Böcker utgivna av BAR Publishing

La vallée du Rhône, grand couloir de circulation Nord-Sud, lieu de passage entre l'Europe du Nord et le monde méditerranéen, a joué un rôle majeur dans le peuplement de toutes les gorges et vallées affluentes. Sa position charnière, entre le domaine tempéré continental à l'Ouest (Massif-Central) et le domaine montagneux à l'Est (Vercors et Alpes de Haute-Provence), explique son rôle d'enclave où les microclimats ont favorisé la persistance des occupations humaines tout au long des périodes glaciaires successives (apparition tardive du renne par exemple). Riche en cours d'eau, gorges et plateaux calcaires renfermant de nombreux abris, cette région fut propice à l'installation des hommes du Paléolithique. Elle concentre en effet un très grand nombre de sites moustériens, la plupart se trouvant en contexte karstique, sous la forme d'abris-sous-roche et de porches de grottes. En ce qui concerne les sites étudiés dans ce travail, la plus grande partie est regroupée en Ardèche méridionale, excentrant au Nord le site de Payre (Ardèche du Nord), et au Sud-Est le site des Peyrards (Vaucluse). Dans la partie aval des gorges se situent la grotte Saint-Marcel, l'abri du Maras, la grotte du Figuier, le Ranc Pointu et la Baume d'Oullens et, à quelques kilomètres à vol d'oiseau, la Baume Flandin s'ouvre dans un petit vallon du plateau d'Orgnac, à la limite avec le département du Gard et enfin, plus au Nord, dans la Moyenne vallée de l'Ardèche, on trouve la grotte des Barasses (Balazuc). Le contexte chronologique de ces sites est le Paléolithique moyen, lié, dans le Sud-Est, aux premières grandes vagues de peuplements humains. Le peuplement qui nous intéresse est donc celui de l'homme de Néanderthal, qui semble avoir occupé la région jusqu'à la veille de l'arrivée des premiers hommes modernes (Chauvet, intervalle de 32 000-30 000 BP pour les plus anciennes, Valladas et al., in Clottes (Ed.), 2001). Les études archéozoologique et taphonomique menées ici sur les assemblages osseux des petits, moyens et grands herbivores et quelquefois des Carnivores, permettent d'analyser l'état de conservation des ossements et la part de responsabilité des hommes et des Carnivores dans les dépôts et dans les modifications de surface, de restituer le contexte climatique, environnemental et chronologique existant lors des nombreuses venues des hommes grâce à la diversité des espèces représentées, et enfin d'aborder les stratégies de chasse et les habitudes alimentaires, concernant la matière carnée, des groupes de Néanderthaliens. Par-delà les inégalités, tant dans la représentativité des séries que dans les cadres environnementaux, il a été possible de discerner trois grandes tendances dans leurs types d'exploitation du milieu animal et de fait dans leurs modes d'occupation des sites. Reste à savoir quelle a été l'emprise des contraintes environnementales, des pratiques culturelles et des critères fonctionnels sur ces différents styles d'approvisionnement.

The main aim of this study is to examine the methods through which the managers of Nigeria's past have presented the country's heritage to the Nigerian public, how effectively this has been done, and how the current situation can be improved by 'marketing' archaeology to the public. The book's nine sections cover an examination of those institutions responsible for Nigeria's past, an ethnohistory of the Igbo, a review of the archaeological discoveries, conclusions and suggestions.The main aim of this study is to examine the methods through which the managers of Nigeria's past have presented the country's heritage to the Nigerian public, how effectively this has been done, and how the current situation can be improved by 'marketing' archaeology to the public. The book's nine sections cover an examination of those institutions responsible for Nigeria's past, an ethnohistory of the Igbo, a review of the archaeological discoveries, conclusions and suggestions.

Il libro si concentra sulle dinamiche che intercorrono tra i diversi approcci epistemologici e teorici in archeologia, all'interno di specifiche tradizioni accademiche e filosofiche. In particolare il discorso affronta quattro temi generali: il problema della teorizzazione della condizione postmoderna, nel suo significato per la storia del pensiero archeologico; la possibilità di percepire i cambiamenti egemonici nel pensiero archeologico attraverso dati empirici raccolti da riviste accademiche, per comprendere le tendenze teoriche più recenti nate nelle archeologie mediterranee e anglo-americane; il sorgere di alcuni paradigmi in archeologia nel quadro del tardo postmodernismo, cercando di spiegare più profondamente alcune differenze teoriche nei due ambienti filosofici e accademici; infine il ruolo dell'archeologia classica nell'ambito di questo posizionamento ermeneutico, cercando di indagare anche la questione della tradizione e della funzione etica e civile dell'archeologia nella società contemporanea. This book focuses on the relationship between diverse epistemological and theoretical advances in archaeology within different academic and philosophical traditions.

