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

The Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement at Must Farm is one of the most important and best-preserved prehistoric sites to have been systematically excavated in Europe. The settlement comprised a curving palisade enclosing five stilt-raised houses erected above a freshwater river channel at the edge of one most Britain’s most intensively studied and internationally renowned Bronze Age landscapes: the Flag Fen Basin. Built in the mid-9th century bc, the pile-dwelling was engulfed by a catastrophic fire less than a year after construction, sending the buildings and their artefact-rich contents into the sluggish waters below. A combination of fire, water and rapid burial ensured extraordinary levels of preservation, whilst the manner of collapse and brevity of settlement gave the structural remains, and their vibrant material assemblages, a pristine quality. Each household had its own inventory comprising combinations of delicate textiles, wooden containers, hafts and wheels, complete pottery sets, bronze toolkits and the scattered remnants of necklaces of glass beads. Food remains included butchered wild and domestic animal bones, charred plants and seeds, and even the burnt residues of individual meals. This comprehensive and methodologically innovative investigation, incorporating an array of scientific studies and collaborations amongst leading specialists, provides unprecedented insights into the nature of daily life and domestic practice in Bronze Age society. These challenge many expectations about the material worlds that people inhabited, shedding new light on aspects of architecture, material abundance, foodways, woodland management, landscape change and wetland living. The collective results are truly ground-breaking for Wetland Archaeology and wider Bronze Age studies. Volume 1 provides a thematic interpretive synthesis of the site, with a focus on landscape, architecture and occupation, whilst Volume 2 offers in-depth studies of the river setting, construction, dating, material culture and biological remains.

This third volume in the Material Religion in Antiquity series stems from the First International Congress on the Archaeology of Symbols (ICAS I) that took place in Florence in May 2022. The archaeological process of reconstructing and understanding our past has undergone several reassessments in the last century, producing an equal number of new perspectives and approaches. The recent materiality turn emphasizes the necessity to ground those achievements in order to build fresh avenues of interpretation and reach new boundaries in the study of the human kind and its ecology. Symbols must not be conceived only as allegory but also, and perhaps mainly, as reason (raison d’être) and meaning (culture). They may be considered key elements leading to interpretation, not only in their physical manifestation but by being infused with the gestures, beliefs and intentions of their creators, created in a specific context and with a specific chaîne opératoire.In this volume a variety of case studies is offered, representing disparate ancient cultures in the Mediterranean and central Europe and the Near East. The thread that connects them revolves around the prominence of symbols and allegorical aspects in archaeology, whether they are considered as expressions of iconographic evidence, material culture or ritual ceremonies, seen from a multicultural perspective. This (and subsequent ICAS) volumes, therefore, aims to embrace all the different aspects pertaining to symbols in archaeology in a specific ‘place’, allowing the reader to deepen their knowledge of such a fascinating and multifaceted topic, by looking at it from a multicultural perspective.

A few scatters of Mesolithic and Neolithic flint were found across the development area. Slightly more extensive evidence for Neolithic occupation was represented by a small number of pits from which flint-tempered Neolithic pottery, worked flint, charred plant remains and animal bone were recovered. During the later Bronze Age and Iron Age the first permanent settlements were established. They were characterized by post-built circular structures, pits and cremation burials. Settlement began in the river valley and the western edge of the clay plateau but during the Iron Age settlement shifted onto the clay plateau with eh creation of a five-sided enclosure. By the Late Iron Age and Roman period a farmstead and managed fields were established. This farmstead has been defined as a complex-type farmstead and seems to have been involved in the large-scale production of spelt. Limited evidence was identified for Saxon activity but a few features, including the remains of a tree-lined avenue, may have been associated with the 17th century Hadham and Wickham Halls which were owned by the Capel family. This volume describes the archaeological remains as well as the artefacts and ecofactual material recovered from the excavations.

