Founded in 1974 as the Ancient History Teaching Collection (AHTC), the Museum of Ancient Cultures (MAC) is the archaeological museum of Macquarie University. The MAC main collection comprises c. 4700 genuine artefacts from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Rome, the Near East and the Indus Valley. The Egyptian collection is widely regarded as one of the most important in Australia. This is the first catalogue of the collection detailing 72 Ancient Egyptian artefacts associated with funerary customs, from the Predynastic to the Coptic period. Divided into two parts, the catalogue aims to explore Ancient Egyptian funerary culture through an illustration of the MAC collection. Part One provides a series of articles on aspects of Ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs and practices. Part Two comprises the catalogue of artefacts, divided into four sections: pottery, funerary equipment, funerary texts, and religion and magic. In addition to high resolution photographs, each object receives detailed discussion of its composition and its significance to the study of Ancient Egypt more broadly. This catalogue will be an indispensable aid to students, researchers, and the general public interested in Ancient Egypt.

Excavations in 2011 to 2015 within the Western Cemetery of Roman Cirencester resulted in the discovery of 118 inhumation and 8 cremation burials, the largest investigation of a Roman cemetery in Cirencester since the Bath Gate excavations of the 1970s. A greater quantity of grave goods was recovered from this cemetery compared to the Bath Gate cemetery, testifying to the higher status of those buried here. Nine burials survived within a postulated walled cemetery. The pottery from the fills of these graves had a clear emphasis on amphorae, flagons and tazze, indicative of funerary ceremonies involving the consumption of wine, or the pouring of it as libations, and the burning of substances. Just outside the walled cemetery, the burial of a 2 to 3-year-old child contained a magnificent enamelled bronze figurine of a cockerel, dateable to the 2nd century AD. Such figurines are rare finds, with only four or five similar examples known from Britain. Burial activity continued into the 4th century AD. One unusual later grave had a reused sculpted and inscribed tombstone placed face down immediately over the coffin of an adult male. Only 15 inscribed tombstones have been previously recorded from Cirencester so this is a noteworthy discovery, made all the more important by its archaeological context. The tombstone is dedicated to a 27-year-old woman named Bodicacia and has a fine sculpted pediment containing a representation of the god Oceanus. Significantly the god’s face and claws were deliberately mutilated prior to its placement within the grave, which could be a very rare example of Christian iconoclasm from Roman Britain.

The volume is co-published by the Winchester Excavations Committee and forms Volume 11 of the Winchester Studies series. Following the success of volumes IV (Windsor and Eton) and V (York) in the series of Historic Towns Atlases, the new volume maps and explains the history of Winchester – a city which has played such an important part in English history from Roman times onwards. Combining many full-colour maps with an authoritative but very readable text, the atlas shows how the Roman city of Venta Belgarum became the second-most important city in England for several centuries: a walled town, the seat of kings and an ecclesiastical centre almost unparalleled in the country, before gently declining into a judicial centre and county town. The Atlas is centred on a detailed map of the city at the scale of 1:2500, showing Winchester's historic buildings and structures on a map of the city as it was in 1800. A series of maps show how Winchester was at key points in its history, charting its development and changing shape. The Atlas includes an early OS map, modern maps and historic aerial photographs, as well as colour illustrations, many of which have never been published before. The introduction offers a full history of how and why Winchester developed from prehistoric times onwards, in a series of chapters written by historians but aimed at the general reader. It also includes a comprehensive reference gazetteer listing every place shown on the maps, with a map location, a brief history, and further reading for those interested in finding out more. Like its companion volumes, the maps, text, gazetteer and illustrations are presented in an A3 stiff card binder, and the format allows for maps of different date to be compared side-by-side.

The first archaeological surveys and excavations in the state of Qatar were carried out by Moesgaard Museum, Denmark, in 1956-1974. A volume on the Stone Age sites was released by JAS in 1967, and the present publication includes the remaining investigations. Of special interest are several graves with iron swords and arrows and camels and a contemporary settlement with pottery showing close relations to Bahrain and the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The first excavations at the early Islamic site of Murwab are presented, and the book is concluded with a full catalogue of the rock carvings from Jebel Jusasiyah.

