Search results for ""Archaeopress""

The transfer, in 1981, of the town Museum collections in Sens (Yonne) to the old Archbishop’s palace required great discretion and an underground passage was planned between the two buildings. Preventive archaeological excavations unearthed 22 Gallo-Roman bone combs, as well as a further 17 pieces when the excavation area was expanded. This exceptional concentration of bone artefacts incited the author to start on an experimental search at a time when bone artefacts were not finding much interest among specialists. However, it was extremely adventurous to piece together a bone-worker production line and create a never before archaeologically discovered appliance used in Roman times. Obviously, the first reproductions have been directed towards combs. Those replicas pointed towards the material constraints, but also defined the constructions of necessary tools to take slabs off and conceive objects. Moreover, matrix origin – small sized compact bone – explained why bone workers used to juxtapose elements to get suitable surfaces. Various complications during free hand denture sawing led them to perfect another operating system, plausible and more reliable. Logical follow up would have been to extend experimental investigations, perhaps not to all the bone artefacts, but to a typical class of them, in order to complete the reconstructions of the equipment and suggest a general bone worker’s workshop arrangement. (French Description: French description: Le transfert, en 1981, des collections du Musée municipal de Sens (Yonne) dans l’ancien palais des Archevêques a nécessité le terrassement d’une jonction souterraine entre deux des bâtiments. Des fouilles archéologiques préventives ont notamment permis de découvrir 22 peignes en os d’époque gallo-romaine, puis 17 autres lors de l’extension du secteur. Cette exceptionnelle concentration a incité l’auteur à entreprendre une démarche expérimentale à une époque où l’on n’accordait que peu d’intérêt au mobilier osseux. On comprendra qu’il était alors aventureux de vouloir reconstituer la chaîne opératoire d’un tabletier et matérialiser l’appareillage dont on n’a aucun témoignage archéologique. C’est évidemment sur la mise en œuvre de peignes qu’ont porté les premières reproductions. Ces répliques montraient déjà certaines contraintes liées à la matière elle-même, mais permettaient également de cerner les outils nécessaires au prélèvement des plaquettes et à la conception de l’objet. Par ailleurs, l’origine des matrices - os compact dimensionnellement limité - expliquait pourquoi les tabletiers juxtaposaient les éléments pour obtenir la surface adéquate. Diverses complications, lors du sciage à main levée de la denture, ont amené à mettre au point un autre mode opératoire plausible et plus assuré. La suite logique voulait que les recherches expérimentales s’étendent sinon à l’ensemble du mobilier osseux, du moins à des catégories d’objets d’une même typologie permettant de compléter l’outillage et suggérer l’agencement de l’atelier d’un tabletier généraliste.)

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The papers collected in this book correspond to the lectures held during session B34 of UISPP conference in Burgos (June 2014) where the presentation of multidisciplinary works were encouraged. The main goal of bringing together specialists from various disciplines (humanities and natural sciences) was to debate, from different perspectives, the networks in raw materials and technological innovation in Prehistory and Protohistory, involving investigation topics typical of archaeometry: archeometallurgy, petrography, and mineralogy.

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What is considered masculine is not something given and innate to males but determined by cultural ideas and ideals constructed through performative practices – today and in the past. This book questions whether androcentric archaeology has taught us anything about prehistoric men and their masculinities. Starting from broad discussions of feminist theory and critical men’s studies, this study examines how notions of masculinity are expressed in cremation burials from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Roman Period (1100 BC - 400 AD) in Eastern Norway and Funen in Denmark. It is argued that notions of masculinity were deeply intertwined with society, and when central aspects like war systems, task differentiation, or technology changed, so did gender and ideas of masculinity and vice versa. In the Late Bronze Age, an idealisation and sexualisation of the male body related to warrior esthetic was probably essential to the performance of masculinity. In the Early Roman Period, masculinity became bounded by what it was not – the unmanly. Warrior capabilities were the most prominent ideals of masculinity and concepts of unmanliness structured society, highlighting divergences between men and women. In the Late Roman Period, society grew more complex and multiple contemporary, possibly complementary masculinities associated with the rising class of free peasants, specific roles and regional differences developed and the warrior lost the dominant position as masculine ideal.

