Search results for ""archaeopress""

This publication considers the visual, linguistic and religious culture of the Roman province of Lusitania. Roman influence was especially notable in religion and artistic manifestations. It was in the cities where the Lusitanians acquired Roman civilization: they learned Latin, the Frankish language of the peninsula; they were introduced to the Roman administration and religion; and in the third century, when Rome converted to Christianity, so did the Lusitanians. The Latin language was imposed as the official language, functioning as a binding factor and communication between different peoples. Being a fairly large area and lacking a unified state that promoted a particular language in administration or education, different languages ​​coexisted simultaneously in Hispania. The subjects continued to use their native languages, although official business was conducted in Latin or Greek. Indigenous religions persisted, although sacrifices were offered everywhere for the emperor and the gods of the Roman pantheon. Visual culture also reflected the hybrid character of provincial civilization. Images of a Roman style and subject matter circulated widely, and yet the craftsmen and consumers of the provinces maintained their own traditions, adopting Roman techniques and tastes as they pleased. The papers in this volume establish a broad and generous view of the relationship between images, languages and religious culture within Lusitanian society.

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The Safaitic rock art of the North Arabian basalt desert is a unique and understudied material, one of the few surviving traces of the elusive herding societies that inhabited this region in antiquity. Yet little is known about this rock art and its role in the desert societies. Why did these peoples make carvings in the desert and what was the significance of this cultural practice? What can the rock art tell us about the relationship between the nomads and their desert landscape? This book investigates these questions through a comprehensive study of over 4500 petroglyphs from the Jebel Qurma region of the Black Desert in north-eastern Jordan. It explores the content of the rock art, how it was produced and consumed by its makers and audience, and its relationship with the landscape. This is the first-ever systematic study of the Safaitic petroglyphs from the Black Desert and it is unique for the study of Arabian rock art. It demonstrates the value of a material approach to rock art and the unique insights that rock art can provide into the relationship between nomadic herders and the wild and domestic landscape.

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In 2012, fieldwork began at two large sites in the Beheira Province in the western Nile Delta: Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit (ancient Metelis). Being close to the important ports of Thonis-Heracleion, Alexandria, and Rosetta meant that they had been ideally placed to take advantage of the trade between the Mediterranean and Egypt. The sites are being thoroughly investigated to reveal their archaeological significance. Kom al-Ahmer – Kom Wasit I Excavations in the Metelite Nome, Egypt presents the results of the Italian archaeological mission between 2012 and 2016. It provides details of the survey and excavation results from different occupation phases. A complete town beneath the Nile silt was revealed using a combination of modern scientific techniques. Hellenistic houses and a temple enclosure wall were investigated at Kom Wasit; while at Kom al-Ahmer, a Late Roman house, an amphora storage building, a cistern and an early Islamic cemetery were revealed. Dating from the Late Dynastic to the Early Islamic period, the remains found at Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit demonstrate for the first time the rich archaeological heritage of this region. Edited by Mohamed Kenawi, this volume contains contributions by Cristina Mondin, Michele Asolati Louise Bertini, Audrey Eller, Urška Furlan, Ole Herslund, Israel Hinojosa Baliño, Marie-Caroline Livaditis, Giorgia Marchiori, Marcus Müller, Benjamin T. Pennington and Amy Wilson.

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The study of deserted villages abandoned during the last millennium in Europe has been the primary focus of archaeological interventions in rural settlements over recent decades. However, most of the hamlets and villages of medieval origin remain inhabited today and excavations in these small and medium-sized settlements are more unusual. The Archaeology of Medieval Villages Currently Inhabited in Europe focuses on these locations, giving examples of sites excavated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Scandinavia and Spain. The case studies highlight the diversity of problems and debates around this subject such as the meaning of the term ‘village’, the chronology beyond the last millennium with continuities, discontinuities and ruptures, the integration of research into residential and working areas, the role of local communities in research programmes and the need for multidisciplinary approaches to address all these issues. Deserted villages research along with currently-inhabited settlement excavation has the important potential to achieve long-lasting historical syntheses on medieval settlement networks in Europe. These five chapters offer challenging approaches to the above issues and proposals for future research in the field from Spain to the North Sea.

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The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968, it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Seminar meets for three days each year, with an ever-increasing number of participants coming from around the globe to attend. In 2018 the fifty-second meeting took place, in which fifty-seven papers and posters were presented in London at the British Museum, where this prestigious event has been hosted since 2002.

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Funded by the AHRC, the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland project (2012-2016) involved a team drawn from the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Cork which was responsible for compiling a massive database, now freely available online at https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac, on hillforts in Britain and Ireland. This was underpinned by a major desk-based re-assessment of accessible records. These twelve studies, presented at the end of that exercise to a conference in Edinburgh, and contributed by team members and colleagues, outline the background to and development of the project (Gary Lock) and offer a preliminary assessment of the online digital Atlas (John Pouncett) as well as presenting initial research studies using Atlas data. The volume is profusely illustrated with over 140 figures, including many new maps. Ian Ralston provides a historical assessment of key stages in the enumeration and mapping of these important monuments on both sides of the Irish Sea. The hill- and promontory forts of England, Wales and the Isle of Man are assessed by Ian Brown and those of Ireland by James O’Driscoll, Alan Hawkes and William O’Brien. Stratford Halliday’s study of the Scottish evidence focuses on the impact of the application of the Atlas criteria to the records of forts in that country. Simon Maddison deploys Percolation Analysis as an example of the potential re-use of the Atlas data in analysing new distributions; Jessica Murray presents a GIS-based approach to hillfort settings and configurations. Syntheses on insular Early Historic fortified settlements in northern Britain and Ireland, by James O’Driscoll and Gordon Noble, and on hillforts in areas of the nearer Continent are included. The latter comprise an overview by Sophie Krausz on Iron Age fortifications in France and a consideration of the south German records of hillforts and oppida by Axel Posluschny, while Fernando Rodriguez del Cueto tackles the north-western Spanish evidence.

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Current Research in Egyptology 2018 is a collection of papers and posters presented at the nineteenth symposium of the prestigious international student conference, held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague on 25th–28th June 2018. The Prague conference was attended by more than 100 people from various countries and institutions. The range of topics discussed was wide, covering all periods of ancient Egyptian and Nubian history and various topics concerning their society, religious life, material culture and archaeological excavations. The event also included six keynote lectures by experts from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, the FA CU (Prof. Mgr. Miroslav Bárta, Dr., Doc. PhDr. Hana Vymazalová, Ph.D., Doc. PhDr. Jana Mynářová, Ph.D., Prof. PhDr. Ladislav Bareš, CSc., and PhDr. Filip Coppens, Ph.D.) and the University of Vienna (Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter-Christian Jánosi). The Egyptological meeting was enriched with a visit to the Karolinum, historical buildings of Charles University.

