Search results for ""Archaeopress""

This book presents a detailed overview of the firearms used in Oman over the last four centuries. Portable firearms were brought into the Arabian Gulf by the Portuguese, but there is no trace of these early weapons the region. In Oman, the typical matchlock guns with decorated Indian barrels were highly esteemed and they were passed from generation to generation as a family heritage. Matchlock guns were replaced only by breech-loading Martini Henry rifles at the end of the 19th century, when Muscat became the major firearms’ entrepot in the Arabian Gulf with hundreds of thousands of breech loading rifles re-exported throughout the whole region up to Afghanistan and Persia. The Martini Henry rifle and its variants were by far the most common weapon and Belgian made Martini Henry were specifically engraved for the Muscat market. Cannon entered the country in great number mostly as ordnances on Royal Navy ships and they are now kept in forts, towers and fortified buildings across the entire Oman. The weapons described in this book are mostly from the National Museum and Bait al Zubair Museum in Muscat.

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The ancient Maya used mainly stone tools, made of either ground stone and chipped stone, to achieve their extraordinary development. However, works focused on this aspect are still rare. This book presents the techno-typological analysis of lithic materials from La Blanca, a Mayan archaeological site located in the heart of the Southern Lowlands, which was mainly inhabited during the Late Classic and Terminal Classic periods. In addition, a general methodology for the techno-typological analysis and classification of Mayan lithic artefacts is presented, which is complemented by an extensive graphic section that includes the technical drawings of most of the chipped stone tools.

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Edited by Martin Biddle with a catalogue of the known coins of the mint by Yvonne Harvey, this volume records and illustrates the minting of silver pennies in Winchester between the reigns of Alfred the Great and Henry III, a period of three and a half centuries. At the Mint, which was situated in the area of the High Street to the east of where the city’s cross now stands, at least 24 million silver pennies (possibly as many as 50 million) were struck. Five and a half thousand survive in museums and collections all over the world. These have been sought out and photographed (some 3200 coins in 6400 images detailing both sides), and minutely catalogued by Yvonne Harvey for this volume. During the period from late in the reign of Alfred to the time of Henry III, dies for striking the coins were produced centrally under royal authority in the most sophisticated system of monetary control at the time in the western world. In this first account of a major English mint to have been made in forty years, a team of leading authorities have studied and analysed the use the Winchester moneyers made of the dies, and together with the size, weight, and the surviving number of coins from each pair of dies, have produced a detailed account of the varying fortunes of the mint over this period. Their results are critical for the economic history of England and the changing status of Winchester over this long period, and provide the richest available source for the history of the name of the city and the personal names of its citizens in the later Anglo-Saxon period.

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Challenging Preconceptions of the European Iron Age is a collection of essays by some of the leading researchers in the archaeology of the European Iron Age, paying tribute to Professor John Collis. Since the 1960s, John has been involved in investigating and enriching our understanding of Iron Age society, and crucially, questioning the status quo of our narratives about the past. He has influenced generations of students and peers alike, and has been one the strongest voices in the demystification of the ‘Celtic’ world. This volume brings together papers from more than a dozen of Professor Collis’s colleagues and students to mark his 75th birthday. The contributions range across later prehistory and the European continent, taking in major themes that have been his prime interests - hillforts, data, urbanism, and ‘the Celts’.

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The Neolithic settlement of Aknashen (Ararat valley, Armenia): excavation seasons 2004-2015 is the first monograph devoted to the Neolithic period in Armenia. The research is based on an Armenian-French project, in which specialists from Canada, Romania, Germany and Greece also participated. The volume concerns the natural environment, material culture and subsistence economy of the populations of the first half of the 6th millennium BC, who established the first sedentary settlements in the alluvial plain of the Araxes river. The thickness of the cultural layer of Aknashen (almost 5m), the extent of the excavated areas and the multidisciplinary nature of the research, confer great importance upon this site for the study of the Neolithic, both in Armenia and in the South Caucasus as a whole. The publication examines the similarities and differences that exist between the sites established in the 6th millennium in the basins of the rivers Araxes (Armenia) and Kura (Georgia and Azerbaijan), as well as parallels with contemporary cultures in Southwest Asia. It also examines questions concerning the characterisation and periodisation of the Neolithic in the central part of the South Caucasus, the emergence of a production economy (pottery, animal husbandry, etc.) and the Neolithisation of this region.

