Books published by BAR Publishing

Zenobia, Arab Queen of Palmyra, a tragic persona, beautiful, erudite, ambitious, virtuous, courageous, has baffled historians for many centuries. This study portrays her in her own words, the evidence of ancient and modern sources, both Western and Arabic, excavations and research. The third century of the Roman Empire can be justly called the "Arab century", in the sense that the Arabs helped to shape Roman history, from the Severan dynasty (193-235), through Philip the Arab (244-249) to Odainat and Zenobia (259-272). Palmyra (in present-day Syria) was a unique phenomenon, where East and West met. It owed its power to being a barrier between the two great empires of Persia and Rome, which allowed it to develop an extensive commercial activity, with trade routes, caravans and trading posts, and poured onto the city untold wealth. Born in the desert, Palmyra flared brilliantly like a meteor in the sky for six centuries from the third century BC to the third century AD. And then it was gone. However, during the fleeting period of its existence, this small city on the edge of the desert, challenged and shook the very foundations of the two great and mighty empires of the time - Odainat with his smashing victory over the great Persian king and Zenobia over Rome. Zenobia, the subject of this study, built an empire which she had seized from the Romans and which extended from the Euphrates to the Bosphorus. Zenobia and Palmyra, however, are shrouded in legend. To the prejudice of her being a woman in a completely masculine Roman world, and an Oriental, was added excessive romanticism. Zenobia was a Roman to the Romans, an Arab to the Arabs, a Pan-Hellenist to the Greeks, but in fact she was a Hellenized Arab. Her history, as traced by Western authors, was written by her enemies. On the Arab side, it consists of fantastic legends that concentrate on her feud with the Tanukh, whose storytellers (who were also her enemies), boasted in Arab tents of their victory and her defeat. This present study clarifies certain ambiguous aspects of her life, such as her involvement in philosophy and her devotion to the Platonic ideal, but mainly contests the manner of her death and her humiliation, as reported by her enemies who revelled at her presumed exhibition in the Triumph of Aurelian.

This work explores the reconstruction of the topography and planning of the ancient Italian town of Spoleto. One of the most important towns of central Italy, Spoleto's Longobard, medieval and modern layouts and histories are well known but, so far, there has been no up-to-date study of the ancient town and its many spectacular Roman buildings. This new work attempts to put on a digital cadastral map all ancient finds known from the very first discoveries (11th and 12th centuries) up until the latest excavations. Using data processing techniques, the author investigates every feature of the ancient settlement and identifies the relationships between the ancient buildings and later constructions. Moving from the typology and building materials, the structures are separated into component layers, reflecting the many various periods of town planning and their relationships with the history of Roman Spoleto provided by ancient sources.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the Mayan pottery from Xkipché in the Puuc area of the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. During the 7th century, in Puuc area a regional type of Mayan culture emerged, recognizable by characteristic architectural style. So far it was impossible to date the beginnings and ends of the settlements in this area. The site of Xkipché offers clues to the dating, with almost half a million of studied pottery fragments. This is by far the largest prehispanic pottery assemblage from the whole of the northen Yucatan.

The Roman Gask project was founded in 1995 in the University of Manchester. It has since been engaged in an extensive campaign of surveys, excavation and archive work. Its remit was to cover all of Roman Scotland north of the Antonine Wall but, as its name suggests, its principal focus has been on the system of military works on and around the Gask Ridge in Perthshire (from the Glenbank fortlet, north of Dunblane, to the fort of Bertha on the Tay). This volume is an interim report describing the progress made during its first five years. It is in two sections; the first provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on the Gask, while the second section reports on a series of field work programmes (two rescued from archives dating from the 1960s and 1970s. The project has undertaken nineteen excavations, numerous surveys, museum/archive work, air-photography assignments, and field-walking tasks: a significant achievement over a short period of time.With contributions from A.T. Croom, M.H. Davies, A.C. Finnegan, M.A. Hall, K.F. Hartley, B. Hoffmann, A.J. Hughes, N.J. Lockett and S. Ramsay.

This is a detailed study of clay Neolithic human figurines found in Italy. The book looks at the typological, statistical, iconographical, symbolic and gender-related aspects of small plastic figurines. A detailed catalogue with illustrations is also included.

This book presents a study and comparison of the historical and archaeological records of Middle Saxon Lincolnshire and Hampshire in the period immediately following the conversion to Christianity to the reign of King Alfred (c.650-870). The work charts and compares, from an archaeological perspective, the political, social, and economic development of Lincolnshire and Hampshire throughout the Middle Saxon period. It is the first full-length study of this period to include metal-detector finds, and to illustrate the outstanding importance of this extensive and continuously growing new material. In fact, the book presents a plea for the recognition of metal-detected material and the outstanding value of these finds to the archaeology of the Middle Saxon period. Containing 31 detailed maps in colour, illustrating finds and features.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 5This book examines funerary practices in the State of Michoacan (Mexico) in the period of 1200 to 1520 AD. It adds new data to the results recently published by the French Michoacan Project, as funerary and mortuary practices in this region were ill known, due to a relative lack of archaeological investigations. Through the use of the new techniques of funerary anthropology, Pereira has been able to obtain new results, thus modifying in many respects our knowledge of this part of northern Mesoamerica.

