Books published by BAR Publishing

This study focuses on the management of raw materials used in early ceramics production (late Neolithic to early Bronze Age) in the north-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsular (Catalonia). The main aim of the study was to attempt to understand some aspects of the socio-economic organization of the ancient inhabitants of the area. The objective was not only to describe the archaeological material and put forward some economic and chronological hypotheses, but also to define some aspects of the social structures. Special consideration in this study was paid to the Bell Beaker finds and the work contains detailed scientific analyses of the finds.

This work helps provide a better understanding, in particular for the coastal part of central south Lazio, Italy, of the development of new socio-economic forms. Rooted in the ancient Bronze Age, these would, in the relatively short period of protohistory, lead from a society functioning on an essentially kinship basis to one dominated by true hegemonic aristocracies. The study area includes the Tiber Delta, the co-called Latial Volcano, and the Pontine Plain.

This book undertakes to answer questions relating to the creation of deity assimilation statues for young boys, a common mode of commemoration for the Romans. In addition, it demonstrates that many statues traditionally understood to represent youthful divinities actually possess portraits, even and especially if the faces appear joyful. It also proposes that these deity assimilation statues were commissioned primarily as posthumous commemorations. As such, the sculptural examples should be recognized as belonging to and constituting an important class of funerary sculpture; a class which has been, to this point, overlooked. It is also suggested that despite the fact that they were posthumous commemorations, deity assimilation statues of young boys were not necessarily placed in a sepulchral context, rather, it is maintained that images of children assimilated to divinities primarily served a sentimental purpose, and that, in that capacity, they may have been intended for and regularly kept in a domestic context, close to the surviving family.

This research studies the historical process known as Romanisation. It aims to contribute information about changes that took place in the management and exploitation of animals in the communities established in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula asa consequence of Roman advances. Analyses of changes in animal husbandry strategies practised in the Iberian Peninsula have been rather neglected and this book fills this information gap by offering a view of this historical process through archaeozoological studies. The analysis of animal husbandry is essential to reach deeper into topics such as the models and systems of territorial and habitat exploitation, providing new evidence and allowing a new, more complete and accurate view of the implantation,evolution and transformation of Roman power.

This publication is the first volume of what is intended to be a series of publications on the archaeology of the Timpone della Motta, a hill of 280m asl at Francavilla Marittima (Calabria, southern Italy) where the Groningen Institute of Archaeology has carried out a series of excavations between 1963 and 1969. Among the excavations, the 'acropolis' site has revealed the remains of an Oenotrian-Italic sanctuary dating from circa 800-730BC. This sanctuary contained among other features an apsidal timber building with a courtyard and altar, and a large room used for textile production. Significant among the Early Iron Age ceramics is the characteristic Italic/Oenotrian-Geometric production of matt-painted pottery that existed in Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. The Oenotrian pottery workshops of Francavilla-Lagaria were very much part of this Geometric, matt-painted tradition. From the pottery from the Timpone della Motta and the tombs of the Macchiabate necropolis at Francavilla Marittima a distinctive, local, Middle Geometric decorative style emerges, one mainly based on painted undulating bands as decorative elements, which were named the 'Undulating Band Style'. The style continued in a modified form during the Late Geometric period and is the specific subject of this volume in the series.

The present study evolved out of an attempt to explore the mechanisms involved in the transformation of a social practice and its spatial context from one cultural, technological and architectural system to another in a given geographical area in classical antiquity. The practice chosen was that of the bath, the two main and overlapping cultural traditions were the Greek and the Roman and the two technological traditions are termed in the present study 'before' and 'after' the hypocaust. The geographical area covered in the study is that of modern Greece with a more detailed analysis of the Peloponnese. Chapter 1 presents the description and classification of the different bathing traditions which appeared in the Greek territory before the 6th century BC, when the first relevant evidence becomes present in the archaeological record. The evolution of bath architecture in Italy, the main characteristics of the Roman bathing tradition, the spatial configuration of the bath in the Roman culture and finally the different kinds of typological classifications used by scholars are described in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 the two basic bathing traditions which appear in Greece in classical antiquity are analyzed following the classification scheme which was described in the introductory chapter. The final chapter looks at the key issues of the Hellenization of the Roman bathing tradition, the Romanization of the bathing traditions of the Greek world and the long term evolution of the bath in antiquity are readdressed in the light of the present research.