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Aleksei P. Okladnikov: The Great Explorer of the Past 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 – mainly in Siberia and Central Asia as well as in Mongolia. Okladnikov made numerous fascinating discoveries in the 1930s, including the first Neanderthal remains in the USSR at Teshik Tash (Uzbekistan) and unique figurines at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Buret’ in the Angara River basin (Eastern Siberia). His research and achievements are presented on the background of ideological campaigns inspired by the Communist Party in the 1920s–1950s, a subject that is very rarely described in non-Russian sources. Particular attention is given to the debunking of the ‘Japhetic theory’ and the ‘new doctrine of language’ developed by Nikolai Y. Marr, an Oriental scholar and specialist in languages who in the 1920s–early 1930s was a formal leader of Soviet archaeology. Marr’s principles of linguistic studies were mechanically transmitted to several fields of the humanities, including archaeology, and were mandatory for every Soviet scholar. In 1950 an abrupt end to Marr’s theories was enacted by Josef Stalin. Details of these events – important for development of archaeology, ancient history, and linguistics in the USSR – were never previously described. 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 purpose of this study is to analyze the soliform figures in schematic cave paintings. The author presents research on all the global factors relevant to the study of these figures (technological, typological, stylistic, semiotic, astronomical, anthropological and landscape) and their relationship with the whole of schematic rock paintings and the societies that produced them. The geographical scope of the study is the area of Laguna de la Janda and Campo de Gibraltar (Cadiz). One of the arguments the author maintains in this research is the shortage of studies conducted in the territory of Cadiz in relation to these figures – and to rock art in general, which has been a central motif in almost all primitive religions or mythologies since the birth of agricultural societies. The recurrence of abstract motifs within the rock art of this area, and its durability over time, could be an indication of common cultural patterns among the different populations that inhabited the province. But these same signs are also repeated in different parts of the world – could it therefore suggest universal aspects of our species? The interpretation of these symbols has been – and continues to be – subject to intangible or subjective issues; therefore, it is not exempt from possible projections of our own culture. We think that we are able to approach, in a scientific way, the ritual and symbolic aspects of those who elaborated these paintings. In this book, the author proposes an alternative according to the theoretical framework of disciplines such as ethnography, anthropology, landscape archaeology, archaeoastronomy and semiotics.

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‘The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon: Coffin Texts Spells 154–160’ argues that Coffin Texts spells 154–160, recorded at around the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce, form the oldest composition about the moon in ancient Egypt and in the whole world. The detailed analysis of these spells, based on a new translation, reveals that the spells provide a chronologically ordered account of the phenomena that happen during a lunar month. It is argued that through a wide variety of mythological allusions, the separate texts – after an introduction which explains the origins of the month (spell 154) – describe the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent at the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). After highlighting the possible lunar connotations of each spell, further chapters in the book investigate the origins of the composition, its different manuscripts preserved on coffins coming from Hermopolis and Asyut, and the survival of the spells in the later mortuary collection known as the Book of Going Forth by Day.

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This book is an archaeological exploration of a conflict landscape encountered by the volunteers of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. A great deal is known about the Brigades in terms of inter-world war geopolitics, their history and make-up, but less is known about the materiality of the landscapes in which they lived, fought, and died. The Spanish Civil War was a relatively static conflict. As in the First World War, it consisted of entrenched Republican government lines facing similarly entrenched Nationalist (rebel) lines, and these ran north to south across Spain. Fighting was intermittent, so the front line soldiers had to settle in, and make what was an attritional war-scape, a place to live in and survive. This research examines one such war-scape as a place of ‘settlement’, where soldiers lived their daily lives as well as confronting the rigours of war – and these were the volunteers of the International Brigades, both foreign and Spanish, who occupied a section of lines southeast of Zaragoza in Aragón in 1937 and 1938. This research draws, not only on the techniques of landscape archaeology, but also on the writings of international volunteers in Spain – in particular, George Orwell – and it incorporates historical photography as a uniquely analytical, archaeological resource.

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This book provides a full up to date account of the evidence relating to the Middle Stone Age in Nigeria and the other countries of West Africa. It relies upon the author’s own fieldwork and extensive personal knowledge of the region and its archaeology. It is abundantly illustrated with maps, photographs, and drawings. The emphasis is on stratigraphy, chronology, site situation, and artefact characteristics, with such general background information about the countries concerned as is required. A summary account is also provided of the current situation in relation to this topic (covering climate, archaeology, and human evolution) in the African continent as a whole, so that a judgement can made as to how the West African evidence fits in with the rest. In general accounts of the African palaeolithic record up to now, West Africa tends to be neglected, so this book goes a long way to fill a gap in the available literature.

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Dans le cadre du projet CBDAMM (Renforcement des capacités des méthodes d’acquisition de données en vue de promouvoir les pratiques de gestion du patrimoine naturel et culturel au Maroc), un ensemble de recommandations pour les processus d’acquisition de données dans les milieux marins et les zones humides côtières a été établi pour les parties prenantes marocaines. Cette brochure, intitulée ‘Recommandations pour les bonnes pratiques en matière de méthodes d’acquisition de données pour la gestion du patrimoine naturel et culturel des zones humides côtières marocaines’, vise à décrire les procédures fonctionnelles pour mener des études côtières scientifiques dans le contexte marocain. Cette brochure décrit les exigences, les méthodes et les pratiques des quatre domaines scientifiques qui reposent sur des données partagées provenant de ces investigations: hydrographie, géologie marine, biologie marine et toxicologie, archéologie maritime et gestion du patrimoine. Le contenu résume les ateliers, les séjours scientifiques et les recherches sur le terrain menées au cours du projet CBDAMM, avec pour étude de cas spécifique: Oued Bouregreg, une rivière à marée semidiurne de type mésotidal et une zone humide qui s’étend entre les centres urbains de Rabat et Salé, sur la Côte Atlantique du Maroc.

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The Poole Iron Age logboat, one of the largest surviving prehistoric watercraft in Britain, is today imposingly displayed in the entrance to Poole Museum in Dorset. However, the vessel faced a difficult journey from its first discovery to the amazing artefact we can now see. Recovered from Poole Harbour in 1964, it is impossible to overestimate the international significance of this vessel. But until now it had never been fully recorded and apart from its impressive size, very little was known about it. Its dimensions made it inherently unstable and suggest it was designed for use solely in Poole Harbour. This book is the culmination of significant multi-disciplinary work carried out by a variety of specialists, from conservators to woodworking and boatbuilding experts, exploring not only the craft’s history but also its functionality – or lack of – as a vessel. Digital recording, using the latest technology, has made it possible to test its capabilities. For the first time, prehistorians, nautical archaeologists and lay people alike can understand the story of one of Britain’s oldest boats – the archaeological and historical background, the environmental context, the timber and ship science, and the challenges of conserving such an important vessel.