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This work seeks to understand the process of monetization within the economy of the Galicians and Asturians and the cultural ways in which the phenomenon occurred. Numismatic remains are studied in depth, found in four of the roads crossing the northwestern territory of the Iberian peninsula in Roman times; the tracks studied, as referenced in the Itinerary of Antonino, were XVII, XVIII, XIX and XX. All the coins discovered were imported, and so it was possible to mark precisely where the greatest influx of individuals and materials came from, as well as areas and zones of different speeds of monetization and, thus, Romanization. -Spanish Description: A través de este trabajo hemos pretendido comprender el proceso de monetización de la economía de galaicos y astures y las vías culturales por las que el fenómeno se produjo. Para ello hemos estudiado en profundidad los restos numismáticos aparecidos en cuatro de las calzadas que atravesaban el territorio noroccidental de la península ibérica en época romana, las vías XVII, XVIII, XIX y XX del Itinerario de Antonino. Debido a que toda la moneda que encontramos en este territorio es importada, hemos podido marcar con precisión cuáles fueron los horizontes de mayor entrada de individuos y materias, así como áreas y zonas de diferentes velocidades de monetización y con ello de romanización. Seguramente las zonas cercanas a campamentos, dónde se alojaron miles de soldados cuya única economía posible era la monetaria, conocieron y dependieron pronto del valor de la moneda. Igualmente los nuevos núcleos romanos administrativos hubieron de ser centros focales de monetización, aunque desconocemos el por qué no se abrieron cecas de moneda en estas ricas ciudades con importante tráfico de mineral y de gentes, como pueda ser el caso de Astorga o Braga.

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This volume presents the long history of Syria through a jouney of the most important and recently-excavated archaeological sites. The sites cover over 1.8 million years and all regions in Syria; 110 academics have contributed information on 103 excavations for this volume. Based on these contributions the volume offers a detailed summary of the history of Syria, a history as important as any in terms of the development of human society. It is hoped that this knowledge will offer not only an increased understanding of the country but also act as a deterrent to the destruction of Syrian cultural heritage and facilitate the protection of Syrian sites. The following paper(s) are available to download in Open Access: Dja’de el-Mughara (Aleppo) - Eric Coqueugniot: Download

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This book is an essay on architectural drawings of the Greek and Roman world. The first chapter is focused on the possibility that ancient treatises of architectures were endowed with drawings in order to make clear expositions which sometimes were not easily explainable only with words. Then the drawings which once clarified the treatise of Vitruvius are considered. The problem concerning the possible presence of drawings in post-Vitruvian architectural treatises is also discussed. The issue as to whether descriptive literary compositions sometimes contained illustrations as well is also examined. Then representations of architecture in Roman treatises on divisions of land (the so called gromatic treatises) are considered. The references to architectural drawings in literary and epigraphical testimonia are collected and a catalogue of the surviving Greek and Roman drawings of buildings or of parts of them is given. Thus this research offers all the basic data for the study of an important tool in the context of architecture in antiquity.

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From March 2009 Statistical Research Inc. (USA), Nexus Heritage (UK) and the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (Dakar, Senegal) jointly undertook an integrated programme of cultural heritage research and investigation in the Sabodala area of Senegal. This was part of an environmental and social impact assessment in compliance with Senegalese law and international best practice. The principal investigators were Jeff Altschul (SRI) Gerry Wait (Nexus) and Ibrahima Thiaw (IFAN). This report is the outcome of those investigations and makes a significant contribution to the archaeology and ethnography of eastern Senegal. Combining ethnographic and archaeological data yields a picture of a period of intense social change that occurred at the end of the nineteenth century and extended well into the mid-twentieth century. This involved the overturning of previous norms by social groups of mixed ethnicity, who proceeded to create new social work-arounds for previous ethnic prohibitions. It also probably involved the final end to slavery, but possibly only within living memory. It seems likely that some sites—archaeological as well as traditional sacred properties—provide tangible links between the current villages and a highly contested and emotionally charged past. To paraphrase the American novelist, William Faulkner, the past in Sabodala is never dead; in fact, it’s not even past.

