The transition between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC was an era of deep economic changes in the ancient Near East. An increasing monetization of transactions, a broader use of silver, the management of the resources of temples through “entrepreneurs”, the development of new trade circuits and an expanding private, small-scale economy, transformed the role previously played by institutions such as temples and royal palaces. The 17 essays collected here analyse the economic transformations which affected the old dominant powers of the Late Bronze Age, their adaptation to a new economic environment, the emergence of new economic actors and the impact of these changes on very different social sectors and geographic areas, from small communities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert to densely populated urban areas in Mesopotamia. Egypt was not an exception. Traditionally considered as a conservative and highly hierarchical and bureaucratic society, Egypt shared nevertheless many of these characteristics and tried to adapt its economic organization to the challenges of a new era. In the end, the emergence of imperial super-powers (Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and, to a lesser extent, Kushite and Saite Egypt) can be interpreted as the answer of former palatial organizations to the economic and geopolitical conditions of the early Iron Age. A new order where competition for the control of flows of wealth and of strategic trading areas appears crucial.

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.

Small finds – the stuff of everyday life – offer archaeologists a fascinating glimpse into the material lives of the ancient Romans. These objects hold great promise for unravelling the ins and outs of daily life, especially for the social groups, activities, and regions for which few written sources exist. Focusing on amulets, brooches, socks, hobnails, figurines, needles, and other “mundane” artefacts, these 12 papers use small finds to reconstruct social lives and practices in the Roman Northwest provinces. Taking social life broadly, the various contributions offer insights into the everyday use of objects to express social identities, Roman religious practices in the provinces, and life in military communities. By integrating small finds from the Northwest provinces with material, iconographic, and textual evidence from the whole Roman empire, contributors seek to demystify Roman magic and Mithraic religion, discover the latest trends in ancient fashion (socks with sandals!), explore Roman interactions with Neolithic monuments, and explain unusual finds in unexpected places. Throughout, the authors strive to maintain a critical awareness of archaeological contexts and site formation processes to offer interpretations of past peoples and behaviours that most likely reflect the lived reality of the Romans. While the range of topics in this volume gives it wide appeal, scholars working with small finds, religion, dress, and life in the Northwest provinces will find it especially of interest. Small Finds and Ancient Social Practices grew out of a session at the 2014 Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference.

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.

The main source of archaeological evidence for Late Roman Republican camps is a complex of installations around the Iberian city of Numantia in Spain, excavated by Adolf Schulten in the early 1900s. This book reassesses Schulten and concludes that much of his interpretation is questionable. Radically different alternative reconstructions making use of recent fieldwork are presented for several of the sites. A discussion of dating evidence leads to alternative dates being offered for some of the camps. To aid interpreting the sites, army organisation and art of encampment for the period of the Numantine Wars is discussed. This study gives added importance to the sites at Numantia, for they not only form the main source of archaeological evidence for Late Republican camps, but provide evidence for the form of camp for both the late manipular army and the early cohort one.

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.

This book presents the results of field research and experimental archaeology on Neolithic flint axe production sites and flint mines in the Seine valley (west from Paris) between 2000 and 2010. The first chapter discusses the research history, the cultural and chronological framework of axe production sites in the Paris Basin. The second chapter presents the research results and documentation. The raw materials for the axe production came from the flint mines of Flins-sur-Siene, where Bartonien Flint was mined. This is the subject of the third chapter. The site was first identified in the 1920’s by amateur archaeologists. The data collected at Flins-sur-Seine (geological context, production waste, density of mine shafts) indicates that this mine is very similar to the mines at Jablines. However, no excavations had thus far been carried out at this site. The field research involved geophysical surveys and field walking which led to the identification of workshops and extraction sites. Chapter 4 presents the results of experiments carried out with re-creating mineshafts in 2003. Chapter 5 presents results of other axe workshop sites in the area. These include excavations results and inventarisation of finds in museums. This chapter also discusses the use and findcontext of the axes. The final chapter is a synthesis and places the site in a wider contextual framework. The focus lies on other sites in the Paris basin, questions about territories, production/distribution sites. The technological system and its structuration in terms of specialisation and apprenticeship and its meaning among the regional Neolithic cultures.

