Search results for ""Archaeopress""

This volume is dedicated to a small number of unique bronze ‘bathtub’ coffins found in 8th–6th century BC Babylonian, Assyrian and Elamite burial contexts. Usually treated as an incidental aspect of the burial process, these fascinating burial receptacles have until now garnered little in the way of academic interest. Here the author takes the opportunity to further explore the coffins, drawing together the widely dispersed information on their archaeological contexts, investigating the method and place of their manufacture, and establishing a possible date range for their production and use. To progress towards an understanding of the bronze ‘bathtub’ coffin burials within the broader context of regional funerary practices, they are then incorporated into an analysis of Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Elamite funerary ritual and belief. Finally the coffins are placed within the historical framework of these regions’ socio-political interaction in an attempt to establish whether they represent a shared funerary tradition. Underpinning this study is the principle that mortuary evidence is the product of intentional behaviour; that the bronze ‘bathtub’ coffins represent a deliberate choice by the burying group and each would have featured in an emotionally and symbolically charged burial act.

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This volume brings together a group of peer reviewed papers, most of them presented at a workshop held at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. The event took place on 15–17 October 2011 and was part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe (EUROEVOL 2010-2015). The aim of the EUROEVOL project is to contribute to the new interdisciplinary field of cultural evolution that has developed over the last 30 years, and at the same time use these ideas and methods to address specific questions concerning the links between demographic, economic, social and cultural patterns and processes in the first farming societies of temperate Europe. The aim of the EUROEVOL project is to do that for the first time, and in doing so to provide the basis for a new account of the role of farming in transforming early European societies, c.6000-2000 cal BCE.

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Transformationpresents a diachronic investigation providing a rich case study as well as an approach tracing the contours of a category of Roman material culture defined by the Roman period technique of openwork carving. As the first comprehensive assemblage of openwork vessels from Classical to late Antiquity, this work offers primary evidence documenting a key example of the fundamental shift from naturalism to abstraction in which inscriptions are transformed and word becomes image. A glass blower herself, Hallie Meredith poses questions about process, tactility and reception providing a clear picture of the original contexts of production and reception demonstrated by the Roman technique of openwork carving. In an in-depth analysis of the corpus as a whole, typologies (old and new), imagery, geometric patterning and inscriptions as the major divisions among openwork decorative elements, basic design principles are identified, non openwork carving and its relation to openwork decoration are discussed, as are the function, handling, display, movement and provenance of openwork vessels throughout the Roman Empire. Art historians and archaeologists working on the transition from Classical to late Antiquity, as well as scholars focusing on these and later periods of study, can fruitfully apply this approach to visual culture. This work shows how openwork vessels are a reflection of a wide-reaching Roman cultural aesthetic.

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Soil and water management is a major stake for the current Mediterranean countries. It was also an important challenge for past societies, especially since the Neolithic and the early well-established farming communities. the mastery of these vital resources accompanied the complexification of social organization. It also widely contributed, if not to impulse it, at least to structure it. This volume presents the results of the CEDRE multidisciplinary project NAHR IBRAHIM that was led on the Lebanese mountain centered around the Nahr Ibrahim valley (the famous Adonis valley in Antiquity), in the hinterland of the ancient city of Byblos. the mountain has been under-researched by archaeology and history due to the attractiveness of the prestigious coastal phoenician cities. The history of settlement patterns and the construction of agricultural mountainous landscapes since the Early Bronze Age is examined with comparisons from other regions surrounding the Mediterranean Basin.

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This study challenges current modelling of Bronze Age tell communities in the Carpathian Basin in terms of the evolution of functionally-differentiated, hierarchical or ‘proto-urban’ society under the influence of Mediterranean palatial centres. It is argued that the narrative strategies employed in mainstream theorising of the ‘Bronze Age’ in terms of inevitable social ‘progress’ sets up an artificial dichotomy with earlier Neolithic groups. The result is a reductionist vision of the Bronze Age past which denies continuity evident in many aspects of life and reduces our understanding of European Bronze Age communities to some weak reflection of foreign-derived social types – be they notorious Hawaiian chiefdoms or Mycenaean palatial rule. In order to justify this view, this study looks broadly in two directions: temporal and spatial. First, it is asked how Late Neolithic tell sites of the Carpathian Basin compare to Bronze Age ones, and if we are entitled to assume structural difference or rather ‘progress’ between both epochs. Second, it is examined if a Mediterranean ‘centre’ in any way can contribute to our understanding of Bronze Age tell communities on the ‘periphery’. It is argued that current Neo-Diffusionism has us essentialise from much richer and diverse evidence of past social and cultural realities. Instead, archaeology is called on to contribute to an understanding of the historically specific expressions of the human condition and human agency, not to reduce past lives to abstract stages on the teleological ladder of social evolution.

