Search results for ""archaeopress""

The Greeks and Romans in the Black Sea presents the Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities, dedicated to the 90th birthday of Prof. Sir John Boardman, President of the Congress since its inception. It was held in Constanţa in September 2017 with the same theme as the first of these congresses, which took place just down the coast in Varna 20 years earlier (‘the Greeks and Romans in the Black Sea and the importance of the Pontic region for the Graeco-Roman world between the 7th century BC and 5th century AD’), celebrating the work of successive congresses in bringing together scholars and scholarship from Eastern and Western Europe and the extensive progress of ‘Black Sea Studies’ in the intervening years. Overall, 85 papers were received for publication from authors in Western and Eastern Europe—there is also a full set of the abstracts submitted to the Congress in Appendix 2. As with previous congresses, the work is divided into sections, the largest of which, the fourth, is, following a pattern established with the first congress, devoted to New Excavations and Projects. The opening lectures and various papers in the first sections reflect (on) the ‘20 years on’ in the title. The vast majority of contributions are in English, a handful each in French and German.

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Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at the Dawn of the Roman Conquest: Landscape Archaeology and Material Culture is a coherent collection of papers presented at an International Workshop held in Ravenna (Italy) on 13-14 May 2019. The event, organized by the Universities of Bologna and Ghent and Arcadria, focussed on the transition between Italic culture and Romanised society in the central Adriatic area – the regions ager Gallicus and Picenum under Roman dominance – from the fourth to the second centuries BCE. By bringing together the experience of international research on this topic, the volume highlights a period that marks a profound transformation in the whole of central Italy by analysing the relationships between the central settlements and their territories and, more generally, by measuring the impact of early Romanization on the territorial structure, social organization and cultural substrata of populations living here. The volume also discusses methodological aspects regarding best practices in fieldwork, landscape investigation and study of material culture, identifying research lines and perspectives for the future deepening of knowledge in this crucial period of central Adriatic archaeology.

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The Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology provides for the first time a comprehensive visual introduction to a wide range of sites and finds from the earliest occupation of the Japanese archipelago prior to 35,000 years ago to the early historical periods and the establishment of the Chinese-style capital at Heijo, modern-day Nara, in the 8th century AD. The volume originated in the largest ever exhibition of Japanese archaeological discoveries held in Germany in 2004, which brought together over 1500 exhibits from 55 lenders around Japan, and research by over 100 specialists. The Illustrated Companion brings the fruits of this project to an English-reading audience and offers an up-to-date survey of the achievements of Japanese archaeology.

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Professor Daniel Arsenault, along with his wife, Nadine Desbiens, and stepson, Jacob Desbiens-Doyle, were sadly taken from this world in 2016 following a tragic car accident. Daniel was the leading exponent in Canadian Shield rock art. Working in the northern part of Quebec, Daniel explored many hundreds of square kilometres of this vast area for rock art. Working with ethnographers and First Nation people, Daniel became a formidable force in promoting this little known assemblage, lecturing all over the world and stimulating audiences wherever he went. Complementing his knowledge of rock art, Daniel also had a deep understanding of the heritage of the people whose ancestors made the images. Shortly before his death, Daniel was made an Erasmus Mundus Professor at Polytechnic Institute of Tomar in Portugal. Here, he was due to share his wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm about rock art and cultural heritage to an attentive audience. Daniel clearly had much more to offer, and this book is an extension of his ways of thinking. He has left an important legacy that has touched the lives of many, including people who contributed to this volume. The book has 14 thought-provoking chapters and deals with Daniel’s first love - the archaeology of artistic endeavour. It gathers together both academic colleagues and family who share with the reader elements of Daniel’s life. The book is also a serious academic volume, providing the reader with new ideas about the interpretation and dating of rock art, ethnography, heritage and material culture.

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The RES Series (Reports, Excavations and Studies of the Archaeological Unit of the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara) is dedicated to the projects and the researches of the different teams of the university of Chieti-Pescara working on archaeological projects in Italy and abroad. This first volume is dedicated to the Archaeological Mission in Cyrenaica, starting with the reports and researches of the seasons from 2006 to 2008. Chieti University has been working in Libya with a large international team since 1997. The emphasis of the publication is to present archaeological data to form part of an archive of finds, sites and monuments: a resource and reference point for archaeologists from Libya and elsewhere. At this moment the chora (territory) of Cyrene is facing multiple threats, even the potential loss of important monuments. It is hoped that this publication will contribute to the preservation of the local archaeological heritage.

