and used through the early part of the 2nd millennium. The way that they were constructed and used as well as the burial goods that they contain throw light on the population of this area, and give some indication of how and why it was that life continued in this small pocket in a way that was different to surrounding regions.Table of Contents1. Introduction Derek Kennet 2. The Site and Environment Derek Kennet 3. The Excavations Derek Kennet 4. Beads Anna Hilton 5. Small Finds Anna Hilton 6. Softstone Anna Hilton 7. Metalwork Lloyd Weeks et al. 8. Human Bone Alyson Caine 9. Isotopes Janet Montgomery et al. 10. Marine Shell Hannah Russ 11. Animal Bone Cameron Smith 12. Conservation Dana Goodburn-Brown 13. Phasing and Site Interpretation Derek Kennet, Christian Velde and Michel de Vreeze 14. The Wadi Suq Period in Northern Ras al-Khaimah Derek Kennet and Christian Velde 15. The Umm an-Nar/Wadi Suq Transition Derek Kennet Appendices

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Book SynopsisDress is at the core of dance. It adorns dancers, defines various roles and forms symbolic expressions that, for example, either bind people together or opposes them. It is a communicative tool that gives crucial information for understanding the dance as well as the culture and the sociological effects of a group of people. As such, dress transcends how it is seen visually to address what is being communicated. Nonetheless, studies in ancient dance have rarely taken clothing into consideration.This volume provides new perspectives and insights on ancient dances and their ancient textiles. Comprehension of ancient dance benefits from investigations undertaken through the lens of dress, and research on ancient dress is understood through its relation to body movement and performative rituals, thus reinforcing the progressive integration of an anthropological and sociological dimension into historical analysis of ancient textiles. For the first time, the two-way transfer of knowledge between dance studies and costume studies is connected via an innovative approach. Among the issues that are specifically addressed are the movement design of dress for dance, its sensory experience, gender and identity, re-enactment and reception.The chronological range of the book is focused on the ancient world (3rd-millennium BC to 5th-century AD), with a broad geographical definition in order to promote a comparative, interdisciplinary approach and cross-cultural dialogue.Table of ContentsIntroduction Audrey Gouy Practicalities 1. Practical Perspectives on Dance and Clothing Elizabeth J. W. Barber Movement and Design 2. Dancing in flames - fabulous designs from the desert sands. Reconstructing the east Central Asien skirts’ construction secret Ulrike Beck 3. The whirling dance of Baukis: reinterpreting our sources Elena Miramontes Seijas 4. Dance and Metatheatre in Menander’s Theophoroumene Evangelia Keramari Embodiment and Communication 5. The unhellenic attire of choruses as image of the ‘other’ in ancient Greek tragedy Leonidas Papadopoulos. 6. The Dress of the dancing Lares Alexandra Sofroniew 7. Dance and Clothing in Ancient Egypt ‒ the Earliest Evidence Heidi Köpp-Junk Cognition and Sensory Experience 8. Soft cloth and sounding jewellery – sound fields of rich women in Eastern Hallstatt Culture Karina Grömer and Beate Maria Pomberger 9. Flowing White Dresses for Dancing Initiates in the Mysteries of Eleusis Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia 10. Fashioning Sensescapes through Ancient Egyptian Dance Jordan Galczynski and Robyn Price Images and Metaphors 11. Dancing around the Goddess’ dress Angela Bellia 12. ‘Wearing’ tattoos in Ancient Egypt. Evidence from Middle Kingdom mummies and feminine figurines Vittoria Rapisarda Modern Reception 13. Egyptologist Dancers – Re-enacting ‘Ancient Egyptian’ Dances at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Gerrit Berenike Heiter

