Search results for ""Archaeopress""

This volume presents a study of the tomb of Kha-em-hat TT 57 at Qurna, West Luxor, which dates back to the 18th Dynasty⁠ – the reign of King Amenhotep III. It is considered one of the most important Egyptian tomb discoveries, containing rare scenes and revealing development of the religious rituals of the time. The tomb is still in very good condition and today is open to visitors.

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Aleksei P. Okladnikov: The Great Explorer of the Past (Volume II) is about the life and works of Aleksei P. Okladnikov (1908–1981), a prominent archaeologist who spent more than 50 years studying prehistoric sites in various parts of the Soviet Union and in Mongolia. This part of Okladnikov’s biography concentrates on his works in 1961–1981, when he was organiser (1961–1966) and since 1966 the Director of the Institute of History, Philology, and Philosophy, Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in Novosibirsk. This institute was a part of large-scale project of Akademgorodok (Academic Town) built in 1957– 1964, the unique phenomenon of Soviet science. In Novosibirsk, Okladnikov continued active fieldworks in Siberia, Russian Far East, Central Asia and Mongolia, and writing of books and articles on different subjects of archaeology and history. He also created the Novosibirsk school of archaeologists who continue to work in Siberia and the neighbouring regions of Asia until today. In 1974, Okladnikov with four colleagues participated in joint US–Soviet expedition to the Aleutian Islands, where W. S. Laughlin and he directed the excavations of early sites. The book is for archaeologists, historians, and everyone who is interested in the history of scholarship (particularly the humanities) in the twentieth century.

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The Black Sea cities of Turkey's northern coast – Ereğli , Amasra, Sinop, Samsun, Giresun, Ordu, Trabzon, and inland Amasya – are endowed with museums whose holdings include important collections of amphorae. Their state of preservation is also exceptional since the majority were recovered intact from the sea. Most were produced in the big manufacturing centres around the Black Sea during the Roman period, between the 2nd/3rd centuries BCE and the 7th century CE. This Corpus brings them together and analyses them in the light of recent investigations. The production lines of Sinop and Colchis are especially well represented and can be followed without interruption over several centuries. The size of the assemblage – ca. 450 vessels – provides an overview of manufacturing trends for Black Sea amphorae, and brings out the similarities and differences in technique and morphology that distinguished one workshop from another. Research on this corpus has also offered an opportunity to consider questions inherent to amphora studies, such as what commercial goods they contained; how vessel shapes related to the regional resources for which they were designed; standardized volumes; and the use of amphoras in paying the annona.

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L’Egitto dei Flavi, providing synthesis and new prospects of investigation, offers an overall review of the various information obtainable from papyrological and epigraphic sources from the Roman province of Egypt at the moment of transition from the Julio-Claudian dynasty to the new Flavian dynasty. Within the investigations, an attempt was made to focus on the province of Egypt during the period of Flavian domination with the aim of providing a compendium and a more balanced examination of the technical and economic organization of the country in a historical period that still would seem complex to want to define in its entirety. This operation made it necessary to start from the various documentary sources (papyrus, ostraka, epigraphs and wooden tablets) which bore testimony of the aspects that were intended to be emphasized. The texts examined were therefore carefully selected in the context of the substantial material available.

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An international peer-reviewed English-language journal specializing in synthetic articles and in long reviews, the Journal of Greek Archaeology appears annually each Autumn. The scope of the journal is Greek archaeology both in the Aegean and throughout the wider Greek-inhabited world, from earliest Prehistory to the Modern Era. Volume Two maintains the mission to publish across the whole time range of Greek Archaeology, with articles from the Palaeolithic to the Early Modern era, as well as reaching out from the Aegean to the wider Greek world. Lithics and Ceramics are accompanied by innovative Art History and Industrial Archaeology. The book reviews are equally wide-ranging. Contributors are international, and include young researchers as well as long-established senior scholars.

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The long Palaeolithic sequence of Karain (Antalya, Turkey) began around 500,000 years ago and continued until the final Palaeolithic around 10,000 BC. This volume presents all the cultural and technical variations during this immense period, situated in a context which joins Africa, Asia, and Europe. In brief, the assemblage of tools appears to belong to Asian traditions; no Acheulian bifaces were observed. The earlier half of the sequence (stages 9 and 10) corresponds to centripetal industries with thick flakes and with denticulates and racloirs, classified as 'Proto-Charentian'. 'Modern archaic' human remains were sporadically discovered there. The upper phase is by far the most important: stages 8 to 5. These are superb Levallois industries with good quality exogenous materials. The tools are made from elongated flakes and transformed into racloirs with very elegant points. They have been termed 'Karain Mousterian'. Human remains are also associated with this phase (mandible and phalanges). The final phase (stage 4) is classically Mousterian with Neanderthal human remains.

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Ceramic technology is a topic widely explored in archaeology, especially for its social inferences. This volume addresses the social aspects of production and the role of potters within prehistoric communities. The book focusses on the Copper Age when social complexity was incipient rather than developed, and ceramic production was not considered a formalised activity. Household and funerary pottery dated from the second half of the 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium BC unearthed from eight archaeological contexts located in the current area of Rome were analysed through a multidisciplinary study. An integrated approach of archaeometric investigation, trace analysis and experimental archaeology provided a framework of empirical data reflecting the transmission of technological choices among diverse ceramic traditions and the coexistence of different levels of expertise within productions related to household or funerary activities. Petrographic analyses, XRF and XRD, led to an understanding of the ceramic recipes, their use and the firing technology used by Copper Age potters. The reference collection of technological traces relating to forming techniques, surface treatments and comb decorations allowed characterization of the craftspeople’s expertise. A potter’s skill is inferred in terms of the technical investment required at each stage of production or in shaping specific ceramic vessels. In light of these data, the pottery from the Copper Age contexts of central Italy suggests a recurring association between skilled productions and socially valued goods, as the vessels used in funerary contexts demonstrate.

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Environment and Religion in Ancient and Coptic Egypt: Sensing the Cosmos through the Eyes of the Divine presents the proceedings of a conference held in Athens between 1st-3rd February 2017. The Hellenic Institute of Egyptology, in close collaboration with the Writing & Scripts Centre of Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the University of Alexandria, organized the conference concerning the ancient Egyptian religion, Coptic Christianity and Environment. Thus, the endeavour was to sense the Cosmos, through a virtual Einfahlung, as a manifestation of the Divine and the manifestations of the Divine in the environmental, cosmic and societal spheres. Egyptians were particularly pious and they considered their surroundings and the Universe itself as a creation and a direct immanence of the Divine, being also convinced that they were congenital parts of the Cosmos and adoring their divinities, who were also personifications of environmental and/or cosmic aspects and forces. There are many examples (epigraphic, textual, monumental, & c.) corroborating these relations and that ancient Egyptian piety was rooted on the bi-faceted texture of the ancient Egyptian religion, containing a solar and an astral component: the former was related to Rec, while the latter was related to Osiris. The conference took place with participations of a pleiade of Egyptologists, archaeologists, archaeoastronomers, theologians, historians and other scholars from more than 15 countries all over the world. In this unique volume are published most of the contributions of the delegates who sent their papers for peer-reviewing, enriching the bibliographic resources with original and interesting articles. This publication of more than 580 pages containing 34 fresh and original papers (plus 2 abstracts) on the ancient Egyptian religion, Environment and the Cosmos, fruitfully connects many interdisciplinary approaches and Egyptology, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, geography, botany, zoology, ornithology, theology and history.