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Nel regno del fango presents the preliminary results of the archaeological excavations recently carried out in the Grotta di Polla, in the province of Salerno, in the Vallo di Diano area. Speleoarchaeological researches in recent years have revealed the considerable difficulty of operating methodologically in an environment, such as that of a cave which, in addition to being often characterized by the limitations caused by the darkness and tightness of the environments, has in this case led to the presence of a considerable amount of mud which made researches even more complex. The methodologies adopted for the preservation and conservation of archaeological materials and the results obtained are therefore illustrated. From an interpretative point of view, the cave is configured as an area that has been exploited with a certain continuity from the Neolithic to the whole Bronze Age with the specific function of a burial area.

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MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook evaluation and subsequent excavation at Wollaston Quarry, near Wellingborough through the 1990s. These excavations took place in advance of gravel extraction on land to the north and south of Hardwater Road, Wollaston. The archaeological work found Iron Age and Roman farms arranged along a single routeway and the remains of at least two Roman vineyards. A single late 7th century grave, the Pioneer burial, lay alongside a long-lived routeway at the southern end of the quarry, close to the floodplain and any burial mound would have overlooked the River Nene. The burial was an isolated feature; the only other Saxon artefacts recovered from other parts of the quarry were limited to two scatters of pottery and two fragments of small long brooch recovered by metal detection. All were located some distance from the grave. The Pioneer burial was adjacent to the south-western corner of the later Saxon Higham Hundred boundary where it meets the River Nene. It is probable the burial had originally been within a barrow, but no evidence was found for it. Within the grave there was an individual adult of slender build probably in their early to middle 20s equipped with a boar-crested iron helmet, a pattern-welded sword, a copper alloy hanging bowl with enamelled escutcheon, an iron knife, a copper alloy clothing hook and three iron buckles. The burial contained artefacts indicative of very high status, with the early to middle Saxon helmet being at the time only the fourth to have been recovered from a burial in England.

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Dhofar, the southern governorate of Oman, lies within a distinctive ecological zone due to the summer Southwest Monsoon. It is home to numerous indigenous succulent plants, the most famous of which is frankincense (Boswellia sacra). The region, tied in the past to both Oman and Yemen, has a long and distinguished archaeological past stretching back to the Lower Paleolithic ca. 1.5 my BP. Dhofar is also home to a distinctive people, the Modern South Arabian Languages speakers (MSAL) since at least the last 15,000 years. Ancient Zafar (Al-Habudi), now called Al-Baleed, and its successor Salalah was and is the province’s largest city. From the seventh century onwards until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1504 AD Al-Baleed dominated the central southern Arabian coastline politically and economically. Archaeological surveys and excavations in the governorate, beginning in 1954, have brought to light Dhofar’s ancient past.

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The objective of this book is the reconsideration of the practices of personal adornment during the Neolithic period in Greece, through the assemblage, extensive bibliographic documentation, and critical evaluation of all the available data deriving from more than a hundred sites in the mainland and the Aegean islands –an archaeological archive of wide geographical and chronological scope. In addition, a thorough study of the personal ornament corpus from the Middle-Late Neolithic Dispilio in Kastoria, an important lakeside settlement in north-western Greece, was conducted. The book begins with an overview of the anthropological and archaeological literature on theoretical and methodological issues concerning practices of personal adornment. Then follows an examination of the problems and key points of study regarding personal adornment in Neolithic Greece, as well as a critical evaluation of the methodological approaches and classification schemes that have been applied in previous archaeological works. Subsequently, the technologies and processes of production, consumption, recycling, deposition, and distribution of personal ornaments in Neolithic Greece are discussed. Finally, the social correlates of personal adornment are explored, as they are reflected in the choice of different raw materials (shell, clay, bone, stone, and metal) and ornament types (beads, pendants, annulets, and so forth).

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During November and December 2014, Cornwall Archaeological Unit undertook a programme of archaeological excavation in advance of construction of a road corridor to the south of Newquay. Evidence for Middle Bronze Age occupation took the form of a hollow-set roundhouse; however, the majority of the excavated features have been dated to the Iron Age and Roman periods. The area was enclosed as fields associated with extensive settlement activity throughout the last centuries cal BC into the third century AD. The excavations revealed the character of settlement-related activity during the later prehistoric and Roman periods. The evidence strongly suggests growing intensification of agriculture, with ditched fields and enclosures appearing in the landscape from the later Iron Age and into the Roman period. The results shed light on later prehistoric and Roman practices involving the division of the landscape with ditched fields and enclosed buildings. Many of the structures and pits were found to be set within their own ring-ditched enclosures or hollows, and the field system ditches were in some instances marked by ‘special’ deposits. As has previously been demonstrated for Middle Bronze Age roundhouses, structures could be subject to formal abandonment processes. Gullies and hollows were deliberately infilled, so that they were no longer visible at surface. However, unlike the abandoned Bronze Age roundhouses, the later structures appear to have been flattened and not monumentalized. In other words, buildings could be both etched into and subsequently erased from the landscape and thereby forgotten. This volume takes the opportunity presented by investigations on the Newquay Strategic Road to discuss the complexity of the archaeology, review the evidence for ‘special’ deposits and explore evidence for the deliberate closure of buildings especially in later prehistoric and Roman period Cornwall. Finally, the possible motives which underlie these practices are considered. Includes contributions by Ryan S Smith, Dana Challinor, Julie Jones, Graeme Kirkham, Anna Lawson-Jones, Henrietta Quinnell and Roger Taylor.

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Aïn Wassel is the only rural site of Africa Proconsularis which has been excavated using the stratigraphic method and the detailed results are published in this volume thanks to an archaeological field survey of the surrounding rural region. The interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence of the excavated area was able to determine a precise chrono-typology of pottery and amphoras, and to outline the importance of the Vandal and Byzantine period, which was confirmed by additional data from the survey. The excavation provided evidence of sustainable intensive mixed farming: an oil mill and press, a grain hand mill, a sundial, bones of cattle and dromedaries raised for labour, transport, milk, meat, skins, wool. Remains of fowl, such as a partridge and fragments of ash tree, pine and olive stones were found and analyzed. Local imitations of African Red Slip (ARS) wares were identified for the first time, and three new types of amphoras of large dimensions were discovered and classified as Aïn Wassel 1, 2 and 3. The excavation proved that in the 7th c. AD North Africa was still very active and dynamic, where regional trade used both fluvial and ground transportation. Until recently, this was considered a period of crisis, abandonment of the countryside and ruralization of cities; it was not so.

