This latest CBA Practical Handbook forms part of the CBA-led project to record the physical legacy of the First World War on the Home Front in the UK. The book provides invaluable background information for anyone interested in identifying and recording the remains of the Home Front, from practice trenches to works by conscientious objectors to Homes fit for Heroes. Extensively illustrated, with both archive and modern images, the book also includes guidance on researching the Home Front. Mention of the First World War usually conjures up images of the trenches, the battles of the Western Front and the many cemeteries and memorials in Northern France and Belguim. Few will first consider the impact of the war here in Britain, yet the impact of the war on the Home Front was significant, affecting all aspects of life and introducing many changes, in industry, farming, housing and society. Little evidence of the First World War was thought to survive in the United Kingdom, but recent surveys have shown that much remains. With contributions from more than 25 authors, this book provides invaluable background information for anyone interested in identifying and recording these remains of the Home Front. More details on the Home Front Legacy project can be found at http://www.homefrontlegacy.org.uk.

The publication presents detailed recordings of the Old Kingdom tomb of Ptahhotep I, a tomb noted to be 'the most beautiful in Saqqara' by one of its early excavators. Unlike earlier publications, the monograph includes 150 coloured and detailed photographs, as well as high resolution line drawings showcasing the quality of the tomb's scenes and its exceptional architectural plan. Also included is a discussion on the tomb owner and a detailed analysis of the scenes, with some previously unknown erasures and modifications attesting to their intentional alteration by the ancient Egyptians.

Six excavations (1987–2007) at Finsbury Circus on the north side of the City of London uncovered over 130 Romano-British burials, part of the upper Walbrook cemetery, to the west of the better-known ‘northern’ cemetery (around Bishopsgate). Set within an area of marginal land, traversed by meandering tributary streams of the Walbrook, the cemetery provides intriguing insights into the management of burial space and attitudes to the dead, and a solution to one of the mostintriguing problems of London’s Roman archaeology – the origin of the ‘Walbrook skulls’.The cemetery was in use by the end of the 1st century AD, with most activity dated to c AD 120–200, but occasionalinterments continued into the 4th century AD. The majority of the graves are typical of the cemeteries of Roman London, but two individuals buried with heavy iron leg rings, apparently forged around the ankles after death are of special interest. What is remarkable about this cemetery is that human remains, particularly skulls, became exposed, were washed out and transported downstream by floods, migrating Walbrook tributaries and drainage channels. That burial continued in such conditions suggests either that this watershed area (and the taphonomic transformations on display) held significance for those using the cemetery, or that their choice of burial location was restricted.

The kitchen of the thirteenth century was long forgotten, overshadowed by the emblematic works, The Viandier Taillevent and Le Mesnagier of Paris, appeared in the fourteenth century. The thirteenth century was a time extension, intense trade, cultural exchanges. This is the golden age for Normans establishing themselves in many countries. In Western Europe this unity and community is greater than ever known before. Their kitchen is a testament to this European cohesion. This book is interested in the recipes presented in Anglo-Norman manuscripts and Scandinavian. They are copies of earlier texts from France, Sicily, themselves copied from other texts or finding their sources of inspiration in the Greco-Latin culture and cuisine of the East. Emblematic dishes that will the reputation of the kitchen Taillevent There are already appearing. The foundations of the medieval kitchen are given.Culinary is constantly changing, it is never a revolution. Acids or sweeter flavors, popular colours, subtle flavours, worked textures, cooking in the thirteenth century offers a wide and varied range recipes as delicious as each other.- TEXT IN FRENCH -

The Archaeological Atlas of Samarra sets out to map and catalogue the site and buildings of the Abbasid capital at Samarra in the period 836 to 892 AD, preserved as they were until the middle years of the 20th century. Site maps and catalogues are provided of all the approximately 5819 building and site units identified. This is the first time that it has been possible to catalogue nearly all the buildings of one of the world’s largest ancient cities, from the caliph palaces to the smallest hovels.

