Six years of excavations in Tell F3 have uncovered several occupation phases belonging to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, Failaka period 3B (c. 1600 BC). Though the material culture of Dilmun was heavily influenced by South Mesopotamia, this was a period where Dilmun regained its former importance after the economic and political collapse around 1700 BC, perhaps leading up to a final conquest by the Sealand Dynasty. The end stages of the development of Dilmun stamp seals are documented, e.g. the first find of a Style III Dilmun seal in a safe period 3B context. The renaissance in stamp seal Style III is paralleled in stone vessels decorated in the Failaka Figurative Style.

Excavations in 1958-1963 on the island of Failaka in Kuwait uncovered a small community of Dilmun traders from the second millennium BC. Prominent among the finds were 629 beads, most of them made of semi-precious stone, such as different varieties of chalcedony (agate, carnelian, jasper, and moss agate) and quartz (rock crystal, milky quartz, and smoky quartz), and a range of other stone types, such as calcite, chlorite, lapis lazuli, turquoise and porphyry. Additionally, part of the beads was made of glass: a new prestige material of the second millennium. The study consists of a typology, a classification of materials and an analysis of the dating and distribution of the beads. Manufacturing techniques, including perforation and use-wear, are also considered. In a final discussion, the bead corpus from Failaka is compared with similar material from contemporary sites on Failaka and in Bahrain, along with some thoughts on connections and trade relations, which may be inferred from the materials and forms in the bead assemblage. The study proposes far-reaching connections with the Indus in the east and the Aegean in the west.

In the early Middle Ages, a network of maritime trading towns – emporia – emerged along the northern coasts of Europe. These early urban sites are among archaeology’s most notable contributions to our knowledge of the period between the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire and the growth of a maritime-oriented world in the Viking Age. Ribe, on the western coast of Denmark, is one of these sites. In 2017-18 the Northern Emporium research project conducted seminal research excavations, which provided new foundations for the study of this nodal point between Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the world beyond. This first volume presents the results of these excavations and analyses to piece together the history of the emporium and its social fabric. The research employs novel, high-definition methods to explore the networks of the site, integrating an extensive use of geoarchaeology and 3D stratigraphic recording with intensive environmental sampling and artefact recovery, resulting in more than 100,000 artefact finds. The results transform our understanding of key points of the early history of the North Sea region. Through the remains of dwellings and workshops – the traces left by traders, sailors, weavers, tailors, comb makers, and skilled producers of glass beads and metal ornaments – we follow the creation of Viking Age social networks, along with some of the most iconic artistic products of this world and the daily lives of some of its notable inhabitants.

In 2006, Claus Feveile published Det ældste Ribe [The earliest Ribe], launching the publication series Ribe Studier [Ribe Studies]. The goal of that series was to make the core archaeological evidence from excavations in the town of Ribe between 1984 and 2000 accessible to the scholarly world and to give an account of Ribe’s special status in the archaeological landscape of Denmark and northern Europe. Ribe 700-1050: From Emporium to Civitas in Southern Scandinavia is volume 2 in Ribe Studies. The main text here provides a comprehensive presentation and analysis of the archaeology of the town through to the end of the Viking Period. Alongside that, the book has a major topographical section which discusses West Jutland in this period and the connexions between Ribe and the hinterland of the town. In addition, a concluding chapter discusses the origin of towns in southern Scandinavia.

Illerup Ådal Vol. 13 discusses the relationship between the use of weapons in war and the civilian use of bow and arrow for hunting or axes as a tool for daily tasks. Xenia Pauli Jensen writes about bows and arrows, and Lars Christian Nørbach analyses the axes and the production of them. Also includes chapters on the use of wood in weapons.

Illerup vol. 15 is the last volume in the many publications about the sacrificial weapons find by Danish Illerup Ådal from the late Iron Age. This volume is about the many non-military finds, such as dice for board games, beads, jewellery, amulets, etc. – things that the soldiers have worn as jewellery around their necks, or in purses on their belts. These items therefore give a unique insight into the soldiers’ everyday lives, their appearance and identity.

The capital of ancient Dilmun, Qala’at al-Bahrain, the most important archaeological site in East Arabia, was excavated in 1954-1978 by a Danish expedition from Moesgaard Museum. The first two volumes were published in 1994 and 1997, dealing with the northern city wall, the Islamic fortress and the central monumental buildings. The third volume covers the remaining 13 excavations, presenting their architectures and stratigraphies. A detailed treatment of the finds is given, stamp seals, inscriptions, figurines, incense burners, human bones, pottery, etc., dating from the late 3rd millennium to the Islamic period.

The seabed in southern Scandinavia contains numerous traces of a submerged prehistoric landscapes. Large parts of this landscape were gradually flooded by rising seas between 9500 and 4000 BC and perceptions of the Maglemose culture (9500-6400 BC) have consequently been based almost exclusively on former inland settlements. This book investigate two questions that are directly related to our current understanding of the populations of the now submerged areas: 1) Do we have a repre­sentative picture of the spread of Early Mesolithic sites in southern Scandinavia, or does the weighting towards inland sites reflect the fact that coastal sites have not been identified below present-day sea-level? 2) How did sea-level rise impact Mesolithic populations at different temporal and spatial scales, and how were these experienced from 8000-4000 BC? These questions are examined in the light of eight new coastline models that are made to determine the Mesolithic coastline positions and to facilitate new evaluations of possible relationships between sea-level changes and cultural changes.