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Listening to the Stones: Essays on Architecture and Function in Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Honour of Richard Alan Tomlinson deals with a range of topics that relate to the broad scope of Richard Tomlinson’s archaeological quests and echoes his own methodology in research. Innovative masonry modes, matters of style and orders, proportions and design principles, as well as the inter-regional connections which fostered the transmission of architectural traditions and technical know-how have been cardinal points in Tomlinson’s writings and lectures, as much as the Greek foundations on foreign soil, the forethought in planning, achievements in the field of engineering and the interaction between the secular, the sepulchral and the sacred premises in an ancient city. The conservative or progressive attitudes of a society usually leave an imprint on architectural creations. So, architecture is subject to evolution along with the developing societies. Its gradual changing signifies the building programs taken up by ancient communities. Within this frame, we better comprehend the function of public edifices, the remodeling of cult sites in accordance with historic circumstances, the role of politics in architecture. This book is a token of appreciation for a British professor of archaeology, who spread knowledge of the Greek civilization, manifesting the brilliant spirit of the versatile ancient Greek builders.

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The Ironbridge Gorge is an iconic industrial landscape, presented as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and so part of a national narrative of heroic Protestant individualism. However this is not the full story. In fact this industrial landscape was created by an entrepreneurial Catholic dynasty over 200 years before the Iron Bridge was built. This book tells that story for the first time. Acquiring land at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Brooke family invested in coal mining and iron production – and introduced a radical new method of steelmaking which transformed that industry. Drawing together years of painstaking archaeological and historical research, this book looks in detail at the landscape, buildings and industrial installations created by the Brooke dynasty between the Dissolution and the English Civil War. It also explores the broader contexts – religious, economic and political – which shaped their mind-set and their actions. It considers medieval influences on these later developments, and looks at how the Brookes’ Catholicism was reflected in the way they created a new industrial landscape. In so doing it questions traditional narratives of English industrialisation, and calls for a more sophisticated understanding of this period by historical archaeologists.

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The Pax Assyriaca provides a study of the evolutionary process of ancient civilisations, stressing the complementarity between theoretical principles and the relevant historical and archaeological evidence. Taking its approach from World Systems Theory, the study focuses on the origin, development and collapse of the first, ‘Near Eastern’, stage of the ‘Central Civilisation’. The volume seeks to better understand the evolution of this stage of the Central Civilization, exploring its origin in the fusion of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations resulting from the expansion of the so-called Neo-Assyrian Empire from 1000 BC to 600 BC – better known as the Pax Assyriaca. Alongside investigations into the structure and development of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations, the book presents a theoretical analysis of Neo-Assyrian imperialism and traces the characteristics of the incorporation of Egypt into the Pax Assyriaca, concluding that this integration was only fully completed by the successor empires of Assyria around 430 BC. Finally an explanation for the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire is presented and its legacy in the context of the ‘Central Civilisation’ is assessed.

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As the name indicates, KOINON is a journal that encourages contributions to the study of classical numismatics from a wide variety of perspectives. The journal will include papers concerning iconography, die studies, provenance research, forgery analysis, translations of excerpts from antiquarian works, specialized bibliographies, corpora of rare varieties and types, ethical questions on laws and collecting, book reviews, and more. The editorial advisory board is made up of members from all over the world, with a broad range of expertise covering virtually all the major categories of classical numismatics from archaic Greek coinage to late Medieval coinage. Table of contents for the inaugural issue: Why a New Journal in Classical Numismatics? An Editorial by Nicholas J. Molinari; GREEK NUMISMATICS; Sophocles’ Trachiniae and the Apotheosis of Herakles: The Importance of Acheloios and Some Numismatic Confirmations – by Nicholas J. Molinari; Provenance Lost and Found: Alfred Bourguignon – by John Voukelatos; A Philip III Tetradrachm Die Pair Recycled by Seleukos I – by Lloyd W.H. Taylor; Blundered Era Date on Coin of Arados, Civic Year 119 – by Martin Rowe; ROMAN NUMISMATICS; Sotto l’egida di Minerva: Echi monetali delle imprese britanniche da Cesare ai Severi – by Luigi Pedroni; A Doubted Variety of M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus Vindicated – by Jordan Montgomery and Richard Schaefer; Redating Nepotian’s Usurpation and the Coinage of Magnentius – by Shawn Caza; A previously unrecorded reverse for Constantine I – by Victor Clark; The Dating and the Sequence of the Persid Frataraka Revisited – by Wilhelm Müseler; ORIENTAL NUMISMATICS; The Kilwa Coins of Sultan al-Ḥasan ibn Sulaymān in their Historical Context – by N.J.C. Smith; An Introduction to Parthian Silver Fractions, The Little Anomalies of Arsacid Coinage – by Bob Langnas; An interesting denaro tornese of the Barons Revolt of 1459-1464 and some considerations regarding Nicola II di Monforte – by Andrei Bontas; A CATALOG OF NEW VARIETIES

