Search results for ""Archaeopress""

From the mid-20th century onwards, consolidated study of the merchant archives from the Old Assyrian trading colony at Kaneš (Kültepe) has not only transformed our understanding of the social, economic and political dynamics of the Bronze Age Near East, but also overturned many preconceived notions of what constitutes pre-modern trade. Despite this disciplinary impact and archaeological investigations at Kültepe and elsewhere, our understanding of this phenomenon has remained largely text-based and therefore of limited analytical scope, both spatially and contextually. This book re-assesses the Old-Assyrian trade network in Upper Mesopotamia and Central Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1970 – 1700 BC) by combining in some analytical detail the archaeology (e.g. material culture, settlement data, etc.) of the region both on its own terms and via a range of spatial approaches. The author offers a comparative and spatial perspective on exchange networks and economic strategies, continuity and discontinuity of specific trade circuits and routes, and the evolution of political landscapes throughout the Near East in the Middle Bronze Age.

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The Sauveterrian represents one of the main cultural aspects of the European Early Mesolithic. In this work, its presumed uniformity—mostly based on typological grounds—is questioned with the purpose of assessing and verifying the relationships existing between the two central areas of diffusion of this complex: southern France and northern Italy. A broad technological approach, combining complementary analytical techniques, was applied to the study of a series of French and Italian lithic assemblages. More specifically, these were investigated with the aim of reconstructing the entire reduction sequences, from the procurement of lithic raw materials to the use and discard of tools. Results indicate that the two regions responded to the same conceptual scheme and their respective lithic technical systems shared the same rationale: an extremely optimized technology, not opportunistic in the least, but issued from a careful strategic planning. Nonetheless, in the context of this generalized behaviour, a consistent variability can be found, marked by differences of both ‘stylistic’ and technical nature especially regarding the processes for producing microlithic armatures. At a general level, in the context of the important environmental changes that characterized the Late Glacial to Early Holocene transition, the emergence of Sauveterrian technology was fundamental in allowing the development of a complex settlement structure, characterized by a mobility system based on relatively short distances and with a strong logistic component.

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The Mycenaean Cemetery at Achaia Clauss near Patras: People, material remains and culture in context' comprises the study of the finds from the excavation of the Mycenaean cemetery of Clauss near Patras, carried out by the University of Ioannina and the Archaeological Society at Athens from 1988 to 1992, under the direction of Professor Thanassis Papadopoulos. In the course of the excavation project, fifteen chambered tombs were located and researched in detail, to be added to those already known from the pre-war excavations by Nikolaos Kyparissis. The presentation of the topic expands into seven thematic chapters: from a general review of the cemetery space and the sites, to analytical description of the excavation, remarks on the architecture, study of the finds, analysis of the burial customs and finally, narration of the overall history of the cemetery according to chronological period and generation of its occupants. The eighth and last chapter is an addendum including a brief presentation of the anthropological analysis of the skeletal material by Photini J. P. McGeorge and Wiesław Więckowski. The Mycenaean cemetery at Achaia Clauss near Patras presents fragments of the life and death of some members of a local community that existed for almost four centuries at the western end of the Mycenaean world.

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Current Research in Egyptology 2017 presents papers delivered during the eighteenth meeting of this international conference, held at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, 3–6 May, 2017. Some 122 scholars from all over the world gathered in Naples to attend three simultaneous sessions of papers and posters, focussed on a large variety of subjects: Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt, Nubian Studies, Language and Texts, Art and Architecture, Religion and Cult, Field Projects, Museums and Archives, Material Culture, Mummies and Coffins, Society, Technologies applied to Egyptology, Environment. The participants attended seven keynote presentations given by Rosanna Pirelli (Egyptologist), Irene Bragantini (Roman Archaeologist) and Andrea Manzo (Nubian Archaeologist) from the University of Naples “L’Orientale”; Marilina Betrò (Egyptologist) from Pisa University; Patrizia Piacentini (Egyptologist) from Milan University; Christian Greco (Director of Turin Egyptian Museum) and Daniela Picchi (Archaeological Museum of Bologna). Delegates were able to take advantage of a guided tour of the Oriental Museum Umberto Scerrato (University of Naples “L’Orientale”), access to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) and guided tours of the archaeological site of Pompeii and the Gaiola Underwater Park. The editors dedicate this volume to the late Prof. Claudio Barocas who inaugurated the teaching of Egyptology and Coptic Language and Literature in Naples.

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This volume focuses on the pottery classes of the ‘Entangled Tradition’, recovered at the settlement of the ‘Serraglio’ on Kos during the early Late Bronze Age period. The results reveal new information on the chronology, typology, and decoration of Koan Painted Fine (PF) and Painted Medium-Coarse to Coarse (PMC-C) ceramics. Moreover, the analysis of manufacturing processes and consumption patterns contributes to a better comprehension of the socio-cultural and political context in which Koan entangled classes were produced. The data presented in this volume indicate that PF and PMC-C ceramics represent a unique case of fully entangled classes in the Aegean, which merge features of the Koan ‘Local Tradition’ with characteristics of the Minoan potting tradition into a new technological and stylistic language. Contacts between these different cultures are explained based on the theoretical model provided by ‘human mobility’. The specific Koan cultural synthesis was endorsed and promoted by the local elites of the ‘Serraglio’, who aimed to participate in the ‘new environment’ determined by the economic and cultural expansion of Neopalatial Crete. In this respect, the manufacture of Koan entangled classes served a dual role. On the one hand, using transport containers made in the PMC-C class, Koan products were exported and exchanged throughout the Aegean. In addition, the finer vessels of the Koan ‘Entangled Tradition’ were utilized for promoting Minoan-type social practices at the ‘Serraglio’. Through these practices, Koan elites reshaped their identity and portrayed an image of higher status within the local social arena.