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The aim of this book is to approach Ptolemaic and Imperial royal sculpture in Egypt dating between 300 BC and AD 220 (the reigns of Ptolemy I and Caracalla) from a contextual point of view. To collect together the statuary items (recognised as statues, statue heads and fragments, and inscribed bases and plinths) that are identifiably royal and have a secure archaeological context, that is a secure find spot or a recoverable provenance, within Egypt. This material was used, alongside other types of evidence such as textual sources and numismatic material, to consider the distribution, style, placement, and functions of the royal statues, and to answer the primary questions: where were these statues located? What was the relationship between statue, especially statue style, and placement? And what changes can be identified between Ptolemaic and Imperial royal sculpture? From analysis of the sculptural evidence, this book was able to create a catalogue of 103 entries composed of 157 statuary items, and use this to identify the different styles of royal statues that existed in Ptolemaic and Imperial Egypt and the primary spaces for the placement of such imagery, namely religious and urban space. The results, based on the available evidence, was the identification of a division between sculptural style and context regarding the royal statues, with Egyptian-style material being placed in Egyptian contexts, Greek-style material in Greek, and Imperial-style statues associated with classical contexts. The functions of the statues appear to have also typically been closely related to statue style and placement. Many of the statues were often directly associated with their location, meaning they were an intrinsic part of the function and appearance of the context they occupied, as well as acting as representations of the monarchs. Primarily, the royal statues acted as a way to establish and maintain communication between different groups in Egypt.

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Based on documentary evidence, the Priory Church of St Marys in Abergavenny has been a place of worship since the late 11th century; archaeological evidence though suggests that the site has a much earlier period of use. Over the past 1000 years the church has been radically altered to reflect its wealth, status and sometimes, its decline. During the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries a number of drastic alterations were made that included the complete demolition and rebuild of the nave. This wholesale change, coupled with the Reformation of 1536 and the vandalism of the mid- to late 17th century by Cromwell's troops did not deter the people of Abergavenny from using this most beautiful of spaces. In the recent past, the late Jeremy Winston did much to add his signature onto the priory's fabric making St Mary a most splendid place of worship. An Anatomy of a Priory Church, comprising twelve thought-provoking chapters, traces the archaeology, history and conservation of this most impressive building, delving deep into its anatomy.

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The bearded and mature figure of Christ stands majestically raising his right hand, open palm facing the viewer. In his left he holds an unfurled scroll. Saints Peter and Paul appear on either side, Peter approaching to catch or protect the dangling bookroll. This image, the so-called traditio legis, first appeared in late fourthcentury Rome in a variety of media, from the monumental to the miniature, including mosaic, catacomb painting, gold-glass and, the most numerous group, marble relief carving on sarcophagi. This monograph engages in a close reading of the traditio legis, highlighting its novelty and complexity to early Christian viewers. The image is analyzed as a conflation of two distinct forms of representation, each constructed of unusual and potentially multivalent elements. Iconographical details like the hirsute Christ, his gesture, Peter’s covered hands and the unorthodox positioning of the two saints are examined in isolation and as elements of the whole. The synthetic composition invited alternative and over-determined meanings.

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Large numbers of Greco-Italic and Dressel 1 amphorae were exported to many parts of Gaul during the late Iron Age and they provide a major source of information on the development and growth of the Roman economy during the late Republican period. This volume examines in detail this trade to the Auvergne region of central France and provides a typological and chronological study of the main assemblages of Republican amphorae found on the farms, agglomerations, oppida, and funerary sites, dating from the second century BC until the early first century AD. Other topics examined include the provenance of the amphorae, the stamps, painted inscriptions and graffiti, the distribution of Republican amphorae in the Auvergne, and the evidence for their modification and reuse. Finally, a gazetteer of Republican amphora findspots from France is also provided.

