Books in the British Archaeological Reports International Series series

This book includes papers from Session C68 (Part I) of the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006).

Proceedings of the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon 4-9 September 2006). Volume 8, Session C68 (Part II)This book includes papers (in English, French and Spanish) from Session C68 (Part II) of the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006).

This large-scale work represents a study of the occupation of space and management of resources at the interface between primary massifs and secondary and tertiary basins during the Neolithic: the example of the Armorican massif and its margins. This study seeks to establish to what degree we can quantify the impact of a physical feature, the interface between the Armorican massif and the Paris and Aquitainian basins, on population dynamics in western France during the Neolithic. The study area is extensive (62324 km²) and includes almost the whole of eleven French departments (Manche, Calvados, Orne, Mayenne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Vendée, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Charente-Maritime and Charente). Its natural limits, which have evolved since the Neolithic, are the English Channel in the north and the River Charente and its tributary La Bonnieure, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, in the south. The period in question is the whole of the Neolithic, chronologically subdivided (with much simplification) in orderto facilitate the comparison between the successive chronological stages: Early Neolithic: 5500-4600 BC; Middle Neolithic: 4600-3600 BC; Late and Final Neolithic: 3600-2200 BC.

Around 9500 BC, a number of changes take place in the life ways of human groups that, henceforth, will be designated as Mesolithic. These changes set them apart, behaviourally, from the preceding periods. Even though the ancestral know-how was passed across the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary, new solutions were implemented. Groups became more mobile and more dependent on the exploitation of marine resources. Shell middens crop up not just all along the Atlantic façade but also in more interiorly located sites. Technical choice and mode of resource extraction are situationally adapted and/or created. This behavioural flexibility is specific to the early Mesolithic and contrasts with the rigidity of Magdalenian peoples' technical systems. The History of the earliest Mesolithic communities in Portugal is mainly based on the study of three key-early Mesolithic sites, Toledo, Areeiro III and Barca do Xerez de Baixo, with a main focus on their lithic industries (recreating all the productionprocess), although other archaeological components are also presented and discussed. Despite being contemporary on a radiocarbon scale (they all accumulated during the Boreal chronozone), each of these sites represents a distinct way of using space and the available local resources.

The symposium dedicated to the presentation of the 'current research on the neolithic funeral rituals in the Upper Rhine Valley' held at the University of Strasbourg in June, 2011 belongs to a cycle of annual meetings of the archaeologists from Alsace and the nearby regions. The theme was dictated by the spectacular increase of the neolithic graves' corpus last years. This volume presents nine contributions about unpublished graves and graveyards from the early to the late Neolithic, especially the first LBK cremations found in France and the first Corded ware graves group discovered in Alsace. These papers, which covered all the regional neolithic sequence, offer a complete view of the funeral traditions of the Upper Rhine Valley from 5300 to 2200 BC.

Cet ouvrage pose la question des rapports masculin-féminin au sein des sociétés du monde nord-alpin (soit le nord-est de la France, la moitié sud de l'Allemagne, la Suisse, l'Autriche et la Bohême), pendant plus d'un millénaire (du Bronze final au milieu du second âge du Fer). L'étude de quelques nécropoles a mis en évidence l'existence d'une structure hiérarchisée de ces sociétés. Ce préalable permet de poser la question de Grandes Femmes dans ces sociétés à travers l'appréhension d'une élite, définie par des sépultures ostentatoires. Un corpus de plus de 700 de ces sépultures a été analysé, nécessitant la mise en œuvre d'outils méthodologiques inédits permettant des interprétations en termes de richesse et de genre puis d'en questionner les rapports. Les données funéraires ont été enrichies par les apports des données textuelles et iconographiques sur les sociétés nord-alpines, mais également par l'étude des rapports de genre dans les sociétés contemporaines, voisines du monde nord-alpin et mieux documentées. Tous ces éléments ont permis de préciser les fluctuations des rapports entre féminin et masculin, de mettre en évidence des moments d'ostentation importante du féminin et d'en tirer des hypothèses interprétatives sur les structures des sociétés nord-alpines envisagées.This book explores male-female relationships in the societies of the North Alpine world. The analysis is based on a corpus of more than 1000 graves spread across north-eastern France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Bohemia. The treatment of this corpus is twofold: the first part is dedicated to cemeteries, and reveals the existence of a social hierarchy in the societies that established them; the second part focuses on the elite graves that became more numerous from the Late Bronze Age through the middle of second Iron Age. The study of these burials required the development of methodological tools for interpreting the corpus in terms of wealth and gender, in order to question the relationships between male and female. The resulting funerary data has been supplemented with ancient textual and iconographical data, and broadened through an examination of gender relations in contemporary neighbouring societies of the North Alpine world. These elements enable the author to shed light on the developments that affected male-female relationships, as well as to highlight important periods in the emergence of women and, finally, to come to interpretative hypotheses about the social structures of the North Alpine societies under study.

