This volume brings together papers that discuss social change. The main focus is on the Early Helladic III to Late Helladic I period in southern Greece, but also touches upon the surrounding islands. This specific timeframe enables us to consider how mainland societies recovered from a ‘crisis’ and how they eventually developed into the differentiated, culturally receptive and competitive social formations of the early Mycenaean period. Material changes are highlighted in the various papers, ranging from pottery and burials to domestic architecture and settlement structures, followed by discussions of how these changes relate to social change. A variety of factors is thereby considered including demographic changes, reciprocal relations and sumptuary behaviour, household organization and kin structure, age and gender divisions, internal tensions, connectivity and mobility. As such, this volume is of interest to both Aegean prehistorians as to scholars interested in social and material change.The volume consists of eight papers, preceded by an introduction and concluded by a response. The introduction gives an overview of the development of the debate on the explanation of social change in Aegean prehistory. The response places the volume in a broader context of the EH III-LH I period and the broader discussion on social change.

This volume is a collection of essays, which exemplify the range and diversity of work currently being undertaken on the regional landscapes of the British Bronze Age and the progress which has been made in both theoretical and interpretive debate. Together these papers reflect the vibrancy of current research and promote a closer marriage of landscape, site and material culture studies. CONTENTS: Settlement in Scotland during the Second Millennium BC (P Ashmore) ; Place and Space in the Cambridgeshire Bronze Age (T Malim) ; Exploring Bronze Age Norfolk: Longham and Bittering (T Ashwin) ; Ritual Activity at the Foot of the Gog Magog Hills, Cambridge (M Hinman) ; The Bronze Age of Manchester Airport: Runway 2 (D Garner) ; Place and Memory in Bronze Age Wessex (D Field) ; Bronze Age Agricultural Intensification in the Thames Valley and Estuary (D Yates) ; The 'Community of Builders': The Barleycroft Post Alignments (C Evans and M Knight) ; 'Breaking New Ground': Land Tenure and Fieldstone Clearance during the Bronze Age (R Johnston) ; Tenure and Territoriality in the British Bronze Age: A Question of Varying Social and Geographical Scales (W Kitchen) ; A Later Bronze Age Landscape on the Avon Levels: Settlement: Settlement, Shelters and Saltmarsh at Cabot Park (M Locock) ; Reading Business Park: The Results of Phases 1 and 2 (A Brossler) ; Leaving Home in the Cornish Bronze Age: Insights into Planned Abandonment Processes (J A Nowakowski) ; Body Metaphors and Technologies of Transformation in the English Middle and Late Bronze Age (J Bruck) ; A Time and a Place for Bronze (M Barber) ; Firstly, Let's get Rid of Ritual (C Pendleton) ; Mining and Prospection for Metals in Early Bronze Age Britain - Making Claims within the Archaeological Landscape (S Timberlake) ; The Times, They are a Changin': Experiencing Continuity and Development in the Early Bronze Age Funerary Rituals of Southwestern Britain (M A Owoc) ; Round Barrows in a Circular World: Monumentalising Landscapes in Early Bronze Age Wessex (A Watson) ; Enduring Images? Image Production and Memory in Earlier Bronze Age Scotland (A Jones) ; Afterward: Back to the Bronze Age

The volume is the first in nearly a decade to focus a wide range of scholarship on one of the most compelling periods in the antiquity of the Mediterranean and Near East. It presents new interpretive approaches to the problems of the Bronze Age to Iron Age transformation, as well as re-assessments of a wide range of high profile sites and evidence ranging from the Ugaritic archives, Hazor, the Medinet Habu reliefs, Tiryns and Troy. Implications for a changing climate are also explored in the volume. The end of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean and Near East is a huge challenge requiring a diverse, global, flexible and open minded strategy for its interpretation - it is too vast and complex for any one scholar or interpretive approach. The scope of this volume is great, but not overwhelming, as the papers are organized coherently into themes considering climate, exchange and interregional dynamics, iconography and perception, the built environment - cemeteries, citadels, and landscapes, and social implications for the production and consumption of pottery. Thus, Forces of Transformation is broad enough to address many of the major concerns of the end of the Bronze Age, and also to encapsulate the current position of scholarship as it relates to this problem.

Pottery has become one of the major categories of artefact that is used in reconstructing the lives and habits of prehistoric people. In these 14 papers, members of the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group discuss the many ways in which pottery is used to study chronology, behavioural changes, inter-relationships between people and between people and their environment, technology and production, exchange, settlement organisation, cultural expression, style and symbolism.

