Books published by BAR Publishing

Obsidian-bearing sites spanning the temporal framework of the Palaeolithic and located in Africa and Europe are analysed with the aim of elucidating the evolution of modern social behaviour. Obsidian is a rock that forms only under very special conditions; its geological sources are infrequent and distinguished from each other on the basis of unique chemical properties. As such it is possible to reconstruct the distances of its movement and use these data to infer the scale of social life during the Palaeolithic. A strong correlation between obsidian use and long distances is observed implying that the hominins involved in the circulation of the specific material were behaving in a socially modern way.

Open-air rock-art forms one of the most widely distributed categories of prehistoric culture with examples recognized across the Old and New Worlds. It is also one of the most threatened features of human heritage and is susceptible to accelerated decay as a result of natural processes. Considering the specific case of the Côa Valley rock-art complex in Portugal, but also analysing case studies originating from other countries (Norway, Brazil, Southern USA and South Korea), this richly illustrated book addresses open-air rock-art natural degradation causes, suitable methods to assess current condition and the creation of urgency scales for conservation interventions.

This volume presents the current state of archaeological knowledge of the urban world in Hispania in the historical period between the 4th and 7th centuries. It also addresses the open debate around scholars' perception of the status of the population centres that persisted until the Early Middle Ages - in episcopal cities or not - through archaeological documents. The urban landscape inherited from the classical world and its transformation were taken as a starting point to understand which elements changed and which persisted in Late Antique Hispanic cities. However, this study is triggered by the need to consider the origin and evolution of Christian topography in Hispanic cities. Its main objective is to understand both the consolidation of episcopaltopography and the new funerary reality of Late Antique cities.

The author has undertaken a technological and typological analysis of lithic assemblages from southern Oman dating between 10,000 to 7,000 years before present (BP). These assemblages are characterized by the production of blades (leptoliths) using varied core reduction modalities exemplified throughout the book. These blade technologies are accompanied by formal tools such as tanged projectiles, burins, endscrapers and pseude-backed knifes. The chronological and techno-typological characterization of these blade assemblages warrants its individual status as a lithic industry of the Late Palaeolithic in its own right. The name 'Khashabian' is given by the author to this industry, which has little resemblance to those found outside of Arabia, enforcing the local origin of the Early Holocene Populations of the South Arabian Highlands.

The domestication of South American camelids (llamas and alpacas) transformed the use of the Andean landscape. In the central altiplano of Bolivia, during the Formative Period (1500 BC - AD 500) a cultural complex known as Wankarani developed. This book discusses the development of early camelid pastoralism by testing a set of hypotheses related to Wankarani economic organization. In contrast with previous ideas that suggested the emergence of sedentary agricultural villages in this region, settlement patterns, site layouts and faunal remains analyses support the interpretation that the development and persistence of mobile pastoralist communities occurred in the Bolivian central altiplano.

This book presents the research results carried on the metallic artifacts from the British HMS Swift, lost off Puerto Deseado (Province of Santa Cruz, Argentina) in 1770. The shipwreck - located 47° 45' 12'' South, 65° 54' 57'' West - was found by local divers and has been the subject of archaeological study since 1997.

This book is a study about funerary practices of prehistoric communities in Jarama's region (Central Iberia) during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Its aim is to define the different ways of burial and detect its changes and variations in order to identify and explain possible social and ideological transformations. This study shows that relevant socioeconomic transformations happened in the Late Prehistory of Central Iberia and these changes are detected as well as far as ritual ideology is concerned. As a matter of fact, the change in items and type of offerings in the grave goods is very significant between the Copper and Bronze Ages, showing transformations as well in the ideological conception of burials and the afterlife.

This monograph examines the aniconic cult stones, or baetyls, of the Aegean Bronze Age. Minoan baetyls are commonly understood by reference to the interpretive vocabularies of ancient Near Eastern traditions developed by comparative ethnographies popular in the early 20th century. This study presents and interrogates the Aegean evidence for baetyl cult, providing a catalogue of archaeological evidence attesting to this cultic practice. Contextual analysis provides the basis for interpreting and (re)constructing aspects of the cult. It is argued that the ambiguity inherent in these aniconic stones renders them uniquely flexible in serving multiple cultic, ritual and ideological functions across different contexts.

