This book provides a general self-reflexive review and critical analysis of Scandinavian rock art from the standpoint of Chris Tilley’s research in this area over the last thirty years. It offers a novel alternative theoretical perspective stressing the significance of visual narrative structure and rhythm, using musical analogies, putting particular emphasis on the embodied perception of images in a landscape context. Part I reviews the major theories and interpretative perspectives put forward to understand the images, in historical perspective, and provides a critique discussing each of the main types of motifs occurring on the rocks. Part II outlines an innovative theoretical and methodological perspective for their study stressing sequence and relationality in bodily movement from rock to rock. Part III is a detailed case study and analysis of a series of rocks from northern Bohuslän in western Sweden. The conclusions reflect on the theoretical and methodological approach being taken in relation to the disciplinary practices involved in rock art research, and its future.

Textile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities in prehistory. Textiles were significant objects of practical use, and at the same time had cultural, social and symbolic meaning, crucial for displaying the identity, gender, social rank and status, or wealth of their users. However, evidence of ancient clothing is scarce due to unfavourable preservation of organic materials. Only occasionally are prehistoric textiles and associated implements preserved, mainly as a result of exceptional environmental conditions, such as waterlogged contexts like bogs, or in very dry or cold climates. In other cases textiles are sporadically mineralised, carbonised or preserved by metal corrosion. Textiles and leather can also be visible as imprints on clay.The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography.The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.

Au cours des quatre derniers siècles av. n.è. les sociétés d’Europe continentale de la culture dite de La Tène développent leur propre artisanat du verre. Cette période de mutations économiques et sociales saisissantes, où les centres urbains et les réseaux d’habitats hiérarchisés se déploient, connaît également une intensification et une diversification des productions artisanales et agricoles. De l’agriculture à la métallurgie, l’étude des spécialisations artisanales laténiennes révèle des changements techniques et économiques majeurs et précise les facteurs impliqués dans ces transformations socio-économiques.Presque exclusivement dédié aux ornements du corps, l’artisanat du verre celtique produit des perles et des bracelets. Longtemps considérés comme des objets de pacotilles, babioles qui ne pouvaient être que féminines ou enfantines, ces objets sont considérés ici sous leurs aspects économiques et sociaux. La méthode d’étude pluridisciplinaire développée, combinant l’étude contextuelle des objets, l’analyse élémentaire des matériaux et l’exploration des techniques avec des artisans verriers, a permis pour la première fois d’aborder ces objets à travers toute leur chaîne de production. De la fabrication du verre brut au Proche-Orient aux poignets des populations celtiques, l’étude des parures en verre celtiques révèle désormais les réseaux d’échanges et les savoir-faire que les sociétés ont développés pour leur production. Cette redécouverte de l’artisanat verrier laténien permet d’approcher les valeurs et les fonctions de signes des parures en verre, redéfinissant ces objets comme des parures de prix, destinés à la distinction sociale des individus, mais dont la production et les consommations semblent également évoluer parallèlement à la hiérarchisation de la société du La Tène.English abstractThis books focusses on Iron Age glassmaking through a socio-economic perspective. To do so, a multidisciplinary method has been established, combining archaeological data with archaeometry and technological approaches developed with modern glassmakers. It allows us to reconstruct, step by step, the commodity chain of this craft, only dedicated to beads and bangles productions, from the raw glass production, its transformation into items of adornments but also its distribution and its consumption processes by La Tène societies.By reconstructing this production system, the social and symbolic values of these ornaments can be better understood. Glass beads and bangles are luxury products and their consumption evolved alongside the hierarchisation of La Tène societies. This new research on La Tène Glass reveals conspicuous consumption practises depending on the organisation of goods networks with the Near East, but also specialised craftspeople and production structures only dedicated to the production of objects used for the distinction of individuals.