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Nato dall'esigenza di fornire a giovani ricercatori e professionisti un'opportunità di mettersi alla prova e mostrare i propri lavori, Spring Archaeology è un viaggio attraverso le molte sfaccettature dell'archeologia in Italia, un paese ricco di storia e innovazione. L'evento, promosso da un gruppo di studenti e archeologi provenienti dall'Università degli Studi di Siena (IT) e ri-organizzato online a causa delle restrizioni imposte dall'emergere della pandemia da Covid-19, ha visto la partecipazione di studenti con vari livelli di formazione, dalla laurea triennale al titolo di dottorato, liberi professionisti, istituzioni museali e associazioni culturali. Papers e posters presentati si articolano attorno a cinque temi principali: l'applicazione di nuove tecnologie all'archeologia, lo studio della cultura materiale, progetti di archeologia pubblica, progressi nelle ricerche e riflessioni metodologiche. Gli autori, sia italiani impegnati all'estero che stranieri impegnati in Italia, hanno presentato casi studio dalla preistoria al medioevo, principalmente dall'area mediterranea. Questi atti di convegno includono 29 papers, 22 presentazioni di posters e una sintesi della tavola rotonda conclusiva, centrata sullo stato attuale dell'archeologia in Italia e sui suoi possibili futuri sviluppi.

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Later Prehistoric Settlement in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly reports on the excavation between 1996 and 2014 of five later prehistoric and Roman period settlements. Three of the mainland sites – Killigrew, Nancemere and Higher Besore – are located in central Cornwall, near Truro, with the fourth, at Porthleven, situated on the south coast in west Cornwall. The fifth settlement, Porth Killier, is on the island of St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly. All the sites were multi-phased, revealing both similar and contrasting patterns of occupation stretching from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age and beyond. Despite having broadly comparable chronological sequences, there are considerable differences in both the tempo and intensity of occupation, and significant contrasts in practices associated with them. Significantly, all four mainland sequences culminate with an enclosed settlement in the Late Iron Age and especially during the Roman period, a time of significant economic and social change following the conquest. During this period there continued to be differences in the character of occupation. Notably two of the enclosures seem to have been strongly associated with industrial activities, including metalworking at Killigrew, suggesting that the working of iron may have been a controlled or ritualized activity undertaken within a dedicated space. The volume presents the results from each of the five settlement sites, before reviewing the key themes which have emerged from the investigations.

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The Regina Turdulorum Hoard (Casas de Reina, Badajoz) was buried with 818 imitative antoniniani of Divo Claudio type, minted in copper. The vast majority of the coins bear the reverse legend CONSECRATIO. This figure makes the Regina Turdulorum hoard one of the most important in Spain and Portugal. In numismatic terms, the most common reverse type is the funeral pyre, as opposed to the eagle. In addition to this main group, there is a second group, where there are curious imitations that follow various prototypes for the manufacture of the reverse. The study of the posthumous coinage of Claudius II and his imitations represents one of the most complex tasks in ancient numismatics. The work is considerably complicated by the fact that they are highly copied coins, which means that regular issues are very difficult to distinguish from the imitations. In this sense, the hoard provides vital information for the western monetary circulation of the Roman Empire, contributing to the debate on Gallic and African imitations. It also opens the way to the hypothesis that Hispania may have been another centre for issuing Divo Claudio imitations. Although the latter remains to be proven, the tentative and open nature of this book provides the opportunity to open new lines of study in the hope that they will be resolved sooner rather than later.

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Tres usurpadores godos es un estudio sobre tres famosas usurpaciones de época visigoda. Se analiza en primer lugar la naturaleza del levantamiento del príncipe Hermenegildo (579-585), la guerra civil y el complejo contexto político del momento, así como las importantes implicaciones que se derivaron del conflicto. El segundo estudio aborda la rebelión del duque Argimundo a comienzos del reinado de Recaredo y las consecuencias que ésta tuvo en el recién conquistado reino suevo. Destacado miembro del Aula Regia y dux prouinciae, Argimundus inició una rebelión en la provincia Gallaecia que pudo haber arruinado la obra política construida por Leovigildo y Recaredo. Por último, se analiza la figura del duque Theudemirus, uno de los grandes magnates del reino de Toledo de finales del siglo VII, su actuación dentro de la complicada situación política visigoda y el papel que desempeñó en la transmisión del poder entre visigodos y árabes a la caída del reino de Toledo.