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Climate variability and human management strategies on crop stands were major factors that frequently affected agricultural yields among indigenous populations from central Mexico. This work seeks to model food production in ancient Tepeaca, a Late Postclassic (AD 1325-1521) and Early Colonial (16th century) state level-polity settled on the central highlands of Puebla, by applying a model that recognizes the presence of two independent and interconnected forms of food production: subsistence agriculture and institutional agriculture. Crop stands within this region depended heavily on rainfed conditions, a form of agriculture that often generates unstable interannual fluctuations in yields. Archaeology acknowledges the effects of such variations on the economy of households and institutions, but attention has been largely put on estimating average productivity values over long periods rather than focusing on interannual divergences. Such instability of agricultural production was recorded among modern Tepeaca’s agriculturalists through an ethnographic survey. This crucial information, along with archaeological data and local 16th century historical sources, is used for modeling the effects of climate variability among prehispanic populations and serves to better comprehend the organization of past agrarian structures, tribute systems and land tenure organization at the household and regional levels.

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During the international conference ‘Settlement, Communication and Exchange around the Western Carpathians’ held in Kraków in October 2012, attention was focused on the complex issues of long-term cultural change in the populations surrounding the Western Carpathians, with the aim of striking a balance between local cultural dynamics, subsistence economy and the alleged importance of far-reaching contacts, and communication and exchange involved in this process. Specialists from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the United States met and discussed for two days their archaeological findings relating to questions of (Trans)Carpathian communication, settlement patterns, and agricultural and technological changes that occurred (mainly) during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Additionally, case studies from Northern Poland and Eastern Germany were included to provide a perspective on the variability of traditions and economic strategies in different natural environments and topographical settings. Drawing on a broad spectrum of methods (including anthropological, archaeobotanical, geochemical, and geophysical), and adhering to different theoretical approaches, the objective was to contribute to a more holistic understanding of prehistoric settlement strategies, adaptation to marginal (and not so marginal) environments, and the role of communication for prehistoric populations to the north and south of the Western Carpathians.

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This book brings together the scientific contributions of a wide panel of Sicilian and mainland Italian specialists in prehistory. Taking inspiration from a conference organised by the Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali e Ambientali of Agrigento and by the municipal council of Sciacca in November 2011, the decision was taken to broaden and deepen some of the main themes discussed on that occasion. Therefore this book focuses on the Sciacca region and its landscape which is extraordinarily rich in natural geological phenomena and associated archaeological activity, for example the Grotta del Kronio and the numerous dolmens present nearby. This volume seeks to explore the various aspects – habitational or ritual – of the prehistoric use of the numerous caves present in the region and to analyse the many features of the island’s megalithic architecture. The text includes an historical review of the processes of discovery of the archaeological evidence, also an account of the current research projects and research activities.

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The study of human remains from ancient Egypt and Nubia has captured the imagination of many people for generations, giving rise to the discipline of palaeopathology and fostering bioarchaeological research. This book contains 16 papers that cover material presented at a workshop entitled ‘Palaeopathology in Egypt and Nubia: A Century in Review,’ held at the Natural History Museum, London (August 29–30, 2012), which formed part of a three-year research project, ‘Sir Grafton Elliot Smith: Palaeopathology and the Archaeological Survey of Nubia.’ The papers explore the subject of palaeopathology from its beginnings in the early 1900s through to current research themes and the impact of technological development in the field. Revealing the diverse range of methods used to study human remains in these regions, the book gives readers an insight into the fascinating work carried out over the last century, and suggests some possible future directions for the field.