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Book SynopsisMacedonia is a region that provides its own intriguing questions due to its position on the fringe of the classical Greek world. It is also an area that is of special interest to students of history and archaeology of Roman period Greece, since it was the first to be incorporated in the Roman state. Macedonia shared a similar path of development with Achaea during the imperial period. As provinces far from productive zones and frontiers, both played a minor role in the imperial administrative structure. Beneath this similarity, however, lie many differences: in Macedonia’s proximity to the Balkans, its early contact with Rome, its relatively low level of urbanization, its multicultural context and its sizeable economy, which played their own role in the formation of the urban and rural environments.With a focus on elements of the built environment and human habitat, this book examines old and new archaeological evidence to present a concise overview of the archaeology of the area and develop a better perception of the region in terms of archaeology of the built environment, architecture and architectural influences, urbanization and use of land and resources from the 2nd century BC to the early 4th century AD. Driven by a set of key questions that are addressed through the archaeological evidence, the book explores key issues in understanding the archaeology of the area, like the role of architectural tradition and innovation, the interdependency between practical bases of architecture and socio cultural aspects, the exploitation of local resources, and the role of external influences. Special importance is given to the interaction of Greek, Roman and local cultures and the ways that the formation of the built environment eventually led to the assimilation of ideas from East and West in terms of workmanship, use of materials, design and function.Trade Review[T]here is no other book, to my knowledge, that discusses Roman Macedonia in an overall manner… The author undoubtedly dedicated many working hours to gathering all the evidence for the built environment of the area, scattered mostly in Greek publications and thus difficult for the international public to access. Moreover, he offered useful and detailed remarks on the architecture of the region, and most importantly, having created the “big picture,” facilitated the comparison with other provinces. * American Journal of Archaeology *[T]here is much to like about this book. Evangelidis strings together the full spectrum of architectural features within a large “built environment,” and creates useful syntheses of new and ongoing archaeological work in northern Greece and elsewhere. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction by D. Grigoropoulos Part I. Roman Macedonia: history, people, cities and resources 1. The historical framework: Roman Macedonia. From the revolt of Andriscus to the reign of Galerius 2. Land and Resources: Ownership and exploitation 3. Decline and continuity of settlements: urban and rural sites 4. Via Egnatia and the provincial road network Part II. Built Environment: the archaeological evidence 5. The archaeology of Built Environment. A short history of the archaeological research of Roman Macedonia 6. The transformation of old and the construction of new public spaces: Agoras and fora 7. Public and administrative Buildings 8. Buildings for commerce and industry 9. The architecture of ritual space: temples and sanctuaries 10. An architecture of entertainment: Theatres and spectacle buildings 11. An architecture of water: aqueducts, baths, latrines, fountains 12. An architecture of movement and passage: colonnaded streets and gates 13. Housing in urban and peri-urban contexts 14. An architecture of defence: the refortification of the cities 15. Deathscapes: Urban and rural burial grounds 16. Outside the cities: villas, farms and other types of rural sites Part III. Urban and rural environments in Roman Macedonia 17. Building methods – construction techniques 18. Urban Environments: The course of development 19. Rural Environments. Villas and beyond 20. Macedonia in a wider perspective: contrasts and comparisons Epilogue Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe majority of literature about the Viking period, based on artefacts or written sources, covers battles, kings, chiefs and mercenaries, long distance travel and colonisation, trade, and settlement. Less is said about the life of those that stayed at home, or those that immigrated into Scandinavia, whether voluntarily or by force.This book uses results from the examination of a substantial corpus of Swedish osteological material to discuss aspects of demography and health in the Viking period face=Calibri>– those which would have been visible and recognisable in the faces or physical appearances of the individuals concerned. It explores the effects of migration, from the spread of new diseases such as leprosy to patterns of movement and integration of immigrants into society. The skeletal material also allows the study of levels of violence, attitudes towards disablement, and the care provided by Viking communities. An overview of the worldwide phenomenon of modified teeth also gives insight into the practice of deliberate physical embellishment and body modification.The interdisciplinary approach to questions regarding ordinary life presented here will broaden the knowledge about society during the Viking Age. The synthesis of the Swedish unburnt human skeletal remains dated to the Viking age will be a valuable resource for future research, and provides an in-depth view on Viking age society.