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Colourless glass, deliberately decolorized with manganese or antimony, became prominent between the middle of the 1st century AD and the beginning of the 4th century. This book reflects the diversity of glass objects (tableware, containers and small objects) and is designed as a practical manual divided into three parts. The first presents contexts in which colourless glass has been found; the second, in the form of index cards, is a typological catalogue which gives an overall picture of the colourless glassware found throughout Gaul; glass is highly useful as a dating tool but also tells us much about the economic, social and cultural aspects of its time. Chemical analyses form the third component. The volume of material gathered in this book makes it an indispensable working tool for researchers and students interested in the glassware of Roman antiquity. | Le verre incolore, volontairement décoloré au manganèse ou à l’antimoine, est celui qui est le plus souvent utilisé entre le milieu du Ier s. apr. J.-C. et le début du IVe s. Verres incolores de L’antiquité romaine en Gaule et aux marges de la Gaule rend compte de la diversité de ce mobilier (vaisselle, contenants et petits objets) est conçu comme un manuel pratique divisé en trois parties. La première présente des contextes renfermant du verre incolore ; la seconde, sous forme de fiches, est un catalogue typologique qui livre une image globale de la verrerie incolore découverte dans l’ensemble de la Gaule. Outil de datation, le verre nous informe aussi sur les aspects économiques, sociaux et culturels de son époque. Les analyses chimiques forment le troisième volet. La masse documentaire réunie dans cet ouvrage en fait un instrument de travail indispensable aux chercheurs et étudiants qui s’intéressent au verre de l’Antiquité romaine.

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From the Archaeological Record to Virtual Reconstruction' describes the use of New Information Technologies (IT) for the analyses and interpretation of archaeological record of the San Chuis Hillfort (San Martín de Beduledo, Allande, Asturias, Spain). The data gathered during the eight excavation campaigns conducted by Francisco Jordá Cerdá in the sixties and eighties of the 20th century was mechanised and digitalised. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) of the hillfort was performed, followed by a creation of spatial analysis through the establishment of relations between the elements of the archaeological record. At the end, having studied and investigated the site’s urban evolution throughout its occupation period (890 cal. BP – 530 cal. AD), a virtual reconstruction of the hillfort in its different settlement phases, presenting various evolution scenarios, is presented. In the process a work methodology and a set of computer applications adapted for each step of this process have been estableshed, such as insertion of data records in a database, planimetry drawings, hillfort virtualization, etc.

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While one might say that prehistory of the Adriatic was always in transition, the rhythm of change was not always the same. On several occasions, a series of changes over a relatively short time period resulted in dramatic transformations. Three crucial episodes of change marked the later Adriatic prehistory. The first one, which took place around year 6000 BC, was a transformation of subsistence strategy, transition from hunting and gathering to farming. The second one was a social transformation that played out in the third millennium BC, when for the first time the power of individuals was clearly expressed by material culture. The third episode, inclusion into the classic Mediterranean civilization, coincided with the end of prehistory in the Adriatic region. During all of those episodes, travel and connectivity with distant lands played an exceptionally important role, and certain places gained particular importance due to their unique geographic location. Palagruža is among the most prominent such places, its importance being out of all proportion to its physical size. Adriatic prehistory cannot be told without mentioning Palagruža, and prehistory of Palagruža cannot be understood without knowing Adriatic prehistory. Due to its strategic position in the very center of the Adriatic Sea, due to the mystery born of distance and isolation, due to its wild and spectacular landscape, Palagruža indeed is a special place. A reflection of its specialty is an unexpected abundance of high-grade archaeological evidence, dating precisely from the three aforementioned periods marked by radical change.

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Indonesian Megaliths: A forgotten cultural heritage' highlights aspects of Indonesian culture which are currently misunderstood and sometimes threatened by destruction. Although they are relatively recent in origin, the Indonesian megaliths offer similarities to their counterparts in the Middle East and Arabia: they reflect the rise to prominence of local chiefs in a context of acculturation which prompted the need to build megalithic monuments to bury the dead, and to honour, commemorate and communicate with ancestors. In societies of oral tradition, these stones punctuate the landscape to transmit the memory of men and social structure from one generation to the next. Based on scientific documents (articles, archaeological reports) and field visits, this new exploration clarifies various elements of the Indonesian megaliths, including their function in the daily life of the tribes and the use of certain stones for musical purposes (lithophony). In Nias, Sumba and Toraya, the megalith tradition is still alive and ethno-anthropological studies of these three regions provide a unique chance to complement the archaeological perspectives on megalithic monuments abandoned for several centuries in the rest of the Archipelago. The book includes numerous photographs documenting the monuments which were taken during the author’s stay in Indonesia (2010-2013).

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The papers gathered in this volume explore the economic and social roles of exchange systems in past societies from a variety of different perspectives. Based on a broad range of individual case studies, the authors tackle problems surrounding the identification of (pre-monetary) currencies in the archaeological record. These concern the part played by weight measurement systems in their development, the changing role of objects as they shift between different spheres of exchange, e.g. from gifts to commodities, as well as wider issues regarding the role of exchange networks as agents of social and economic change. Among the specific questions the papers address is what happens when new objects of value are introduced into a system, or when existing objects go out of use, as well as how exchange systems react to events such as crises or the emergence of new polities and social constellations. One theme that unites most of the papers is the tension between what is introduced from the outside and changes that are driven by social transformations within a given group.

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Caroline Louise Ransom Williams (1872-1952) is remembered as the first American university-trained female Egyptologist, but she is not widely-known in the history of science. Her mentor was James Henry Breasted, well-known as the first American Egyptologist and founder of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. As long as they worked together and as much as they depended on each other professionally, Ransom Williams is little more than a footnote in the published history of archaeology. She was a successful scholar, instructor, author, and museum curator. She also had personal struggles with her mother and her husband that affected the choices she could make about her career. This book presents the correspondence between Ransom Williams and Breasted because the letters are crucial in piecing together and allowing an in-depth analysis of her life and career. The written conversation, comprised of 240 letters between the two, shows that Ransom Williams had a full life and productive career as the first American female Egyptologist. Through these letters, we see part of a life that is unique while at the same time analogous to other professional women in the period. This edition is the first book-length discussion of Ransom Williams’ life and career.