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Dana Island: The Greatest Shipyard of the Ancient Mediterranean presents the dramatic archaeological discoveries from Dana Island, off the coast of Rough Cilicia in southern Turkey, where underwater investigations and surface survey in advance of excavation have revealed nearly 300 ancient rock-cut slipways, the largest number of such naval installations discovered to date. Further slipways have been lost to erosion or await excavation. The slipways accommodated a range of different sizes of warship and are identified as ship-sheds, grouped within a shipyard area, behind which are various structures seen as workshops used in shipbuilding, as well as living spaces, military and religious buildings, managerial facilities, barn areas for animals, baths and dock areas, shops, villas, columned areas, watchtow¬ers, and many other buildings whose functions cannot yet be understood. The majority are mortarless stone structures, and some of the architectural forms show resemblances to Iron Age masonry. The volume presents and analyses the slipways, their use and possible dating. Water supply is discussed, and cisterns documented. Further chapters focus on the tombs found on the island, its geology, plant usage, and the geoarchaeology of the island’s structures. Extensive contextual sections review the island’s geographical situation and ancient naval history. Finally, computer modelling is used to produce stunning 3D visualisations of the ancient shipyard and naval base.

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Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant examines twelve lithic assemblages from Qesem Cave. Potential flint sources were located, petrographic thin sections of archaeological and geologic samples were studied, and a geochemical analysis was performed. The results show that flint from local Turonian sources was often brought to the cave, forming most of the identified flint. Flint from non-Turonian geologic origins was also used in noteworthy proportions, in specific typotechnological categories. The availability of desired flints around the cave, highly suitable for the production of the commonly-used blades, as well as for the production of other tools, probably played a role in the decision to settle there. The notable proportions of non-Turonian flint types, a pattern that repeats itself through time, demonstrate consistency in accessing sources containing non-local flint, implying the existence of knowledge transmission mechanisms concerning the distribution of sources and the suitability of specific flint types for the production of specific blanks/tools.

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On his death, Arthur Boucot (1924–2017) left an unfinished manuscript in which he surveyed the skeletal, behavioural, and cultural changes that have characterized Homo from its first recognition in the Late Pliocene to the present. The subjects he treated were as varied as the preparation of food for infants, the length of intestines, hafting, plastering, use of flint and metals, the domestication of grains and animals, and the prevalence of parasitic diseases. His text repeatedly notes the difficulties imposed by the enormous gaps in both fossil and archaeological records. Boucot deduced a continuity in basic human behaviours from the Oldowan and Acheulian into modern forms, and made a point of including Neandertals and Denisovans. But he also pointed out that morphological changes in successive species of Homo do not coincide in time with major changes in lithic technologies. Boucot concluded that a quantum evolutionary gap separates hominins from the great apes: that members of our line were sapient and had been using language long before they became sapiens. In his text he also indicates his concern for changes to the environment wrought by human activities. The results of this late-life effort, edited after his death, provide a heavily referenced sourcebook for future workers in diverse fields.

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Visions of the Roman North: Art and Identity in Northern Roman Britain is the first book to present an analysis of art from the northern frontier zones of Roman Britain and to interpret the meaning and significance of this art in terms of the formation of a regional identity at this time. It argues that a distinct and vibrant visual culture flourished in the north during the Roman period, primarily due to its status as a heavily militarized frontier zone. Artworks from forts and the frontier-works of Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, along with funerary monuments from military and civilian cemeteries, are analysed and discussed. The book also explores religious sculpture depicting classical deities, Romano-British gods and goddesses and eastern deities such as Mithras in terms of the use of imagery in various belief systems and in terms of the establishment of individual and group identities.

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The Sevrier kiln, discovered in 1974 on a submerged island in Lake Annecy in the Haute-Savoie region of France, is a headline find of alpine archeology. Almost fifty years later, it continues to provoke debate. This study looks back at the history of an artefact considered in turn as one of the earliest Western pottery kilns, as an enigmatic stove for domestic use, and as a technological link in the Final Bronze Age which would herald the professionalization of pottery, hitherto a purely domestic industry, seasonal and self-sufficient. It takes the form of a multidisciplinary investigation where archaeological, ethnoarchaeological and experimental approaches are brought together to consider the contradictory hypotheses, broaden the focus and put forward new perspectives. In particular the study focuses on technological history, and on the changing social structure of Bronze Age communities, which contributed to the advent of proto-artisans specialising in pottery production, a few centuries later.