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The Changing Landscapes of Rome’s Northern Hinterland presents a new regional history of the middle Tiber valley as a lens through which to view the emergence and transformation of the city of Rome from 1000 BC to AD 1000. Setting the ancient city within the context of its immediate territory, the authors reveal the diverse and enduring links between the metropolis and its hinterland. At the heart of the volume is a detailed consideration of the results of a complete restudy of the pioneering South Etruria Survey (c. 1955–1970), one of the earliest and most influential Mediterranean landscape projects. Between 1998 and 2002, an international team based at the British School at Rome conducted a comprehensive restudy of the material and documentary archive generated by the South Etruria Survey. The results were supplemented with a number of other published and unpublished sources of archaeological evidence to create a database of around 5000 sites across southern Etruria and the Sabina Tiberina, extending in date from the Bronze Age, through the Etruscan/Sabine, Republican and imperial periods, to the middle ages. Analysis and discussion of these data have appeared in a series of interim articles published over the past two decades; the present volume offers a final synthesis of the project results. The chapters include the first detailed assessment of the field methods of the South Etruria Survey, an extended discussion of the use of archaeological legacy data, and new insights into the social and economic connectivities between Rome and the communities of its northern hinterland across two millennia. The volume as a whole demonstrates how the archaeological evidence generated by landscape surveys can be used to rewrite narrative histories, even those based on cities as familiar as ancient Rome. Includes contributions by Martin Millett, Simon Keay and Christopher Smith, and a preface by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.

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Going Underground: The Meanings of Death and Burial for Minority Groups in Israel is about the attitudes towards death and burial in contemporary society. It provides information on the attitudes of several minority groups living in Israel today, including four communities of Russian Jews, an ultra-religious Jewish community and a Palestinian-Christian community. ‘Going Underground’ has a double meaning: it refers to the actions taken by archaeologists to inquire about the past and present and involves digging and recording. Second, it considers the challenges and protests launched by the groups of immigrants and minorities mentioned in the book, against state-control over death.

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Working at Home in the Ancient Near East brings together the papers and discussions from an international workshop organized within the framework of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East held in Vienna in April 2016. The volume examines the organization, scale, and the socio-economic role played by institutional and non-institutional households, as well as the social use of domestic spaces in Bronze Age Mesopotamia. The invited speakers – archaeologists, philologists, and historians specializing in ancient Mesopotamia – who approached these topics from different perspectives and by analyzing different datasets were encouraged to exchange their views and to discuss methodological concerns and common problems. This volume includes seven archaeological- and philological-oriented essays focusing on specific sites and archives, from northern Mesopotamia to southern Babylonia. The contributions assembled in the present volume seek to bridge the gap between archaeological records and cuneiform sources, in order to provide a more accurate reconstruction of the Mesopotamian economies during the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.

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Between 2002 and 2014 MOLA Northampton carried out evaluation and excavation work over an area of approximately 49.65ha ahead of mineral extraction for the quarry at the Manor Pit, Baston, Lincolnshire. The earliest activity dated to the Neolithic with the first occupation dating to the early Bronze Age, but it was within the middle Bronze Age that significant occupation took place within the site. Part of a large co-axial field system was recorded over an area approximately c800m long and up to 310m wide. Cropmarks and the results from other archaeological excavations suggest the field system continued beyond Manor Pit for c4km and was up to 1km wide. The field system was a well-planned pastoral farming landscape at a scale suggesting that cattle and other animals were being farmed for mass trade. The site was reoccupied in the early 2nd century AD when two adjacent Roman settlements were established. One of the settlements was arranged along a routeway which led from the Car Dyke whilst the other settlement connected to this routeway by a long straight boundary. In both settlements there were a series of fields/enclosures situated in a largely open environment, with some evidence for cultivation, areas of wet ground and stands of trees. Well/watering holes lay within these enclosures and fields indicating that stock management was a key component of the local economy. In the later medieval period a trackway ran across the site, associated with which was a small enclosure, which perhaps contained fowl. During the early post-medieval period the land was subject to a final period of enclosure, with a series of small rectilinear fields established aligned with Baston Outgang Road, forming the basis of the current landscape.

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Pre and Protohistoric Stone Architectures: Comparisons of the Social and Technical Contexts Associated to Their Building presents the papers from Session XXXII-3 of the XVIII UISPP Congress (Paris, 4-9 June 2018). This session took place within the commission concerned with the European Neolithic. While most of the presentations fell within that chronological period and were concerned with the Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean basin, wider geographical and chronological comparisons were also included. This volume aims to break the usual limits on the fields of study and to deconstruct some preconceived ideas. New methods developed over the past ten years bring out new possibilities regarding the study of such monuments, and the conference proceedings open up unexpected and promising perspectives. This volume is a parallel text edition in English and French.

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A Biography of Power explores the changing nature of power and identity from the Iron Age to Roman period in Britain. Presenting detailed excavation results and integrating a range of comprehensive specialist studies, the book provides fresh insights into the origins and nature of one of the lesser-known, but perhaps most significant, Late Iron Age oppida in Britain: Bagendon in Gloucestershire. Combining the results of a large-scale geophysical survey with analysis of both historic and new excavations, this volume reassesses Iron Age occupation at Bagendon. It reveals evidence for diverse artisanal activities and complex regional exchange networks that saw livestock, and people, travelling to Bagendon from west of the Severn. The results of the excavation of two morphologically unusual, banjo-like enclosures, and of one of the previously unexamined dykes, has revealed that the Bagendon oppidum had earlier origins and more complex roles than previously envisaged. The volume also provides new insights into the nature of the Iron Age and Roman landscape in which Bagendon was situated. Detailing the discovery of two, previously unknown, Roman villas at Bagendon demonstrates the continued significance of this landscape in the early Roman province. This volume redefines Bagendon as a landscape of power, offering important insights into the changing nature of societies from the Middle Iron Age to the Roman period. It calls for a radical reassessment of how we define oppida complexes and their socio-political importance at the turn of the 1st millennium BC. Contains contributions from Sophia Adams, Michael J. Allen, Sam Bithell, Cameron Clegg, Geoffrey Dannell, Lorne Elliott, Elizabeth Foulds, Freddie Foulds, Christopher Green, Darren Gröcke, Derek Hamilton, Colin Haselgrove, Yvonne Inall, Tina Jakob, Mandy Jay, Sally Kellett, Robert Kenyon, Mark Landon, Edward McSloy, Janet Montgomery, J.A. Morley-Stone, Geoff Nowell, Charlotte O’Brien, Chris Ottley, Cynthia Poole, Richard Reece, Harry Robson, Ruth Shaffrey, John Shepherd, Jane Timby, Dirk Visser, D.F. Williams, Steven Willis.