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From the Fjords to the Nile brings together essays by students and colleagues of Richard Holton Pierce (b. 1935), presented on the occasion of his 80th birthday. It covers topics on the ancient world and the Near East. Pierce is Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Bergen. Starting out as an expert in Egyptian languages, and of law in Greco-Roman Egypt, his professional interest has spanned from ancient Nubia and Coptic Egypt, to digital humanities and game theory. His contributions as scholar, teacher, supervisor and informal advisor to Norwegian studies in Egyptology, classics, archaeology, history, religion, and linguistics through more than five decades can hardly be overstated.

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Creativity is embedded in human history. Indeed, it is impossible to understand material change and the development of the new without invoking creativity. The location, exploration and analysis of creativity should therefore be of particular concern to archaeologists. This volume engages with this challenge by focusing on the outcomes of creativity – material culture – and an exploration of creative practice. The European Bronze Age provides a useful focus for discussions of the outcomes of creativity because in this period we see the development of new and pre-existing materials that we take for granted today, in particular textiles and bronze. We also see new ways of working with existing materials, such as clay, to create novel forms. In both new and existing materials it is frequently possible to see the growth of technical skill, to produce complex forms and elaborate decorated surfaces. The papers in this volume view Bronze Age objects through the lens of creativity in order to offer fresh insights into the interaction between people and the world, as well as the individual and cultural processes that lie behind creative expression. Many have their origin in the international conference Creativity: An Exploration Through the Bronze Age and Contemporary Responses to the Bronze Age held at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge in 2103 as part of the HERA-funded project Creativity and Craft Production in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe. Contributions span the early to late Bronze Age, deal with a range of materials including textiles, metal, and ceramics, and reflect on data from across the continent including Iberia, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe. This breadth illustrates the wideranging importance and applicability of creativity as an heuristic concept. The volume further develops a range of theoretical and methodological directions, opening up new avenues for the study of creativity in the past.

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Who owns the past? Archaeological heritage between destruction and idealization. This volume, part of the wider Ex Novo series, hosts papers exploring the various ways in which the past is remembered, recovered, created and used. In particular, contributions discuss the role of archaeology in present-day conflict areas and its function as peacekeeping tool or as trigger point for military action.

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The Cumans, a people that inhabited the steppe zone in the medieval period and actively shaped the fate of the region from the Black Sea to the Carpathian Basin, have been primarily known to history as nomadic, mounted warriors. Some of them arrived in the Hungarian Kingdom in the midthirteenth century as a group of refugees fleeing the invading Mongol army and asked for asylum. In the course of three centuries they settled down in the kingdom, converted to Christianity, and were integrated into medieval Hungarian society. This study collects all available information, historical, ethnographic and archaeological alike, on the animal husbandry aspect of the complex development of the Cuman population in medieval Hungary. Although this medieval minority has been in the focus of scholarly interest in the past decades, no attempt has been made so far to study their herds using interdisciplinary methods. The research of faunal assemblages through archaeozoological methods has the potential to reveal direct, and by other means, unavailable information on animal keeping practices, although this source of evidence often escapes scholarly attention in Central and Eastern Europe. This book combines a primary scientific dataset with historical information and interprets them within the framework of settlement history in order to investigate the manifold integration process of a medieval community.

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Latrinae: Roman Toilets in the Northwestern Provinces of the Roman Empire' presents examples of Roman toilets from a wide area in northwestern Europe comprising Austria, Belgium, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Seven papers consider ‘typically Roman’ stone channel toilets, while five papers discuss the actually much more common wooden toilets of the cesspit type. Some studies concentrate on a single installation, others present a number of installations in their architectural surroundings. In addition, Roman chamber pots, which could be used either solo or in a toilet chair, are presented in two papers. A further paper on stercus, usually connected to latrine duty in the Roman army, questions this interpretation and offers a different meaning of the word. This book is the first collection on Roman toilets of the northwestern provinces, and gives a good overview of the possibilities for human waste removal in Roman times. The volume provides a fascinating introduction to this under-researched group of Roman installations.

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Bodies of Maize, Eaters of Grain provides a comparative study of the earliest urban civilisations of the Maya lowlands and the Greek mainland. It builds upon earlier comparative studies by Gordon Childe, Robert Adams and Bruce Trigger, extending their work into new directions. Specifically, the focus lies on the art styles of the Late Preclassic lowland Maya and Mycenaean Greece. The approach used here seeks to combine more traditional iconographic approaches with more recent models on metaphor and the social agency of things. Comparing Maya and Mycenaean art styles through the three aspects of metaphor, semiotics and praxis, their differences and similarities are made clear. The book shows art to have played a more active role in the development of the earliest urban civilisations, rather than passively reflecting economic and political trends. In that way, the social role of art provides a key to understanding the relations between the different factors in the development of the two societies, as they played out at different temporal and geographical scales. To understand this, the notion of distinct Maya and Mycenaean ‘material worlds’, involving both materials and ideas, is proposed, with consequences for models about the earliest urban civilisations in general.

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This short introduction aims to provide archaeologists of all backgrounds with a grounding in the principles, materials, and methods of geology. Sections include coverage of main rock-forming minerals and classes of rocks. Geological maps and structures are introduced, and the elements of geological stratigraphy and dating are explained and related to archaeological experience. Fluvial and coastal environments are important archaeological landscapes and their formation processes, sediments and topography are outlined. Stone for building, implement-making, tool-making, and making mortar are all discussed, followed by an introduction to clays and ceramics. A final chapter introduces metallurgical landscapes: metalliferous ores, mining and smelting, and metal-making industries. Each chapter ends with a short reading list, and many have selected case-histories in illustration of the points made. Included is a glossary of technical terms.