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MOLA (formerly Northamptonshire Archaeology) undertook archaeological excavations at Stanground South between September 2007 and November 2009 on behalf of Persimmon Homes (East Midlands) Ltd and in accordance with a programme of works designed and overseen by CgMs Heritage. The site is situated on the south-eastern outskirts of Peterborough, on glacial tills overlooking along the Fen edge. The works comprised five areas of set-piece excavation and a series of strip map and record areas, targeted on areas of archaeological potential identified by previous evaluation works. In total, an area of 70ha was subject to archaeological mitigation. The excavations recorded archaeological remains dating from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. The earliest features comprised four burnt mounds dating to the early Bronze Age, one of which was associated with two superimposed buildings and a small group of up to six cremations. In the middle Bronze Age there was a substantial unenclosed cemetery (urnfield) comprising 78 cremations (as well as a further possible three outlying cremations to the urnfield). In the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age a substantial droveway, up to 65m wide, was constructed leading northwards from the Fen edge to higher ground. A series of post-built roundhouses were later constructed within the confines of the droveway. In the middle Iron Age, the droveway was partitioned to form a series of enclosures, within one of which a settlement was established adjacent to the Fen edge. This included roundhouses and a number of two-post and four-post structures. In the later Iron Age, an enclosed settlement had developed to the north-west. This comprised several roundhouses within a substantial rectangular enclosure, which was open at its southern end. It appears that this began as an unenclosed site, which was later enclosed. Removal of cattle horn for working may have been occurring. In the Roman period (2nd and late 4th centuries AD) a series of small enclosures were constructed on the eastern side of the later Iron Age enclosed settlement. These contained structures and features apparently associated with rural industry, which may have also exported surplus to market. Industries including the processing of hide, late Roman cheese making (with seven presses recovered), late Roman pottery production and some metalworking. The economy of the site from the later Bronze Age onwards was focussed on pastoralism, with limited evidence for grain cultivation. During the Roman period, this seems to have specialised further towards dairy farming. The environment of the site seems to have undergone little change from the later Bronze Age, being largely open with areas of woodland and wetter areas. Peat growth during the Iron Age resulted in the covering of some of the Bronze Age features. During the medieval period, large portions of the site were given over to open field cultivation, evidenced by the remains of ridge and furrow cultivation. The area was partitioned in the post-medieval period by the construction of a series of drainage ditches, which form the basis of the current field pattern.

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Situé en Byzacène, à 12 km au sud-est de Thysdrus/El Jem, le municipe de Bararus/Henchir Rougga est connu pour ses grandes citernes d’époque romaine signalées depuis le XVIIIe s. et pour la découverte en 1972 d’un trésor de monnaies d’or byzantines publié en 1982 dans le volume III de la monographie générale du site. Ce volume I, rédigé pour l’essentiel au début des années 90, rend compte du résultat global des fouilles menées à l’emplacement du forum, de 1971 à 1974, par la mission tuniso-française sous la direction de Maurice Euzennat† et Hédi Slim†. L’ouvrage comprend trois parties : tout d’abord, une présentation générale du site par les deux chefs de mission et Pol Trousset ; ensuite, une description de la stratigraphie du forum et du mobilier qui en provient, par Roger Guéry† avec la collaboration de divers spécialistes ; enfin, une étude architecturale extrêmement précise des différents éléments qui composent le centre monumental de la cité : citernes, platea et portiques, xyste et temples, par Gilbert Hallier†. Ces travaux permettent de mieux appréhender la place du municipe de Bararus au centre d’une riche région agricole qui a laissé les traces de cadastration parmi les mieux conservées d’Afrique. Ils mettent en évidence sa longue durée d’occupation, du IIIe s. av. J.-C. (avec quelques traces antérieures remontant à la Préhistoire) jusqu’au XIe s., et l’originalité des partis architecturaux qui ont présidé à la construction de son centre monumental à l’époque flavienne, ses transformations au IIe s. et son abandon à l’époque byzantine.