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Human Transgression – Divine Retribution analyses pagan concepts of religious transgressions, how they should be regarded and punished, as expressed in Greek cultic regulations from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Also considered are the so-called propitiatory inscriptions (often referred to as ‘confession inscriptions’) from the 1st to the 3rd century AD Lydia and Phrygia, in light of ‘cultic morality’, an ideal code of behaviour intended to make places, occasions, and worshippers suitable for ritual. This code is on the one hand associated with ‘purity’ (hagneia) and removal of pollution (miasma) caused by deaths, births and sexuality, and on the other with the protection of sacred property. This study seeks to explain the emphasis of divine punishments in the Lydian and Phrygian inscriptions, while rare in most Greek cultic regulations, as part of a continuum within pagan religion rather than as a result of an absolute division between Greek and Oriental religion.

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During the Ptolemaic period, Egyptian temples were divided into three ranks: first, second and third class. There was no trace of this classification of sacred buildings in the papyri of the Roman period when only the most important temples were classified by the epithet logima hiera. This work aims to understand the rules according to which Egyptian sacred buildings were classified and how these first, second and third-class temples were planned and arranged. To do this, an integrated analysis of different kinds of sources was carried out: all the Graeco-Roman papyri and the inscriptions, which contain rank epithets, were examined and different archaeological data about the temples of the Fayyum region were investigated. Based on these sources, it was possible to put forward different hypotheses on the administration and architectural aspects of these sacred buildings.

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Northwest Syria during the Neolithic period has been less well studied than the rest of the northern Levant, where Neolithisation first took place in the Near East. The Neolithic Lithic Industry at Tell Ain El-Kerkh presents the first attempt to unveil the Neolithisation process in northwest Syria, with the techno-typological studies of the flintstone implements from Tell Ain el-Kerkh in the Rouj basin in Idlib, which was an important large Neolithic site occupied from the from the 9th to the 7th millennium BC. Examination of the lithic record from Tell Ain el-Kerkh revealed techno-morphological changes in flint tools during the long Neolithic sequence from the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) to the end of the Pottery Neolithic. The author interprets such changes in stone tools in the socio-economic context of the Neolithic. Through the comparison between the data obtained from Tell Ain el-Kerkh and other Neolithic sites in the northern Levant, the regional characteristics of northwest Syria during the Neolithic period are highlighted. In the end, two important issues in the Neolithic Levant, diffusion of the PPNB culture and the PPNB collapse, are discussed based on the results of this study. This volume includes substantial original data, drawings, and analysis of lithics from Neolithic sites in Syria, which will be useful for future discussion of the changes in material culture in relation with the Neolithisation process in the Near East.

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Quebrada de Humahuaca is the center of important and diverse continuous cultural developments and presents places that are key references in the archaeology of Argentina. However, numerous spaces, such as Tumbaya, have not yet been the subject of systematic and intensive research. There, the study began as a response to the interest of the local aboriginal community to know the pre-Hispanic past of the area. Tumbaya, in the central-south sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca, is a particular space since its environmental and geomorphological characteristics have allowed important interactions between the groups that inhabited the area and those of other regions, added to a social dynamic that gives a distinctive character to the sector. Within this framework, the landscapes that were configured in the central-south sector of Quebrada during the agricultural-ceramist period were studied, concerning its social identity and the links it may have had with other sectors of the circumpuneña area. The landscape approach, understood from a comprehensive perspective, allowed consideration of the natural, social and symbolic environment of the inhabitants of the area throughout its occupational history, including the materiality generated and manipulated to configure the landscape and define a particular identity. Thus, the landscape was conceived as a dynamic space, socially built by the daily activities, beliefs and value system of the social actors who carry out an act of memory that is constitutive of both their identity, their conception and legitimation of the territory.

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This landscape study of the rock-art of Rombalds Moor, West Yorkshire, considers views of and from the sites. In an attempt to understand the rock-art landscapes of prehistory the study considered the environment of the moor and its archaeology along with the ethnography from the whole circumpolar region. All the rock-art sites were visited, and the sites, motifs and views recorded. The data was analysed at four spatial scales, from the whole moor down to the individual rock. Several large prominent and impressive carved rocks, interpreted as natural monuments, were found to feature in the views from many much smaller rock-art sites. Several clusters of rock-art sites were identified. An alignment was also identified, composed of carved stones perhaps moved into position. Other perhaps-moved carved stones were also identified. The possibility that far-distant views might be significant was also indicated by some of the findings. The physicality of carving arose as a major theme. The natural monuments are all difficult or dangerous to carve; conversely, the more common, simple sites mostly required the carver to kneel or crouch down. This, unexpectedly for British rock-art, raises comparisons with some North American rock-art, where some highly visible sites were carved by religious specialists, and others, inconspicuous and much smaller, were carved by ordinary people.

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The Dialectic of Practice and the Logical Structure of the Tool undertakes a critical review of recent trends in the archaeological and anthropological theory of technology from processual neo-positivism and postprocessual relativism to the contemporary French and American anthropology, and the symmetrical theory of material culture. On the basis of a critique of their logical premises and epistemological consequences, it draws on the tradition of Hegelian dialectics in order to propose an alternative understanding of technology as a material social practice within which the subject and the object –the socio-cultural and the natural– are produced concurrently as inter-constituted elements, and they are unified through their mutual negative relation to each other. Consequently, it is argued that this dynamic practical relation is consolidated in the concept of the tool. The analysis of its logical structure shows its role as an immanent moment of technological practice. According to Hegel, a tool is not a neutral means for transmitting subjective ends to an external object but the material expression of the practical relationship between artisan and matter, and of their negative unity within practice. Concerning this point, the discussion follows a detailed reconstruction of Hegel’s theoretical reflections on the tool concept, and it evaluates their significance for the contemporary debates on the question of techniques and technology.