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The hypocephalus is an element of Late Period and Ptolemaic funerary equipment – an amuletic disc placed under the head of mummies. Its shape emulates the sun’s disc, and its form is planar, although it occasionally has a concave shape (in such cases, it protects the head as a funerary cap). The earliest known example can be dated to the 4th century BC and the latest to the 2nd/1st century BC. The Hypocephalus: an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Amulet analyses both the written records and iconography of these objects. So far, 158 examples are known; several, unfortunately, from old descriptions only. The relatively low number shows that the object was not a widespread item of funerary equipment. Only priest and priestly families used them, those of Amon in Thebes, of Min in Akhmim, and the ones of Ptah in Memphis. Among the examples, no two are identical. In some details, every piece is an individualized creation. Ancient Egyptian theologians certainly interpreted hypocephali as the iris of the wedjat-eye, amidst which travels the sun-god in his hidden, mysterious and tremendous form(s). The hypocephalus can be considered as the sun-disk itself. It radiates light and energy towards the head of the deceased, who again becomes a living being, feeling him/herself as ‘one with the Earth’ through this energy. The texts and the iconography derive principally from the supplementary chapters of the Book of the Dead. Some discs directly cite the text of spell 162 which furnishes the mythological background of the invention of the disc by the Great Cow, who protected her son Re by creating the disc at his death.

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Stone containers have been made and used in the Middle East for over eleven millennia where they pre-dated the invention of pottery and were widely traded. The appearance or properties of the stone helped govern how stone vessels were valued or used and many classes were strictly utilitarian, being used for storage, cooking or lighting. Others were decorated and at times they were considered valuable exotica, particularly in regions far removed from their source areas. The subject of stone vessels is attracting growing attention but this is the first attempt to bring together different approaches to the study of softstone vessels, particularly but not exclusively those carved from varieties of chlorite, and covering all periods from prehistory to the present.

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This book presents, in sixteen papers, recent developments and some of the main topics seen in academic Medieval Archaeology studies in Spain. The papers explore some of the emergent and consolidated topics of the discipline, such as landscapes, cities, rural spaces, bio-archaeological records, archaeology of architectures, agrarian archaeology, post-Roman archaeology, colonial archaeology in the Canary Islands and the archaeology of religious minorities, opening new lines of enquiries and providing new theoretical and methodological approaches. An overview of Medieval Archaeology studies in Spain is offered, proposing a wide range of topics for discussion. Finally, the book explores the connections between Spanish Medieval Archaeology and other European traditions, specifically, English, Italian and Portuguese Medieval Archaeology.

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Professor Challenger and his Lost Neolithic World combines the two great passions of the author’s life: reconstructing the Neolithic mind and constructively challenging consensus in his professional domain. The book is semi-autobiographical, charting the author’s investigation of Alexander Thom’s theories, in particular regarding the alignment of prehistoric monuments in the landscape, across a number of key Neolithic sites from Kintraw to Stonehenge and finally Orkney. It maps his own perspective of the changing reception to Thom’s ideas by the archaeological profession from initial curiosity and acceptance to increasing scepticism. The text presents historical summaries of the various strands of evidence from key Neolithic sites across the UK and Ireland with the compelling evidence from the Ness of Brodgar added as an appendix in final justification of his approach to the subject.

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CAA2016: Oceans of Data gives an up-to-date overview of the field of archaeology and informatics. It presents ground-breaking technologies and best practice from various archaeological and computer science disciplines. The articles in this volume are based on the foremost presentations from the 44th Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference 2016, held in Oslo. The theme of CAA2016 was ‘Exploring Oceans of Data’, alluding to one of the greatest challenges in this field: the use and reuse of large datasets that result both from digitalisation and digital documentation of excavations and surveys. The volume contains 50 peer-reviewed and highest-ranked papers that are divided in eight parts, including an introduction and seven chapters. The introduction sets the stage with Oceans of Data (C.-E. Ore) and Theorising the Digital (S. Perry and J. S.Taylor), discussing the current status of overall CAA research. These two papers present the current developments, challenges, and potential that lies ahead from different perspectives. Ore points to the importance of common authority systems and ontologies. Common conceptual data models will ease curation and secure long-term reusability. Perry and Taylor address the need to bring together theoretical and digital archaeology. In the following chapters, different topics are presented under the headings Ontologies and Standards, Field and Laboratory Data Recording and Analysis, Archaeological Information Systems, GIS and Spatial Analysis, 3D and Visualisation, Complex Systems Simulation, and Teaching Archaeology in the Digital Age.

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Interpretation of coin finds is not quite an easy thing. How to distinguish, e. g., material of ‘hoards’ from that of ‘votive deposits’? Where are the ‘border lines’ dividing numismatic find categories from each other? Questions like these deserve a closer scrutiny. This book tries to face the problems by: proposing clear definitions for categories and sub-categories of coin finds; by collecting and interpreting written testimonies (from ancient literature, epigraphy and papyrology) casting light on reasons and circumstances of coin deposition and coin loss in antiquity; by describing differences of composition between the categories; by discussing difficulties of ‘differential diagnosis’; and the role of secondary finds. For each problem and for each find category a large number of examples is offered.