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This book presents a collection of papers from the Symposium on Cultural Dynamics and Production Activities in Ancient Western Mexico, held at the Center for Archaeological Research of the Colegio de Michoacán on September 18-19, 2014. While these thought-provoking essays on key topics in Western Mexican archaeology will spark debate among scholars interested in this cultural area, they will also be of interest to students of ancient Mesoamerica as a whole. The time is ripe for insightful discussions and new syntheses of archaeological research in Western Mesoamerica, and this volume represents, undoubtedly, a valuable contribution to this urgent task. These papers are grouped into three thematic areas. The first, Cultural dynamics in Western Mexico, includes essays on: The challenges of archaeology in flood-prone areas; Exploitation of local resources and imported products; Settlement systems of the Tarascan state; and Stone tools as indicators of task specialization. The second section, Production of strategic resources, analyzes the following topics: The obsidian jewelry of the Teuchitlán Tradition; Differing obsidian economies in Teuchitlán culture; Source areas and obsidian exploitation in Michoacán; The history of pottery production in Capula, Michoacán; Ethnoarchaeology of Tarascan pottery: domestic production and decoration styles; Ceramics, social status, and the Tarascan state economy; and Copper as a strategic resource in pre-Hispanic Western Mexico; while part three focuses on Trade and exchange: Circulation of goods and communication routes between Western and Central Mexico; Contrasting models of ceramic production in the Tarascan state; and Ceramic evidence of contact between Teotihuacan, the Bajío, and southern Hidalgo.

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This volume brings together all the successful peer-reviewed papers submitted for the proceedings of the 43rd conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology that took place in Siena (Italy) from March 31st to April 2nd 2015. Altogether, within the four days of the conference 280 papers were presented in 48 sections divided into ten macro topics, 113 posters, 7 roundtables and 12 workshops. That number, in itself, has prompted a thought or two. Above all it says that CAA is very much alive and kicking, that it is in robust good health, and that it remains a wholly relevant force in the scientific community, fully engaged with the questions of the day, and a continuing focal point for the profession. All of that speaks well for the motto of CAA 2015: KEEP THE REVOLUTION GOING. Although the significance of the motto is obvious, it is worth some thoughts. Few would deny that in the past 30 years or so, digital technologies have profoundly revolutionised archaeology – in the office and laboratory, in the field and in the classroom. The progressive introduction of digital techniques in the archaeological process has of course led to a general increase in efficiency. But perhaps more importantly it has provided a spur to the discussion of methodology and through that has strongly influenced not only the way we go about things but also the outcomes that we have been able to achieve. The pioneering phase in the application of digital techniques in archaeological research has clearly been fruitful and today computer applications such as GIS, databases, remote sensing and spatial analysis as well as virtual and cyber archaeology are deeply embedded within our universities. This is all good, of course, but we must not assume that the task has been completed. An intrinsic revolutionary instinct towards technological development has been awakened. But it will only survive by virtue of the results that it brings about. Or using the words of our Chairman Prof Gary Lock: ‘Computers not only change the way we do things, but more importantly they change the way we think about what we do and why we do it’. The general thrust of this statement can be summed up and reinforced by recalling a quote from the philosopher Don Ihde, who has argued we should never forget that all technologies should be regarded as ‘cultural instruments’, which as well as strategies and methodologies implemented in our researches are also ‘non-neutral’. So KEEP THE REVOLUTION GOING! is a motto that lays stress on the need to maintain innovation in archaeology through technological advances. But innovation must have at its root the fostering of critical thought and the framing of new archaeological questions. So there is much work still to be done, and fresh challenges to be faced in the months, years and decades ahead. -from the introduction by Stefano Campana and Roberto Scopigno

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This volume contains the papers presented during the Meeting ‘Off the Beaten Track – Epigraphy at the Borders’, the sixth in a series of international events planned by the EAGLE, Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy international consortium.The Meeting was held on 24–25 September 2015, with the support of the Department of Classics and Late Antiquity Studies at the University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy). During the event, the EAGLE Portal (http://www.eagle-network.eu) was officially launched and presented to the public for the first time. The event was intended to address the issues which arise in digitizing inscriptions characterised by ‘unusual’ features in comparison with the epigraphic norm. Here are collected contributions from several ongoing digital projects raising questions and proposing solutions regarding encoding inscriptions – from the Archaic period to the Middle Ages and beyond, even in languages other than Greek and Latin – which do not fall within those labelled as standard. The projects involved are the following: ILA – Iscrizioni Latine Arcaiche; The Ancient Graffiti Project; DASI – Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions; EDB – Epigraphic Database Bari; EDV – Epigraphic Database Vernacular Inscriptions; AshLi – Ashmolean Latin Inscriptions Project.