This book is the first in-depth analysis of one of the most remarkable monuments of Ostia, the ancient port town of Rome: The Domus del Ninfeo (III, VI, 1-3). Originally built as a multi-storey complex during the reign of Hadrian, in Late Antiquity it was converted into a ground-floor mansion to serve the dominus and his extended family. During this phase the building was enriched with marble floors and the elegant nymphaeum that gives it its current name. This study aims to present a comprehensive picture of the Domus, analysing not only the many structural changes but also its topographical setting, historical context and social inferences. The text also features the archaeological drawings that were made during the study and the results of a clearance in an area of the house previously neglected; the latter has provided invaluable evidence for interesting structural modifications that were previously completely unknown.

El uso de brazaletes de piedra es uno de los fenómenos arqueológicos más destacado asociado a las primeras sociedades neolíticas en gran parte del Occidente Mediterráneo. Estos adornos se relacionan con el Neolítico Antiguo, caracterizado por el horizonte de las cerámicas decoradas cardiales y otras impresiones. En este libro se presenta el estudio petrológico, tecnológico, tipológico y traceológico realizado a estos adornos en la península ibérica. Estos análisis han permitido identificar culturalmente, a partir del uso, distribución y producción de los brazaletes, dos grupos culturales con un desarrollo social diferente y paralelo. Estos grupos son los tradicionalmente denominados como el Neolítico andaluz y el Neolítico valenciano. La distribución geográfica y cronológica de los brazaletes los convierte en un definidor cultural de las sociedades del Neolítico Inicial en estos ámbitos geográficos. De la misma forma, su artesanía, circulación y uso permite determinar parte del devenir socioeconómico de estas primeras poblaciones neolíticas.The use of stone bracelets is one of the most fascinating archaeological phenomena associated with the first Neolithic societies in most of the Western Mediterranean. These adornments are associated with the Early Neolithic, characterised by the advent of pottery with cardial and other impressed decorations. This book presents a petrological, technological, typological and traceological study of these bracelets in the Iberian Peninsula. Through these analyses, based on the use, distribution and production of the bracelets, the author identifies two cultural groups with different and parallel social developments. These groups are those traditionally known as the 'Andalusian Neolithic' and the 'Valencian Neolithic'. The geographic and chronological distribution of the bracelets makes them a cultural marker of Early Neolithic societies in these geographical areas. Similarly, analysis of their craftsmanship, circulation and use allows the author to determine aspects of the socioeconomic evolution of these first farming populations.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 37Situated in the heart of the Vilcabamba cordillera in Peru, some 150 km northwest of Cuzco, Choqek'iraw or Choquequirao ( the golden cradle in Quechua), is one of the most beautiful achievements of Inca architecture, and one of the very few pre-Hispanic sites displaying large wall mosaics showing geometric figures and llama caravans climbing the mountainside, the only one known from Inca times. Ethnohistoric sources suggest that Choqek'iraw was one of the Tupac Inca Yupanqui's palaces, but the excavations we conducted in peripheral residential areas suggest a much earlier occupation; it could begin in the early Intermediate Period (200 to 500 AD), and continue during the Late Intermediate (1000-1300 AD). Several elements also suggest that figures represented on the mosaics convey cosmological significance and are laid out following textile principles. Finally, the orientation of some buildings with the cardinal points and the presence of a truncated hill considered as an astronomical observatory, an ushnu, reinforce this hypothesis, suggesting that Choqek'iraw could have played the role of a regional agro-pastoral calendar and be considered as an important ritual centre or wak'a, and an oracular shrine dedicated to the triple Inca divinity of the Lightning. This book stems from an extensive French-Peruvian archaeological project conducted from 2003 to 2006, as part of a cooperation agreement between the French and Peruvian governments. It presents the results of the excavations that have been carried out, but also new hypotheses about the role - including symbolic - that this site may have played.

