Böcker i British Archaeological Reports International Series-serien

Local architectural heritage is an expression of a long-lasting circle of traditions and oral knowledge fostered from one generation to another and revealed through simple or complex architectural realities. It is also a manifestation of economic and social impact on the landscape. Given this assumption, this volume, by means of new building archaeology research approaches, debates the development and the organisation of the fortified architectures, settlements and centres during the medieval age in the historical area of Luni (Lunigiana), a sub-cultural region that stands between Tuscany and Liguria (Italy). The author portrays a complete and summarized picture of the development of the power of the bishopric in the Luni area, promoter of the seigniorial territorialization and castle-building, between the 10th and 14th centuries. The study of the historical architectures adopts a multifaceted methodology that combines building archaeology such as wall stratigraphic relationships, building phases, type-chronology of the architectural elements, and masonry techniques analysis together with more recent dense image modeling and 3D reconstruction techniques.

Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Significance of Portages, 29th Sept-2nd Oct 2004, in Lyngdal, Vest-Agder, Norway, arranged by the County Municipality of Vest-Agder, KristiansandConveying craft and their cargoes between navigable waterways (Portages) represents a hitherto neglected feature of past transport geography. The idea of arranging an international conference on this subject first appeared during the mid-90s, when it seemed that it would be a good idea to create - and maybe also develop - a preliminary network, bringing together a number of people who shared a common field of research. This conference was eventually planned for September/October 2004 and in this volume the original English papers, and some translated from the Nordic session, have been brought together. Their subjects range geographically from Greenland to Russia, chronologically from the Mesolithic to Late Medieval, and (to a certain extent) modern times. The environments ranged from coastal to inland inter-river sites, and the topics from linguistic and etymological interests to myth making, ritual, and the experimental handling of boats at portages. A goal of the conference was to create an international network, and the embryo of such a network has been included in the proceedings. Another ambition, to include good bibliographies on the subject and its wide-ranging ramifications, has also been achieved.

Debates of alleged human modernity and archaism have dominated much of the recent Eurasian Paleolithic archaeological literature. Most debate has tended to proceed through the position and relative disposition of various interesting theoretical questions, such as "When did Modernity arrive in Europe?", or "Which Pleistocene human chronospecies brought Modernity to Europe?", or even, "Were Neanderthals modern?" Some even ask, "Were Neanderthals human?" The evidence on which such debates have occurred have tended to consist of data derived from artifact seriations and various attribute analyses of lithic technology, and, especially since the late 1980s and 1990s, upon mitochondrial DNA and other (unfortunately non-comprehensive) genetic studies. Some of the issues arising from these debates provide the focus for this present study.

This report presents the results of the Swiss-sponsored contributions to an international research project at Ekven, a prehistoric settlement situated on the Siberian coast of the Bering Strait (Chukchi Peninsula, Russian Federation), in 1995-98. After Reto Blumer reported on the preliminary results of the first two seasons, the purpose here is to present an overview of the excavations conducted in the ensuing two years. This richly illustrated volume presents the state of knowledge about Western Arctic Eskimo prehistory and about Ekven in particular, discussing the cultural terminology and chronology; the location and topography of Ekven, the vegetation, fauna, climate, and recent settlement history by Yupik (called Eskimosi in Russian) and Chukchi; a detailed description and analysis of the cut through the settlement created by marine erosion, erosion which grinds away at the site and will make it eventually disappear; comparisons of paleoclimatic data from the Ekven area with those just across the Bering Strait in Alaska; analysis of pottery recovered during the excavation and preparation of the erosion cut for documentation. The entire publication is an important contribution regarding the infiltration, in the still poorly known prehistoric past, of the ancestors of present-day Yupik in the peninsula settled by, and named after, Chukchi people. This process had great significance for the Eskimo migrations from the Arctic regions of the Old, to those of the New World.

Held at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Meeting, 29 August to 1 September 2012 in Helsinki, Finland.This volume presents nine articles (of which five are based on papers presented in the session 'Utilization of Brick in the Medieval Period - Production, Construction, Destruction' held at the EAA meeting in Helsinki in 2012) with topics ranging from applying natural scientific research methods such as OSL, AM and hXRF analyses, to the study of early brickmaking processes, to recent excavation discoveries and archaeological investigations of brick use in northern parts of continental Europe including the British Isles, Finland and Sweden.