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This book is for students and practitioners of not only knapping, lithic technology and archaeology, but also of fractography and fracture mechanics. At conferences on fractography of glasses and ceramics, the author has often been asked to demonstrate knapping as well as provide overviews of fractography learned from it. The first part of the book is intended to stimulate such interests further, in order to solicit contributions from a largely untapped pool of experts. Such contributions can advance significantly our understandings of knapping as well as fractography. In Part II of the book, fracture markings as the tools of fractography are introduced, with their formation, meaning and utility explained. Observations on the presence or absence of the markings in knapping are considered in Part III, along with a number of interpretations of fracture features. The basic principles and concepts of fracture mechanics and fractography apply to fractures produced in any cultural context. This volume therefore addresses most questions on fracture in a generic sense, independent of cultural contexts. In general, understanding of fractures provides a sounder basis for lithic analysis, and use of more recent scientific tools opens new avenues for lithic studies.

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This volume contains detailed information about 63 sites and shows, amongst other things, that the viticulture of the western delta was significant in Ptolemaic and Roman periods, as well as a network of interlocking sites, which connected with the rest of Egypt, Alexandria, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean. Far from being a border area — as perhaps it had been in the Pharaonic period — the west Delta network exerted an important economic production influence over a very wide area. In addition, with access to medieval and later Arabic sources, Kenawi’s discussion of the sites has an added dimension not found in the work of western scholars. Mohamed Kenawi’s meticulous and determined work has resulted in an improved set of data for the Delta and shown how its potential can be tapped.

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"This volume gathers together the first 10 years of The European Archaeologist (ISSN 1022-0135), from Winter 1993 through to the 10th Anniversary Conference Issue, published in 2004 for the Lyon Annual Meeting. In reality, like the Journal of European Archaeology, The European Archaeologist (TEA) was born before the official foundation of the EAA at Ljubljana in September 1994, and began publication the year before. The first issue announces the Ljubljana Inaugural Meeting, and documents the work of the International Steering Committee which promoted the Association. Readers can then trace the initial development of their brainchild, from the euphoria of a post-1989 Europe where Archaeologists could at last freely communicate to the consolidation of the Association as a key player in the Archaeology of the continent. Perhaps the most striking thing, reading through these early issues of TEA, is how the central concerns of the EAA, for heritage, commercial and academic archaeology have remained central to its content. This volume is published as the Association meets in Istanbul for its 20th Annual Meeting." –from the preface by Mark Pearce

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Stelae dating to the Epiclassic (650-900 CE) and Early Postclassic (950-1150 CE) from Tula, Xochicalco, and other sites in Central Mexico have been presented in the archaeological and art historical literature of the last four decades—when they have been addressed at all—as evidence of Classic Maya ‘influence’ on Central Mexican art during these periods. This book re-evaluates these claims via detailed comparative analysis of the Central Mexican stelae and their claimed Maya counterparts. For the first time the Central Mexican stelae are placed in the context of often earlier local artistic traditions as well as other possible long-distance connections. Comparison of Tula and Xochicalco stelae with earlier and contemporary stelae from Oaxaca and Guerrero demonstrates connections equally as plausible as those posited with the Maya region, and supported by archaeological evidence. While it is clear that some Central Mexican stelae, especially Stela 4 from Tula, reflect Maya contacts, this has to be balanced by consideration of local and other long distance developments and connections.

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At the heart of this book is a comparative study of the stone rows of Dartmoor and northern Scotland, a rare, putatively Bronze Age megalithic typology that has mystified archaeologists for over a century. It is argued that these are ‘symbols’ of Neolithic long mounds, a circumstance that accounts for the interregional similarities; other aspects of their semantic structures are also analysed using rigorous semiotic theory. The research presented here takes an evolutionary approach, drawing on biological theory to explain the active role of these monuments in social evolution and to investigate the processes at work in the development of prehistoric landscapes. New theory is developed for analysing such archaeological sequences, and for understanding and explaining material culture more generally. The local sequences are contextualised by examining European megalithic origins, tracing the long mound concept back to the LBK longhouses. It is argued that all of these related forms — longhouses, long mounds, and stone rows — are implicated in a process of competitively asserting ancestral affinities, which explains the constraint on cultural variation, and thus the formation of remarkably stable monument traditions, that led to the convergence between Dartmoor and northern Scotland in the Early Bronze Age.