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the megalithic necropolis of Petit- Chasseur in Sion (Valais, Switzerland), an international conference was organised from the 27th to the 29th of October 2011 in Sion. This book constitutes the conference proceedings. The necropolis of Petit-Chasseur still remains a key reference for the understanding of the Final Neolithic period, not only in the Alpine countries, but also throughout Europe. The scientific meeting therefore focused on the end of the Neolithic period in Valais and in the adjacent regions, on the Bell Beaker phenomenon in general, on the funerary rites of this period, and on the anthropology of megalithic societies. The conference was attended by nearly two hundred people, students, junior and senior scholars from many countries including Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The present publication includes twenty-five papers referring to the periods represented at the Petit-Chasseur necropolis, namely the end of the Neolithic, the Bell Beaker period and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. In addition to a preface, a first group of papers – eight in total – deal directly with the Petit Chasseur Site in Sion and the end of the Neolithic in the Alps. A second group of articles constitute the section titled “The Final Neolithic and the Bell Beaker Culture in Europe and beyond”. This section is composed of fifteen articles presenting the results of archaeological, anthropological, botanical, and zooarchaeological analyses of Europe and Northern Africa. The conclusion drawn from the analysis is invariably the same. It is only possible to back our explicative constructions if we establish a serious dialogue with the field of cultural anthropology and if we construct a real science of the human facts, which is far from being achieved currently. The third part of this publication, which consists of two papers and is titled “Societies and Megaliths”, offers a discussion on megalith building societies that reflects on and develops this conclusion. All papers in English; abstracts for each paper in English and French.

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Roman Funerary Rituals in Mutina (Modena, Italy) presents the results of a research project undertaken in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield. The project sought to identify and reconstruct the funerary space and rituals of the necropolis in Mutina (now Modena) in the period between the first century BC and second century AD. The research is a key example of integrated analyses, linking the different results in the same interpretative system and supporting traditional strategies (archaeology and archaeobotany) with advanced technology (SAXS, CT-scan). The archaeobotanical remains (seeds and fruit) and the objects involved in the ceremonies constitute an important investigatory lens to reconstruct the mortuary rituals and attendance at the funerary space.

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Cited by al-Muqaddasī in c.985 and then by al-Idrīsī in c.1150, the medieval port of Sharma was discovered in 1996 at the extremity of the Ra's Sharma, 50km east of al-Shiḥr on the Ḥaḍramawt coast of Yemen; it was excavated in 2001-2005. This unique site was actually a transit entrepôt, a cluster of warehouses probably founded by Iranian merchants and entirely devoted to the maritime trade. It knew a rather short period of activity, between around 980 and the second half of the 12th century, which may be acknowledged as the Sharma horizon. Excavations proved that this settlement experienced six occupation phases, which are closely related to the political and economic developments in the region at that time. The material is mainly transit merchandises, small objects, resins, glass and pottery; some of the ceramics were locally made, in the nearby kilns of Yaḍghaṭ, but most (70%) were imported, from all parts of the Indian Ocean from China to East Africa. The typo-chronological study of this closed assemblage brings very precise information on the dating and evolution of the various types recorded, and the historical analyse sheds new light on the history of the Islamic maritime trade in the 10th to 12th centuries. French text throughout.

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One of the lesser known theatres of operations in the long wars between Great Britain and Napoleon was the Adriatic, where the activities of the British navy played a vital role in controlling and limiting the extension of French power eastwards into the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire; in maintaining access, diplomatic, financial and commercial, to the Austrian Empire; and in preventing the construction of new French battleships in the Venice Arsenal from adversely affecting British naval superiority. Until now, most studies on the British side have concentrated on the exploits of the British naval officers involved, particularly Captain William Hoste; those in Croatia have been largely limited to such secondary sources and to historical traditions based mainly on French and local records. The present work is part of a larger project of research which attempts to redress the balance by examining the original records in various British archives, and by presenting the story of the naval and military activity of the British in the wider context of political and diplomatic developments. A detailed study of British relations with the port of Rijeka is of particular interest in extending this context to give an insight into commercial activity in time of war and the problems of procurement of naval supplies, as well as the covert activity of British agents and collaborators.

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Binsey is a village to the west of Oxford, on the south bank of the main channel of the River Thames, opposite Port Meadow, which has been an open space belonging to the burgesses of Oxford since late Saxon times. Although now within the ring-road, the village is essentially rural and unspoilt. The hub of Binsey is a row of cottages and the Perch Inn on one side of the village green. At one time when the river was wider there was a ferry here taking travelers across to Oxford. The church, its present building no earlier than the 12th century though on an older site, lies a third of a mile distant. Its association with Oxford’s patron saint St Frideswide alone makes this an evocative place for anyone with an interest in the origins of this great University city. Its holy well, dedicated to St Margaret like the church itself, was a place of resort for those with eye problems or desirous of a child: Katharine of Aragon’s lack of success in conceiving a male heir after resort to the well in a sense precipitated the English Reformation! Later associations, which include Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell as well as Gerard Manley Hopkins and C. S. Lewis, render Binsey a place for the literary as well as the religious pilgrim. This book is a collection of essays on aspects of Binsey and its environs. It is not a guidebook so much as an evocation of the place, dwelling on specific aspects from the busy river to the tranquil and silent churchyard; from the poplars, great-grandparents of the present trees along the river and Hopkins’ great poem on them, to the personalities who served the village community; from the Binsey of St Frideswide’s time to the community of the present day.