Traditional archaeological ideas about Neolithic societies were shaped by questionable premises. The modern concept of social and cultural coherence of residence groups as well as the ethnic interpretation of ‘archaeological cultures’ fostered ideas of static and homogeneous social entities with fixed borders. Farming – as the core of the Neolithic way of life – was associated with sedentariness rather than with spatial mobility and cross-regional social networks. Furthermore, the widely used (neo-)evolutionist thinking universally assumed a growing social complexity and hierarchisation during prehistory. After all, such ‘top-down'–perspectives deprived individuals and groups of genuine agency and creativity while underestimating the relational dynamic between the social and material worlds. In recent years, a wide array of empirical results on social practices related to material culture and settlement dynamics, (inter-)regional entanglements and spatial mobility were published. For the latter the adoption of the relatively new scientific methods in archaeology like Stable Isotope Analysis as well as aDNA played a crucial role. Yet the question of possible inferences regarding spatial and temporal differences in forms of social organisation has not been addressed sufficiently. The aim of this volume is therefore to rethink former top-down concepts of Neolithic societies by studying social practices and different forms of Neolithic social life by adopting bottom-up social archaeological perspectives. Furthermore, the validity and relevance of terms like ‘society’, ‘community’, ‘social group’ etc. will be discussed. The contributions reach from theoretical to empirical ones and thematize a variety of social theoretical approaches as well as methodological ways of combining different sorts of data. They show the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social practices and configurations which may live up to the potential social diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. The contribution shed light on spatial mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests and factors of kinship etc. We hope that this volume, with its focus on the Neolithic of Europe, will contribute to the ongoing critical debates of theories and concepts as well as on our premises and perspectives on Neolithic societies in general – and the practices of social archaeology as such.

The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi, Crete (ca. 1390–1190 BC) is the only intact, complete Late Minoan necropolis presently known, of which 232 tombs have been excavated. The research project was the first large-scale genomic sampling of skeletal material from a single site in Bronze Age Greece, as well as being the first time a multi-disciplinary approach with ancient DNA as its focus has been conducted on a large, well-curated necropolis assemblage. As such it provides a unique opportunity to answer archaeological questions, the most important of which are kinship, an analysis of the origin and ancestry of those buried in the tombs, the homogeneity of the population or otherwise, and diet. The analysis programme was only possible because the tombs had not been seriously disturbed, and human skeletal remains had survived and been expertly conserved. The results of ancient DNA, stable isotope analysis, osteological analysis, and radiocarbon dating are presented, providing the first detailed record of ancestry and kinship in this iconic period of Eastern Mediterranean prehistory.In addition, the long-debated problem of the location of the wealthy city of da-_22-to, referred to many times in the Linear B tablets, is addressed and key evidence is presented. The rich finds in the Necropolis, the town excavation, and in the environs, support the interpretation that the ‘city’ that built the Necropolis is da-_22-to.