Au cours des quatre derniers siècles av. n.è. les sociétés d’Europe continentale de la culture dite de La Tène développent leur propre artisanat du verre. Cette période de mutations économiques et sociales saisissantes, où les centres urbains et les réseaux d’habitats hiérarchisés se déploient, connaît également une intensification et une diversification des productions artisanales et agricoles. De l’agriculture à la métallurgie, l’étude des spécialisations artisanales laténiennes révèle des changements techniques et économiques majeurs et précise les facteurs impliqués dans ces transformations socio-économiques.Presque exclusivement dédié aux ornements du corps, l’artisanat du verre celtique produit des perles et des bracelets. Longtemps considérés comme des objets de pacotilles, babioles qui ne pouvaient être que féminines ou enfantines, ces objets sont considérés ici sous leurs aspects économiques et sociaux. La méthode d’étude pluridisciplinaire développée, combinant l’étude contextuelle des objets, l’analyse élémentaire des matériaux et l’exploration des techniques avec des artisans verriers, a permis pour la première fois d’aborder ces objets à travers toute leur chaîne de production. De la fabrication du verre brut au Proche-Orient aux poignets des populations celtiques, l’étude des parures en verre celtiques révèle désormais les réseaux d’échanges et les savoir-faire que les sociétés ont développés pour leur production. Cette redécouverte de l’artisanat verrier laténien permet d’approcher les valeurs et les fonctions de signes des parures en verre, redéfinissant ces objets comme des parures de prix, destinés à la distinction sociale des individus, mais dont la production et les consommations semblent également évoluer parallèlement à la hiérarchisation de la société du La Tène.English abstractThis books focusses on Iron Age glassmaking through a socio-economic perspective. To do so, a multidisciplinary method has been established, combining archaeological data with archaeometry and technological approaches developed with modern glassmakers. It allows us to reconstruct, step by step, the commodity chain of this craft, only dedicated to beads and bangles productions, from the raw glass production, its transformation into items of adornments but also its distribution and its consumption processes by La Tène societies.By reconstructing this production system, the social and symbolic values of these ornaments can be better understood. Glass beads and bangles are luxury products and their consumption evolved alongside the hierarchisation of La Tène societies. This new research on La Tène Glass reveals conspicuous consumption practises depending on the organisation of goods networks with the Near East, but also specialised craftspeople and production structures only dedicated to the production of objects used for the distinction of individuals.

Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known as ‘urnfields.’ Today some 700 of these burial sites have come to light in the Netherlands alone. In this corner of Europe, also known as the ‘Lower-Rhine-Basin,’ these cemeteries are often characterised by vast collections of small burial mounds under which the cremated remains of decedents were buried in small shaft-like pits. In many a case the cremated remains had been put in urns first, providing these cemeteries with their very name. Though rich in numbers, urnfield graves are often described as ‘poor’ and ‘simple’ as only in rare occasions decedents were provided with grave gifts. However, when close attention is paid to the actions involved in the creation of these seemingly simple graves, they in fact reveal a richness in funerary practices that on their turn hint a complex and intricate mortuary process. This book delves into the wealth of funerary practices reflected in more than 3,000 urnfield graves excavated throughout the Netherlands in order to reconstruct the mortuary process associated with the urnfields in this particular part of Europe. Together these graves tell interesting stories about how the dead related to each other, how plain and simple objects could be used as metaphors in the creation of relational and ancestral identities and how the dead were inextricably linked to the land.

Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known as ‘urnfields.’ Today some 700 of these burial sites have come to light in the Netherlands alone. In this corner of Europe, also known as the ‘Lower-Rhine-Basin,’ these cemeteries are often characterised by vast collections of small burial mounds under which the cremated remains of decedents were buried in small shaft-like pits. In many a case the cremated remains had been put in urns first, providing these cemeteries with their very name. Though rich in numbers, urnfield graves are often described as ‘poor’ and ‘simple’ as only in rare occasions decedents were provided with grave gifts. However, when close attention is paid to the actions involved in the creation of these seemingly simple graves, they in fact reveal a richness in funerary practices that on their turn hint a complex and intricate mortuary process. This book delves into the wealth of funerary practices reflected in more than 3,000 urnfield graves excavated throughout the Netherlands in order to reconstruct the mortuary process associated with the urnfields in this particular part of Europe. Together these graves tell interesting stories about how the dead related to each other, how plain and simple objects could be used as metaphors in the creation of relational and ancestral identities and how the dead were inextricably linked to the land.

