Books published by BAR Publishing

In 2006 and 2007, a 94km-long gas pipeline was excavated across the Pennines, from Pannal in North Yorkshire, to Nether Kellet in Lancashire (N/W England). Around twenty archaeological excavations were undertaken to mitigate the impact of the construction of the pipeline on the archaeology of the route, and these form the subject of this volume. The excavated remains were generally slight and were widely scattered along the route; the range of periods they represent is equally broad and intermittent. The earliest recorded evidence was a Mesolithic flint scatter from Ribblesdale. Bronze Age activity was represented by ringworks, burnt mounds and rock art, with an apparent concentration on the Craven lowlands during this period. The prehistoric remains seem to reveal a low and shifting population, more concerned with monumentality and remembering than with settlement and land division. Very few traces of activity attributable to the 1st millennium BC were encountered. Romano-British remains were surprisingly sparse considering the military infrastructure and transport network inserted into the region at this time. The pattern of slight and transient landuse with low levels of material culture, established in prehistory, appears to have been an enduring characteristic of the area. The excavations along the Pannal to Nether Kellet pipeline have undoubtedly helped to characterise the archaeological resource of the Pennine river valleys through which it passed, and have refined the understanding of the distribution and chronology of various activities and site types across a range of time periods. Some questions have been answered, and many new ones framed. These sites now exist as a comparator for future work, both in the local area and nationally.

The Tihamah plain extends some 500km down the western coast of modern Yemen and about 100km along its southern coast. This publication presents the first long-term culture-history of the Tihamah, through the exploration of socio-economic, cultural and political developments and of the region's relation to the rest of South West Arabia to its east, and to the Horn of Africa lying to its west, across the Red Sea. This research assimilates and analyses all of the available data for an archaeological understanding of the pre-Islamic Tihamah. This comprehensive study, taken in a long-term perspective, enables the identification of patterns, discontinuities, changes and current interpretive problems related to the development of the Tihamah in its relation to neighbouring regions. The analysis is based on published and unpublished archaeological research - including field research undertaken by the author - and on a range of historical sources, which include South West Arabian pre-Islamic inscriptions and Graeco-Roman sources. It also draws on a disparate range of relevant data from the rest of South West Arabia and the Horn of Africa over an equivalent period. This publication demonstrates the importance of the Tihamah to wider cultural, economic and political developments within the rest of South West Arabia and the Horn of Africa. It adds to the emerging pre-Islamic history of other regions of South West Arabia that have been studied more fully elsewhere.

Twenty-five papers presented to the fourth International Meeting of Anthracology held in Brussels at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) between the 8 and 13 September 2008.

During the transition to the early Neolithic, a number of changes took place among the hunter-fishers of southern Norway. New resources were exploited, and some groups took up agriculture. Several new artefacts were invented and more lithic raw materials were quarried. People became increasingly sedentary and distinctive regional traditions developed. At the same time, long distance trade was initiated between these regions. The fact that the changes happened more or less simultaneously in many regions was probably not coincidental. They were, most likely, intimately linked to changes that also took place in the social lives of these people. One of the most important social changes may have been the development of more marked ethnic boundaries, which were related to increasing social inequality among the local groups. Such boundaries are important because they enable control of own populations and because they increase the social status for the ones who are able to cross them. In this study, the main theme is the investigation of whether such ethnic boundaries can be delineated. The author identifies them archaeologically, and discusses how and why they were established and maintained. Cultural differences are important resources for the establishment of ethnic differences. Consequently, it is of vital importance to investigate whether such differences can be traced in the archaeological data. This is done by recording as many early Neolithic cultural practices as possible and by subjecting them to a multivariate analysis. The author documents and quantifies site locations, raw materials, tool types and lithic reduction techniques to decide whether the distributions on these practices co-vary across space. The author also investigates whether there have been ruptures or major changes in communication. This is done by recording the distribution of the lithic raw materials with known sources. Although the development of more marked social boundaries probably took place throughout southern Norway, the main area of analysis in this volume only includes western Norway between Sunnmøre and Hordaland, and the mountain range between eastern and western Norway. Regions adjacent to this area are, however, drawn into the analysis and discussions. The most importantdata is from 37 excavated early Neolithic sites, which have been selected and re-analysed by means of a reference system for raw materials for the purpose of this study. Geological isotope analysis and mineralogical studies are important elements of the investigation of the lithic data. The study concentrates on the early Neolithic, which is approximately dated to between 5200 and 4700 BP in western Norway and 5100 and 4500 BP in eastern Norway. The late Mesolithic is, however, referred to both as a contrast to, and as a historical background for, the boundaries that emerged during the Neolithic.

The concepts of 'territory' and 'territoriality' are analysed on the basis of anthropological and archaeological data. It is assumed that 'territory' and 'territoriality' are more complex concepts than simple space occupation. For the case of Egypt in the Old Kingdom, the author of this volume considers different variables related to the ideology and to the socio-political and economic systems of the Egyptian state. Its consolidation, the royal power legitimisation and that of the elite, and the socio-political and economic system are here considered from their unification in the Early Dynastic period, to the Old Kingdom, when the state expanded and its political and ideological maturity was achieved. 'Part One: Territory, occupation of space and legitimisation; Part Two: Royal necropolises and Pyramid towns during the Old Kingdom; Part Three: The territorial appropriation in Egypt - an alternative explanation for the Old Kingdom.

This volume focuses on: the identification of indelible traces recorded on bones; on human actions associated with these marks; and finally on human behaviours that led to actions performed on bodies around the time of death. The research joins a long line of studies focused on cannibalism recognition, as one of the behaviours associated with death carried out by different social groups at all times and places. The methodology is based on the observation of a series of intentional manipulation traces left in bone's surfaces, and the examination of modifications caused by taphonomic agents or non-human factors that may interfere with right interpretation of the agent responsible for this behaviour. Complex funerary practices, violent deceases, human sacrifices, offerings of human remains or cannibalism are behaviours associated with death that leave a series of recognizable marks on bones. These marks are a result of the treatment to which human bodies were subjected around the time of death. This diversity of behaviour leads to a variety of body treatments, such as skinning, disarticulation, defleshing, cooking, etc, which, in turn, causes a multiplicity of visible bone changes allowing observation, recording, and systematization to researchers. This study entailed the re-examination of the human bones recovered at Malalmuerzo cave where traces of cannibalism were noticed on Neolithic samples.