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The Archaeology of Anglo-Jewry in England and Wales 1656–c.1880 is a comprehensive study of the urban topography of Anglo-Jewry in the period before the mass immigration of 1881. The book brings together the evidence for the physical presence of at least 80% of the Jewish community. London and thirty-five provincial cities and towns are discussed. The year 1656 marks the date of re-admission to the country by Cromwell. His purpose was to re-establish London as a major trading centre and the Jews were a key to this. The book traces the development of the community from a handful of families in 1656 to c.60,000 persons in 1880, mostly living in London. The immigrants who came to England and Wales in the early 18th century were in the main fleeing from poverty and persecution in Eastern Europe, and hoping to find a better life. The book discusses the evidence for the demographic shift out of the slum areas in the major cities, such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, to the suburbs and the decline of the early port communities from 1815.

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This volume presents the results of a multidisciplinary archaeological and archaeometric study of the wine amphorae produced in Hispania Citerior (Tarraconensis, in Augustus’ reorganisation) between the first century BC and the first century AD. Wine production expanded in this area at the beginning of the first century BC, as new Roman towns were founded and new farms or villae gradually emerged in rural areas. However, it was during Augustus’ reign that wine production and trade reached their peak. The study aims to shed new light on the composition of the wine amphorae produced in this area as well as on the technological processes involved in their manufacture along within the period considered. For that, the study includes the characterisation of several amphora types produced in various ceramic workshops located along the Catalan coast which initiated pottery activity at different times. All the available archaeological information for each case study is reviewed, considering data referring to the production centres and also to the geology and the environment in which the pottery workshops were located. Spanish text with English summary.

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These two barrows in the parish of Tixall, north of Stafford, were excavated by the Stoke‐on‐Trent Museum Archaeological Society between the years 1986 and 1994. They are approximately one kilometre apart with King’s Low still extant but Queen’s Low badly damaged by ploughing. The results are important because little excavation of round barrows has been carried out in this area of North Staffordshire and these add considerably to the local corpus of knowledge concerning Early Bronze Age burial practices and various categories of material culture including Collared Urns and a single faience bead at each site.

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Since the discovery of Britain’s first Ice Age cave art in 2003, the site of Creswell Crags has gained international recognition as one of Britain’s leading Ice Age sites. For the first time the history of the site is brought together in one accessible volume. Documenting the early fieldwork at the site it uncovers antiquarian discoveries such as the famous horse engraving, excavations in the 1920s that saw our understanding of our early ancestors take shape, discusses the demise of the Neanderthals and the emergence of Modern Man, and looks at how Creswell Crags grew as a heritage attraction of potential World Heritage Status. In Beyond the Ice, Matthew Beresford examines how our ancestors lived, how they hunted, examines the tools and weapons they made and, most importantly, what they left behind. The book also challenges the term ‘Creswellian’, an isolated British culture that occupied the fringe lands of western Europe, and instead offers hard evidence for viewing Creswell Crags and its inhabitants as being part of a vast Ice Age world. Finally, it looks at what happened right at the end of the last Ice Age and examines what the changes in climate and landscape meant to our early ancestors. Beyond the Ice will appeal as much to the general reader as it will to the student or scholar, as it raises fundamental questions and offers up interpretations that apply to us all.

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This volume presents a range of petrographic case studies as applied to archaeological problems, primarily in the field of pottery analysis, i.e. ceramic petrography. Petrographic analysis involves using polarising optical microscopy to examine microstructures and the compositions of rock and mineral inclusions in thin section, and has become a widely used technique within archaeological science. The results of these analyses are commonly embedded in regionally specific reports and research papers. In this volume, however, the analytical method takes centre stage and the common theme is its application in different archaeological contexts.

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“Then we went to the other bath. Here I found I was being again taken to the men’s place, so I said, ‘I’m not going in here’. But a great outcry was raised and loud exclamations of invitation and constant assurances that there was nobody naked, so when T said fiercely, ‘Come in and don’t make a fuss. They all wish it’, I entered a large hall with the raised divans peopled by gentry in cloaks and turbans of towels. There was fortunately no one in the hot bath as it deserved a careful examination. The wide platform round the tanks was inlaid with beautiful marbles and there were recesses with pumps, etc., also inlaid…” (Bursa, February 1888)On August 2nd 1877, the English explorer and archaeologist James Theodore Bent married an extraordinary Irishwoman, Mabel Virginia Anna Hall-Dare, the second of the four daughters born to Mr Robert Westley Hall-Dare of Co. Wexford and Essex. Mabel was 31, Theodore 25, and within a few months they had embarked on their pattern of annual travels that continued until his early death in 1897. Their trips began fairly close to home, visiting northern Italy, but by 1883 they were in the Eastern Mediterranean (in modern Greece and Turkey), searching out the antiquities, landscapes and lifestyles of a region that was to captivate them for the next fifteen years. Their researches led to a number of highly regarded monographs, papers and articles (such as Theodore’s 'The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks', 1885, and the many publications of their various discoveries in locations such as ‘Rugged Cilicia’, the island of Thassos, and elsewhere) that were to place the couple securely amongst the foremost British travellers of the latter half of the 19th century.The publication, therefore, of Mabel Bent’s personal notebooks from the archive of the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies, London, represents the discovery of a lost and notable milestone for scholars and travel enthusiasts of all kinds. This series of volumes begins with Mabel’s account of the couple’s adventures around the Aegean and beyond, extracted from her fifteen-year sequence of notebooks and presented chronologically. Specifically, we follow Mabel and Theodore to the Greek mainland and the islands known now as the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, as well as the northern Aegean islands; their journeys along the Turkish littoral lead them from bustling Istanbul to provincial Mersin in the far south-west. Contents include: Chapter 1) 1883-1884: The Cyclades – Mabel’s own accounts of the couple’s two tours of the Cyclades. Theodore relied on these Chronicles for the writing up of his classic travelogue ‘The Cyclades; or Life Among the Insular Greeks’ of 1885; Chapter 2) 1885: The Dodecanese – including Rhodes, Tilos and Karpathos; Chapter 3) 1886: The Eastern Aegean – including Samos, Patmos, Kalymnos and Astypalea; Chapter 4) 1887: The Northern Aegean – including Meteora, Thessaloniki, Thassos and Samothraki; Chapter 5) 1888: The Turkish Coast – from Istanbul to Kastellorizo; Chapter 6) 1890: ‘Rough Cilicia’ – extensive explorations around south-west Turkey.

