Books published by BAR Publishing

This work considers the female body in ancient and medieval societies as seen through the eyes of doctors. In their writings on gynaecology, the medieval authors that are studied here have made clear their thoughts on women, which are grounded in the texts of their predecessors (Greek and Latin doctors) but conditioned by their own religious beliefs - Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Their works were written not only to educate or inform other doctors and midwives, but also to aid medical students and to provide guidance for women who might seek it. These texts also reflect popular opinion when it comes to such issues, as in many instances they are closer to popular belief than to science. Our selected authors wrote in order to gain recognition and prestige. They based their advice on texts written by earlier, widely recognized specialists and, in turn, their work became references for future doctors who, in their own writings, would cite them or recreate their work. From this point of view, it may be said that none of these doctors pursued an objective relative to our own current medical practices, but this does not necessarily mean that their texts are any less important. The texts studied in this work span almost twenty centuries, from the fifth century BC to the fifteenth century AD.

A collection of papers focusing on questions of Copper Age metallurgical contexts, outlining the importance of an integrated analysis of artefacts, considering pottery, metal, stone and osseous productions as inseparable aspects of economic and social choices.

This book includes papers from a session on 'Mother Earth' sites presented at the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Valetta, Malta, in September 2008. The papers discussed the various forms of evidence not only from definite 'Mother Earth' sites but from others for which an expression of a divine feminine principle, personified as belief in an Earth Mother or other female deity, may be inferred as possible or sometimes likely-especially where the work is based on new discoveries.

South American Archaeology Series No 17Analyses of animal finds and remains from sites around Lago Cardiel, Patagonia.

A study of the Neolithic in Macedonia.

The Klissoura cave site (Argolid, Greece) is a multi-layered site with layers dating back to the Middle Palaeolithic. In the Aurignacian layer were found concave clay forms which are estimated, by C14 dates, to be 35-37.5 calibrated kyrs BP. In this study the author takes an experimental approach to investigate these important primitive features.

This book presents the proceedings of the 'Theory and Method in Archaeology of the Neolithic (7th - 3rd millennium BC)' conference held in Mikulov, Czech Republic, 26th - 28th October 2010.

During the Middle Sicán period (C.E. 950-1050) on the North Coast of Peru, artisans developed a sophisticated tradition of ceramic and metalworking production amidst dry coastal forests of the region. Organic fuel resources, specifically wood, clearly played a vital role in the manufacture of these objects; however, this component of production has been largely overlooked. Thus, a major gap in our understanding of the relationship between Sicán period production and the local landscape has developed. The Sicán Archaeological Project (SAP) suggests that the production of metal and ceramics during this period likely placed the local fuel resources under considerable stress. Yet, an evaluation of the archaeological data is essential to assess the degree of overexploitation, identifying the fuels used, their contexts for use, and their role in local ecology. This study interprets how Middle Sicán artisans met their fuel-wood requirements for production in light of easily endangered forest resources. An examination of the archaeological charcoal from Middle Sicán period kilns, hearths, and metal furnaces permits the reconstruction of fuel use and the ecological setting of production. This unique site demonstrates the concurrent production of metal and ceramics, as well as the presence of domestic activity. Using wood anatomy of fuels recovered from archaeological features, the author identified the fuel materials of different use contexts.

This research aims to better understand Maya ritual practices associated with the burning of aromatic substances and the use of incense burners in the southern Maya lowlands during the Classic (A.D. 250 - 900) to Postclassic (A.D. 900 - A.D. 1200) transition. Incense burners are considered as important components of Maya ritual and religious paraphernalia through which communication with supernatural beings was enacted. Their forms and decoration were the products of specific principles of design and iconography that were commonly imbued with symbolic and religious meaning. The study involves an analysis of the form and decoration of these vessels as well as their contexts of recovery and use through time. The changes and continuities in the forms and decoration of incense burners, their contexts and their use sheds light into the continuation and/or innovation of ritual and religious ideas which are linked to broader social, economic and political factors in Maya society during the end of the Classic period. The study is based on a sample of incense burner materials excavated in Guatemala and from various museum collections.

The translated title of this work is: "Gotland Picture Stones of the Migration- and Vendel periods as Reflections of the Early Historical Cultural Environment". Gotland has a prominent position within northern Europe due to the quantity and wealth of pre- and early historical evidence. The picture stones of this area are prominent relics of the Scandinavian Iron Age, taking the form of processed limestone monuments of different sizes and designs. Usually, the stones reveal a worked front side carved with various motifs, such as whirling discs, ships and animals. These picture stones date from approximately the first centuries after Christ until after the first millennium and are found on the island of Gotland situated in the Baltic Sea, and politically, part of Sweden. The author focuses on the stones and fragments which can be dated to the Migration- and Vendel period. At the core of the work is the aim to gain an interpretation with the anticipation of making statements about the early historical cultural environment.