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Book SynopsisIstanbul, Europe's largest city, became an urban centre of exceptional size when it was chosen by Constantine the Great as a new Roman capital city. Named after him, the city has been studied through its rich textual sources and surviving buildings, but its archaeology remains relatively little known compared to other great urban centres of the ancient and medieval worlds. Constantinople: Archaeology of a Byzantine Megapolis is a major archaeological assessment of a key period in the development of this historic city. It uses material evidence, contemporary developments in urban archaeology and archaeological theory to explore over a thousand years of the city's development. Moving away from the scholarly emphasis on the monumental core or city defences, the volume investigates the inter-mural area between the 5th-century land walls and the Constantinian city wall – a zone which encompasses half of the walled area but which has received little archaeological attention. Utilising data from a variety of sources, including the 'Istanbul Rescue Archaeology Project', created to record material threatened with destruction, the analysis proposes a new model of Byzantine Constantinople. A range of themes are explored including social, economic and cognitive development, Byzantine perceptions of the city, the consequences of imperial ideology, and the impact of 'self-organization' brought about by many minor decisions. Constantinople casts new light on the transformation of an ancient Roman capital to an Orthodox Christian holy city and will be of great importance to archaeologists and historians.Trade ReviewSubstantially packaged with sensible and informative generalisation, above all in the history of archaeology in Istanbul, and in the explanation of the project’s methodology. These introductory sections are worth reading for their own sake. The book is, as a whole, well written and cites an impressive secondary bibliography. * The Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Istanbul Archaeological Project 1997-2004: history, organisation and methods Chapter 3: The Southern part of the Study Area Chapter 4: The Northern part of the Study Area Chapter 5: The Blachernae Palace Chapter 6: The Church of the Holy Apostles Chapter 7: Conclusion: the archaeology of a Byzantine megapolis

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Book SynopsisThe Archaeology of Roman Portugal contributes to the wider debate on Roman imperialism and expansionism, by bringing to the fore a much-underrepresented area of the Roman empire, at least in English-language scholarship: its westernmost edge in modern day Portugal. Highlighting the perspective from Roman Portugal contributes to our understanding of the Roman empire, through presenting both an extraordinary landscape in the sense of economic opportunities (ocean resources, marble and metal mining), and also settlement history. The volume presents new data and insights from both archaeology and ancient history, discussing their significance for our understanding of Roman expansion and imperialism.A key goal of the volume is to discuss how the Portuguese panorama compares to other areas of the Iberian peninsula, and to better integrate Portuguese scholarship in the academic debate on the Mediterranean Roman world, and to contextualise it firmly within the wider Iberian and Western Mediterranean. The volume brings together an internationally diverse team of scholars in archaeology and ancient history from Portugal, Spain, Germany, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. It explicitly discusses different national and disciplinary research traditions and historical frameworks in order to assess the potential of integrating best practices in archaeological approaches and methodology.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of contributors Introduction Tesse D. Stek and André Carneiro I. Contested landscapes: between pre-Roman polities and early Roman encroachment 1. Exploring Rome’s early military deployment strategies in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula Jordi Principal and Carles Padrós Gómez 2. Late Iron Age and early Roman conflict and interaction in southern Callaecia (north-west Iberia) João Fonte 3. Towers, territory, and the negotiation of a colonial landscape in the early Roman Central Alentejo Joey Williams, Rui Mataloto, and Karilyn Sheldon 4. The last frontier: Late Iron Age society, Roman conquest, and the Romanisation of the territory north of the River Duero Jesús García Sánchez II. Economic targets: integrating and energising resources 5. Upgrading town appearances: relating white marble exploitation and town development in Roman Lusitania Devi Taelman 6. Shifting landscapes: change and adaptation in the Lusitanian territory during the first globalisation André Carneiro 7. Adding complexity to a complex world: the role of tableware imports in Portugal during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC Vincenzo Soria III. Cities and hillforts: settlement organisation in the Roman west 8. Land-use and settlement patterns around Ercavica in Antiquity: initial findings Miguel Ángel Valero Tévar 9. Understanding the town-territory relationship: a case study from Lusitania Cristina Corsi 10. Why would we need a city? The dispersed civitates in Lusitania Pieter Houten 11. Roman rural life in the far west: the case study of the Serena Region (Badajoz, Spain) Victorino Mayoral Herrera, Martina Cecilia Parini, and Luis Sevillano Perea IV. Local religious and cultural identity 12. The role of cult places in shaping landscapes during the Roman expansion: an Iberian perspective on a Mediterranean process Ignasi Grau Mira 13. Men, women, children, animals: the votive statuary from the sanctuary of Endovellicus at São Miguel da Mota/Alandroal (Portugal) Thomas G. Schattner 14. Romanising the mountains? Exploring cultural change through archaeological spatial analysis in western Sierra Morena (Spain) Maria del Carmen Moreno Escobar 15. Oppida and public spaces: constructing identities in Late Iron Age and early Roman north-west Iberia Manuel Fernández-Götz and Marco V. García Quintela 16. Funerary practices and material culture: a ‘portrait from life’ in the fields of Lusitania Mónica Rolo