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The earliest finds of wheeled vehicles in northern and central Europe date to 3900-3600 BC. However finds (3400–3300 BC) from the Boleráz sites of Arbon/Bleiche 3 and Bad Buchau/Torwiesen II, linked to pile-dwelling settlements, indicate methods of transport typical for higher altitudes (slides, sleds, etc.). The Boleráz and Baden cultures overlap in the Carpathian Basin between 3300–3000 BC and this period seems to have produced transport models that parallel finds in today’s Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and other regions. These suggest that generally the Boleráz settlers inside the Carpathian Basin did not know, or use, the wheel in the fullest sense. Cart and wheel forms are indicated only from Grave 177 at Budakalász (2800–2600 BC). The Hungarian Baden finds follow the Danube and to the East there are no certain vehicle remains. It is difficult to tell whether the Boleráz finds are linked to the wider Alpine zone, and the Baden finds are perhaps associated with the mixed-culture sites along the eastern slopes of the Carpathians. The four-wheeled wagon was a development linked to the plains and the Steppes (Cucuteni–Tripolje, Pre-Yamnaja, Yamnaja). The nature of the finds relating to vehicles associated with lake and riverine settlements reveal technical and material features: there is evidence of a high degree of carving, if not decoration, and these communities pointed the way for future skills and developments in wheel and cart/wagon manufacture.

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Twenty sites were excavated on the route of a National Grid pipeline across Holderness, East Yorkshire. These included an early Mesolithic flint-working area, near Sproatley. In situ deposits of this age are rare, and the site is a significant addition to understanding of the post-glacial development of the wider region. Later phases of this site included possible Bronze Age round barrows and an Iron Age square barrow. Elsewhere on the pipeline route, diagnostic Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age flints, as well as Bronze Age pottery, provide evidence of activity in these periods. Iron Age remains were found at all of the excavation sites, fourteen of which had ring gullies, interpreted as evidence for roundhouse structures. The frequency with which these settlements occurred is an indication of the density of population in the later Iron Age and the large assemblage of hand-made pottery provides a rich resource for future study. Activity at several of these sites persisted at least into the second or early third centuries AD, while the largest excavation site, at Burton Constable, was re-occupied in the later third century. However, the pottery from the ring gullies was all hand-made, suggesting that roundhouses had ceased to be used by the later first century AD, when the earliest wheel-thrown wares appear. This has implications for understanding of the Iron Age to Roman transition in the region. Late first- or early second-century artefacts from a site at Scorborough Hill, near Weeton, are of particular interest, their nature strongly suggesting an association with the Roman military. With contributions by: Hugo Anderson-Whymark (flint), Kevin Leahy (metal, glass, worked bone), Terry Manby (earlier prehistoric pottery), Chris Cumberpatch (hand-made pottery), Rob Ixer (petrography), Derek Pitman and Roger Doonan (suface residues: ceramics and slag), Ruth Leary (Roman pottery), Felicity Wild (samian ware), Kay Hartley (mortaria), Jane Young with Peter Didsbury (post-Roman pottery), Ruth Shaffrey (worked stone), Lisa Wastling (fired clay), Jennifer Jones (surface residues: fired clay), Katie Keefe and Malin Holst (human bone), Jennifer Wood (animal bone), Don O’Meara (plant macrofossils), Tudur Burke Davies (pollen) and Matt Law (molluscs). Illustrations by: Jacqueline Churchill, Dave Watt and Susan Freebrey

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A significant number of Holocene societies throughout the world have resorted at one time or another to the making of paints or carvings on different places (tombs, rock-shelters or caves, openair outcrops). The aim of the session A11e. Public images, private readings: multi-perspective approaches to the post-Palaeolithic rock art, which was held within the XVII World UISPP Congress (Burgos, September 1-7 2014), was to put together the experiences of specialists from different areas of the Iberian Peninsula and the World. The approaches ranged from the archaeological definition of the artistic phenomena and their socioeconomic background to those concerning themselves with the symbolic and ritual nature of those practices, including the definition of the audience to which the graphic manifestations were addressed and the potential role of the latter in the making up of social identities and the enforcement of territorial claims. More empirical issues, such as new recording methodologies and data management or even dating were also considered during this session.