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Enigmatic, esoteric and fascinating, the rock-art of the British Isles has for a long time been a well-kept secret. However, over the last few decades hundreds of new rock art panels have been discovered and several regional surveys have been carried out. This volume brings together a carefully selected collection of papers that cover British prehistoric rock-art from over 10,000 years ago.

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The inextricability of the connection between the Roman limes and the lands it ran through is easily observed and there is even a regularity to be noted: some modern borders actually follow the line of the ancient defenses. At the same time there are significant differences between particular sections of the limes, resulting primarily from the topography, climate and changing strategic importance. The Bulgarian section of the limes is a perfect illustration. For a considerable distance it follows the Danube, which is at the same time the border between Bulgaria and Romania. The landform the location of major settlements at convenient river crossings, natural barriers separating the region from tribal territories and the relatively hospitable region of the Balkans all contributed to making the region north of the Haemus mons suitable for Roman urban and rural settlement, agriculture and overland commerce. The Danube was always of foremost importance. A majo

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Apotropaia and Phylakteria: Confronting Evil in Ancient Greece is the outcome of the conference held in Athens in June 2021 and hosted by the Swedish Institute at Athens.The belief in the existence of evil forces was part of ancient everyday life and a phenomenon deeply embedded in popular thought of the Greek world. Fear of such malevolent powers generated the need for protection and we find clear traces of these concerns in both textual and archaeological sources. From the beginnings of literature, there is mention of ghosts and other daemonic beings that needed appeasement, and of ways of repulsing evil, such as the use of baskania and antibaskania (apotropaia). Repeatedly, we meet rituals of an apotropaic or prophylactic character conducted as part of everyday and family life, as for example on the occasion of a birth, marriage or death in the oikos (the cleansing of the house and household, libations and sacrifices in honour of oikos ancestors), and o

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This book outlines the results of the 2018 archaeological survey at Tawi Said, located on the edge of the Sharqiyah desert in the Sultanate of Oman. The surveyed area of 150 x 125 m yielded close to 8,600 artifacts, with pottery sherds comprising the majority of the finds. Additional discoveries include shells, lithic tools, copper production waste, jewellery and fragments of soft-stone vessels. Of particular interest are two stamp seals, one of which bears a resemblance to the seals of Dilmun style. Two significant phases are attested by the finds from Tawi Said: the Wadi Suq period (2000-1600 BCE) and the Late Islamic period (1650-1970 CE). Together with other discoveries, the Dilmun-inspired stamp seal illustrates the interconnectedness of Tawi Said in interregional exchange during the Wadi Suq period. The connectivity of the Late Islamic period is similarly evidenced by imported pottery, glass bangles and other artefacts. The absence of architectural remains suggests that Tawi S

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What would it have been like to walk down the streets of Viking Age Dublin a thousand years ago? What would you have seen, heard and smelled? How would this urban settlement have been different from an early medieval rural dwelling of this time a rath, a crannog or dún situated in the countryside? Such questions not only potentially interrogate the reality of people's lives in the past, but also open up topics such as diet, health and disease in urban and rural settings, the alteration and management of past environments and emergence of new forms of urban and rural communities in Europe.Dirt, Dwellings and Culture explores the living conditions and environments as experienced by early medieval people in Ireland, touching upon a wide range of environmental, architectural, artefactual and historical datasets from significant archaeological excavations of settlement sites across Ireland and Northern Europe. At its heart it focuses on a new and significant b

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Providing a dedicated venue for new research on the early medieval frontiers and borderlands of the island of Britain, the Offa’s Dyke Journal (ODJ) is also the first and only open-access peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the investigation of frontiers and borderlands in deep-time perspective. The journal’s remit spans detailed and original explorations into landscapes, earthworks, monuments and material culture. Exploring specific themes and issues in the archaeology, history and heritage of frontiers and borderlands in comparative and global perspective, ODJ is edited and produced under the auspices of the interdisciplinary research network, the Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory, and funded by the University of Chester and the Offa’s Dyke Association. The contents of this special issue comprise the proceedings of a conference held over Zoom on the weekend of 11–12 July 2020.