A study of medieval ceramics (8th to 14th centuries AD) from 15 sites in the Tuscany region, central Italy. Analyses includes production, distribution and consumption.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 38This volume closely examines and catalogs a limited set of glyphic elements found at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan in Mexico. This study serves as an initial investigation to verify whether these glyphs may be part of a writing system in use at the site. The author looks at two specific sources of glyphs and glyph compounds at Teotihuacan that appear to be the largest sets of co-occurring glyphs and contain the largest number of glyphs. One set, in particular, has not yet been studied in detail and therefore will present new information within this area of research. Furthermore, there has not been a steady or significant amount of glyphic research carried out at Teotihuacan in recent years, since Taube (2000). The investigation was structured to thoroughly analyze the data for similarities between the selected glyphic elements from Teotihuacan and the requirements for writing systems. For that reason, basic linguistic tests were conducted on the data to determine whether the glyphic elements had similarities with those requirements for Mesoamerican writing systems. This work is not a decipherment. Instead, its aim is to verify whether the glyphic elements at Teotihuacan could potentially be a writing system, catalog them in an orderly fashion, conduct a comparative analysis between them and others found within Teotihuacan and elsewhere in Mesoamerica, and conclude whether further research in the way of a complete decipherment is a possibility if future data is uncovered at the site.

This study focuses on the architectural landscape of the lower Valdarno area, which formerly belonged to the diocese of Lucca and in the 17th century formed the new diocese of San Miniato. Despite the distance from the Bishop, Lucca managed to keep the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of this area until the modern era, while, from a political point of view, these territories gravitated towards Pisa and Florence.

This volume focusses on the mosaics and geometric designs from Écija, the ancient Roman Astigi, the capital of the Conventus Astigitanus, which is one of four conventus iuridici that made the Roman Baetica. This work is part of a much larger study centered recently on the mosaics and the geometrical compositions of the Conventus Astgitanus, whose immediate objective pursued to cover the analysis of the musivaria of the whole of Baetica. In conjunction with the mosaics catalogue, this volume presents a catalogue of geometric designs, which are results of studies of different fields that make up the pavements themselves.

"The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in the East Balkans: A taphonomic and techo-economic analysis of Bacho Kiro (level 11), Temnata (levels VI and 4) and Kozarnika (layer VII)", presents a thorough documentation and critical analysis of these three important sites located in northern Bulgaria. The archaeological assemblages studied, dated by 14C to between 45 and 32 kyr, have been at the core of discussions concerning the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition which witnessed the disappearance of the Neanderthals and the dispersal of the first anatomically modern humans into Europe.

Roman Africa. Until recently, scholars have tended to study architecture and decoration of Roman houses as separate, visual forms of classical art to be analysed in terms of description, classification, and typological survey. This new work follows recent scholarship, in contrast, by examining domestic buildings as a source of information about certain aspects of Roman social realities. Specifically, the author looks at questions such as: How can the function of a room be identified? Can architectural details and floor mosaics tell us something about the activities carried out in domestic spaces? How did they influence the viewer in his thoughts, feelings, and actions? What can type, shape, and design of the floor mosaic say? Is it possible to detect a thematic organisation for the decoration of the whole house? What can we say about the patrons who were paying for the decoration of their houses, about their status, class-aspirations, and achievements? Can spatial organization and decoration detect pattern of social interactions taking place within the house? The final objective of the study is to attempt an understanding of the wealthy class of Romano-African society, its concerns, intentions, and desires. Architecture and mosaic, if analysed as complementary parts of a whole, can offer a wide range of detail on the identity of the inhabitants and society. Form, decoration, and use of domestic space are influenced not only by environmental and economic conditions, but also by the patterns of social interactions taking place within the house.

Since the double axe is such an important and symbolically charged object, emblematic for Minoan Crete, it has been discussed from different perspectives. Some scholars have created typologies; others have discussed shape and function without a typology. Shape and function also include the discussion of which double axes are tools and which are "sacred" or votive gifts. The aim of this research is to study the double axe as a tool and find out what it was used for in practice. The question of who used the double axe and for what purpose during the Bronze Age in Crete has not been answered satisfactorily; this is due to the fact that no one has as of yet studied the use-wear of the double axes. Overall this study is an attempt to show that the double axe is and was an extremely practical and effective tool without having to attribute it to a profane or a religious context.

In a world where pottery studies have tended to become increasingly insular as the volume of excavated pottery grows ever greater, Roman face pots do in fact provide a discrete body of material that is clearly inter-related and stretches across many Roman provincial boundaries and modern national frontiers, offering a particular insight into the movement of ideas and traditions within the Roman world.

Proceedings of the XVI IUPPS World Congress (Florianopolis 4-10 September 2011) / Actes du XVI Congrès Mondial UISPP (Florianópolis 4-10 Septembre 2011) Session VII, Volume 5.This book presents a collection of peer-reviewed papers from the sixteenth UISPP / SAB, session VII, titled Underwater Archaeology, Coastal and Lakeside, held in the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Campus Trindade, Florianópolis / SC - Brazil, in September 2011. Papers are brought under two main headings: Archaeology Pre and Proto-Historic and Legislation, Methodologies and Applied Sciences.