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.

The study of stone circles has long played a major role in British and Irish archaeology, and for Scotland most attention has been focused on the large monuments of Orkney and the Western Isles. Several decades of fieldwork have shown how these major structures are likely to be of early date and recognised that that smaller settings of monoliths had a more extended history. Many of the structures in Northern Britain were reused during the later Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the early medieval period. A series of problems demand further investigation including: when were the last stone circles built? How did they differ from earlier constructions? How were they related to henge monuments, especially those of Bronze Age date? How frequently were these places reused, and did this secondary activity change the character of those sites? This major new assessment first presents the results of fieldwork undertaken at the Scottish recumbent stone circle of Hillhead; the stone circles of Waulkmill and Croftmoraig, the stone circle and henge at Hill of Tuach at Kintore; and the small ring cairn at Laikenbuie in Inverness-shire. Part 2 brings together the results of these five projects and puts forward a chronology for the construction and primary use of stone circles, particularly the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age examples. It considers the reuse of stone circles, long after they were built, and discusses four neighbouring stone circles in Aberdeenshire which display both similarites and contrasts in their architecture, use of raw materials, associated artefacts and structural sequences. Finally, a reassessment and reinterpretation of Croftmoraig and its sequence is presented: the new interpretation drawing attention to ways of thinking about these monuments which have still to fulfil their potential.

Ancient Irrigation Systems in the Aral Sea Area is the English translation of Boris Vasilevich Andrianov's work, Drevnie orositelnye sistemy priaralya, concerning the study of ancient irrigation systems and the settlement pattern in the historical region of Khorezm, south of the Aral Sea (Uzbekistan). This work holds a special place within the Soviet archaeological school because of the results obtained through a multidisciplinary approach combining aerial survey and fieldwork, surveys, and excavations. This translation has been enriched by the addition of introductions written by several eminent scholars from the region regarding the importance of the Khorezm Archaeological-Ethnographic Expedition and the figure of Boris V. Andrianov and his landmark study almost 50 years after the original publication.

In Julius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War, the term “oppidum” – used to designate any fortified community – indicates those particular Gaulish sites which are characterized both by a strong tendency to social cohesion and the development of a centralized territorial policy. From a chronological point of view, these sites are limited to a very precise period: the two last centuries BCE, from La Tène D1 to La Tène D2 (120–30 BCE). The purpose of this study is to define the role of animal production within the new urban structures. Hence, the research focuses on the specific economical aspect of meat resources and their management: what is the place of this activity in the economy of Gaulish peoples? Is it possible to detect within the sites any precise organisation in sectors in relation to the butchering activities? What about the meat imports and, consequently, the interactions between the communities and the sites of production? Who was the target of the produced food resources? Were they part of some large-scale “sales strategy”. The research aims to approach these economic issues through the study of the fauna remains recovered mostly from Condé-sur-Suippe, in the territory of the Remi, and also from Villeneuve-Saint-Germain, the capital of the Suessiones. Dating respectively from 120 to 90 BCE and from 90 to 40 BCE, these fortified communities are among the most important in Europe, not only because of their size and of the exceptional conservation of their town planning but also because of their almost unequalled faunal wealth. The comparison between the two sites and their neighbours, i.e. contemporaneous rural sites of an a priori inferior status will hence attempt to cast a new light on the economic role of these fortified communities which are the outcome of a long stratification process within the Gaulish society.

Famous for the excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1951–52, the late Iron Age earthwork complex at Stanwick, North Yorks, is the largest prehistoric site in northern England. The site was probably the seat of the Brigantian queen Cartimandua, and both the structures and the finds from the site reflect this status. A recent re-evaluation of the radiocarbon dates has led to a new chronology which has rewritten our understanding of late Iron Age Britain. This volume reports not only on the excavations of the 1980s, but also synthesises other work in the environs of the site.