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The Route of the Franks presents a scientific study of the journey that Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury undertook at the end of the first millennium from the British Isles to Rome, focussing on the segment included in the territory of modern France. It not only reconstructs the route that Sigeric followed here but also takes an archaeological snapshot of the urban and architectural developments in the centres crossed by this route at the twilight of the first millennium AD. Sigeric’s journey, undertaken for reasons connected to his office, is framed within the historical context of the contemporary Anglo-Saxon world. The special relationship connecting Rome and Canterbury during the Early Middle Ages is also analysed and an archaeological overview of the archbishop’s town is attempted. Sigeric’s experience is framed in the historical context of medieval journeys from England to Rome and the Holy Land. Building upon the literature, culture and narratives of travel, the modalities and practicalities of this type of movement in the Middle Ages are reconstructed, reviewing the many other possible routes across France and the reasons which determined Sigeric’s choice. This brings the author to a new conceptualisation of travel in the past and to study how it affected the identity of the traveller, how individuals and groups interacted in the peculiar framework of displacement, introducing sociological and anthropological perspectives. By applying theoretical frameworks developed in the fields of geography, social sciences, anthropology, environmental behavioural studies, phenomenology, spatial analysis, ICTs and cognitive studies, the book reveals how movement affects the perception of landscapes and how mobility patterns socio-cultural phenomena.

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Archaeological investigation ahead of residential development was undertaken on land adjacent to Upthorpe Road, Stanton between November 2013 and March 2014 by MOLA. The scope of these works was set out in a brief prepared by Suffolk County Council (Tipper 2011) and a WSI (NA 2011) and was undertaken in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (DCLG 2012, now MHCLG 2019). Prior evaluation of the development area had uncovered evidence for a Bronze Age ditch and a small number of undated burials (Brown and Yates 2011). Subsequent excavation revealed a significant archaeological site far in excess of what was expected. Over the course of the five-month long excavation, the remains of a prehistoric round barrow and a cemetery containing the remains of 67 inhumations with associated grave goods were carefully investigated. Subsequent post-excavation analysis has sought to place the discovery in its regional context and to expand what we know about the prehistoric remains for the area as well as the early origins of Stanton. This book documents the discovery of the site and the results of the detailed analysis of the archaeological features, skeletal assemblage and other artefacts. Includes contributions by Sander Aerts, Lyn Blackmore, Paul Blinkhorn, Esther Cameron, Andy Chapman, Steve Critchley, Val Fryer, Sue Harrington, Tora Hylton, Samantha Leggett, Estelle Praet, Adam Reid, Ina Vanden Berghe, and Yvonne Wolframm-Murray. Illustrations by Olly Dindol, Joanne Clawley and Izabela Jurkiewicz.

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The two volumes bring together the contributions of the members of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), to a project launched in 2017, with the support of the International Academic Union (UAI), under the title Human societies facing climate change in prehistory and protohistory: from the origins of Humanity to the beginning of historical times. The first volume concerns prehistory from the earliest humans to the end of the Pleistocene, twelve thousand years ago. For three million years human societies have experienced a great alternation of glacial and interglacial periods. Which climates have been most favorable to human settlement? Which the least favorable? And did they involve the abandonment of territories, the collapse of societies and extinction of some human populations? When and in what climates did human groups colonize each of the continents of the planet? Is a period of climatic improvement with a hot and humid climate more or less favorable to the development of human societies than a period of climate depreciation? Is climate change a factor of change for human societies, forcing them to adapt and find sustainable solutions?

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Ash-sharq is a journal devoted to short articles on the archaeology, history and society of the Ancient Near East.

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Diversity in Archaeology is the result of the fourth Cambridge Annual Student Archaeology Conference (CASA 4), held virtually from January 14–17, 2021. CASA developed out of the Annual Student Archaeology Conference, first held in 2013, which was formed by students at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and York. In 2017, Cambridge became the home of the conference and the name was changed accordingly. The conference was developed to give students (from undergraduate to PhD candidates) in archaeology and related fields the chance to present their research to a broad audience. The theme for the 2020/2021 conference was Diversity in Archaeology which opened our conference to multiple interpretations, varied presentations and sundry perspectives from different regions of the world. This volume consists of 30 papers which were presented in 7 different sessions. The papers present a great variety in both geography and chronology and explore a wide range of topics such women’s voices in archaeological discourse; researching race and ethnicity across time; use of diversified science methods in Archaeology; critical ethnographic studies; diversity in the Archaeology of Death, heritage studies, archaeology of ‘scapes’ and more.

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The Past as Digital Playground: Archaeology, Virtual Reality, and Video Games collects the contributions to a two-day conference which illustrate a digital project developed at the Archaeological and Technological Park of Poggibonsi (Siena, Tuscany), where Virtual Reality and an educational video game are being used to enhance the archaeological content deriving from the excavation of the medieval site. In recent decades, digital technologies have pervaded every aspect of the production of archaeological knowledge, from data collection to analysis and interpretation, to interaction with the public. The increasing convenience of 3D and interactive technologies has led to a proliferation of digital tools (VR, AR, mobile applications) used to communicate the past in a more engaging way, offering the public an experience that takes place largely outside of the traditional channels. Alongside the experience at Poggibonsi, the book also gathers important contributions originating from other Italian and international case studies in the fields of digital technologies applied to archaeological heritage.