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This volume brings together presentations from two sessions organized for the XVII World UISPP Conference that was held from 1-7 September 2014 in Burgos (Spain). The sessions are: The scientific value of 3D archaeology, organised by Hans Kamermans, Chiara Piccoli and Roberto Scopigno, and Detecting the Landscape(s) – Remote Sensing Techniques from Research to Heritage Management, organised by Axel Posluschny and Wieke de Neef. The common thread amongst the papers presented here is the application of digital recording techniques to enhance the documentation and analysis of the spatial component intrinsically present in archaeological data. For a long time the capturing of the third dimension, the depth, the height or z-coordinate, was problematic. Traditionally, excavation plans and sections were documented in two dimensions. Objects were also recorded in two dimensions, often from different angles. Remote sensing images like aerial photographs were represented as flat surfaces. Although depth could be visualized with techniques such as stereoscopes, analysis of relief was troublesome. All this changed at the end of the last century with the introduction of computer based digitization technologies, 3D software, and digital near-surface sampling devices. The spatial properties of the multi-scale archaeological dataset can now be accurately recorded, analysed and presented. Relationships between artefacts can be clarified by visualizing the records in a three dimensional space, computer-based simulations can be made to test hypotheses on the past use of space, remote sensing techniques help in detecting previously hidden features of landscapes, thus shedding light on bygone land uses.

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In many European areas, the Neolithic period corresponds to the development of architectural monumentality which left important marks in the landscape, as well as the land clearing and the cultivation by the first agro-pastoral societies. This volume presents proceedings from the session ‘Monumentality and territory: relationship between enclosures and necropolis in the European Neolithic’, part of the XVII World UISPP Congress, held in Burgos (Spain), the 4th September 2014. The session considered the various manifestations of the relationship between Neolithic enclosures and tombs in different contexts of Europe, notably through spatial analysis; the concept of landscape appropriation, combining domestic, symbolic, economic or natural spaces; and the patterns of territorial organization, in which enclosures and tombs have a fundamental role in some Neolithic contexts.

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This volume focuses on the study of the geometric designs documented in the mosaics of the Conventus Astigitanus, one of the four conventi iuridici of Roman Baetica. This study is part of a much broader undertaking, the primary objective of which is the analysis of the geometric mosaic designs of the province as a whole. The number of mosaics in the Conventus Astigitanus, and the larger number still documented in other areas of Baetica, place this province among those with the highest count of mosaics in the Roman world providing evidence of the level of cultural and economic power enjoyed by the province over the centuries. As a whole, this study makes an absolutely necessary contribution to the understanding of Roman mosaics in general and Hispanic mosaics in particular, based on an innovative and unprecedented approach in Spain. It includes a very significant number of designs and provides the basis for a completely open catalogue, to which new models may be added as they become available through the continual study of new mosaics. This catalogue ultimately aims to become a reference for the study of geometric mosaics and compositions in the Roman world. Moreover, the value of the present volume also lies in the contribution that is offered to a topic, the analysis of geometric composition, which is of great interest beyond the author’s specific field of study.

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This volume represents a selection of contributions on Mediterranean themes from a wider international interdisciplinary conference on Magical Texts in Ancient Civilizations, organised by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations at Jagiellonian University in Kraków in Poland between 27-28 June 2013. The meeting welcomed researchers from Hungary, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, covering various disciplines including comparative civilizations, comparative religions, linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, history and philosophy. In the past ‘magic’ was often misunderstood as irrational behaviour, in contrast to the tradition of philosophical or rational thought mostly based on Greek models. Evidence collected from ancient high cultures, like that of Pharaonic Egypt, includes massive amounts of documents and treatises of all kinds related to what has been labelled ‘magic’. Today it cannot be written off as merely a primitive or ‘lesser human’ phenomenon: the awareness of magic remains to the present day in many societies, at all social levels, and has not been generally replaced by what might be considered as more advanced thinking. The researches in this volume focus heavily on Egypt (in particular Predynastic, Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Roman and Christian evidence), but Near Eastern material was also presented from Pagan (Ugaritic) and Christian (Syriac) times.

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This study examines Middle–Late Bronze Age (c. 1750–600 BC) domestic settlement patterns in Ireland. Recent archaeological investigations have extended the knowledge of habitation, but no detailed, systematic attempts have been made to understand the domestic evidence, or to substantially revise the existing models for the development of complex Bronze Age societies. All available data relating to settlements dating to Middle–Late Bronze Age have been collated. An evidence-based chronology for settlement is established for the first time. The data are examined at multiple scales to investigate any spatial or chronological trends in settlement character or distribution. The relationships between settlements and the surrounding environmental and social landscapes are analysed through a GIS. The new data are investigated to see how domestic settlements operated, and if traditional concepts regarding the structure of Bronze Age society can still be upheld. Agent-based modelling and social network analysis provide another dimension to the discussion regarding power, regionalism, and hierarchy within the settlement network. The results reveal a distinct rise in the visibility, and a rapid adaption, of domestic architecture, which seems to have occurred earlier in Ireland than elsewhere in western and northern Europe.