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Book SynopsisClachtoll broch is one of the most spectacular Iron Age settlements on the northern mainland of Scotland. When it became clear that the structure was threatened by coastal erosion, community heritage group Historic Assynt launched a major programme of conservation and excavation works designed to secure the vulnerable structure and recover the archaeological evidence of its occupation and use. The resulting excavation provided evidence of a long and complex history of construction and rebuilding, with the final, middle Iron Age occupation phase ending in a catastrophic fire and collapse of the tower by the early years of the first century AD. The internal deposits span perhaps 50 years of the broch’s final occupation and were remarkably well preserved, with no evidence for secondary re-use or disturbance after the fire. As a result, the excavation provides a remarkable snapshot of life in Iron Age Scotland, with an artefact assemblage attesting to daily agricultural life as well as long-range contacts that sets the broch within a wider Atlantic community. Specialist analysis of the artefactual and palaeoenvironmental evidence coupled with detailed analysis of the structure in its local geographical context combine to provide a major new contribution to the archaeology of north-west Scotland, with wider implications for our understanding of late prehistoric society in northern Britain.This report comprises the results of the archaeological investigations at Clachtoll, compiled by a team of archaeologists and specialists from AOC Archaeology Group, and brings together evidence from a range of specialist analyses as well as environmental and landscape investigations.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction and research context The structure and excavations Chronology Artefacts -Ceramics -Residues -Organics -Metals -Slag -Stone -Worked bone -Wood Environmental evidence -Animal bone -Fish bone -Bird bone -Marine shell -Plant macrofossils Soil micromorphology Intrasite analysis Environmental context Clashnessie dun Split Rock dun Loch na Claise crannog Discussion and conclusion

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Book SynopsisWriting in the ancient Mediterranean existed against a backdrop of very high levels of interaction and contact. In the societies around its shores, writing was a dynamic practice that could serve many purposes – from a tool used by elites to control resources and establish their power bases to a symbol of local identity and a means of conveying complex information and ideas.This volume brings together contributions by members of the Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) research team and visiting fellows, offering a range of different perspectives and approaches to problems of writing in the ancient Mediterranean. Their focus is on practices, viewing writing as something that people do within a wider social and cultural context, and on adaptations, considering the ways in which writing changed and was changed by the people using it.Trade Review[T]his volume, as a contribution to the research output of the CREWS project, encapsulates how the research of the CREWS core team and wider family has revolved around questions of the contexts and relatedness of writing systems and traditions * New Testament Abstracts *Table of ContentsApproaches to writing in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East Philippa M. Steele Relations between script, writing material and layout: the case of the Anatolian Hieroglyphs Willemijn Waal Word division in Sicilian inscriptions Robert Crellin What is an Alphabet good for? Csaba La’da Measuring particularity and similarity in archaic Greek alphabets with NLP Natalia Elvira Astoreca Borrowing, invention, remodelling: Observations on the rare letters of the Phrygian alphabet and the problem of formation of Anatolian alphabets Rostislav Oreshko Cypro-Minoan and its potmarks and vessel inscriptions as challenges to Aegean Scripts corpora Cassandra Donnelly Ductus in Cypro-Minoan writing. Definition, purpose and distribution of stroke types Martina Polig The introduction of the Greek alphabet in Cyprus, a case study in material culture Beatrice Pestarino The death of alphabets at the end of the Bronze Age. How does the Deir ‘Alla alphabet fit the picture? Michel de Vreeze Early Egyptian writing from the perspective of the embodied practitioner Kathryn Piquette The magic of writing Philip J. Boyes