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“Not the shadow of a smile disturbs the dry exposition of the scholarly Englishman [Cecil Torr] who has given us the best historical monograph on the island… Read him and you will see why...” (Lawrence Durrell, "Reflections on a Marine Venus"). Cecil Torr’s two 19th-century studies of Rhodes, in the Greek Dodecanese, off the coast of Asia Minor, were the first and most authoritative English guides to the island’s multi-layered history. Although more than a hundred years have passed since publication, the reclusive scholar’s "Rhodes in Ancient Times" and "Rhodes in Modern Times" remain firmly embedded in related bibliographies. Impeccably qualified – Harrow (Arthur Evans was a class-mate), Trinity Cambridge, and Inner Temple barrister of formidable reputation – Cecil Torr had the true antiquarian’s obsession for factual presentation and detailed analyses of primary sources. First published in 1885, "Rhodes in Ancient Times" is an historical and cultural guide to one of the most influential and powerful maritime states in the Mediterranean. Torr’s scholarly curiosity leads him to explore the island’s history, culture, myths and legends, arts, and contribution to learning in the centuries before Christ. Naturally, the celebrated Colossus is not overlooked!

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Square bottles came into use in the AD 60s and rapidly became the commonest glass vessel form in the empire. For the next two centuries their fragments dominate all glass assemblages. Hitherto this material has not been exploited to any great extent because there has been no close chronological framework.Blue/Green Glass Bottles from Roman Britain presents a classification scheme for the moulded base patterns which allows their chronological development to be reconstructed. With this it is possible to explore how sizes and capacities changed with time. The British data are set within the context of the bottles from the rest of the western empire, and it can be seen that different provinces favoured different base patterns in a systematic fashion. Previously it has been assumed that base patterns reflect long distance trade of the bottles and their contents. Now it can be seen that the main driving force for the distribution of bottles with similar distinct

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Water and the Law investigates water resource law in the statutory legislation codified by commune, oligarchic and seigneurial governments of cities and smaller municipalities in Northern and Central Italy from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries. It aims to shed light on the relationship between water management norms and the local environment, that is how urban governments planned the use and distribution of water, and the protection of inhabited areas from the danger of flooding. Through a careful analysis of just two hundred statutory regulations that deal with water resources, the text compares the solutions adopted in Northern Italy, presenting a relatively large water supply and a dense network of tributaries of the river Po, with the situation in central areas of the peninsula (including Rome), where smaller watercourses with torrential characteristics - such as the Arno and the Tiber - interact with important cities and manufacturing centres like Florence. F

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(Not) All Roads Lead to Rome is the result of the highly engaging debate within the “Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient History”, a yearly congress of young graduates and researchers held in April 2022 in the University of Barcelona. In this volume, the issue of mobility in Antiquity in its broadest sense is approached from a multidisciplinary perspective. One of the main objectives is, also, to give promising young scholars (postgraduates and PHD students) the opportunity to publish their early research on mobility and build a cohesive but thematically broad work. Although mobility is always present in studies of exchange and cultural diffusion, in this case it becomes the main subject of this collective research effort. We aim to encourage academic discussion around mobility as a key feature of societies, inherent to their functioning and where cultural, social and economic processes meet. The Mediterranean, and the Roman Empire by extension, is a dynamic area, and thus, it allows us to study mobility from many perspectives. In this volume, the movement of ideas, be they ideological or religious, is explored as it relates to underlying social and economic patterns. Likewise, the physical mobility of people across empires or within settlements is treated as a consequence of and a way to ease social relations. Social mobility too is discussed in the broader framework of socioeconomic dynamics, with case studies ranging from Egypt to Rome. Finally, the movement of goods (trade) is also part of this volume, as it was essential at bolstering interconnectivity in the Mediterranean. In that regard, archaeology holds the largest potential to provide new data regarding mobility of products, and thus long-distance contact and exchange.

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Between Roman Culture and Local Tradition presents a detailed analysis of the Roman provincial coinage of Bithynia and Pontus during the reign of Trajan (98-117), when 14 cities struck coins. The book characterises individual mints, the rhythm of monetary production, iconography and legends, and considers the attribution and dating of individual issues. Context is provided by studies on other categories of artefacts discovered in the local area, including epigraphic and material ones, such as fine art, sculptures and architectural remains. The extent of circulation is also analysed, as well as the coinage of the border centres of neighbouring provinces such as Thrace, Asia and Galatia-Cappadocia. Reference is made to historical sources, principally the correspondence of Pliny the Younger with the emperor, which can help to show the realities of life for the inhabitants of individual centres, including ongoing construction projects or local problems. Overall the book aims to reconstruct the coinage policy of individual cities and culture and religion in various centres during this period, as well as contacts and relationships among the local communities. In turn, the studies of individual cities allow for the creation of a general picture of coinage in the province.