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Rock paintings and petroglyphs are a record of human memories. No doubt, this function defines in essence all archaeological objects. Yet some objects such as tools, beyond their symbolic value, are clearly fashioned for their utility. How does rock art as an object fashioned by human hands then differ from tools? What utility does it have beyond its symbolic value? The Vindhyan corpus of rock paintings has provided us with a very valuable opportunity to be answering such questions.

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The principal aim of this study is to put forward a technological and typological analysis of the industries of the Early Neolithic concerned in the process of neolithisation in several regions of Southern Italy. The rooting concepts are centred on the principles of the lithic technology outlined by J. Tixier, H. Roche, and M.-L. Inizan, D. Binder, C. Perlès, N. Pigeot et J. Pelegrin. The lithic series examined belong to the different horizons concerned in the process of Neolithitisation of Southern Italy in several areas of the envisaged region. In a view to reconstruct the economy of débitage and the economy of raw materials and the possible formation of technical traditions, this research is based on the following points: the economic and petrographic analysis of the raw materials; the analysis of the technological aspects and of the technical facts; the typometrical analysis of the different products of the chaînes opératoires; the typological analysis through the creation of an inventory allowing to integrate the study of the technological criteria with that of specific characters of the lithic tools. The main targets of this research are to highlight the methods and the techniques of débitage and to identify the chaînes opératoires set up by the early groups of farmers in the South of Italy and in Sicily. Is it possible to recognize a techno-economic variability in the débitage systems of the Early Neolithic of Southern Italy? Is it possible to give a cultural value to the variability of technical facts? What is the rate of continuity and discontinuity among groups of hunters-gatherers and the first farming societies? These questions shed light on the whole of technical and cultural transformations between the seventh and sixth millennium B.C. in the South of Italy, a region that played a key role in the process of diffusion of Neolithic towards the West Mediterranean.

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This book collects together data concerning copper alloy vessels from Roman Britain and relates this evidence to prevailing theories of consumption, identity and culture change in Britain during this time. The aims of this study are to collect a catalogue of copper alloy vessels from England and Wales, categorise them by form, typology, context, chronology and geographic distribution, offer interpretations concerning their cultural associations, manners of consumption, functionality and development over time before commenting upon their value as small finds material reflective of culture change more broadly within Britain during the Roman period. Copper alloy vessels from the Roman period in Britain have not been the subject of focused scholarly study for over 50 years and have never had a focused examination in English. This report not only rectifies this gap in the literature, but proceeds to directly apply this data analysis to the greater theoretical discourse of the development of material culture in Britain during the Roman period, thereby demonstrating the validity and importance of small finds studies to the larger historiographic and theoretical discourse.

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The aim of this study is to show how the Imperial Cult was introduced and organised in provincial Hispania, and examines the collaboration with the Romanised native elites who came from Lusitania, Baetica and Hispania Citerior. This book draws upon literary, numismatic, archaeological and epigraphic sources. The epigraphy found in Lusitania is especially important because it is the only one of the Hispanic provinces where there is evidence of flamines provinciae officiating before the Flavian period, even as early as under Tiberius.

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This book is the first to be published from a wider research project, still in progress, about the sanctuaries of Poseidon and Athena on the promontory of Sounion (southeast Attica). The aim of this volume is to present, for the first time, a comprehensive examination and interpretation of a wide selection of unpublished small finds. These last, of different categories and materials, were discovered in the bothroi (pitdeposits) and the landfills; they are set into their contexts. The illustrations of the finds are integrated within the relevant text for easier reference and a detailed catalogue complements the discussion. The limited archaeological records concerning the work in the sanctuaries, conducted by Valerios Stais between 1897–1915, and which still remain the only extensive excavations undertaken, are re-evaluated. The author revisits the two sanctuaries, reviewing the structures within them to cast light on the early phases of their establishment and development, as well as their significance for the socio-economic growth of south east Attica. This is realized by drawing upon the evidence of archaeological data and the ancient literary sources alike. The research thus provides a fresh insight into the early cults, with emphasis on the identity of the deities worshipped at Sounion from the Late Geometric to the dawn of the Classical period.

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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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