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Book SynopsisThis book collects recent works on the subjects of sacrificial offerings, ritualised violence and the relative values thereof in the contexts of Scandinavian prehistory from the Neolithic to the Viking era. It provides a detailed re-appraisal of key aspects of prehistoric bog bodies using the latest forensic and material culture analytical techniques to examine questions of sacrifice, execution and ritual behaviour.The volume re-opens investigations into notions of value relating to diverse evidence and suggested evidence for human sacrifice and related ritualised violence. It covers a broad spectrum of issues relating to novel interpretations of the existing archaeological materials, but with a focus on the study of value and value dynamics in these diverse ritual contexts, engaging in questions of identity, cosmology, economics and social relations. Cases span from the Scandinavian Late Neolithic and Nordic Bronze Age, through to the well-known wetland deposits and bog bodies of the Iron Age, to Viking era executions, ‘deviant’ burials and contemporaneous double/multiple graves, exploring the implications for the transformation of sacrificial practices across Scandinavian prehistory.Each contributor untangles the myriad forms of value at play in different incarnations of human offerings, and provide insights into how those values were expressed, for example in the selection and treatment of victims in relation to their status, personhood, identity and life-history.The volume builds on a workshop hosted at the National Museum of Denmark in 2018 which inaugurated the beginning of the research project ‘Human Sacrifice and Value: The limits of sacred violence’ and was supported by the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo. It brings together research and perspectives that go beyond the who, what and where of most archaeological and anthropological investigations of sacrificial violence to address both the underlying and explicit forms of value associated with such events.Table of ContentsList of figures List of plates List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgements Foreword Rane Willerslev Introduction: In the darkest of days: Tracing human sacrifice through Scandinavian prehistory Matthew J. Walsh, Marianne Moen, Sean O’Neill, Svein H. Gullbekk and Rane Willerslev 1. Noble hunter-gatherers and ‘cruel’ farmers – a discussion of the evidence of human sacrifices during the Mesolithic and Neolithic in South Scandinavia Lasse Sørensen and Poul Otto Nielsen 2. Societies that sacrifice? Examining the potential for attendant sacrifices in the Nordic Bronze Age Matthew J. Walsh, Samantha S. Reiter and Karin M. Frei 3. Human sacrifice and human remains – the ultimate sacrifice? Pernille Pantmann 4. Naked or clothed? Bog bodies and the value of clothing in the Early Iron Age Ulla Mannering 5. Sacrifice or execution? A brief forensic medical and archaeological perspective on the Danish bog bodies Niels Lynnerup and Pauline Asingh 6. Six human skulls in a bog: Svennum – a 1st century AD sacrificial bog Sidsel Wåhlin 7. Haraldskær Woman under a new light: Bog bodies, martial rituals and value Mads Ravn 8. Figuring out bodies in watery places: Posthumanism, figurations and ecological relations Christina Fredengren 9. Thrown stone for flesh and bone? ‘White’ stones in sacrificial context in Iron Age Scandinavia Matthew J. Walsh, Pernille Pantmann and Marianne Moen 10. ‘Better not to pray than to sacrifice too much’ Human sacrifice and its alternatives in Northern Europe AD 750 - 1050 Bo Jensen 11. Regulated deviancy – ritual executions at Viking Age Tissø as indications of a complex judicial culture Mads D. Jessen and Jesper Olsen 12. Human sacrifice in Old Norse skaldic poetry Klas Wikström Af Edholm

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Book SynopsisBosworth stands alongside Naseby and Hastings as one of the three most iconic battles ever fought on English soil. The action on 22 August 1485 brought to an end the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses and heralded the dawn of the Tudor dynasty. However, Bosworth was also the most famous lost battlefield in England. Between 2005 and 2010, the techniques of battlefield archaeology were used in a major research programme to locate the site.Bosworth 1485: A Battlefield Rediscovered is the result. Using data from historical documents, landscape archaeology, metal detecting survey, ballistics and scientific analysis, the volume explores each aspect of the investigation – from the size of the armies, their weaponry, and the battlefield terrain to exciting new evidence of the early use of artillery – in order to identify where and how the fighting took place. Bosworth 1485 provides a fascinating and intricately researched new perspective on the event which, perhaps more than any other, marked the transition between medieval and early modern England.Table of Contents1. A battlefield lost 2. The armies: an historical perspective 3. The battle: an historical perspective 4. The battlefield terrain 5. Surveying the battle archaeology 6. Interpreting the artefacts 7. Gunpowder weapons 8. A new perspective on the battle

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