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The idea that morris dancing captures the essence of ancient Englishness, inherently carefree and merry, has been present for over 400 years. The Ancient English Morris Dance traces the history of those attitudes, from the dance's introduction to England in the fifteenth century, through the contention of the Reformation and Civil War, during which morris dancing and maypoles became potent symbols of the older ways of living. Thereafter it developed and diversified, neglected and disdained, until antiquaries began to take an interest in its history, leading to its re-invention as emblematic of Victorian concepts of Merrie England in the nineteenth century. The quest for authentic understanding of what that meant led to its revival at the beginning of the twentieth century, but that was predicated on the perception of it as part of England's declining rural past, to the neglect of the one area (the industrial north-west) where it continued to flourish. The revival led in turn to its further evolution into the multitude of forms and styles in which it may be encountered today.

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Representations and inscriptions on tomb and temple walls and individual stelae have provided considerable knowledge of ancient Egyptian daily life, religious custom and military achievements. However, as visual or eulogistic textual evidence they are unable to provide the insight into the people themselves, their personalities and the events and issues they were concerned with, insight which can be found in personal correspondence. Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence addresses a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of problems and issues, daily life, religious matters, military and police matters, it will show the insight they provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour, evidencing the distinctiveness of the data such personal correspondence can provide as a primary source of daily life in ancient Egypt – the extra dimension.

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Anthropomorphism could be described as a production of analogies generated by human cognition. As a result, anthropomorphism is a universal cultural trait present in all cultures at all times, and one of the cognitive fundamentals of humankind: that of projecting a human corporal image over the surrounding world. It is present in the imaginary, mythologies, religions, and material culture of all ages, being an important subject of archaeology.This book approaches anthropomorphism from the moment of anthropogenesis, tracing its presence in nature and material culture in prehistory and Antiquity.The cover image serves as a metaphor, joining together two perceptions of anthropomorphism: a rational one, that of the female columns at the Erechtheion temple in Athens; and a case of pareidolia, namely a figure with outstretched arms on a rock pillar at the Externsteine rocks in Germany.

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This open-access academic venture has established itself as a distinctive venue fostering new research and public understanding regarding the complex global story of walls, barriers and frontier zones from prehistoric and ancient societies to the medieval and modern world. In doing so, the Offa’s Dyke Journal does not only present reliable peer-reviewed academic research in an accessible venue, it also critiques and combats both misinformation and disinformation shared about this aspect of the human past in popular culture and political discourse in today’s world. Promoting an informed and nuanced conversation about their stories and legacies and the positive dimensions of linear monuments is thus a key aspiration of the Offa’s Dyke Journal as both an academic and open-access resource. In doing so, we can learn about the human past, recognise how these material traces inform contemporary identities and society, and both recognise their legacies as well as celebrate their redundancies.

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Current archaeological practices are now fully immersed in the computing and digital era. This process, common to all sciences, is leading to an important methodological renewal of the discipline, materialising in the emergence of new lines of research with a promising future, and computational methods are playing a key role in this panorama. Remote sensing studies, the use of drones, LiDAR data, virtual reconstructions or modern statistical simulation techniques are, amongst others, research fields that require the use of computing science. Arqueología computacional del territorio aims to describe some of the current analytical approaches to model past cultural landscapes, their evolution, and their relationship with the human societies that inhabited them. To this end, the use of Geographic Information Systems and spatial statistics is proposed, using territorial and landscape archaeology as a theoretical framework. The research that follows is articulated around the use of open-source software and, specifically, R Statistics, a programming language that is gradually becoming one of the most important tools in archaeological research. Its use allows for transparent, accessible, and reproducible research while promoting interdisciplinarity and a real democratization of scientific knowledge.