This study enunciates the position of prehistoric to early historic settlement-patterns in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. It brings forth structure-inference concerning settlement location, function, distribution and trend in settlement density at a regional scale with a view to understanding ecological adaptation and cultural changes through prehistoric to early historic periods. The method of regional analysis has developed models for explaining economic and functional relations between settlements. Economic development is understood through analysing variations in style and technologies used for certain artefacts like ceramics, lithics and metals. Functional differences in terms of raw material resources, smelting sites, processing sites and possible interactions between these are adequately looked into.

Studies in Contemporary and Historical Archaeology 6

This book explores trade routes along the Eastern Adriatic coast based primarily on the evidence of numerous 1st and 2nd century shipwrecks. All the known shipwrecks are catalogued, and the different cargoes as well as the ships' equipment, mostly amphorae and pottery, is discussed. Material found in the underwater sites of Croatia comes from the eastern workshops of the Aegean, but also from Hispania, Italy and Africa.

The Trail Creek Caves are located in limestone cliffs on the west bank of Trail Creek, Seward Peninsula, Alaska. In 1928, the Deering Eskimos Taylor Moto and Alfred Karmun found arrowheads there. Test excavations were then carried out in Cave 2 in 1948. Unfortunately, the excavated material was lost in a fire at Nome. Between 1949 and 1950, the Dane Helge Larsen carried out further excavations in Caves 2 and 9. Various types of lithic artefacts were recovered. All excavated sections of the caves contained bones in an excellent state of preservation, some of which were very numerous. Ever since Helge Larsen published the investigation of the Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9, their early dates and the supposed presence of man there have been the subject of intensive discussion. This fresh study represents an archaeozoological analysis of the bone material from Caves 2 and 9 excavated by Larsen in the 1940s. It examines whether the bones were accumulated by man and which activities can be deduced from the archaeological remains.

Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists Fourth Annual Meeting in Göteborg 1998This is a collection of eight papers given at the EAA Conference in 1998. The authors examine various social aspects of rock art: from rock art and gender, rock art as part of Bronze Age funerary rites, rock art in the context of materialism and cosmology, rock art as ritual landscape of hunter fisher gatherers to rock art as visual representation.

The genesis for this conference, and its subsequent proceedings, came from discussions held in the newly formed Archaeological Discussion group, a subgroup of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works' Objects specialty group, about the definition of an archaeological conservator and the directions in which the field was evolving.

This monograph aims to throw light on the construction and enaction of gender in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Aegean, through analysis of a sample of 1660 previously published anthropomorphic figurines.

Proceedings of the 19th Meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology in Ravenna, Italy, July 2007.

This volume details the results of the first intra-site examination of Chinese gold miners' camps in Australia and the compositional analyses of Chinese-made ceramic vessels found there. Ceramic collections from five southeastern New South Wales goldfields, dating from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century, were examined. Traditional and non-traditional methods of ceramic analysis were used to answer major questions and thus expand the archaeology of the Chinese in Australia. The analyses enabled conclusions to be drawn about the active role of vessels in everyday life, not only within the domestic sphere but also in communal aspects of food and feasting. On a broader scale, the research considered the nature of Chinese supply networks and revealed how western-style ceramics became appropriate substitutes for Chinese-made vessels as supply sources changed. This study was also the first comparison of contemporary assemblages from Chinese and non-Chinese sites in the same region, evaluating the Chinese access to western ceramic markets, particularly British-made wares. The analysis of ceramic artefacts has given an insight into the Chinese miners' lives, from the beginning of the gold rush when many worked under the control of a headman to the later nineteenth century when families were at the camps. Overall, this research has highlighted short and long-term occupation sites and established that these camps were not homogenous or static settlements, they changed over time.

