Some 2800 years ago, a man died in what is now the municipality of Oss, the Netherlands. His death must have been a significant event in the life of local communities, for he received an extraordinary funeral, which ended with the construction of an impressive barrow. Based on the meticulous excavation and a range of specialist and comprehensive studies of finds, a prehistoric burial ritual now can be brought to life in surprising detail. An Iron Age community used extraordinary objects that find their closest counterpart in the elite graves of the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. This book will discuss how lavishly decorated items were dismantled and taken apart to be connected with the body of the deceased, all to be destroyed by fire. In what appears to be a meaningful pars pro toto ritual, the remains of his body, the pyre, and the objects were searched through and moved about, with various elements being manipulated, intentionally broken, and interred or removed. In essence, a person and a place were transformed through destruction. The book shows how the mourners carefully, almost lovingly covered the funeral remains with a barrow. Attention is also given to another remarkable monument, long mound 6, located immediately adjacent to mound 7. Excavations show how mound 7 was part of an age-old ritual heath landscape that was entirely restructured during the Early Iron Age, when it became the setting for the building of no less than three huge Hallstatt C barrows. Thousands of years later, during the Late Middle Ages, this landscape underwent a complete transformation of meaning when the prehistoric barrows became the scenery for a macabre display of the cadavers of executed criminals.This publication is part of the Ancestral Mounds Research Project of the University of Leiden.

Excavations carried out by Oxford Archaeology in advance of the building of the Oracle shopping centre revealed a long sequence of development of the Kennet floodplain at Reading. This volume reports on the substantial evidence recovered for medieval and post-medieval water management, milling at the Minster Mill and St Giles Mill, the tanning, leather working and dyeing industries, and an unusual building interpreted as the 12th- to 13th-century cookhouse of Reading Abbey. The stories of two well-known Reading sites, the Oracle Workhouse and the Yield Hall, are followed from the medieval period up to the 19th century. Substantial specialist reports include pottery, glass, leatherworking, dendrochronology and clay pipes.

Anyone who has tried to archive archaeological geophysics data will have wondered what might be the most comprehensive and practical approach. This question is addressed by this Guide’s extensively revised 2nd edition, which systematically explores what should be included in an Archive, illustrated with relevant examples. A conceptual framework is developed that allows assembling data and meta-data so that they can be deposited with an Archiving Body. This framework is also mapped onto typical database structures, including OASIS and the English Heritage Geophysics Database. Examples show step-by step how an Archive can be compiled for deposition so that readers will be able to enhance their own archiving practice. Geophysical data are sometimes the only remaining record of buried archaeological features when these are destroyed during commercial developments (e.g. road schemes). To preserve them in an Archive can therefore be essential. However, it is important that data are made available in formats that can still be read in years to come, accompanied by documentation that gives meaningful archaeological context. This Guide covers the creation of the necessary metadata and data documentation. There is no point preserving data if they cannot be used again; therefore this Guide is essential for anyone using geophysical data.

Throughout its long history, stretching from the 25th Dynasty (c. 752-656 BC) to the Ottoman Period (c. 1500-1811 AD), Qasr Ibrim was one of the most important settlements in Egyptian Nubia. The site has produced an unprecedented wealth of material and due to the – even for Egypt – extraordinary preservation circumstances, includes objects that are made of perishable organic materials, such as wood, leather, and flax.The present volume focuses on one of these groups: footwear that is made from leather and dated to the Ottoman Period. The footwear, recovered during the years that the Egypt Exploration Society worked at the site, is described in detail, including a pictorial record consisting of photographs and drawings (both technical and artist’s impressions). This is the first time that Ottoman footwear from Egypt (and outside of Egypt) has been analyzed in detail. The preliminary analysis focuses on footwear technology, within the framework of the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project (AEFP; see www.leatherandshoes.nl). A broader interpretation will be combined with the results of the analyses of the finds from the other epochs of Qasr Ibrim’s history, such as the age of Christianity and the Meroitic Period.