This book analyses the buildings, interiors and landscapes of asylums for the insane poor in the early part of the twentieth century, exploring the ways in which environments were seen as therapeutic. An innovative type of asylum layout - the village or colony asylum - is considered in detail. Gillian Allmond offers an original approach to asylum analysis, using field observation, documents and published materials to connect asylum materiality to contemporary discourses of health and poverty. The book shows how the Edwardian understanding of the therapeutic qualities of light and air, together with the promotion of bourgeois domestic ideals, influenced the design of exteriors and interiors in the hope of remaking the minds of the mentally ill. Layout analysis includes the discovery that at least one asylum was based on Ebenezer Howard's 'garden city'. This innovative study is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the historical archaeology of institutions.

This volume presents a new approach to decorative practices in Iron Age Britain and beyond. It aims to collapse the historic distinction between art and craft during the period 400BC-AD100 by examining the purposeful nature of decoration on varied Iron Age objects, not just those traditionally considered art. A case study from East Yorkshire (UK), a region well known for its elaborate Iron Age metalwork, is presented. This study takes a holistic approach to the finds from a sample of 30 sites, comparing pattern and plainness on objects of a wide range of materials. The analysis focuses on the factors that led makers to decorate certain objects in certain ways and the uses of different patterns in different social contexts. A concentrated study on evidence for use-wear, damage, repair and modification then draws on primary research and uses assemblage theory to better understand the uses and functions of decorated objects and the ways these developed over time.

This study focuses on Neolithic period Majiayao-style painted pottery from Northwest China, which is known for its high quality and beautiful décor. While much is known about the pottery, research on the associated Majiayao Culture has previously been limited to cultural histories that emphasize chronology and trait-list classification, leading to a static and simplistic view of past realities. This study instead focuses on the long-overlooked social and economic processes behind the production of these vessels. Attribute and physicochemical analyses of hundreds of ceramic vessels and samples selected from multiple sites in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces are combined with settlement pattern and mortuary analyses of thousands of sites and burials. By synthesizing these data, this study illustrates a positive correlation between regional density of settlement distribution, intensification of pottery production, and degree of social inequality in each phase. Rather than showing a simple linear process of increasing social complexity, however, distinct regional variations in each phase and significant regional fluctuations over time can be seen. The results of this study demonstrate that economic and social patterns related to Majiayao ceramics were far more complex than previously thought.

L'analisi diacronica del paesaggio geografico fisico consente di comprendere come le caratteristiche del territorio abbiano influenzato le scelte insediamentali passate e, conseguentemente, come le attività antropiche abbiano modificato il naturale sviluppo del territorio. La ricerca presentata in questo volume consiste in uno studio di archeologia del paesaggio in Pianura Padana centrale (Italia) tra tarda età romana (V sec. d.C.) e il Basso Medioevo (XV sec. d.C.). L'impiego di strumenti di ricognizione remota, analisi statistiche spaziali e tecniche geoarcheologiche hanno permesso di realizzare uno studio interdisciplinare in grado di quantificare come le interazioni tra fattori ambientali e attività antropica abbiano influenzato l'evoluzione del paesaggio post-romano. Questo contributo rappresenta una delle prime complete applicazioni nel panorama europeo e mediterraneo della 'Digital Geoarchaeology', un approccio interdisciplinare che combina geoscienze e scienze umanistiche attraverso strumentazione informatica per indagare gli aspetti storici e culturali derivanti dall'interazione tra uomo e ambiente nel passato. This book investigates the interaction between humans and the environment during the Middle Ages in Northern Italy using the tools and principles of Digital Geoarchaeology. The study uses a digital methodology combining geosciences and humanities to present a reconstruction of the central Po Plain's landscape genesis. Each chapter has a summary in English.