This is a detailed technical and typological study of the pebble-tool industries from the southern Armorican coast during the Lower Palaeolithic. The study examines regional 'Colombanian' group and compares it with other Acheulian assemblages of Northern France, as well as with similar industries in Europe.

Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 48The study of social and cultural changes which occurred in the period between 3000 and 1000 BC in the areas bordering the Nile and the Red Sea. Studied were the Egyptian texts, archaeological evidence as well as paleo-climatic circumstances.

This book presents the detailed results of excavations at a small multi-period site in south-east Dorset. The site provided evidence for an Early Neolithic enclosure, a timber-framed, Late Bronze Age roundhouse, Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age middening activities, Iron Age and Roman settlement and a post-Roman inhumation cemetery. The midden and its associated features and finds are of particular significance, with evidence for deposition and accumulation over several centuries. Other important features include: a Late Iron Age stone-lined pit containing over 100 near-complete pots and a substantial quantity of animal bone, suggesting a large-scale communal gathering and feasting activity; a Roman barn, used as a shale workshop and as a burial place for infants; a 6th- to 8th-century AD cemetery of single, double and triple graves, illuminating the nature of change in burial practices in Dorset at this time; and significant pottery and animal bone assemblages, particularly from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age and Late Iron Age.

This study focuses on the diversity with which early medieval society formed not only among macro European zones but also within individual areas, and thus on the need to look beyond the models elaborated during a phase in which archaeological sources were still fragmentary and inadequate. Through a combination of historical and documented-based investigation and the most recent extensive archaeological data, the author makes a comparative analysis of the different results of the movements of Germanic groups, especially in the particularly representative area of northern Italy and the Alpine system, during various periods: in the 5th century as auxiliary troops under the control of the same Roman Empire (Burgundians), then as the new military élites and finally as the new ruling class (Ostrogoths and Langobards), revealing how the cultural evolution of the new sites appears to be strictly correlated to different situations and often common to the new Germanic element and to the local Romanised components. Interesting and stimulating concepts that underscore the formation of a shared culture are presented in this contribution along with a refreshing new perspective of certain aspects, such as the evolution of clothing and funerary rituals, already considered expressions of simple ethnic preservation.

This report describes the results of the evaluations and excavations of the new A34/M4 interchange at Chieveley, West Berksire, England, and discusses the combined evidence from superficial and subsurface finds. It is concluded that there was a significant intensification of activity in the area starting in the Middle Bronze Age following a sporadic earlier prehistoric presence. This continued into the Late Bronze Age. The lack of Iron Age material is noted and there seems to have been a re-intensification of occupation in the late Iron Age or early Roman periods. The few early-middle Saxon pits were divorced from a settlement context and remain enigmatic.With contributions from Alex Thorne, Jane Timby, Tora Hylton, Ian Meadows, Val Fryer, Rowena Gale and Karen Deighton

This books researches human bone modifications and their implications, based on the study of the Mesolithic assemblage from the 'grotte des Perrats' (Charente, France). The evidence produced implies cannibalism among the Mesolithic population.

Freiburg Dissertations in Aegean ArchaeologyAn extensive study of the images impressed on Minoan and Mycenean seals. All seals are classified, fully illustrated and catalogued with a typology and interpretation of their meaning.

This book includes papers from a session at the German Archaeologists' Conference held in Leipzig in 1996. With short English abstracts.

28 papers (19 in English, 7 in French and 2 in Spanish) from C 17.1 (Change in the Andes: Origins of Social Complexity, Pastoralism and Agriculture)Coordinators: Hugo D. Yacobaccio & Daniel E. Olivera.

In his study of the inhabitants of Zahrat adh-Dhra' 1 on the Dead Sea Plain of Jordan, the author presents a behavioral study of a Bronze Age community and provides a useful and complimentary addition to the enormous body of archaeological work conducted on chronology, culture history and trade in the southern Levant. This monograph takes as its focus the controversial realm of ancient behavior. The author's detailed approach arises from the specific necessities surrounding investigations into behavior through archaeological materials and the broad range of materials employed in this work includes subsistence, trade, housing, the preparation of food, waste management, as well as attitudes to communal activities and levels of permanence. The study makes full use of all these variables and tries to understand them within a framework of site formation processes - so crucial to interpretations of material evidence. The result is a comprehensive picture of a unique community, isolated from its contemporaries and living out a frugal existence in a harsh and marginal setting - the inhabitants of Zahrat adh-Dhra' 1 on the Dead Sea Plain of Jordan. The author has attempted to portray accurately ongoing behavioral tendencies, thereby contributing to our knowledge of south Levantine Bronze Age society.