Explorer Helge Ingstad set out in the 1960s to search for the much hypothesized and mythical Norse land of Vinland. Vinland, originally discovered by Leif Erikson c. 1000 CE, is described in two sagas written in the thirteenth century: the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red. These sagas mention a land that appeared to be congruent with a description of northern Newfoundland. In his search, Helge Ingstad and his wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, came across a site in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, which seemed to fit the description of Vinland. In this study, the published archaeological reports from the Ingstad and Wallace excavations are critically examined, in conjunction with supplementary background and comparative studies, to determine how the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows functioned, and what its general purpose was. In particular its focus is dietary practices and site activities.

In this research, based on numismatic findings collected over time and compiled by many researchers, the author aims to present as thorough a study as possible of the Iberian mints located in the Hispania Ulterior province. The purpose of this inquiry is not merely the collection of numismatic material and its documentation. On the contrary, the author hopes to establish different patterns of the 'behaviour' of currency in circulation, and to try and find solutions through numismatics to some historical problems present today.

The book explores the issue of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Central Europe. The data sets used to investigate the question of human behavioural changes at this time include lithic raw material transfers, lithic edge wear analysis, and settlement patterns.

The central theme of this study is an examination of the processes of change in Iron Age social organisation and identity on a regional scale using the Severn-Cotswolds area in England as a case study. It aims to provide a coherent narrative of the period in the region based on the wealth of current data now available, providing a basic storyboard against which future studies can react. This study focuses not just on the landscape, in which human actions were worked out, but recognises that neither the elements (the material culture, settlements, landscape) nor the processes (production, exchange, deposition and social reproduction) can be divorced from one another but need to be combined to form a coherent picture of community identities, organisation and relationships. This broad research theme is an attempt to move beyond a recent emphasis on 'deconstruction' in Iron Age studies and move towards the creation of basic narratives to explain the burgeoning archaeological record. The study discusses in detail the settlement and material culture of the region, and provides a synthesis of a range of new and unpublished data, identifying the diversity and complexity in this material. Through this a narrative emerges of wider, long-term processes of cultural change. In particular, this study asks how different areas of the region developed and the extent to which the archaeological evidence suggests different social organisations. Further, it questions what their impact was on the chronologies and processes of landscape and social change. The Severn-Cotswolds is ripe for regional synthesis for a variety of reasons.Principal in these is the relative neglect of the region in Iron Age studies in recent years with no synthetic studies since brief county surveys in the 1980s. This trend has continued with the Severn-Cotswolds examined as part of other regions, such as Wessex or the Welsh Marches rather than independently. The region is geographically diverse whilst focused around a significant geographical feature- the Severn Estuary. This makes it ideal to assess varying patterns of identity and social organisation and their relation to varying landscapes and/or social, cultural and economic influences. The region is also unusual in having a wealth of evidence for later Iron Age regional production and exchange systems in pottery, briquetage and glass beads to which can now be added quern stones, making it ideal to examine more closely the relationships between production, exchange, settlement patterns and social organisation.

This book investigates the lives of servile dependants, and their role in the large households of the elite Romans. In parallel to the public and political lives of the aristocracy under constant public gaze, there had been other lives led that were totally different but closely connected to them as if the other side of the coin - the usually unseen world of servile dependants. An uneasy proximity created by the cohabitation of the two opposite status groups (aristocratic masters and slaves) brought conflicts and contradiction. In attempting a new inquiry into such historically anonymous individuals and their res publica, the domus, this present work confines itself to analysis of a particular group of inscriptions from Rome (1st/2nd centuries AD), commonly referred to as the columbaria inscriptions. The 'columbarium', a dovecote-like burial structure, was designed to accommodate a number of epitaphs and urns of ashes and became particularly popular during the Julio-Claudian period. Such a communal burial structure appears to have been shared by people with a common background, in many cases the slaves and freedmen staff of a noble family. In other words, the set of epitaphs from a given columbarium is arguably representative of the familia urbana of a certain noble family. Once the group of individuals is thus given an identity, it opens the way to systematic examination of their lives and status from multiple angles. These inscriptions, relatively unexplored until recent decades, offer researchers unique insights into otherwise anonymous people.

Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 63This study determines the possible connections between the various ceramic traditions of Senegal and Gambia, with special references to identities and histories of the current populations. A meticulous analysis of the current contexts of manufacture permits a fresh look at the evolution of ceramic traditions and builds an interpretative model of technical variations applicable to former populations.

This study looks at Early Mesolithic Britain, and in particular the assemblage types known as 'Star Carr', 'Deepcar', and 'Horsham', from the point of view of six independent areas of research: typology, technology, chronology, environment, settlement and origins. The discussions highlight what are considered to be the most relevant results of the analyses and offer one or more interpretations of their meaning for the Early Mesolithic.

Atti del X Convegno di Archeologia Cirenaica Chieti 24-26 Novembre 2003

The purpose of castles - their position and their symbolic nature - is the main focus of this study, which takes into account the importance of their context in the medieval world, as part of a many-faceted society.

Sessions générales et posters / General Sessions and PostersMuséographie et société contemporaine/Museum Studies and Modern Society. Section 18 of the Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001.

In accordance with European Science Foundation regulations, Exploratory Workshops with a maximum of 20 participants were designed to encourage researchers from across Europe to put forward innovative and creative ideas in European research. The workshop 'Lower Palaeolithic small tools in Europe and the Levant' was accordingly held in Liege (Belgium) between September 3 - 7, 2001 (in cooperation with the XIVth Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences). Since the famous1960s' excavations in Vértesszõlõs (Hungary), Lower Palaeolithic assemblages of very small tools have been known in Europe and referred to as microlithic assemblages. They were so different from the known European Lower Palaeolithic assemblages, that the Hungarian archaeologist L. Vértes introduced the new generic name 'Buda Industry', and sparked a wider interest in this whole area of study. This volume (bringing together the current knowledge on a topic that includes the oldest hunting weapons known in the world: the Schöningen (Lower Saxony, Germany) wooden spears) includes the 15 papers that were prepared for the Workshop. Taking the main theme of the Workshop (the comparative technological and stylistic analysis of small tool assemblages in Europe and Asia) as a starting point, the 15 papers presented here (ordered spatially from west to east and temporally from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic: c. 1000 - 300 kyr BP), as well as discussing the "Buda Industry", also extend to cover such areas of interest as the "Lower Palaeolithic Microlithic Tradition", the "Colombanian", the "Archaic Industries" or "Taubachian", etc.

This work is a study of the much neglected brooch type - the "equal arm brooch", a highly distinctive form of personal ornament - and the particular execution of an ornamental style that has only so far been found on examples from north-western Germany. The emergence of these brooches spans only the 5th century AD, and while in the beginning they were limited to the region between the rivers Elbe and Weser in north western Germany, later they are also found spread throughout many areas of England. The equal arm brooches, as well as other items of Germanic origin, were probably introduced to England by a splinter group of the migrating Angles and Saxons (probably migrants from the region between the mouths of the Elbe and Weser). Few researchers have dealt with the equal arm brooches in detail and the author's aim in this study is to explore why equal arm brooches and their unique style emerged, developed so quickly, and then came to an abrupt decline. The volume succeeds in presenting this brooch type in a focused and comprehensive way, illustrating the differences and similarities between the various types and discussing the motifs and decoration as well as exploring their origin and possible social implication. Future research and finds (from both England and Germany) will be able to use this present study as a setting to assist with increasing knowledge of regional craftsmanship and the ornament's distribution on the Continent and in England.

Based on the author's thesis, this study analyses a series of lithic assemblages from the region of Chaseen in eastern Languedoc. Vanessa Lea sets out the background context and methodology of her research before looking in detail at assemblages from eight sites.