Public Archaeology and Climate Change promotes new approaches to studying and managing sites threatened by climate change, specifically actions that engage communities or employ ‘citizen science’ initiatives. Researchers and heritage managers around the world are witnessing severe challenges and developing innovative mechanisms for dealing with them. Increasingly archaeologists are embracing practices learned from the natural heritage sector, which has long worked with the public in practical recording projects. By involving the public in projects and making data accessible, archaeologists are engaging society in the debate on threatened heritage and in wider discussions on climate change. Community involvement also underpins wider climate change adaptation strategies, and citizen science projects can help to influence and inform policy makers. Developing threats to heritage are being experienced around the world, and as this collection of papers will show, new partnerships and collaborations are crossing national boundaries. With examples from across the globe, this selection of 18 papers detail the scale of the problem through a variety of case studies. Together they demonstrate how heritage professionals, working in diverse environments and with distinctive archaeology, are engaging with the public to raise awareness of this threatened resource. Contributors examine differing responses and proactive methodologies for the protection, preservation and recording of sites at risk from natural forces and demonstrate how new approaches can better engage people with sites that are under increasing threat of destruction, thus contributing to the resilience of our shared heritage.

The Late Iron Age coinage of England has long been recognised as an invaluable potential source of information about pre-Roman Britain, although its purpose has been much debated and never clearly established. Most research using this source material has been either detailed numismatic studies, which seek to categorise and tabulate the types of coin and order them chronologically based on stylistic change, or more general attempts to draw out meaning from the imagery or inscriptions on the coins. In Made for Trade, John Talbot presents the findings of a decade-long investigation that has challenged many pre-conceptions about the period. The coinage of the Iceni in East Anglia was used as the raw material with a view to establishing its original purpose and what it can tell us about society and the use of coinage in the Late Iron Age of this region. A die-study was performed on every known example – over 10,000 – coins. Each coin was created by a metal pellet being struck by two dies, and the die-study sought to identify the dies used in each of the 20,000 strikes. Because dies wear, change and are replaced, this enabled definitive chronologies to be constructed and the underlying organisation of the coinage to be fully appreciated for the first time. It is believed to be one of the largest such studies ever attempted and the first of this scale for a British Iron Age coinage. Talbot further explores production, weight and metal content as the coinage evolved, the use of imagery and inscriptions, and patterns of hoarding. These various threads demonstrate that the coinage was economic in nature and reflected development of a more sophisticated monetary society than had previously been thought possible, contradicting many previous assumptions.

This latest volume in the Swedish Rock Art series bridges the gap between analysis and interpretation of rock art imagery, location and chronology in the northern and southern regions of Scandinavia. Long viewed as belonging to distinctive regional traditions, there are many underlying similarities, themes and formats in common, overlain by regional complexities and variations. The authors explore new approaches and methods of analysis. There has been a tendency in rock art research to focus merely on either the Northern Tradition or the Southern Tradition of Scandinavian rock art and there is certainly a need to broaden this discussion. This collection of new research papers stimulates different perspectives and themes that place emphasis on the intersection between these traditions. North meets South puts the focus on Scandinavian rock art regardless of regions and traditions. Even though there are obvious differences in space and time regarding these two traditions, there are also features and formats in common across both time and space, and a significant theme running through the contributions presented here is to highlight the interaction between these rock art traditions. A major conclusion to be drawn from this exercise is the great complexity and variation of rock art and the need for perspectives comparing various regions across Scandinavia. This volume is the outcome of an international symposium organised by the Swedish Rock Art Research Archives (SHFA).

Prehistoric Britain has generated an enormous number and wide variety of stone objects, but few books deal specifically with stone tools that are not flint. This book brings together papers from 22 of the UK’s archaeologists investigating the stone objects that were fundamental to the daily lives of prehistoric people. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 contains papers that deal with the petrology and typology of axeheads, maceheads, battle axes and felsite tools. Papers in Part 2 are about the function, form and dating of querns. Part 3 is a broad ranging section dealing with 'other' types of artefacts and materials, from considerations of the form and function of bracers, loomweights, Bronze Age jewellery and polissoirs, to the use of materials such as beach resources and chalk. The book will appeal to scholars of prehistory, and to anyone with an interest in the exploitation of stone resources and the function and form of the resulting objects. It is intended as a tribute to Fiona Roe, FSA. Fiona worked tirelessly on all aspects of stone artefacts and encouraged, supported and inspired many scholars to embark on studies of them. This book would not have been possible without the groundwork that she laid during the last five decades.

Few major Classical cities have disappeared so completely from view, over the centuries, as Thespiai in Central Greece. Only the technique of intensive field survey, carefully adapted to a large urban site and reinforced by historical investigation, has made it possible to recover from oblivion much of its life of seven millennia.