Der Demographische Faktor war zu allen Zeiten der Menschheitsgeschichte von Bedeutung für die soziale Organisation und für archäologische Theoriebildung. Nun werden erstmals Daten zu den Bevölkerungsverhältnisse der europäischen Bronze- und Eisenzeiten zusammenfassend vorgelegt und deren sozialarchäologische Relevanz untersucht. Dem Aufgabenbereich der Archäologie entsprechend zielt die Archäologische Demographie auf die Bedeutung der lokalen und regionalen Bevölkerungsverhältnisse ab: Gruppengrößen, Bevölkerungsdichten, Bevölkerungsschwankungen. Grundlage dieser Analysen sind Gräber, Siedlungen und darüber hinaus zahlreiche andere archäologische Quellen sowie ergänzend naturwissenschaftliche Daten. Die Grenzen zwischen dem Aufgabenbereich der Archäologischen Demographie, der Siedlungsarchäologie, der Umwelt- und Landschaftsarchäologie sowie der Sozialarchäologie bleiben fließend. Archäologische Bevölkerungsdaten sind quellen- und methodenbedingt als Eckwerte zu verstehen, die der historischen Realität mehr oder weniger nahe kommen. Oft beschreiben die Daten nur Minimalwerte. Zwei Theorien bilden traditionell den Rahmen, in dem sich die Archäologische Demographie auch heute noch bewegt: Soziale Krisenreaktionen wie Kriege und Migrationen nach Thomas Robert Malthus (1798) und subsistenzwirtschaftliche Problemlösungen nach Ester Boserup (1965). Demographische Berechnungen zur Bronze- und Eisenzeit zeigen überwiegend kleine lokale Populationen, selbst wenn große Gräberfelder Bevölkerungskonzentrationen vorspiegeln. Auch Siedlungsbefunde sprechen meist nur für kleine Wohn- und Wirtschaftseinheiten. Wo von diesem Bild abgewichen wird und außergewöhnliche lokale Bevölkerungskonzentrationen fassbar werden, sind diese als historische Sonderfälle erklärungsbedürftig. Hinweise auf soziale Differenzierungen in Form von Prestigegütern, Abstufungen im Bestattungswesen, Prunkgräbern, abgesonderten Gehöften in Siedlungen etc. sind keineswegs generell an außergewöhnlich große Bevölkerungsgruppen gekoppelt. Zu klären bleibt, in welchem Maße klein- und großräumige Migrationsprozesse die Bevölkerungsverhältnisse der Bronze- und Eisenzeiten geprägt haben. English summary: Demographic factors have always been of great importance for human social organization and archaeological theory building. This book for the first time presents and analyses a wide range of data on population structure and development in the European Bronze and Iron Ages from the perspective of social archaeology. Bearing in mind the goals of any archaeological discipline, archaeological demography aims to reconstruct the importance of local and regional population patterns: group size, population density, fluctuations in population on the basis of graves, settlements and other archaeological sources, as well as data from the natural sciences. Therefore, there are no strict boundaries between the aims of archaeological demography on the one hand and settlement archaeology, environmental and landscape archaeology, and social archaeology on the other hand. The character of archaeological source material and the limited preservation of graves, house sites and so on, mean that population densities derived on this basis can only ever be minimum estimates. The theories of social and economic reactions to population pressure by Thomas Robert Malthus (1798) and Ester Boserup (1965) have had a strong influence on European archaeological demography, at least implicitly. Calculations mostly result in small Bronze and Iron Age communities, even when large burial sites suggest a local population concentration. Most settlements also represent small economic entities or households. Whenever larger local populations are identified, this individual historical situation has to be explained. Indications of social differentiation in the shape of prestige goods, ranked funerary rites, exceptionally rich graves, separated farmsteads within settlements and so on are by no means generally linked to particularly large population groups. It still has to be clarified how migrations affected Bronze and Iron Age population size.

In the long tradition of the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean bodies have held a prominent role in the form of figurines, frescos, or skeletal remains, and have even been responsible for sparking captivating portrayals of the Mother-Goddess cult, the elegant women of Minoan Crete or the deeds of heroic men. Growing literature on the archaeology and anthropology of the body has raised awareness about the dynamic and multifaceted role of the body in experiencing the world and in the construction, performance and negotiation of social identity. In these 28 thematically arranged papers, specialists in the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean confront the perceived invisibility of past bodies and ask new research questions. Contributors discuss new and old evidence; they examine how bodies intersect with the material world, and explore the role of body-situated experiences in creating distinct social and other identities. Papers range chronologically from the Palaeolithic to the Early Iron Age and cover the geographical regions of the Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East. They highlight the new possibilities that emerge for the interpretation of the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean through a combined use of body-focused methodological and theoretical perspectives that are nevertheless grounded in the archaeological record.