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Religious Practice and Cultural Construction of Animal Worship in Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom presents an articulated historical interpretation of Egyptian ‘animal worship’ – intended as a segment of religious practice focused on the mobilisation of selected animals within strategically designed ritual contexts – from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom, and offers a new understanding of its chronological development through a fresh review of pertinent archaeological and textual data. The goal is twofold: (1) to re-conceptualise the notion of ‘animal worship’ on firm theoretical and material bases, reassessing its heuristic value as a tool for analysis; (2) to demonstrate, accordingly, that ‘animal worship’ did not represent a late degeneration of traditional religion, socially (popular cult) and thematically (animal mummies and burials) restricted, but a complex domain of religious practice with a longer history and a larger variety of configurations than usually assumed.

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Les pratiques funéraires en Gaule lyonnaise de l’époque augustéenne à la fin du 3e siècle aims to provide an overview of Roman burial practices in the Gallia Lugdunensis province during the Early Roman Empire. Among the different approaches proposed by R. Reece for the study of Roman cemeteries, this work focuses on grave treatment and grave furnishing. The funerary practices are thus apprehended through the study of the structure of the tombs and the selection and treatment of the grave goods and human remains. The main objective was to propose a synthesis of the published finds which could serve as a basis for future research. The analysis consists of a documentary review of the published data (presented in the catalogue and numerous tables) as complete as possible, accompanied by a detailed analysis of the latest information available to highlight trends regarding the entire province, and the peculiarities seen at a regional level. Many graphics and maps support this analysis. Many general trends, common to the western provinces of the Roman Empire, were detected, but also many particularities linked to the regional nature of the funerary practices and the economic and social situation of the communities. Some of these particularities reflect more profound cultural differences due to the unequal penetration of Mediterranean funerary practices into the territory of the province. They reflect the somewhat 'artificial' formation of the Gallia Lugdunensis, which incorporated tribes belonging to different cultural spheres (sharing particularities with Aquitania and the Belgic Gaul or more exposed to the Mediterranean influences).

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The first edition of In the Shadow of the Ancestors (2007) was the first and only summary of decades of archaeological research in the Oman Peninsula. This second expanded had a long and winding journey toward publication. The passing away of Serge Cleuziou not long after the release of the first edition left Maurizio Tosi alone in completing this challenging enterprise. For this reason, and out of respect for his lifelong friend and colleague, he decided not to intervene too extensively on the main contents, but to add instead to the original eleven chapters a number of new ‘windows’ written by other scholars, in order to include more recent research and interpretations. In addition to the main contents, the new contributions by this younger generation of scholars, most of whom were students and collaborators of Cleuziou and Tosi, offers great testament to the legacy the authors leave behind them.

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Volume 5 is perhaps the richest and most diverse volume of the Journal of Greek Archaeology so far offered to readers. The editors have kept to the journal's core brief to cover all the major periods of Greek Archaeology in a literal sense, with articles from the Neolithic through Greco-Roman times and the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century AD. Geographically, papers range from Sicily through the Aegean to Turkey. A major novelty is the inclusion of two Colloquia, one on the economics of Greek Protohistoric to Archaic ‘colonisation’ edited by Lieve Donnellan, the second on Byzantine landscape archaeology edited by Effie Athanassopoulos. Alongside a wealth of period-based papers on settlements, ceramics, lithics and urban infrastructure, the volume also presents a major report on the nature and future of surface survey in Mediterranean lands, a group article – the fruit of some twenty years of twice-yearly conferences by the International Mediterranean Survey Workshop community. The review section also ranges through prehistory to the recent past, including the historiography of research which includes and extensive and enlightening (but disturbing) review article by Margriet Haagsma on discrimination against female scholars in early 20th century Classical Archaeology.

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JHP is an independent learned journal dedicated to the research of ceramics and objects of daily use of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean region and beyond. It aims at bringing together archaeologists, historians, philologists, numismatists and scholars of related disciplines engaged in the research of the Hellenistic heritage.

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Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt presents the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt (Barcelona, October 25-26, 2018). The conference included presentations on new research and advances in the topics covered in the first two conferences (Cairo, 2007 and Manchester, 2008). It showcased the most recent pharmaceutical and medical studies on human remains and organic and plant material from ancient Egypt, together with related discussions on textual and iconographic evidence, to evaluate the present state of knowledge and the advances we have made on pharmacy and veterinary and human medicine in Ancient Egypt. The conference program combined plenary sessions, oral communications and posters with discussions that established interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers and research groups to formulate breakthrough approaches in these fi elds. Participation in the conference and poster sessions ranged from distinguished researchers and professors from academic institutions, museums and universities, to postgraduates and doctoral students at the beginning of their careers.