Proceedings of a conference held in the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, April 2000.The 25 papers published in these proceedings are the outcome of a conference held at Glasgow University in 2000. The objective of the event was to emphasise the unique contribution archaeology can make towards explaining actions (individual and corporate) and reactions to a range of experiences which, for better or worse, define us as humans: that is our propensity to use violence to resolve situations. The range of papers offered stretched from the C4th BC through to WWII, and geographically from Mexicoto Russia and South Africa.

2000 reprint with a new introduction by the author and updated bibliography by Paul Booth.

This book was first published in 1975 and was then reprinted in 2000 with a new preface.

Anglo-Saxon swords have always attracted scholarly attention. However, the almost intangible nature of Anglo-Saxon sheath and scabbard remains has meant that the most basic questions relating to their construction, places of manufacture, origins, status and stylistic development have gone largely unanswered. It is an aim of this work to redress the balance by examining sheaths and scabbards as composite objects, separate from blades, and to describe and classify them. In this book the archaeological context of sheaths/scabbards is described and new evidence of Anglo-Saxon leather-working recorded.

The aim of this book is to further our understanding of Iron Age animal husbandry regimes in Britain by undertaking a comparative study of faunal assemblages. A uniform methodology for comparing existing faunal data was developed. This will allow recognition of intra- and inter-regional patterns among faunal assemblages.

Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Granada, Spain, April 2010.This volume contains the proceedings of the 38th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) Conference, held April 6th-9th 2010, in Granada, Spain. The theme of the conference was 'Fusion of Cultures', aiming to reflect both the scope of the conference and the spirit of the host city - a celebrated venue for such disciplinary interplay between archaeologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians.

This book looks at the transformations that intentional heat treatment causes in silica rocks when used as lithic raw material. Heat treatment, known from the Middle Stone Age on, is an important step in the evolution of techniques, and the way humans perceived the materials available to them. The study shows an experimental approach, not only to understanding what happens, but also to understanding the range of temperatures and heating speeds at which these transformations take place. The results yield quantitative data that help with the recognition of techniques and procedures that silica rocks, such as flint and other cherts, were subjected to in heat-treated processes.

Contents: Introduction: Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Liverpool (Jonathan Trigg); Joan Taylor PhD, FSA: an appreciation (EA Slater); A bibliography of the publications of Joan J. Taylor (Jonathan Trigg); Early fire: The case for the prosecution and the case for the defence (John Gowlett); 'Books and the Night'.

In 1998 the authors of this report initiated a Jamaican Taíno archaeological project as a joint program of the Department of History, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and Murray State University, Kentucky, USA. The objectives were to conduct a systematic archaeological investigation of a Taíno community (c. 1000-1700 AD), towards understanding its chronology, subsistence economy, trade connections, and social organization. The Taíno occupation sites of St. Mary Parish, on the north coast of Jamaica, were selected so as to compare findings from a number of different areas within a Taíno community which could be recovered through controlled excavations. The first season of excavations was at the Green Castle site, near Annotto Bay, Jamaica, in1999; these excavations were completed in three years, and two neighbouring sites were then investigated, Newry and Coleraine, in 2002 and 2003, respectively. A brief excavation at the Wentworth site, near Port Maria, west of Annotto Bay was also undertaken.Contributions from Lisabeth Carlson, Simon F. Mitchell, Sherene A. James, Ryan Ramsook, Marcella Phillips, Nicole L. Patrick, Anthony R. D. Porter and Ana Luísa Santos.

This book includes papers presented at a conference at Aix-en-Provence, 23-24 April 2010.

Contributions by Roberto Bixio, Andrea De Pascale, Nak¿¿ Karamäaral¿, Alessandro Maifredi and Mauro Traverso.The 'Ancient Ahlat City Excavation' in Ahlat, a province of Bitlis, located at the North West of Lake Van, is the largest excavation site of Turkey, spread on an area of 50 km2 and it is one of the most important city excavations in the country.