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Even though, at death, identity and social status may undergo major changes, by studying funerary customs we can greatly gain in the understanding of a community’s social structure, distribution of wealth and property, and the degree of flexibility or divisiveness in the apportionment of power. With its great regional diversity and variety of community forms and networks, ancient Greece offers a unique context for exploring, through the burial evidence, how communities developed. Mortuary Variability and Social Diversity in Ancient Greece brings together early career scholars working on funerary customs in Greece from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period. Papers present various thematic and interdisciplinary analysis in which funerary contexts provide insights on individuals, social groups and communities. Themes discussed include issues of territoriality, the reconstruction of social roles of particular groups of people, and the impact that major historical events may have had on the way individuals or specific groups of individuals treated their dead.

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Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit were ideally placed to take advantage of the Mediterranean trade given their close proximity to the Egyptian ports of Thonis-Heracleion, Alexandria, and Rosetta during the Hellenistic, Roman, Late Roman, and early Islamic period. The social and economic vitality of the sites has been revealed during investigations undertaken by the Italian archaeological mission between 2012 and 2016 and published in Kom al-Ahmer – Kom Wasit I: Excavations in the Metelite Nome, Egypt ca. 700 BC – AD 100. This volume presents over 1070 coins (ca. 310 BC–AD 641) and 1320 examples of Late Roman and Early Islamic pottery, testimony to the considerable commercial activity in the region during the Late Antique period. Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit emerge as centers of an exchange network involving large-scale trade of raw materials to and from the central and eastern Mediterranean.

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In the Argentine Northwest, northeast of Catamarca, there are a set of shelters and caves located in the rainforest with rock art with virtually no background. Little is known about the occupants of these spaces and their past practices. In order to learn more about these, this book addresses the study and systematic analysis of the plastic-thematic-compositional repertoire of the rock art sites of ‘Los Algarrobales’ and their spatial and temporal distribution. In this way, it is possible to approach the understanding of the modalities of appropriation of the people of the inhabited area, the relationship that they would have maintained with the environment, as well as the distinction of various events and uses of different places and, in this way, contribute to the knowledge of the historical, social and cultural development of the area. Throughout the reading, we start to glimpse the archaeological landscapes related to rock art for this sector of the southern Andean area.

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Digging Up Jericho: Past Present and Future, arising from a conference exploring the heritage, archaeology and history of the Jericho Oasis, includes contributions by 21 internationally significant scholars. It will appeal to scholars and students in Near Eastern prehistory, Islamic archaeology, public archaeology, the history of archaeology, and cultural heritage management. Jericho has had a profile beyond academia, and the volume will also appeal to anyone interested in the archaeology and heritage of Jericho, biblical archaeology and, more broadly, Israel and Palestine. This is the first volume to offer a holistic perspective on the research and public value of the site of Jericho – an iconic site with a long and impressive history stretching from the Epipalaeolithic to the present day. Once dubbed the ‘Oldest City in the World’, it has been the focus of intense archaeological activity and media interest in the 150 years since its discovery. From early investigations in the 19th century, through Kathleen Kenyon’s work at the site in the 1950s, to the recent Italian-Palestinian Expedition and Khirbat al-Mafjar Archaeological Project, Jericho and its surrounding landscape has always played a key role in our understanding of this fascinating region. Current efforts to get the site placed on the World Heritage List only enhance its appeal. Covering all aspects of work at the site, from past to present and beyond, this volume offers a unique opportunity to re-evaluate and assess the legacy of this important site. In doing so, it helps to increase our understanding of the wider archaeology and history of the Southern Levant.

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This book presents a discussion of the culture history of ancient West Mexico from the time of the first human inhabitants until the last cultural developments that took place before the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. The overall narrative is played out within the context of the Mesoamerican ecumene; that is, the universe of cultural and social interactions that coalesced into one of the few pristine civilizations of the ancient world. The book presents a long-overdue synthesis and update of West Mexican archaeology aimed at scholars, students and the general public. Ancient West Mexico in the Mesoamerican Ecumene is the first book about West Mexican archaeology written by a single author. Another unique feature of this book is that it follows a holistic approach that includes data and perspectives from sociocultural anthropology, ethnohistory, ethnoarchaeology, and general analogy with many ancient cultures within the Mesoamerican ecumene and beyond (including several of the Old World). The focus of interest is the relationship between West Mexico and the rest of the ecumene, and the role played by the ancient West Mexicans in shaping the culture and history of the Mesoamerican universe. Ancient West Mexico has often been portrayed as a ‘marginal’ or ‘underdeveloped’ area of Mesoamerica. This book shows that the opposite is true. Indeed, Williams convincingly demonstrates that West Mexico actually played a critical role in the cultural and historical development of the Mesoamerican ecumene.

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Archaeological evidence for settlement and land use in early medieval Scottish upland landscapes remains largely undiscovered. This study records only the second excavation of one important and distinctive house form, the Pitcarmicktype building, in the hills of north-east Perth and Kinross. Excavation of seven turf buildings at Lair in Glen Shee has confirmed the introduction of Pitcarmick buildings in the early 7th century AD. Clusters of these at Lair, and elsewhere in the hills, are interpreted as integrated, spatially organised farm complexes comprising byre-houses and outbuildings. Their form has more to do with contemporary traditions across the North Sea than with local styles. There is a close link between 7th-century climatic amelioration and their spread across the hills, and it is argued that this was a purposeful re-occupation of a neglected landscape. Pitcarmick buildings were constructed and lived in by precocious, knowledgeable, and prosperous farming communities. Pollen analysis has shown the upland economy to have been arable as well as pastoral, and comparable contemporary economic ‘recovery’ is suggested from similar analyses across Scotland. The farms at Lair were stable and productive until the 11th century when changes, poorly understood, saw their demise.

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Weaving in Stones: Garments and Their Accessories in the Mosaic Art of Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity is the first book to trace and document the garments and their accessories worn by some 245 figures represented on approximately 41 mosaic floors (some only partially preserved) that once decorated both public and private structures within the historical-geographical area of Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity. After identifying, describing and cataloguing the various articles of clothing, a typological division differentiating between men’s, women’s and children’s clothing is followed by a discussion of their iconographic formulae and significance, including how the items of clothing and accessories were employed and displayed and their ideological and social significance. The book is copiously illustrated with photographs of mosaics and other artistic media from throughout the Greek, Roman and Byzantine world, with particular emphasis on the examples from Eretz Israel.