Religion is a phenomenon that is inseparable from human society. It brings about a set of emotional, ideological and practical elements that are pervasive in the social fabric of any society and characterizable by a number of features. these include the establishment of intermediaries in the relationship between humans and the divine; the construction of ceremonial places for worshipping the gods and practicing ritual performances; and the creation ritual paraphernalia. Investigating the religious dimensions of ancient societies encounters problems in defining such elements, especially with regard to societies that lack textual evidences and has tended to lead towards the identification of differentiation between the mental dimension, related to religious beliefs, and the material one associated with religious practices, resulting in a separation between scholars able to investigate, and possibly reconstruct, ritual practices (i.e., archaeologists), and those interested in defining the realm of ancient beliefs (i.e., philologists and religious historians).The aim of this collection of papers is to attempt to bridge these two dimensions by breaking down existing boundaries in order to form a more comprehensive vision of religion among ancient Near Eastern societies. This approach requires that a higher consideration be given to those elements (either artificial -- buildings, objects, texts, etc. -- or natural -- landscapes, animals, trees, etc.) that are created through a materialization of religious beliefs and practices enacted by members of communities. These issues are addressed in a series of specific case-studies covering a broad chronological framework that from the Pre-pottery Neolithic to the Iron Age.

The people who lived in England before the First World War now inhabit a realm of yellow photographs. Theirs is a world fast fading from ours, yet they do not appear overly distant. Many of us can remember them as being much like ourselves. Nor is it too late for us to encounter them so intimately that we might catch ourselves worrying that we have invaded their privacy. Digging up their refuse is like peeping through the keyhole. How far off are our grandparents in reality when we can sniff the residues of their perfume, cough medicines, and face cream? If we want to know what they bought in the village store, how they stocked the kitchen cupboard, and how they fed, pampered, and cared for themselves there is no better archive than a rubbish tip within which each object reveals a story. A simple glass bottle can reveal what people were drinking, how a great brand emerged, or whether an inventor triumphed with a new design. An old tin tells us about advertising, household chores, or foreign imports, and even a broken plate can introduce us to the children in the Staffordshire potteries, who painted in the colours of a robin, crudely sketched on a cheap cup and saucer. In this highly readable and delightfully illustrated little book Tom Licence reveals how these everyday minutiae, dug from the ground, contribute to the bigger story of how our great grandparents built a throwaway society from the twin foundations of packaging and mass consumption and illustrates how our own throwaway habits were formed.

The original circumstances in which archaeological remains came into being are crucial for the interpretation of the material record. Burials are first and foremost a result of a very traumatic event in a society – the death of one of its members. It is due to this context that burials represent a primary source for understanding past societies’ attitudes towards death. Barbara Hausmair traces death concepts and their influence on mortuary rituals in early medieval communities in what is today known as southwest Germany. Using the cemeteries of Bad Mingolsheim, Horb-Altheim and Weingarten as case studies, the author compares archaeological patterns based on grave goods and grave arrangements with anthropological data on age, sex, pathologies, trauma and migration patterns of the deceased. By connecting the observed patterns with social theories on human death behaviour, Hausmair dissects the complex network of the burial communities’ social structures, death concepts and the newly constructed identities of the dead in the afterlife. Her thanatological approach provides original insights into the relationships between burial practices and ideas about death in Merovingian-period Alamannia by sensibly combining theoretical considerations with a thorough analysis of archaeological material. TEXT IN GERMAN.

This volume explores early complex society and nascent urbanism, based in studies of Mesopotamia during the fifth–fourth millennia bc. Urbanism in the Near East has traditionally been located in late fourthmillennium bc southern Mesopotamia (south Iraq); but recent excavations and surveys in northeast Syria and southeast Turkey have identified a distinctively northern Mesopotamian variant of this development, which can be dated to the early fourth millennium bc. The authors use multiscalar approaches, including material culturebased studies, settlement archaeology and regional surveys, to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of early urbanism across this key region. The book reveals the variety of social, economic and political relationships that are implicit within an urban centre and an urbanized society.

In the autumn of 2010, the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde launched a newly built eel-drifter (åledrivkvase), a type of fishing boat traditionally used on the waters between Zealand, Lolland and Falster. Inspired by similar North-German fishing boats, the so-called Zeesboote, the eel-drifter was designed by boatbuilders on the island of Fejø, north of Lolland.

The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ‘Wessex Culture’ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research project that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body.Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.