Questo libro intende fornire una nuova interpretazione della città romana di Volterra contribuendo a far emergere l'importanza delle élite locali per l'integrazione della comunità nel mondo Romano. Integrando dati letterari, archeologici, epigrafici, toponomastici, questo libro vuole ricostruire le strategie familiari economiche, politiche, culturali, la società e lo sviluppo del paesaggio antico per approfondire la conoscenza degli aspetti storico-archeologici della città romana e del suo territorio. Per il lungo arco cronologico dei secoli I a.C.-V d.C., parentele, alleanze matrimoniali, interessi economici, strategie politiche e culturali, vengono ricostruiti per alcune famiglie chiave. Il risultato è il quadro complesso di una comunità etrusca in transizione nel mondo imperiale romano, fra tradizione e innovazione. This book presents a new interpretation of the Roman town of Volterra from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. Combining historical written sources, archaeological and epigraphic materials, and toponymy, the author studies 'Romanization' through the local elite families.

This book focuses on the manufacturing techniques of Corinthian potters during the Archaic Period, as well as the relationships established with their natural environment. The results of this research show that the advent of the Black Figure pottery style was intrinsically related to the adoption by Corinthian potters of new manufacturing techniques and recipes for their paints and slips. This change of the paint and gloss recipes required the use of new raw materials, which takes the discussion on pottery production at the site from purely technical issues to social and economic ones, such as access and control of these scarce resources or the relationships between potters and their local community. The significance of this discovery also sheds new light upon the diversity of local styles in Greece.

Il presente volume sottolinea le peculiarità di un area, la valle del Sinni in Basilicata, in cui coesistono elementi di continuità insediativa. I dati della ricerca, che si estende dalle coste ioniche alle pendici del Monte Sirino, non sono una riproposizione di scritti precedenti, bensì veri aggiornamenti. L'indagine ha preso in considerazione un arco cronologico compreso tra X e XV sec. d.C., epoca in cui lungo il fiume Sinni si conservano significative tracce di insediamenti medievali. Territorialmente comprendeva le aree del Mercourion e del Latinianon, coinvolti nello sviluppo di insediamenti religiosi di rito greco e latino, oltre ad essere interessata dal fenomeno parallelo dell'incastellamento. Dall'XI sec. d.C. la tipologia insediativa in questo territorio muta rispetto al periodo precedente, transitando da un modello di insediamento sparso a carattere rurale verso l'intensificarsi dell'insediamento demico sui colli sommitali. Ai complessi monasteriali verrà affidato lo sfruttamento delle risorse del territorio rurale, con il ripopolamento di aree abbandonate. This volume studies the peculiarities of the Sinni valley in Basilicata, where evidence of secular and religious settlement continuity coexists. The data extends from the Ionian coasts to the slopes of Mount Sirino from the 10th to the 15th century AD, and the author analyses the significant traces of medieval settlements preserved along the river Sinni.

This monograph focuses on one of the most interesting sections of the Main Forum of Ostia Antica, the ancient commercial port of Rome, during the 2nd-6th centuries AD. With a detailed 3D reconstruction of all collected information, it is possible to gain detailed insights into the development and destruction of the city centre during the transition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. The applied 3D volume map in this study makes this possible by combining 2D, 2.5D and 3D solid objects inside a real geo-space. It completes the 3D space, generally filled with hollow objects, with content. With this work, Undine Lieberwirth gives archaeologists a free and open ready-to-use tool. The resulting space-time model of archaeological stratigraphy, geophysics and pedology opens new perspectives on 3D documentation and 3D analysis of archaeological and archaeology-related data. Her intention is not only to preserve archaeological excavation data in the best way possible but also to prepare them for future 3D and 4D analysis. The digital 3D cartography offers the perfect framework for this. To represent these 3D models appropriately, the usual 2D images in this monograph are replaced with 8 videos.

Following the recent upsurge of interest in ancient geography and astronomy, together with the ever-present fascination with myth, this book offers a fresh study of what is commonly but erroneously known as 'solar myth'. This subject has been at the margins of scholarly interest, mainly due to the now-outdated theories of myth that used solar phenomena as an interpretative key to explain most traditional narratives. This book offers a more rigorous methodology and more selective interpretation applicable to a group of myths referencing solar phenomena. The class of 'solar' myths discussed in this book is thus formed out of traditional narratives that either explicitly include references to solar movement or the recognition of such references does not require strained interpretations.

The Bau de l'Aubesier is a multi-layer rock shelter site, with deposits mainly from the later Middle Pleistocene and the Late Pleistocene, very abundant faunal and lithic remains, intense and extensive use of fire in some levels, and hominin remains from Neandertals and their predecessors. This book provides the geographic and geologic context of the site, then describes each layer within the stratigraphy in detail, with emphasis on the hominins, how they used the site, and how they used the surrounding territory. Rigorous analysis is interspersed with stories of the excavations themselves, and abundant figures and tables. The final chapter addresses the ultimate question: what does the Bau de l'Aubesier tell us about the Middle Palaeolithic? Of interest to specialists, students and amateurs, this book unites all available published and previously unpublished data about this important Middle Palaeolithic site in southern France.