This volume presents the conclusions of a research assessment funded by English Heritage which drew together the broad community of scholars interested in marine and maritime affairs, with a remit of both quantifying the known record and establishing a clear research agenda for the future. The result is an unrivalled exploration of our maritime heritage and a challenging agenda for the future.Britain is a maritime nation. Thus understanding the changing record of people&supl;s relationships with, and use of the sea is key to interpreting the archaeological record. People and the Sea considers all aspects of our maritime heritage; from the submerged landscapes created by changes in sea- level over the last million years, to the physical development of the modern coastline, through to ports, their hinterlands and associated maritime communities. It investigates the nature of seafaring, its associated material culture as well as people&supl;s changing perceptions and interactions with the sea. Chronological chapters, from the Palaeolithic to the 20th century, all consider a number of key themes, exploring both the current state of knowledge and priorities for future research. While the focus is on England, the themes explored are applicable to any coastal community, both in the UK and the near Continent. Written by leading academics, in consultation with numerous specialists, People and the Sea provides an unrivalled exploration of our maritime heritage and sets a challenging agenda for future research.

During the nineteenth century, antiquarians such as William Gell and George Dennis visited the ancient city of Veii, some 15 km north of Rome, and noted the rapid destruction of its archaeology. The city continued under to be under threat, and in the 1950s was the subject of ground-breaking survey and excavation by John Ward-Perkins. However, the results of his fieldwork were never published fully. Knowledge and understanding of material culture (especially pottery, votive objects and architectural terracottas) has increased dramatically over the past fifty years, so allowing the authors to reveal the full potential of the data. This publication reaffirms many of Ward-Perkins’s original insights, and contextualizes his research within the new discoveries of the past fifty years; whilst an important contribution to our knowledge, it is also a spur to further work.

Where do our images about early hominids come from? In this fascinating in-depth study, David Van Reybrouck demonstrates how input from ethnography and primatology has deeply influenced our visions about the past from the 19th century to this day – often far beyond the available evidence. Victorian scholars were keen to look at contemporary Australian and Tasmanian aboriginals to understand the enigmatic Neanderthal fossils. Likewise, today’s primatologists debate to what extent bonobos, baboons or chimps may be regarded as stand-ins for early human ancestors. The belief that the contemporary world provides ‘living links’ still goes strong. Such primate models, Van Reybrouck argues, continue the highly problematic ‘comparative method’ of the Victorian times. He goes on to show how the field of ethnoarchaeology has succeeded in circumventing the major pitfalls of such analogical reasoning.A truly interdisciplinary study, this work shows how scholars working in different fields can effectively improve their methods for interpreting the deep past by understanding the historical challenges of adjacent disciplines.Overviewing two centuries of intellectual debate in fields as diverse as archaeology, ethnography and primatology, Van Reybrouck’s book is one long plea for trying to understand the past on its own terms, rather than as facile projections from the present.David Van Reybrouck (Bruges, 1971) was trained as an archaeologist at the universities of Leuven, Cambridge and Leiden. Before becoming a highly successful literary author (The Plague, Mission, Congo…), he worked as a historian of ideas. For more than twelve years, he was co-editor of Archaeological Dialogues. In 2011-12, he held the prestigious Cleveringa Chair at the University of Leiden.

Marine Archaeology: A Handbook aims to give easy access to a range of information about the marine historic environment. It provides a useful guide for all those involved in the marine environment, from local authorities to recreational divers and interested amateurs. In recent years there has been increased awareness of both the potential and the fragility of the marine and maritime zones. Working in these zones presents a range of challenges, from the practical to the legal, which this Handbook attempts to explain.The book begins by defining what the marine environment is, and provides a brief history of maritime archaeology. It also considers the challenging question of the differences between marine archaeology and commercial salvage. Further chapters explain the organisation of marine archaeology in the UK and the planning of marine archaeological projects, with essential information on areas of responsibility and sources of information. A summary of the complex legal framework for the management of the marine zone around the UK is followed by discussion of European and UNESCO conventions on marine heritage. A glossary and extensive bibliography make this book essential reading for all amateurs and professionals with an interest in our marine historic environment.