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Normally dealt with in a rather limited way, through the examination of a particular activity or geographical zone, the artisans of ancient North Africa are here, for the first time, the subject of an entire book. Focusing on urban production in Algeria during Antiquity, this critical study brings together new documentation drawn up on the basis of field data and the consultation of archives from a long history of survey in Algeria and France. This synthesis reviews the archaeological sites with workshops by defining their activities, at the same time as analyzing how they operated and looking at them typologically. Based on a comparison with documented workshops in the Western Roman world, the study of the techniques highlights the very strong similarities between the Roman regions but also the specific local variations of the methods used in Africa at this time. Maghreb ethnography shows the permanence of certain practices over time while attempting to reconstruct the "chaîne opératoire". Although it is still difficult to obtain an overall picture both from a spatial and a chronological point of view of the artisanal topography, the data reveals the existence of varied artisanal and commercial activities in urban areas throughout Antiquity. French description: Abordé généralement de façon ponctuelle à travers une activité particulière ou une zone géographique donnée, l’artisanat en Afrique du nord antique fait ici pour la première fois l’objet d’un ouvrage. Centrée sur la production urbaine en Algérie durant l’Antiquité, cette étude critique rassemble une nouvelle documentation élaborée à partir des données de terrain et de la consultation des archives à partir d’un long travail d’enquête en Algérie et en France. La synthèse fait le point sur les sites archéologiques présentant des ateliers en définissant leur activité tout en analysant leur fonctionnement et leur typologie. En s’appuyant sur une comparaison avec les découvertes d’ateliers dans le monde romain occidental, l’étude des techniques met en évidence les similitudes très fortes entre les régions romaines mais aussi les spécificités locales des méthodes employées en Afrique durant cette période. L’ethnographie maghrébine montre quant à elle la permanence de certaines pratiques à travers le temps tout en complétant l’essai de restitution de la « chaîne opératoire ». S’il est encore difficile d’avoir une vision d’ensemble tant d’un point de vue spatial que chronologique de la topographie artisanale, les données recensées révèlent l’existence d’activités artisanales et commerciales variées incluses dans l’ensemble du domaine urbain tout au long de l’Antiquité.

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This volume has two main objectives: establishing a chronology of the Middle Balsas and detailing the region’s pottery production methods. The author posits that pottery intended for different functions was often deliberately made and/or decorated in ways that were chosen to make the vessels more appropriate for their intended functions. More specifically, this study determines whether any of the pottery production patterns identified in the region are linked to specific constraints imposed by the materials during the process of pottery manufacture. For example, it examines whether variables such as vessel shape and wall thickness correlate with the clay types and processing techniques determined during thin section analysis of the ancient sherds. Additionally, certain production behaviours are identified that are characteristic of the entire region and that can be used as markers of local tradition.

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Celebrating the theme ‘Shared heritage’, IKUWA6 (the 6th International Congress for Underwater Archaeology), was the first such major conference to be held in the Asia-Pacific region, and the first IKUWA meeting hosted outside Europe since the organisation’s inception in Germany in the 1990s. A primary objective of holding IKUWA6 in Australia was to give greater voice to practitioners and emerging researchers across the Asia and Pacific regions who are often not well represented in northern hemisphere scientific gatherings of this scale; and, to focus on the areas of overlap in our mutual heritage, techniques and technology. Drawing together peer-reviewed presentations by delegates from across the world who converged in Fremantle in 2016 to participate, this volume covers a stimulating diversity of themes and niche topics of value to maritime archaeology practitioners, researchers, students, historians and museum professionals across the world.

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The Phaistos Disc is one of the most studied documents of Minoan civilization, enticing scholars and simple enthusiasts with the mysterious aura that envelops it and with its singularity among Minoan scriptures. It has entered the collective imagination, both at academic and popular levels. Archaeologists digging at Phaistos are often asked ‘Where was the Disc found?’ Representations of the Disc can be found abundantly in popular culture, from appearances in Mickey Mouse comics to props amidst the curios on the tables of television magicians. It is this very overexposure that risks undermining the understanding of an object that is, first and foremost, an archaeological artefact found in a chronological and cultural context. Much has been said and much has been written about the Disc. Collet brings a new approach. It is not a deciphering but an interpretation, a depiction of the Minoan Weltanschauung through the symbols on the Disc and their connections with reality. This begins with the spiral-shaped construction of the inscription and its possible temporal allusions, and moves on to a structuralist view of use of the signs, in which the repetitions take on almost ritual significance. Hence it is a pictorial interpretation rather than syllabic, whereby the pictograph is not intended as a rigid reproduction of logical discourse, but rather a path.

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Physical Barriers, Cultural Connections: A Reconsideration of the Metal Flow at the Beginning of the Metal Age in the Alps considers the early copper and copper-alloy metallurgy of the entire Circum- Alpine region. It introduces a new approach to the interpretation of chemical composition data sets, which has been applied to a comprehensive regional database for the first time. An extensive use of GIS has been applied to investigate the role of topography in the distribution of metal and to undertake spatial and geostastical analysis that may highlight patterns of distribution of some specific key compositional element. The Circum-Alpine Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age show some distinctively different patterns of metal use, which can be interpreted through changes in mining and social choices. But there are also some signs of continuity, in particular those which respect the use of major landscape features such as watersheds and river systems. Interestingly, the Alpine range does not act as a north-south barrier, as major differences in composition tend to appear on an east-west axis. Conversely, the river system seems to have a key role in the movement of metal. Geostastical analyses demonstrate the presence of a remelting process, applicable also in the case of ingots; evidence that opens new and interesting questions about the role of ingots and hoards in the distribution of metal at the beginning of the Metal Age. New tools and new analysis may also be useful to identify zones where there was a primary metal production and zones where metal was mostly received and heavily manipulated.