more than twenty-five years ago, John Cherry looked forward to the day when archaeological survey projects working around the Mediterranean region (the 'Frogs round the pond') would begin to compare and synthesize the information they had collected. He anticipated researchers tackling big questions of inter-regional scope in new and interesting ways, working at a geographical scale considerably larger than that of the individual survey. Was his optimism misplaced? Despite the extraordinary growth of interest in field survey projects and regional analysis, and despite the developments in survey methodology that have been discussed and implemented in the past two decades, few scholars have attempted to use survey data in a comparative mode and to answer the broad-scale questions confronting social historians. In this volume, which is the outcome of an advanced Workshop held at the University of Michigan in 2002, a number of prominent archaeologists return to the question of comparability. They discuss the potential benefits of working in a comparative format, with evidence from many different Mediterranean survey projects, and consider the practical problems that present roadblocks to achieving that objective. From mapping and manuring to human settlement and demography, environment and culture, each addresses different questions, often with quite different approaches; together they offer a range of perspectives on how to put surveys "side-by-side". Contributors include Susan E Alcock, John Cherry, Jack L Davis, Peter Attema, Martijn van Leusen, James C Wright, Robin Osborne, David Mattingly, T J Wilkinson, and Richard E Blanton.

The Battle for Alesia was a decisive moment in world history. It determined whether Rome would finally conquer Gaul or whether Celtic chieftain Vercingetorix would throw off the yoke and consequently whether a number of independent Celtic tribal kingdoms could resist the might of Rome. Failure would have been a total defeat for Julius Caesar, not just in Gaul but in the Senate. His career would have been over, his enemies would have pulled him down, civil war would have ensued, no dictatorship, no liaison with Cleopatra. Rome would not have become an empire beyond the Mediterranean. European, and therefore world history might have been a very different story. Caesar’s campaign of 52 BC frequently hung in the balance. Vercingetorix was a far more formidable opponent than any encountered in Gaul; bold charismatic and imbued with strategic insight of the highest order. The Romans were caught totally off-guard and it seemed all too likely their grip on Gaul, which Caesar had imagined secure, would be prised free. The Siege of Alesia itself was one of the most astonishing military undertakings of all times. Caesar’s interior siege lines stretched for 18 kilometres and were surrounded by an outward facing line three kilometres longer, complete with palisades, towers, ditches, minefields and outposts. This work was completed in less than three weeks. Vercingetorix’s refuge proved a trap and, despite an energetic defence and the arrival of a huge relief army, there was to be no escape. Caesar’s Greatest Victory fully reveals both sides of the conflict, to explore in depth the personalities involved and to examine the legacy of the campaign which still resonates today. The arms, equipment, tactics and fighting styles of Roman and Celtic armies are explained, as well as the charisma and leadership of Caesar and Vercingetorix and the command and control structures of both sides. Using new evidence from archaeology, the authors construct a fresh account of not just the siege itself but also the Alesia campaign and place it into the wider context of the history of warfare. This is Roman history at its most exciting, featuring events still talked about today.

This major new study by one of Europe’s leading prehistorians presents and discusses a series of rock art engravings from a Bronze Age barrow in Ljungarum parish, Jönköping Län, situated in the central part of southern Sweden. Sagaholm contains the largest group of rock engravings discovered in a burial context in northern Europe. Joachim Goldhahn addresses a number of aspects of the use of rock engravings in burial rituals during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600–1100 BC), combining the antiquarian and scientific history of this extraordinary find. In order to understand the meaning and significance of the rock art in the barrow, the author presents a theoretical argument that the art is meaningfully composed and can been seen as the result of an active symbolic praxis which mirrors a metaphorical way of thinking. Special concern is given to the frequent horse motifs at Sagaholm, and it is argued that they, and the morphology of this particular barrow, can be seen as a metaphor for a new and exotic cosmology that reached southern Scandinavia during the Middle Bronze Age. It is further suggested that this extraordinary find points to a (re)interpretation of Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art as an important part of burial ritual, linked to certain beliefs about the regeneration of life.