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This volume is a tribute to the career of Professor Olivier Rouault who has conducted extensive research in the fields of both Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern archaeology. The book is composed of 25 papers written by his colleagues, friends and former students from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Syria and the United States. The contributions presented here combine archaeological, iconographic and Assyriological studies from the Neolithic to the 1st millennium BC, covering whole of Mesopotamia and regions of Anatolia and the Levant. Nine papers deal with the data of Terqa, Mari and Qasr Shemamok, sites close to Professor Olivier Rouault’s main field of research. He published cuneiform tablets from Mari and Terqa and worked as a director of archaeological missions at Terqa and Qasr Shemamok. The book is divided into six main topics: Palace and Administration, Temples and Cults, Families and Societies, Literatures and Historiography, Representation and Symbolic Aspects, Cultural Markers and Stratigraphy – all the topics that attracted Professor Olivier Rouault during his fruitful career. More intimate texts recounting memories of moments shared with Olivier punctuate the reading of these contributions.

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Maritime-Related Cults in the Coastal Cities of Philistia during the Roman Period questions the origins and the traditions of the cultic rites practised during Roman times along the southern shores of the Land of Israel. This area was known since biblical times as ‘Peleshet’ (Philistia), after the name of one of the Sea Peoples that had settled there at the beginning of the Iron Age. Philistia’s important cities Jaffa, Ashkelon, Gaza and Rafiah were culturally and religiously integrated into the Graeco-Roman world. At the same time, each city developed its own original and unique group of myths and cults that had their roots in earlier periods. Their emergence and formation were influenced by environmental conditions as well as by ethno-social structures and political circumstances. Philistia’s port cities served as crossroads for the routes connecting the main centres of culture and commerce in ancient times. Most of their cults were closely associated with the sea, and reflect the existential dependency of the inhabitants on the sea that supplied them with sustenance and livelihood and was regarded as a divine beneficent power. The myths also echo the lives of the sailors, their beliefs and fears derived from encountering the dangers of the sea: storms, floods, reefs and giant fish portrayed as monsters. The population of the cities was of mixed and varied ethnic and cultural origins. This was the result of the waves of conquests and migrations over the ages, yet each city was noted for its unique ethnic components. The book also deals with the political circumstances, which had a decisive impact on the formation of religious life and cultic rites in all four cities. It sheds new light to the understanding of the events and historical processes in the region.

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Ancient states were rooted in agriculture, sedentism and population growth. They were fragile and prone to collapse, but there is no consensus on the causes or meaning of collapse, and there is an ongoing debate about the importance, nature and even existence of state-wide collapse. Explanations of collapse in terms of the competing mono-causal factors are found inferior to those incorporating dynamic, interactive systems. It is proposed that collapse should be explained as failure to fulfil the ancient state’s core functions: assurance of food supplies, defence against external attack, maintenance of internal peace, imposition of its will throughout its territory, enforcement of state-wide laws, and promotion of an ideology to legitimise the political and social status quo. To fulfil these functions certain necessary conditions must be met. The legitimacy of the political and social status quo, including the distribution of political power and wealth, needs to be accepted; the state should be able to extract sufficient resources to fulfil its functions such as defence; it must be able to enforce its decisions; the ruling elite should share a common purpose and actions; the society needs to reflect a shared spirit (asibaya) and purpose across elites and commoners who believe it is worthy of defence. Weaknesses and failure to meet any condition can interact to exacerbate the situation: maladministration, corruption and elite preoccupation with self-aggrandisement can induce fiscal weakness, reduced military budgets and further invasion; it can induce neglect of key infrastructures (especially water management). Inequality, a commonly neglected factor despite ancient texts, can erode asibaya and legitimacy and alienate commoners from the defence of the state. These themes are explored in relation to the Egyptian Old Kingdom, Mycenae, the Western Roman Empire (WRE), and the Maya. They all exhibit, to varying degrees, weaknesses in meeting the above conditions necessary for stability.

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Cultural Heritage Management in most parts of Africa has been concerned and focused on conservation and preservation of cultural and natural heritage and the development of sites for tourism and economic benefit. In this venture, the tangible heritage such as monuments and landscapes become the focus and of primary significance. Therefore, most efforts have failed to grasp the significance and relevance of cultural heritage to the local communities and the existing traditional and cultural attachment to heritage sites beyond the economic gain. Of late, operational guidelines of the WH Conventions have targeted the engagement of communities in the management of their local heritage and shaping visitor experiences. The major challenge is the implementation of these agreements and restoration of cultural pride in local communities. The communities’ interest in heritage areas has been overshadowed by the perceived idea of economic gain and the global agenda for preservation of monuments for future generation as the foremost primary benefit in heritage over cultural rights and entitlement to heritage sites, present day cultural valuation and traditional use. In 2008 several heritage sites in Botswana were opened for tourism in addition to the Tsodilo World Heritage Site. Furthermore, in June 2014 the Okavango Delta covering a vast range of land occupied by cultural communities was also inscribed on the World Heritage List, becoming the second World Heritage Site in the country. However, insufficient research and analysis has been undertaken to understand how local communities and local cultures respond to these ventures. The study is case study based, presenting an overview of community transformation and responses to universalized heritage value and collective global view that characterize heritage status of cultural materials and the interactions of local cultures and traditions with the concepts of heritage and culture in heritage sites as globalised platforms. In this regard, it is evident through this study that the interlocutors are aware of their community boundaries and value in response to a national and global process of ‘valuation’ of the heritage site that is not theirs.

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In Dhofar, the southern Governorate of the Sultanate of Oman, the deep canyons cutting the Nejd plateau once flowed with perennial rivers, feeding wetland environments, forests, and grasslands across the now desiccated interior. The first peoples of Oman flourished along these waterways, drawn to the freshwater springs and abundant game, as well as the myriad chert outcrops with which to fashion their hunting implements and other tools. The landscapes of the Nejd Plateau are a natural museum of human prehistory, covered in carpets of chipped stone debris. The archaeological evidence presented in this work encompasses the cultural remains of over a million years of successive human occupations, from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic. Once considered an evolutionary backwater or merely a migratory way station, the archaeology of Dhofar requires a fundamental reconsideration of the role of Southern Arabia in the origin and dispersal of our species.

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The production of amphorae and the export of commodities transported in them was a key activity for the Mediterranean world in Antiquity. Consequently, their study is of enormous value for analysing the agricultural and fishing economy, and also the commercial mechanism of that period. Through the typological and chronological analysis of these ceramic containers, a high degree of knowledge has been achieved, especially for the production of the different Mediterranean societies from the second millennium BC to the Middle Ages. In The Ovoid Amphorae in the Central and Western Mediterranean between the last two centuries of the Republic and the early days of the Roman Empire, several series of amphorae created in the Late Republican Roman period (2nd and 1st centuries BC) have been studied – a group of material until now little studied. All of these groups of containers share a common feature in the shape of their bodies which is generally ovoid. The fact that they were conceived and developed in the economic and political context in which Rome expanded throughout the Mediterranean, transferring to its new territories its production and commercialization procedures, bears witness to the almost total integration of the Mediterranean markets. This publication is based on the proceedings of the workshop held at Seville University in December 2015. The book brings together contributions on the main production areas of these ovoid amphorae from the Atlantic to the Greek mainland / North Peloponnese, analysing in detail the origins, evolution and disappearance of their main series. It also includes case studies that are particularly relevant in relation to their distribution, consumption patterns, contents and relationship with other groups of amphorae manufactured in the Roman Imperial era. The aim of this publication has been to present an updated and complete synthesis of the so-called ovoid amphorae, from an interdisciplinary, international and diachronic standpoint.