The central focus of this research (covering the period from the middle of the Second Century BC to the middle or late Second Century AD) concerns the form and function of suburban villas and their meaning within Roman society. The research reveals that these buildings served a unique role within the community, portraying an appearance of leisure and culture to the wider community and yet maintaining an intimate connection with the city centre. For the purpose of this study the region of central Italy has been chosen, concentrating on two regions; the political capital at Rome and the vicinity around the Bay of Naples (the centres of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae). These sites have been selected because of the wealth of archaeological and literary evidence centred upon this region. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which covered a wide area, including Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, has provided a unique location for analysing the architecture, decoration and lifestyles of Roman residences. This region was of great social importance to the political leaders of Rome, allowing an in-depth understanding of the domestic residences of many of the highest political leaders during the period. The literary evidence shows that the regions around Rome and the Bay of Naples had many villas owned by leading Roman citizens, and by examining these structures it is possible to gain a greater understanding of their lifestyles and the social climate within the upper strata of the community.

A study of European decorative ironwork techniques as applied to arms and armour from Late Medieval to modern times.

Libagioni pure e misticismo tra la Grecia e il mondo iranico

The book derives from the experiences of the authors as lecturers and tutors at different international summer schools on reality-based surveying and 3D modelling in the field of archaeology and cultural heritage. The book is organized in three main sections. The first part aims to introduce and discuss the contribution of geomatic techniques in archaeology and more generally in cultural heritage with particular attentions to the 3D domain. The second part is focused on the main areas involved in the implementation of 3D surveys (aerial and terrestrial LiDAR, photogrammetry, remote sensing), 3D documentations, GIS and 3D interpretations (virtual and cyber archaeology). The last section collects some relevant case studies showing the extraordinary contribution that geomatic techniques can give to archaeological research and cultural heritage at different scales of detail: object, site, landscape.

This bilingual volume presents a series of case studies exploring the ways in which different objects from the ancient world changed in both meaning and value over time. The contributions range in focus from the Neolithic until the medieval period, and interpret the material from a theoretical, interdisciplinary perspective. The case studies examine how objects represent, embody and affect particular values, illuminating the relationship between humans, societies and objects, as well as the role of the material in everyday life.

The study of furniture and its production is a window into both the social position of its owner and the techniques and social organization of the craftsmen. This book comprises an examination and analysis of chairs, stools and footstools of the New Kingdom (ca.1550-1069 B.C.) which are preserved in the Cairo Egyptian Museum. The first chapter is dedicated to woodworking processes and techniques of manufacturing chairs and stools. The second chapter analyses the chairs, stools, and fragments that constitute the main corpus of this study (131 pieces in total). The third chapter focuses primarily on two-dimensional scenes and how these can increase our understanding of the study objects. The fourth chapter is devoted to a lexicographical analysis of the terms used to designate different types of chairs, stools and footstools. This is followed by a typological study of chairs and stools in the New Kingdom based on actual pieces of furniture that my corpus includes and those preserved in other collections.

Upper Paleolithic groups used the open-air site of Solutré (Saône-et-Loire, south-eastern France) as a location to intercept and hunt horse and reindeer herds. The primary goal of this study is to conduct a high-power use-wear analysis of a sample of lithic artifacts from each of the Upper Paleolithic cultural components in an effort to address a number of topics. A further aim is to test the current inferences of site activities at Solutré and attempt to identify any consistencies and differences in lithic toolkit structure and tool use through time at the site. A use-wear analysis of this sort allows one to recognize other activities unrelated to or secondarily related to the primary site function. Such methods can also be used to determine if tool use strategies changed or remained stable over time against the backdrop of site function.