The painters of Sicyon were rulers of a τ¿χνη in their artistic creation that allowed them to combine their natural talent for painting with a scientific method. The main objective of this book is to place Sicyon at the centre of an aesthetic conflict between Plato and Aristotle. The Sicyonian school of painting has always been identified as one of the main enemies of Plato for various reasons, in particular for the use of scientific disciplines that for Plato should be reserved for the study of philosophy or dialectics. By contrast, Aristotle shared many of the aesthetic ideals of the school of Sicyon: his love of nature as a teacher of art and the maximum value offered through drawing within the liberal arts education. This book demonstrates the importance of the Sicyonian school of painting in Antiquity. For the first time painting and drawing were taught in Sicyon as subjects worthy of being learned. In this cultural context of artistic and theoretical reflection, some of the greatest artists of the Greek world were fostered, such as Apelles, Lysippus, Pamphilus, and Pausias. Sicyonian works of art were admired, imitated, and even taken to Rome as paradigms of Greek art and as examples of how best to understand art and culture: attributes that were still in evidence at the time of the Renaissance.

This book presents a contextual study of the Famabalasto Negro Grabado pottery of the late period in the Calchaqui Valleys in northwest Argentina, especially in the Yocavil or Santa María Valley in the south of the area. This is an interesting black and polished ceramic that is different from contemporary decorated pottery and comes closer in design to certain special metallic goods made in cast bronze, such as round plates and Santamarians bells or tan-tanes.

Archaeology is fundamentally concerned with both space and time: dates, chronologies, stratigraphy, plans and maps are all routinely used by archaeologists in their work. To aid in their analysis of this material, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by archaeologists has become widespread. However, GIS are conventionally ignorant of time. Thus, if archaeologists are to achieve the fullest potential in the application of GIS to their studies, GIS are needed that properly take into account timeas well as space. A GIS capable of dealing with temporal data is referred to as a temporal-GIS (TGIS), and commercial TGIS systems currently exist. However, these are locked into a model of modern clock time. Archaeological time does not sit well within that model, being altogether fuzzier and less precise. Nor are commercial TGIS able to address the questions that archaeologists ask of their spatio-temporal data. Thus, a TGIS is needed that deals with the types of time that we encounter as archaeologists, lest we end up shaping our data and questions to the inherent capabilities of non-archaeological TGIS. The creation of that new TGIS is the subject of this book: a fuzzy TGIS built specifically for the study of archaeological data that also takes into account recent developments in the theory of temporality within the discipline. The new TGIS needs to be flexible and powerful, yet to ensure that it is actually used it must remain within the software horizons of GIS-literate archaeologists. The new TGIS has been applied to two case studies, one in prehistoric Derbyshire and one in Roman Northamptonshire, producing informative and interesting new results. It is hoped that others will fruitfully use the TGIS and that, as a result, new forms of spatio-temporal analysis might come to be applied to archaeological studies.

The extensive work presented here takes a new look at the prehistoric art preserved on various megalithic monuments from the northwestern Iberian Peninsular. The initial chapters (1-3) deal with the objectives of the study, the history of research of megalithic art in the Iberian Peninsula, and the discussion on the area of study. In chapter 4, the research methodologies applied are described in detail: fieldwork (identification, cataloguing and diagnosis), the analysis of stone and paint samples (including radiocarbon dating), and the systems used for the recording of the images. In chapter 5, the most extensive of the book, each of the megalithic sites studied is described, with special emphasis on the description and recording of megalithic art, its state of preservation and the need for conservation actions that would stop its degradation. Chapter 6 deals with the information obtained on this kind of megalithic art. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the degradation processes and the proposal for preservation measures, not only for the prehistoric art itself, but also for the megalithic sites. Chapter 9 contains the discussion on the main findings.

Among other objectives, this collection of papers investigates the role that settlements surrounding necropolises have played in the evolution of megalithic and hypogean graves and their relationship to the development of collective burial ritual through consideration of collective burial ritual as a means of masking social differences. The intention here is to explore the relationship between collectivism and concealment in relation to other forms of non-funerary ritualism.