Between 2008 and 2011 excavations were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit at Tremough, near Penryn, Cornwall. The site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Carrick Roads, historically one of the busiest waterways in Cornwall.The excavations led to a large number of significant archaeological features being uncovered ranging from Neolithic pits to Bronze Age structures and late prehistoric enclosures. Foremost of these sites were a Middle Bronze roundhouse (circa 1500-1300 cal BC) and a large circular Late Bronze Age enclosure (circa 1000-800 cal BC).Importantly, the roundhouse was found to contain stone moulds associated with the production of socketed tools and pins, and traces of metalworking were found inside the building. As such, the excavations have provided the first evidence for metalworking inside a Middle Bronze Age roundhouse in southern England, as well as radiocarbon dating for a range of metalwork forms. As part of the project finds of metalwork from other roundhouses in the South West region have been reassessed.The Late Bronze Age enclosure is the first of its type to found in the South West of Britain. It encircled a large number of pits and postholes, some of which were associated with rectangular post-built structures. A carefully made cairn of burnt stone beside a large pit and a second large pit containing burnt stone and pottery were also investigated. These may have been associated with cooking or perhaps with a small-scale episode of metalworking, as the tip of a sword mould was found in one of the pits.The significance of the investigated sites is fully discussed with regard to their relationships with other prehistoric sites on the plateau and in terms of their wider context with other sites in the South West and beyond.

The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland is a ground-breaking and unique study of the enigmatic, unseen and dark silent world of caves. People have engaged with caves for the duration of human occupation of the island, spanning 10,000 years. In prehistory, subterranean landscapes were associated with the dead and the spirit world, with evidence for burials, funerary rituals and votive deposition. The advent of Christianity saw the adaptation of caves as homes and places of storage, yet they also continued to feature in religious practice. Medieval mythology and modern folklore indicate that caves were considered places of the supernatural, being particularly associated with otherworldly women. Through a combination of archaeology, mythology and popular religion, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey that sheds new light on a hitherto neglected area of research. It encourages us to consider what underground activities might reveal about the lives lived aboveground, and leaves us in no doubt as to the cultural significance of caves in the past. Winner of the Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2016 award. Winner of the Tratman 2015 Award.

This selection of 23 papers from the 15th annual Current Research in Egyptology symposium addreses the interregional and interdisciplinary theme of‘Ancient Egypt in a Global World’. This theme works on a number of levels highlighting the current global nature of Egyptological research and it places ancient Egypt in the wider ancient world. The first section presents the results of recent excavations, including in the western Valley of the Kings and analysis of the structures, construction techniques, food production and consumption remains at Tell Timai (Thmuis) in the Delta. Part II focuses on the cross-cultural theme with papers including discussions on the presence in India of terracotta figurines from Roman Egypt; the ancient Egyptian influence of Aegean lion-headed divinities; Libyan influence in New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period Egyptian administration and the identifcation of ancient Egyptian finds from the British countryside reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The third part of the book includes current research undertaken across the world of Egyptology, including analysis of late Roman crocodile mummies though non-invasive radiographic imaging techniques and the study of infant jar-burials in ancient Egypt and Sudan to identify differences in regional socio-economic contexts and the interaction between people and local resources.

Salt is an invisible object for research in archaeology. However, ancient writings, ethnographic studies and the evidence of archaeological exploitation highlight it as an essential reference for humanity. Both an edible product and a crucial element for food preservation, it has been used by the first human settlements as soon as food storage appeared (Neolithic). As far as the history of food habits (both nutrition and preservation) is concerned, the identification and the use of that resource certainly proves a revolution as meaningful as the domestication of plants and wild animals. On a global scale, the development of new economic forms based on the management of food surplus went along an increased use of saline resources through a specific technical knowledge, aimed at the extraction of salt from its natural supports.Considering the variety of former practices observed until now, a pluralist approach based on human as well as environmental sciences is required. It allows a better knowledge of the historical interactions between our societies and this “white gold”, which are well-known from the Middle-Ages, but more hypothetical for earlier times.This publication intends to present the most recent progresses in the field of salt archaeology in Europe and beyond; it also exposes various approaches allowing a thorough understanding of this complex and many-faceted subject. The complementary themes dealt with in this book, the broad chronological and geographical focus, as well as the relevance of the results presented, make this contribution a key synthesis of the most recent research on this universal topic.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at TRAC 2014, as well as some invited contributions. In keeping with the aims of TRAC, several papers make make innovative use of interdisciplinary theory: in humanistic geography, philosophy and archaeology; social psychology; and the cognitive science of religion in the study of Roman monuments, military social history and religion. Other papers share a common theme: the critical interpretation of archaeological evidence. A more careful consideration of non-grave good pottery sherds from graves suggests that these often disregarded items potentially shed light on funerary rites which are usually considered to be invisible; the potential importance of plant remains, particularly of exotic and rare species, in ritual deposits is examined and a new perspective on the negative aspects of Roman conquest of Northern Gaul presented. New approaches towards our understanding of space and landscape in the Roman world comprise an examination of the suburbs of ancient Rome and preliminary results of an ongoing project exploring the relationship between wetland landscapes and domestic settlements, presenting a case study from Spain.