Volume 1 (BAR S1548, 2006) of the archaeological excavations conducted by the University of Arizona at the site of Mezzomiglio in the town park area of Chianciano Terme, Tuscany, dealt with the excavation results up to the year 2001. This volume by Paola Mecchia deals with the material culture which resulted from the limited soundings made from 2003 through 2006. The site at Mezzomiglio was an ancient rural spa. How close the nearest town may have been is not known; there may have been a significant settlement at Chianciano Terme itself but to date nothing other than evidence of rural occupation has presented itself. The spa certainly functioned from at least late Etruscan times and material has been recovered which allows the tracing back of the site to at least the 2nd century B.C., with the possibility of frequentation of a simple nature earlier than that.

These papers explore the function, morphology, materiality, technology, ritual function, and context of figurines, whether made of clay, wood, metal, stone, bone or shell. Case studies from around the world allow a comparative view of function and diversity across social contexts.

This research, centred on the Early Holocene (11,000-5000 BCE) lithic technologies found in and around the Song Terus cave (Gunung Sewu, Java, Indonesia) provides a new focus for insights into the behaviour of pre-Neolithic groups in a wider South-East-Asian context after the Last Glacial Maximum.

The Japan Association for Quaternary Research (JAQUA) and the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), celebrated their 50th and 125th anniversaries, respectively, with an international symposium entitled 'Quaternary Environmental Changes and Humans in Asia and the Western Pacific', November 19-22, 2007, in Tsukuba, Japan. This volume represents the papers presented at the session Environmental Changes and Human Occupation in North and East Asia during OIS 3 and OIS 2, focusing on the correlation between environmental changes and human activities among Palaeolithic sites in North and East Asia.

This monograph comprises the Proceedings of The Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt Conferences, jointly organised by The University of Manchester, Britain, and the National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt, and held at The National Research Centre (March 19-21, 2007) and The University of Manchester (September 1-3, 2008).

Grim Investigations: Reaping the DeadArchaeology has a unique and significant perspective to offer the territorial debate. In the 1970s Saxe and Goldstein argued, based on ethnographic literature, that cemeteries indicate the existence of control over resources. No other discipline has recognised this link. Because their ideas were developed in a processual context, they were systematically rejected as part of the post-processual shift, and yet their theory internalised an impressive complexity, recognised a 'real' cross-cultural pattern, and contained within it a potential which has rarely been recognized. Geographers, ethnologists, and others have studied territoriality, but at its core it is a human behaviour and archaeology is uniquely placed to explore it from a human perspective. The main research questions with which this study is concerned involve: 1. Are hunter-gatherers territorial? 2. Is the Saxe-Goldstein hypothesis relevant to archaeologically documented hunter-gatherers? 3. What is a 'cemetery'? 4. Is it possible to identify what resources were controlled? 5. Can we understand how cemeteries were able to stand as ideological claims over resources? Chapter 2 argues that the Saxe-Goldstein hypothesis - albeit with some ideological modification - does have relevance to archaeological investigations, and that there is ethnographic support for territorial behaviour among contemporary hunter-gatherer communities. Chapter 3, and is based on a comparative analysis of mortuary practices. A database containing information on 1747 individuals from sites in Western Europe and North Africa is analysed to investigate the role of cemeteries in territorial control; it is included on a CD as a series of Excel files and summarised in Chapter 4 to identify high minimum number of individuals sites in the regions not considered in the case studies. Two detailed case studies - Mesolithic (c. 9000-4000 BC) Scandinavia and Ibéromaurusian and Capsian (c.18,000-4000 BC) North Africa follow in Chapters 5 & 6. Chapter 7 brings together various strands,in particular with regards to understanding what 'cemeteries' are and the relationship of the different territorial regimes to notions of property.