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In this monograph the authors present the finds of four Mycenaean chamber tombs, from the rescue excavation of Ephor Mastrokostas at Aigion in 1967. Unfortunately, no diary or any other information, regarding the architecture or the burial customs, was found. However, it is highly possible that they were similar to eleven tombs which were systematically excavated by Papadopoulos in 1970. In contrast with them, the four tombs produced a much greater number of finds, indicating richer burials. Furthermore, some of these finds are unique (e.g. “thronos”-straight-sided alabastron with unusual paneled decoration), rare (e.g. askoi) and exceptional (e.g. cylindrical stirrup jars) in the Achaean Mycenaean ceramic repertory, while the total absence of terracotta figurines as well as the rarity of small objects is surprising. Taken together the excavated tombs make a total of 15, but the actual number may be greater. It is noteworthy that the material is stylistically different and generally earlier from that of western Achaea. The supplementary information, provided by this publication, strengthens the evidence that this important Achaean cemetery was used for a long time (LHII-IIIC) and that the inhabitants had connections with the Argolid as well as with other areas to the east, especially with the Dodecanese.

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The XXI International Congress of Roman Frontier studies was hosted by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums in Newcastle upon Tyne (Great Britain) in 2009, 60 years after the first Limeskongress organised in that city by Eric Birley in 1949. Sixty years on, delegates could reflect on how the Congress has grown and changed over six decades and could be heartened at the presence of so many young scholars and a variety of topics and avenues of research into the army and frontiers of the Roman empire that would not have been considered in 1949. Papers are organised into the same thematic sessions as in the actual conference: Women and Families in the Roman Army; Roman Roads; The Roman Frontier in Wales; The Eastern and North African Frontiers; Smaller Structures: towers and fortlets; Recognising Differences in Lifestyles through Material Culture; Barbaricum; Britain; Roman Frontiers in a Globalised World; Civil Settlements; Death and Commemoration; Danubian and Balkan Provinces; Camps; Logistics and Supply; The Germanies and Augustan and Tiberian Germany; Spain; Frontier Fleets. This wide-ranging collection of papers enriches the study of Roman frontiers in all their aspects.

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Open area excavation on 14.45ha of land at Cambridge Road, Bedford was carried out in 2004-5 in advance of development. A background scatter of Early Neolithic flint, including a Langdale stone axe, may be related to the nearby presence of the Cardington causewayed enclosure. Two Early Bronze Age ring ditches sat on a low lying gravel ridge between the River Great Ouse and the Elstow Brook. A causewayed ring ditch, 30m in diameter, had a broad entrance to the southwest, where a shallow length of ditch either silted or had been filled in. Adjacent to the shallow ditch was a pit containing three crouched burials, probably in an oak-lined chamber, radiocarbon dated to the early Middle Bronze Age. A nearby small round barrow enclosed a deep central grave containing the crouched burial of a woman, probably within an oak-lined chamber. An L-shaped ditch to the east, radiocarbon dated to the Middle to Late Bronze transition, may have been the final feature of the monument group. It parallels the addition of L-shaped ditches/pit alignments at other contemporary ring ditch monuments. Shallow linear ditches formed a land boundary extending north and south from the Bronze Age ring ditch, and other contemporary ditches were remnants of a rectilinear field system, contemporary with a scatter of irregular pits and a waterhole. This phase came to an end at the Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age transition, when a large assemblage of decorated pottery was dumped in the final fills of the waterhole. By the Middle Iron Age there was a new linear boundary, comprising three near parallel ditches, aligned north-south; a rectangular enclosure and a complex of intercut pits. The pottery assemblage was sparse, but the upper fills of both the deepest linear boundary ditch and the pit complex contained some Roman pottery. To the south-east an extensive Romano-British ladder settlement is dated to the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Only the northern fringe lay within the excavated area, comprising successive boundary ditches, along with pits, a stone-lined well, an inhumation burial and animal burials. In the early Anglo-Saxon period (5th-6th centuries AD), there was a loose cluster of three sunken featured buildings with another to the south. In the middle Saxon period (8th-9th centuries AD) a small rectangular mausoleum contained a single inhumation burial, with a second inhumation to the immediate west. Subsequent land use comprised truncated furrows of the medieval ridge and furrow field cultivation and post-medieval quarry pits.

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The Beau Street Hoard is one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries ever to be made in Bath: the Roman town of Aquae Sulis. The discovery captured the public imagination and it became the focus for a major scientific investigation and a significant learning and public engagement programme. Carefully excavated by professional archaeologists the hoard was recovered intact and removed to the British Museum for more detailed examination and study. It was found to have been deposited in a cist in at least eight bags. Micro-investigation of the hoard in a conservation laboratory and further scientific analysis revealed more fascinating details and information reported on here. The Beau Street, Bath Hoard provides a thorough and complete publication and analysis of the hoard, which is one of the largest yet found in a Roman town in Britain. The high quality of the recovery and investigation process means that it makes a significant contribution to both archaeological and numismatic studies.

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This monograph is a comparative study of the Saline area and of the Aeolian Islands dioceses’ settlement in Late Antiquity and in the Early Middle ages. Both regions overlook the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily. The Saline area is located in Southern Tyrrhenian Calabria, and in the Middle Ages it is mentioned as an “Eparchy”, a Byzantine administrative division. The Aeolian archipelago is in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the North-Eastern coast of Sicily. It includes seven islands, the biggest of which is Lipari. The aim of the book is to reconstruct the settlement layout of these areas in an historical period that has been studied relatively little in Southern Italy. The settlement reconstruction was carried out by examining topographical features, patterns and dynamics, material culture, degree of continuity and discontinuity – especially compared to the Roman habitat – as well as agricultural and manufacturing systems and the road network.

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This book presents a little-known and ingenious artefact of the Roman world: a small puzzle padlock whose font plate bears a face or ‘mask’ of ‘Celtic’ style. The padlocks were designed to secure small bags or pouches and their distribution extended across Europe with the majority found in the Danubian region and in the vicinity of Aquileia. The authors examine the cultural context, the origins and uses of the padlocks, and provide detailed solutions to the puzzle mechanisms. The publication provides a fully-illustrated catalog of the known 156 examples, categorises their types according to construction and style, and explores the technicalities of the subject by the process of constructing replica mask puzzle padlocks.