The Tripolye phenomenon, which displays a specific artefact complex and an extraordinary settlement layout, is also known for its so-called ‘mega sites’. Five of the largest ‘mega’ or giant settlements measure between 150-320 ha in size. These, and other big settlements, are concentrated in the Sinyukha River Basin, which is a central part of modern Ukraine. In this region, more than 100 different Tripolye sites are known. The chronology of this region is the key to understanding not only the ‘mega-site’ phenomenon, but also the dynamics of spatial development within the Tripolye phenomenon in general. The central issue of this study focusses on the reconstruction of the Tripolye chronology in the Sinyukha Basin and its surrounding areas, including the chronology of individual mega-sites, the periodization of spatial Tripolye distribution, the development of ceramic styles, the lifetime of individual sites, and Tripolye settlements in time and space. Special attention is paid to the ceramics as one of the main sources for typo-chronologies. The obtained results provide a new view on the appearance, functions and the end of Tripolye, in general, and of large sites in particular.

In dieser Dissertation hat José Eduardo M. de Medeiros einen neuen theoretischen Ansatz mit der Untersuchung konkreter Probleme in der Bronze- und Eisenzeitforschung Mitteleuropas in Einklang gebracht. Das ursprüngliche Ziel war die Untersuchung der Schmuckhorte der Spätbronzezeit in Frankreich. Aber eine anfängliche Beschäftigung mit der Literatur zu den Hortfunden der Spätbronze- und Früheisenzeit führte zu der Einsicht, dass die Grundlagen prähistorischer Interpretation einer kritischen Revision bedurften. Die angebotene Reflexion ist eng mit einer soziologischen Kulturtheorie verknüpft, die eine kritische Sicht darauf miteinbezieht, wie Menschen Objekte und Ereignisse in der Welt erklären. Es gibt einen revolutionären Wechsel zwischen vormodernen (handlungs- und substanzlogischen) und modernen (prozessualen) Erklärungen, und es war Medeiros' Aufgabe, die Folgen dieses Paradigmenwechsels für die archäologische Forschung zu verstehen. Da diese Einsichten zu einer Relativierung der Niederlegungsabsichten als heuristisches Werkzeug führen und die Niederlegungsabsicht weiterhin als ein wichtiges Instrument für die Kategorisierung von Hortfunden dient, handelt es sich um Konsequenzen für die archäologische Interpretation im Allgemeinen und für die Deutung der Hortfunde der Spätbronze- und Früheisenzeit im Speziellen. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass Schmuck-, Gefäß- und Waffenhorte verschiedene Arten von Deponierungen darstellen und dass, wenn diese Depots im religiösen Kontext der Zeit betrachtet werden, Schmuck und Gefäße die gleiche Bedeutung wie Waffen tragen. Dies steht im Widerspruch zu einer gängigen Auffassung der Spätbronze- und Früheisenzeit, welche die Krieger und ihre Waffen in den Vordergrund stellt. Der Autor zeigt, dass dies eine kulturell konstruierte, „männliche“ Voreingenommenheit ist, die psychologische und soziologische Ursachen hat. Schließlich bietet dieses Buch einen rekonstruktiven Ansatz an, der die kulturelle Bedeutung der Schmuckhorte aufklärt. English abstract Throughout his Ph.D. Thesis, José Eduardo M. de Medeiros has balanced a deeply theoretical approach with the study of concrete problems within Central European Bronze and Iron Age Archaeology. The original objective of his thesis was the investigation of Late Bronze Age jewellery hoards in France. But an initial examination of the literature on the hoards of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age led to the insight that the foundations of prehistoric interpretation required a deeper critical revision. The proposed reflection is closely linked to a sociological theory of culture that entails a critical view of how human beings explain objects and events in the world. According to this view, there is a marked revolutionary change between "pre-modern" (subject logic) and "modern" (processual logic) explanations, and it has been Medeiros’s work to understand the ramifications of this paradigm shift for archaeological investigation. Essentially, this theoretical reflection questions attempts to explain a fact through recourse to the subjective intention or plan behind the fact. Consequently, these insights lead to a relativization of the subjective intention as a tool for interpretation of archaeological remains. Such a position poses serious consequences for archaeological theories in general, and for the interpretations of the hoarding phenomenon of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in particular. The archaeological category of hoards is currently defined as an intentional selection of objects for unknown reasons. Nevertheless, the underlying intention is a highly-important instrument for the classification of the hoard finds as being either profane and/or ritual forms of deposition. Thus, an over reliance on the intentions behind an act clearly contrasts with the negative definition of that category. This work shows that jewellery, vessels and weapons constitute different kinds of depositions (a.k.a. hoards), and that in addition, when these depositions are viewed in the religious context of the period, jewellery and vessels carry the same importance as weapons. This is contrary to the more common view that emphasizes warriors and their weapons, which the author demonstrates to be a male bias having psychological and sociological foundations. Finally, this book offers a reconstructive approach that clarifies the cultural significance of the jewellery hoards.