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How did past communities view, understand and communicate their pasts? And how can we, as archaeologists, understand this? In recent years these questions have been approached through studies of the extended occupation and use of landscapes, monuments and artefacts to explore concepts of time and memory. But what of objects that were already old in the past? Interpretations for these items have ranged from the discard of scrap to objects of veneration. Evidence from a range of periods would suggest objects of the past were an important part of many later societies that encountered them, either as heirlooms with remembered histories or rediscovered curiosities from a more distant past. For the first time, this volume brings together a range of case studies in which objects of the past were encountered and reappropriated. It follows a conference session at the Theoretical Archaeological Group in Cardiff 2017, in which historians, archaeologists, heritage professionals and commercial archaeologists gathered to discuss this topic on a broad (pre)historical scale, highlighting similarities and contrast in depositional practices and reactions to relics of the past in different periods. Through case studies spanning the Bronze Age through to the 18th century AD, this volume presents new research demonstrating that the reappropriation of these already old objects was not anomalous, but instead represents a practice that recurs throughout (pre)history.

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A Painted Ridge is a book about the San (Bushmen) practice of rock painting. In it, David Witelson explores a suite of spatially close San rock painting sites in the Maclear District of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. As a suite, the sites are remarkable because, despite their proximity to each other, they share patterns of similarity and simultaneous difference. They are a microcosm that reflects, in a broad sense, a trend found at other painted sites in South Africa. Rather than attempting to explain these patterns chiefly in terms of chronological breaks or cultural discontinuities, this book seeks to understand patterns of similarity and difference primarily in terms of the performative nature of San image-making. In doing so, the bygone and almost unrecorded practice of San rock art is considered relative to ethnographically well-documented and observed forms of San expressive culture. The approach in the book draws on concepts and terminology from the discipline of performance studies to characterise the San practice of image-making as well as to coordinate otherwise disparate ideas about that practice. It is a study that aims to explicate the nuances of what David Lewis-Williams called the ‘production and consumption’ of San rock art.

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Apres la formidable avancee que fut la theorie documentaire a la fin du xixe siecle, identifiant des " auteurs " et des ecoles de redaction, un siecle plus tard, la theorie a laisse de plus en plus la place a un reel complexe, celui des scribes modifiant les textes a mesure qu'ils les copiaient. " La Bible " n'apparait plus alors comme etant un projet theologique et historiographique maitrise mais comme l'agencement empirique de textes heterogenes relies entre eux par une ideologie religieuse evolutive. Si le grand recit d'ensemble des premiers livres se construit sur l'election et la migration d'un peuple en son entier, les fondements ideologiques du yahwisme font plutot etat d'un dieu etranger qui serait parvenu jusqu'en terre israelite pour, a terme, s'y imposer. Cette ideologie monotheiste fut surtout un exclusivisme qui se renforca de l'epoque des rois d'Israel et de Juda jusqu'aux revoltes judeennes contre Rome aux premiers siecles de notre ere. Pour tenter de saisir la nature et l'origine, ainsi que l'evolution, de cette forme specifique de monotheisme, qui a fait d'un dieu jaloux le seul Dieu, nous nous sommes appuye avant tout sur le concept des " deux yahwismes ". Cette theorie permet en effet de comprendre comment un dieu faisant alliance avec un peuple en particulier a pu etre egalement un dieu createur de l'univers et de l'humanite entiere.

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John J. Dobbins, Professor of Roman Art and Archaeology, taught at the University of Virginia in the Department of Art from 1978 until his retirement in 2019. His legacy of research and pedagogy is explored in A Quaint & Curious Volume: Essays in Honor of John J. Dobbins. Professor Dobbins’ research in the field of Roman art and archaeology spans the geographical and chronological limits of the Roman Empire, from Pompeii to Syria, and Etruria to Spain. This volume demonstrates some of his wide-reaching interests, expressed through the research of his former graduate students. Several essays examine the city of Pompeii and cover the topics of masonry analysis, re-examinations of streets and drains, and analyses of the heating capacity of baths in Pompeii. Beyond Pompeii, the archaeological remains of bakeries are employed to elucidate labor specialization in the Late Roman period across the Mediterranean basin. Collaborations between Professor Dobbins and his former students are also explored, including a pioneering online numismatic database and close examination of sculpture and mosaics, including expressions of identity and patronage through case studies of the Ara Pacis and mosaics at Antioch-on-the-Orontes. A Quaint & Curious Volume not only demonstrates John Dobbins’ scholarly legacy, but also presents new readings of archaeological data and art, illustrating the impact that one professor can have on the wider field of Roman art and archaeology through the continuing work of his students.

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Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity: New frontiers and new perspectives highlights the fact that the study of landscape has in recent years been a field for considerable analytical archaeological experimentation. This new situation has made it possible to rethink the orientation of some theoretical approaches to the subject; equally these methods have been profitably used for the formation of a new theoretical and conceptual framework. These analytical trends have also featured in the Mediterranean area. Although the Mediterranean is the home of classicism (which also defines a particular archaeological methodology), it has seen the implementation of projects of this new kind, and in regions of Spain and Italy, after some delay, the proliferation of landscape archaeology studies. There are examples of more-or-less sophisticated postcolonial archaeological work, albeit conducted at the same time as examples of unreconstructed colonial archaeology. It is not easy to resolve a situation like this which requires the full integration of the different national archaeological cultures into a truly global forum. But some reflection on the cultural differences between the various landscape archaeologies, at least in the West is required. These considerations have given rise to the idea of this book which examines these themes in the framework of the Mediterranean area.