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In 2008 intensive archaeological surveys began at Caution Bay, located 20km to the northwest of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This was followed by the excavation of 122 stratified sites in 2009-2010, and detailed analysis of the well preserved and abundant faunal, ceramic and lithic finds has continued ever since. The Caution Bay Archaeology Project is providing new and exciting contributions to western Pacific prehistory. It has radically expanded the known geographic distribution of the Lapita Cultural Complex to include, for the first time, the southern coast of Papua New Guinea; it has established the relationship of Lapita to later cultural expressions in this area; it has pinpointed the time of arrival of domesticated animals along the southern coast of Papua New Guinea and, by inference, on the larger island of New Guinea; it has provided new insights into the impact of resident populations on local terrestrial and marine environments over a 5000 year time period; and perhaps of greatest significance, it has provided a unique opportunity to document, using multiple strands of archaeological evidence, interactions between resident and colonizing populations at a time of cultural transformation c. 2900 years ago. The first volume of the Caution Bay monographs is designed to introduce the goals of the Caution Bay project, the nature and scope of the investigations and the cultural and natural setting of the study area. To this end a series of chapters are included on the ethnographic and linguistic setting, the present and past natural environment, archaeological surveys of the study area and investigative and analytical methods. These background chapters will be repeatedly referred to in all the other monographs, as foundational reference materials for the broader study.

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The Roman fort at Bearsden and its annexe, together with areas beyond its defences, were extensively excavated from 1973 to 1982. The report on these excavations was published in 2016. This ‘popular’ account of the discoveries looks at the material recovered from the site in a different way, examining the process of archaeological excavation, the life of the soldiers at the fort based on the results of the excavation as well as material from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, the presentation and interpretation of the bath-house and latrine, and a discussion of possible future work arising out of the excavation. The excavation report was well illustrated with reconstruction drawings and the process of creating these is also discussed.

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The Roman road system was the main service infrastructure for administrative management, economic operation and defense of the empire. Along with roads, a key element of this infrastructure were the resting places more or less directly linked with vehiculatio / cursus publicus, or with a system run or controlled by the state to ensure essential services (safe stop, supplies, maintenance of horses and other animals) to those traveling on behalf of the public administration. New archaeological research and new studies on a rich and diverse body of extra-archaeological sources have recently reported the attention of the international scientific community on the subject of parking places, within the more general theme of the smaller settlements in the Roman world and their evolution in late antiquity and early medieval times. This volume brings together contributions from scholars from three different generations, starting from different sources and methodological approaches, converging towards the construction of an area of common reflection on a theme still relatively underdeveloped. The goal is to lay the foundation for a deepening of the interdisciplinary debate and to develop new research projects.

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This is the first book ever devoted to the chambered tombs of the Isle of Man and, though there are no more than nine surviving monuments, they are of considerable interest and importance because of the central location of the island in the north Irish Sea where cultural influences and traditions of tomb building are mixed – and no doubt populations too. These monuments, still impressive reminders of the past in our contemporary landscape, belong to the early 4th millennium BC when farming, one of the most significant movers of change in society, first came to the Isle of Man. These vast stone chambers speak of the power of ancestors, the continuity of family groups and the importance of the land and territory which sustained them. Work on this book was begun in the 1960s by Audrey Henshall, the foremost authority on these monuments in Britain. It has been edited and brought up to date for publication by Frances Lynch and Peter Davey and contains a comprehensive study of previous work on the tombs, new plans and commentary on each site, and also a review of the associated finds from excavation. Appendices provide the final reports on previously unpublished excavations at King Orry’s Grave and Ballaharra.

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Ancient aqueducts have long commanded the attention of archaeologists, both for their intrinsic, monumental importance and for their significance as infrastructures closely related to the concept of civilisation. An aqueduct, in fact, is an artefact that has a great potential for providing information concerning at least two major aspects of ancient society: those relating to structural, technical, and engineering matters, and those relating to building and construction technology. These topics have enjoyed considerable attention in past studies, and in recent years they have also been integrated with a multi-disciplinary and contextual approach. They have further increased the potential of the analysis of ancient hydraulic systems, turning them into historical subjects capable of expanding our knowledge of the urban and social transformation of ancient cities and their territories. The current study of the early Byzantine aqueduct of Gortyn (Crete) follows this tradition, but starts from a viewpoint related not so much to the aqueduct itself, as to a series of questions about the city: what was the appearance of Gortyn in the early Byzantine era? How did the inhabitants live? Where did they live and what did they do for living? The aqueduct was born with the Roman city and accompanied it for its entire lifetime, constituting the backbone around which the various forms of urban settlement were redrawn at each major historical stage. Its vital link with everyday life makes the aqueduct a key witness for the study of the transformations of the city over the long term.

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The Old Kingdom of Egypt (Dynasties 4–6, c. 2600–2180 BC) is famous as a period of the builders of the largest Egyptian pyramids. It is generally accepted that the evidence on the use of copper alloy tools from this era is meagre. Martin Odler gathers the textual, iconographic and palaeographic evidence and examines Old Kingdom artefacts in order to revise this view on the use of copper alloy tools and model tools. Furthermore, he provides updated definitions of tool classes and tool kits, together with the context of their use. Besides rare specimens of full-size tools, the largest corpora of the material have been preserved in the form of model tools in the burial equipment of the Old Kingdom elite and were most probably symbols of their power to commission and fund craftwork. Moreover, the size and elaboration of the model tools were probably connected to the social status of the buried persons. The long-standing division in the Egyptological literature between full-size tools and model tools is questioned. The ancient sources also enable to show that the preservation of material culture from the Old Kingdom was largely dependent on a conscious selection made within the past culture, with completely different settlement and funerary contexts and a conspicuous absence of weapons. The volume is completed by co-authored case studies on archaeometallurgy of selected Old Kingdom artefacts in the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Leipzig University, on morphometry of Old Kingdom adze blades and on the finds of stone and ceramic vessels associated with the findings of so-called Old Kingdom model tools.