Im südlichen Mitteleuropa stellen die Alpen zugleich Barrieren als auch Kommunikationsräume dar. Über diese topografischen, naturräumlichen Begrenzungen hinweg belegen archäologische Fundsituationen immer wieder zahlreiche Nachweise transalpiner Mobilität, deren Entwicklung im Verlauf der prähistorischen Epochen in verschiedenen Formen von Interaktionen und Netz-werken erkennbar ist. Die damit einhergehenden sichtbaren Transformationsprozesse im archäologischen Fundmaterial kann unter der Fragestellung der soziokulturellen und sozial-ökonomischen Verbindungen zwischen Siedlungsgemeinschaften betrachtet werden. Der Schwerpunkt des Untersuchungsgebiets liegt auf dem Alpenrheintal und den benachbarten inneralpinen Tallandschaften sowie der am Ausgang der Traversale liegenden Regionen mit ihrer hohen Dichte an prähistorischen Siedlungsplätzen. Dafür wurden Fundensembles neolithischer und bronzezeitlicher Fundstellen erfasst und analysiert. Durch die Aufarbeitung bisher publizierter Fundstellen konnten chronologische Lücken mittels Radiokarbondatierungen durch stratifizierte Proben von Schlüsselfundstellen geschlossen werden. Diese Datierungen werfen ein neues Licht auf die absolute Chronologie des Raumes und bilden die Grundlagen dieser Studie. Das Ziel dieser Studie ist eine diachrone Synthese vom Neolithikum bis in die Bronzezeit, um anhand ausgewählter Fundstellen im zentralen Alpenraum, die gekennzeichnet sind durch die Diversität des keramischen Fundmaterials und seinen stilistischen Veränderungen, Modelle zu Mobilität und Netzwerken zu entwickeln. Die keramischen Funde zeigen weitreichende Kommunikationsprozesse zwischen den inneralpinen und voralpinen Regionen auf. Ab der Bronzezeit sind im zentralen Alpenraum eindeutige stilistische Einflüsse im Fundmaterial aus nördlicher und südlicher Richtung erkennbar, die für Handelsrouten über die Alpenpässe sprechen. Die damit in Verbindung stehende Besiedlung der Alpengebiete kann somit weder als isoliertes Phänomen betrachtet werden, noch kann dies ohne Berücksichtigung der soziokulturellen Gesellschaftsstrukturen verstanden werden. Im Zusammenhang damit stehen die Dynamiken und Beweggründe der urgeschichtlichen Alpen-besiedlung mit ihren exogenen und endogenen Faktoren, die die Besiedlung der Landschaften limitieren, transformieren und somit den Naturraum als auch die Ökonomie und soziokulturellen Aspekte prägen, was sich u. a. in der Erschliessung von Handelswegen zeigt. Dieses komplexe Zusammenspiel wird vor allem an den bronzezeitlichen Höhensiedlungen im Untersuchungsgebiet aufgedeckt. English abstract In southern Central Europe, the Alps represent both barriers and communication spaces. Across these topographical, natural boundaries, archaeological find situations repeatedly provide numerous evidences of transalpine mobility, whose development in the course of prehistoric epochs is recognisable in various forms of interactions and networks. The accompanying visible transformation processes in the archaeological find material can be considered under the question of socio-cultural and socio-economic connections between settlement communities. The focus of the study area is on the Alpine Rhine Valley and the neighbouring inner Alpine valley landscapes as well as the regions at the exit of the traverse with their high density of prehistoric settlement sites. The aim of this study is a diachronic synthesis from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in order to develop models of mobility and networks on the basis of selected sites in the central Alpine region, which are characterised by the diversity of the ceramic find material and its stylistic changes.

Before the introduction of Roman temples in the Low Countries, there used to be ‘open air cult places’ in the Iron Age. That is at least the assumption based on descriptions given by classical writers and several structures typified as sanctuaries that were excavated in France.Several of these French sanctuaries portray long usage, modifications, disarticulated human remains, and depositions of animal bones and Iron Age weaponry. However, the regularly encountered rectangular structures in Belgium and the Netherlands that are often interpreted as cult places do not have any of these indicators. Even though the shape is similar, the evidence these structures deliver testifies to short term utilisation, pottery depositions and a vaguely defined relation to cremation graves.Can these structures and accompanying depositions be perceived as the result of actions to invoke gods or deities as is claimed for the French sanctuaries? The finds and features seem more suitable when the rectangular structures are interpreted as part of ancestral worship. Although, what does that actually entail? How did Iron Age people actually conceptualise or practise interaction with ancestral spirits?In this thesis the use of rectangular structures during the Iron Age is explored and the meaning of related depositions interpreted. The structures fulfilled a special sociocultural position in Iron Age society, emphasised by the deliberately chosen liminal location in an increasingly structured landscape.

This book collects recent works on the subjects of sacrificial offerings, ritualised violence and the relative values thereof in the contexts of Scandinavian prehistory from the Neolithic to the Viking era. It provides a detailed re-appraisal of key aspects of prehistoric bog bodies using the latest forensic and material culture analytical techniques to examine questions of sacrifice, execution and ritual behaviour.The volume re-opens investigations into notions of value relating to diverse evidence and suggested evidence for human sacrifice and related ritualised violence. It covers a broad spectrum of issues relating to novel interpretations of the existing archaeological materials, but with a focus on the study of value and value dynamics in these diverse ritual contexts, engaging in questions of identity, cosmology, economics and social relations. Cases span from the Scandinavian Late Neolithic and Nordic Bronze Age, through to the well-known wetland deposits and bog bodies of the Iron Age, to Viking era executions, ‘deviant’ burials and contemporaneous double/multiple graves, exploring the implications for the transformation of sacrificial practices across Scandinavian prehistory.Each contributor untangles the myriad forms of value at play in different incarnations of human offerings, and provide insights into how those values were expressed, for example in the selection and treatment of victims in relation to their status, personhood, identity and life-history.The volume builds on a workshop hosted at the National Museum of Denmark in 2018 which inaugurated the beginning of the research project ‘Human Sacrifice and Value: The limits of sacred violence’ and was supported by the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo. It brings together research and perspectives that go beyond the who, what and where of most archaeological and anthropological investigations of sacrificial violence to address both the underlying and explicit forms of value associated with such events.