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How did the Maltese and Gozitans fare under Roman occupation? How were they treated by their new masters? And what did they do to appease them? What changes did the new political situation bring about in their lives? How did they respond and / or adapt? Was their religious identity in any way affected? How did they manoeuvre their loyalties to their own benefits? And how did they manage their own domestic affairs within the new political set-up? Though based essentially on epigraphical evidence, this study seeks to address the above and other questions through an exercise in which epigraphy and the archaeological record supplement each other. The results shed new light on the governing bodies of the Maltese islands in Roman times and the models they followed, those who administered them, the latter’s role and status, and also their relationship with and their significance for the rest of the population.

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Life along Communication Routes from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages is the result of the conference Roads and Rivers 2 held at the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb in 2020, enriched with additional invited contributions. The volume presents the latest research on Roman roads, not just in terms of their basic infrastructure but also exploring various aspects of life that were connected with it, from the Imperial period to that of decline, acculturation and integration of new identities, within the three Roman provinces of Pannonia, Moesia and Dalmatia. Within this area, various studies of new finds, alongside new observations and ideas are presented. They add to our knowledge not just of the Roman roads themselves but also about roadside stations and other facilities in various landscape contexts (such as Mediterranean and continental areas). The contributions also investigate the distribution of goods and ideas from the Roman period to the Middle Ages, and deal with different aspects of life as it developed and was transformed along Roman roads.

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The Significance of Doorway Positions in English Medieval Parochial Churches and Chapels analyses the positions of external church doorways in England to investigate the significance that positioning had for the function and design of these buildings. Until the eleventh century, churches tended to have a single external western nave doorway. This design changed in the next two centuries. New churches tended to have north and south, laterally opposing, nave doorways. From the thirteenth century to the end of the Middle Ages, new churches continued the two-doorway trend but typically added western towers and doorways as well. The book also examines chapels, which differed from churches as they had a different function and status. Non-parochial chapels usually had a single southern doorway whilst parochial chapels often had two opposing nave doorways. This book proposes that liturgical reasons lay behind the changes both at the turn of the eleventh century and again in the later thirteenth. Gender and clerical segregation are considered in relation to the provision of a second nave doorway in churches and parochial chapels. It is also shown that the widespread idea of the ‘Devil’s Door’ was only developed in the nineteenth century though it had roots in late medieval liturgy. The author concludes that there is a link between the design and function of parochial churches and chapels with the number and attributes of their doorways.

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Berkeley Castle Tales presents the outcomes of the 15-year-long University of Bristol excavations and landscape research at the Berkeley Castle estate in South Gloucestershire. The project, which in 2016 won the prestigious Current Archaeology award for the Archaeology Project of the Year, aimed at writing, through material culture and extensive archival and geophysical research, the narrative behind the construction of Berkeley Castle, the corresponding town, and the area of the Severn valley that overlooks the borders with Wales. By combining the results of archaeological fieldwork with information contained in the castle's impressive collection of 20,000 historical documents, the project adds greatly to our knowledge and understanding of the early medieval period and the subsequent changes in landscape and society that occurred with the coming of the Normans, with the erection of a castle on the former minster site. Throughout the publication the advances that the Berkeley Castle project offered to archaeological practice, to excavation and geophysics methodology, and to the community and public archaeology are evident, since the editors intend the volume to be a milestone not only for the study of a castle landscape but also for archaeological method and practice.

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Thrace through the Ages draws attention to the importance of pottery evidence in evaluating archaeological material from Thrace. The volume considers the informative value of pottery in tracing cultural and political phases, by providing us with important data about production centres, commercial relations, daily life, religious rituals and burial customs. The first chapter examines ceramic research in Thrace from past to present. The second chapter is devoted to the interpretation of the data presented by ceramics regarding interregional commercial relations and cultural interaction. In the third chapter, ceramics are evaluated from the perspective of cult rituals. The fourth chapter includes the excavation and survey ceramics. The fifth chapter is classified according to the ceramic ware. In the last two chapters of the volume, various data presented by ceramics were evaluated by considering their qualitative and quantitative characteristics.