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The ancient city of Hatra is located 80 km southwest of the modern city of Mosul. The site reached its apogee during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, arriving at the striking dimensions of c. 300 hectares and into a new role as the capital of a significant buffer state between the Parthian and Roman empires. This volume is devoted to the study of the landscape surrounding Hatra and of the development of this important city, drawing on published information gathered by Iraqi and foreign expeditions, as well as unpublished data garnered from over fifteen years of fieldwork at the site by the Italian Archaeological Expedition. The study of the landscape comprehends the morphology, hydrology and geology of the region and offers new proposals regarding the exploitation of natural resources and the development of regional and local routes through the territory under Hatra’s political and military control during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The analysis of Hatra as an urban centre consists of a detailed study of the city’s hydrology, street network and urban areas, with the purpose of detecting the principles behind the planning and development of the city. The main elements of the urban space are treated in this book: the Temenos area and the Small Shrines, the Necropoles, the Fortifications, the Houses, and the Palaces. Due to the cross-referencing of archaeological, historical and epigraphic data, new ideas have been proposed regarding the chronological phases of urbanism at Hatra, from its foundation up to the destruction of the city by the Sasanian army in AD 241. | La città di Hatra si trova nella Jazira irachena a circa 80 km a sud-ovest di Mosul. Il centro raggiunse il suo apogeo durante il II-III sec. d.C., toccando l’impressionante estensione di quasi 300 ettari e divenendo la capitale di un influente stato cuscinetto, collocato tra l’impero partico e l’impero romano. Questo volume è dedicato allo studio del territorio e dell’urbanistica di questo importante sito antico, impiegando contestualmente informazioni edite, raccolte dalle varie missioni irachene e straniere che si sono avvicendate sul terreno, e inedite, provenienti dal vasto Archivio della Missione Archeologica Italiana a Hatra in più di quindici anni di ricerche sul campo. Lo studio del territorio definisce un quadro dettagliato della morfologia, idrologia e geologia della regione e dell’area prossima al centro, oltre a proporre alcune nuove ipotesi interpretative sullo sfruttamento delle risorse ambientali, sull’articolazione della rete viaria periurbana e regionale e sull’estensione del territorio sottoposto al controllo politico e militare della città durante il II e III sec. d.C. L’analisi urbanistica comprende uno studio approfondito dell’idrologia cittadina, della rete stradale e delle aree urbane, allo scopo di individuarne le principali caratteristiche ed eventuali regole nella pianificazione e nello sviluppo della città. Nel libro sono inoltre analizzati i principali elementi che compongono il tessuto urbano: il Temenos e i templi minori, le necropoli, le difese cittadine, le case e i palazzi. Grazie all’utilizzo contestuale del dato archeologico, storico ed epigrafico, è stato inoltre possibile formulare nuove ipotesi sulle fasi urbanistiche e sulla cronologia di Hatra dalla fondazione alla sua distruzione, avvenuta per mano sasanide nel 241 d.C.

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This volume includes the archaeological and archaeometrical analysis of the lead finds from the Roman Republican military fort of Sanisera in northern Minorca. The fort was built after the Roman conquest of the island in 123 BC and abandoned during the last third of the 1st century BC. By correlating typological-archaeological and scientific methods, the site’s unusual large number of lead objects/artefacts are examined within their find context and reviewed for superregional connections to contemporary sites within the Mediterranean. Furthermore, based upon the results of the find analyses as well as the examination of written sources, the site’s embedding within the historical context of the development of the late Roman Republic and early Imperial times is presented, especially in respect to the conquest of the Mediterranean and the consolidation of the Roman authority there.

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The emergence of the cult of Osiris is, in most cases, dated to the end of the 5th dynasty, the period in which the name of Osiris appears in writing, and it is commonly held that before this period not a trace of the cult can be discerned. This study is intended to investigate whether this emergence was really so sudden, or if there is evidence to suggest this appearance was preceded by a period of development of the theology and mythology of the cult. One of the most important aspects of the mythology of the cult is the rebirth of Osiris. In the theology of the cult this rebirth was projected on mortal men, and led to the postulation that every human being, whether royal or non-royal, had the possibility to attain eternal life after death. What made this cult even more attractive is that this eternal life was not confined to the tomb, as it used to be for non-royalty. The study is concerned with the rebirth possibilities of non-royal persons and aims to determine the chronological development of the rebirth connotations of the various decoration themes that were used in the chapel of Old Kingdom tombs. The decoration themes that are the subject of the determinations are the group of bed-scenes consisting of the bed-making scene and the marital bed-scene, the development in form and length of the bread loaves on the offering table, the different aspects of the scenes in which the “lotus” flower is depicted, and the marsh scenes.

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This book is about how the author became an archaeologist at a time when opportunities for employment were rare and how he worked as a field researcher in West Africa and wrote about his work there. It traces his archaeological training and employment at Cambridge and his practical experience on British excavations and explains how he became one of the pioneers of Nigerian archaeology during a decade in that country. It is not so much a study of the archaeology that was done, as an account of how it was done; its circumstances, organization, and economic and social and cultural context. As a result, it is both a professional and personal account, for these two aspects of life were inseparably intertwined, his wife Beryl becoming an integral part of the story. Other archaeologists and many non-archaeologists also feature in the account. The period in Nigeria from 1961 to 1971 included the Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970, when archaeological work continued with difficulty. Both circumstances and preference meant that the author always worked with a labour team of Nigerians and with Nigerian assistants, of whom few had any experience in archaeology and none had any formal training; there were no postgraduates or others from outside the country. Success in excavations in Benin City, in the south of the country, and in Borno, in its far north-east, was as much the achievement of those Nigerians as it was the author’s.

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This volume concerns the bioanthropological analysis and the investigation of Second Iron Age (also known as the La Tène period: 470–25 BC) funerary practices in central Valais. More precisely, it deals with the study of two necropolises lately discovered in this mountainous region of southern Switzerland: Randogne–Bluche (excavated between 2001 and 2005) and Sion–Parking des Remparts (excavated in 2006). The matter of Second Iron Age funeral practices has been investigated since the late 19th century in Switzerland and has ever since yielded many exceptional finds. In archaeological terms, the research presented in this work introduces a consistent summary of the current archaeological and historiographical state of knowledge regarding Second Iron Age funeral practices in southern Switzerland. | Étude paléoanthropologique et analyse des rituels funéraires de deux sites laténiens valaisans : Randogne – Bluche et Sion – Parking des Remparts porte sur l’analyse bioanthropologique et l’étude des rituels funéraires laténiens en Valais central. Plus précisément, elle traite des ensembles funéraires de Randogne – Bluche (fouillé entre 2001 et 2005) et de Sion – Parking des Remparts (fouillé en 2006). Le premier objectif de cette étude a consisté à attribuer une identité et des caractéristiques biologiques aux individus inhumés au sein de ces deux ensembles. Ensuite, il s’est agi de caractériser ces deux ensembles funéraires par leur insertion au cadre géographique et archéologique, de s’intéresser à leur organisation chronologique et spatiale et à l’architecture des sépultures, ainsi qu’aux positions d’inhumation, de même qu’au mobilier funéraire présent. Par la suite, nous avons développé une vision comparative de ces deux ensembles funéraires, avant de finalement les confronter à l’intégralité du corpus funéraire laténien actuellement connu pour le Valais central et ainsi chercher à proposer une vision synthétique de la question.

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Rural Cult Centres in the Hauran: Part of the broader network of the Near East (100 BC–AD 300) challenges earlier scholars’ emphasis on the role played by local identities and Romanisation in religion and religious architecture in the Roman Empire through the first comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of rural cult centres in the Hauran (southern Syria) from the pre-Roman to the Roman period. The Hauran is an interesting and revealing area of study because it has been a geographical cross-point between different cultures over time. Inspired by recent theories on interconnectivity and globalisation, the monograph argues that cult centres, and the Hauran itself, are part of a human network at a macro level on the basis of analysis of archaeological, architectural, sculptural and epigraphic evidence and landscape. As a result of this multi-disciplinary approach, the text also re-assesses the social meaning of these sanctuaries, discusses the identity of the elite group that contributed financially to the building of sanctuaries, and attempts to reconstruct ritual and economic activities in cult centres. This book re-evaluates the significance of contacts between the elite of the Hauran and other cultures of the Near East in shaping cult sites; it includes a first catalogue of rural cult centres of the Hauran in the appendix.