The aim of this research is two-fold: using aspects of London, Berlin and Beirut as templates, firstly it aims to examine the wider historical context of urban archaeological conservation in the post-war situation, and secondly to identify more clearly the reasons and values behind the conservation of archaeological sites within the modern city. From this a clear criteria may be drawn as to why such sites should or should not be conserved, and how they may best be considered and used in order that they may play an active and valuable role within the city. It is important to have such criteria relating to the valuing and decision-making regarding the conservation of sites so that the reasons for keeping such sites are more comprehensible to non-archaeologists, especially to the urban development professions, so that the sites' values may be better represented in their presentation. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of this research and the on-going nature of, for example, redevelopment in Beirut, a variety of qualitative research methods were employed. These included desk-based research of urban planning and development history and theories; of the history, practice and theories of archaeology and conservation as they relate to the subject matter of this research; and also in a number of other subjects including history and cultural studies. In relation to the sites themselves, fieldwork was carried out in London, Berlin and Beirut; the author lives in London; Berlin was visited in March 2004, Beirut in April 2005, and both cities were visited again in 2007. There are six chapters. Chapter Two comprises a general historical and theoretical background of the urban context, and the practices of archaeology and conservation, along with a literature review. Chapter Two is followed by individual chapters on London, Berlin and Beirut. The case study chapters are each divided up into sections comprising the urban context, conservation and archaeology before and after the respective wars, the sites including how each site came to be conserved, and then a discussion. The final chapter draws together all the ideas and discoveries of Chapter Two and the case studies for the main discussion and analysis. It highlights the wide range of issues encountered in the cities concerned, demonstrating both similarities and differences of urban development and conservation of archaeological sites from post-World War II London, through post-World War II and then post-Cold War Berlin to post-war Beirut.

This study examines, through a variety of evidence, Late Classic (c. 250-900 AD) Maya political organization, specifically the existence of large-scale political structures as evidenced through specific patterns of city plans and architectural similarities. This particular exercise draws upon such interconnected aspects of current and past Maya scholarship as epigraphic reconstructions of political history, elite architecture, the nature of the ancient Maya state, and research into the less tangible aspects of the ancient Maya civilization, such as the cosmological and ideological frameworks within which such issues were conceived, negotiated, and imbued with meaning.

This work discusses in depth the series of changes involving human communities that took place in the strip of land between the rivers Júcar and Segura (south-eastern Iberian Peninsular) over a period of nearly 3,000 years, ca. 5600 - 2600 cal BC, from the Ancient Neolithic Cardial period up to the Chalcolithic age.

A new study of 'The Fair Stone', defining jade, its nature, virtues, deposits and carving techniques according to ancient Chinese texts. Analysis of ancient sources with a critical mind may supplement archaeological finds and modern scientific studies, but others still present scholars with quite a few riddles, such as metal jade carving implements. This study attempts to provide an analysis of the multifaceted meanings, connotations and echoes of a single word, concept and symbol. It also allows a better grasp of matters of concern for mineralogists and gemmologists: jade's origin and deposits, mining and carving technology. Two appendices include a chart of "jade" producing places according to the Shanhaijing (Books of mountains and seas) and a full translation of Song Yingxing' chapter on jade in the Tiangong kaiwu (Exploitation of the works of Nature). Illustrations draw on reproductions of old Chinese books from the Yuan (1279-1368) to the Republic. Maps in late commentaries to the Classics, geographical monographs on Xinjiang or drawn by the author show jade and abrasive deposits and the "jade road" from Khotan to Xi'an.

In 2001, the Gadara Region Project was started, and the tell in the centre of Wadi al-Arab, Tall Zar'a was chosen as an initial focus of research. During previous visits to the site, it had been established that this tell had been inhabited almost continuously from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Ottoman Period. Tall Zar¿a is situated in the western sector of Wadi al-'Arab, which runs from the Transjordanian highlands near the city of Irbid to the Jordan Valley near northern Shunah. Contents: Introduction; Sondage and Stratigraphy; Architectural Remains; The Pottery; Small Finds; Stone Artefacts; Iron Age Cooking Vessels; Tall Zar¿a as 'Gadara' in the Later Bronze and Early Iron Age.

The main goal of this research is the study of the strategies of provisioning and utilization of lithic raw materials within the Pali Aike volcanic field, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina (South America). The work includes an analysis of the land-use patterns and home ranges of the human populations that inhabited this region during the Late Holocene (ca. last 4000 years BP). The case-study presented here employs a methodology of lithic analysis that is regional and non-typological, which has the potential to be of value in other areas of the world and with other specific research goals.

This collection of papers is dedicated to Dr Ina Plug to celebrate her tremendous contributions to archaeozoology (or zooarchaeology) in a career that has so far spanned more than three decades.

In 1717 A.D., the Caribou Inuit of the Kivalliq, Nunavut were introduced to the Fur Trade through the Hudson Bay Company. It has been previously posited that between that time and 1900 A.D., the Caribou Inuit were drawn out of a traditional subsistence pattern and into an economy that was a part of a world system. However, the actual process of how trade goods and technologies were incorporated into Caribou Inuit society by the Caribou Inuit themselves has received little attention. Using a combination of archaeology, archival history, and oral history to examine the profiles of specific individuals, this report demonstrates the importance of Caribou Inuit families that acted as intermediaries between their culture and European trade in the process of Caribou Inuit economic transition during the early historic period.

