Sidestone Press

Sidestone Press is an academic publishing house founded by scholars, for scholars. As a publisher they have one clear ambition, that is to make scientific information available to all. They believe scientific information should be available at all times, at all places and to each and every one. This means that the printing and selling of books is but one part of what they believe a good publisher should do.

Apart from printed books that can be found in libraries and bookstores around the world, Sidestone books can also be freely accessed online through different channels such as Google Books, Google Scholar and through their own digital ebook library. By offering access to their books for free, more people than ever have access to our publications. First of all this is beneficial for our authors as it greatly increases the exposure of their work, and in effect, the impact of their research. Second, of course, it enables their readers – scholars and students around the world – to access their publications at any time and at any place, including those parts of the world where access to good quality academic libraries is not guaranteed.

From 2012 onwards Sidestone books have been published under one of three different imprints: Sidestone Press Academics, Sidestone Press Dissertations and Sidestone Press.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 78

ISBN: 9789088900198

Pub Date: 01 Dec 2008

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Description:

In 1979, the world was taken by surprise when the Iranian people revolted against their westernized ruling elite, and traded in the Shah for a radical Islamic republic ruled by the most senior Shiite cleric, ayatollah Khomeini. The Islamic revolution of Iran was a breaking point in history. It was the defining moment for Islam in the twentieth century and fuelled the Islamic confidence that has since then only grown.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 200

ISBN: 9789088900204

Pub Date: 01 Dec 2008

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Description:

The sophistication of Neanderthal behavioural strategies have been the subject of debate from the moment of their recognition as a separate species of hominin in 1856. This book presents a study on Neanderthal foraging prowess. Novel ethnographic and primatological insights, suggest that increasing dependence on high quality foods, such as meat, caused the brain to evolve to a large size and thus led to highly intelligent hominins. From this baseline, the author studies the Neanderthal archaeological record in order to gain insight into the knowledge-intensity of Neanderthal hunting behaviour. In this research, an optimal foraging perspective is applied to Pleistocene bone assemblages. According to this perspective, foraging success is an important factor in an individuals evolutionary fitness. Therefore foraging is organised as efficiently as possible. The prey species that were selected and hunted by Neanderthals are analysed. The author investigates economic considerations that influenced Neanderthal prey choice. These considerations are based on estimates of the population densities of the available prey species and on estimates of the relative difficulty of hunting those species. The results demonstrate that when Neanderthals operated within poor environments, their prey choice was constrained: they were not able to hunt species living in large herds. In these environments, solitary species were the preferred prey. It is striking that Neanderthals successfully focussed on the largest and most dangerous species in poor environments. However, in richer environments, these constraints were lifted and species living in herds were successfully exploited. In order to assess the accuracy of this approach, bone assemblages formed by cave hyenas are also analysed. The combined results of the Neanderthal and hyena analyses show that an optimal foraging perspective provides a powerful tool to increase our understanding of Pleistocene ecology. The niches of two social carnivores of similar size, which were seemingly similar, are successfully distinguished. This result lends extra credence to the conclusions regarding Neanderthal foraging strategies. This book contributes to the debate surrounding Neanderthal competence and ability. It combines an up-to-date review of current knowledge on Neanderthal biology and archaeology, with novel approaches to the archaeological record. It is thus an important contribution to the current knowledge of this enigmatic species.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 537

ISBN: 9789088900105

Pub Date: 01 Dec 2007

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Description:

Today, half the Netherlands is below sea level. Because of this, water-management is of key importance when it comes to maintaining present-day habitation of the Dutch low-lands. In prehistory, however, large parts of the Dutch landscape were highly dynamic due to ongoing fluvial sedimentation.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 134

ISBN: 9789088900013

Pub Date: 01 Dec 2006

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Description:

As early as the 19th century discoveries of groups of large axes puzzled those confronted with them. The fact that most were found in waterlogged places increased the speculation as to the nature of the deposits. This thesis is concerned with the character and significance of TRB flint axe depositions.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 206

ISBN: 9789088900020

Pub Date: 01 Dec 2006

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Description:

An Archaeology of Exchange is primarily an archaeology of human sociality and anti-sociality. Nevertheless, archaeological studies of exchange are numerous and varied, and archaeologists do not always approach exchange as a social mechanism, concentrating rather on the cultural, economic or political implications of exchange. Even so, at times it is worth retracing the implicit theoretical steps that archaeologists have taken and look at human sociality through the eyes of exchange as something new.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 393

ISBN: 9789073368194

Pub Date: 15 Nov 2002

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Series: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia

Illustrations: b/w illus, tbs (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 33/34 , Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden 2002)

Description:

One of the most puzzling phenomena of the European Bronze Age, is that many communities buried or otherwise hid large numbers of valuable bronze objects, but never returned to retrieve them. This book focuses on the metal finds of one small European region, the southern Netherlands and the adjacent part of North Belgium. Fontijn considers the question of why so many elaborate bronze objects have been found in watery locations in this landscape, such as rivers, streams, and marshes, while so few have been found in the controlled excavations of local settlements and cemeteries.