This research focuses on the analysis of one of the most important pottery workshops in Hispania - the site of Los Villares de Andújar (Jaén) - which had a special trade impact on the ancient province of Baetica. In this book the author analyzes pottery production in its technological context and takes a new approach to the reality of the production centre in terms of its markets and product diffusion mechanisms during the Early Roman Empire. The author extends the traditional framework of analysis and widens the perspective to include the regional spread of the ceramic repertoire. The work also contains the archaeometric characterization of different ceramic productions manufactured by the Isturgi workshops.

Maresha is located in the Judean lowlands approximately 40 km southwest of Jerusalem and approximately 30 km southeast of Ashkelon. This volume is the final report of one of the most interesting subterranean complexes at Maresha. Located in close proximity to an area identified as a temple or shrine, its contents suggest a possible connection to this structure. It was within this cave complex that the "Heliodorus" stele was discovered (Chapter 12), along with Aramaic (Chapter 8) and Greek ostraca (Chapter 9), numerous figurines (Chapter 6), kernos lamps (Chapter 5), coins (Chapter 10), stamped handles (Chapter 7), astragals and an extraordinary array of faunal remains (Chapter 11). In addition, a 7th century BCE bulla of a sphinxa was found (Chapter 4).With contributions by Bernie Alpert, Einat Ambar-Armon, Donald Ariel, Baruch Brandl, Avner Ecker, Adi Erlich, Esther Eshel, Gerald Finkielsztejn, Dov Gera, Hava Korzakova and Lee Perry-Gal.

This monograph takes a new look at various aspects of stone artefact analysis that reveal important and exciting new information about the past, and in particular Australian perspectives on lithics. The ten papers making up this volume tackle a number of issues that have long been at the heart of archaeology's problematic relationship with stone artefacts, including our understanding of the dynamic nature of past stoneworking practices, the utility of traditional classificatory schemes, and ways to unlock the vast amount of information about the strategic role of lithic technology that resides in stone artefact assemblages. The dominant theme of this monograph is the pursuit of new ways of characterising the effects of manufacturing and susbsistence behaviour on stone artefact assemblages.

A study of aspects of urban and rural Roman horticulture. Limited by the available evidence, most of the discussion relates to decorative gardens, making use of literary sources and depicions on wall paintings.

Theoretical perspectives on landscape and bodily engagement with place inform an approach to the medieval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Focused primarily, but not exclusively, on the central Middle Ages, this research confronts two core questions: How did transient, mobile groups perceive and experience the diverse terrain of the pilgrim route in northern Spain? And how may their ephemeral presence be traced in the archaeological record? This study is underpinned by the conviction that the journey of medieval pilgrims, as opposed to their destination, deserves greater scrutiny. Pilgrimage is envisaged as a sequence of movement through landscapes, in which both built "sites" and unaltered aspects of the physical environment, such as rivers, mountains and arid plains, are integral to the experience and meaning of devotional travel. Three topographically distinct 'study areas' along the length of the Camino de Santiago in Navarre, Burgos and Galicia form the basis for the analysis of localised sets of material culture. Within these areas, historical and geographical information, surviving monuments and structures, and a fieldwork plan designed to engage with the processes of making a linear journey, combine to form data-sets from which to tackle more refined contextual research questions. Significant issues include pilgrim versus local identity, the exertion of control over the flow of traffic, the material expression of religious behaviour and, throughout, the complex meshing of landscape, perception, movement and belief. The research carried out for this thesis represents a positive addition to current debate that scrutinises the role of archaeology in the interrogation of ritual and religion in the past.

This study takes a fesh look at Livy's accounts of battles, asking how useful they are as depictions of the reality of republican warfare.

This book has attempted to collect evidence of the lively trade in the Atlantic from the 1st century BC up to 1st century AD, when the Romans decided to conquer the territories of the Atlantic littoral. The papers here cover the commercial phenomena detected from the Strait of Gibraltar up to the Galician coasts of the NW Iberian Peninsula, which was probably determined by the military campaigns in the NW during the Augustan campaigns against Cantabrii and Astures, and later the NW exploitation of the rich mines there. However, our feeling is that the phenomena was not limited to the Iberian Peninsula but affected the whole Mar Exterior (Atlantic), from the coast of Armorica, Brittany, Normandy, Belgium and Germania Inferior. Despite obvious differences between all these territories, there were some common traits in material culture, information, traders and logistics which cannot be explained in a fragmentary way. The present volume attempts to fill a gap from the western side of the Atlantic, but we are aware that some questions raised here can be only answered from other territories of the Mar Exterior.