Things travel around the globe: they are shipped as mass consumer goods, or transported as souvenirs or gifts. There are infinite ways for things to be mobile, not only in the era of globalisation but since the beginning of time, as the earliest traces of long distance trading show. This book investigates the mobility of things from archaeological and anthropological perspectives. Material Objects are characterised by temporal continuity, embodying a prior existence with lingering effects. Yet the material continuity disguises the transformations they may undergo, which only become evident upon closer examination. Objects are in perpetual flux, leaving visible traces of their age, usage, and previous life. While travelling through time, objects also circulate through space, and their spatial mobility alters their meaning and use with respect to new cultural horizons. As objects transform through time and space, so does the value attributed to them. Mapping out itineraries of value in the realm of the material, allows us to grasp the nature of a given social formation through the shape and meaning taken on by its valued 'stuff'. It also provides insights into the nature of materiality, through the value ascribed to objects at a given point in time and space. This edited volume brings together studies of material culture, materiality and value, with regard to the mobility of objects, with the aim of tracing the ways in which societies constitute their valued objects and how the realm of the material reflects upon society.

There are about 300 archaeological open-air museums in Europe. Their history goes from Romanticism up to modern-day tourism. With the majority dating to the past 30 years, they do more than simply present (re)constructed outdoor sceneries based on archaeology. They have an important role as education facilities and many showcase archaeology in a variety of ways. Compared to other museum categories, archaeological open-air museums boast a wide variety of manifestations.This research assesses the value of archaeological open-air museums, their management and their visitors, and is the first to do so in such breadth and detail. After a literature study and general data collection among 199 of such museums in Europe, eight archaeological open-air museums from different countries were selected as case studies. They included museums in a very varied state with different balances between public versus private funding levels on the one hand, and on the other the proportion of private individuals to educational groups among their visitors.The issue of ‘quality’ was investigated from different perspectives. The quality as assessed by the museum management was recorded in a management survey; the quality as experienced by their visitors was also recorded using a survey. In addition on-site observations were recorded. Management and visitors have different perspectives leading to different priorities and appreciation levels.The studies conclude with recommendations, ideas and strategies which are applicable not just to the eight archaeological open-air museums under study, but to any such museum in general. The recommendations are divided into the six categories of management, staff, collections, marketing, interpretation and the visitors. They are designed to be informative statements of use to managers across the sector.

In the past, textile production was a key part of all ancient societies. The Ancient Near East stands out in this respect with the overwhelming amount of documentation both in terms of raw materials, line of production, and the distribution of finished products. The thirteen intriguing chapters in Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East describe the developments and changes from household to standardised, industrialised and centralised productions which take place in the region. They discuss the economic, social and cultural impact of textiles on ancient society through the application of textile tool studies, experimental testing, context studies and epigraphical as well as iconographical sources. Together they demonstrate that the textile industries, production, technology, consumption and innovations are crucial to, and therefore provide an in-depth view of ancient societies during this period. Geographically the contributions cover Anatolia, the Levant, Syria, the Assyrian heartland, Sumer, and Egypt.

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS), or lidar, is an enormously important innovation for data collection and interpretation in archaeology. The application of archaeological 3D data deriving from sources including ALS, close-range photogrammetry and terrestrial and photogrammetric scanners has grown exponentially over the last decade. Such data present numerous possibilities and challenges, from ensuring that applications remain archaeologically relevant, to developing practices that integrate the manipulation and interrogation of complex digital datasets with the skills of archaeological observation and interpretation. This volume addresses the implications of multi-scaled topographic data for contemporary archaeological practice in a rapidly developing field, drawing on examples of ongoing projects and reflections on best practice.Twenty papers from across Europe explore the implications of these digital 3D datasets for the recording and interpretation of archaeological topography, whether at the landscape, site or artefact scale. The papers illustrate the variety of ways in which we engage with archaeological topography through 3D data, from discussions of its role in landscape archaeology, to issues of context and integration, and to the methodological challenges of processing, visualisation and manipulation. Critical reflection on developing practice and implications for cultural resource management and research contextualize the case studies and applications, illustrating the diverse and evolving roles played by multi-scalar topographic data in contemporary archaeology.