Cultural Astronomy is the endeavour to understand the role of the sky in past and present societies, and how these societies incorporated the sky into their culture. This broad ranging discipline is closely related to archaeology when investigating material remains of the past. Cultural Astronomy also explores the role of the heavens from the perspectives of the anthropological sciences. In recent decades the discipline has been concerned with methodological and theoretical issues. This volume offers chapters based on presentations at the 27th SEAC meeting held in Bern (2019). These chapters provide a vivid image of front-line research in diverse areas, from Roman light and shadow effects to highlight power, to Maya city organization, Etruscan temple orientation or the ontology of the sky.

Il volume è uno studio della storia e archeologia mineraria delle Alpi Apuane meridionali (Toscana) dalla preistoria all'epoca moderna. La ricerca è iniziata negli anni '70 quando l'autore ha avuto occasione di esplorare di persona molte delle miniere di questo territorio, oggi chiuse ed in rovina, incontrando i direttori e le ultime maestranze di quelle ancora attive. La raccolta delle loro testimonianze e delle informazioni relative alle miniere ha permesso che questo patrimonio intangibile non andasse perduto. La minuziosa ricostruzione storica è stata possibile grazie alla ricerca archivistica dei decenni successivi, che, combinata con i risultati delle intense attività archeologiche condotte in quegli anni dal Prof. Bruno Antonucci e dal Gruppo Speleologico ed Archeologico Versiliese (GSAV), ha contribuito a delineare il panorama dell'attività estrattiva sul territorio apuano meridionale fin dall'antichità, evidenziando come le risorse minerarie abbiano da sempre avuto un ruolo centrale nello sviluppo culturale della regione. This volume is a study of the history and archaeology of mines and mining in Northern Tuscany (Alpi Apuane) from prehistory to modern times. The result is a full panorama of the mining activity in the southern Apuan Alps since antiquity, documenting how the mineral resources have always played a central role in the cultural development of the region.

While the idea of a catastrophic drought ending the Old Kingdom has been shown to be too simple an explanation, current research suggests that some climatic change was occurring at this time. Increasing aridity, developing since the third Dynasty, was punctuated with times of unseasonal rain, and both these events would have had some impact upon the environmental circumstances present in the river. This book presents ecological analyses of the riverine habitat as it may have developed in times of excess nutrient load within the river and explores possible environmental consequences. By tracing changes in the tomb decoration repertoire, the author also explores a potential cultural response to the climatic shifts occurring at that time.

This monograph uses an archaeological approach to decipher folk classification of animals in ancient societies. Ningning Dong collates faunal data from three late Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in central China and integrates multiple lines of evidence. The analyses demonstrate a folk taxonomy remarkably different from the Linnaean system. The results show that age might have served as a critical categorical filter, particularly in ritual contexts, and that the wild/domesticated dichotomy was established no earlier than the Shang dynasty. This perceptual distinction is unlikely to have been synchronised with the initial occurrence of domestication in the early Neolithic. Animal categories constituted a vital part of a broader classificatory scheme that concerned the organisation of the cosmos as a whole. This book enriches our understanding of animal categories in ancient China and further discusses the tension between etics and emics, language and action, domestic and wild.

This volume focuses on bronze and other metal finds from several ancient sites of Asia Minor and other regions in the Mediterranean. The chapters include analysis of pre-Greek, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine bronzes from Anatolia, as well as studies of bronzes from Georgia, Greece, Iran, Italy, Serbia, and Slovenia. Key sites are covered, such as Allianoi, Arycanda and Olba, Roman and Early Byzantine cities in the western and southern part of Turkey. The volume also contains a common bibliography for researchers interested in Asia Minor and neighbouring regions. Readers will discover numerous unpublished materials as well as new insights into the bronze archaeology of Anatolia and more broadly across the rest of the ancient eastern Mediterranean.