This work sets down the results of the author's excavation and fieldwork in west Wales within the framework now emerging for British early prehistory. Whilst much of the new data assembled here is thus relevant to the early Flandrian settlement of Wales,the coverage has been extended to include a consideration of the evidence for Late Pleistocene settlement as well. This arises not only from the author's interests but also from the fact that both Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic find-spots are co-located if not at the same find-spot then frequently in the same area. In chronological terms, the scope of the work therefore extends from c. 250,000 BP to c. 5,000 BP, but concentrates specifically on the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic record. Chapter II sets out to summarize the Pleistocene archaeological record for Wales against what is known of the environmental background. Only after the late Devensian glacial maximum, does this record become in any sense prolific in Britain. In Chapter III the discussion moves on into the Flandrian to consider the early Mesolithic settlement of Wales. In Chapter IV a further very important Mesolithic find-spot is introduced. This is the well-known flint 'factory' at The Nab Head on the clifftop of St. Brides Bay, west Wales, recognized since the last century as a prolific source of flint tools and chippings. Later Mesolithic technology in Wales is introduced and discussed in Chapter V. Additional chronological and environmental data are assessedfollowed by a description of some of the other important Welsh find-spots with 'narrow blade' material. Amongst the latter is a newly discovered site at The Nab Head (Site II) - described in Chapter VI - where the writer conducted excavations in 1981, 1982 and 1986. Using the results from the excavations at The Nab Head to predict the probable appearance of local late Mesolithic stone technologies, Chapter VII then discusses collections made by the author from the abundant lithic scatters along the coastal lowlands of north-west Dyfed. Earlier research sought to place a greater emphasis on the high biotic potential of western coasts and the advantages of a combined exploitation of both terrestrial and marine economies. This latter theme is taken up again here in the final part of Chapter VII, which assesses the economic resources potentially available during the late Mesolithic and speculates upon the exploitation and settlement patterns responsible for such apparently intensive coastal activity. The significance of coastal regimes to the emergence of farming at the end of the Mesolithic is also considered. Finally, a concluding Chapter briefly notes some of the more significant results of this research and ends by emphasizing the need both for more freshly excavated data and the further application of AMS dating throughout the periods covered.

Translated from the Russian, edited and with an introduction by P. Allsworth-Jones

The purpose of this monograph is to examine, primarily from a geological perspective, the distribution and use of indigenous construction materials - carrstone especially but also its competitors together with brick - in the hamlets, villages and towns of north and west Norfolk, part of the fourth largest county in England, without restriction as to period (Roman-modern) or kind of building (cottage, farm, great house, religious, public/community, official).The area embraced roughly coincides with the physiographic sub-regions distinguished as the level, low-lying Fenland with its extensive controlled or artificial drainage, the gently rising Western Escarpment, the North Alluvial Plain along the North Sea coast, the elevated but comparatively level and gently dissected Good Sands, with the Cromer Ridge in the north and east, and the sandy Breckland. A study on such a geographical and temporal scale must, however, be regarded as no more than a reconnaissance, but it brings light to bear on past changes ineconomic and social factors in these parts of the county, will serve as a springboard for detailed, local work in the future, and may interest conservationists and those whose responsibilities include planning, development, and the preservation of the character of the area.

This volume groups together papers presented at a Commission 4 session at the XVI UISPP World Congress in Florianópolis, Brazil (4-10 September 2011), a UISPP commission 4 session in Leiden, The Netherlands (2nd November 2012) and at a session entitled Advanced Prospection Methods for Cultural Heritage Management - Experiences and Challenges during the EAA Annual Meeting in Helsinki, Finland (29th August - 1st September 2012).

In 2002-2003, the construction of a new road to bypass the village of Toomebridge, Co Antrim, through which the main Belfast to Derry Road (A6) passed, was commenced by Roads Service; an Agency within the Department of Regional Development. As part of the overall planning permission for the Toomebridge Bypass, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) raised a requirement for archaeological mitigation. Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd was appointed to undertake the archaeological excavation of this site. In the course of topsoil stripping a small drumlin on part of the road scheme 2,100 flint artefacts were uncovered. While the majority (approximately 70%) of these dated from the Late Mesolithic, the Earlier Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods were also represented. Archaeology was uncovered on the western side of the drumlin. It formed 14 discrete areas (Features 1-14). The features were for the most part structures and ranged in date from the Mid-Mesolithic (Features 1-4), through the Late Mesolithic (Features 5-8), the Bronze Age (Features 9-11), and the late Bronze Age or Iron Age (Feature 13) and the 19th to 20th centuries (Feature 14).