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The Maritime Economy of Ancient Cyprus in Terms of the New Institutional Economics deals with the maritime economy of ancient Cyprus from 1450 BC to 295 BC, and comprises three parts which correspond to three distinct economic cycles: first economic cycle during the age of internationalism 1450–1200 BC second economic cycle during political volatility, economic growth and transformation 1200–525 BC third economic cycle in the Persian Empire until annexation into the Ptolemaic kingdom. The principles of New Institutional Economics are used to trace the island’s institutions and their continuity and to reconstruct its maritime history. A unique feature is that for the first time a traditional descriptive and cultural approach is complemented by systematic and mathematical analysis and marketing documentation which results in meaningful examination of economic performance. This new approach highlights and explains the maritime economic activity of Ancient Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean in general. It brings together, for the first time, three distinct disciplines, that is History, Archaeology and Economic theory, in order to create a balanced explanation and reconstruction of the maritime economy of ancient Cyprus and of the challenges which confronted the ancient seafarers and traders of the Eastern Mediterranean. The approach and methodology is influenced by the author’s engineering, business background and training.

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The Iberian Peninsula in the Iron Age through Pottery Studies showcases the potential of interdisciplinary studies of pottery from the Iberian Peninsula to a wide scientific readership. The book consists of seven papers read at the international conference, Interdisciplinary research on pottery from the Iberian Peninsula, held in Poznań in June 2019. The chapters deal with various aspects of Iron Age pottery including technology, decoration, chemical and mineralogical properties, commerce and social use through archaeological science and the presentation of ongoing fieldwork. The principal methods employed are contextual archaeology, typology, SEM, XRF, petrography.

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The Making of a Roman Imperial Estate presents excavations and analysis of material remains at Vagnari, in southeast Italy, which have facilitated a detailed and precise phasing of a rural settlement, both in the late Republican period in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, when it was established on land leased from the Roman state after Rome’s conquest of the region, and when it became the hub (vicus) of a vast agricultural estate owned by the emperor himself in the early 1st century AD. This research addresses a range of crucial questions concerning the nature of activity at the estate and the changes in population in this transitional period. It also maps the development of the vicus in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, shaping our understanding of the diversity and the mechanics of the imperial economy and the role of the vicus and its inhabitants in generating revenues for the emperor. By contextualising the estate in its landscape and exploring its economic and social impact on Apulia and beyond, archaeological research gives us extremely valuable insight into the making of a Roman imperial estate.

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The twentieth annual meeting of the Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA) was held in Saint-Petersburg, Russia on 12-14 May 2016. As in the past, the symposium provided an important opportunity for scholars and researchers to come together and discuss their works in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. The main theme of the 2016 meeting is the archaeology of the Northern Black Sea. The Northern Black sea region is an area rich in archaeological sites, on the one hand, and subject to active industrial development, a rapidly growing population and the development of port and recreational facilities on the other, with an attendant growth of pollution and waste. Therefore, in addition to traditional issues related to archaeological finds in various parts of the Mediterranean, the papers focus on new ideas for the conservation and management of sites of historical and cultural heritage.

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Funerary and related cups of the British Bronze Age presents the first national corpus and study of these often highly decorated items. Cups are the least studied of all Bronze Age funerary ceramics and their interpretations are still based on antiquarian speculation. They are clearly ‘Urnes of no small Variety’ and previous attempts at classification have largely failed due to this variation. Their potential uses, technologies and associations are examined and many myths, such as their association with children and their role in accompanying other ceramics such as Collared Urns and Food Vessels are examined and questioned. Cups appear to have been grave goods in their own right and the term ‘accessory vessel’ is rejected. The book contains a fully referenced and illustrated national corpus that will form the basis for future studies.

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Tra Esino e San Vicino offre una lettura completamente nuova dell'architettura religiosa che, a cavallo tra il romanico e il gotico, si afferma al centro delle Marche, in un'area denominata Valle di S. Clemente. Qui, a partire dall'XI secolo, si assiste ad una straordinaria fioritura di insediamenti costituiti da abbazie, eremi, pievi, di cui spesso si conservano le strutture più antiche, la maggior parte ancora leggibili nella loro stratigrafia. Attraverso un'analisi dettagliata delle strutture murarie, condotta secondo i più moderni criteri metodologici dell'archeologia dell'architettura, e una rilettura critica delle fonti scritte, è stato possibile ricostruire le diverse fasi edilizie che hanno segnato la storia delle chiese esaminate, attestante le trasformazioni subite nel tempo a causa delle mutate esigenze liturgiche e dei frequenti eventi distruttivi. Sono così riemerse le articolate configurazioni architettonico-liturgiche di alcuni tra i più importanti edifici religiosi dell'Italia centrale, a cominciare dalla cripta di S. Salvatore di Valdicastro, prima tomba di S. Romualdo, di cui è stato possibile recuperare il "funzionamento" liturgico, fino ad alcune strutture complesse ed estremamente rare - ma non inedite nel panorama architettonico marchigiano - di cui la documentazione scritta non porta traccia, come i matronei di S. Elena all'Esino o i balconi interni di S. Urbano e S. Elena all'Esino. Inoltre, la rielaborazione della documentazione raccolta esaminando le strutture sopraelevate ha permesso di produrre una classificazione delle tecniche murarie e delle tipologie di aperture, organizzate nei relativi atlanti. In questo modo è stato possibile mappare il percorso di alcune maestranze edili, e più in generale è stato possibile determinarne i caratteri specifici e stabilirne la circolazione, che ha fatto emergere il ruolo determinante di alcuni 'magistri' e delle relative officine nell'elaborazione del paesaggio architettonico di questo territorio.