The Anglican church of St. Saviour's and its former parsonage, in the historic Hampshire parish of Mortimer West End, lie on the northern shoulder of the valley of the eastward-draining West End Brook that dissects an extensive plateau underlain by the Pleistocene Silchester Gravel and the Bagshot and London Clay Formations (early Tertiary).The sponsor (and effectively the builder) was Richard Fellowes Benyon of Englefield House, Englefield in Berkshire, who had in 1854 inherited the Englefield Estate onthe death of his uncle. Designed by the London architect Richard Armstrong Snr, the church and parsonage were erected over a 20-month period in 1855-6, at a total cost of £3013, of which £473 represents various materials, goods and services provided directly by the Englefield Estate.There is seating for a mere 80 or so people, making it one of the most costly churches in the region. The church, lying outside its 'geological zone' of the Chalk Group, is a small building in the Gothic style, consisting of an aisleless nave, chancel, north porch and north vestry; another vestry was added in 1901-2 at the western end.Split flint faces the building externally and the dressings are of good quality Bathstone; internally the walls are plastered and painted, and there is wainscoting and a raftered wooden roof.The flooring is of wood and ceramic tiles (some in the chancel encaustic), with some Portland stone also in the chancel. Decoration is limited to carved heads on window hoodmould stops, the chancel arch and corbels.The window tracery, modeled on the Geometrical (early Decorated) style, but archaeologically incorrect, is very varied and represented by eight designs.The Parsonage and its offices are of red and blue-grey brick in Flemish bond with Bathstone dressings, and in the Picturesque style favoured by A.W.N. Pugin for houses and rectories.

The stylised naked female figures carved in stone and wood found upon medieval churches and tower houses, known as sheela-na-gigs, have long attracted both academic and popular attention. Consequently, a diverse body of literature on the subject exists, yet much of it, especially the more easily available works, feature numerous inaccuracies. This book represents a move towards a detailed, accurate and archaeologically sensitive record of the sheela-na-gigs in Britain and Ireland, and establishes their study firmly within the orbit of mainstream research. Throughout, context is a central concern. Accordingly, in-depth analysis of the carvings is used to foreground the typical characteristics of a sheela-na-gig and their architectural and sculptural settings. The medieval repertoire of architectural imagery and the social and religious frameworks in which these images were produced is explored, before turning to look at the complex meanings evoked by the figures. It is argued that previous interpretationsof the sheela-na-gig as a fertility figure, Celtic goddess, or image of lust have occluded the deeper significance of the image, whose ambiguity and danger is more suggestive of a herald of the sacred or otherworldly icon. This is substantiated by an exploration of the vital links between the grotesque, monstrous, ambiguous and the sacred, together with influences derived from philosophy and classical mythology, as expressed in western medieval culture.

Arqueología del Medio Asón (Cantabria, España)

This book includes papers from the conference held at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, England, in November 2006.

This volume represents a report of excavation conducted at the site of Canteen Koppie, Barkly West, Northern Cape, South Africa. It is a straight site report describing how the work was conducted and an analysis of the lithic assemblages recovered. This report describes the lithic assemblages associated with the sedimentological column for the Canteen Koppie site. The assemblages represent the first controlled excavations in this world famous locality.

This study seeks insights into the peoples and traditions of the Tanzanian coast, East Africa, during the 6th to 15th century through the application of archaeological survey and excavation techniques in the vicinity of the two important trading centres of Kaole and Kilwa. It adopts a maritime cultural landscape perspective, an approach that has seen very limited previous application to the East African coast, despite the central role played by the sea in the development of its port settlements and exploitation of its resources. Six themes are covered, namely the identification of coastal settlement sites and establishment of their chronology; recognition of principal phases in settlement development; exploitation of maritime resources and economy; identification of settlement location in relationship to the physical environment of the coast; establishment of the hierarchical nature of coastal settlement; and recognition of the principal harbour and port types.

This book includes papers from a congress that took place at the University of Leuven from the 19th to 21st September, 2005.

St Vincent's (Lesser Antilles, Caribbean) archaeological record is rich in images depicted by a variety of fired clay artefacts. Prominent among them are small modelled and incised zoomorphic heads known as "adornos" that decorated the rims, handles and exteriors of pottery vessels made by the first agriculturalists on the island (the Saladoid culture from the Venezuela area by 250 BC). This work sets out to contribute a systematic study of both a formal and descriptive classification, as well as an iconographic analysis of the basic images represented.

A detailed study of contexts and ceramic finds from mediaeval Seville, including a catalogue of over 250 entries of ceramic finds.

The objective of this work is the study of prehistoric agriculture during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age in a small region of Andalucía. Ethnographic models to archaeobotanical samples were applied. This was possible because small pockets of land where glume-wheat cultivation continues to date can be studied. Therefore a detailed analysis of glume-wheat husbandry and processing sequences was carried out. The result is an extension of the range of current ethnographic models used in archaeobotany for interpreting remains of crops and their weeds in terms of ancient husbandry practices.