This fourth volume (Proceedings 4) presents the results of an international conference held at the Museo de los Orígenes (Casa de San Isidro) in December 2008. The work is divided into three parts: Four studies on general aspects of the 'rock world' in the Iberian Peninsula, the chronology of the caves artificially created, the 'troglodyte' in the Greco-Roman tradition, and the chronology of rock-cut tombs. The second part looks at eleven studies of various regions and 'rock complexes' in the Iberian Peninsula ('San Vítor', in San Lorenzo da Barxacova, Parada del Sil, Ourense; 'El Bierzo'; the upper valley of the Ebro; 'San Martín de Albelda', in 'La Rioja'; the middle valley of the Cidacos river; the high valley of the Arlanza river; 'San Frutos del Duratón', Segovia; the suburbium and territory of Ercavica in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages; the territory of Sierra Magina; and finally, the Almagruz caves, in Purullena, Granada. The third part examines parallels in other Mediterranean regions, such as the 'rock city' of Matera (Italy), the valley of the Euphrates (northern Syria); the churches built on the rock of Lalibela (Ethiopia), and the 'rock world' in the provinces of 'Arabia' and Palestina Tertia in Jordan.

This book focuses on the 'un-naturalistic' iconography of human imagery intuitively regarded as 'super-natural'. A Darwinian model of the evolution of symbolic culture, the Female Cosmetic Coalitions model, provides theoretical grounding for the earliest androgynous and therianthropic religious representations and provides theoretical confidence as to the long-term survival of symbols. An analogy between simple shapes and human genitalia expresses the fusion of male and female. The background is the transition from hunting and gathering to farming; power relations are presented as changing from an 'original social contract' underpinned by female ritual power, to a 'new social contract' driven by competing male elites.

Proceedings of the Sudbury Workshop, April 12-14, 2012 / Actes de l'atelier Savoirs et pratiques de gestion intégrée des bords de l'eau - Riparia, Sudbury, 12-14 avril, 2012RIPARIA is a concept encompassing the complex environment of watersides and having its semantic roots in the Roman world. It is constructed on the basis of land use patterns and economic activities (colonization, urbanization, exploitation of natural resources). The contributions to this volume present the challenges facing ancient and modern preindustrial societies in managing such areas. They highlight the role of social representations of watersides and their management (risk management, ecosystem services, cultural heritage) as an interface between the natural and the social systems, in view of identifying ethical principles for both the preservation and transformation of these environments, particularly vulnerable to climate change and variations.Preface by Henri Décamps

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 34The city of Palenque achieved its greatest splendour in the Late Classic when it became one of the foremost centres in the Maya world. During the reign of K'inich Janaab' Pakal (A.D. 615-683) the Temple of the Inscriptions, which later served as his sepulchre and commemorative monument, was built. In 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the funerary chamber in the Temple of the Inscriptions. Based on the reports from the 1950s, photographs taken at the time of the discovery, work published over the past half century, and the analysis of objects that composed the funerary furnishings, this research proposes a holistic revision of the funerary complex. The funerary furnishings, the manufacturing technique and technical sequence employed to create such pieces were studied; the geographic location of the sources of the raw materials was proposed. Finally, the function of each object and its probable significance were discussed.

This study is focused on the relations between Egypt and the Aegean during the early XVIIIth Dynasty, a period of close contact between these two regions. The discovery of Minoan wall paintings decorating a palace complex at Tell el Dab'a (Avaris) was the starting point for this research which reviews the evidence concerning the relations between Egyptians and Minoans especially during the beginning of the New Kingdom, but sometimes also looking at the evidence from previous periods. This contact brought together a mutual influence on artistic and cultural matters, which has its best evidence on the Minoan wall paintings decorating a Thutmoside palace complex in Egypt.