The Archaeology of Semiotics and the social order of things is edited by George Nash and George Children and brings together 15 thought-provoking chapters from contributors around the world. A sequel to an earlier volume published in 1997, it tackles the problem of understanding how complex communities interact with landscape and shows how the rules concerning landscape constitute a recognised and readable grammar. The mechanisms underlying landscape grammar are both physical and mental, being based in part on the mindset of the individual; the same landscape can thus evoke different meanings for different people and at different times. People's perception has greatly influenced the construction of landscapes over millennia but, until recently, the potential of this area has been largely untapped. Apart from chapters focusing solely upon human interaction with landscape, there are several which skilfully integrate artefacts and place with landscape (e.g. Gheorghiu and Sognnes). Other chapters look at the way people have marked the landscape through such mechanisms as rock-art (e.g. Clegg, Devereux, Estévez, Fossati, Kelleher and Skier). Rock-art establishes personal and communal identity in relation to landscape and it is clear that other forms of visual expression were in place which distinctively created special places within the landscape. Landscape constructs can bind cultures together; bringing the old ways of reading the landscape into contemporary life (e.g. Smiseth). Defining early and late prehistoric landscapes and segregating these into, say, mundane domestic and ritualised spaces rely on both clear and subtle archaeologies and in this volume distinct monument clustering and ritualised linearity are considered (e.g. Mason and Nash). A volume such as this cannot escape the influence of New World approaches, such as anthropology, and in many respects chapters by Bender, Muller and Merritt give context to other chapters within the book. Finally, one must consider text as a means of constructing landscape and this is considered by Heyd, who eloquently deconstructs the travel diary of a 17th century Japanese poet. This will be an important volume for archaeologists, landscape scholars and students. The many approaches used are tried and tested, forming an invaluable resource and not just another edited book.

Proceedings of a Nordic Research Training Seminar in Syria, May 2004The papers of a Nordic research training seminar that took place during a NorFA (currently NordForsk) PhD course in Syria in May 2004. These papers offer an introduction to anyone interested in archaeology, history, art history and ethnography of the neighbourhood of Jebel Bishri. They are written so that they are also approachable by a general reader or a non-specialist of a particular period. They are not scientific reports but contribute as a reference source to the previous and forthcoming archaeological publications concerning Jebel Bishri under the study by SYGIS (the Syrian GIS). The papers bring new insights, points of views, and methodological approaches to the already known sites in the vicinity of Jebel Bishri, as well as contexts to the newly studied sites in the area.

Although it has received much attention, Minoan religion has never been fully reconstructed, understood or analysed. In this study, with reference to major sites, the author concentrates on the role of sacrificial ritual in the religious organisation of Crete in the Bronze Age. The work points out some of the major problems with previous studies of Minoan religion and goes some way toward indicating possible routes of investigation.

The study of secondary centres is crucial to understanding how a state functions, as they are important points of interaction between state authorities and ordinary households. In this work the author focuses on the nature of the political organization of the lower-level centres of the Early Classic Period (A.D. 200- 500) in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. A previous comparative analysis of architectural arrangements at secondary centers between the Valley of Oaxaca and the Mixteca Alta indicated that single plaza groups were the major form of public architecture. The author interprets these enclosed plaza groups as the residences of elite governing households suggesting dominance of secondary centres by single households in the Mixteca Alta. Conversely, in the Valley of Oaxaca secondary centres show a pattern of multiple enclosed plaza groups, indicating that multiple households shared administrative functions. The main questions addressed by the author are whether Mixteca Alta centres are characterized by a single plaza pattern, politically less centralized, or is there a broader span of control at the secondary level? Alternatively, do these single plaza groups suggest that the state vested power in single households? The focus of the research is on four secondary centres of the Mixteca Alta. Using intensive site survey and systematic random collection as the main methods of data recovery, the author has collected artefacts over whole site areas in relation to public buildings. By comparing the distribution of various artefact categories within the site limits, including costly goods, in relation to zones of the site containing public architecture, the author evaluates the degree of political centralization.

The Rise and Growth of an Urban Community (facsimile of a 1977 Oxford doctoral thesis).

Archeologia di una battaglia e delle sue fortificazioni sulle Alpi fra Piemonte e Delfinato Italia nord-occidentale

Proceedings of the XV World Congress UISPP Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006. Volume 40, Session C28This book includes papers (in French and English) from the session (Vol. 40, Session C28) 'Symbolic Spaces in Prehistoric Art', presented at the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006).