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Archaeological artifacts such as stone tools, ceramics, coins, metal implements, and ornaments like beads, are generally used to evaluate and understand the history of humans. These artifacts are especially important for the study of periods that lack concrete literary evidence. Intangible aspects such as spiritual beliefs and ceremonies, as well as tangible but perishable objects, are lost in the passage of time but artifacts are more likely to survive the vicissitudes of time. Pollen analysis, plant ecology and not least prehistoric archaeology have contributed to the recognition of the transitional zone between uncontaminated nature and what eventually became known as a cultural landscape. Cultural landscapes are looked upon not only as products of human intervention, but also and in particular as the result of human desire to leave an imprint of control and power, often associated with territoriality and religious or political ambitions. Megalithic burials, which are found in vast numbers in southern and central India, are a well-known global phenomenon and their builders have left behind a landscape altered by their funereal remains. This study aims at using and understanding man-land relationships in order to better comprehend the megalithic burials of Tamil Nadu. Funereal remains are one of the most important lingering means of understanding society, customs and religion of pre and proto historic periods. Many questions remain unanswered for the Iron Age of south India, and the megalithic burials are an important piece of this puzzle. This site specific study helps us better understand some aspects such as spatial distribution, chronology and post depositional changes of the burials at Siruthavoor.

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This book presents the first large-scale comparative study of Iron Age coin mould. The subject of Iron Age minting techniques is an important one that reveals a great deal about Iron Age political organisation and economy but which, until now, has remained largely unreported. In addition to examining in detail approximately 20% of all the coin mould ever found, the book also addresses the lack of an agreed reporting protocol, the main and considerable obstacle to progress in this field. In addition to the detailed interpretation of all mould studied the volume also serves as a field guide to best practice in dealing with new material and finds.

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The archaeological excavations along the route of packages 3 and 4 of the Batinah Expressway, Sultanate of Oman, conducted during the spring and summer of 2014, recorded over 60 archaeological sites over the 200km stretch of roadway cutting through the Batinah plain, north-west of Muscat. The majority of these sites were prehistoric tombs of varying ages. These excavations have allowed a re-thinking of the dating of some of these tombs, looking particularly at the structural styles of the tombs as well as their location in the landscape. It has also demonstrated techniques of rapid yet reliable excavation and recording techniques adapted from UK commercial archaeology for the Omani conditions. The report builds on the work of academic studies and adds a large dataset to the archaeology of the Batinah, Oman and the wider region. It is hoped that this will allow a wider scale reconsideration of the burial styles of the prehistoric Gulf.

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The present volume gathers the communications of the three sessions organized under the auspices of the Commission ‘History of Archaeology’ at the XVII UISPP World Congress Burgos 2014. The first part deals precisely with ‘International relations in the history of archaeology’. The eleven contributions tackle a particularly productive topic in the field today. In actual fact, this seminal research field currently echoes in a way the strong trend of scholarship about the influence of nationalism on the discipline, which since the end of the 1980s, has greatly contributed to the takeoff and overall recognition of the history of archaeology. The second part, entitled ‘The Revolution of the Sixties in prehistory and protohistory’, is the outcome of a partnership with the Commission ‘Archaeological Methods and Theory’. The seven contributions strive to document and analyse a recent past, which is still often burdened with the weight of teleological and presentist appraisals. The inclusion in this volume of this session significantly dedicated to the genealogy of schools of thought and to the study of complex methodological and technical issues illustrates the editors’ commitment to tackling historical issues as well, which are closely linked to current theoretical debates within archaeology. Such is also the aim of the third part, which addresses ‘Lobbying for Archaeology’. As shown by the five contributions of this session, archaeology has not only been instrumentalised by political powers and ideological interests. It has also found fruitful alliances with economic agents or bodies, where mutual advantages were gained on practical, technical bases. This volume suggests a reflexive, critical approach to these various forms of lobbying should ensure a useful awareness regarding the structural problems archaeology faces today, regarding its funding methods.

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Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with a drómos into the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of “fossilized” behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of life’s journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes of ante mortem conduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of, post mortem life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times.

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The Watery Scroll rulers selected the ancient Maya site of Tamarindito as their capital. First settled around 300 BC, the site served as their seat from the fifth through the eighth century AD. After the collapse, people continued to live at Tamarindito for several generations. Archaeological investigations provide a comprehensive perspective on social dynamics and change in an ancient Maya capital.

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The Roman legionary base at Novae in Lower Moesia is one of the most important sites in the Lower Danubian provinces. Towards late Antiquity, the military camp was transformed into a civil town with Episcopal residence and survived until the beginning of the 7th century. The Polish-Bulgarian excavations carried out for more than 55 years revealed remains dated from the mid-1st up to the early Byzantine periods and more than 300 inscriptions on stone. The rural hinterland of Novae is exceptional and fascinating for the historian and archaeologist, not only due to the importance of the site itself, but also due to its location. The legionary camp at Novae was located halfway between the outlets of two rivers – the Osăm and Jantra, flowing nearly parallel to each other. This part of the Danubian Plain was inhabited by Geto-Thracians and tribes influenced by the Celts. The special position of the lands between the Osăm and Jantra rivers is well-expressed by a series of boundary stones set up in AD 136 by Emperor Hadrian, who divided the tribal territories of Moesos and Thraces. This special geopolitical situation must have caused considerable difficulties in administering the area by the Romans. At present this poses a challenge for scholars, who search for answers to various questions concerning the universal solutions applied in borderlands in the past.