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The Birth and Development of the Idealized Concept of Arcadia in the Ancient World for the first time brings together all the available evidence for this topic, from the Homeric period to the early Roman Empire, in one place. The evidence is both literary and visual and is considered in a chronological sequence. Thus the reader can follow the blossoming of the Arcadian dream through eight centuries. The ideological, political and philosophical background that forms the basis of this phenomenon is also outlined, and the contributions of poets, historians, philosophers, antiquarians, architects, sculptors and painters are duly considered. The book brings to light a treasure-trove of evidence, both well-known and obscure or fragmentary, filling a significant gap in the scholarly bibliography.

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South by Southeast: The History and Archaeology of Southeast Crete from Myrtos to Kato Zakros publishes the proceedings of the conference of the same name held in Pacheia Ammos (Crete) in July 2017. Its aim is to investigate the settlement patterns, maritime connectivity, and material culture of the southeast of Crete in a diachronic fashion, in an attempt to define it as a region and trace its history. The title South by Southeast, an ironic take on Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, North by Northwest, encapsulates the uncertainty of what exactly the Southeast means and our need to clarify its geographical limits and cultural span. The papers presented focus primarily on the archaeology of the sites along the coastal strip spanning between the Myrtos Valley and Kato Zakros, an area that has time and again produced evidence of interconnection. Indeed one of the most important aspects surfacing from the volume is the evidence for the diachronic existence of the Southeast as a distinct cultural entity. The elements that tied the sites together shifted at times, forcing us to evaluate the concept of region as a flexible one that reflects different ways of defining a community.

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In France, the post-World War II period corresponds to a second golden age of prehistory and protohistory, thanks to the development of the CNRS and the creation of the first university chairs. Historiographie de préhistoriens et de protohistoriens français du XX° siècle presents the biographies of a wide selection of French archaeologists whose scientific work has particularly marked this period.

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‘Moving on from Ebla, I crossed the Euphrates’ collects six articles by leading international scholars on the culture of the Assyrian world as a homage to Paolo Matthiae on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Paolo Matthiae is known internationally for the discovery of the site of ancient Ebla in Syria, but he also wrote groundbreaking books and scientific contributions about the Assyrians, predominantly from an art historical perspective. The articles deal with different aspects of this culture, with innovative and sometimes unexpected points of view, including the reception of some elements of the Assyrian culture in the contemporary world.

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ArcheoFOSS XIV 2020: Open software, hardware, processes, data and formats in archaeological research collects the proceedings of the fourteenth ArcheoFOSS international conference, held online due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book gathers seventeen papers on three principal topics, the main sessions of the conference: use and application of free/libre and open-source (FLOS) tools in archaeology; creation, use and promotion of open data and open formats in archaeology; and development and customization of FLOS software and hardware solutions for cultural heritage. Forty-one scholars of very diverse age, academic affiliation and geographic location, but all actively involved in the promotion of FLOS culture, open data and open science in digital archaeology and humanities, contribute. The volume is completed by a critical analysis of the contribution of these important annual meetings to the scientific and cultural activity of the ArcheoFOSS community. The opportunity offered by the pandemic-related difficulties to widen the geographical scope of the conference has been further boosted by the decision to adopt the English language for most of the papers, with the hope that this will extend the work of the ArcheoFOSS community far beyond the Italian national borders.

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Questo volume è dedicato agli Atti del Convegno Paesaggi urbani e rurali in trasformazione organizzato dalla Scuola di Dottorato delle Università di Pisa, Firenze e Siena per discutere le trasformazioni del paesaggio in una prospettiva diacronica. Il volume affronta il tema del paesaggio come entità complessa e dinamica caratterizzata da una molteplicità di fenomeni in continua trasformazione prodotti dall'interazione e dal reciproco condizionamento di fattori naturali e antropici. Adottando questa prospettiva, il paesaggio viene studiato attraverso l'analisi e l'interpolazione di molteplici fonti. Uso delle risorse, produzione, distribuzione e popolazione, vengono letti in una prospettiva ampia per contestualizzare la presenza umana nel tempo e nello spazio. Diversi casi di studio, quindi, consentono di affrontare il tema da diversi punti di vista - urbano, commerciale, produttivo, culturale - per valorizzare le caratteristiche peculiari dell'ambiente per come è stato vissuto e percepito.

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