La publication des actes du colloque « Mégalithismes et monumentalismes funéraires : passé, présent, futur » reprend les trois grands thèmes de ces rencontres internationales en offrant une large place aux études récentes du mégalithisme en Europe ainsi qu’à l’ethnoarchéologie et aux questions de valorisation et de conservation de ce patrimoine fragile. Les contributions d’experts internationaux montrent tout l’intérêt de voir au-delà du monument afin de comprendre son insertion dans le paysage et sa relation avec les autres structures archéologiques. Sur cette question, les outils sont aujourd’hui aussi nombreux que variés : études paléoenvironnementales, prospections multi-méthodes (LiDAR, géophysique), analyses spatiales (SIG) ou encore fouilles extensives. Les questions d’organisation du territoire, à travers les interactions entre mégalithes et enceintes par exemple, sont au cœur des recherches actuelles. Innover dans la façon d’étudier un cairn ou une chambre funéraire est un autre axe de réflexion développé dans cet ouvrage. De nouvelles méthodes d’analyse, en France et en Espagne, offrent aujourd’hui une restitution fiable de la chaîne opératoire dédiée à la construction mégalithique. Les études des architectures en pierres sèches et des parois mégalithiques, s’appuyant sur des modèles 3D haute résolution, participent au renouveau de nos connaissances sur l’organisation du chantier et des conditions d’utilisation du monument. L’apport de l’observation ethnographique à l’interprétation des faits archéologiques est abordé au travers des exemples asiatiques et africains pour échafauder des scénarios interprétatifs sur les sociétés anciennes européennes. Des éléments de réflexion sont proposés au sujet du fonctionnement des carrières, du déplacement de monuments ou encore de l’organisation du territoire et notamment des liens forts avec l’habitat. Enfin, les dernières contributions sont dédiées à la valorisation des monuments en France. Des exemples de travaux d’inventaire, de restauration et de restitution au grand public mettent en lumière les avancées dans ce domaine. Travaux du Projet Collectif de Recherche « Milieu et peuplement en Languedoc occidental du Néolithique à l’âge du Bronze », sous la direction de Muriel Gandelin, et de l’ANR « Monumentalités, espaces et compétitions sociales en Europe Atlantique », sous la direction de Vincent Ard et Vivien Mathé English abstract This book focusses on the past, present and future of recent studies of megalithism in Europe, including enthoarchaeology and the conservation of these monuments. The book contains contributions from international experts that focus on the monuments and their surroundings to better understand their place within the wider landscape. New innovative methods and techniques are explored (most notably 3D) that allow architectural analyses that were previously not possible and which greatly increase our knowledge base. Ethnographic research contributes to the interpretation of archaeology as is illustrated through Asian and African examples. These data substantially contribute as a source of interpretative scenarios for European megalithism. The final chapters in this book are dedicated to the promotion of these monuments in France through projects focussing on the finds they contained, their restoration and making them available to the general public.