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ARTICLES; Notes on a Hellenistic Milk Pail – by Yannis Chairetakis; Chasing Arsinoe (Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus): A Sealed Early Hellenistic Cistern and Its Ceramic Assemblage – by Brandon R. Olson, Tina Najbjerb & R. Scott Moore; Hasmonean Jerusalem in the Light of Archaeology – Notes on Urban Topography – by Hillel Geva; A Phoenician / Hellenistic Sanctuary at Horbat Turit (Kh. et-Tantur) – by Walid Atrash, Gabriel Mazor & Hanaa Aboud with contributions by Adi Erlich & Gerald Finkielsztejn; Schmuck aus dem Reich der Nabatäer – hellenistische Traditionen in frührömischer Zeit – by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom; ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS AND PROJECT; Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project: Excavations at Pyla-Vigla in 2018 – by Thomas Landvatter, Brandon R. Olson, David S. Reese, Justin Stephens & R. Scott Moore; Bookmark: Ancient Gems, Finger Rings and Seal Boxes from Caesarea Maritima. The Hendler Collection – by Shua Amorai-Stark & Malka Herskovitz; BOOK REVIEWS; Nina Fenn, Späthellenistische und frühkaiserzeitliche Keramik aus Priene. Untersuchungen zu Herkunft und Produktion – by Susanne Zabehlicky-Scheffenegger; Raphael Greenberg, Oren Tal & Tawfiq Da῾adli, Bet Yerah III. Hellenistic Philoteria and Islamic al- Ṣinnabra. The 1933–1986 and 2007–2013 Excavations – bY Gabriel Mazor; Mohamed Kenawi & Giorgia Marchiori, Unearthing Alexandria’s archaeology: The Italian Contribution – by Carlo De Mitri

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The ancient town discovered at the site of today’s Marina el-Alamein (located on the northern coast of Egypt) developed from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD. It found itself at the crossroads of several civilisations: Hellenic, later replaced by Roman, and ultimately Christian, and was always strongly influenced by Egyptian tradition. A variety of cultures appeared and met here and grew in strength – then their significance weakened – but they always co-existed and influenced one another. The syncretism prevailing here is notable in the spheres of art, architecture, religion and worship. 2015 marked thirty years since the discovery of the remains of the ancient city, which, for many centuries, had been unknown to the world. The remains were found unexpectedly during the preparatory work for the construction of a modern tourist settlement on the Mediterranean coast, and the significance and extraordinary value of the discovery was immediately recognised. Now the ancient city, and the historic remains of its buildings, are gradually coming to light. The Jubilee was twofold, since 2015 marked also the 20th anniversary of the setting up of the Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission, Marina el-Alamein. Throughout this time, both architectural and archaeological research have been carried out at the site, many discoveries have been made, numerous relics of historic building structures have been preserved, and conservation methods have been improved. In the jubilee year, researchers who work on archaeological sites and towns with a similar history and position in the ancient world in the realms of art and culture were invited to contribute to a scientific discussion and exchange of experiences. The contributors were representatives of different disciplines and research methodologies: archaeologists, architects, Egyptologists, specialists in religious studies, historians and conservators. The papers in the present volume encompass interdisciplinary reviews of both new and long-term studies carried out in various regions of the ancient world. The papers present research that was conducted in different regions ranging from ancient Mauritania, through Africa, Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, as well as sites in Crimea and Georgia. The topography of cities, the architecture of public buildings, as well as houses and their décor — architectural, sculptural and painted — are presented. Religious syncretism and the importance of ancient texts are discussed. Studies on pottery are also presented. The volume includes studies on the conservation of architectural remains, sculpture and painting. Several articles are devoted to the study of Marina el-Alamein; others talk about ancient Alexandria, Deir el-Bahari, Hermopolis Magna, Bakchias, Pelusium, Kom Wasit, Berenike, Ptolemais, Apollonia, Palmyra, Nea Paphos, as well as Chersonesus Taurica and Apsarus.

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‘Our Lincolnshire’ (2015-16) was devised as a robust, multi-vocally informed exploration of the attitudes of residents and visitors in Lincolnshire to the county’s heritage and the ways in which they engage with it. The context for this was the recognition amongst the county heritage sector of a disconnect between citizens of Lincolnshire and heritage beyond the city of Lincoln which presents challenges when the purpose and function of museums and heritage services need to be reviewed, especially when funding issues are impacting on this process. Understanding attitudes and re-connecting the various audiences in Lincolnshire with their rural heritage in a meaningful and creative way is thus required to ensure the continued collection, curation and presentation of heritage assets is effective in caring for heritage now and for future generations and ensuring the heritage resource reflects, meets and advances the interests, needs and aspirations of Lincolnshire’s residents and visitors today. This volume outlines the methods, data, outcomes and recommendations that generated from this multi-dimensional and innovative research and engagement process.

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This volume - in Italian, with an English summary - presents the 1930s archaeological photo-albums of John Alfred Spranger (1889-1968). Engineer, topographer, mountain climber, archaeologist, art collector and photographer, Spranger traveled extensively - in the Balkans, Greece, Egypt and the Near East, Canada, Central Asia - and left several photo albums detailing archaeological explorations as well as travel memories. In the 1920s-1930s, he took part in a number of Etruscan excavations in Tuscany, together with Harry Burton, the photographer of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. With a pioneering approach, they used the photo-camera to document the excavation work in progress. The albums are dedicated to a trip to Egypt in 1929, a trip to Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1936 and some surveys and excavations carried out in Etruria (Tuscany, Italy) in 1929-1935. Spranger's photos are particularly meaningful, especially because he combined his skills in using the camera with a great expertise in archaeology and topography. His photos make it possible to understand, after almost a century, how many Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Etruscan sites appeared at the time of their first excavations | Il volume - in italiano con riassunto in inglese - e dedicato agli album fotografici realizzati negli anni Trenta del Novecento da John Alfred Spranger (1889-1968): fu ingegnere, topografo, alpinista, archeologo, collezionista e fotografo. Viaggio molto - nei Balcani, in Grecia, in Egitto e nel Vicino Oriente, in Canda e in Asia centrale - lasciandoci molti album fotografici dedicati ai suoi viaggi e alle sue ricerche archeologiche. Negli anni Venti e Trenta partecipo a ricognizioni e scavi archeologici in Toscana, assieme a Harry Burton, il fotografo della Tomba di Tutankhamun. Con un approccio pionieristico, ambedue sperimentarono l'uso della macchina fotografica per documentare lo scavo archeologico. Gli album presentati sono dedicati a due viaggi, uno in Egitto nel 1929 e l'altro in Mesopotamia (Iraq) nel 1936, e a ricognizioni e scavi condotti in siti etruschi della Toscana tra 1929 e 1935. Le fotografie di Spranger sono particolarmente significative perche riflettono sia la competenza del fotografo che quella del topografo e dell'archeologo, e ci permettono di capire, a quasi un secolo di distanza, quale fosse l'aspetto di numerosi siti egizi, mesopotamici ed etruschi, al momento della loro prima indagine archeologica.