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The cult of relics, encouraged by, among others, the emperor Constantine, Pope Damasus and the bishops Ambrose of Milan and Paulinus of Nola, led to the transformation of the Late Antique Italian landscape, and of suburban areas in particular. The process of gradual enhancement of the martyrs' tombs led to the creation of extensive sanctuaries, generally composed of funerary and cultic buildings, as well as service structures, pilgrims' lodgings and monasteries. The most important sanctuaries, such as those of Saints Peter in the Vatican, Paul on the Ostiense, Erasmus in Formia, Alexander in Nomentum, Felix in Cimitile, Gennaro in Naples, Felix in Venosa, Marcianus in Syracuse, and the Apostles in Concordia Sagittaria, became so popular that they justified Jerome's phrase: movetur urbs sedibus suis et currit ad martyrum tumulos. Between the 5th and 6th century, sanctuaries spread also in rural areas, usually along important roads, as documented by the site of San Canzian d'Isonzo. Analysing hypogeal and subdial contexts, Santuari e spazi confessionali nell’Italia tardoantica outlines the evolution of loca sancta, in a process that led the venerated tombs to become first memoriae, then places of worship and finally articulated sanctuaries. For the first time, the contexts of Rome are organically compared with those of the rest of Italy.

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The scale of processing associated with the dyeing industry in Pompeii is a controversial subject. To determine the scale of manufacturing would allow an understanding of the operation of Pompeii’s economy and its part in the Roman World. Previous studies have taken a theoretical approach, and no conclusive answer has been reached. Conversely, Investigations into the Dyeing Industry in Pompeii uses a new multi-disciplinary triangulated approach. A replica was constructed to gauge the operating parameters of a dyeing apparatus within the framework of the principles of experimental archaeology. The remains were re-examined in situ with the new operational and ergonomics understanding. The replica was amended to allow exploration of design features and ventilation. The throughput of the apparatus was placed within the context of the industry with modern manufacturing systems theory. Computer simulation was used to explore the long-term mechanical effects of the dyeing process on the materials used in the construction of the original apparatus and to determine if ‘ratcheting’ failure was due to creep. These combined methods have given an understanding of the significance of the industry that is grounded in engineering and archaeological principles but within the context of Pompeii.

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Architecture militaire du Deccan focuses on the Deccan region in central India between the medieval and modern period, a period at the interface between local Indian culture and the Persian world, followed by relations with the colonial enterprise European in Asia. This period was marked by many conflicts, but also by an inventive adaptation of new military technologies in response to new forms of modern warfare in India, with the arrival of artillery. Using the most recent investigative techniques, such as photogrammetry and 3D modeling, this volume presents a wealth of new data. The author’s meticulous approach encompasses the study of urban maps, architectural plans and detailed descriptions of walls, bastions, moats, towers, gates, horsemen, granaries, hydraulic éléments, and more. Through the study of four representative fortified sites, the author synthesizes the evolution of the military architecture of the Deccan. One can only hope that this volume will inspire other scholars to work on other Indian fortified sites, not limited to the Deccan. Thus, a more complete understanding of the phases of evolution of Indian military architecture can emerge.

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Volume 1 of the series Arabia Orientalis presents the first comprehensive study of two Umm an-Nar (2700—2000 BC) burial pits from the UNESCO World Heritage site Bat in the Sultanate of Oman. They were excavated between 2010 and 2012 by the University of Tübingen. Each burial pit represents one of the largest closed finds of the Early Bronze Age in the region. Finds largely include beads and other items of personal adornment, as well as pottery and human bones. Detailed typologies of all objects are the basis for in-depth statistical analyses of the different categories of finds and the reconstruction of burial customs at Bat. Furthermore, imports and imitations from other regions including the Indus Valley, Iran, and Mesopotamia illuminate Bat’s foreign relations and integration into the interregional exchange and communication system. The interpretation of the unearthed human remains conducted by Steve Zauner offer, not only the number of individuals, sex, and age of the deceased, but also insights into lifestyle, diseases, and stress of the people in the past.

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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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