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This collection of around twenty papers has its origins in a two-day seminar organised by the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) in conjunction with the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE), with additional support from Cornucopia magazine and the Turkish Consulate General, Edinburgh. This multi-disciplinary event formed part of the Ottoman Horizons festival held in Edinburgh in 2017 and attracted a wide range of participants from around the world, including several from Turkey and other parts of the Middle East. This splendidly illustrated book focuses on the botanical legacy of many parts of the former Ottoman Empire — including present-day Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, the Balkans, and the Arabian Peninsula — as seen and described by travellers both from within and from outside the region. The papers cover a wide variety of subjects, including Ottoman garden design and architecture; the flora of the region, especially bulbs and their cultural significance; literary, pictorial and photographic depictions of the botany and horticulture of the Ottoman lands; floral and related motifs in Ottoman art; culinary and medicinal aspects of the botanical heritage; and efforts related to conservation.

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The History of archaeological research has only recently become a research topic of interest within Spain. A congress, Colecciones, arqueólogos, instituciones y yacimientos en la España de los Siglos XVIII al XX, was held at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2016 designed to bring this topic to the fore. Eleven papers are presented in this proceedings volume. They address several aspects from different perspectives that collectively enrich the historiography of Spanish archaeological research. | La Historia de las investigaciones arqueológicas es un campo de estudio muy reciente en el caso español. No obstante, las últimas décadas han sido muy fructíferas en esta línea de investigación. Colecciones, arqueólogos, instituciones y yacimientos en la España de los Siglos XVIII al XX es un volumen que recoge ese testigo con once trabajos originales que traen a la primera línea la historiografía de la Arqueología española. Estos trabajos, fruto de un congreso homónimo realizado en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid en 2016, abordan diferentes temas y perspectivas que abarcan importantes aspectos de la temática tratada con una variedad geográfica que atiende la diversidad y riqueza de la historiografía arqueológica española.

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The amount of 3D modelling applications in archaeology has increased enourmously over the last decade. 3D recording techniques allow researchers to quickly and accurately document archaeological evidence, and 3D reconstructions have created new possibilities to communicate the results to a larger public. In this latter case, however, numerous scholars have expressed their concern regarding the ethics of such digital representations, since they give prominence to a crystallized image of the past and do not account for the complexity of the archaeological record. The study presented here aims to make a practical contribution to a new understanding and use of 3D reconstructions, namely as ‘laboratories’ to test hypotheses and visualize, evaluate and discuss alternative interpretations. In order to do so, an analysis of visual reconstructions of the early and late modern period is presented first, followed by a discussion of current applications of 3D digital reconstructions, with a special focus on cityscapes. Lastly, a practical implementation of a research-driven, intellectually transparent and GIS-based 3D reconstruction is proposed for the urban site of Koroneia, in Boeotia, Central Greece. Specifically, the methodology developed in this work uses tools that are employed in geo-design and modern urban planning in an innovative way, integrating GIS with a rule-based modelling approach. With a strong focus on the automation and iteration of the reconstruction process, our 3D visualization provides an intuitive insight into hidden relationships and associations among data, and allows the creation and evaluation of alternative reconstruction hypotheses.

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Hercules’ Sanctuary in the Quarter of St. Theodore in Pula deals with many aspects of the Roman sanctuary erected at the spring in Pula as well as with objects of cult dated to the Hellenistic period. The site was in use from the late fourth century BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a date that approximately coincides with the demolition of the temple. Research focuses on Roman foundations which trace the ground plan of the temple that was surrounded by portico. Architectural fragments found at the site, as well as those kept in the collection of Pula Museum, were used to form proposals for a hypothetical reconstruction of the temple. The discovery of a relief club is the only reliable link with a particular deity i.e. Hercules. The continuity of the cult of Hercules has been recognised at the spring from the Histrian to Roman periods. Hercules was considered a founder and patron of the Roman colony of Pola. Nearness of the assumed umbilicus of the colony offers additional reasons to reconsider sacred rituals of the foundation of the colony. Traces of ritual desacralization, purification and storing of sacrificial remnants could be recognised at the site. A hypothetical reconstruction of the Roman sanctuary is followed by calculations of construction costs.

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This book provides an overview of the sites of Mycenaean pottery finds in Egypt and Nubia. Data from thirty-six sites in Egypt and twelve sites in Nubia are presented. The context of the vessels and sherds dates from the reign of Akhenaten (18th Dynasty) to that of Ramesses VI (20th Dynasty). The imported vessels were found in the capital cities as well as in fortresses, other cities and tombs. Stirrup jars and flasks came to light frequently. Copies of Mycenaean stirrup jars made from clay, faience and stone were also found. The oldest sherd of an imitation vessel was found in Amarna; hence, the Mycenaean vessel shape (stirrup jar prevailing) was copied outside of Mycenaean Greece in the 18th Dynasty and filled with local liquids—possibly oil—and traded with Egypt. Egyptians not only imported vessels from the Levant but also produced imitation vessels themselves. Apparently, these vessels circulated only within Egypt. Chemical analyses of sherds from different sites reveal that the vessels found in 18th Dynasty contexts were made on the Mycenaean mainland. During the Ramesside period (19th–20th Dynasty) trading contacts with Mycenaean Greece shifted to Cyprus, where high quality Mycenaean pottery was produced.

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Unearthing Alexandria’s Archaeology: The Italian's Contribution' contains the results of an archival survey, historical research, and archaeological description of the main Italian excavations in Alexandria from the 1890s to the 1950s. The Italian archaeological investigations in the city of Alexandria are presented through unpublished photographs of Evaristo Breccia, Achille Adriani, and some of the glass negatives of the Graeco- Roman Museum of Alexandria. Various Italians contributed to the fieldwork and the production of drawings and plans, and documenting the majority of the most important sites in Alexandria, on which our archaeological knowledge today is based. But their names have been forgotten compared with Giuseppe Botti, Breccia, and Adriani: Giacomo Biondi, Gino Beghé, Antonio Gentili, Giuseppe Ramacciotti, Mariano Bartocci, Giovanni Dattari, Despina Sinadino, Michele Salvago, Orazio Abate, and Giovanni Peruto. The book gives detailed descriptions of the Italian excavations at Hadra, Chatby, Anfushi, Kom al-Chougafa, the Serapeum, and Kom al-Dikka, accompanied by often unpublished photographs and followed by a catalogue of other rare photographs of different archaeological sites in Alexandria.