The question of how to conceptualize the role of technological innovations is of crucial importance for understanding the mechanisms and rhythms of long-term cultural change in prehistoric and early historic societies. The changes that have come about have often been modelled as gradual and linear, innovations have been considered positively as a progress in the development of humankind and the focus has been on the localisation of the origin of innovations and the routes of their spread. Appropriating Innovations goes beyond the current discussion by shedding light on condition that may facilitate the rapid spread of technological innovation and on processes involved in the integration of new technologies into the life world of the appropriating societies. In particular, papers concentrate on two key innovations, namely the transmission of the various components of the so-called “Secondary Products Revolution” in parts of the Near East and Europe during the 4th millennium BCE and the appropriation of early bronze casting technology, which spread from the Near East to Europe and China in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. Of particular interest is non-technological knowledge that is transmitted together with the technological, the latter being always deeply interconnected with the communication of social practices, ideas and myths. The acceptance of new technologies, therefore, requires the willingness to change existing world views and modify them due to the potentials and problems which are connected with the new technology. Contributions, therefore, concentrate on the conditions facilitating or hindering the spread of innovations and the transformative power of these innovations in the appropriating society. They analyse how the introduction of novel technologies and the associated non-technological knowledge led to a transformation of existing economic systems and the underlying social orders in Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Eurasia by integrating innovative methodological approaches and contextual studies.

Engaging with the Dead adopts a cross-disciplinary, archaeologically focused, approach to explore a variety of themes linked to the interpretation of mortuary traditions, death and the ways of disposing of the dead. Nineteen papers highlight the current vitality of ‘death studies’ and the potential of future research and discoveries. Contributors explore changing beliefs and practices over time, considering how modern archaeology, ethnography and historical records can aid our interpretations of the past, as well as considering how past practices may have influenced understandings of death and dying within the modern world. It is clear that there are very significant variations in the quantity of dead that appear in the archaeological record over time, and the contributions to this volume attempt to understand why that might be the case. By bringing together papers from a variety of specialists working within Europe and the Near East, we investigate the pivotal role of death studies in the 21st century, providing a case for the retention of human remains in archaeological collections. Engaging with the Dead aims to set period specific contributions within a broader perspective and integrates papers from bioarchaeologists, theologists, textual specialists, as well as archaeologists. It provides an in-depth introduction to the multitude of ways in which the mortuary record can be interrogated and interpreted and explores the role of archaeology and theology within contemporary social studies. This volume challenges our current understanding and conceptualisation of mortuary practices in the ancient and contemporary world.

As it appears in diverse guises – and notably as a founding narrative – the past is at the core of every functioning human society. The idea that the past can be known through scientific research has long been a fundamental challenge for western societies and for European researchers, from all disciplines concerned. Through more than four decades of outward-looking archaeological practice, the scholar, teacher and intellectual Jean-Paul Demoule has elaborated a truly global approach to European cultures and their transformations, spanning from the social inequality in Neolithic times to Indo European research to contemporary links between heritage and politics. His colleagues – British, Bulgarians, Czechs, Danes, Dutch, French, Germans, North-Americans, Spaniards, Swiss and Russians – seek to extend and enrich his vision. With contributions (written in French and in English) spanning from prehistory to the modern world, they bring in this volume new insights and data to such issues as the processes of identity construction at different scales, migratory movements in Europe, the status of gender, the role of prestige objects and megalithic monuments in the emergence of social hierarchy and in the semiology of power… without forgetting the myths and realities surrounding the Indo-European phenomenon. — Le passé sous diverses formes – et notamment celle d’un récit fondateur – est au cœur du fonctionnement de toute société humaine. L’idée que le passé puisse être connaissable par une recherche scientifique est un enjeu essentiel, particulièrement abordé par les sociétés occidentales et notamment par des chercheurs européens, toutes disciplines confondues. Par sa pratique de l’archéologie et son érudition, le chercheur et le professeur Jean-Paul Demoule a su élaborer un tableau global des cultures européennes et de leurs transformations, incluant autant les origines néolithiques des inégalités sociales que l’émergence du mythe indo-européen ou encore les rapports entre patrimoine et politique. Dans cet ouvrage, ses collègues allemands, britanniques, bulgares, danois, espagnols, français, néerlandais, nord-américains, russes, suisses et tchèques prolongent et enrichissent – en anglais ou en français – sa vision. Ils y apportent leurs réflexions et leurs données concernant les perspectives de l’archéologie du XXIe siècle, les processus de la construction identitaire à différentes échelles, les mouvements migratoires de l’Europe, le statut du genre, le rôle des objets de prestige et des monuments mégalithiques dans l’émergence de la hiérarchisation sociale et de la sémiologie du pouvoir… sans oublier la mythologie et les réalités du phénomène indo-européen.