In this volume the author presents detailed patterns on several lithic collections coming from ancient sites of a limited area in northern Spain, yielding evidence of the first and second phases of occupations of Europe. The author discusses variability of technical processes over a long period of time, taking into account raw material collection and the influences of stone quality on technical variability. He also provides experimental analysis to give another perspective on the archaeological collections. This work provides a substantial volume of data on several sites and the interest of a study on a small area is clearly demonstrated, providing new explanations on the variability of ancient assemblages and contributing to a better understanding of what constitutes variability in human behaviour over a long period of time, with particular reference to the the first occupations of southern Europe

This book contains papers read at the conference "West African archaeology, New developments, New perspectives", co-sponsored by the Nigerian Field Society and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Sheffield, with the support of the University's Humanities Research Institute, which was held at the HRI in Sheffield on 27 June 2009. They are a testimony to the fact that - for all the constraints imposed upon it - archaeological research in West Africa continues to be pursued actively and to make a significant contribution to the subject in the continent as a whole.

Un établissement complexe de la culture d'Artenac dans le Centre-Ouest de la FranceThis fortified enclosure has been known since the middle of the 19th century, but the size and the state of preservation (with the height of the rampart estimated optimistically at 10 metres!) suggested an attribution to the Gallo-Romans or a 'Camp des Anglais'. Extensive woodland covered the major part of the site, and it is only recently during modern clearance undertaken in order to expand agricultural land that prehistoric artefacts dating from the Late Neolithic were brought to the surface and attributed to the Artenac culture (third millennium BC). At that moment a rampart more than three metres in height was revealed. The excavation of the ditched enclosures at Diconche (Saintes, Charente-Maritime) published in 1999 revealed the previously unrecognized importance of the areas of habitation belonging to this period. At Le Camp the construction above the natural surface can be compared to the fortified spurs which had previously been chronologically attached to the Late Neolithic. It should be mentioned that a site situated not far away, Le Gros Bost at Saint-Méard-de-Dronne, had revealed structures of the same nature during a trial dig in 1994. At Le Camp, the first excavation in 1994/1995 confirmed the originality and the interest of this type of site. Consequently an excavation was undertaken from 1996 to 2000 under the direction of Claude Burnez, and this was followed by a second operation directed by Catherine Louboutin (2002/2003). This publication concerns the first of these operations and the pottery from the second. It is now possible, taking into consideration the material found both at Diconche and Le Camp, to propose an evolution that includes the flint artefacts, the pottery and the dwelling structures of Artenac: Artenac I: first period before the Bell Beakers; Artenac II: a period which was influenced directly or indirectly by the Bell Beakers; Artenac III: a third period post-Bell Beakers. This period which was found homogeneously present (forty thousand sherds) in structure XVIII during the 2002/2003 excavation is characterised by the absence of plates. Numerous bottles, lids -the only decorated finds- 'nose-shaped' lugs and waved shoulders and the rarity of the flint are to be noted. This material was accompanied by the doliums and pigs' feet. Given the negative characteristics of this assemblage, it is difficult to isolate them among the levels containing multiple occupations, as was the case during the 1994/2000 excavations. It is of great importance to insist upon the complete absence of the Bell Beakers' influence and the exclusive presence of original Artenacien pottery. The sites situated outside the Charente/Périgord area, such as Fort Harrouard, Les Vaux à Moulin-sur-Céphons, Cavignac in Gironde and Marsa at Beauregard (Lot), would appear to belong to this latter category. The contributors to the volume are Alain Villes, François Fischer, Céline Landreau, Séverine Braguier, José Gomez de Soto, Bernard et Thérèse Bourgueil and Emmanuelle Boulestin.