In this book the concept of mobility is explored for the archaeology of the Amazonian and Caribbean region. As a result of technological and methodological progress in archaeology, mobility has become increasingly visible on the level of the individual. However, as a concept it does not seem to fit with current approaches in Amazonian archaeology, which favour a move away from viewing small mobile groups as models for the deeper past. Instead of ignoring such ethnographic tyrannies, in this book they are considered to be essential for arriving at a different past. Viewing archaeological mobility as the sum of movements of both people and objects, the empirical part of Amotopoan Trails focuses on Amotopo, a small contemporary Trio village in the interior of Suriname. The movements of the Amotopoans are tracked and positioned in a century of Trio dynamics, ultimately yielding a recent archaeology of Surinamese-Trio movements for the Sipaliwini River basin (1907-2008). Alongside the construction of this archaeology, novel mobility concepts are introduced. They provide the conceptual footholds which enable the envisioning of mobility at various temporal scales, from a decade up to a century, the sequence of which has remained a blind spot in Caribbean and Amazonian archaeology.

Although the Assyrian kingdom that dominated the Ancient Near East between the ninth and seventh centuries BC had a rich material culture, attested particularly by the distinctive stone wall reliefs and colossal gateway figures, practically nothing is known about Assyrian metalwork. There has been no previous survey of this subject, largely because most of the material was not accessible. This volume makes available for the first time a vast amount of previously unpublished metalwork, much of it from the Assyrian capital city of Nimrud, excavated first by Sir Henry Layard between 1845 and 1851 and then by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq between 1949 and 1963. It emerges that Assyria had a thriving metalworking industry probably superior to any contemporary state in the region, and was producing large quantities of sophisticated bronze and ironwork, of high technical quality and sometimes elaborately decorated. This book will therefore be of interest to archaeologists, art historians and metallurgists. It is the publication of a PhD thesis that was successfully submitted in 1979. It is published here in its original form in order to make the large amount of primary data that it contains available to a wider circle of scholars.

Animal procurement and tool production form two of the most tightly connected components of human behaviour. They are tied to our emergence as a genus, were fundamental to the dispersal of our species, and underpin the development of our societies. The interaction between these fundamental activities has been a subject of archaeological inference from the earliest days of the discipline, yet the pursuit of each has tended to encourage and entrench specialist study. As a result, our understanding of them has developed in full-view but in general isolation of one from the other. This volume begins the process of integrating what have all too often become isolated archaeological and interpretative domains. Exposing and exploring contexts spanning much of prehistory, and drawing data from a wide range of environmental settings, the book covers both sides of the complex inter-relationship between animals, the technologies used to procure them and those arising from them. In taking a more inclusive approach to the material, technological and social dynamics of early human subsistence we have returned to the earliest of those archaeological associations: that between stone tools and animal bones. In revealing the inter-dependence of their relationship, this volume takes what we hope will be a first step towards a revitalized understanding of the scope of past interactions between humans and the world around them.Krish Seetah is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University. His zooarchaeological research focuses on butchering and the socio-economic context of food.Brad Gravina is a member of the laboratory Préhistoire a l'Actuel: Cultures, Evironment et Anthropologie (PACEA) at the University of Bordeaux. His research focuses on the final Middle Palaeolithic of Western Europe with an emphasis on lithic technology and taphonomy.

This volume presents the results of the first national assessment of English battlefields. The primary written sources are complemented by the results of extensive fieldwork, computer-based terrain reconstruction, and scientific analysis of artefacts recovered from battlefields. The authors proposed methodology for investigating battlefield locations is validated by the recent identification of the precise location of the Battle of Bosworth, some 3km from the traditional site.