La publication des actes du colloque « Mégalithismes et monumentalismes funéraires : passé, présent, futur » reprend les trois grands thèmes de ces rencontres internationales en offrant une large place aux études récentes du mégalithisme en Europe ainsi qu’à l’ethnoarchéologie et aux questions de valorisation et de conservation de ce patrimoine fragile. Les contributions d’experts internationaux montrent tout l’intérêt de voir au-delà du monument afin de comprendre son insertion dans le paysage et sa relation avec les autres structures archéologiques. Sur cette question, les outils sont aujourd’hui aussi nombreux que variés : études paléoenvironnementales, prospections multi-méthodes (LiDAR, géophysique), analyses spatiales (SIG) ou encore fouilles extensives. Les questions d’organisation du territoire, à travers les interactions entre mégalithes et enceintes par exemple, sont au cœur des recherches actuelles. Innover dans la façon d’étudier un cairn ou une chambre funéraire est un autre axe de réflexion développé dans cet ouvrage. De nouvelles méthodes d’analyse, en France et en Espagne, offrent aujourd’hui une restitution fiable de la chaîne opératoire dédiée à la construction mégalithique. Les études des architectures en pierres sèches et des parois mégalithiques, s’appuyant sur des modèles 3D haute résolution, participent au renouveau de nos connaissances sur l’organisation du chantier et des conditions d’utilisation du monument. L’apport de l’observation ethnographique à l’interprétation des faits archéologiques est abordé au travers des exemples asiatiques et africains pour échafauder des scénarios interprétatifs sur les sociétés anciennes européennes. Des éléments de réflexion sont proposés au sujet du fonctionnement des carrières, du déplacement de monuments ou encore de l’organisation du territoire et notamment des liens forts avec l’habitat. Enfin, les dernières contributions sont dédiées à la valorisation des monuments en France. Des exemples de travaux d’inventaire, de restauration et de restitution au grand public mettent en lumière les avancées dans ce domaine. Travaux du Projet Collectif de Recherche « Milieu et peuplement en Languedoc occidental du Néolithique à l’âge du Bronze », sous la direction de Muriel Gandelin, et de l’ANR « Monumentalités, espaces et compétitions sociales en Europe Atlantique », sous la direction de Vincent Ard et Vivien Mathé English abstract This book focusses on the past, present and future of recent studies of megalithism in Europe, including enthoarchaeology and the conservation of these monuments. The book contains contributions from international experts that focus on the monuments and their surroundings to better understand their place within the wider landscape. New innovative methods and techniques are explored (most notably 3D) that allow architectural analyses that were previously not possible and which greatly increase our knowledge base. Ethnographic research contributes to the interpretation of archaeology as is illustrated through Asian and African examples. These data substantially contribute as a source of interpretative scenarios for European megalithism. The final chapters in this book are dedicated to the promotion of these monuments in France through projects focussing on the finds they contained, their restoration and making them available to the general public.

The Great Houses of the prehistoric and early medieval periods were enormous structures whose forms were modelled on those of domestic dwellings. Most were built of wood rather than stone; they were used over comparatively short periods; they were frequently replaced in the same positions; and some were associated with exceptional groups of artefacts. Their construction made considerable demands on human labour and approached the limits of what was possible at the time. They seem to have played specialised roles in ancient society, but they have been difficult to interpret. Were they public buildings or the dwellings of important people? Were they temples or military bases, and why were they erected during times of crisis or change? How were their sites selected, and how were they related to the remains of a more ancient past? Although their currency extended from the time of the first farmers to the Viking Age, the similarities between the Great Houses are as striking as the differences. This study focuses on the monumental buildings of northern and northwestern Europe, but draws on structures over a wide area, extending from Anatolia as far as Brittany and Norway. It employs ethnography as a source of ideas and discusses the concept of the House Society and its usefulness in archaeology. The main examples are taken from the Neolithic and Iron Age periods, but this account also draws on the archaeology of the first millennium AD. The book emphasises the importance of comparing archaeological sequences with one another rather than identifying ideal social types. In doing so, it features a range of famous and less famous sites, from Stonehenge to the Hill of Tara, and from Old Uppsala to Yeavering.

The human body serves as a symbolic bridge between communities of the living and the divine. This is clearly evident in mythological stories that recount the creation of humans by deities within ancient and contemporaneous societies across a very broad geographical environment. In certain circumstances, parts of selected humans can become an ideal proxy for connecting with the supernatural, as demonstrated by the cult of human skulls in Near Eastern Neolithic communities, as well as the cult of relics of Christian saints from the early Christian era. To go deeper into this topic, this volume undertakes a cross-cultural investigation of the role played by both humans and human remains in creating forms of relationality with the divine in antiquity. This approach highlights how the human body can be envisioned as part of a broader materialisation of religious beliefs that is based on connecting different realms of materiality in the perception of the supernatural by communities of the living.