The author's concern in this volume is the spatial organisation of hunters and gatherers and how this is manifested through dissimilarities in the style of objects. Differences were tested in Queensland Aboriginal material culture, aiming to search for a regionalisation of style. The study is broad-scale and the results show a clear regionalisation in Queensland that broadly correlates with drainage divisions: the patterns are robust. The model presented is applicable to archaeological research which is concerned with distributions of style and how these are associated with the populations of past hunters and gatherers. The primary data are 813 artefacts (including bags, boomerangs, message sticks, shields, spears and spearthrowers) from selected UK and Australian museum collections. The objects date from the early contact period and were collected by explorers, colonial officials and anthropologists. Secondary sources include published and unpublished material, archaeology, rock art, early photographs and present-day Aboriginal spokesmen. Analysis of the data proceeds from the most broad-based presence/absence evidence and continues to examine and compare the morphological characteristics of the objects. At each stage, the findings are set against the regional model, whereby Queensland in divided into six geographical regions based on drainage divisions. The findings are considered against social and environmental models of style. The author evaluates the impact that ecology plays on stylistic traditionand discusses the social role of style as a means of transmitting social information. She also considers the 'open' and 'closed' model which, in a hunter-gatherer context, has been linked to environmental conditions. The conclusions of the analyses suggest that both environmental and social factors play an important part in stylistic tradition and stylistic choice.

Proceedings of the Second International Meeting of Archaeology in Carlino (March 2009).

The present volume was born from the interest to analyse the different modalities of the political strategies used by the dominant groups in Maya societies at different moments of their history. It tries to show the diversity of these socio-political strategies, and uses the case studies analysed in order to approach a theoretical understanding of the issue from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.

Young Lukanian Archaeologists 2The second volume in the Lukanian Young Archaeologists series concentrates on the processing of data obtained from archaeoichthyology and archaeomalacology finds from one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Mediterranean. The proto-historic settlement of Mursia (on the island of Pantelleria, Trapani, Italy) was soon integrated within the dense network of sea routes that affected the populations at the height of the Bronze Age. Chronologically, the settlement dates from the last two centuries of the first half of the second millennium BC. The town is on two terraced plateaus, of similar size, which today we call the 'Upstream Plateau' (or 'internal': excavation areas B and C) and 'Sea Plateau' (or 'headland': areas of excavation A and D). Significant information is presented on the species fished, fishing techniques, and the economic importance of these resources within the village of Mursia. The current archaeozoological research is not limited to the recognition and description of animal species but also focuses on the need to obtain information for cultural and environmental analyses and to try and reconstruct the ancient relationships between man and his natural resources generally. Through the analysis of the ichthyic and malacological samples from Mursia an attempt is made not only to identify the species present but also to process the data obtained from the taphonomic data for a reconstruction of this culturally isolated site within the context of marine resources.

This book is hoped to be only the beginning of explorations of the ancient Egyptian notion of upholding Order (Ma'at) through violence. Because of the scope of the topic, this study is limited to the most extreme measure of violence perpetrated in the service of Order: sanctioned killing. This study explores texts that affirm the proper occasions for such killings, and the religious framework behind these actions.

Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 83This study for the first time provides an in-depth examination of the Butana Group ceramics that in turn represent a large sedentary development existing in the far reaches of the eastern Sahel during the 4th millennium BC. These particular ceramics are compared with known Nilotic Neolithic and post-Neolithic ceramic groups in northeast Africa, including the Egyptian Neolithic and Predynastic, the Nubian A-Group, the Abkan Group, the Khartoum Neolithic and Late Neolithic of the Central Nile Valley. In the end, the Butana Group ceramics represent yet another significant cultural development in northeast Africa very different from other cultures situated along the Nile Valley.

This research focuses on prehistoric metallurgy and the key role it played for the human communities of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula (the present-day area of the Autonomous Region of Catalonia and the Principality of Andorra). The study covers the period from the first use of gold and copper during the Late Neolithic to the structured production of the Bronze Age. The role played by metallurgy in each prehistoric community and its relationship with the other elements involved in social life is explained. Questions such as the origin of this technology, its social value in relation to the other productions or the importance traditionally given to it in the development and consolidation of social asymmetries are dealt with in depth in the context of each archaeological group.

During the first to the fifth centuries AD the Danube-Balkan region formed a buffer zone between the Latin speaking world of the west and the Greek speaking lands of the east. This book deals with the development and influence of the architectural plan of the late Roman villa in the Danube-Balkan region. It combines an archaeological and an architectural historical approach to the examination of the plans which form the primary focus of the research. At the same time, the functional and decorative elements of the buildings are considered in detail where appropriate. The research is based on extensive fieldwork and draws together the existing literature to elucidate the architecture of the late Roman villa in the Danube-Balkan region and to establish its broader significance. A systematic study of this nature has not previously been carried out.

A unique study of infancy and infant death that is wide-ranging and diverse in its approach. Eleanor Scott looks at theoretical issues, gender, women's power, childbirth, burial practices, infanticide and much more besides.