Around 3000 BCE, a turning point occurred in Europe: Long-existing regional societies entered into a process of transformation. The result is a world in which new global communication networks brought different regions closer together. From 3200/3100 BCE, the Globular Amphora phenomenon (GA) was the trailblazer in Eastern and Central Europe. Due to a focus on pastoral subsistence, in comparison to more agrarian economic systems, new ritual practices formed in light of a more flexible form of settlement. We initially observe the symbolic separation manifested through the “Globular Amphora” in an area between the Lower Vistula and Middle Elbe. Communication networks form rapidly in the West (the Elbe-Network) and in the East (the Vistula-Podolia Network). The monopolisation of the practice of double cattle burials connected regional patterns of mobility in the lowlands between the Elbe and the Dniester.With the aid of spatial analyses of the systems of symbols (Zeichensysteme) on locally/micro-regionally produced Globular Amphorae, a proxy is developed for the degree of similarity of the GA-habitus in different regions. Bayesian modelling and spatial visualisations of the radiometric dates indicate temporal sequences and synchronic changes within the newly-developed “global” GA-connectivity.Genetic analyses attest to the indigenous character of the GA individuals in Central Europe. Both isotopic and ceramic technology analyses provide evidence for a mobility radius of up to 50 km for the local groups.In the main phase of the GA, the Elbe and Vistula-Podolia networks appear separated. In the West the core areas are in Bohemia/Moravia, the Middle Elbe-Saale-Havel area, and the north-western Baltic areas; in the East, they are along the Vistula, in Podolia-Volhynia, and in the Siret area.GA networks are mostly symbiotically connected with the local and regional agricultural groups. The GA is, among other things, heavily involved in the formation of the multicultural Corded Ware phenomenon. Its end in 2600 BCE is linked to processes of change which also affected the change from Corded Ware to the Bell Beaker phenomenon. Only in the eastern areas, where a strong reciprocal influence with elements from the Steppe existed, can GA still be found until c. 2400 BCE.The emergence of the GA networks is described as social separation on the basis of social disharmonies within the Funnel Beaker societies, which is also visible via a reduction of the human impact in the palaeoecological archives. A new connectivity of diversified groups developed as a form of levelling mechanism, which in the long-term was part of the transformation of the entirety of European prehistory around 3000 BCE.

This book shows how analysis of Scandinavian-influenced place-names in their landscape contexts can provide crucial new evidence of differing processes of Viking migration and settlement in East Anglia between the late ninth and eleventh centuries.The place-names of East Anglia have until now received little attention in the academic study of Viking settlement. Similarly, the question of a possible migration of settlers from Scandinavia during the Viking period was for many years dismissed by historians and archaeologists – until the recent discovery by metal-detectorists of abundant Scandinavian metalwork and jewellery in many parts of East Anglia. David Boulton has synthesised these two previously neglected elements to offer new insights into the processes of Viking settlement.This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of Scandinavian-influenced place-names in East Anglia. It examines their different categories linguistically and explores the landscape and archaeological contexts of the settlements associated with them, with the aid of GIS-generated maps. Dr Boulton shows how the process of Viking settlement was influenced by changes in rural society and agriculture which were then already occurring in East Anglia, such as the late Anglo-Saxon expansion of arable farming and the associated recolonisation of the inland clay plateau. These developments resulted in patterns of place-name formation which differ significantly from some of the previously accepted, orthodox interpretations of how Scandinavian-influenced place-names (especially those containing the bý and thorp elements, and the ‘Grimston-hybrids’) came into being in the Danelaw.In view of these discrepancies, David Boulton proposes an innovative, hypothetical model for the formation of the Scandinavian-influenced place-names in East Anglia, which explores differing patterns and phases of Viking settlement in the region and the possible pathways of migration that preceded them.