This two volume monograph about the region of Thy in the early Bronze Age provides a high resolution archaeological and ecological model of the organisation of landscape, settlements and households during the period 1500-1100 BC. Bordering the North Sea to the west, and the calmer waters of the Limfjord to the east, the region of Thy in Denmark experienced four centuries of intense economic and demographic expansion. By combining results from environmental and economic research (pollen and palaeo-botanical analyses) with intensive field surveys and excavations of farmsteads with exceptional preservation, it has been possible to open a window to the changes that transformed Bronze Age society and its environment during a few centuries of exceptional expansion and wealth consumption. The results from this interdisciplinary venture made it possible to link together the histories of local farmsteads with the wider regional and global history of the Bronze Age in North-western Europe during this period. Here is much to feed on for students and researchers of the Bronze Age alike.

Vast coastal plains that vanished below the waves thousands of years ago were highways to new territories and a cornucopia of natural riches for early humankind. Oceans of Archaeology presents these virtually unexplored areas of the archaeologicially world map. It scrutinises the submerged early prehistory of Europe and reveals a richness and diversity unmatched around the globe. Specialists from ten countries join forces to tell of flooded settlements, enigmatic sacred places, amazing art and skillful navigation. Multifarious traces of food preparation, flintworking, hunting and fishing vividly illustrate Stone Age daily life. While children's footprints lead the way to new investigations of early prehistoric life in these now inundated landscapes.

Sösdala is a famous name in European archaeology of the Migration Period. But the fame of the name has thrown the find itself in deep shade. This is surprising since it contains mounts from an exquisitely decorated parade bridle, the closest parallels to which are found in Austria, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. The craftsmanship equals the best Late Roman metalwork. The content of the Sösdala finds reveal that Scandinavians were involved in the turmoil when the Late Roman Empire disintegrated. The context, depositions of dismantled horse tack in gravel ridges, is explainable with reference to Nomadic funerary rituals. Based on new scholarly studies and scientific analyses a European team of scholars places Sösdala in its European setting. The book is concluded by full catalogues of three finds of horse tack from Sösdala and Fulltofta. The papers in English have résumés and captions in Russian.

The first archaeological surveys and excavations in the state of Qatar were carried out by Moesgaard Museum, Denmark, in 1956-1974. A volume on the Stone Age sites was released by JAS in 1967, and the present publication includes the remaining investigations. Of special interest are several graves with iron swords and arrows and camels and a contemporary settlement with pottery showing close relations to Bahrain and the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The first excavations at the early Islamic site of Murwab are presented, and the book is concluded with a full catalogue of the rock carvings from Jebel Jusasiyah.

This book provides unique insights into Late Neolithic life, its organization and its economy, made possible by an altogether exceptional collection of recent archaeological findings in South Scandinavia from longhouses with sunken floors dating from this period.Through analysis and interpretation of these comprehensive materials, Danish archaeologist John Simonsen presents brand new findings essential for many wider interpretations of this crucial and fascinating transitional period from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age (c. 2350- c. 1600 BC).The basic materials presented and discussed in Daily Life at the Turn of the Neolithic were mainly found during new archaeological excavations in the central part of the Limfjord region of Denmark, but, in terms of the wider perspectives and considerations, often relate to the entire region and in several respects also to South Scandinavia - and beyond.

Aarhus is one of the oldest and most important Danish towns, but the archaeological sources have so far not been fully analyzed. Based on excavations and finds the Aarhus and its periphery the development of the town and its network is analyzed from Viking Age to mid-1800. Central is the special urban way of living which makes town dwellers into citizens. The urban communities are in focus as well as their challenges: division between town and countryside, but also social divisions of the towns people, and between newcomers and born and bred citizens.

The result of the synergy between four doctoral projects and an advanced MA-level course on Bronze Age Europe, this integrated assemblage of articles represents a variety of different subjects united by a single theme: movement. Ranging from theoretical discussion of the various responses to the reactions from the circulation of people, objects and ideas to the transmission of the spiral and the 'trade' in crafting expertise, this volume takes a fresh look at old questions. Each article within this monograph represents a different approach to mobility framed within a highly mobile and dynamic period of European prehistory. In so doing, the text not only addresses transmission and reception, but also the conceptualization of mobility within a world which was literally Rooted in Movement.

Excavations carried out by the Danish Moesgaard Museum on the island of Failaka in Kuwait in 1958-1963 produced a large collection of stone vessel fragments which have ever since puzzled scholars. The settlements excavated on Failaka, Tell F3 and Tell F6, belong to the 2nd millennium BC, but stone vessels of Série Ancienne and Umm an-Nar styles of the 3rd millennium BC are well represented in the Failaka collection. Besides vessels of Wadi Suq and Late Bronze Age styles there is a significant group of figurative decorated stone vessels in a style completely unknown from anywhere else in the region, which may throw light on the mid 2nd millennium Dark Age in South Mesopotamia. The Failaka stone vessel collection is presented in all its details, and the significance of the many different vessel styles is discussed in the context of recent developments in our understanding of Arabian Gulf archaeology.