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Arqueología de las sociedades locales en la Alta Edad Media: San Julián de Aistra y las residencias de las élites rurales presents the main results obtained in the archaeological project of San Julián de Aistra (Zalduondo-Araia, Álava) carried out between 2006 and 2020 by University College London and the University of the Basque Country. The remains of a hermitage dedicated to Santa Julián and Santa Basilisa, built in the 10th century and renovated in the Romanesque period and in the 18th century, are preserved in the deserted village of Aistra, which is documented since the 11th century. Excavation has shown that the site was occupied in prehistoric, Roman and medieval times. While prehistoric and Roman materials have been recovered in secondary contexts, four medieval phases of a domestic, productive, and funerary nature have been defined. One of the most important results of the project has been the discovery of residential spaces of elites who exercised territorial dominion throughout the Early Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the place was depopulated and, since then, the Aistra area has been managed and disputed by the nearby villages of Zalduondo and Araia, which created a community aimed at jointly managing the resources and spaces of Aistra. This community, active between the 14th and 20th centuries, broke up from the 19th century onwards, when individual management of resources became accentuated, and the commons were divided up. This collective volume brings together a large number of specialized studies and provides an interpretation of the site of Aistra in terms of socio-political practices that define the main characteristics of early medieval local societies in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

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The third Europa Postmediaevalis conference, entitled Connections and Networking, took place in Coimbra, Portugal, in the spring of 2022. The result is this book, containing 26 contributions from a total of ten European countries divided into five thematic sections, all of which focus on post-medieval pottery. Pottery is examined from the perspectives of local, regional and long-distance trade. The contributions demonstrate the importance of the theme of connections and networking and provide an opportunity to compare concrete find situations across Europe – in both coastal as well as landlocked states – and their local development in the light of new impulses from outside. Papers gathered in a single anthology thus facilitate a dialogue between diverse European regions.

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This volume presents papers from the Fourth Australasian Egyptology Conference held at Monash University, Melbourne 16–18 September 2016. Both the conference and the papers in this volume are dedicated to Gillian E. Bowen who retired from Monash that year, and a brief tribute to her is presented at the opening of the volume. The contributions include several on Egypt’s Western Desert where Monash has been engaged in fieldwork for many years in the the Dakhleh Oasis. Relating to the Roman-period village of Kellis, Bassett discusses economic policy in the settlement of the region and Rindi the elaborately decorated funerary cartonnage from one of its cemeteries. Long explores ceramic traditions of the Third Intermediate Period in Dakhleh while Warfe discusses aspects of the proscription of Seth, who was venerated at the ancient capital of Dakhleh, based on data from Luxor Temple in the valley. Livingstone presents textiles of the late Roman Period from Christian burials and Kucera examines a Roman military campaign in the northern Western Desert. The other papers reflect the wide range of research being undertaken by other Australasian scholars. These range from studies of early ceramics from Hamamieh by Pilgrim and the breakage of Predynastic figurines by Ordynat, to a study of a Fifth-century icon of the Virgin Mary by Marsh-Letts. From periods in between come studies of women in the family of high officials at Beni Hassan and in religious practices of the New Kingdom by Paull and Lisle respectively; aspects of the iconography of the Book of the Dead and a new representation of a sailing vessel by Volk and Stephens; the interface between text and visual image by Thorpe and finally mummification practices of children by Davey.

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The Sasanian empire was one of the great powers of Late Antiquity, and for four centuries ruled the vast region stretching from Syria and the Caucasus to Central Asia. Classical, Armenian, Jewish and Arab written sources throw light on its history, and studies of its rock reliefs, stuccoes, silver, silks, coins and glyptic have created a picture of a rich courtly culture with a strong Iranian character. However, the everyday material culture is much less understood, as is the economy which sustained and supported the Sasanian empire and underpinned its consistent military superiority over its western rivals. This collection of essays looks at these aspects and offers an approach based almost entirely on archaeological and scientific research, much presented here for the first time. This book is divided into three parts which in turn examine evidence for Sasanian sites, settlements and landscapes, their complex agricultural resources, and their crafts and industries. Each section is preceded by an essay setting out the wider research questions and current state of knowledge. The book begins and ends with a general introduction and conclusion setting out why this new approach is necessary, and how it helps change our perceptions of the complexity and power of the Sasanian empire.

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