From 2013-2022 the largest Stone Age excavation ever undertaken in Denmark, uncovered an entire fjord landscape beneath marine sediments at Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland. Based on the excavations, Museum Lolland-Falster, in collaboration with Aarhus University and the Danish National Museum, organised an international conference on the topic of "LOST 2022 – Changing Identity in a Changing World" on 16 and 17 June 2022 to discuss the time around 4000 BCE in Denmark and beyond from different angles. This book summarizes the conference and presents its main outcomes. It also gives an overview of the current state of research within the Femern project and sets them into context with the wider area. By including contributions from the Netherlands to Finland, the central position of Lolland as a corridor in the Stone Age is highlighted and discussed. The topics covered in this book deal with technological change, archaeological analyses of identity, aspects of landscape interaction and perception in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. This book is aimed at specialists, students and the interested public alike, as it provides the first complete overview of the excavations of the Femern project and places them in context. At the same time, it serves as a basis for further studies on the material and highlights the challenges and possibilities of the archaeological record from the period around 4000 BCE.

Das europäische Neolithikum zeichnet sich durch eine Vielzahl von Umgangsweisen mit menschlichen Körpern von Toten aus. Der archäologische Diskurs zu Mensch, Körper und Tod stützte sich für das Neolithikum traditionell jedoch auf Körperbestattungen. Dies ist unter anderem auf die in der westlichen Welt vorherrschende Idealvorstellung von Totenruhe und der Deponierung eines Körpers an einem, oft separat dafür vorgesehenen Ort zurückzuführen. In der letzten Zeit gerieten jedoch Deponierungen fragmentierter und mitunter auch manipulierter menschlicher Überreste in den Fokus des Interesses, nicht zuletzt durch die Zunahme neuer archäologischer Funde, die sich mit traditionellen Begriffen und Konzepten nicht ohne weiteres erklären lassen. Eine wachsende Zahl solcher Funde fordert die Archäologie heraus, sich mit diesen Themen aus neuen Perspektiven zu beschäftigen.Der vorliegende Band integriert theoretische Reflexionen zur Bedeutung des menschlichen Körpers und zur Wahrnehmung des Übergangs vom Leben zum Tod, wie sie anhand von Bestattungen und Deponierungen menschlicher Überreste und archäologischer Funde untersucht werden können. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf dem neolithischen Mitteleuropa. Mit Hilfe verschiedener interdisziplinärer und theoretischer Ansätze wird anhand von Fallstudien deutlich, dass etablierte Praktiken und performative Akte des Umgangs mit dem menschlichen Körper hochkomplex sind und daher auch gemeinsam aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln betrachtet werden sollten.Der aus einer Tagungssektion in Würzburg 2019 hervorgegangene Sammelband vereint dabei Beiträge zu verschiedenen Gebieten und neolithischen Subperioden, wie der Linearbandkeramik, der Trichterbecherkultur und dem subalpinen Spätneolithikum, darunter prominente Fundkomplexe. Eingerahmt werden diese von Aufsätzen, die sich kritisch mit der archäologischen Erforschung des Umgangs von Tod und mit Toten auseinandersetzen und einem zusammenfassenden Überblick zu den Beiträgen des Sammelbandes geben.English AbstractThe European Neolithic is characterized by a variety of practices for dealing with human remains. In Central European Neolithic studies, the archaeological discourse on humans, bodies and death has traditionally dealt with finds of inhumations. This is not least due to dominant Western conceptions of death involving the deposition of the intact body at one, often delimited, place. Recently, focus has been drawn to the depositions of fragmented and even manipulated human remains, not least through an increasing amount of new archaeological evidence, which challenges traditional archaeological terms, concepts and research practices. The present volume integrates theoretical perspectives on the meaning of the human body and the perception of the transformation from life to death in as much as they can be studied from archaeological finds such as burials and depositions of human remains, with a special focus on Neolithic Central Europe. The collection of papers, the result of a session at a conference in Würzburg 2019, brings together articles with theoretical approaches, as well as contributions which deal with different areas and Neolithic sub-periods, such as the Linear Pottery culture, the Funnel Beaker Culture and the sub-alpine Late Neolithic, and includes prominent find complexes. These are framed by essays that critically examine archaeological research on the handling of death and the dead, and a summary overview of the contributions to the volume