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Since the beginning of Gandhāran studies in the nineteenth century, chronology has been one of the most significant challenges to the understanding of Gandhāran art. Many other ancient societies, including those of Greece and Rome, have left a wealth of textual sources which have put their fundamental chronological frameworks beyond doubt. In the absence of such sources on a similar scale, even the historical eras cited on inscribed Gandhāran works of art have been hard to place. Few sculptures have such inscriptions and the majority lack any record of find-spot or even general provenance. Those known to have been found at particular sites were sometimes moved and reused in antiquity. Consequently, the provisional dates assigned to extant Gandhāran sculptures have sometimes differed by centuries, while the narrative of artistic development remains doubtful and inconsistent. Building upon the most recent, cross-disciplinary research, debate and excavation, this volume reinforces a new consensus about the chronology of Gandhāra, bringing the history of Gandhāran art into sharper focus than ever. By considering this tradition in its wider context, alongside contemporary Indian art and subsequent developments in Central Asia, the authors also open up fresh questions and problems which a new phase of research will need to address. Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art is the first publication of the Gandhāra Connections project at the University of Oxford’s Classical Art Research Centre, which has been supported by the Bagri Foundation and the Neil Kreitman Foundation. It presents the proceedings of the first of three international workshops on fundamental questions in the study of Gandhāran art, held at Oxford in March 2017.

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Cycladic Archaeology and Research: New approaches and discoveries' reflects the present exciting times in Cycladic archaeology. New excavations are bringing to light sanctuaries unmentioned by literary sources and inscriptions (e.g., Kythnos, Despotiko); new theoretical approaches to insularity and networks are radically changing our views of the Cyclades as geographic and cultural unit(s). Furthermore, the restoration and restudy of older sites (e.g., Delos, Paros, Naxos) are challenging old truths, updating chronologies and contexts throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. This volume is intended to share these recent developments with a broader, international audience. The essays have been carefully selected as representing some of the most important recent work and include significant previously-unpublished material. Individually, they cover archaeological sites and materials from across the Cycladic islands, and illustrate the diversity of the islands’ material culture across the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique periods. Together, they share common themes such as the importance of connectivity, and the role of each island’s individual landscape and its resources in shaping human activity. The work they represent attests the ongoing appeal of the islands and of the islanders in the collective imagination, and demonstrates the scope for still further innovative work in the years ahead.

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The collection of Roman inscribed stones and sculpture, together with other Roman objects found at Maryport in Cumbria, is the oldest archaeological collection in Britain still in private hands. Today, it is housed in the Senhouse Roman Museum on Sea Brows to the north of the modern town of Maryport. Beside the museum the earthworks of the Roman fort may still be seen, and beyond it, though not visible, lies a large civil settlement revealed through geophysical survey and the scene of two recent excavations. 'Maryport: A Roman Fort and its community' places the collection in context and describes the history of research at the site. Maryport, although at the north-western edge of the Roman Empire, provides material of international importance for our understanding of the Roman state.

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Human skeletons are widely studied in archaeological, anthropological and forensic settings to learn about the deceased. Methods used to identify individuals in forensic contexts and to determine age and sex in archaeological settings are normally tested on identified skeletal collections: collections of skeletons with known age-at-death, sex, often occupation and cause of death. These collections often represent individuals dying within the last century, but this is variable and often depends on the purpose for creating the collection. Many were developed in attempts to understand local population biology whereas those collected recently are for forensic purposes: to improve identification in legal contexts. Some of these collections were developed from body donation programmes, while others have come from cemeteries: cemeteries which were either no longer viable or needed clearing. All these factors impact on who curates these collections: archaeology or anthropology departments and museums. However, unlike many other skeletons curated in these locations, these are individuals with names. All this raises ethical questions about their creation, curation and their use for research. This book focusses on identified skeletal collections in the UK, Portugal, South Africa, USA and Canada. The chapters discuss how and why collections were amassed including the local legislation governing them. Alongside this run the ethical issues associated with their collection, curation and access to them. The demographics of the collections: who is included and why, along with such biases and how they can impact on research are also discussed, as are limitations in the documentary data associated with these individuals. The importance of these collections is also focussed on: particularly their role in developing and testing methods for age determination in adults. This shows why these collections are so vital to improve methods and interpretations for archaeological and forensic research. The importance of communicating this to the wider public is also addressed.

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In the United States of America, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires that projects funded, authorized, or permitted by the federal government consider historic properties that may be affected by the development of those projects. To comply with Section 106, an interstate pipeline corridor in southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado was surveyed to identify cultural resources and to evaluate them in terms of significance and potential listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Once sites were identified, a mitigation strategy was developed in coordination with the Bureau of Land Management. That plan prioritized important cultural resources within a regional archaeological context and included substantial excavations at 14 sites. The archaeological excavations were successful in recovering the types of data necessary to address regional research issues that were raised in the project’s alternative mitigation plan. The data recovery effort included site-specific geophysical assessments as well as providing an opportunity to analyze the geology, fauna, flora, and tens of thousands of prehistoric and historical artifacts from the sites. While there is nothing about the number of artifacts that inherently adds to our understandings of past lifeways, the analyses substantially added to regional datasets for the Paleoindian, Archaic, Formative, Protohistoric, and Historical components. Specifically, the analyses addressed prehistoric chronometric and settlement patterns (Chapter 5), subsistence strategies (Chapter 6), lithic reduction strategies (Chapter 7), as well as synthesizing information for prehistoric hearths (Chapter 8) and architecture (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 focuses on the results of remote sensing at two sites. That is followed by regional syntheses of the prehistoric (Chapter 11) and historical data (Chapter 12). When combined with existing datasets, this synthetic work substantially improves the quality of regional archaeological interpretations. Given the results presented herein, it is clear that the mitigation approach within the pipeline corridor was successful in providing important archaeological information that advances local and regional understandings of past lifeways.