October 14, 1066, on the hill of Caldbec the armies of William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson confronted each other in a bloody battle, which will later be called the battle of Hastings. The victory Normandy obtained on that occasion is still perceived as pivotal in determining the common destiny of the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy; it is also around this axis that the future of England is determined, giving the idea of how impactful the Normans had been in influencing the Saxon society. Overall, the course of the battle is relatively well known, thanks to the many medieval authors who mention it, or simply through the research that has been done. However, the before and after the battle remain rather unfamiliar topics. The origins of the conflict can however be easily traced back in early Eleventh century, when a certain Cnut the Great, who was in fact the king of Norway and Denmark, became King of England by marrying Emma of Normandy. Similarly, also the impressive political game between the three contenders to the throne – Harald III of Norway, Godwinson Harold and William the Conqueror – played a determining role for the conquest of England. From Stamford Bridge to appeasement of the North, through the battles of Hastings and London, this book will allow the reader not only to rediscover this pivotal battle and understand the political and strategic aspects of the conquest, but also to learn about Norman and Saxon warriors outfits.

It is over one hundred years since the publication of the wide ranging archaeological field investigation undertaken on the Marlborough Downs by the Rev A C Smith. His work Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs in a Hundred Square Miles round Abury was originally published in two volumes in 1884 by the Marlborough College Natural History Society, then reprinted and bound into a single volume and published in 1885 by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society after half the original print run was destroyed in a fire. As in most works of inventory the volume has certainly stood the test of time and is still one of the basic reference texts for students of the area. Since then, apart from a few notable exceptions, archaeological literature about the area has been largely site-based and there has been little concerning the Marlborough Downs as a whole. In order to try and redress this imbalance, a day conference was organised in April 2002 at the University of Bath, Swindon, where it was possible to acknowledge and mark the ongoing validity of Smith's work and where a number of papers on various aspects of recent research on the Marlborough Downs were presented. The results of the conference are presented in this volume, together with a number of other commissioned contributions from individuals who have undertaken research in the area during the last decade or so. Each essay stands alone, but they are connected by a common theme, that of the land and how it has changed over millennia.

The Celtic languages and groups called Keltoi (i.e. ‘Celts’) emerge into our written records at the pre-Roman Iron Ag

Nineteen essays present wide-ranging approaches to environmental reconstruction across Mediterranean Europe with case studies from southern and central France, central Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey. It is Volume Two in the Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes series, which published five volumes as part of the POPULUS Project which aimed to establish a series of research goals and standards in Mediterranean landscape archaeology, so as to advance the study of ancient demography of the region on a broad comparative front.

This volume focuses on the ways in which the production and consumption of food developed in the Aegean region in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, to see how this was linked to the appearance of more complex forms of social organisation. Sites from Macedonia in the north of Greece down to Crete are discussed and chronologically the papers cover not only the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age but extend into the Middle and Late Bronze Age and Classical period as well. The evidence from human remains, animal and fish bones, cultivated and wild plants, hearths and ovens, ceramics and literary texts is interpreted through a range of techniques, such as residue and stable isotope analysis. A number of key themes emerge, for example the changes in the types of food that were produced around the time of the Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age transition, which is seen as a particularly critical period, the ways in which foodstuffs were stored and cooked, the significance of culinary innovations and the social role of consumption.

In September 2002, a second workshop on the theme of the social context of technological change was held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Discussion has been the core of these meetings so far, with the aim being to relate the results of the specialist investigator to broad historical questions concerning the nature and development of ancient societies. The papers presented here address a wider context: geographically, with the inclusion of the Aegean and thematically, with papers on natural products and raw materials. The time frame remains the same in covering the Late Bronze Age/New Kingdom. The majority of the papers draw on Egyptian evidence, and illustrate a multiplicity of approaches to the problems set by ancient technologies: modelling, methodology of art history and archaeology applied to a problematic group of artefacts, integration of archaeological and textual sources, and the application of the results of scientific analysis to illuminate ancient technology.

Modern borders of all kinds, political, geographical and social, effect the kinds of prehistoric narratives archaeologists can write. Borders that dominate today did not exist in prehistory. This volume works across such borders and focuses specifically on the region between the Rivers Forth and Tyne, an area divided by the modern political border between Scotland and England. The introduction and opening chapters consider the impact of the Anglo-Scots and similar borders on our understanding of prehistoric patterns of activity. The introduction also asks whether, when, and to what extent this could be considered a coherent region in the prehistoric past. Further chapters explore the history of research in the region, including field survey and aerial photography. Another nine chapters discuss the results of recent research, including new and older excavations, or conduct regional analyses of artefacts and mortuary practices, starting with the Late Upper Palaeolithic and continuing with studies from the Early Neolithic through to the Late Iron Age. Taken as a whole, the publication suggests that while there was no coherent Tyne-Forth region in prehistory, except for perhaps in the Late Iron Age, research at this regional scale provides a strong basis for appreciating past cultural interaction at a variety of scales.