Thermopylae, Marathon: though fought 2,500 years ago in Ancient Greece, the names of these battles are more familiar to many than battles fought in the last half-century, but our concept of the men who fought in these battles may be more a product of Hollywood than Greece. Shaped by the landscape in which they fought, the warriors of Ancient Greece were mainly heavy infantry. While Bronze Age Greeks fought as individuals, for personal glory, the soldiers of the Classical city states fought as hoplites, armed with long spears and large shields, in an organised formation called the phalanx. As well as fighting among themselves, notably the thirty-year Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta and immortalised by Thucydides, the city states came together to fight outside threats. The Persian Wars lasted nearly half a century, and saw the Greek armies come together to fend off several massive Persian forces both on land and at sea. This book sketches the change from heroic to hoplite warfare, and discusses the equipment and training of both the citizen soldiers of most Greek cities, and the professional soldiers of Sparta.

Twenty-four experts from the fields of Ancient History, Semitic philology, Assyriology, Classical Archaeology, and Classical Philology come together in this volume to explore the role of textiles in ancient religion in Greece, Italy, The Levant and the Near East. Recent scholarship has illustrated how textiles played a large and very important role in the ancient Mediterranean sanctuaries. In Greece, the so-called temple inventories testify to the use of textiles as votive offerings, in particular to female divinities. Furthermore, in several cults, textiles were used to dress the images of different deities. Textiles played an important role in the dress of priests and priestesses, who often wore specific garments designated by particular colours. Clothing regulations in order to enter or participate in certain rituals from several Greek sanctuaries also testify to the importance of dress of ordinary visitors. Textiles were used for the furnishings of the temples, for example in the form of curtains, draperies, wall-hangings, sun-shields, and carpets. This illustrates how the sanctuaries were potential major consumers of textiles; nevertheless, this particular topic has so far not received much attention in modern scholarship. Furthermore, our knowledge of where the textiles consumed in the sanctuaries came from, where they were produced, and by who is extremely limited. Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean examines the topics of textile production in sanctuaries, the use of textiles as votive offerings and ritual dress using epigraphy, literary sources, iconography and the archaeological material itself.

The gladiator is one of the most enduring figures of Ancient Rome. Heroic, though of lowly status, they fought vicious duals in large arenas filled with baying crowds. The survivor could be either executed (the famous ‘thumbs down’ signal) or spared at the whim of the crowd or the Emperor. Few lasted more than a dozen fights, yet they were a valuable asset to their owners. But how did they fight and how did their weapons and techniques develop? Who were they? This book gives an entertaining overview of the history of the gladiator, debunking some myths along the way. We learn about the different forms of combat, and the pairings which were designed to carefully balance the strengths and weaknesses of one against the other. The retiarii (with nets) were lightly armed but mobile, the secutores and murmillones protected but weighted down by their armour. Gladiators also participated in simulated naval battles on large artificial lakes or even in the arena of the Colosseum. Although their lives were brutal and short, gladiators often were admired for their bravery, endurance, and willingness to die. They were the celebrities of their day. This book reveals what we know and how we know it: ancient remains, contemporary literature, graffiti, modern attempts to reconstruct ancient fighting techniques and above all the discovery at Pompeii where a complete gladiator barracks was found alongside multiple skeletons tell their story.

Originally warriors mounted on horseback, knights became associated with the concept of chivalry as it was popularised in medieval European literature. Knights were expected to fight bravely and honourably and be loyal to their lord until death if necessary. Later chivalry came to encompass activities such as tournaments and hunting, and virtues including justice, charity and faith. The Crusades were instrumental in the development of the code of chivalry, and some crusading orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become legend. Boys would begin their knightly training at the age of seven, learning to hunt and studying academic studies before becoming assistants to older knights, training in combat and learning how to care for a knight’s essentials: arms, armour, and horses. After fourteen years of training, and when considered master of all the skills of knighthood, a squire was eligible to be knighted. In peacetime knights would take part in tournaments. Tournaments were a major spectator sport, but also an important way for knights to practice their skills – knights were often injured and sometimes killed in melees. Knights figured large in medieval warfare and literature. In the 15th century knights became obsolete due to advances in warfare, but the title of ‘knight’ has survived as an honorary title granted for services to a monarch or country, and knights remain a strong concept in popular culture. This short history will cover the rise and decline of the medieval knights, including the extensive training, specific arms and armour, tournaments and the important concept of chivalry.