This study is a highly innovative body of research on the supply of raw material in prehistoric Iberia. The archaeological assemblages from recently excavated sites in north-eastern Spain are clearly presented, as are the various methods for the characterisation of flints and the determination of geological origins. The study is important in terms of the new data provided on raw material supply at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic in Iberia and a reconstruction of mobility patterns and resource exploitation of hunter-gatherer groups during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.

This book presents papers (6 in French and 8 in English) from the general sessions of Section 3 (Paleoecology) of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001.

In this work the author studies domestic life at two urban sites in Upper Mesopotamia, Titri¿ Höyük and Kazane Höyük, and, for comparison, a rural settlement, Tilbes Höyük. The author opted for an integration of archaeological and geological techniques (more frequently used at prehistoric sites) and developed a method that she refers to as "micro-archaeology" or "micro-debris analysis." In total, 370 micro-debris samples were taken from a diversity of contexts that date to the Early Bronze Age, ca. third millennium B.C.E. Generations of archaeologists have devised models to explain the functioning of cities in ancient Mesopotamia. Implicit in many models is a focus on the elites and historic events. In this research, the author analyzes wealthy and commoner households to test current models of domestic economy, family structure, house types, and residential organization within rural and urban communities.

This book includes papers (7 in English, 4 in French) from the general sessions of Section 2 (Archaeometry) of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001.

A further volume in the proceedings of the XIVth UISPP Congress held at the University of Liège, Belgium, 2001: Section 5 - The Middle Palaeolithic.

A further volume in the proceedings of the XIVth UISPP Congress held at the University of Liège, Belgium, 2001: Section 6 - The Upper Palaeolithic.

Despite many investigations in this area, ancient lamps and lighting techniques continue to fascinate. This present work includes articles from Russia, Switzerland, and Ukraine and tackles contextual problems, possible new classifications, iconography, and related lighting equipment. One chapter is devoted to the role of fire in a Late Skythian royal palace, and others explore the North Pontic area, which is relatively unknown.

In contrast to other Atlas and Saharan regions, the prehistoric stone-carvings of certain Moroccan districts are not well known. This volume presents the author's study of various sites (two in Msissi and three in Tazzarine), and especially her attempts to analyze their zoomorphic rock engravings and to insert them in their chronological, cultural, and environmental contexts through a multidisciplinary approach. The engraved bestiary shows several affinities with the neolithic fauna of some sites in the Sahara. The evidence suggests a wide time-span, covering the neolithic era until the protohistoric periods.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 10 This monograph discusses the opposition between maritime hunters and the pampas hunters of southernmost Patagonia. The various lithic technologies are investigated and a detailed analysis given of the operating chains of tool making, tool-economies and cultural patterns. The final section assesses these different patterns and the various ways of interpreting convergences and variability in terms of cultural identity. The technical and cultural relationships highlighted lead to a new perception of the dichotomy between maritime and terrestrial hunters, and of the cultural uniformity of the first maritime populations in the 6th millennium BP in South Patagonia.

Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists Fifth Annual Meeting in Bournemouth 1999This volume presents ten papers (9 in English, 1 in French) given during a session of the European Association of Archaeologists in Bournemouth in 1999. The theme of the session was "relationships between objects", the aim of which was to discuss "relationships" existing between objects in the process of creating meaning in the archaeological record. The papers range from Mesolithic portable art in Scandinavia to food as ritual objects in ancient Italy.

The open-air sites at Saut-du-Perron (the Villerest district of the Loire, France) have been explored for more than a hundred years and are known in the archaeological literature principally for the discovery of a series of habitation structures associated with a Gravettian industry. These same sites contained 182 engraved schist plaquettes that form the most important collection in eastern France and that are the subject of this study. The author discusses the intrinsic characteristics of the schists, giving a description and drawing of each engraved plaquette, and examines the geographical, stylistic and chronological affiliations of this group within the context of other upper Palaeolithic collections.Book contains complete text in English along with French translation.

Written by Peter Ellis, Gary Coates, Richard Cuttler and Catharine MouldA report on four pieces of fieldwork undertaken in Cambridgeshire (Pode Hole Farm, Paston, Longstanton, Bassingbourn) in 1996 and 1997. Pode Hole Farm provided Bronze Age to Romano-British material; Paston Romano-British; Longstanton Late Saxon and Medieval; and Bassingbourn Saxon and Medieval. Each has a similar format and layout, starting with a review of the processes leading up to the fieldwork and an outline of the methods used followed by acknowlegements. In the case of three of the excavations, an historical and documentary section follows which summarizes the known data before excavation began and provides a necessary historical background. In a general concluding discussion some points are considered from the excavations and the results are set within their county context.

Papers from a symposium held at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum University of Minnesota March 10-12, 2000The 17 papers here stem from a symposium held at the University of Minnesota in March, 2000. Visiting monastic sites of all periods, from Clonmacnoise in Ireland, to Mount Athos, to Old Dongola on the Nile, this collection of essays shows the many variations of religious community, and of material evidence and the ways to use it. The aim has been to illuminate basic (art and architectural) issues concerning monasteries as communities, or parts of communities, and the insights gained provoke thought about other monastic experiences, within and without the Christian tradition.