The growing interest in the cultural dimensions and environmental aspects of the transition to the Neolithic in the 6th millennium BC calls for a brief overview of what we know about the Early Neolithic in the Danube-Tisza interfluve. The idea of a volume drawing together the various strands of evidence on the Early Neolithic in this region resulted in the multi-facetted analysis presented in this volume. One major advance emanating from the study was the elimination of the archaeological blankspot between the Alföld and Transdanubia - earlier, the very existence of this blank spot made any discussion of possible contact between the two thoroughly researched regions virtually impossible and hampered comparisons of any kind. This volume follows on from the excavations at Polgár-Cs¿szhalom in 1957, in this series (BAR S1730, 2008). The assessment of the site at Szakmár-Kisülés, an Early Neolithic settlement lying near the left Danube bank, is obviously linked to the problems of the Early Neolithic along the Danube and the publication of the finds from this site forms the backbone of the present volume.Archaeolingua Central European Series 7English translation by Attila Kreiter and Magdalena Seleanu.With contributions by Ida Bognár-Kutzián†, Sándor Gulyás, Attila Kreiter, Endre Krolopp†, Rozália Kustár, Mária Miháltz-Faragó†, Katalin Náfrádi, Ákos Pet¿, Péter Pánczél, Gerg¿ Persaits, József Stieber†, Pál Sümegi, Tünde Tör¿csik, István Vörös and Zsuzsanna K. Zoffmann

This study uses place-names to suggest the major routes in use in early medieval England. Many Roman roads existing by the fifth century are known. Some fourteenth century routes in existence can be deduced from the Gough map of c.1360, and seventeenth century routes from Ogilby's road atlas of 1675. Between the fifth and fourteenth centuries there is little information about routes except in scattered charter boundary references. Here it is suggested that this gap can be partially filled using place-name evidence. Certain names such as Stratton, Drayton and Compton occur consistently by Roman roads and a few other old routes but rarely elsewhere. A string of such names along a route suggests that it was in use. Hythe and Eaton indicate waterways in use. The needs of travellers, possible destinations and how such a naming system may have arisen is considered.

This work brings together all that is currently known of early medieval grave disturbance in Anglo-Saxon England and on the Merovingian continent. It investigates in detail an intensive outbreak of grave disturbance in 6th-7th century Kent. This is closely related to the same phenomenon in Merovingia: an example of the import of not only material goods but also a distinctive cultural practice. Limited numbers of similar reopening episodes, affecting a much smaller proportion of graves in each cemetery, are also identified elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon England. Although the phenomenon of grave robbery is well-attested in Merovingia, this research is the first study at a regional level. The aim is to advance the debate about early medieval disturbance from general discussion of interpretative possibilities to evaluation of specific models and their compatibility with the archaeological evidence.

Written by Zenon Wozniak, Michal Grygiel, Henryk Machajewski and Andrzej Michalowski.This study sums up the research carried out so far and our current knowledge on Jastorf culture populations in northwest Poland with a special focus on the distinctive traits of the Jastorf settlements in two regions: Pomerania and Wielkopolska. It aims to depict a particular qualitative breakthrough that was witnessed in Polish research into this cultural formation in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The findings presented, and above all the pool of sources, are aimed at providing a basis for discussing the cultural situation in northwest Poland in the early younger Pre-Roman period. The sources amount to a signpost towards the moment when the cultural picture of the central European Barbaricum was taking its dramatic shape over the last few centuries BC.

Human bone in archaeological context is the product of natural processes and cultural patterns; the deposits can seal several things: the vital aspects of one skeleton, the intentions that led to the burial, and natural and accidental processes. This in turn becomes part of the history of these remains and the way they are arranged, their environmental changes and rituals can all influence the recovery procedure. The synchronic and diachronic bio-cultural environments involve new requirements and present further limitations. Taking the geographical framework of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, the author addresses the methodological issues involved in the recovery of archaeological skeletal remains: cremation and inhumation, primary and secondary burials, individual and collective deposits.