This monograph examines a set of questions concerning human and nonhuman primate cognition, spatial memory, foraging behavior, and the ability of monkeys to form mental maps of the location and distribution of feeding and resting sites.Two primary forms of spatial memory have been hypothesized for primates. First, it has been suggested that primates might represent spatial memory in the form of a coordinate-based (geometric) map in which points in the landscape are stored as true coordinates and individuals calculate precise angles and distances between targets. Alternatively, it has been suggested that primates may internally represent spatial information as a route-based (topological) map in which individuals use and reuse a set of common pathways and a select number of landmarks to reach a large number of targets.This research examines questions of behavior and cognition in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) in northeastern Costa Rica. First, a natural field study or behavioral-ecological study was carried out in which the diet, foraging behavior, activity budget, natural decision-making, and movement patterns of wild capuchins were documented. Secondly, an experimental field study was performed by placing feeding platforms in the forest to determine how capuchins integrate the spatial location of these new feeding sites into an internal representation and the degree to which travel routes are most consistent with a coordinate-based or a route-based spatial representation.A major goal of this research is to develop an understanding of the challenges primates naturally face in locating resources that vary in time and space, and to identify the set of features that may have played a fundamental role in shaping the evolution of decision-making and spatial abilities in humans. In conclusion, the results suggest that capuchins use a route-based spatial representation in large-scale space and provide some evidence of a coordinate-based spatial representation in small-scale space.

Extensively illustrated report on an excavation in Oxfordshire near the Iron Age hillfort at Segsbury. Ephemeral traces of Mesolithic and Neolithic activity, including a possible Neolithic timber structure, were found. The remains of a probable Late Bronze Age pit alignment were also found. Small Iron Age settlements comprising round houses, pits and other structures, and burials were revealed. One particular burial in a pit had been subjected to unusual treatment that included the removal of the individual’s feet after death. Small Roman and post-Roman cemeteries also were identified. The small Late Roman cemetery included males, females and neonates. This cemetery is typical for the period and the burials were accompanied by a range of artefacts including coins, brooches, a bracelet and rings as well as an unusual fragmentary double-sided bone or antler comb with a horse motif and ring-and-dot decoration. A small undated cemetery was originally believed to be either of Roman or less likely post-Roman date. However, radiocarbon dating revealed the unaccompanied burials to be of late 7th or early 8th century AD date. Innovative scientific techniques including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling, aDNA and isotope analysis have revealed some important details such as familial relationships and dating that would not otherwise have been known. Small assemblages of finds included worked flint and prehistoric pottery, Roman and later pottery, worked bone, glass and metalwork.

This new history of the last years of the Roman Republic sets the leading men, and women, in the complex social and political system of the time, to provide a full context to the historical events and epic battles of the 1st century BC. Scholar Natale Barca examines the actions not only of the leading actors of the political process but also to those with a smaller role – history is not just made up of great individuals. To understand the end of the Roman Republic it is necessary to also examine the key figures’ relationship with family and friends – essential relationships in an era where ties and interactions between individuals, families, and clans constantly shaped the political process, and thus the Roman state. This account also attempts to decolonize this history – liberating it from a Romano-centric perspective and restoring it to indigenous populations. The history of a subjugated people does not begin with their conquest, and the Roman conquest was basically a predatory practice, although it cannot be denied Roman domination did – in some territories – lead to a transformation of the vanquished into friends and allies, and then to Roman citizens, with all that this could entail in terms of social integration. This wide-ranging narrative, examining both the actions of key individuals and the experience of subjugated populations, provides a new insight into this most important and turbulent era of Roman history.