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Between History and Archaeology: Papers in honour of Jacek Lech is a collection of forty-six papers papers in honour of Professor Jacek Lech, compiled in recognition of his research and academic career as well as his inquiry into the study of prehistoric flint mining, Neolithic flint tools (and beyond), and the history of archaeology. The papers explore topics on archaeology and history, and are organised into three sections. The first contains texts on flint mining dealing with well-known mining sites as well as previously unpublished new material. The reader will find here a wide spectrum of approaches to flint mining, ways of identifying raw materials used by prehistoric communities, and an impressive overview of the history of research, methodology and approaches to flint mining in Europe, North America and Asia. The following group of papers deals with the use of flint by Neolithic and younger communities, including typological studies on trace evidence analyses as well as theoretical papers on prehistoric periods in Europe and the New World. The final section consists of papers on the history of archaeology in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some deal with the beginnings of archaeology as a scholarly discipline, while others present significant research from different countries. Readers will also find papers on the development of archaeology in the second half of the 20th century, both in political and institutional contexts. The book ends with the memories, which bring the Jubilarian closer to the reader by viewing him through the eyes of his co-workers and friends.

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The discovery of archaeological structures in North Uist in 1974 after storm damage led to the identification by Iain Crawford of a kerb cairn complex, with a cist and human remains. Six years later he went back, and over the next three years excavated another cist with human remains in its kerbed cairn, many bowl pits dug into the blown sand, and down to two late Neolithic structures and a ritual complex. He intensively studied the environmental conditions affecting the site and was among the first archaeologists in Scotland to understand the climate changes taking place at the transition between late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age. The deposition of blown sand and the start of the machair in the Western Isles, including the rise in sea-level and inundations into inhabited and farmed landscapes, are all part of the complex story of natural events and human activities. Radiocarbon dating and modern scientific analyses provide the detail of the story of periods of starvation suffered by the people that were buried on the site, of the movement away of the community, of their attempts of bringing the ‘new’ land back into cultivation, of a temporary tent-like structure, and of marking their territory by the construction of enduring monuments to the dead.

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The carved stone crosses of the Isle of Man of the late fifth to mid-eleventh century are of national and international importance. They provide the most coherent source for the early history of Christianity in the Island, and for the arrival and conversion of Scandinavian settlers in the last century of the Viking Age - a century which produced some of the earliest recognisable images of the heroes and gods of the North; earlier, indeed, than those found in Scandinavia. This, the first general survey of the material for more than a century, provides a new view of the political and religious connections of the Isle of Man in a period of great turmoil in the Irish Sea region. The book also includes an up-to-date annotated inventory of the monuments.

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The city of Rhodes was an important harbour in the Hellenistic period, and although its political role in the Roman period was significantly diminished, it never ceased to be a key hub for trade. The catastrophic earthquake of 515 AD marked the transition from the Late Roman to the Early Byzantine period in Rhodes. The glorious ancient city shrunk in size; its streets, which had been laid out according to the Hippodamian grid, were encroached upon and large basilicas were founded on the sites of ancient sanctuaries. A significant portion of the city has been uncovered over the past few years by rescue excavation, revealing houses, mansions, streets and extensive cemeteries, all yielding a large quantity of finds. This study focuses on the recording, study and publication of the corpus of the Late Antique lamps dating from the 3rd to the 7th centuries as found in these rescue excavations in the town of Rhodes. The lamps of this period from Rhodes and the other Dodecanesian islands are nearly unknown in the bibliography. The aim here is to present the diachronic changes in the artistic sensibility and preferences of this particular market. An integral component in this process are topographical observations regarding the Early Byzantine town of Rhodes, giving some details about the extent of the building remains. In addition, facets of the economic and commercial activities of the island during Late Antiquity are highlighted. Subjects such as the transformation/adaptation of the ancient city to new circumstances are also debated. For some lamps, analyses of the clay have been undertaken and the results are presented.

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This publication presents the results of over 30 years of investigation into Roman Godmanchester, (Cambridgeshire), by Michael Green. The book accurately locates the 25 “sites” investigated, and pinpoints the trenches against the modern street layout. Although some sites covered large areas, many often had to be conducted as small trenches undertaken by volunteers. The origins for Durovigutum include evidence for Iron Age settlement which preceded two Roman forts during the 1st century AD. After its initial military establishment the book goes on to reveal the development of the Roman civic community and its cemeteries along Ermine Street adjacent to its crossing of the Great Ouse. The town was surrounded by defences in the 2nd century and a wall in the 3rd century, its public buildings included a mansio, bath-house and brewery, aisled barns, basilica and several temples, and the socio-economic foundation of the community is explored with specific examples from excavated evidence including different types of domestic housing and workshops. A tavern, glassware-shop, dairy equipment, pottery manufacture and a smithy are detailed in this book, as well as analysis of land organization, infield and outfield agriculture, and a villa estate at Rectory farm. Specialist analyses include samian and coarse wares, vessel and window glass, coins, animal bone, dairy production, belief systems and burial practices, as well as the exceptional finds of a hoard of jewellery from one of the mansio pits, and a burial casket of wood and bronze. Although partial or full reports of various excavations have been published in journals and monographs previously, this is the first time Green’s full body of work on Godmanchester has been collated and presented in one comprehensive volume. The book has not tried to include more recent investigations, and most illustrations are by Michael Green, drawn contemporary with his excavations.

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The significant body of stone and flint axe-heads imported into Britain from the Continent has been poorly understood, overlooked and undervalued in Neolithic studies, particularly over the past half century. It is proposed, in this study, that the cause is a bias of British Neolithic scholarship against the invasion hypothesis and diffusionist model, and it is sought therefore to re-assess the significance accorded to these objects. The aim is to redress the imbalance by re-focusing on the material, establishing a secure evidence base, and exploring the probable conditions in which these often distinctive items made their way to Britain. The narrative presented here rests upon the argument that imported axe-heads came into what is today called Britain as objects of considerable significance. Specifically, they were items of high symbolic value that played a crucial role in fostering particular ways of thinking about, and addressing, social identity in the Neolithic period. These issues are the context for the study, whose main objectives are the close and detailed cataloguing of relevant material, and a documentation of the investigative work needed to establish the credentials of each artefact.

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This volume presents proceedings from sessions A15a, A15b, A15c of the XVII UISPP World Congress (1–7 September 2014, Burgos, Spain). The sessions covered are: ‘Archaeological Heritage Policies and Management Strategies’, where international management models focused on legislation, public policies, management systems, and institutional contexts for research were presented; ‘Management and use of science data from preventive archaeology: quality control’, where reflections on the range of quality control in projects of applied science, including environmental topics and social standards were developed; ‘Cultural resources, management, public policy, people’s awareness and sustainable development’, which focused on local traditional crafts, many of which exist continuously from prehistory to the present day. Collectively this volume presents perspectives of archaeological heritage management in various countries and continents. It is hoped, through this, to contribute to the exchange of experiences, the sharing of solutions, and the broadening of Archaeology’s role in the sustainable development of people.

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