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Politics of the past: The Representation of the Ancient Empires by Iran’s Modern States' examines the highly problematic politics of the past surrounding the archaeology of ancient empires in Iran. Being indigenous, the authors regard the relations between archaeological remains, (negative) heritage, and modern strategies of suppression. The chapters provide a detailed analysis of how the practice of archaeology could be biased and ideologically charged. Discussing their own personal and professional experiences, the authors exemplify the real (ethical) dilemmas that archaeologists confront in the Middle East, calling for reflectivity and awareness among the archaeologists of the region. The text is accompanied by visual deconstruction of ancient rock reliefs to indicate the possibility of alternative histories.

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The cult of the Great Gods of Samothrace, which became popular starting as early as the 7th century BC in the eastern Mediterranean, is characterised by regional differences concerning cultural manifestations and relationships with local deities. Confused and identified with the so-called Cabiri, these deities had their main sanctuaries on the islands of Samothrace and Lemnos and in Thebes, in Boeotia. The connection between these deities and others like Dioscuri, Penates and Lares and their protective function seem to be a key to understanding the complex syncretism that characterises the cult of the Great Gods from the period of Roman conquests in the Eastern world. The literary sources seem to highlight, in fact, in the period in which the interests in the Eastern world are crucial to the foreign policy of Rome, an evident attempt to identify the Kabiroi of Samothrace with typically Roman gods like Lares and Penates. The aim of this book is to underline the main aspects of the cult in light of the influences of Roman cultural and mythological substratum. | Il culto dei Grandi Dei di Samotracia, diffuso nel Mediterraneo orientale a partire almeno dal VII secolo a.C., è caratterizzato da differenze nei diversi bacini geografici, sia per ciò che concerne le manifestazioni culturali, sia per quanto riguarda i rapporti con le divinità locali. Confusi ed identificati con i cosiddetti Cabiri, queste divinità avevano i loro principali santuari sulle isole di Samotracia e Lemno e a Tebe di Beozia. La loro connessione con i Dioscuri, i Penati e i Lari e la loro funzione protettiva sembrano essere la chiave di lettura per comprendere il complesso sincretismo che caratterizza il culto dei Grandi Dei a partire dalla conquista romana del Mediterraneo occidentale. Le fonti letterarie sembrano evidenziare, infatti, nel periodo nel quale le azioni di politica estera di Roma si concentrano in Oriente, una forte volontà di identificare gli dei di Samotracia con divinità tipicamente romane come Lari e Penati. Lo scopo di questo libro è quello di mettere in evidenza i principali aspetti del culto attraverso l’analisi delle influenze del sostrato culturale e mitologico di Roma.

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This book addresses the nature of play and its relationships with the world, as well as the relationships between people and objects. It begins with an account of ethnographic fieldwork among chess and card players in Edinburgh and Orkney and moves on to consider the findings in the light of archaeological sources. The work carried out amongst chess and card players led towards a more cognitive appreciation of these activities: how can the relationships between player and pieces be understood? It is suggested here that they are an example of ‘active externalism’, where cognition is not contained within the person but distributed in the immediate environment. The consideration of the role of gaming pieces leads towards an examination of the ways in which the manipulation of objects during play brings new and unexpected discoveries to the participants. The discussion addresses this theme in terms of bricolage and considers the placement of things singly and in sets. The archaeological review focusses for the most part on the first millennium AD in Atlantic Scotland. The nature of the evidence, and of our expectations of where play should be found, is examined critically. This study represents a reappraisal of the relationship between play — an activity which is most often understood in terms of something ‘set apart’ — and everyday life; it leads towards the conclusion that play is not in fact so separate as is often assumed.

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This volume, produced in honour of Professor David A. Hinton’s contribution to medieval studies, re-visits the sites, archaeologists and questions which have been central to the archaeology of medieval southern England. Contributions are focused on the medieval period (from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Reformation) in southern England, to reflect the research of Professor Hinton. The contributions largely re-examine important debates believed to have been settled long ago, or explore the implications of changing research traditions for the interpretation of archaeological sites. The volume begins with two considerations of archaeologists themselves, the antiquary Richard James (Tom James) and those who have shaped our understanding of Anglo-Saxon Hamwic (Mark Brisbane and Richard Hodges). Both studies show the role of individuals, and the times in which they worked, on the questions and interpretations advanced by archaeological study. Staying in the Anglo-Saxon period, Barbara Yorke re-opens the debate about the Jutish archaeology of Wessex, Martin Biddle re-visits the archaeology of Winchester Old Minster and Katherine Weikert explores the household of early medieval Facombe Netheron. Moving into the later medieval period, Duncan H. Brown re-assesses the evidence from the important site at Cuckoo Lane, Southampton, with a focus on ceramics, and Maureen Mellor examines the evidence of church floor tiles from Oxfordshire, an early research interest of Professor Hinton. Two chapters deal with medieval food, Mark Robinson discusses wheat cultivation and Dale Serjeantson et. al. revisit the animal bones from excavations at Eynsham Abbey, comparing them with those from St Albans to explore the issue of the Saxon-Norman transition. Finally, staying with the archaeology elite culture, the volume concludes with Matthew Johnson’s contribution on recent work on late medieval elite landscapes in south-east England. Together, these contributions combine historiography, new evidence and emerging ideas, helping us to understand how the landscape of research has developed, whilst showing the importance of re-visiting old sites and questions to advance the discipline of medieval studies.

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The occupation of the territories on both sides of the Rhine was an enormous logistical challenge for the Roman military administration. In the last two decades of the first century BC, several territories were conquered or partially occupied by the Roman legions, establishing a large number of military camps around the Rhine and its important eastern tributaries. Most of these camps were occupied for short periods, depending on the march of the legions and the course of military events. In a location with good natural defences and communications with the Belgian hinterland, Neuss was one of the earliest points on the Rhine where the Roman military was positioned. The area was occupied—with some intervals—from 16 BC onwards by different legions as well as smaller units. This book provides an in-depth study of one of the most important archaeological artefacts for understanding the military supply along the German frontier: the amphorae. Deliveries arrived at the different military camps established in the intersection between Erf and Rhine from 16 BC until the Claudian principate. The study of this material is essential not only for understanding Neuss, but for further understanding of the whole Rhine and the logistics of the Roman army and its supply from very distant areas.

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Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan brings together specialists of the European Bronze and Iron Age and the Japanese Yayoi and Kofun periods for the first time to discuss burial mounds in a comparative context. The book aims to strengthen knowledge of Japanese archaeology in Europe and vice versa. The papers demonstrate many methodological and interpretive commonalities in the archaeology of burial mounds in Japan and Europe and provide a series of state-of-the-art case studies highlighting many different aspects of burial mound research in both regions. Topics addressed by both European and Japanese specialists include research histories, excavation methods, origins and development of graves with burial mounds, the relationship of burial mounds to settlements and landscape, and above all administrative power and ritual.

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