Two hundered years of antiquarian and archaeological and archaeological interest has generated an archive of some 1350 Viking Age amulets. These objects are manufactured from a variety of materials, most often metals, and were often, but not always, wornas pendants. However, all are miniatures, objects shaped like something else - tools, weapons, animals, people, or more abstract religious symbols, including hammers and crosses. They can be understood as material symbols which gained meaning through reference to phenomena beyond themselves - real animals, people and so on. I argue that this symbolism must be understood within a religious frame of reference. Previous archaeological research into Viking Age religion has suffered from an uncritical acceptance of written sources that are late, biased and geographically isolated. Since religion is also behaviour in the world, there is no intrinsic reason why texts should be a better source of information that should artefacts. As an archaeological material, the corpus of amulets has a history of recovery. Analysis of times of recovery for different types of contexts reveals how the composition of the archaeological archive changes. Contemporary texts highlight the different priorities and interests, which in turn shaped research strategies. Thus, it is clear that the archive cannot be isolated from its own history. The archive represents a real, but partial record of what existed in the past. The history of recovery throws light on how the archive is partial. The present study examines the various types, materials and contexts of the amulets. It documents how amulet types have different dates and distributions, suggesting that religious practise changed through time. Some of this change may be due to influences from Christian Europe, but this may not explain everything. In any case, the chronology and distribution of amulets suggest that late, Norse sources may not be perfectly suited for understanding all amulets everywhere in the Viking world. I divide contexts into four types, graves, hoards, settlement finds and stray finds. Amulets in graves do not appear to reflect accidental inclusions of whatever the living used, but were rather selected carefully to answer needs specific to the dead. Many burial amulets are made of iron, and may have been made specifically for burial. Silver is largely absent, and may have been part of collective, rather than individual wealth. Hoard finds are dominated by silver. Viking Age silver hoards seem to be explicable in purely economic terms. There seems no reason to regard these hoards as ritual or sacral in any way. Settlement finds cluster on a few important sites, including Hedeby, Helgö, Birka and Tissø. Unfortunately, these sites do not compare readily with each other, and no clear pattern of intersite distribution appears. Most settlement finds are made from supposedly cheap materials, including iron and lead, suggesting that the amulets selected for graves and hoards do not represent everything. At least part of the settlement material seems to have been intentionally deposited. Stray finds highlight the influence of post-depositional factors. Much may originate in other contexts, and stray simply due to accident or poor recording. However, the stray finds also contain unreasonable amounts of copper-alloys, suggesting that this material cannot simply represent accidental strays from other contexts. Rather, amulets of copper-alloy, especially, must have been used in activities that did not centre on burial, hoarding or settlement. Possibly, these amulets were specifically deposited at sites away from the settlements. Finally, I offer some tentative suggestions for how to relate amulet studies with emergent archaeological theory on personhood and the landscape. I analyse craftsmanship in some detail, and argue that a wide variety of different situations existed.

In 1992, in the context of the Archaeological Project Teotihuacan 92-94 under the direction of Eduardo Matos Montezuma , two caves in the southeast of the Pyramid of the Sun were excavated. The undertaken research demonstrated the use of these caves by teotihuacanos in a ceremonial context but also by the cultures after the collapse of this great metropolis. This book provides a new interpretation of the research done in the nineties using a wider understanding of the use and function of this underground ceremonial complex. Chronological periods have been updated, and the social models are more adapted to the current interpretations of teotihuacan society and the meaning an function of their rulers from classic to postclassic periods. Also this book is a contribution to the study and understanding of the symbolism of caves in the Mesoamerica cultural area.

The papers included in this volume were presented at the 2011 international academic conference 'Continuity and Destruction in Alexander's East: the transformation of monumental space from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity', which took place at the University of Oxford. The conference and publication theme - the region commonly known as the Hellenistic East - follows the long-term research interests of the editors and brings together scholars and specialists doing work in the region. It follows in the footsteps of a previous conference of 2009, From Pella to Gandhara: Hybridisation and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Hellenistic East, which resulted in an edited volume of 2011 published by Archaeopress. While 'Pella to Gandhara' looked into the Hellenistic East as a whole, 'Continuity and Destruction' narrows the focus onto the Near East, with its greater wealth of archaeological research and publication. At the same time, the focus of the current topic carries over ontoan extended time frame spanning the aftermath of the Macedonian campaign, thus tracing steady, smooth or abrupt changes of defining spaces in ancient societies as these were moulded and shaped by the events of the day.