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The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international academic forum that meets annually for the presentation of research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula. It focuses on the fields of archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, and numismatics from the earliest times to the present day. A wide range of original and stimulating papers presented at the Seminar is published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and reflects the dynamism and scope of the interdisciplinary event. The Proceedings present the cutting edge of new research on Arabia and include reports of new discoveries in the Peninsula. They are published each spring in time for the subsequent Seminar, which is held in July. The main foci of the Seminar in 2015, in descending order of the number of papers presented in each session were North Arabia, South Arabia and Aksum, Archaeological Survey and Field Methods, Bronze and Iron Ages in Eastern Arabia, Islamic Archaeology, and Neolithic Archaeology. In addition, there were sessions on Recent Cultural History in Arabia, and Heritage Management in Arabia, as well as a special session on the Nabataean world titled ‘Beyond the “rose-red” city: the hinterland of Petra and Nabatean rural sites’, which featured a total of six papers. This volume also includes notes in memoriam on Professor Andrzej Zaborski (1942–2014), Professor Ordinarius at the Jagellonian University of Cracow, who specialized in Afro-Asiatic linguistics, Semitic and Cushitic in particular.

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Megalithic monuments from Neolithic Europe have long been considered as rough copies of the monumental architectures built by the first civilizations of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. When radiocarbon dating jeopardized this diffusionist pattern, though, specialists could not but wonder why and how these Neolithic societies, usually considered as small ‘village communities’, had erected such monuments. In order to answer these questions and seek explanations in the social, political or religious contexts of recent or present megalith-building societies, the ethnological frame of references has been referred to on a regular basis. This volume comprises the papers presented by prehistorians and ethnologists at the two multi-disciplinary round tables held in Strasburg in May 2014 and May 2015. Their purpose was, with the help of both case studies and more synthetic works, to discuss how the patterns drawn from the observation of ‘living’ megalithic societies have been used to try and shed light on the functioning of European Neolithic societies, the epistemological problems raised by this transposition and the relevance of ethnology-based archeological explanations. The book is composed of three sections: the first one deals with some methodological reflections, the second and third ones with the ‘living’ or recent megalithisms of respectively the Indonesian Archipelago and Ethiopia.

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Papers from the First Iberoamerican Conference on Spatial Archaeology held in 2013 at the University of Cantabria, Spain. The subjects include theoretical contexts of spatial archaeology, relationship between archaeological and ethnographical research, micro-site studies and the interpretation of the environment from archaeo-historical contextualization.

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The overall purpose of this book is to provide a foundation for Samoan students to become the custodians of the historical narrative based on Archaeological research. Issues that are explored are; Do ancient remains matter in contemporary Samoa? What is the chronological status, and spatial relationship of archaeological monuments found in Samoa? Is the settlement pattern stable over the past 3000 years that Samoa has been populated and/or does central places emerge trough time? Previous efforts from the outside during the 1960 -70 of introducing Archaeology to Samoa that used archaeological methods, historical linguistics and ethno-history to interpret the Samoan past are assessed in regard to the development in Samoa but also in a wider West-Polynesian context. The book also contains data and discussions on our three-year program for archaeology at the large and important Pulemelei mound in Savai’i during 2002-2004, some of which has not been published before. Results and further implications of these investigations that were followed up by an eight-year program where the author introduced courses in Archaeology at The National University of Samoa are also presented and discussed. These efforts served as a foundation to create a Bachelors program for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management. Results from our archaeological field schools, collaborations with the Museum of Samoa and interview projects on Cultural Heritage Management, education and legislation are also discussed here. They provide a foundation to understand the role of and the Historical Cultural Heritage in the past and present Samoa and how to move on to manage and protect this heritage in the future.

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This is the first memoir by an internationally known archaeological scientist, and one who has been particularly research active for over fifty years in the broad field of bioarchaeology. Written with humour and a critical concern to understand the nature of his life and that of our species. It provides a very readable and original account of a life embracing field and laboratory work from Orkney to Egypt and Mongolia to Peru. The diverse research extends from human fossils, to cemetery studies and bog bodies, to dogs, hair chemistry, bone pathology, soils and vitrification. He has similarly been concerned about the nature of culture, the impact of stress on individuals, and theoretical issues in archaeological science. He argues that we are advanced primates, and can’t be divorced from a scientific and ethological perspective. Indeed, he sees culture as derived from a complex interwoven range of thought, from the usefully adaptive to the highly maladaptive creative thinking which can grade into destructive social pathology. Our limited ability to perceive accurately has resulted in the creation of a plethora of dubious beliefs, from religions to political elitism and fanaticism. Placed in the world of today, with the perspective of our long past, the author feels that it is difficult not to feel coldly sober and doubtful about the future of our species. But we are not extinct yet! Beginning life as a traumatised baby and school failure, Don retired as emeritus professor of archaeological science in the University of York.

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Egyptians went to great lengths to protect their dead from the omnipresent threat of robbery by incorporating specially developed architectural features in their tombs. However, the architecture of tomb security has rarely been studied as a subject in its own right and is usually treated as a secondary topic in publications of a scholarly nature, which tend to regard its role as incidental to the design of the tomb rather than perhaps being the driving force behind it. This issue had been raised in the early Twentieth Century by Reisner (1908: 11), who suggested that the rapid evolution of Egyptian tomb substructures was as a result of the desire for tomb security and more ostentatious tombs, rather than a development spurred by religious or funerary practices. Taking this premise much further, this book presents an in-depth analysis of the architecture of tomb security in Egypt from the Predynastic Period (c. 5000–4000 BC) until the early Fourth Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) by extrapolating data on the security features of published tombs from the whole of Egypt and gathering it together for the first time in one accessible database. Using the information assembled it adds new information to the current body of knowledge concerning the architecture of tomb security and explains many of the underlying reasons behind their adoption. By thematically analysing these features in order to draw conclusions it also demonstrates that many aspects of the architecture of the Egyptian tomb over this period, in both royal and private contexts–whilst subject to changing tastes, needs and ideologies–had indeed originated as the result of the need to protect the tomb or improve its security.

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