Network theory and methodologies have become central to exploring and explaining social, economic and political relationships and connections in past societies. However, in archaeology, the deployment of networks has sometimes been more descriptive than analytical. Methodologies have often depended upon underlying assumptions which inevitably simplify relationships that were complex and multi-faceted. However, the fragmentary, heterogenous and usually proxy data we possess are not always amenable to reconstructing that complexity. In ancient societies, we must infer the movement of knowledge about 'how to make things' largely from objects themselves. This is because we usually lack direct evidence of the human relationships that entwined people with objects and their makers, and hence have only imperfect understanding of the full range of diverse factors that shaped the relationships that constituted these networks. The chapters in this volume aim to interrogate the interpretative potential of network concepts for understanding the movement over time and space of ideas about making, using and moving things through a range of archaeological case studies, which reveal both functional and dysfunctional relationships. The purpose is to consider how more broadly contextualised and multi-faceted studies can both enhance, and be enhanced by, network and related approaches. The volume contributes to the search for greater understanding of the movement and transmission of knowledge (or in some cases their absence), and to debates about how best to expand the utility of network concepts and approaches.

Trinacria, the ancient name for Sicily extending back to Homeric Greek, has understandably been the focus of decades of archaeological research. Recognising Sicily’s rich prehistory and pivotal role in the history of the Mediterranean, Sebastiano Tusa - professor, head of heritage agencies and councillor for Cultural Heritage for the Sicilian Region - promoted the exploration of the island’s heritage through international collaboration. His decades of fostering research initiatives not only produced rich archaeological results spanning the Palaeolithic to the modern era but brought scholars from a range of schools and disciplines to work together in Sicily. Through his efforts, uniquely productive methodological, theoretical and interpretative networks were created. Their impact extends far beyond Sicily and Italy. To highlight these networks and their results, the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, the Swedish Institute in Rome, the Norwegian Institute in Rome, the British School at Rome and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali of Sicily, with generous support from the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, assembled this anthology of papers. The aim is to present a selection of the work of and results from contemporary, multi-national research projects in Sicily. The collaboration between the Sicilian and international partners, often in an interdisciplinary framework, has generated important results and perspectives. The articles in this volume present research projects from throughout the island. The core of the articles is concerned with the Archaic through to the Roman period, but diachronic studies also trace lines back to the Stone Age and up to the contemporary era. A range of methods and sources are explored, thus creating an up-to-date volume that is a referential gateway to contemporary Sicilian archaeology.

This book brings together 30 papers by leading scholars in the field of usewear and residue analysis. This publication aims to revive the debate on the role of traceology (use-wear and residues) in multidisciplinary approaches that address archaeological questions. Many studies on technological aspects of material culture deal with specific material categories (e. g. flint, ceramics, bone), often in separate or isolated ways, and this division does not really reflect the integrated nature of technical systems in which different material categories are in dynamic interaction. Hence, exploring the interaction between different chaînes opératoires is crucial for a more global concept of the toolkit with all its components and it is a precondition for paleo-ethnographic reconstructions of technical systems and economies. Starting from a functional perspective, the papers in this book explore various topics such as apprenticeship, group dynamics, social status, economy, technological evolution, spatial organization, mobility patterns and territories, or adaptations to cultural and environmental changes.This collection of papers, presented at the AWRANA conference in 2018, constitutes a major sign of the dynamism, popularity and scientific importance of our discipline in current archaeological research. AWRANA 2018 was dedicated to the memory of H. Keeley.

Weapons and tools are frequently found depicted in rock art in many parts of the globe and different periods and in varying social contexts. This collection of papers by leading rock art specialists examines the subjective and metaphorical value of weapons and tools in art, the actions that created them, and their contexts. It also takes into account that such representations incorporate and transmit some kind of understanding about the world and the relationship between objects and humans. Contributors analyse objects and weapons as status symbols, as evidences of cultural contacts, as ideological devices, etc. Divided into regional sections which, for once, do not focus on Scandinavia, chapters deal with the representations of weapons and certain kinds of tools (such as axes and sickles) in different prehistoric, protohistoric and traditional community contexts all over the world. Attention focuses on rock art, but also looks at stelae and statue-menhirs, as well as other kinds of ‘container’ or vehicle for this kind of depiction. The major concern is to discuss the possible meanings of these embodied signs in different areas and periods, since meanings are permeable both to time and space. Papers either centre their attention in broader approaches based on a specific area, region or people, or focus on particular case studies.